DKIE CH61: Universalization

Luka opened his mouth, then closed it without saying anything.

Lilian laughed until she was shaking. “Seeing you speechless for once is quite a fulfilling feeling.”

This sentence resonated with everyone. Usually, it was Luka who did the talking, while they were left speechless on the side.

Luka walked into the room, his arms and legs moving a little stiffly in unison.

“Tha… thank you, everyone…”

As he was thinking about what to say, the voice of the Quill Pen came from the side as a reminder: “Gifts.”

Luka subconsciously repeated the Quill Pen’s word: “Gifts…”

When he realized what he had said, the tips of his ears were burning.

As expected, it drew a round of stifled laughter from the room.

Lilian was the first to dash over. “Here.”

She handed over a few bottles of potions.

There were two types of medicine inside. The first was the soul-replenishing fluid that the Quill Pen had requested to be refined a few days ago. Lilian specifically introduced another small blue porcelain bottle: “Night Love Charm!”

As soon as the words were out, the expressions of those present became a little strange, especially the Quill Pen, whose expression was particularly unnatural.

Luka was just about to curiously open it but was stopped by Lilian, who began to introduce it seriously:

“The pleasure of ordinary sexual union comes mostly from the physical body. Night Love Charm allows the user’s soul to leave the body slightly and enter the other’s spiritual sea, experiencing unprecedented, ultimate pleasure. It is a top-tier medicine of the succubus race.”

Hearing this, Luka’s hand almost slipped.

Lilian said nervously, “Don’t drop it! This medicine is priceless.”

The biggest advantage of Night Love Charm was that it could also expand one’s soul and consciousness, leading to an increase in the range of one’s divine sense. In the annual selection of the ten most valuable potions, it consistently ranked in the top three every year.

“Just accept it for now. We can talk about using it in a thousand years,” Rio said in a deep voice.

Grover and the others were still doing infrastructure work in the demon realm. Only he and Berlanie had come from the dragon race. Rio directly changed the subject: “First, let’s see our birthday gift for you.”

With the immense wealth of the dragon race, a gift that could be called a gift from the entire race would likely be of unimaginable value.

Luka secretly made a decision. If it was too valuable, even if it might hurt the other party’s feelings a little, he couldn’t accept it.

The item was stored in a special fabric bag.

The Saint and the Quill Pen seemed to have already known what was inside through the fabric bag, each having their own thoughts.

Luka went forward and opened it. Instantly, a dazzling and brilliant light was reflected.

Scales of different colors were strung together, forming the shape of a small vest. As one’s gaze lingered, it rippled like water.

Cullen, who had appraised countless treasures, was full of praise. This gift had already transcended what value could describe.

Rio glanced at Berlanie next to him. “We’ve looked into human customs. In some regions, there is a child-rearing tradition of making a ‘hundred-family garment’ by collecting scraps of cloth from friends and relatives and sewing them together.”

It symbolized gathering the blessings of a hundred families for a child to grow up safe and sound, free from misfortune and disaster.

The beauty of this gift was that it was priceless, and Luka couldn’t refuse it.

The different colored scales indicated they came from different dragons. For a dragon, giving a single scale was a trivial matter. Dragon scales were exceptionally tough. Wearing it could resist miasma pollution and was impervious to all magic.

More importantly, it contained a wonderful blessing.

Luka took a light breath and, under the expectant gazes of the dragons, tried it on directly. Unexpectedly, it wasn’t heavy, but as light as a cicada’s wing, and very warm.

On the back of each dragon scale, a magical inscription was carved by a dragon’s claw.

At the same time, Rio and Berlanie nodded slightly in satisfaction.

The colorful patchwork garment did not look out of place on Luka; his temperament could completely carry it.

Especially since his base shirt was a white one, it matched the vest style well, giving him the dashing feel of a young noble master.

“And this.”

Berlanie put down a recording stone.

Inside were blessing videos from Keli Sentry Sentry Tower and other regions, mainly to show him that the local construction was progressing steadily.

The houses and streets looked brand new.

Luka: “So fast!”

The overall construction progress of the area was much faster than he had imagined.

The blessing videos and the infrastructure display being shown together held extraordinary significance for Luka.

Squeak!

The ferret jumped out at this moment: And mine, look at me.

