“This is… an Artisan.”

In the single cell of the Broken Lake Prison, Asho looked at the Artisan in his palm, who was sleeping soundly like a human infant in a blue striped pajama, with a feeling of blood connection.

In tonight’s last adventure in the Virtual Realm, Asho and the Sword Girl went to the white mist area marked “Welcome” and found an adventure island.

Unlike the Inheritance Island, the Adventure Island had no danger or trial at all, only wild Artisans playing on the island.

When they stepped onto the island, the Artisans scattered in a panic, and even with their quick reflexes, they only managed to catch two Artisans. The caught Artisans recognized their misfortune and were willing to recognize them as their masters.

Asho got an Artisan that was sleeping in his palm, a human infant called “Substitute.”

“Substitute”

“A one-winged Artisan”

“Restriction: The Artificer must be a primate intelligent creature.”

“Basic effect: Create an illusion exactly like the target. Once it is hit, it will shatter. If the target is an intelligent creature, it will obey the Artificer’s command.”

“Passive effect: Slightly reduce pain.”

“‘If you feel pain, just treat yourself as someone else, then you won’t feel pain.’”

The Sword Girl got an Artisan from the water Artisan faction called “Torrent.”

“Torrent”

“A one-winged Artisan”

“Restriction: There must be unowned liquid around.”

“Basic effect: Shoot out a water flow with kinetic energy.”

“Passive effect: Increase control over liquids.”

“‘Gentle flow is life, violent flow is change. Nothing stays the same except for the flow itself.’”

According to the Sword Girl, the Torrent Artisan could be sold at a high price in her school because it was a rare high-eruption attacking Artisan in the water Artisan faction and could derive many powerful miracles, but the summoning difficulty was very high, so the price was extremely expensive, even surpassing some two-winged Artisans.

Although Asho wanted to say, “What money do you need as a paper person?” he realized that it might be an automatic upgrade mechanism in the game, and he still had to cling to the Sword Girl’s thigh now. It was definitely not the time to conflict with her – at this critical stage of the project, he couldn’t afford to offend the only technical person who was doing things!

Therefore, the two of them happily completed the distribution of spoils. The Sword Girl was very satisfied, and Asho was even more satisfied because the Substitute Artisan was one of the main Artisans necessary for Shatter My Miracle!

Asho’s top priority was to gather the Artisans of Shatter My Miracle and completely crush the control of the neck chip, otherwise he would not even have the qualification to escape from prison!

He looked at the Substitute Artisan in his palm and secretly urged the inexplicable spiritual energy in his mind.

After Asho came back from the Virtual Realm, he found that his spiritual consciousness had turned from virtual to real. This feeling was like imagination had really become a physical force, and it was like having an invisible phantom limb. He could drive his spiritual power to touch everything in reality.

Without asking, Asho also knew that this spiritual energy was the Artificing that the Sword Girl had mentioned several times. Artificing was the universal energy source of Artificers and the power basis for Artificers to drive Artisans. Without Artificing, Artificers were no different from ordinary people.

Conversely, as long as you had Artificing, you were an Artificer, even if you were the worst Artificer.

But Asho remembered that he didn’t have any Artificing before he entered the Virtual Realm.

Asho was very clear about the source of this Artificing, because he sailed with the Sword Girl in the Virtual Realm, and every layer of white mist they broke through not only tempered his spirit but also gathered free knowledge for him, generating the universal energy source – Artificing – under the dual effect.

Therefore, after coming back from the Virtual Realm, Asho not only had Artisans but also had Artificing.In other words, he was already a pure and highly-skilled Artificer.

But…

Asho tried to explore the body of his substitute Artisan with his mental tentacles, but the feedback he received was like the listening section of a level six foreign language exam. He couldn’t understand even a single sentence, let alone the whole thing.

This completely matched what Sword Girl had said: “If it’s not an Artisan you personally summoned, you can’t even analyze its structure.”

Since he couldn’t analyze it, Asho couldn’t find the True Gate from the substitute Artisan.

In other words, Asho was an Artificer who couldn’t enter the Virtual Realm on his own!

This completely contradicted the Artificer system that Sword Girl had described — every Artificer, whether they were exceptionally talented or mediocre, whether they had a distinguished background or were orphans, all summoned their Artisans through learning and training before entering the Virtual Realm.

From ancient times to the present, there has never been an Artificer who did not study.

The term “Artificer” itself means “master of the art,” and every Artificer can be a teacher of a certain skill!

However, now, an exception had appeared!

Asho Heath, a talentless wanderer from another world, had crossed the threshold of knowledge and become a formal Artificer!

He suddenly remembered the legend of the golden fish and the stowaway that Sword Girl had just told him.

