Wonderland Space.
Inside Nolan's room, the blanket on the bed had been kicked to the floor at some point. Kafka and Silver Wolf, completely unclothed and revealing large stretches of their snow-white backs, hips, and legs, lay at his sides.
Kafka lay on her side quietly, resting her head on Nolan's right arm. Silver Wolf, meanwhile, was half sprawled over him on the left, her left leg draped across his lower abdomen as she slept in a rather inelegant position.
Over the past few days, Nolan had stayed almost constantly by their sides, and at last he had fully maxed out their affection.
Kafka was the type of person who could hide her emotions well regardless of what she felt inside. However, when they were being intimate, she had become far more proactive.
Silver Wolf, as her affection increased over these days, had clearly softened her attitude toward him. When they were close, her body would actively cooperate, though she still often called him things like "you bastard," "jerk," or "pervert."
That was simply her personality. Her behavior would not drastically change just because her feelings for him had grown. He would have to continue coaxing her slowly in the future.
Nolan gently stroked Kafka and Silver Wolf's backs, then opened his character panel and first looked at the notification showing Kafka's affection reaching the maximum level:
[Kafka Has Developed Good Feeling Towards You. Obtained 1 Affection Point. Current Affection Level: Lv.10 (Max)]
As her affection reached the maximum level, a notification for a new affection skill appeared:
[Through sincere feelings and unyielding effort, the fate that once had no connection with yours is now deeply intertwined with you. From this day forward, the girl's star will shine alongside yours. Ability obtained: Spider-Silk Gentleness.]
From the name alone, Kafka's affection skill did not reveal much, so Nolan began sensing the detailed information transmitted back to him:
[Spider-Silk Gentleness: You can summon dark-red spider threads to freely bind and control targets. While controlling them, you may freely use the target's abilities. The maximum strength of a controllable target is "the sum of both parties' levels."]
Binding, domination, and using the opponent's power. It looked like a highly functional ability.
And the maximum strength of the target it could control was the sum of his level and Kafka's level!
It seemed rather outrageous. If someone were bound by these threads, even beings at the level of Aeons might end up being controlled by him.
That would practically make him invincible.
However, when Nolan looked at his own level, he calmed down somewhat.
Because his cultivation progress increased by about 30,000 points per second, he gained roughly 2.6 billion EXP points per day.
Ever since reaching Level 170, about ten days had passed, giving him approximately 26 billion cultivation progress points in total.
Raising his level from 170 to 171 required 8 billion points,
from 171 to 172 required 8.1 billion,
and reaching 173 required 8.2 billion.
Altogether, that consumed 24.3 billion points, meaning he would still need a few more days to reach Level 174.
----
Name: Nolan Walker
Level: Lv.173 (1,622,595,221 / 8.3 billion)
Race: Human
Title: Adventurer Beyond Legend
Innate Talent: Entangling Affection
Skills:
- Lumine's Musou · World Lv.10 ( Void Starsea Manifestation)
- Flowing Sky Shot: Arcane Level Lv.10 (Frostglow Arrow)
- Star Abyss Power Lv.10 (Transcendence)
Specialties:
- Beloved by Maidens (Exclusive)
- Unmoving Gospel of the World Tree (Exclusive)
- Threads of the Northern Wind (Exclusive)
- Spiritual Core (Exclusive)
- Imaginary Energy
- Drifter of the Imaginary Sea
- Devour All Things
- Heroic Spirit Affinity
- Distance Between Stars
- Trinity
- Human Transmutation
Adventure EXP: 854,264,856
---
This was his current status. The more than 800 million Adventure EXP had been obtained through testing in the Simulated Universe.
Although with all his abilities combined, Nolan was confident he could contend with an Aeon, completely overwhelming one was still likely beyond him for now.
So actually hitting an Aeon with the Spider-Silk Gentleness skill and controlling them would still be quite difficult.
Perhaps this was the so-called situation of having the skill but lacking the necessary resources.
Even so, his rate of growth was already astonishing. If others knew about it, they might truly believe he was ascending from a mortal into an Aeon.
