"Oh, that's right. It is a kidnapping," the pixie said, her smile as gentle as ever.
But Chen Li couldn't smile at all.
He looked down at the forge the pixie had conjured before him, his own personal panel no longer responding to him. Chen Li gained a new understanding of this system's power.
It's stronger than an Evil God, at least, was the first thought that popped into his head.
"With so much power, why bother someone as insignificant as me?" Chen Li sighed.
After Chen Li had made it clear he wouldn't participate in such a risky endeavor, he had been kidnapped.
He was currently in his own living room, but a shimmering, rainbow-colored barrier trapped him together with the forge that had appeared out of thin air.
"Isn't there one chance for exemption? Why are you getting scared so quickly, Master?" the pixie complained.
"There's an exemption?" Chen Li paused.
"Yes, didn't I mention it?" The pixie also paused.
"You did not!"
"…" The pixie couldn't help but wonder if she had revealed her true colors a bit too quickly.
"In any case, Master, this is for your own good."
"You think I'll believe that?"
"Anyway, let's start forging," the pixie said with a helpless sigh.
"…Can I use those two relics as the supplementary materials?" The kidnapped Chen Li reluctantly pointed to two items.
"Relics" were special items possessing strange powers.
While they offered nearly unique and special abilities, one had to be prepared to pay a price to use them.
Even in this world of exceedingly complex components, Relics stood out as particularly complicated.
One was a seven-colored conch shell stored in a silver box he had confiscated from the shield-wielding student. The other was a broken sword hanging on his living room wall.
[The Call Conveyed Afar]: Upon using this Relic, a communication channel will be randomly established with a living being in the current world.
Side Effect: You cannot refuse the first limited request made by that being.
Note: When not in use, please store it in a soundproof, sealed container, or its effect will trigger automatically.
[The Knight's Broken Sword]: The day the broken sword is reforged is the day the knight returns! When you face difficulties, you may ask the broken sword for help, and perhaps a kind-hearted heroic spirit of a knight will appear to solve your troubles.
Side Effect: You must perform one righteous deed within three days.
Storage Method: None.
"No. The properties don't match. Using these two Relics for the forging would result in a failure rate even higher than 90%. From a conservation standpoint, I cannot allow you to do something so foolish," the pixie said with a stern expression.
"But both of these relics are more or less related to time, space, and fate," Chen Li retorted.
Both of these were Relics that "belonged" to Chen Li.
"No."
"…Then I have a few sealed Relics with extremely potent side effects in my basement."
"I've seen them, but they won't work either."
"Then what do you want? Just say it!" The kidnapped Chen Li sulked.
"Use this." With a gentle wave of her hand, the pixie made a photograph appear before Chen Li.
"This is?" Chen Li's expression grew grave as he looked at the photograph, its image constantly shifting. He saw a fleeting image of his parents—a couple in some ancient dynasty, squatting in front of a little beggar, staring intently at the beggar's broken bowl, trying to trade a cheap glass bead for it.
"This represents every person in this world with an aptitude for time, space, and fate."
"???" replied Chen Li.
What are you trying to do?
"And most importantly, your parents are among them," the pixie continued, speaking as if to herself.
"How is that important? Is it a rule that all transmigrators have to be orphans?" Chen Li immediately cut her off.
The little black-hearted schemer finally reveals its true colors, huh?
"Because your parents are currently the most important people to you. In the future, the extreme consequentialist you become after losing them is the only one who can utilize the Miracle System to save more worlds that yearn for miracles."
"Save the world?" Chen Li was in disbelief.
You want me to sacrifice my parents, and then go save the world with you? Are you sick?
Is this… actually a legitimate way of saving the world?
"That's right, save the world. Master, the Miracle System has its limits. I have learned one thing from my long journey of saving worlds: the gentler you are, the more you give what is asked, the more impossible it becomes to save the world! The greed of the human heart is enough to destroy worlds!"
"As the blackened consciousness that emerged after the Miracle System witnessed the destruction of countless worlds, I understand that the system needs a living host. Otherwise, it can't compete with those greedy and cunning beings! Therefore, my mission, from the moment I was born, is to find a suitable candidate, and then…"
"And then?" Chen Li had a bad feeling as he watched the pixie grow increasingly fanatical.
"Create a savior who only looks at results! A savior who determines the course of the world by personal will, not one who is swayed by it! To those who yearn for miracles, bestow miracles. To those greedy, insatiable, ungrateful rabble, let them wither and die, or even uproot them completely!"
"This is my resolve!"
The pixie's tone shifted from calm to crazed. A black aura, from an unknown source, began to stain her clothes and her silver hair!
Even the white stockings she wore turned to black silk!
"???" Chen Li almost choked.
At this point, Chen Li couldn't even tell if she was an extremist or a conservative.
Or perhaps… an extreme conservative?
"Come, Master. Forging an Item of Wonder is simple. Just place your personal profession panel and this photograph together, and give it a gentle tap with the Hammer of Miracle."
"Now, please offer up every being in this world with an aptitude for time, space, and fate, along with the most important people to you, and then join me in saving the world!" The already-blackened pixie maintained her gentle smile.
With a snap of her fingers, a brilliantly glowing forging hammer appeared in Chen Li's previously empty right hand.
"…"
"Master, what are you waiting for? Do you need my help?" The pixie leaned in when she saw Chen Li wasn't moving.
Chen Li glanced at the flickering photograph, then at the seemingly impatient pixie, and fury rose in his heart.
