As all of Alexy's today commissions were all about helping teachers and fellow students at school, by the time he reached home, he was done with daily commissions. His AR had raised to 8, his primogems to 635, and his Moras had gone up to more than 70,000.
(Mora is 10 times more valuable than $, which means I have $713,000 now. Man, I feel so rich.)
"Alexy, Viktor wants to see you...face-to-face. He said he wants to give you something." Paimon
"Huh...alright!"
---
"Viktor, what do you want to give to me?" Alexy
"Ah, my Lord, I want to give you this."
Viktor said and took a black card out of his pocket.
"The 11 Harbingers said this was their small present for you."
"Wait, what, Paimon thought all this Supreme Leader thing was fake!" Paimon
"No, the Tsaritsa wants to make it real so..." Viktor
"So all the Harbingers become bootlickers now, huh?" Paimon "But Paimon wants a present too. As Alexy's right hand, Paimon ranks above the 11 Harbingers, so go back and tell them to give Paimon a present too."
"..." Viktor
Alexy took the black card from Viktor's hand and began to observe it. The card was mainly black in color, with the Fatui's symbol imprinted on the top left of the card in red. On the bottom right corner was the "Northland Bank" in white and imprinted on the card in Cyrillic font.
"It's the Fatui's money?" Alexy
"Yes, my Lord! And now it all yours and at your disposal." Viktor
"How much is in this card? Is it unlimited?"
"Hey Alexy, you really want to use the money of an evil organization?" Paimon whispered.
"Of course it's not unlimited...but we probably can bury the whole world in money with it." Viktor answered.
"It's really tempted...but no, thank you! My parents taught me that only they gave me things for free. If I can already feel that the price I have to pay you guys probably something I cannot afford."
"The only price you have to pay is lead us, my Lord! I don't think that you cannot afford it."
"Ugh...just take the card back!"
Viktor just shook his head.
"I can't take the card back. The Harbingers are...violent people, I would surely be beaten up if I return with the card. Plus I think you should give yourself more time to think about it."
"...Fine!"
===
10:00 PM
Alexy finished his homework and got on bed. Not many things happened that day, but Alexy was so stressed that he immediately fell to sleep after closing his eyes.
"Huh...where is this?"
Alexy found himself in a strange place. In front of him was a set of stone table and chairs. A young man was sitting on one of the chairs, enjoying tea and looking at the scenery before him, which composed of a lake, many mountains and floating small islands.
"Ah, hello..." Alexy greeted the man.
"I was waiting for you, Alexy?" Zhongli said.
(What a deep voice!) Alexy thought.
"Wait, how did you know my name?"
"Many know your name, child. Please give me your index finger!"
"What for?" Alexy asked even though he still held out his index finger.
Zhongli held his finger, looked at it a bit and after he let it go, he said:
"To get the size of your finger!"
"Wait...what's that for?"
"To make a ring for you. That ring will be the symbol of the Custodian of the Faith of The Seven..."
Hearing the title, Alexy immediately remembered Viktor's word the previous night.
"STOP...you guys already haunted me during the day with this nonsense, and now at night also. I hate this, go away...!?" Alexy shouted.
After saying all he had in his mind, Alexy realized he might have offended the mysterious man. He had the feeling that this man should not be offended at all. So he glanced at Zhongli to see his reaction.
But contrary to what he had thought, there was no hint of anger in Zhongli's eyes, but only patience and sympathy.
"I'm sorry! It just..."
"Follow me..."
. . .
The moment Alexy took a step following Zhongli, the scenery around him changed completely. The sky darkened, the scene of lake, mountains and floating islands changed to a burning village.
Many big sized spiders were crawling around, attacking normal people and eating them. A large side spider was seen enjoying the taste in its mouth after devouring a mother and her young child.
"Hahaha...my children, eat, eat, eat, satisfy your hunger!"
