Chapter 157: Speedrun, Technique, and the New World

Night fell swiftly.

The city's lights all lit up amidst the deep night — endless streams of traffic, the myriad household lights, and the colorful signboards, advertising screens, neon lights, and so on, outlining the city's silhouette beneath the sky curtain.

"It's truly beautiful……"

Leaning on the balcony railing, the white-haired girl stared at all this, unable to help but exclaim in admiration, her eyes slightly dazed.

To speak frankly, Xia Zhi's balcony is actually not an ideal spot for viewing the night scenery.

The location is poor, the orientation is poor, the floor height is also poor.

Nevertheless, even so, it does not affect her immersion in this beautiful night.

As the lamps first lit up, the night streets and night scenery had already converged into an ocean of lights, a world of light. High-rises stood in forests, neon lights flashed, distant roads accompanied by two rows of streetlights lighting up in sequence, winding all the way to the far distance; the city's modern atmosphere and industrial layout appeared all the more vivid under the illumination of these lights.

All of this deeply attracted the girl's gaze, captivating her completely.

After all, the city's vastness and prosperity appeared extremely magnificent at this moment.

Compared to the medieval-like world she originated from, or the primitive backward worlds she had transmigrated through, the modern metropolis before her eyes was simply a visual feast, shocking to the heart.

Although strictly speaking, the previous world she passed through actually had similar scenery as well, and could even be said to surpass it.

Because that seemed to be a future cyberpunk-era worldview, with rapid urbanization; although the social system showed signs of decline, those dense and towering skyscrapers, the splendor of holographic projections and advertising screens, the colorful neon lights, and the ubiquitous artificial light sources together constructed a prosperous yet futuristic facade.

Theoretically, that world's city night scenery should have been even more heart-shaking.

After all, the social keynote of decay and decadence would not change the objective fact of advanced future industrial levels.

It's just a pity that the girl at the time merely hurriedly passed by, and before she could carefully experience that cyberpunk world, she was dragged into a gang shootout erupting from street forces, nearly took a few bullets for it, and had no choice but to hurriedly activate her transmigration ability to escape that world.

Therefore naturally she also did not have the chance to properly appreciate it.

"……"

"……"

Taking a deep breath, the white-haired girl leaning on the balcony railing slowly withdrew her gaze. Amidst her surging emotions, she couldn't help but feel a tremor quietly spreading in the depths of her heart.

Facing the boundless sky curtain, the deep night made one's thoughts wander; the evening wind blew gently, and only then did she realize the daytime had passed, time rushing by.

It feels like there's no sense of reality……

Yet also feels like it passed exceptionally fulfilling……

Although she was certain this was the most beautiful day of her life, as if she had encountered fate, meeting that figure who made the whole world pale in comparison. However, beautiful things always make one incredulous; her heart unavoidably rippled with panic.

This made her unable to help but generate a certain worry, suspecting whether she was having an unreal dream.

Precisely because it was beautiful like a fairy tale, it would always give one a strong sense of unreality.

To verify the authenticity of all this, she even secretly pinched her arm several times; the pain made her grimace, but the clear pain sensation gave her peace of mind. This was not because she had masochistic tendencies, but because she needed to confirm all this was real.

Only it was of no use; after the pain faded, before long she would start suspecting again whether the feeling just now was real.

Anxiety over gain and loss — nothing surpasses this.

"Sorry for the wait……"

The click of a key unlocking the door came from the corridor at the entrance; that sound reached the balcony a step earlier.

Xia Zhi, carrying large and small bags of packed meals, walked into the living room he knew all too well, and saw Ciri already sitting properly on the sofa; he paid it no mind, pretending he hadn't noticed the other party had hurriedly scrambled in from the balcony, temporarily putting on a ladylike appearance.

"There were quite a lot of people queuing there, so I waited a bit longer……"

The youth placed the meals on the table, then also sat down opposite.

"Don't know if it suits your appetite; I tried to pack a few extra portions, try them all, if you feel it's not enough we can order more……"

"No no! This is already very sumptuous!" The white-haired girl shook her head repeatedly.