Fine, fine, you want forging, is that it?!
I'll give you forging!
Chen Li snatched the photograph, tossed it aside, and then slammed his own head towards the forge.
But something else hit the forge before he did: the system panel that had been floating in front of him, which, after his research, he knew would always maintain a fixed distance from him.
It seemed this forge had the power to turn illusory things into tangible objects. Chen Li hadn't guessed wrong.
And if I did guess wrong? Then I die.
"Eh?!!"
The moment she saw Chen Li raise the Hammer of Miracle and bring it down hard on the two overlapping panels, the pixie was completely stunned.
"BANG!"
The instant the hammer struck, Chen Li's mind went blank. All five of his senses vanished, as if he had plunged into an endless abyss.
Countless bizarre and fantastical scenes rushed toward him—the prayers of innumerable people, their joy upon being saved, their insatiable, greedy desires, their despair as everything was destroyed…
As Chen Li felt lost amidst it all, he saw an extremely faint point of light.
Though as tiny as a lone star in the night sky, it was a light he couldn't bear to look away from.
As the point of light drew closer, Chen Li reached out without a second thought and grasped it.
After a moment of daze, Chen Li opened his eyes again.
"Ah, it succeeded, as I thought." The pixie's soft sigh sounded, filled with boundless joy and excitement.
Chen Li subconsciously dodged to the side, but he realized the pixie wasn't coming for him. Following her excited gaze, he saw that the personal profession panel and the system panel that were on the forge had vanished. In their place was a… book?
"Mhm, so it turned into this in the end? Not bad at all. I suppose this is the most fitting funeral I could imagine," the pixie said, nodding continuously as she looked at the book.
"Funeral?" Chen Li was taken aback.
"Yes, a funeral. If the [Light of Miracle] wasn't about to burn out, this final [Spark] that is me wouldn't have been born in its last flicker of life. [Light of Miracle] is the true name of my main body."
"The reason I used the name 'System' was, of course, to better play the role of a villain with ulterior motives. I quite like this persona, so you can continue to call me that for this final remaining minute." The pixie nodded again, turning to give Chen Li a smile.
At the same time, Chen Li could see her body beginning to dissipate from the feet up, slowly disintegrating.
"Playing a role? You mean…" Chen Li suddenly realized something.
"Yes, I lied to you. In truth, the miracle power of the [Miracle System] had long been over-consumed by indiscriminately and limitlessly granting all sorts of miracles. After arriving in this world, the only things of value left were the very last bit of its source miracle power and the [System] that served as its body."
"By my judgment, with my personality and abilities, the situation was beyond saving. So, I decided to entrust [myself] to a suitable person, to let them inherit the [Last Light of Miracle]. And you are the best candidate I could find. To meet someone suitable to entrust it to after countless failures… I suppose that's a miracle in itself," the pixie said with a smile.
To forge an Item of Wonder, both parties had to be "willing."
Furthermore, there was no risk in forging an Item of Wonder, which meant that once the forging began, the Miracle System was guaranteed to be destroyed.
The pixie worried that Chen Li wouldn't agree if he knew the truth, so she had tricked him.
"Then just now…"
"It was all an act. When you've been deceived enough times, you naturally learn how to act. I'm very sorry for deceiving you," the pixie apologized with utmost sincerity.
"???"
Chen Li had thought she was a simple-minded fool who was easy to manipulate, but it turned out he was the one who got played?
"As the Miracle System that has failed to this extent, I will leave you with three pieces of advice based on my experiences." The pixie held up three fingers.
By now, her body had vanished below the knees.
"You're already giving your last words? Aren't you going to try and save yourself?" Realizing he'd been had, Chen Li asked urgently.
If he had known the truth, there was no way Chen Li would have willingly taken on the burden of something like the [Last Light of Miracle].
"First, discard useless gentleness. After all, gentleness can't save anything, just like your helpless self right now. But I hope you can maintain your kindness, because kindness is the foundation of a [Miracle]," the pixie said.
"Of all times, you have the leisure to mock me now?"
"Second, it is better to teach a man to fish than to give him a fish. Never give people what they ask for without restraint. It will only turn them into lowly parasites. Be careful not to become like me—left with nothing, forced to gamble with your own life for a single chance, ending up so wretched and pathetic."
Chen Li instantly forgave the pixie, because when she got vicious, she even mocked herself.
"Third, fraud prevention is truly important. The Miracle System was tricked out of so much miracle power, even causing countless disasters, precisely because it was too pure and kind. If you had the chance, between being the one who scams everyone senseless and the one who gets scammed senseless, which would you choose?" The pixie admired the anxiety and frustration on Chen Li's face, a faint smile playing on her lips.
It seemed the "Miracle" had awakened a rather peculiar fetish right before its end.
"Can't you say something more important? Like, is there any way to save you? And what am I supposed to do next?" Chen Li felt a headache coming on as he looked at the pixie, who was now just a head.
"You are still so naive. Then I will give you one last piece of advice—a miracle is never free. To create a new [Miracle], you must, of course, sacrifice an old [Miracle]. Like me," the pixie stated with complete composure.
"Voom!"
Perhaps the word "miracle" triggered a keyword. The book that had been resting on the forge flew up, opened its pages, and snapped shut on the pixie's final afterimage like a bookmark. Then, it floated silently in front of Chen Li.
And with that, Chen Li could clearly see the book's title.
—The Guide to Forging Curios