Inazuma City, Komaniya Express.
When Kirara heard that Nolan wanted to come and experience the job of a courier and hoped she could show him how it worked, she naturally agreed happily.
Nolan soon teleported to Kirara's side. Today she was setting out to deliver mail to Natlan. He himself had only visited Natlan once or twice before, so this time he could also take the opportunity to experience the local culture and scenery there.
Before long, the two of them set off toward Natlan.
If Kirara were traveling alone, even with her speed it would still take more than half a month to go from Inazuma to Natlan. Although she also possessed Interstellar Travel, there were no girls in Natlan who had a waymark.
Therefore she could not teleport there.
But with Nolan around, he could bring her directly through spatial travel, saving a lot of trouble.
Kirara had become accustomed to the convenience of Interstellar Travel, which made her feel a little weary whenever she had to deliver mail to Natlan or Snezhnaya.
The main issue was that traveling by ship took too long, and the environment never changed. It was far less interesting than traveling on land, where she could at least enjoy the scenery along the way.
With a shift of space, the two of them arrived in Natlan in an instant from Inazuma City.
"Alright, now that we're in Natlan we won't teleport anymore. We'll deliver the mail step by step on foot to the recipients. Otherwise you won't be able to fully experience what being a courier is like!"
As Kirara spoke to Nolan, she also handed him the delivery box to carry.
"Mm-hmm, no problem." Seeing the character panel display "Kirara Affection +1", bringing her even closer to maximum affection, Nolan asked curiously,
"How many deliveries do we have this time? And where do we start?"
"Only five international deliveries. We should be able to finish them today. As for where to start… hmm, we'll go from near to far, along a scenic route."
Kirara pulled out a map and skillfully planned a route that included several well-known locations in Natlan.
Soon afterward, the two of them officially began delivering the mail.
The first delivery was said to be a letter sent by an Inazuman merchant who frequently traveled between Natlan and Inazuma, addressed to his wife in Natlan.
As for the contents, being professional couriers, neither Nolan nor Kirara would ever casually open it to peek.
Kirara had delivered letters for that merchant several times before. According to her guess, it was probably something like him being temporarily stuck in Inazuma for business, sending some living expenses home while expressing his longing.
After about half an hour of travel, Nolan and Kirara finally arrived at the destination of the first delivery.
It was a small village. There did not seem to be many people, and most of the residents were elderly. There were few young people, who had evidently gone out to work.
When they brought the mail to the listed address, they found a rather nice-looking wooden house. Looking through the doorway, they could see a middle-aged woman, two children, and an elderly person.
After being told that a letter had arrived, the middle-aged woman seemed busy taking care of the children and asked the elderly person to come out and collect it instead.
From the somewhat slow movements as the elder stepped outside, along with the occasional cough, it seemed likely that their health was not very good.
Hehe, this was exactly the kind of situation for him to step in, Nolan thought.
While handing the letter to the elderly person, he quietly used Void Star Sea to conceal golden Windwheel Asters spreading throughout the entire village.
The elder, who took the letter, said thanks and walked back inside. They did not seem to notice that their steps had become noticeably lighter and that the coughing had disappeared.
[Justice's Gift obtained: Speed increased by 0.029%.]
Nolan had given the entire small village a free round of treatment, triggering the affection skill he had obtained from Focalors.
This granted him Justice's Gift, randomly increasing his speed by 0.029%.
Occasionally, when he encountered suitable opportunities, Nolan would indeed help others like this without asking for anything in return.
The reward from Justice's Gift was secondary. Mainly, he was simply that kind of helpful person.
Speaking of Justice's Gift, Nolan had also discovered that triggering it required a minimum threshold.
It was not something that could activate from something as small as helping an old lady cross the street. Even healing only that elderly person earlier had nearly fallen short.
It required something on the scale of curing an entire village to barely obtain Justice's Gift, and even then it was only the lowest tier of enhancement.
Of course, good deeds like helping an old lady cross the street were not completely useless.
Because they could accumulate. Even relatively small acts of kindness could eventually add up to the minimum threshold needed to trigger Justice's Gift.
