Wang Yue rolled the fish-man coin between her fingers, lost in thought.
Whether it was truly a “Deep One” was hard to say. This wasn’t her original world, after all; she couldn’t let preconceived notions dictate her judgment.
“Why would a coin like this show up here?” she muttered to herself.
“I recognize that coin!” Lilith’s expression sharpened.
“You’ve seen it?” Wang Yue looked toward her.
“When Prima sacrificed herself to gain power, she was holding a coin exactly like that,” Lilith recalled, her brow furrowing. “There is a small chance it was just a similar one, but the resemblance is striking.”
“And then?” Wang Yue pressed.
“An illusory Silver Lake appeared around us. Blurred shadows flickered, and cryptic runes overlapped in the air. I heard whispers in my ear, but… I couldn’t understand them.”
“Let’s head to Oak Town to regroup first. This isn’t the place to linger.”
Wang Yue scanned their surroundings cautiously. She tucked the coin into the Sealing Box and led Lilith toward the nearby town.
As they traveled, she initiated a mental link with the Octopus.
What do you think?
I don’t have an opinion.
Eh?
I have no interest in observing the colonies of lower lifeforms. You didn’t actually start thinking of me as a library, did you?
That remark served as a reminder. For actual research and data, she still had to rely on White Fish.
The area surrounding Oak Town was thick with oak and cork trees. Both were excellent cash crops, providing cork bark, high-quality timber, and starch-rich seeds—the primary sources of food and building materials for the town. However, the acorn starch contained mild toxins and required careful processing before it was edible.
The moment they entered the town, the air was filled with a scent reminiscent of toasted rice, mingled with the sharp, fermented tang of brewing grain.
As was their habit, they rented a house first—a dry, comfortable cabin made entirely of wood. It featured three rooms, an L-shaped living area, and a kitchen and bathroom situated in the courtyard.
When it came time to hop down from the vehicle, Wang Yue managed to avoid falling into the shrine maiden’s arms. She breathed a sigh of relief, though a small part of her felt a strange, lingering trace of regret.
It seemed Lilith was still behaving normally. She was obedient and hadn’t undergone any bizarre psychological shifts just because her inner world had collapsed.
Good. That’s good.
Wang Yue felt she owed Lilith far too much—the kind of debt a simple apology couldn’t touch. When one had a guilty conscience, it was easy to become paranoid.
She stole another glance at Lilith. The petite shrine maiden stood perfectly still, looking dignified and serene.
Ah, everything’s fine…
Wang Yue pushed the thought aside. She took out her stationery and began setting up a “Cognitive Mapping” on the wall in front of the desk.
After pinning up a map of the surrounding area, she sat down and reached out to White Fish to search for clues regarding the fish-man coin.
The records indicated that these were known as “Wishing Coins.” They were the subject of many rumors among tavern goers and travelers—throw a coin into the Silver Lake, and your dreams would come true.
The bas-relief of the fish-man on the front lacked enough detail for a specific match; there were too many similar species to be certain. However, the ritualistic script on the back consisted of ancient piscine pictographs that were easy to decipher: a pointed beak for a sailfish, multiple limbs for an octopus, and a lure-topped head for an anglerfish.
“Since the legends are so widespread, it suggests there’s likely more than one Wishing Coin, and they’ve existed for a long time… Ah, thank you.”
Wang Yue smelled the aroma of coffee and felt a warmth in her heart. She had just been thinking about how nice a cup of coffee would be. Lilith was certainly more attentive than that scrap-metal maid of hers.
Lilith stepped out from behind her, holding a coffee cup.
Instead of placing it on the desk, she scooped up a spoonful, blew on it gently, and held it to Wang Yue’s lips.
“Eh? I don’t need to be fed!”
“My Goddess, I have cooled it for you so that you won’t burn your delicate little tongue. Hooo, hooo…“
Lilith’s lips looked exceptionally tender under the rising steam—the upper lip was pitifully thin, while the lower lip was slightly fuller, curving beautifully into her soft, white chin. They trembled slightly as she blew, sparking a sudden, intense urge in Wang Yue to lean in and taste them.
