The notification flashing across his panel filled Nolan with excitement. Every breakthrough that granted a Racial Specialty had always been powerful.
What would it be this time? He looked at the first option:
[Devouring Body: Cells evolve a new organelle named the "Devouring Body," capable of consuming any substance or energy that enters the body to strengthen itself. The degree and nature of enhancement depends on what is devoured.]
"Devouring Body…" Nolan stared at it, stunned. Cells that could swallow all matter and energy to empower him? Ridiculous. Truly worthy of a level 110 breakthrough specialty.
But perhaps the second option was better. He shifted his focus:
[Mimetic Nightmare: Abandon the physical body, evolving into a memetic being that roams freely through the dreamworld. Become the dream itself, master dreams, and within them all abilities are drastically enhanced.]
"…Uh." Strong, certainly. But sacrificing the body? Then he wouldn't be able to embrace girls. What was the point of strength without that?
Nolan shook his head.
If a Racial Specialty ever forced him to abandon his body, he'd rather skip it altogether. Missing one or two specialties wasn't fatal—he could just wait for the next breakthrough to refresh.
He turned to the third option. If it didn't suit him either, he'd settle for the first:
[Imaginary Energy: Gain the ability to connect to Imaginary Space, drawing from it a form of energy known as "Imaginary Energy." Anything covered in this power can be transferred from Real Space into Imaginary Space and later released at will. Imaginary Energy can distort reality to a limited degree.]
"Oh?" Nolan blinked in surprise.
He knew a little about Imaginary Space. Before transmigrating, he'd played another game by the same company that made Genshin Impact. That game had explained the concept.
The spatial aspect didn't impress him much—he already had his Wonderland Space and the Void Starsea.
But the energy from Imaginary Space—that was invaluable!
Imaginary Space was the negative counterpart to Real Space. Theoretically existent, yet with no natural points of contact with reality.
Reality was expanding, infinite and vast. Imaginary Space was collapsing, infinitely small, tending toward nothing.
It "didn't exist," at least not in any tangible sense—only hypothesized by science as a necessary mirror to reality.
There should be no intersection between them. Unless one mastered an extraordinary ability that could bridge the two.
As the mirror of reality, where heat, nuclear, chemical, and other energies existed collectively as "Real Energy," so too Imaginary Space possessed its own forces—Honkai energy and the like—collectively called Imaginary Energy.
To tap directly into it was akin to drawing power straight from the entire universe's reservoir of particle motion, potential, chemical, ionization, nuclear energy—everything reality contained.
That meant nearly limitless energy on demand.
And more importantly—
In the real world, matter and energy are finite. But if reality is finite, then its opposite—Imaginary Space—must be infinite. In other words, Imaginary Energy was infinite!
If he could draw on it, then Nolan was effectively a walking perpetual motion machine—never running out of fuel.
Such an outrageous power could not be ignored!
A pity, though: this specialty only allowed him to access unlimited ammo.
If he himself were a gun, Imaginary Energy gave him infinite bullets. But it didn't change the caliber—the destructive force of each shot still depended on his current strength.
He couldn't simply compress enough "bullets" into a nuclear warhead and fire it. His body wasn't a large enough vessel to channel such force.
Otherwise, he'd already be invincible. A level 110 Racial Specialty was strong, but not that broken.
Still, if he ever encountered a universe-destroying weapon that required immense energy to activate, he could serve as its perpetual battery. Provided, of course, that the weapon could accept Imaginary Energy.
Without hesitation, Nolan selected the third option: Imaginary Energy.
The moment he chose, he sensed it: a space that was infinitely small, with no position, no coordinates—yet now he could feel it. Within lay boundless power, waiting to be drawn.
He tried pulling a bit into reality. A faint, dark-colored glow appeared in his palm.
This was Imaginary Energy.
As the negative twin to Real Energy, its most basic manifestation in reality was distorting reality itself.
Exactly how it distorted things would need experimentation.
Aside from that, he noticed Imaginary Energy neither merged with nor rejected his Harmonizing Energy or Adeptus Power.
But it did occupy the same storage space as Harmonizing Energy. Best to leave it outside his body and pull directly from Imaginary Space when needed.
Adeptus Energy was external reinforcement anyway, not something stored inside—so no conflict there.
After experimenting for a while, Nolan glanced at his updated character panel:
Name: Nolan Walker
Level: Lv.111 (0 / 21,000,000)
Race: Human
Titles: Honorary Knight, Distinguished Citizen of Liyue, Legendary Adventurer, Honorary General of Watatsumi Island, Sumeru Sage
Innate Talent: Entangling Affection
Skills:
- Lumine's Musou · World Lv.10 ( Void Starsea Manifestation, Boundless)
- Flowing Sky Shot: Arcane Level Lv.10 (Frostglow Arrow)
Specialties:
- Beloved by Maidens (Exclusive)
- Unmoving Gospel of the World Tree (Exclusive)
- Threads of the Northern Wind (Exclusive)
- Spiritual Core (Exclusive)
Adventure EXP: 2,305,176
The next level required 21 million points.
Looking at the mere two million left, Nolan couldn't help but feel troubled.
He didn't know if there would ever be another chance to find a place where he could quickly rack up Adventure EXP, so he decided to just leave it to fate.
Nolan closed his character panel, stood up, and stretched. Given the time, he figured he'd wash up and then head to bed.
Thinking as he walked, he made his way toward the hot spring bathhouse on the second floor.
He'd originally intended to see which of the girls hadn't turned in for the night yet, so he could pull one over to bathe together. But recalling the last time he'd gone to Mona's room—finding her already asleep, but cuddling up with her anyway before drifting off himself—he remembered that bath time ended up getting pushed quite late.
