In the adjacent live stream room, the streamer Penguin hesitated for a long time between the two options. To be honest, he didn't really need the 3,200 Primogems; Qingge's previous incident and Mihoyo's questionable actions during the Lunar New Year had instinctively made him wary.
Taking those 3,200 Primogems could only spell trouble.
But refusing...
Chu Xi had traveled all the way from Liyue specifically to investigate the Dendro Vision. They were friends, and Penguin genuinely liked her. He didn't want to reject her so abruptly.
After agonizing over the decision, he finally chose to accept the quest.
But just as he clicked, his mouse slipped, accidentally selecting the second option. Penguin's eyes widened in shock.
"Damn this lousy mouse!"
His live stream chat erupted in laughter, filling the screen with "hahaha."
On the screen, Chu Xi, clearly taken aback by the Traveler's refusal, stood frozen in place for a moment. After apologizing, she clutched the box in her arms and hurried away.
Watching this, Penguin felt a pang of sympathy. Damn this lousy mouse!
After that, during the main story scenes, it was just the Traveler, Paimon, and Nahida; Chu Xi never reappeared.
"I wonder what the story would have been like if I'd chosen the first option?" Penguin desperately wanted to know. Until he figured it out, he couldn't even focus on playing the rest of the game.
[I chose the first option, hehe! Just a little secret for Penguin: if you pick the first option, you get a Chu Xi who follows you around everywhere!]
[I haven't gotten there yet, but I'll definitely pick the first option. 3200 Primogems!]
[The story just adds a cute girl who follows you everywhere.]
[I can't believe anyone would choose the second option?]
Reading the viewers' responses in the live stream comments only made Penguin feel even more dejected.
So not only had he missed out on 3200 Primogems, but he'd also passed up the chance to have Chu Xi as a companion?
What a terrible joke! It was like losing both his wife and his army!
-
Chen Xiyao's Live Stream
Chen Xiyao didn't overthink things. It was clear there were 20 free pulls right in front of her—how could she possibly pass that up?
She decisively chose the first option.
"Chu Xi is really generous! No matter what tasks she asks us to do later, these 20 pulls alone make it worth it, even if the missions take forever!"
Lumine's eyes lit up the moment she saw what was inside Chu Xi's box.
Primogems!
The very thing she needed most—absorbing them would gradually restore her lost power.
"We're good friends, Chu Xi. Your problems are my problems too! Even if you didn't offer any reward, I'd still help you!"
Lumine thumped her chest proudly as she took the wooden box from Chu Xi's hands.
"I accept this mission!"
Chu Xi beamed with delight. "Thank you! Thank you so much!"
Lumine carefully stowed all the Primogems into her spatial storage.
"Chu Xi, you mentioned earlier that Silaya went out? Was it for something important?"
Chu Xi remembered Silaya's instructions not to tell Lumine and the others about her thesis. "Silaya seems to have gone out for research related to her thesis. It'll probably take quite a while."
"Thesis?" Lumine glanced at Nahida. "Nahida, do you know anything about this?"
Nahida: "Silaya's thesis? She mentioned it to me. It was assigned by her teacher, Alhaitham, as a project aligned with the Amurta Darshan. But Silaya said she hasn't settled on a specific topic yet."
Paimon: "Teacher?! Silaya's teacher is Alhaitham?!"
Nahida: "You seem to know Alhaitham?"
Lumine: "We met him in Port Ormos before. I never imagined they were teacher and student! They're so different. Silaya is much easier to get along with than Alhaitham."
Nahida covered her mouth and chuckled softly. "Silaya's personality is indeed very approachable."
Chu Xi, standing nearby, studied Nahida with a puzzled expression—or rather, she was scrutinizing Katheryne.
Miss Katheryne from the Adventurer's Guild... her voice doesn't sound like this, does it...?
Seeing Chu Xi's perplexed look, Lumine was about to explain when she realized this wasn't the place for such a conversation. She decided to lead Nahida to a quieter spot.
Paimon's big eyes darted mischievously as she grinned. "There's hardly anyone around here. Borrowing Katheryne from the Adventurer's Guild for a while shouldn't be a problem, right?"
The group moved to a more secluded area.
Lumine explained Nahida's true identity to Chu Xi, who gasped in astonishment. "You're actually Lord Kusanali?!"
"You can call me Nahida, you know~"
"How does Silaya address you?" Chu Xi asked.
Though puzzled by the question, Nahida replied, "Little Silaya usually calls me 'Lord Dendro Archon'."
"Mm-hmm," Chu Xi nodded. "Then I'll call you 'Lord Dendro Archon' too!"
Nahida didn't mind the honorifics; she simply smiled and nodded at Chu Xi.
The group then began discussing the Sages' plan.
Chu Xi mentioned she would be sticking with Lumine and Paimon for the foreseeable future. Since Silaya was absent, she was essentially alone wherever she went.
In all of Sumeru, besides Silaya, only Lumine and Paimon were her closest acquaintances.
Nahida suggested finding someone who wasn't entirely innocent, someone who had indeed participated in the Sages' plan but whose convictions wavered.
Their search ultimately focused on a female scholar named Setaria.
Lumine and Paimon were intimately familiar with Setaria, having interacted with her multiple times during the samsara of the Sabzeruz Festival.
Originally from the desert, Setaria had come to the Akademiya primarily for its academic environment. In truth, she opposed the Akademiya's practices while harboring a sense of guilt toward her desert homeland.
Many people, when faced with such dilemmas, choose to turn a blind eye and simply go with the flow. Setaria was one such person.
Their plan was to confront Setaria with the unresolved issues she had been avoiding and the consequences of her assistance to the Akademiya, hoping to persuade her to join their cause and uncover the Akademiya's plans.
By temporarily controlling passersby, they stirred Setaria's guilt about her homeland. Using Lima from the Corps of Thirty, they successfully extracted the information they needed from her.
Setaria agreed to help steal confidential documents. However, due to the Akademiya's strict control over Akasha file transfers, the documents couldn't be transmitted via Akasha Terminal. They would have to resort to more primitive methods.
They arranged to meet at the Akademiya's entrance the following evening.
Nahida, controlling Katheryne, returned to the Adventurer's Guild, while Chu Xi joined Lumine and the others inside the Serenitea Pot.
"So this is where you stay when you're traveling outside?" Chu Xi's eyes sparkled. "It's so beautiful in here!"