The great Mr.
Ren once proposed a theory.
If you suggest opening a window and no one agrees, then suggest tearing off the roof first; then everyone will agree to open the window.
—Yes, this theory was indeed once spoken by Mr.
Ren.
Looking at the conditions Ren proposed, they were a far cry from the messy things she had imagined in her head; in fact, they weren’t even remotely related.
While Amber felt a surge of guilt for her previous speculations about Ren, she hurriedly said in a pleading tone: “If it’s just that, then, um, no problem.
I’d be very happy to be friends with you, Ren.” Just making friends, after all.
As the ‘central air conditioner’ of Mondstadt, Amber loved making friends most of all.
It was just that with a friend like Ren, there was a risk that being friends might turn into being ‘under the covers’ for a lifetime.
Knowing today was Amber’s first time entering his game world, Ren didn’t push things further.
One shouldn’t rush things; what if he scared Amber so much she didn’t dare sleep next time?
So, for the rest of the time, Ren didn’t do much else.
He simply took Amber through a bit of the plot to increase their intimacy and enjoy the thrill of giving spoilers.
He watched as Amber saw, without surprise, that’she’ was the first character to meet and join the protagonist’s party.
He watched the protagonist use the Wind Glider Amber gave him to play Ace Combat with Dvalin high in the sky.
He watched that guy Kaeya acting all mysterious again.
He watched them clear out the abandoned temples in the wild.
—Er, seeing this, Amber, as an Outrider of the Knights of Favonius, felt a bit embarrassed.
It seemed Mondstadters were a bit too forgetful, even forgetting the temples of the Four Winds.
Seeing the abandoned temples of the Four Winds crawling with Hilichurls, Amber’s face flushed with shame.
Finally, she watched in speechless shock as that bard—whose true identity was the Anemo God Barbatos—actually dragged the Knights’ newly appointed Honorary Knight to the cathedral in the middle of the night to steal the Holy Lyre der Himmel that already belonged to him?
And the most ridiculous part was that the damn Fatui snatched it first, leaving them to take the fall and be wanted by the Knights of Favonius?
Being wanted by her own colleagues for the first time, Amber forgot this was just a scripted plot in a game.
Fully immersed, her eyes filled with tears as she actually started running away in a frantic panic.
Especially seeing that countdown timer ticking away at the top of her vision, the sense of urgency spiked instantly.
Facing this kind of otherworldly gameplay for the first time, Amber panicked.
“Is—is this Lord Barbatos?
Lord Barbatos, why are you just watching?
Help!” “What are you afraid of?
This is a game, not reality.
Even if you fail to escape, you just start over.” Ren tapped Amber’s little head, which was already sweating from anxiety.
Awakened by Ren’s tap, Amber finally snapped out of her immersion.
She began to realize that her own Anemo God didn’t seem all that reliable.
After going through a series of ups and downs and a plot that left one not knowing where to start complaining, they finally reached Angels Share to catch a breath.
Amber clutched her head.
“Okay, I—I know what to do.
When I go back, I’ll find Acting Grand Master Jean, tell her everything I know, and borrow the Holy Lyre der Himmel ahead of time to find Lord Barbatos—” “I know you’re anxious, but don’t be anxious yet.” Ren stopped Amber, who wanted to use some drastic method to wake up from the dream right then and there.
Amber looked at Ren strangely, stunned for a moment.
After two seconds, she clutched her modest ‘frontal armor’ and took two steps back.
“Wait—wait, it’s still a bit too fast for me.
At least let’s go on a few dates in Mondstadt City first—” *Smack!* Amber’s forehead turned bright red from the heat.
“What is that little head of yours thinking?” So rabbits really are all lewd, aren’t they?
Ren speechlessly interrupted Amber’s flustered rambling.
Amber blushed and covered the place that had been smacked, even more indignant: “You’re the one!
What are you suddenly doing to a girl!” Ren’s voice came through without a hint of apology: “Oh, sorry.
Force of habit.” Feeling that this might lack sincerity, Ren gave Amber a thumbs-up, his eight pearly white teeth flashing in a perfect smile.
“But the elasticity is good.