Its gift was a small ferret kneaded from the fluff it collected from its daily shedding. The ferret’s fur also had healing properties. It reminded Luka that if he got injured, he could directly swallow the ‘little ferret’.

Luka’s feeling of being moved was put away for a second.

This was a bit horrifying.

The next second, the ferret took out another box, indicating that it was from the Saint and that he should open it after he got back.

Luka looked at the Saint, who nodded slightly.

Cullen had been thinking of giving his gift at this time as well, but a voice from the Elf King came through the terminal first: “You know, I’ve never been fond of worldly things like gold and silver.”

“You are one of the few who resonates with me in music, so I have specially composed a piece for you.”

Cullen, who had just increased his profit share in their previous joint project by ten percent and was the epitome of worldliness: “…”

Poverty is not a virtue.

What did money ever do wrong? Don’t discriminate against it, okay?

Someone cast a levitation spell, and the largest cake was placed steadily on the table.

The birthday celebration custom on the Saint-Demon Continent was also to eat cake. The styles were different, usually in the form of animals and sculptures.

Luka’s birthday cake was a magpie holding a plum blossom branch in its beak. On the ground were a few doves, huddled and nearly frozen to death. Beside them was a mound of graves for the magpie’s parents.

With so many elements, Luka guessed that this ‘aesthetic’ idea most likely came from the Quill Pen.

He wasn’t wrong. Almost at the same time, the Quill Pen stuck the candles into the doves, perfectly avoiding the magpie’s form.

The cake, the music, the gifts full of blessings—a birthday celebration full of ceremony officially began.

“Blow out the candles,” the Quill Pen said.

Luka, ready to take out a whole family, closed his eyes and made a vengeful wish, blowing out all the candles at once.

The snow outside the window continued until nightfall.

Today was the end of the celebration holiday. After dark, an uninterrupted display of fireworks began outside.

Everyone went up to the top of the observatory to admire the night view. The distance was a blaze of splendor.

As Luka was looking up, a decoration in the shape of a mechanical heart, about the size of a thumb, suddenly appeared in front of him.

Quill Pen: “A souvenir. A special magic has been cast on it. Wearing it can also increase agility.”

The Quill Pen was very skilled at mechanical creations. When this mechanical heart was placed next to the ear, one could even hear a simulated heartbeat.

However, its appearance was not beautiful, somewhat deformed, and a dark, blackish-red.

Luka remembered their first encounter in the Land of Exile. The other party had appeared in the form of a terrifying heart, and he had been quite frightened at the time.

To describe it as a souvenir was indeed not an exaggeration.

He smiled and said, “I’ve never said it, but I’m very happy to have met you.”

The sound of the fireworks was very loud. Luka’s voice was not loud, but the Quill Pen easily read his lips. Under the dazzling light of the fireworks, he said in a low voice, “Me too.”
————

After the birthday banquet, Rio and Berlanie returned to the demon realm. The territory allocated by the Demon King was not only barren but also far apart. The development process could not do without a strong person to oversee it.

After confirming that the Gulu Rock Milk was fine, Luka prepared to take it together with the replenishing fluid given by Lilian.

Quill Pen: “You might fall into a deep sleep for a few days.”

Luka nodded, indicating that he knew.

His soul had already solidified a lot. This time, it wouldn’t be too rough.

As the two potions went down his throat one after another, the scene before him began to gradually become illusory. Whether it was the Quill Pen right in front of him or the tables and chairs in the room, they all began to seem as if they were thousands of miles away.

As his consciousness grew drowsy, the dark room crowded with bookshelves from his memory appeared again.

Unlike the first time he took the replenishing fluid, the images he saw this time were fragmented and mottled. The surrounding bookshelves were bizarre and varied, and the figure of the child flickered in and out, the whole scene like an old, deteriorating movie reel.

“…Could I have developed a tolerance to it?”

There was no way to have an immersive experience.

Ahead, the child was talking to the shadow. Luka couldn’t hear what was being said specifically.

Recalling what the Saintess had said, he guessed they were communicating the terms of a deal. It should be after this time that the child tricked the bullies into becoming offerings, sacrificing them to Alex.

Luka tried hard to get closer, but it was like magnets of the same pole repelling each other; he was repeatedly pushed back by a resistant force.

Even so, he still desperately pushed forward and finally managed to hear something.

—”I want to learn magic.”

The child enunciated clearly, his voice exceptionally firm. “In this world, there must be a way to cultivate even without elemental affinity.”