She may once have been a noble princess of royal birth, but that was all ancient history; she had long since grown accustomed to eating and sleeping in the open, wandering displaced, days of having the upper meal but not the lower; most of the time there were no conditions, just gnawing a couple bites of dry rations to make do with a meal was also a common occurrence.

In this aspect she wasn't that picky.

"Then let's try first……" The youth smiled, his gaze swiftly sweeping over Ciri.

Good; when he left the house to go set up a jutsu in that alley, she seemed to also have absolutely no suspicion, self-reflection, or any sign of sensing something wrong and attempting to flee.

This roughly also proves that his charm power, though easy to use like an "Intelligence Halo", is ultimately not of a halo nature——

It wouldn't be that he needs to continuously activate it facing the target object to have effect; once outside the halo's coverage range, the various buffs or debuffs applied would disappear, and the affected target objects would quickly recover to normal, refreshing their state……

At least from the current look——

After he left, the charmed state seems to also be able to maintain relatively constantly.

While thinking, he greeted the white-haired girl; the latter indeed seemed quite hungry, rather embarrassedly starting to eat as well. Facts prove that although she possesses unimaginable bloodline potential and masters a near-bug transmigration skill, she is ultimately still a mortal.

Needs to eat, needs to sleep……

Basic physiological needs are all unavoidable……

One could say she is fragile beyond measure; in Xia Zhi's eyes she is an extremely precious piece of porcelain, needing very careful handling, afraid the slightest carelessness would cause problems.

He had no need to eat, yet wasn't idle either, continuing to extract various intelligence from the girl's mouth.

Because unknowingly, she had already entrusted the most core secrets; so the remaining ones were even less worth mentioning any secrecy awareness. Ciri, in this relaxed atmosphere as if good friends eating and chatting, was squeezed dry bit by bit.

Almost without reservation, she spoke out everything she knew.

From the Witcher's Grass Trial, to many monsters' weaknesses and countermeasures, as well as some potion, sword oil and other recipes she mastered…… and so on, too numerous to enumerate.

Who knows how long passed; the girl who had eaten and drunk her fill began to get sleepy, consciousness gradually blurring.

As she spoke, her eyelids couldn't help but droop; several times she tried to rally her spirits, but couldn't sustain it long; soon her voice slowly grew smaller, gradually fading into silence.

The Magician sitting on the opposite sofa clearly watched this scene.

He said nothing, just quietly let time flow, waiting to verify a thought of his.

At the moment that time point arrived……

He closed his eyes……

——————————

——————————

June 21, Xia Zhi.

The same day began once again.

Xia Zhi waited calmly on Breakfast Street, and at midday, he once again met Ciri who had crossed over.

For Ciri, this was the most beautiful day; she felt as if she had encountered fate... but for that "fate" who was encountered, it was not quite the same, after all this had fallen into a repeating cycle again, making him feel thoroughly bored.

So he also brought out the proper qualities of a Speedrun Player—

Skip the repetitive parts directly, push the dialogue progress in one go to the critical branching choice, then ask Ciri to open a Transmission Gate and take him along, leaving this world.

Although this request was very abrupt, under the charmed state, Ciri still agreed in a daze, and instinctively felt overjoyed because of it.

To the extent that she completely failed to consider—

That opening a Transmission Gate directly on the Street was still somewhat Obvious.

"Try to see if you can Sense your world, imagine and recall those familiar things as much as possible..." Beside Ciri, Xia Zhi paced back and forth, drawing on his not-very-Mastery experience, offering a few Suggestions that weren't very helpful.

Mainly because he currently still completely couldn't figure out the principle of Ancient Blood traversing Spacetime, so he indeed had no Method to give any Definitely reliable Suggestions, he could only be a bit idealistic... anyway, the girl's Transmigration Ability was originally quite idealistic, wasn't it?

"I'll try..."

Ciri nodded solemnly, then Closed Eyes, furrowing her brows slightly.

It could be seen she was trying very hard, forcing herself to imagine with great effort, to the extent that distinct wrinkles appeared on her smooth forehead.

