Four Split Personalities

Needless to say, once Motan discovered this result, he immediately fought Ya Ya for another ten minutes. This time, however, [Dawn· Ruthless Sword] didn’t gain even the tiniest bit of growth; its EXP stubbornly stayed at 1%.

Motan wasn’t disappointed, but Ya Ya, all fired up, suggested they keep going. He even borrowed Jadka’s Magic Wand to blast himself into Frenzy, so the already-prepared-to-stop Motan had no choice but to keep wielding that Shattered-quality Weapon and continue sparring with Ya Ya until he ran out of stamina and couldn’t get back up.

And living up to expectations, [Dawn· Ruthless Sword]’s EXP really did go up—from 1% to 1.01%.

After that, Motan (once his stamina recovered) tried a few other forms, but since he’d only used the sword form when fighting Awakening Dragon, the other forms showed no reaction at all.

So, after two days of experiments, the pattern was basically summarized.

First off, light sparring that stops short... or, to put it another way, practice that doesn’t endanger anyone’s life, gives [Dawn] so little EXP it’s practically a joke. In real fights, though—even if those fights take place in Public Space—[Dawn] can still grow by a relatively big chunk.

According to Motan’s guess, the EXP he accumulates while fighting in Public Space should count as [hidden EXP]. This EXP doesn’t get added directly to [Dawn]’s corresponding forms; instead, when he is in The Realm of Innocence, it will be converted bit by bit via combat. Before the EXP stockpile from Public Space runs out, even the most half-assed sparring can generate a lot.

Although he hasn’t had the chance to fight for real in The Realm of Innocence yet, Motan feels the effect should be similar to Public Space—if not better—and the EXP will most likely be added directly.

In fact, during these three days when he was in the ’Mor’ persona, this was mainly what he was researching. The ones keeping him company were Jadka and Ya Ya. Ji Xiaoge had gotten busy again because of the business between Craftsman Town and the Wealth Saintess Phyllis Graham, and Cordova was wandering Academy City every day in a distracted daze, clearly with something on his mind. Motan didn’t ask.

As for the Chaotic Neutral ’Tan Mo’, he’d been fairly idle lately. Since the progress of this exchange conference had already reached its final stage (though in truth, the real "exchange" between big shots was just about to begin), Diana had been extremely busy these days. Almost every day she had to go to the Mage Guild of Academy City’s inner district, and she would occasionally head over to the Elders’ meeting in Academy City with that Tuning Sage from Miracle City and Ivy·Lehman—and she would definitely bring Double Leaf along.

"Diana!! It’s clearly nothing to do with me, why do you have to drag me along every time! Could it be you’re afraid of me being alone with Frank?"

Forced by Diana to yet again "reserve" her time, Double Leaf had to postpone going to the library to duo queue with Frank Hughes for the eighth time, and finally snapped, grumbling, "What do you even see in him?!"

Diana just smiled breezily and said, "Everything," then kissed Frank Hughes on the cheek and dragged Double Leaf away.

It had to be said, his girlfriend’s "consideration" really did let Motan breathe a sigh of relief. He was well aware that as they continued to clear the Book Spirit dungeons and fulfill the system’s quests, even if everything developed according to the most ideal scenario, Double Leaf’s opinion of Frank Hughes would only get better and better—and correspondingly, her suspicion that Frank is Tan Mo would only grow heavier.

All in all, thanks to Diana’s thoughtfulness, both ’Tan Mo’ and ’Frank Hughes’ gained a whole lot of free time. Naturally, he wasn’t about to let these precious grains of sand slip through his fingers; he seized every minute and second to do things that made him happy.

For example... deliberately making trouble for a certain self-proclaimed high-quality native woman of the Innocent Continent, a Lady named Phyllis Graham—carelessly tearing in half that contract of hers that seemed extremely favorable to him, but actually had at least thirty additional clauses tucked into the decorative border in several languages, and then politely roasting her for a full three hours without uttering a single dirty word.