After checking the affection skill obtained from Kafka, Nolan then looked at Silver Wolf's:
[Silver Wolf Has Developed Good Feeling Towards You. Obtained 1 Affection Point. Current Affection Level: Lv.10 (Max)]
[Through sincere feelings and unyielding effort, the fate that once had no connection with yours is now deeply intertwined with you. From this day forward, the girl's star will shine alongside yours. Ability obtained: Reality Hack.]
Reality Hack.
Nolan guessed it was probably similar to the Aether Editing ability that Silver Wolf possessed.
He focused carefully on the information.
[Reality Hack: Allows you to alter any objective phenomenon, rule, or constant as if modifying data. If the target is a living being, the maximum strength of the target that can be altered is "the sum of both parties' levels."]
The description was short and indeed quite similar to Aether Editing, except it did not require Aether as a medium to influence reality. It could even be used in places where Aether might not exist.
Of course, the idea that Aether did not exist was actually a false premise.
Aether had another name: Memoria Substance.
Nolan had learned this from the Interastral Peace Network. It was the term used by the Garden of Recollection.
Interstellar society had conducted extensive research on Aether.
For reality, it was considered an illusory medium, because space itself was not alive and therefore could not naturally produce this substance.
Aether, or Memoria Substance, was actually born from aspects of life such as memory, emotion, and spiritual consciousness.
Wherever life existed, Memoria Substance existed as well.
Even if someone artificially created a space without Aether to trap Silver Wolf inside, the moment she entered that space, her memories, emotions, and consciousness would produce Memoria Substance.
Thus that space would once again contain Aether.
And that would allow her to freely use Aether Editing to escape.
Because of this characteristic, Aether could essentially be considered omnipresent.
Even in regions of the universe devoid of life, if living beings had memories or knowledge of those places, Aether could still emerge.
This illusory medium was essentially the materialization of thought and spirit.
Therefore, anything that could be conceived in thought or rules could potentially be interfered with.
However, even with that said, if Silver Wolf attempted to modify universal rules or constants using Aether Editing, her current technical ability and strength would still make such feats extremely difficult to accomplish.
The affection skill "Reality Hack" was somewhat like an innate divine ability.
For example, if one used Aether Editing to change the value of π within a certain area so that it only had two decimal places, becoming 3.14, it might be impossible without extremely advanced technical ability and sufficient mental power to manipulate a large amount of Aether.
But Reality Hack worked differently.
Even if Nolan did not possess enough mental power, he could still activate the skill and force π to become 3.14 with only two decimal places.
The duration might only last a fraction of a second because of insufficient mental power, but even so, the value of π would indeed be successfully modified.
That was the terrifying aspect of Reality Hack.
The only thing that could limit this skill was data acquisition. For instance, if Nolan wanted to modify the length, width, and height of a stone, he would first need to know those values.
But overall, it was still an almost invincible ability.
With the support of his nearly limitless Imaginary Internal Energy, even modifying the rules of the entire universe would only require some time.
Perhaps he would not even need time at all. As long as he calculated the required time and then set that time to zero, modifying the entire universe would happen instantly.
Of course, he would only do something like that if he had nothing better to do. After all, it served no meaningful purpose and might even cause apocalyptic consequences.
If Nolan actually did such a pointless thing, the only one who would probably be happy about it would be the Aeon of Destruction, while the other Aeons would likely join forces to beat him up.
That was definitely not something a modest and low-profile person like him should do.
Lying on the bed with the two girls in his arms, Nolan finished examining the affection skills obtained from Kafka and Silver Wolf and could not help feeling excited. The hands resting on their backs slowly slid toward their hips.
He gently kneaded their soft, pale hips and slightly lifted Silver Wolf's leg that was draped across his abdomen before pulling her closer again.
After spending a long time cultivating together with Kafka and Silver Wolf that morning, Nolan finally got up and went to the bathhouse to wash up.
Over the past few days, the Akasha Metafield had exploded in popularity throughout interstellar society. The Metafield deep-dive devices had already been driven to astronomical prices.
After all, only a few days had passed. No matter how advanced interstellar industrial capabilities were, they could not immediately satisfy the demand of the countless curious individuals across the galaxy.