It would simply take more time.
Even the lowest-tier reward, a random attribute increase of more than 0.02%, was not insignificant for someone like Nolan, whose base attributes were already high.
However, deliberately doing good deeds just to obtain boosts from Justice's Gift was still far less efficient than grinding Adventure EXP or improving cultivation progress with The Accursed Moon Shall Rise.
Therefore, he treated Justice's Gift rather casually. If he happened to come across a suitable opportunity to help someone, he would simply do it.
After finishing the first delivery, Nolan and Kirara continued their delivery journey. By the time evening arrived, the second, third, and fourth deliveries had already been completed.
While on the way to deliver the final package, Nolan saw the character panel display "Kirara Affection +1." Without realizing it, her affection toward him had already reached the maximum.
Immediately afterward, the character panel displayed the notification that he had obtained a new affection skill:
[Through sincere feelings and persistent effort, you have become deeply connected with a destiny that originally had no intersection with your own. From now on, the maiden's constellation shall shine alongside yours. Ability obtained: Yokai Art: Bewitching Hundred Transformations.]
Judging from the name, it was probably a transformation-type ability. Nolan opened it to take a quick look:
[Yokai Art: Bewitching Hundred Transformations: By collecting information related to a target, you may transform into any object with an accuracy of "the sum of both levels" percent. Any percentage exceeding 100% becomes a bonus effect. While transformed, you may still use your own abilities. If a flaw in the disguise is discovered, the skill will fail.]
Just as he expected. The effect was straightforward and powerful. It allowed him to transform into anything, possessing the characteristics of the transformed object while still retaining the ability to use his own powers.
This was likewise an extremely powerful skill, practically unbeatable in situations that required disguise.
And since Kirara's affection toward him had already reached the maximum, Nolan casually held her hand while they were walking, as if by accident. When her face turned red, he asked whether she would like to stay in the Wonderland Space for a while.
To avoid being too direct and making her too shy to agree, he phrased it as living in the Wonderland Space for a bit so he could use his spare time to help improve her strength, allowing her to deliver mail much faster in the future.
Kirara had known Nolan for quite a long time and understood him fairly well, so she knew what he was really getting at. Still, she cooperated, softly replying "Mm" and nodding lightly.
She quite liked Nolan. Judging from how well he treated the other girls, aside from being a little flirtatious, he was someone worth entrusting herself to.
So Kirara agreed to Nolan's invitation, which was nominally about helping her improve her strength but in reality meant living together.
Unexpectedly receiving Kirara's positive response, Nolan immediately hugged her and spun her around once. As expected, she became a little shy.
Not long afterward, the two of them finally arrived at the address for the last delivery. The recipient's name was Citlali. When they saw her, they discovered she was a girl with pink hair.
Her eyes were purple-blue, and her snow-white skin had faint pink triangular patterns painted near her brows and on both cheeks.
She wore a black off-shoulder top with vertical stripes. Her pale legs were visible beneath the hem of her skirt, and she wore sandals.
Seeing the two of them, Citlali looked pleasantly surprised.
"It actually arrived this quickly! That thing called online shopping on the 'Akasha Terminal' is really useful. I thought it would take one or two months like before, maybe even longer!"
Recently the trendy Akasha Terminal had spread over from neighboring countries, and she had bought one from a Sweet Flower Merchant Association shop just to try something new.
Unexpectedly, it not only allowed instant communication with people from various countries, but also had many practical features such as taking photos, recording videos, and map navigation.
It even allowed people to purchase goods from different nations. Out of curiosity, she had tried ordering some clothes with local characteristics from various countries.
It had not even been two days, and one of the items had already arrived. She felt she was starting to fall in love with online shopping!
Seeing the excited girl in front of them, Nolan felt he should explain things to avoid misunderstanding.
"That's because this package was delivered by Miss Kirara, the legendary courier of Komaniya Express. That's why it arrived so quickly.
"If the merchant you buy from next time doesn't entrust Komaniya Express with delivery, and it just happens that Kirara isn't the one delivering it, then the delivery speed will be more normal."