Keep it up.” “Thank you—like hell!” Amber gnashed her teeth; a rabbit’s teeth could be very sharp.
“Ahem, let’s get back to the point.
I might have a way to help you go a step further in saving Dvalin.” Ren started trying to change the subject with zero sincerity, but Amber saw through him instantly.
“Your way of changing the subject is terrible.” “Just tell me if it’s useful or not!” Whether changing the subject works depends on whether the other person cares about the topic you raise.
And right now, Amber really wanted to know what method Ren had to help her save Dvalin.
Thinking of this, Amber suddenly remembered that Ren was an ‘Adeptis’ who could bring people into dreams, just like in the Liyue novels.
With an Adeptis helping, solving this incident would surely be much easier.
After all, Lord Dvalin was a vassal of Lord Barbatos, and in Liyue legends, most Adepti were vassals of the Lord of Geo, Morax.
So, roughly speaking, Dvalin = Adeptis should be about right, wouldn’t it?
Now, an Adeptis in good condition—who could even tease a maiden knight—should be able to suppress Dvalin, who was being tortured by poisonous blood, right?
With Ren taking action, wouldn’t solving this incident be a piece of cake?
“Unfortunately, I’d like to go out and help you, but I don’t seem to be able to leave this world.” Ren spread his hands and said with no small amount of regret.
Ren’s words didn’t make Amber disappointed at first; instead, Amber, who had been raised with Mondstadt’s ideals of freedom since childhood, immediately looked at him with a gaze full of sympathy.
After all, as a free Mondstadter, in Amber’s view, no matter how beautiful this world was, being trapped here and never able to leave was a very tragic thing.
“Don’t worry, I will definitely help you!” Amber, who had just been smacked on a certain part, actively walked to Ren’s side, stood on her tiptoes, and clumsily patted his head.
This little rabbit completely ignored the energy Ren had when he was bullying her earlier, and also completely ignored the fact that her own abilities were many levels below Ren’s.
If Ren was powerless, she had no way to solve it either.
But still— An imperceptible smile curled at the corner of Ren’s mouth.
Sure enough, this was why he loved those girls in Genshin Impact who were so full of personality and charm.
Especially this little rabbit, Amber, who was so full of sympathy and friendliness.
Now in a very good mood, Ren didn’t mind being generous.
He swiped open the console and, using his GM permissions, began to modify Amber inside and out.
“Since I’m in a good mood, let’s see.
Step one, lock the HP bar…
then set her to Max Constellation and Max Talents.
Hmm, can artifacts be taken out?
Forget it, even locking the HP bar might not work, let’s just try…
equip a full set of gold Max Level artifacts, max out the stats, and weapons—put a dozen in the inventory and one in her hand…
oh right, let’s throw in a hundred or so purified tears of Dvalin—” Amber watched Ren’s incomprehensible busywork with a mix of speechlessness and shock.
But she soon felt the power behind Ren’s mumbling.
Amber looked at her hands with uncertainty; she—she felt something was wrong with her.
First, a continuous stream of power surged from within her body.
Then, the so-called skills and Talents inherent to this dream body were greatly enhanced.
After that, a full set of legendary golden artifacts—which even the three Great Clans might not possess—merged into her body.
Finally, a pile of weapons, which exuded pressure just by existing, appeared— When Ren finally finished his busywork, Amber silently felt her power, which felt so immense that it wouldn’t even be out of place if she traveled back in time to join the Archon War.
She asked dryly: “These…
these are all in the dream, right?
Can I take them out?” Ren spread his hands.
“I don’t know.” “Huh?” Amber looked at Ren, whose expression was very innocent, in bewilderment.
Ren was also very blunt: “I just don’t know.
This is my first time too, and it’s your first time, so you’re just helping me experiment.” Is it really okay for you to be this unreliable?
Amber’s mouth twitched, while Ren continued: “Don’t look at me like that.
You’ve got the intel anyway, so this is just extra.
Whatever you get is a win, right?” After thinking about it, Amber nodded.
That was true.
Never mind taking it all out; even if she only took out a tiny bit of power, it would be pure profit.
