Plop! The last cuboid chest fell into place and merged with the adjacent chest to form a double chest.
Yu Zhiye dusted off his hand and checked out his new pair of double inventory chests.
“Now I have 108 storage slots total! Cool. Cool.”
7 more raw fish went into the bank.
Since there was so much spare space, the ink sac got its own spot.
The bread got stacked in a slot as well, and it’ll probably be sitting there for a long time to come.
Why? Well...
In his culture, there’s some taboos about eating food for the dead…
Even if there isn’t, this was a supernatural world. Who knows if the food is cursed…
He might be overly superstitious, but he really doesn’t dare touch dirty things.
Of course, even the timid will turn bold if they’re absolutely starving!
Fortunately, he’s not at that point yet.
“Eh. In the worst case, I’ll just reheat the bread on the purifier and it’ll probably be fine.”
The cooked fish still needs a guinea pig though…
Yu Zhiye didn’t dawdle on this thought for long. There’s something much more interesting to focus on.
A few steps took him over to the purple core cube on the altar. Enter base management mode!
Whoosh! His consciousness stared down at his little pocket dimension like a god.
His focus? The observatory!
[Observatory (Lv. 1)]
A lookout to scry the world beyond.
[Upgrade]
x8 wood, x8 cobblestone, x32 sand, x1 emerald, 5 core energy
Core energy has hit 16 points. All other resource requirements have been met!
Since that’s the case, why bother waiting?
“Upgrade!”
Oom! A magical orb shot out from the core and flew into the observatory!
Mystical light flashed on the crystal tower’s surface and that glow soon died down.
“Hmm? Nothing much seemed to have changed?”
But the building’s description was proof that the upgrade did go through.
[Observatory (Lv. 2)]
A lookout to scry the world beyond.
[Upgrade]
x16 wood, x16 cobblestone, x64 sand, x1 diamond, 10 core energy
As soon as Yu Zhiye saw the upgrade requirement, he regretted not taking the diamond earlier!
“Should’ve known this observatory will require different types of gems. Bleh! Don’t tell me I really have to play collect them all!”
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That’ll be kinda annoying, but there’s no way around it.
It’s not like he could control what requirements there are.
“Whatever. Acquiring a diamond shouldn’t be that hard, especially since there’s already an available source.”
There’s no medicine for regret, but a capitalist will eventually find ways to make all the wealth flow into his own pockets! Mwahahaha!
“Okay. Enough of that. Let’s see if anything has changed.”
Yu Zhiye’s consciousness homed in on the observatory and passed right into the crystal tower.
At a glance, he immediately noticed the changes in the interior.
Mirrors and glass shelves furnished the walls, giving the interior a greater spacious feel.
At the center of it all, the crystal ball pedestal featured a new emerald gem inlaid next to the original royal-purple.
When he focused on that, a pop-up appeared over the crystal ball.
[Mysterious Gem Pedestal]
A pedestal that took root in this dimension and became the crystal ball’s vessel.
[Effect]
Indestructible
Crystal Ball Anchor
Crystal Ball Recall
“Hmm. Looks like I don’t have to worry about the crystal ball getting lost. Cool. Cool. But no details on the gem here. How about...”
[Mysterious Crystal Ball]
A crystal ball that has gained mysterious properties by bounding to a mysterious core.
[Effect]
Indestructible
Ward Nexus
Vision Projection
Ward Creation
[Gem Selection]
[Emerald]
“This…!” Yu Zhiye was excited by what he saw! “Does this mean I can create extra surveillance cameras?!”
By the looks of it, that’s exactly what the emerald option on the gem selection implies.
But he still has to test it to find out how it works!
Tap. Yu Zhiye clicked the [Emerald] button and the button grayed out…
Right on cue, a little light orb shot out from the core and flew into the crystal ball.
A mystical glow emanated from the ball and the emerald-green gem lit up in sync…
A breath later, all the glow gradually died out and a paper-thin card popped out from the card dispenser slot below.
[Ward Card]
A card linked to a mysterious crystal ball.
[Effect]
Adhesive Magic
Camouflage
Nexus Bridge
Vision Capture
Without a doubt, that should be his ticket to figuring out everything. But first… what’s the price?
Yu Zhiye didn’t hesitate to pull his consciousness out.
A trip around and he calculated the card creation cost: x1 wood, x1 core energy.
“Uwah… that’s even higher than the wood generation cost. This card better be worth it!”
Once his consciousness returned to his main body, he hurried over to the observatory and picked up his new card.
Yu Zhiye inspected the fancy card in his hand.
On the front side, there was a shiny emerald with a background of flowing gray fog.
Flipping it over, there was a rather familiar creepy eye centered on a royal-purple geometric depiction of a tree with floral patterns.
“Cool. Cool. What a nice design. Is this the ward connected to the emerald gem? How does it work?”
Yu Zhiye touched the card all over, but aside from the sticky front surface, there was no other reaction. So, he turned to the pedestal and touched the emerald gem.
His touch made the gem glow and the gray mist in the crystal ball stirred.
Soon, a scene appeared inside the fog again. It was... a view of his foot!
“As expected, it’s in here, and the perspective should be from…”
Yu Zhiye flipped his card over. The scene flipped with it and showed his own face staring down from above.
“Yep, this strange eye pattern is the origin. Same with the eye pattern on the door, I suppose.”
What’s the secret behind this mysterious eye? Who knows.
But Yu Zhiye felt this creepy, mysterious eye truly looked like something that fits well with the evil god theme.
Does that make him an evil god? Hopefully not…
He’s just your friendly neighborhood fisherman! Ahem.
Yu Zhiye put away the card and stared at his reflection in the mirrors decorating the tower.
“If I were more handsome, it’ll be nice to stare into these every day. Alas…”
Out of sight, out of mind.
Yu Zhiye soon returned to the stalls. He looked around for a good spot to test his iSpy camera out.
“Hmm… let’s go for a high vantage point.”
Eventually, he locked onto a good spot that covered the second stall and a good portion of the restroom.
Getting up there was quite the hassle, but slapping the sticky card on wasn’t impossible.
Once the emerald front side stuck on the flat surface, the mysterious eye flashed and the entire card blended right into the surface like it didn’t even exist!
All that was left was an imprint of an eye that slowly faded away as well.
“Guess that should do the job. Hopefully nobody peels this invisible sticker off.”
After checking to make sure everything worked like intended, Yu Zhiye happily grabbed dinner and headed out.
Back in the store, he went to join the others for dinner.
But halfway there, Yu Zhiye already heard the ruckus coming from the front of the store.
“What’s going on? Did the teams get into a fight?”
It won’t be his team that’s getting bullied, right?!
When that thought hit, Yu Zhiye picked up his pace, but when he exited the aisle and saw his team was fine, he sighed in relief.
Noticing that they were like melon eaters watching a drama, Yu Zhiye followed their line of sight over to where the crowd was.
One look and he went stiff.
Why? Because at the center of everyone’s attention was the teenager who went MIA ever since the first day!
And now…
That Anomaly A was back!