Wang Yue cleared her throat and pulled her neck back nervously, pleading in a low voice. “Um… I want to drink it myself.”
“I’m afraid I cannot allow that. If you were to be burned, it would be a failure of my duty as your shrine maiden. My Goddess, please understand my devotion.”
“Please, I insist on drinking it myself,” Wang Yue stood her ground.
“Very well… but I won’t put this spoonful back in the cup.”
Lilith didn’t push further. She took the spoon into her own mouth, pursing her lips around it, and then turned to walk away.
Wang Yue turned her head, her gaze following the girl’s retreating back. She couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off.
She took a sip from the cup and immediately started coughing.
It was so sweet!
How much sugar had she put in this?
She swirled the liquid and saw a layer of thick syrup settled at the bottom.
I’m not a honeybee!
Calm down… maybe this is just how shrine maidens serve their gods.
Maybe I’m just being hypersensitive.
Wang Yue swallowed hard a few times to soothe her throat and went back to her Cognitive Mapping. Her goal was clear: find out where the mysterious entity that traded with Prima was hiding.
It was now known that “Silver Lake” wasn’t a physical location, but a special effect triggered by the Wishing Coins. The Little Hand was connected to the coin. This meant the trail went cold at the coin itself; the mysterious entity remained hidden.
That creature was pulling all the strings yet never showed its face.
Wang Yue made another trip to the Explorers’ Guild to look through their archives and ask for information from some of the veteran Explorers.
There were indeed people who had heard of the Wishing Coins. They confirmed that there was more than one and that the price was always a physical limb.
This intel supported her theory—there were multiple coins in circulation.
Wang Yue thought about it carefully. Wasn’t this just a way to harvest human limbs en masse? it was utterly insane, like a gardener pruning the branches of a hedge.
But were human limbs really that valuable?
Wang Yue had long doubted whether the exorbitant “tuition” was actually equal in value to the limbs provided. If one wanted to stew a knuckle, buying a pig’s trotter was the most cost-effective route. If one wanted to collect opposable thumbs, monkeys were a much cheaper and more practical choice.
That the mysterious entity favored humans specifically was difficult to comprehend.
“Perhaps it’s not about buying the limbs, but about the act of maiming,” Lilith suggested.
“Your train of thought is very strange,” Wang Yue glanced at her. “The world is dangerous enough as it is. It’s more common for people to be missing a part than to be whole. Why go through the trouble of creating something that already exists in abundance?”
“Perhaps it is to experience the psychological shift that follows being maimed? Isn’t there such a thing as ‘Deduction’?”
“Human emotions suffer from fatigue. Given enough time, people move on and stop obsessing over what they lost.”
“You speak as if you’re referring to someone in particular, My Goddess…” Lilith’s eyes narrowed into two crimson slits.
“Ah!” Wang Yue clapped her hands hastily. “I just remembered something… that song.”
Long ago, Prima had taught Wang Yue a song. When sung, a directional beacon would appear in the mind.
“Since the beacon doesn’t lead to the Silver Lake, it must point toward a Wishing Coin.”
Wang Yue tried singing the song in her head.
Now that she had reached the rank of a Purity-level cultivator, the song could no longer shake her mental state.
A beacon appeared. Wang Yue drove her vehicle for over a hundred kilometers following its guidance until she finally reached her destination—a lakeside forest shrouded in mist.
Following the beacon, she dug into the earth and unearthed a second Wishing Coin from several meters deep.
“So the song really does lead to the coins. The coin is the Silver Lake; they share a summoning relationship.”
As Wang Yue was contemplating this, a deep-blue Little Hand suddenly reached out from the second coin and plunged directly into her chest!
She froze for a second but didn’t use her magic to sever the hand.
This development brought a new realization.
By following the song, one could find a Wishing Coin that hadn’t yet bonded with a human. Once found, the connection was automatic.
Wang Yue felt a strange sense of familiarity. This was exactly like a bike-sharing system.
Actually, I should call it ‘Coin-sharing.’
One coin for one user.
Pay with your flesh, get your wish, until your balance runs out—until you die.
Once the holder died, the coin disconnected and waited for the next person to perform a “wireless search” by singing the song, starting the cycle all over again.