As more and more people connected to the Akasha Interconnected Network, its growth speed had increased rapidly. Recently it had already become capable of covering all seven nations.
However, because Inazuma was separated from Sumeru by a large stretch of ocean, the Akasha Interconnected Network currently covered Inazuma using technology similar to the projection system used in the Wonderland Space.
Of course, this was only a temporary transition. After some time, the Akasha system would not only cover the sea between Inazuma and Sumeru but eventually all of Teyvat as well.
As for why the Akasha system could cover Natlan without being rejected by the Pyro Archon, the reason was similar to the other nations. Ningguang had directly invited the Pyro Archon to join.
She was invited to invest and become a shareholder of the chamber of commerce. After learning from other nations about the benefits of the Akasha Interconnected Network, she also obtained management authority over the Sweet Flower Merchant Association in Natlan.
With the assurances of other Archons as well, she was willing to believe that accepting the Akasha Interconnected Network would benefit Natlan.
Thus, the AIN had successfully spread throughout Natlan, allowing this Natlan girl named Citlali to shop online.
The same applied to Snezhnaya. The Tsaritsa wanted to obtain the two Gnoses currently in Nolan's possession, and one of the conditions was allowing the Akasha Internet to operate in Snezhnaya.
Now the AIN had already covered Snezhnaya as well, and people there had begun using it.
In other words, the seven nations of Teyvat were now basically covered by the AIN, which counted as achieving a phased objective.
The next phase was to cover the entire continent of Teyvat, whether inhabited or not. That part was simple and would gradually be accomplished over time.
The following phase, however, expanding the AIN into the universe, would be somewhat more difficult.
After all, with only the population of Teyvat, the converted power of justice-based faith was already doing extremely well just to maintain the energy balance required for planetary coverage.
Of course, Nolan did have a solution. That was to extend the AIN into the Assembled Continent formed by the fusion of forty World Bubbles in the Sea of Quanta.
The population there was large and densely packed, and as more World Bubbles fused in the future, it would grow even larger, perfectly supporting the continued development of the AIN.
As for how to allow the Akasha system to cover the World Bubbles within the Sea of Quanta, Nolan had naturally left that problem to professionals like Nahida and the Greater Lord Rukkhadevata.
Perhaps because it was somewhat difficult, they had not yet come up with a solution.
He planned to ask them about it tonight to see whether they had made any progress. If not, he would invite Miss Herta back and ask her to help research it a bit.
As one of the greatest geniuses in the galaxy, she should have a solution.
While Nolan's thoughts were wandering, Citlali in front of him nodded slightly.
"That makes sense. If an ordinary person could come from Inazuma to here in less than two days, that would be terrifying."
She looked at Nolan and suddenly felt he seemed familiar.
"Huh? You look like that legendary adventurer. I've seen you in the newspapers. Your name is Nolan, right?"
"Oh, I didn't expect my name to have spread all the way to Natlan. Ahem, well, unless there's another legendary adventurer with the same name, that should be me."
Nolan said this modestly, though hearing someone praise him inevitably made him feel a little pleased.
"Oh~ so that means the womanizer who's always seen with different girls online is also you!" Citlali looked at Nolan and Kirara with a knowing expression.
"Well, I've received the package. But just in case you might have strange ideas about me too, let's end our conversation here. Goodbye, you two!"
(T/N: Hahhahahahahahahh, I like that girl!!)
With that, Citlali took the package and returned inside her house, closing the wooden door behind her.
"Uh…"
Nolan opened his mouth but did not know what to say for a moment. Kirara beside him simply laughed casually.
"You got rejected."
"Alright then."
Nolan sighed. He felt it was necessary to promote his positive image online a bit more so that fewer rumors about his womanizing would spread.
Then he looked at the character panel, where several affection notifications appeared:
[Citlali Has Developed Good Feeling Toward You. Obtained 1 Affection Point. Current Affection Level Lv.1 (9/100).]
So you look down on me, huh. Sooner or later I'll max out your affection too, Nolan thought mischievously.
(T/N: Just die, you bastard!)
(End of Chapter)
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