Normally, you're supposed to perform a little ritual of superstitious reverence before pulling the gacha — not just slap the button the moment your Crystals hit the threshold the way Caelus did.
But you can't judge a book by its cover.
Beneath his seemingly careless exterior, hidden forces were at work: Silver Wing praying in a cathedral in the Honkai World, Moonscar petitioning the Reignbow Arbiter for the Holy Grail, Bronie having typed several trillion keystrokes on a cyber wooden fish while writing her script, and Seele releasing goldfish into her home pond to accumulate karmic merit.
Layers upon layers of inner dedication.
"So come on — show yourself!"
Caelus let out a battle cry in his mindspace and mentally hammered the ten-pull button.
The screen tore open like a curtain being ripped apart, bursting with a torrent of blue-violet particles that slowly coalesced into proto-meteors, wrapped in crystal halos, trailing particle effects of golden star-trails.
Golden light blazed. Caelus's eyes lit up.
When you respect the superstitions, the superstitions respect you back!
Blue, deep blue — a purple meteor shattered into scattered stardust. Out came the three-star Crimson Sakura Will and four-star Twin Soul Crystals. The latter were desperately needed, the kind you could never have too many of.
Then an old acquaintance made Caelus do a double-take.
[Item: Homu Hot Treasure]
[Rarity: ★★★]
[Description: Upon opening, receive a random quantity of gold coins between 1 and 2,000, plus a Homu Hot Treasure Map.]
[Note: Down with the Coin-Hog! The world belongs to the Homu Clan!]
"Haven't seen this little yellow rabbit in ages — oh wait, Homu's a red rabbit."
Caelus eyed the wooden chest floating in midair. A plush doll was plastered all over the lid — crimson red all over, shark-toothed, with a glare that radiated short-tempered fire-type energy, and a seam of stitching on its forehead like an old scar.
"System, what's this Treasure Map about?"
Caelus poked at the system screen.
There was definitely no such thing inside the coin chest from the Honkai Impact 3rd game.
[That one? The Homu Clan launched it as a new venture to seize the local market. Homu-series Treasure Maps randomly mark treasure locations on the current planet — the higher the rarity, the more valuable the marked treasure.]
The System explained.
"Not bad～"
(Tianjin accent)
"Pass a message to the Homu Emperor for me: crank it up a notch!"
Caelus thought back to the early days when Hungry-and-Dead-or-Something and Ugly-Group Delivery were first aggressively expanding, fighting to corner the market — back when two yuan could buy you a solid meal delivery.
Price wars. Bring them on!
Can't let the Coin-Hog monopolize everything — the Homu Clan shall never be enslaved!
[Item: Stigmata — Theresa: Gluttony]
[Rarity: ★★★☆]
[Effect:
Gluttony: After equipping this Stigmata, killing or breaking enemies has a chance to drop Candy. There is a 10-second cooldown on the drop mechanic. Eating dropped Candy triggers Gluttony state, increasing all damage by a set amount for 3 minutes.
Eating Candy again while Gluttony is active refreshes the duration.
Note: Please do not litter Candy on the ground. If you must throw it, throw it into Theresa's mouth. (Any Candy left uncollected will eventually be eaten by Theresa anyway～!)]
"So what difference does it make whether you throw it or not? It's all ending up in Theresa's mouth either way."
That said, Caelus equipped the Stigmata on himself without a second thought. Beat enemies and drop candy — that was an offer he couldn't refuse!
[Item: Magical Ruby]
[Rarity: ★★★★★☆]
[Description: Second Magic limited Mystic Code, cheerful-type Mystic Code Kaleidoscope Staff.
A first-class Mystic Code applying the Second Magic, capable of Multiverse Shift — allowing the user to download skills from parallel worlds. While transformed, the user gains standing abilities including an A-rank magical barrier, physical protection, healing acceleration, and physical ability enhancement.
Linkage Exclusive Skill — Cute Is Justice: When carried in daily life, the owner can accumulate Cuteness Points by performing any action befitting the concept of 'cute.'
After transformation, Cuteness Points can be burned to increase all damage — maximum output: 250,000% (500,000%) all damage increase, plus 60% movement speed, for 10 seconds. Additionally, based on Cuteness Points, instantly defeats ordinary enemies within a certain range.
Ruby's Note: As I always say, cuteness is a magical girl's most powerful weapon! Let those damn enemies know just how freaking adorable we are!]
"..."
Caelus fell into a silence so absolute he looked like he'd seen a ghost. A dead, hollow silence.
"???"
Then came a cascade of question marks he simply could not stop.
Not because he was confused about why a gacha banner in a Honkai game was spitting out something from Type-Moon's corner of the multiverse — after all, that old relic Honkai Impact 2 had crossed over with so many games that Caelus had lost count. Danganronpa, A Certain Magical Index, Fate/Stay Night, Guilty Crown — you couldn't even count them on two hands. Pulling Railgun's underwear wouldn't even be surprising at this point.
But...
"Are these numbers for real? A base 2,500x all-damage multiplier!?"
Caelus reeled backward in a full tactical lean, hissing air through his teeth.
For the record, the number in parentheses was the maxed-out value after feeding it full Soul Crystals.
"Even if the devs typed this out with their toes it's still way too busted!"
One shot and even an Emanator would be coughing up blood!
[Host, don't celebrate too soon.]
The System poured a bucket of cold water on him.
[The Magical Ruby, fused with the Honkai energy of the Honkai Impact 2 universe, is extremely strict about what counts as 'cute.' Someone performing cuteness on purpose can't say they accumulate zero Cuteness Points — but their generation rate is glacially slow. Only a truly and genuinely cute girl can stack Cuteness Points at any real speed.]