Heaven bear witness, this was the first time the Wealth Saintess had ever suffered such an insult, and what made it even more suffocating for her was that she couldn’t even talk back.

Because tampering with a contract is like Cheating in gambling: if you don’t get caught, all’s well; but once you’re exposed on the spot, anything the other party does to you is perfectly justified.

In other words, not only did Phyllis’s little trick fail to trap Motan, she ended up trapping herself instead. After all, the very next minute after Motan ripped that contract in two, he restored it with Magic tape and claimed he wouldn’t mind pasting this thing all over the streets of Academy City. That way, not only could they attract investors like the Gold Coin Commerce Association and the Steam Consortium, they could also give everyone a little crash course in Devil language, ancient Elf Language, and Forest Spirit language.

Predictably, although the negotiations about the beverage business hadn’t yet fully wrapped up, Phyllis Graham would probably find it hard to wring much profit out of this deal. In fact, judging from the way she accidentally let something slip, it sounded like she’d be thankful enough as long as she didn’t take too big a loss.

However, while ’Hei Fan’ heard those words, ’Tan Mo’ didn’t take advantage of Phyllis lowering her bottom line. Otherwise, Phyllis would probably very quickly figure out how this Mr. Link Zelda had seen through the problem hidden in the contract’s decorative border at a single glance.

Aside from that, he was still "reluctantly" conducting a discreet affair with that eyeball-swapping Lady Leiman... or more accurately, he would occasionally be dragged by her to places where there was no way Diana could catch them, to stroll around or hang out. Ever since that time when Motan bought her a bottle of [All or Nothing] priced at 888,888 Gold Coin at the [Black Mary] bar under Phyllis’s banner, and then ordered a bottle of [Golden Brilliance] for himself priced at 666,666 Gold Coin, she’d become more and more stuck on him.

Of course, this girl named Ivy·Lehman didn’t actually believe that Frank Hughes or Link Zelda... or whatever else he might be, would really fork over that kind of money for two bottles of juice. What she saw was the fact that she couldn’t see anything at all.

If Ivy·Lehman’s previous claim that she wanted to become Motan’s lover had just been a joke, then now, as this enticing unknown gradually swallowed her, she seemed to have started taking her own words seriously.

But that absolutely didn’t mean she wasn’t a threat. In fact, within this Academy City, Ivy·Lehman’s threat level toward the "Motan" concept could easily rank third!

Above her was Double Leaf, who could kill ’Tan Mo’ at any time.

And at the very top, the existence that had already become a mental burden to Motan, was that mysterious Wang Ba who, a few days ago, impersonated Cole Shuren, took his place at that small get-together as "Mor", and whose acting was so exquisite that even Motan himself was fooled.

Strictly speaking, though, it might not be such a mystery. Motan had a persistent hunch that the Shadow lurking in the dark was very likely the same person who had nearly helped the Marshalls get cleared of guilt in the Violet Empire.

And in Motan’s mind—strictly speaking, under any one of Motan’s personas—finding out that person’s identity and goal was firmly ranked number one, even above things like taking out Double Leaf or closing the soda business deal.

He had to act, before the Academy City exchange conference was over!

...

AD, August 19

Game Time AM07:02

[Your mental link has been detected, synchronizing personal data...]

[Link complete, loading character data]

[Welcome back, Absolute Neutrality Hei Fan, now loading The Realm of Innocence, wish you a good night]

...

Academy City Central District, No. 11 Mirehaus Avenue, [Gaze Inn], Room 205 King Bed

Just as Motan finished taking control of Hei Fan’s body and opened his eyes—

"Ah! Mo... Hei Fan, you’re finally awake! I thought you’d forgotten!"

"Huh?"

"Yeah, hurry downstairs, everyone’s waiting for you."

"Waiting for me?"

"Who else?"

"Waiting for me for what?"

"The Warfire League, of course! Ah, I’d better get you ready first!"

"Warfire League?"

"Warfire League!"

Chapter 1258: End

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