Alexy could see an especially gigantic spider, it was the leader of all the spiders there. On its face, instead of eyes, there was just a woman from her belly up. Her face was white, despite being emotionless, anyone could feel malice from it.
"Uh..."
"Call me Zhongli!"
"Zhongli, where is this?"
"A place near Liyue Harbor...it's in Teyvat. Surely Paimon told you where she came from. But it was very very long ago and this's just a fragment of memory."
Suddenly, from the sky, an Eastern dragon appeared.
"Arachne, what are you doing? They're just innocent people!" said the dragon.
"Oh Morax, I thought you said you were not interested in the Archon War!"
"This village does not have anything to do with the Archon War!"
"Yes, it does. You see, the people here worship Chi and I'm just trying to weaken him by destroying them!"
"Please stop this!"
"Why do you care? Even Chi barely cares about them. How's about you stop and go back to take care of Liyue?"
"No, I can't do that!"
"So...you want to fight me. You hypocrite, you said that you're not interested in the Archon War!"
After that everything became white and Alexy could not see anything. When it came back to be visible again, Alexy saw that Arachne was already killed, impaled by a large rock spear, all of her spider children also perished. Standing in the midst of spider copses was a man wearing white hood, his arms were orange, with vein-like markings. In his right hand was a golden-beige polearm - the Vortex Vanquisher. Although at that time, its name was not that because Morax hadn't defeated Osial yet.
"Lord Morax!" the village people who were still alive knelt down in front of the man.
"Don't stay here anymore. Go south, to Liyue Harbor!"
The man said and turned back to his dragon form and flew away.
"This is an age of gods and monsters, I wish not for dominion, yet I cannot watch the common folk suffer." Alexy suddenly heard a voice in his head.
"This is just the beginning. During the Archon War that they spoke about, Morax went on to kill countless gods and monsters just like that Arachne. And that was extremely dark history I wish I wouldn't have to show you." Zhongli turned to him and said.
"..."
"Follow me!"
. . .
Now both of them were standing in a prison.
"This is the prison in your country, it's a different one from the one you had destroyed...now look at that man!"
Inside the cell was middle-aged man, he was sleeping but he kept crying out.
"I'm innocent...I'm innocent..."
"Get used to it!" said his cellmate, who was also in his sleep, like it had become a routine.
"That man," Zhongli pointed at the middle-aged man who was sleeping, "he was framed for a murder he didn't commit. He was just a normal of office worker. One evening, when he was dining happily with his wife and daughter, police barged in and took him away. Even though he was in another place at the time of the murder, the evidences were ignored, and if it was not for the sympathy of the judge, the man would have received death penalty."
"What does this man have to do with me? I don't know him."
"He's your class monitor, Ariel's father."
"WHAT!?"
"After her father was framed and went to jail, she tried her best to support her mother. As a result, Ariel earned a scholarship to study at your school."
"Stop...I know where this is going...please send me back!"
"Oh, so you won't help a friend even if you have the means?"
"Please, just send me back!"
"Alright!"
===
"Morax, you have returned!" Tsaritsa
Zhongli just nodded and sat down. A set of Chinese tea cups appeared right in front of him and he just poured tea and began enjoying it.
"The boy needs more time!" Zhongli
"I wonder he will have enough time. Barbatos has already started his test." Tsaritsa
===
"Stop, you thief!" a police officer shouted.
"I'm sorry! I didn't know the apples on that apple tree is private properties!" Venti shouted back as he ran, trying to escape the police officer.
===
RING RING RING
"Honey, it's your phone!" said Mrs. Sanders.
"It's Colonel Sanders!" Colonel Sanders picked up the phone.
"Colonel, we have a problem!"
"What is it?"
"...We made a mistake. Not all military prisoners were captured. One criminal has escaped!"
"WHAT! Who is it?"
"It's...Balthasar, sir!...Sir...sir..."
***
AR: 8 (425/4000 EXP)
Primogem count: 635
Mora count: 71,300