[Only a full burn at maximum charge will draw out its true power. Otherwise, it'll boost damage by a measly few hundred times at best.]
"A measly few hundred times."
Caelus's expression turned complicated. For the first time in ages, he experienced that nostalgic Honkai Impact 2 feeling of damage multipliers inflating beyond all sanity.
How to put it?
Pure joy.
Absolute, uncut joy.
The only problem was...
"Is Stelle... cute?"
In Caelus's eyes, the Stellaron spirit was undeniably — come on, adorable, right? Adorable to death!
But would the Magical Ruby really consider a stinky gray-haired raccoon who spent her days dumpster-diving cute?
As for the other female forms — they all looked like beautiful young women on the outside, and there was one who was the single most absurdly, universe-destroyingly adorable being in existence, namely Kiana. But at their core, they were all still Caelus. Take a guess at whether he qualifies as cute.
On Ah Qi's end — while others could use system equipment too, items related to Honkai Impact 2's Honkai energy, like badges, could only be brought to their true potential by Caelus, or by Stelle, who was fundamentally one and the same as him.
In short: March 7th could use it, but in her hands it would just be an ordinary Type-Moon magic staff — the Linkage Exclusive Skill wouldn't activate.
"Give it to Ah Qi then. Let her stack the Cuteness Points in her day-to-day."
Caelus rubbed his chin and started thinking it through.
When a fight came up, he himself could... transform into the female form and fire away!
Oh, that was going to be sweet.
[Item: Badge — Super High School Level Maid]
[Rarity: ★★★★]
[Skills:
A Maid Knows Everything～!: Increases all damage by 20% (50%).
Forbidden Status!: Increases permanent movement speed by 12% (32%).]
A standard four-star badge with perfectly ordinary stats. Nothing to write home about.
All things considered, this pull was a modest lucky run.
From here on out, he just needed the pool to not spit out anything like evil gods or President Ke at him from outside the banner.
Caelus rubbed his hands together and turned his gaze to the remaining four gray meteors.
[Creature: Thousand-Face Demon Spider]
[Rarity: ☆]
[Description: A spirit beast from the Douluo Continent. Venom runs through its entire body. Infamous for its savagery — not only toward its prey, but even among its own kind, who fear each other's existence.]
"What the — a God Spider? Uh... why is it only one star?"
Caelus blinked.
The description was plastered with words like 'savage' and 'terrifying even to its own kin,' and then he looked at the actual stats and this thing was sitting in the gutter?
[Well, it's that world's physical constants, big brother — you know how it goes.]
Metals weighing several hundred kilograms with a density a fraction of water's could make the whole ground shake when set down. A million jin was already the apex of divine power, and even then it couldn't punch through a city wall.
[Creature: NeoDevimon]
[Rarity: ★★★★☆ (★ — Unstable State)]
[Description: Perfect-level Fallen Angel-type Digimon, Virus species. Evolved through enhancement from a Perfect-level Devimon, artificially augmented to the point where even its individual consciousness is fully dominated — an artificially created Digimon.]
"Tch. More trouble."
Caelus clicked his tongue.
This was the NeoDevimon that had appeared alongside the Great Colon. Though it had evolved from a Perfect-level Devimon and hadn't quite reached Ultimate, it wielded power that was nearly invincible at the Perfect stage.
The fact that it could suppress MetalGreymon — the predecessor of WarGreymon — and the accessory-tier WereGarurumon gave a clear picture of just how much combat power it packed.
The one thing that could be counted as good news was...
"As an artificially created Digimon with its individual consciousness dominated, without instructions from an operator, NeoDevimon shouldn't act on its own initiative, right?"
Caelus quickly shifted his gaze to the next gray meteor — and it was empty inside again. His expression darkened slightly.
That meant the meteor contained something with a will of its own again — something the System had been unable to capture.
[Creature: Amon (Avatar)]
[Rarity: ★★★★]
[Description: From the world of Lord of Mysteries. A Blasphemer. Second son of the ancient sun god. Brother of Adam. Born already as the King of Angels of a wrongful Pathway. Don't worry — what you pulled is only an avatar, possessing no high-level Sequence, roughly Sequence-5 level in strength, and incapable of further proliferation... probably.
Additional note: Although the avatar's outward appearance is male, as a mythological being by birth, They have no strictly defined gender in the conventional sense.
So — you might be able to call her Amon-chan.]
Almost in the same instant, a peal of laughter came tumbling in from the far end of time itself, seizing hold of Caelus's mind.
"Ha ha ha ha～! Look～ what has Aha found?"
"My dear friend, I just knew you couldn't bear to leave poor lonely Aha out in the cold — so you've gone and found me a new toy～!"
They were absolutely delighted, laughing with wild abandon, doubling over in mirth:
"Aha is genuinely, truly — moved to tears."
The laughter that masqueraded as a moved sob layered itself over the blare of a circus horn:
"Thank you～ my friend～! Oh, and while I have you — what do you think, should Aha make her one of Aha's Emanators?"
"Oh～ please don't be sad, Caelus-baby, you are still Aha's most, most, most dearest friend!"
Caelus's expression was getting darker by the second.
"Can you please not call me that?"
Who do you think you are, Elysia? Any interesting person is automatically your best friend?
Watch out for the male hormones.
"But why not? Caelus-baby, my Caelus-baby～ come let Mama give you a kiss～!"
A split second later, Aha shifted into Stelle's voice and launched into the unhinged affectionate babbling of a shut-in fangirl cooing at her paper-flat beloved.
凸(艹皿艹)
Caelus smiled serenely and extended a middle finger toward the sky.
"I think she's the slow-burn type. Take your time playing with her."
The avatar that had come through presented as female — but that couldn't mask what she was at her core.
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