Only by becoming stronger could he change his fate.

The shadow showed no emotion, just asked mechanically, “What can you offer in exchange?”

No matter how many souls and how much fresh blood were offered, it was completely insufficient to exchange for a precious cultivation method.

Unexpectedly, the child suddenly bent down and, with great effort, pulled out several thick books from under the bed.

“The books say that all races are searching for the Planar Gate.”

A Planar Gate could lead to different spaces, even other worlds. The beastmen race was able to rise so quickly because they had once discovered a Planar Gate.

To put it bluntly, it was getting rich from pioneering and conquest.

The downside was that the soul was very likely to collapse in the process. In the beastmen race’s only pioneering conquest, only a few hundred warriors returned in the end.

“You seem to know a lot. Being so powerful, you should also know the location of the Planar Gate.” The child first offered a few compliments, then said, “Find a way to send me in. I’ll find a way to bring you things from other places that don’t exist here.”

Herbs, magical plants, ancient books from other worlds… there must be something the other party needed.

The shadow finally opened its eyes to look at him.

It was probably surprised by such a whimsical idea. A waste with no magic power, thrown into a plane, would just be sent to his death.

Because Luka was repeatedly approaching and being pushed away, the sound reception on site was extremely poor. Fortunately, the child’s voice became more and more resolute, rising slightly.

“My spatial tolerance is very good,” the child stated his advantage.

At the few banquets he had attended, he had experienced teleportation arrays. The other royal heirs of his age, who were much more powerful than him, would vomit until they were dizzy, but he only felt a little light-headed.

As for what kind of world he would be thrown into, the child didn’t care. Being sent to his death was better than waiting to die.

He had had enough of this dog-eat-dog hellhole.

If he was going to die, he would die under a new order.

Luka stared quietly at the child’s determined, pale face. Everything in his field of vision became increasingly blurry.

The already dim environment suddenly became even darker at this moment. His five senses as an observer began to be further weakened.

Finally, after a long silence, the shadow gave a response.

The child stood motionless, but low, chanting incantations began to float in the room. The whole scene was very strange.

After a series of extremely complex incantations were accurately recited, a transparent, illusory mirror abruptly appeared in front of them.

The mirror reflected the child’s face. His black hair successfully blended with the darkness in the dim room.

As he was curiously examining this suddenly appeared mirror, he suddenly shivered all over and curled up, collapsing to the ground.

Luka didn’t know what had happened, but from the way the child’s pale knuckles were about to sink into the cold cement floor, he could imagine the heart-wrenching pain he was experiencing.

The child dared not scream for fear of attracting the demon guards. To prevent himself from biting off his tongue, he could only choose something nearby and bit down hard on his diary.

A row of clearly visible teeth marks appeared on the spine of the bound book.

A faint trace of killing intent leaked from the manuscript paper.

Almost at the same time, with a crunch, a canine tooth of the child, who was at the age of losing his baby teeth, broke off and became completely embedded in the indentation of the book.

In a daze, he saw his gap-toothed self in the mirror. The child was both pained and angry.

Damn it, I love my looks!

This scene seemed to please the shadow.

Perhaps having never seen such an interesting and amusing little thing, it ultimately did not deliver a killing blow.

The pain finally subsided. Just as the child was about to struggle to his feet, an even more horrifying scene appeared.

Not to mention him, even the observing Luka’s eyes widened.

In the mirror, another almost identical ‘child’ slowly walked out, except this one had no physical form, like a wisp of mist.

The shadow floated in place and said calmly, “Soul Splitting Technique. I will make another puppet body for you.”

It probably couldn’t be bothered to say the rest. With a wave of its sleeve, magical elements automatically arranged themselves into words in the air:

[From now on, your soul will be divided into two parts. One part will go to the Planar Gate.]

[The smaller part that remains will continue your identity as the waste prince and continue to find sacrifices for me in the demon realm.]

With too much of the soul missing, no matter how strong the spatial tolerance, it would be torn to shreds.

In the shadow’s view, a child of almost ten years old working two jobs was perfectly reasonable.

Reasonable, my ass.

Luka couldn’t hold back and let out a curse in his native language.

Unfortunately, the muscles at the corner of his mouth couldn’t be moved. In the end, he only managed a weak, powerless movement of his lips.