Next Moment—

Light flared out.

Outlining a faint, vague doorway.

What would be behind the Transmission Gate? It shouldn't really be returning to the time when he first met Vivian, right... Xia Zhi stared at the Transmission Gate in the light, unable to bear thinking about it.

If possible, he would still rather go to the world Ciri came from.

After all, for that weird hodgepodge world, he was also quite interested.

Sorcerers, Wild Hunt, Witchers, Dragons... it seemed to be a Western fantasy worldview mixed with various classic elements, but upon careful Exploration one would discover that world's Background and worldview were actually products of Distortion, not naturally formed.

According to that world's Timeline, using the Human-adopted "Resurrection Era" as the baseline calendar, it should be around the 30s of the 3rd century BCE when a great catastrophe caused by a Conjunction of the Spheres occurred; as the literal meaning goes, worlds between different dimensions collided, worlds were directly Connected and mutually permeated.

—This great catastrophe caused many Creatures from all sorts of different worlds to be trapped in that world's Reality; these Creatures carried their own unique ecologies, relic species of past eras.

—Even Humans were Intruders who appeared at that time, first appearing in that world during that period.

—Additionally during the Conjunction of the Spheres process, some primordial chaotic energies were also left on the Continent; this is that world's magic.

Basically, that's how it is.

Such a Setting sounds very interesting, the kind of map in a game that would give him an urge to click and open upon seeing it.

And he also couldn't help but Suspect whether this chaotic Phenomenon of "worlds between different dimensions colliding" might be the soil that nurtured the "Ancient Blood" in Ciri, otherwise how to explain her Active Crossing Spacetime Bug Ability?

Plus that so-called Wild Hunt race, said to be the source race of this Bloodline, yet having already lost the complete inheritance, only able to desperately pursue Ciri...

Therefore Xia Zhi had full reason to Suspect that this disgraceful weakling race, originally also wasn't Intentionally cultivating "Ancient Blood"...

Estimated they fundamentally didn't have that technical capability at all.

He leaned more toward the Universe itself experiencing a Conjunction of the Spheres phenomenon, under primordial chaotic energy Radiation, some individual in that race happened to undergo an Unknown mutation... so after losing this Bloodline, the Wild Hunt couldn't Recreate results, because artificial cultivation technology didn't exist from the start.

Just this way, for him it wasn't Good News either...

After all, if it's not "technology", it's slightly troublesome.

"O-okay... let's go over now."

At this time Ciri also spoke up Urging, looking at him anxiously: "My magic power can't maintain for long, we'd better hurry and act!"

"... Then let's go!"

Xia Zhi also nodded, gathered his Thoughts, and strode straight into the light.

Regardless, he ultimately had to go over and take a look to know what kind of world the Opposite Side was.

————

————

Experiencing that familiar Sensation once again.

Light...

Curves...

Time and Matter...

All kinds of vast Information, accompanied by incomprehensible images, surged together into the depths of the brain, as if the whole world Shattered before his eyes, yet in an instant reconstructed in the sea of Thoughts and Consciousness.

However, this time slightly different was that Xia Zhi seemed able to read a portion of "Information" more or less; that was Information flowing in the Void, perhaps from different worlds, scattered in the boundless Spacetime Ocean as Disordered Information.

The vast majority were Fragmentation, intermittent.

They didn't even seem to count as language Concept, nor were they any Creature Wavelength.

Almost completely formless Fragmentation Information, no analytical value whatsoever, couldn't read any useful Information.

Just at the moment he rapidly lost interest, a complete segment of "Information" came almost rushing at his face, directly stuffed into his Consciousness and Thoughts, precisely received and read by him.

As if some energetic voice...

Carrying an incontrovertible, undeniable will...

Declaring thus—

"If there are Aliens, Time Travelers, Otherworlders, Espers among you, just come find me. That is all!"

………………

(PS: The first floor is about to be flooded, Guangdong's Weather this year is a bit abnormal, when will the rain ever end... Insects have flown in, stayed up all night ___*(￣皿￣)/#____)

(Chapter End)