Lu Ze, oblivious to all this, was currently pondering how to open a branch store. A single shop would surely not be enough, but opening branches meant a lack of management. Unless, of course, he could create a teleportation device for seamless travel back and forth.
However, such a device was absent even in Honkai Impact 3rd, let alone something he could construct.
Venti also noticed the old man lying nearby. He hadn't expected this elder to travel all the way from Liyue so quickly. Just how much did he want to play?
He couldn't imagine it; the old man's childlike wonder had been awakened.
"Alas, a pity. I don't have any extra time. Otherwise, I would have definitely played another round today. That's right, didn't I just see the Electro Archon of Inazuma? If I could just pull her over, I'd gain another hour."
But he looked around; there were only three machines. If everyone wanted to play, someone would inevitably be left out.
"Boss, you didn't make any extra machines?"
Lu Ze glanced at him indifferently. Yesterday evening, he'd gone drinking, and indeed, not a single machine had been made.
"I can tell from your expression. Alright, alright, I'm leaving now! I'll help you bring someone over. Remember to add an hour for me!"
Not long after Venti left, he encountered Raiden Ei. It seemed this Archon was a bit directionally challenged, standing dazed by the entrance, muttering, "Which way is Whispering Woods? Is it to the left or the right?"
Venti rubbed his forehead. This Archon was hopeless. He'd better hurry; it wouldn't be good if she got lost.
He suddenly appeared in front of Raiden Ei and said casually, "Long time no see, Archon of Inazuma."
"? Barbatos of Mondstadt, what are you doing appearing before me? I haven't invaded Mondstadt City, have I?"
Raiden Ei subtly placed her hand near her chest, ready to unsheathe her blade and unleash a surprise attack if anything went wrong.
"No need to misunderstand. I believe you're here to find the Honkai Impact 3rd offline experience store too, right? Let's go, I'll take you."
Raiden Ei looked at the person before her. When had this individual become so kind? If she recalled correctly, this bard who could drink so much wasn't exactly known for his helpfulness.
The two crossed the bridge of Mondstadt and arrived at a fork. They then turned left and walked into the depths of Whispering Woods, where a store resided, seeming utterly unique.
Venti led Raiden Ei into the shop. The latter was a little surprised by the high-tech establishment.
"You all arrived quite quickly. A new version is about to launch. Based on fine-tuning, the 1.1 version will open World Boss battles, allowing you to challenge with friends and split rewards. For a better experience, we've fixed one of the issues causing significant mental fatigue and updated much of the version content. It'll likely be online tomorrow. Everyone, if you have time, please complete the 1.0 quests quickly! Otherwise, you might not be able to get the limited weapon, Dan Sakura."
Raiden Ei understood the gist of his words: if she didn't experience today's content, she wouldn't have it tomorrow. She needed to log in quickly.
"Excuse me, are there any other rules here?"
Lu Ze looked at the beautiful woman before him, feeling an inexplicable flutter of affection. Ah, well, what could he do? She was the Archon, after all. And she bore some resemblance to Kiana Kaslana. He sighed inwardly.
He briefly explained the rules. It seemed he really needed to put up a notice board to explain them, otherwise, just explaining verbally would exhaust him to death.
Three people had arrived today, meaning three lottery tickets. This called for a single-pull to get a gold item!
He began to operate the panel. Meanwhile, the Archon had already occupied the last machine, making Venti a little envious. Fortunately, he had played earlier and had almost finished all the 1.0 content. At most, he just hadn't cleared his stamina. It wasn't important; it was better to save his time for tomorrow and experience the 1.1 version.
Seeing the shop owner bring up a panel, he became curious. "What's this?"
"This? This is a gacha machine exclusively for the shop owner. You can think of it that way, and it requires a special item: these lottery tickets."
Venti seemed to understand and looked at Lu Ze with anticipation. "Can you give me one? I want to see how lucky I am too."
Lu Ze was quite casual about it. If he wanted to draw, he'd give him one.
The shop owner first inserted a ticket. Soon, an airdrop box descended, and two blue lights flashed. Two gold coin boxes this year. Well, truly speechless.
He inserted another ticket. As the airdrop box landed, a purple light flashed, and large characters appeared, stunning him.
"Herrscher of Thunder figure... ? Good heavens, he even drew a figure. The official website is over a thousand yuan, ten tickets! Before I transmigrated, I couldn't bear to buy it. Now it's free for me? Not bad, not bad. No loss, no loss."
Venti, seeing the shop owner's delighted expression, thought it must be something good and quickly asked, "What is this? It actually... makes you so happy?"
"You wouldn't understand. This is a otaku's dream. I couldn't bear to buy it before. Ah, now I'm going to put it in the most conspicuous place on my counter and look at it every day, hehehe."
Lu Ze let out a pig-like squeal of joy and immediately took the figure from his backpack, placing it on the counter. Venti looked at the Herrscher of Thunder figure curiously, feeling that apart from being good-looking, it seemed to have no other use.
"It looks like Kiana Kaslana to me. Could it be her subsequent form?"
Lu Ze said mysteriously, "That's a secret. It's version content, after all."
"Boring."
Venti took out the lottery ticket the shop owner had given him earlier and inserted it. It was the same drawing animation, but this time, a purple light shone, and a Valkyrie emblem appeared.
This signified drawing a character. Lu Ze looked at the large screen curiously, wanting to see which character Venti had drawn.
The light on the screen disappeared, and in the next second, a figure materialized in the shop. As the familiar form gradually appeared, Lu Ze seemed to know who it was.
"Where am I? Wasn't I in New Zealand healing my wounds? This place feels so peaceful, hmm?"
The girl froze the moment she saw Lu Ze, her hands beginning to tremble. She looked at everything before her in disbelief, then slapped herself across the face. She couldn't believe any of this was real. Could God truly favor her?
"Wendy, long time no see. Welcome back."
These few words brought back memories, of those terrible yet not-so-terrible times, because back then, someone accompanied her, someone was willing to fight for her.