Everything around him became more and more blurry. When the feeling of being pulled away reached its peak, Luka ‘left’ in an almost flailing posture.

“Luka.”

“Luka, wake up.”

A familiar voice called his name, sometimes near, sometimes far.

Luka struggled to open his eyelids. A magnified face was right in front of him, their noses almost touching.

Luka’s pupils dilated violently!

But he soon discovered that he was the ‘culprit’. Both his hands were yanking the other person’s hair on both sides.

He quickly let go and, enduring the dizziness, sat up in bed.

It was a strange feeling. His body felt very light. Even without deliberately concentrating, he could sense the various different magical elements in the air, but his head hurt a lot.

The benefits of the Gulu Rock Milk and the side effects of the replenishing fluid were acting at the same time.

Seeing him awake and confirming that he was fine, the Quill Pen’s expression relaxed. “Your soul has almost completely solidified. Rest for a bit, and your strength will have a substantial increase.”

Luka didn’t immediately go to test his magic power, but looked at the Quill Pen.

Memories were slowly resurfacing and integrating. Unexpectedly, it didn’t bring him much of a shock.

All the past traces had long since vaguely pointed to a close relationship between himself and the original body, perhaps even that they were the same person.

But the initial feeling of complexity had gradually dissipated a lot.

He now had a deeper connection with this world. The friends and elders around him proved that every footprint he had left on his journey was meaningful.

Turning his head, Luka carefully compared, “You are very different from what I saw in my memory.”

That was an extremely cunning, greedy, and arrogant soul.

A small child, the possibility of surviving in another world was slim to none, but the other party still arranged all this with great fanfare.

Luka began to slowly recount everything he saw in his dream. When he heard about splitting the soul, the Quill Pen visibly frowned.

The doors and windows were closed during the day. The faint light shining in illuminated half of Luka’s shoulder. Even when speaking of hardship, he was still the one who shone brightly.

The Quill Pen listened quietly.

After Luka had finished speaking, he remained silent for a long time before asking:
“…Did you have a good life in the other world?”

When making the suona, Luka had mentioned that someone had once coveted his beauty and tried to propose a dirty deal. Now that everything matched up, he probably had a hard time there too.

Thinking of this, the Quill Pen’s expression turned grim. It was the second time he felt that Luka’s idea of revenge was too lenient.

“It was pretty good.”

Unexpectedly, Luka’s spirits lifted when he mentioned the modern world, but his face soon darkened. “Except for being struck by lightning and dying right after I got a car, a house, and paid off my mortgage.”

The Quill Pen felt a little guilty.

But it quickly added, “Your body in the other world would age faster. As you grew older, the will of the world in that other plane would reject you more and more. Being struck by lightning was bound to happen sooner or later.”

This was also the only way for the soul to return.

He thought Luka would feel comforted, but his face turned even darker.

“…”

What a great way to automatically return to one.

Luka hesitated for a moment. “But I didn’t bring back any treasures from the other world. Your memory drive still chose to give me the faith cultivation method.”

The Quill Pen retorted, “Is that so?”

Luka thought about it carefully. The first time the memory drive appeared was by relying on the essence blood he had bought.

And at that time, he and the Quill Pen had already established a preliminary cooperation.

Luka didn’t know what to say for a moment, then he murmured, “…It’s truly magical.”

The Quill Pen had never believed in such metaphysics, but he had to admit that fate had formed a strange closed loop between them.

Having slept for a few days, Luka recovered his senses and belatedly prepared to open the box from the Saint.

As he did so, he asked, “By the way, has the Holy Court’s reputation been turned around?”

He was quite curious about what arrangements the Saintess mother would make after he rejected her that day.

The Quill Pen’s expression was a little strange.

Just as Luka thought there was some other trouble, he said slowly, “I heard that the Saintess has been in seclusion since she returned. The affairs of the Holy Court are now handled by another divine official. That divine official has strictly ordered all internal personnel and anyone with interests related to the Holy Court to boycott the terminal.”

Luka’s fingertips paused. He looked up in disbelief. “They banned everything? Then won’t there be no one to speak for them online?”

The Quill Pen nodded.

Luka: “…” What kind of genius logic is this?

When a boycott is proposed by a huge power, countless subordinate forces will actively respond.

Unsurprisingly, this would be the best way to obstruct the flow of goods.

But it absolutely did not apply to the internet.