This time, Nolan figured he'd better take a bath first to relax his body, and then go snuggle and cultivate with the girls afterward.
Before long, he arrived at the hot spring bathhouse on the second floor.
But as soon as he walked into the changing room, he was surprised to see several sets of clothing resting on the shelves.
One was a short cheongsam top in a gradient of black and white, accompanied by a black, form-fitting bodysuit—it had to belong to Shenhe.
He saw her wear clothes like this often enough that there was no mistaking it.
Next to that was a set consisting of an ornate, gold-trimmed short white cheongsam, an open-back black leotard, white arm covers, and a pair of black tights with attached garters.
If he remembered correctly, that was Ganyu's outfit. Could it be that Shenhe had invited Ganyu to the Wonderland?
Nolan felt a bit pleasantly surprised.
Since Ganyu now possessed the "interstellar travel" ability, it was indeed possible for Shenhe to bring her over here through teleportation.
If she really had come, well, since her affection for him was already maxed out, Nolan reckoned he might as well take this chance to invite her to move in.
But then he noticed a third set of clothing—a teal cloud collar, a black dress, and another pair of black tights with vertical red stripes.
Nolan's lips curled with amusement. Looks like Shenhe had brought her master, Xianyun, along too.
If it were just Ganyu alone, he was confident he could easily persuade her to stay. But with Xianyun here too… tsk, this task looked a bit more daunting.
Nolan quickly undressed, then stepped out of the changing room toward the hot spring pool.
Steamy mist engulfed the entire bathhouse, blurring everything in a hazy fog, but conversation still carried clearly.
"Master, is the water temperature alright?" he heard Shenhe's voice.
"Mhm. Shenhe, this place is really quite nice. Soaking in here, both body and mind are at ease. Next time, bring me again," came Xianyun's response.
Silently, Nolan slipped into the water, drifting toward the chatting women until he caught sight of their blurred forms grouped ahead.
"It's that Master got a bit obsessed while researching that ship. I saw scholars on the 'Akasha Forum' discussing how difficult the project is. For you, Master, to surpass so many scholars' progress in just a few days, you must've pulled a string of all-nighters to get this tired."
Ganyu often worked overtime herself, so she was very familiar with her master's situation.
She also knew her master was highly competitive—if she saw others making breakthroughs, she'd never let herself fall behind.
"Hmph. I am an immortal fairy. How could I be outdone by mere mortals?" Xianyun lifted her chin with a touch of pride.
Listening to their conversation, Nolan pieced things together.
It seemed Xianyun ultimately decided to remain in Liyue Harbor and had indeed taken a keen interest in the starship project.
Once she started, she often stayed up late to be the research leader, so Shenhe invited her here to relax and unwind.
Nolan drifted beneath the water, sneaking up right in front of the three women as they chatted.
Spread out before his eyes were fair, slender legs stretched out along the spring's floor—he savored the view for a long moment before finally surfacing.
The women chatting above were startled by his sudden emergence. Ganyu yelped, instinctively pressing her legs together and covering her pale chest.
"Ah! Why'd you pop up out of nowhere?!"
A blush bloomed across Ganyu's white cheeks. Even Xianyun, the usually composed master, blushed, though she struggled to appear unperturbed:
"Hmph! How rude, barging into the bathhouse while ladies are bathing!"
"Cough, pure accident," Nolan faked a cough to cover for himself, then added, "It's just that the steam's so thick I didn't realize anyone was here."
"Well, since I'm here already, let's bathe together! Is that alright, Shenhe?"
He turned to Shenhe for her answer.
"If husband wants to join, of course it's not a problem," Shenhe tilted her head. Though she didn't quite get why he asked her, she agreed naturally, since the two of them often bathed together anyway.
With Shenhe's go-ahead, Nolan, wholly at ease, wedged himself in between Xianyun and Ganyu and sat down.
He reached around naturally, his hands settling at the girls' waists, and began idly massaging their soft bellies.
"H-hey, wait… mm." The warmth on her waist and stomach left Ganyu's mind spinning, her body slack, unable to process her feelings—something about this felt… a little off.
Xianyun was taken aback as well. She'd never expected Nolan to just crowd in and touch her so boldly.
The unfamiliar sensation made it impossible to hold her forced composure; her pale cheeks flushed instant red.
But after a moment, catching up to her own reaction, she hurriedly tried to remove his hand, her face shifting from embarrassment to shy indignation:
"You and Shenhe are close, so of course she consents—but did you ever ask me or Ganyu?!"
"In Liyue, we say: 'Guests follow the host's lead.' Since Shenhe invited you, she's the host, and you, the guests. That means her decision goes for everyone."
Nolan retorted, a sly smile tugging at his lips.
Seeing Xianyun still not quite recovered, he pulled both her and Ganyu tighter to his side, making them lean gently, snuggled against him.
"Ah—!"
Ganyu collapsing onto Nolan, unable to think, her body limp and powerless.
"You're just twisting logic!" Xianyun protested, prying at Nolan's hand and trying to flee his grasp, her words squeezed out between clenched teeth.
That's the gist of the saying—but is now really the time for it?
"Of course, if you two decide to move in and become members of the household, then there'd be no more 'guests following the host's lead.' You'd have a say in everything."
Nolan grinned.
After all, one of them already had maxed out affection for him, and the other was pretty close; they must have genuine feelings for him deep down.
From Nolan's experience, girls tended to be shy.
They seldom confessed or took the initiative outright—instead, they acted by implication, like accepting his markers of affection, or responding to Shenhe's invitations to the Wonderland.
Even being hugged, they only struggled a little out of formality. Clearly, these were their forms of initiative.
Given that, he wouldn't miss a single chance to move things forward.
(End of Chapter)
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