Meanwhile, back in his Bronx apartment.
In the living room, Julian dropped to his knees and bowed in pure, absolute reverence toward a black-and-white portrait of Brother Dawei.
He muttered a frantic, desperate prayer under his breath: “Brother Dawei, I’m begging you.
Show a little love, give me a character, please.
Have some mercy on a poor soul, just one decent character.
The world is vast and full of wonders, but all I want right now is a character…”
After finishing his heartfelt prayer, Julian sank his consciousness into the glowing orb in his mind.
Primogems: 70
Looking at the extra seventy Primogems, a wide grin spread across his face.
This currency had refreshed last night, right after he tipped Pepper Potts off about Obadiah Stane’s conspiracy.
This confirmed a running theory Julian had: acquiring Primogems was directly correlated to how much he influenced the timeline.
As for whether positive impacts rewarded more than negative ones, he’d have to figure that out through future experiments.
But none of that mattered right now.
What mattered was pulling!
Julian took a deep, steadying breath.
He dumped his precious, hard-earned seventy Primogems straight into the gacha pool and squeezed his eyes shut.
Swoosh!
The familiar, heavenly chime of a gacha pull echoed in his ears.
After a long, agonizing moment, he finally forced himself to peek at the results.
[Sweet Flower] ×5, [Character Card] ×1, [Item Card] ×1
Item: [Sweet Flower] Description: Particularly fragrant flowers.
They can be located easily, even in the dark, thanks to their sweet scent.
Commonly used in sugar making.
Effect: None.
Character Card: [Fischl] Vision: Electro Constellation: Corvus Description: Fischl, full name Fischl von Luftschloss Narfidort, real name Amy.
Born in Mondstadt to busy adventurer parents who were constantly away on expeditions, she grew up lonely and immersed herself in the fantasy novels of the library.
She particularly loved Flowers for Princess Fischl, eventually adopting the persona of the Prinzessin to cope with her isolation, developing a highly unique ‘chuunibyou’ personality.
On her fourteenth birthday, after being mocked by peers, she sought comfort from her parents, only to be told to ‘grow up and leave her childhood fantasies behind’.
Utterly heartbroken, she hid in the library, where she unexpectedly received an Electro Vision and summoned the night raven, Oz (Ozvaldo von Hrafnavines), officially becoming the Prinzessin der Verurteilung.
Oz serves not only as her combat partner but also as her loyal translator, helping the Adventurers’ Guild members decipher her ‘Prinzessin speak’.
She hates Sweet Madames because the sight of a bound, roasted chicken reminds her of her suffocating fourteenth birthday.
Thanks to Oz’s incredible scouting abilities, she became a stellar investigator for the Adventurers’ Guild, befriending the likes of Bennett and the Traveler.
Fun fact: the adventurers privately circulate a Fischl Dictionary to translate her dramatic proclamations.
For example, ‘O servant who bears the name of Verurteilung’ simply means ‘I’ll look into it and get back to you immediately’.
Item: [Canned Knowledge] Description: A knowledge storage technology completely unique to the Sumeru region, derived from the Akasha System created by Greater Lord Rukkhadevata.
In Sumeru, knowledge is treated as a vital resource heavily regulated by the Akademiya.
However, black market merchants (like Dori) still smuggle and sell rare Canned Knowledge at exorbitant prices.
These capsules contain various professional skills or combat techniques, allowing the user to instantly acquire the knowledge without needing to study.
However, long-term use can severely weaken the user’s ability to think independently and may even lead to cognitive stagnation.
“Brother Dawei!
From this day forward, you are my absolute savior!
I will worship the ground you walk on!”
Staring at little Amy’s beautiful character art, Julian practically prostrated himself in front of the Dawei portrait.
Back when he was a complete newbie in his past life, he had practically been raised and carried through the game by the four legendary four-star gods: Fischl, Xiangling, Xingqiu, and Bennett.
His emotional attachment to her was absolutely undeniable!
In the lore, while Fischl wasn’t exactly top-tier in raw destructive power, she was definitely no pushover.
According to her character stories, she had once single-handedly defeated a wicked dragon known as Taslac.
Even if it was just a monstrous beast or a symbolic fantasy, it still proved her excellent combat prowess.
Beyond that, her scouting and intelligence-gathering capabilities were utterly elite!
She was undeniably one of the finest investigators in the Mondstadt Adventurers’ Guild.
Despite her incredibly obscure way of speaking, her intel was so flawlessly accurate that the Guild members had happily compiled a Fischl Dictionary just to translate her dramatic declarations.
More importantly, right now Julian only had Diluc, a strictly close-quarters melee fighter.
If he ran into a powerful ranged mage or a sniper, he could easily get kited to death.
Fischl’s arrival perfectly covered his biggest, most glaring weakness.
The only problem was having to arm the Prinzessin with a three-star Slingshot…
That felt a little too disrespectful.
‘Don’t worry!’ Julian promised silently.
‘Once I’m swimming in Primogems, I’ll definitely pull a Thundering Pulse just for you!’
The capsule was a translucent glass jar containing a swirling, glowing mass of green energy.
The exterior of the jar was encased in a delicate, precision-crafted metallic frame, likely made of brass or some other gilded material, engraved with intricate, academic Sumerian motifs.
Julian sat back on his living room sofa, pinching the Canned Knowledge between his fingers.
“So this is supposed to be ‘knowledge’?” he muttered.
He ran his fingertips lightly over the surface of the jar, trying to find a hidden switch or trigger mechanism.
But it honestly just looked like a high-end, incredibly expensive decorative ornament.
There was nothing mechanically obvious about it.
He held it up.
The living room lights filtered through the translucent shell, illuminating the faint, shifting halo of green light inside.
It looked as if something living was swimming within the glass.
“How the hell am I supposed to use this thing?”
However, the very second the thought crossed his mind, a sudden change occurred!
The Canned Knowledge in his hand abruptly erupted with a blinding green light.
The brilliance poured out like rushing water, instantly flooding the entire living room.
Before Julian could even react, the light moved as if it were a living entity, traveling rapidly up his arm, wrapping around his neck, and ultimately surging straight into the space between his eyebrows!
“Urgh—!”
Julian let out a muffled groan.
His body jerked violently backward, collapsing heavily against the back of the sofa.
His entire field of vision was instantly hijacked by an endless, cascading stream of green data.
A torrential flood of information crashed into his mind like a tidal wave… formulas, complex theories, experimental data, intricate operational procedures…
This knowledge wasn’t a chaotic, jumbled mess.
It integrated itself seamlessly into his memory in a way he couldn’t comprehend, yet could perceive with absolute clarity.
It felt as if he were standing in the center of a colossal library, where thousands of books were automatically flying open, their contents searing themselves deeply and permanently into his consciousness.
He had no idea how long the process lasted.
By the time the final wisp of green light faded away, a fine layer of cold sweat covered Julian’s forehead.
He slowly opened his eyes.
The living room was perfectly quiet, almost as if everything that had just happened was merely an illusion.
However, when he looked down at his hand, the previously crystal-clear, glowing capsule of Canned Knowledge had turned into a dull, ashen gray.
The surface of the glass was covered in a dense web of fine cracks, completely drained of all its vibrant essence.
“Looks like it’s a single-use consumable…” Julian sighed with a hint of genuine regret, casually setting the empty jar down on the coffee table.