Anyway, her original plan was to take the intel back and give it to Grand Master Jean and Lisa to make a plan and solve the problem.
Having an unexpected bonus now was already very good.
It was just that Ren’s attitude of treating her like an experimental guinea pig gave Amber a strange sense of déjà vu.
It seemed like a certain someone in the Knights with a rather worrying hairline—Klee’s brother—usually looked gentle and pleasant but actually had this kind of attitude toward strangers too, right?
Regardless, this was Ren’s gesture of goodwill.
Amber finally thanked him with a bright smile and even took the initiative to hug him for the first time since entering the dream.
This was a huge breakthrough.
One must know that when Amber suddenly entered the dream and this world, she had witnessed Ren’s absurd lifestyle at first glance.
Especially since she was a part of it back then—her body in this world was just the other’s body pillow.
It could be said that for an average girl, the attitude toward Ren after seeing such a situation could be imagined.
But in just three or four hours, Amber could now take the initiative to hug Ren back.
It could only be said that at this moment, in her heart, Amber no longer considered Ren an outsider.
It was still a bit early for lovers, but as for friends, Amber, who had received much help from Ren and was quite socially adept herself, fully acknowledged him.
The world shook—for Amber—and in the Whispering Woods near Mondstadt City on the Teyvat continent in reality, Amber, who was camping here, found herself being shaken awake.
“Hey, Amber, wake up.
Amber, how did you lose all your vigilance?” Amber opened her eyes in a daze and looked at the vassal blue figure before her.
A feeling like a lifetime had passed welled up in her heart.
Meanwhile, in ‘Genshin Impact,’ Ren looked at the Amber before him—who was Max Constellation, Max Ascension, equipped with a full set of top-tier artifacts and a five-star weapon, and even had cheats enabled—without a flicker of emotion in his eyes.
“I see, so it’s the NPC-style.” Recalling those ‘wholesome’ NPC-style novels he had read before crossing over—both the clean and the explicit ones—this seemed to be how they developed.
When the protagonist was getting bored of mindless NPCs and their mind was about to turn perverse, the real versions of them would cross over into the bodies of their NPC counterparts in their sleep— “In that case—” He lowered his head in thought, mainly reviewing the plots and tropes of the novels he had read before.
Ren pulled up the back-end panel that only he could see and operate, which was also the console for controlling this massive world of ‘Genshin Impact.’ Looking mainly at the character panel and dialogue boxes, he found that Amber’s avatar had indeed dimmed, and her status had changed from ‘Online’ to ‘Offline.’ After thinking for a bit, Ren added all the playable characters in the game to his account’s friend list, then moved all the male characters into the blacklist.
“I don’t know if this will work, but let’s do this for now.
After all, I don’t have any special hobbies.” Although his mind hadn’t completely deteriorated yet, having stayed in this dead and silent world for an unknown amount of time, Ren’s mental state had undergone many changes compared to when he first crossed over.
But even at his most deteriorated, he had no interest in that sort of thing.
He didn’t even have an interest in a child like Klee, let alone men.
This was his world, his back garden.
Keqing and Ganyu were welcome, but males were excluded, even if it was Zhongli or Venti.
Having finished this, Ren stretched.
After playing around with Amber for a whole night, he felt a long-lost sense of fatigue—the feeling of relaxing after mental excitement.
Although he could refresh his own status, Ren didn’t want to strip away his current sense of reality or the right to sleep, at least not for now.
He casually glanced at the Skyward Harp still in Amber’s hand.
“Well, it seems items held in hand weren’t taken out…
as for more specifics, I’ll wait to hear her account when Amber comes back next time.” Saying so, Ren picked up Amber, who had turned back into an expressionless doll, and in this Whispering Woods where only birds chirped, he summoned a comfortable bed and fell into a blissful sleep.
The game world really was great.
Even sleeping like this, there would be no harassment from bugs or other filth.
The breeze blowing on his face was forever comfortable and warm, and the perfect sunlight filtered through the gaps in the leaves, softly spreading over the bedding.
With a warm ‘body pillow’ in his arms, Ren could enter the most peaceful sleep.