“Silver Artificers find the golden fish and can stowaway to the Time Continent to become Gold Artificers, and I took Sword Girl’s ride and stowed away to the Knowledge Sea to become a Silver Artificer…”

Other people stowed away, which was the flow of the Artificer class, equivalent to population flow in different regions of the same country, which was always an internal contradiction. However, Asho’s stowaway was like a species invasion, jumping over the wall from a primitive tribe to a developed country.

This was definitely a secret that could not be exposed, Asho thought.

Once other Artificers found out that he was a stowaway, they would definitely not spare him to protect biodiversity.

Substitute!

Asho silently thought in his heart, but nothing happened. The substitute Artisan was still sleeping soundly in his palm.

The next second, a light screen suddenly popped up, and a series of information streams flashed through his eyes.

“Warning: You are attempting to output Artificing! This is a prohibited item!”

Asho slapped his head – right, since the chip restricted him from entering the Virtual Realm, it must also restrict him from using Artificing!

If he wanted to activate his Artisans to perform miracles, he had to bypass the chip; if he wanted to bypass the chip, he had to activate his Artisans to perform miracles to purify the chip… damn, he was caught in a loop again!

“Sword Girl, help me…”

“Sword Girl?”

Asho shouted twice, but the dormitory was still empty, and the elusive Sword Girl did not appear this time.

He thought for a moment that Sword Girl had been exploring the Virtual Realm with him all night and must be tired. Even paper people needed rest, so he wouldn’t bother her today.

“If you’re hurt enough, use a pair of hands to cut open the curse from yesterday. Wait for the night to become the day, and the remaining scars…”

Asho looked up and realized it was already 8 o’clock the next morning. The prison’s timely wake-up song began to play.

It was time to go for breakfast, and the Deathmatch Society had another deathmatch waiting for him.

…

In the meditation room of Sword Flower University, Sonia slowly opened her eyes.

She reached out, and a Artisan girl in a white dress appeared in her palm.

If she were to announce this Artisan to the public, it would definitely attract the attention of many people – it was very rare for someone to gain such a valuable trophy on their first day in the Virtual Realm.

She didn’t lie to the viewers, the Torrent Artisan was indeed very popular on Sword Flower University’s Artisan trading platform, and even in the whole Garlean, it was considered as one of the top-tier Artisans.But she didn’t tell the whole truth: the value of the substitute Sorcery Spirit was not low either.

In fact, the price of a general Sorcery Spirit was originally a level higher than that of a specialized Sorcery Spirit, unless its usage was too narrow. A one-winged general Sorcery Spirit could be sold for the price of a two-winged specialized Sorcery Spirit.

After all, specialized Sorcery Spirits were only in demand by specific factions of Artificers, while general Sorcery Spirits could be used by all Artificers. With supply not meeting demand, the prices were naturally high.

So why did she hide this information?

She wanted the viewer to discover her little ‘scheme.’

Back in the Virtual Realm, Sonia had noticed that the viewer could no longer read her thoughts.

Perhaps it was due to the limitations of the Virtual Realm, but it didn’t really matter—after all, the viewer would be able to listen to her thoughts again once they returned to reality.

When they obtained the substitute Sorcery Spirit and the Torrent Sorcery Spirit, even if Sonia couldn’t see the viewer’s expression, she could tell from their body movements that they really wanted the substitute Sorcery Spirit. So, Sonia went along with it and gave the substitute Sorcery Spirit to the viewer.

Once they returned to reality, the viewer would learn from Sonia’s thoughts that she knew the value of the substitute Sorcery Spirit, but she only told half the truth and pretended that she got a great deal with the Torrent Sorcery Spirit. This was to make it easier for the viewer to accept the substitute Sorcery Spirit.

This kind of scheming, but with good intentions and clumsy methods that allowed the viewer to see through her, might not cause a critical hit to the viewer, but it would at least greatly increase their fondness for her.

I thought you were on the first level, I was on the second level, but you saw through me on the third level. However, the truth is that I was on the fourth level waiting for you to see through me.

But the premise of all this was that Sonia had to hide the fact that she was actually on the fourth level. This wasn’t difficult for her—after two days of mental training, Sonia had already gained initial control of her thoughts, allowing her to think only about what she wanted to think about.

Sonia took back the Torrent Sorcery Spirit and walked out of the meditation room.

“Viewer, I’m going to take a shower, remember to avoid me.”

“Viewer?”

Walking out of the meditation building, Sonia looked around and confirmed that the viewer was not there.

In the past two days, whenever Sonia called out, the viewer would appear from a blind spot that Sonia couldn’t see, without exception. This time, several minutes passed without them appearing, which could only mean—

After experiencing the exploration of the Virtual Realm, the viewer also had to rest, suspending their round-the-clock surveillance of Sonia.

However, Sonia didn’t feel any joy in regaining her freedom. Instead, she felt as frustrated as if she had brought a cake back to her dormitory to eat only to find that the dormitory toilet had exploded!

I finally found an opportunity and prepared a sugar-coated bomb, but you just ate the sugar coating and ran away!?