“People have to live down-to-earth,” Luka sucked in a cold breath, still unable to figure out how this brilliant mind thought of starting the boycott from their own people.

‘Logic monsters’ are truly terrifying.

The Quill Pen didn’t quite understand the term ‘down-to-earth’ and defaulted to ‘practical and realistic’.

“You are very down-to-earth.”

Luka almost burst out laughing hearing his deadpan compliment.

Distracted by the conversation, he opened the box directly. The palm-sized object had clearly been subjected to a shrinking spell.

A sword embryo of a purplish, dark color appeared.

“So hot!” This sword embryo was scalding hot.

From the moment the sword embryo appeared, the Sage’s Sword began to stir restlessly.

The next second, it directly hugged the sword embryo and started gnawing, scattering sword dregs all over the bed.

Luka was only shocked for a few seconds before he quickly reacted.

You are what you eat. The Saint wouldn’t give him a sword embryo for no reason. It must be to supplement the sword.

The Sage’s Sword had endured countless years and the devastation of the Holy Court. It was long past the glory it had when the human ancestor was alive.

The Sage’s Sword, which was degenerating in all aspects, still made the Holy Court feel uneasy. Luka estimated it was due to its special properties.

“The nemesis of the Tree of Life?”

One was fire-attribute, one was water… no, one happened to be ice-attribute.

While the Sage’s Sword was feasting, Luka also got up and had a simple meal.

“By the way, did you sign a magical contract with the Saint?”

The Saint had never asked him about Alex, and it was noticeably much more convenient for the Quill Pen to buy demon beast essence blood than before.

They had a good relationship, but the Saint wouldn’t gamble the fate of his entire race based on personal likes and dislikes.

“Just made some irrelevant agreements. No need to mind it.”

The deliberately indifferent tone made Luka a little suspicious.

“Really?”

The Quill Pen sneered, “Do you think I would take a loss?”

Luka thought for a moment and decided to believe him. The other party was indeed not the type to suffer in silence.

Seeing that he wasn’t asking anymore, the Quill Pen silently felt relieved.

There were only three simple agreements with the Saint: first, not to take the initiative to attack humans outside the Holy Court; second, if the human race were to face a great disaster, to help if possible, for the sake of Luka’s human friends; and finally, to never attempt to colonize or enslave the human race.

Except for the last one, the three agreements basically had no strong restrictions. The conditions were very broad.

What really annoyed him was.

The Saint had presumptuously given him a Human Protector token.

“It’s just a token for you to borrow. No need to mind the words on it.”

“Below the rank of Grand Divine Official, no one is allowed to use force upon seeing this token before reporting it. And you can freely enter and exit some forbidden areas. With this token, all consumption among the human race gets a 30% discount, and you don’t have to abide by any purchase restrictions.”

“Even if you don’t use it, Luka can.”

The last sentence was a killer blow.

On the surface, it seemed he had gotten all the advantages, and of course, in reality, he did.

But…

The corner of the Quill Pen’s mouth twitched. If Luka saw the words on it, he would surely laugh until he couldn’t get up.

No.

The Quill Pen looked at Luka, who was wolfing down a steamed bun, and thought expressionlessly: He’ll laugh until he flies.

Absolutely, absolutely cannot let him know.

After eating and drinking his fill, Luka regained his energy.

He was about to take out the terminal to check the time when he unexpectedly found several unread messages, all from Cullen.

[Rhine Commerce, Cullen: The large-scale terminals have arrived, and the store location has also been decided. Coming to take a look?]

Luka’s spirits instantly soared.

Seeing the smile in his eyes, he was clearly in a good mood. Quill Pen: “Did your mother die?”

“…”

Compared to the Demon King, the Quill Pen obviously held more hostility towards the Saintess who liked to play with emotions. Luka chose to understand, then got back to the point. “The net cafe is about to open.”

The era of internet for all that he had been dreaming of was finally coming!

Luka’s Diary Guide:

Standing before you now is the Father of Net Cafes in another world, the Cthulhu-system beauty, the heaven-chosen beauty Luka, the advancing 9+—the hot candidate for the future Demon King: Luka!

Vote for me, and in the future construction of the demon realm, you will all have the merit of following the dragon.

Alex: According to your pie-in-the-sky routine, it’s time to send money now.

Luka: …Warriors, one hundred small red packets will be dropped randomly!

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