At the same time, the Akasha Metafield had opened creative permissions to users, allowing them to freely create digital products such as films, games, and other media.
It was a virtual world with 100 percent realism, filled with endless business opportunities.
Whoever moved fastest would become rich first. That was an undeniable fact.
The original Metafield Space had been the same way, though it had unfortunately shut down inexplicably later on.
Although this restart also carried the risk of another mysterious shutdown, such a risk was insignificant compared to the potential of enormous wealth.
The Sweet Flower Merchant Association was developing quite well both in the Sea of Quanta and on Jarilo.
The former had already stabilized, while the latter had begun constructing the foundational structure of the chamber locally with assigned personnel.
With a mature development model in place, its future success was almost inevitable.
Everything was progressing steadily, and Nolan currently had nothing urgent to do. He planned to spend today continuing to raise the affection levels of the girls.
Last time, under the excuse of experiencing a reporter's work, he had spent time with Charlotte, successfully raising her affection toward him to Level 9 with over 700 points.
Today he should be able to max it out.
After eating the carefully prepared breakfast made by Noelle and the others, Nolan left for work like everyone else and teleported to the Steambird Newspaper in Court of Fontaine.
It was Charlotte's usual time to arrive at work, and he quickly spotted her inside the newspaper office.
She wore her rose-colored hat decorated with a quill pen. Her pink shoulder-length hair swayed beneath it as she walked on her slender white legs.
When she saw Nolan, she looked pleasantly surprised and jogged over.
"You took a few days off. Does that mean you've finally finished what you were busy with?"
Nolan had been experiencing the life of a reporter under Charlotte, but he had temporarily paused because the Astral Express was heading to Jarilo.
However, he had formally requested leave. After all, one could not simply disappear without explanation.
"Yes. You know the Akasha Internet was upgraded into the Akasha Metafield, right? In the future, not only people from Teyvat will appear there, but also people from other planets.
"I actually went to another planet over the past few days. Would you like to go and take a look? If you could interview people from another world and then report it back on Teyvat, the Steambird would definitely sell out."
Nolan smiled as he spoke to Charlotte.
Although many people from interstellar society had already poured into the Akasha Metafield, Nahida and the others had temporarily restricted direct communication with people from Teyvat.
Suddenly exposing Teyvat's people to the entirety of interstellar society would cause enormous shock and influence, so the restrictions had to be lifted gradually.
For example, they would first allow exchanges with Jarilo, then with the Sea of Quanta, and only after everyone adapted would they open communication with the entire galaxy.
"Really?!"
Charlotte's face behind her round monocle lit up with even greater excitement.
Interviewing people from another world was absolutely groundbreaking news.
"Of course. You can start preparing interview topics. I can take you there right now."
Nolan spoke with certainty.
In fact, letting Charlotte introduce Jarilo-VI to the public would also serve as preparation for the future when both worlds could interact freely in the Akasha Metafield.
"Hehe, you're so good to me!"
Charlotte did not doubt whether Nolan could actually do it. Excited, she gave him a big hug.
At the same time, Nolan saw a new notification appear on his character panel:
[Charlotte Has Developed Good Feeling Towards You. Obtained 820 Affection Points. Current Affection Level: Lv.10 (Max)]
Her affection had already been over Level 9 with more than 700 points, and with this gain it immediately reached the maximum level.
Usually he was the one hugging girls. This time, being hugged by a girl in public, Nolan could already guess that the Akasha Metafield would soon be filled with new gossip about his womanizing.
But it was not a big problem.
He had already prepared countermeasures.
Although he hoped more people would know about him in order to collect spiritual essence, he did not want to become famous through a bad reputation.
So within the Akasha Metafield, Nolan had limited the spread of negative news about himself.
People could still post it, but it would rarely be recommended unless someone deliberately searched for it.
This way it would not cause much impact.
Meanwhile, his heroic deeds could still be posted freely, though they would not be aggressively promoted either.
After all, everyone on Teyvat who should know about him already did. Even children could practically recite his achievements by heart.
If those stories were pushed to people constantly every day, it would only make them feel annoyed.
(End of Chapter)
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