Chapter Two: Mortal Wisdom

Chen Mo appeared calm and unruffled on the surface, yet inside he was in a storm.

Even after hearing Chen Mo’s words, and even after a flood of memories suddenly surged through their minds, some people still insisted that this was a trick, though by all appearances it was anything but ordinary.

Among the crowd, a young man wearing glasses burst into loud laughter. “Stop trying to fool me! Do you think this is scientific? Come on, this isn’t scientific at all...”

Chen Mo gave him a look that said he was beyond comprehension and ignored the rest of his long-winded bluster. Keeping his face expressionless, he focused all his attention on the chat group.

Lu Mingfei: Walong, Chen Mo, there are two newcomers this time... Speaking of which, the first person’s name sounds strangely familiar. No, more than familiar—almost too familiar.

Lu Mingfei, the protagonist of the Dragon Raja series, the famous unlucky fool, a grown child who never quite grows up... I seem to remember that Dragon Raja later got a reboot. I do not really know the plot after that.

Tokisaki Kurumi: Oh? Then, does Mr. Lu know which member’s information this is?

Tokisaki Kurumi, a character from Date A Live, the most dangerous spirit, a famous figure in the otaku world, and a tireless darling of pinup art... Honestly, she is pretty good-looking.

Lu Mingfei: It’s Walong. He’s a mafia boss, though. To be honest, I was hoping the newcomer would be Jackie Chan instead. After all, he’s my idol, and so is the animated Jackie Chan.

Walong: ! Who are you people exactly? What kind of magic are you using? Are you from that group with Jackie Chan?

Walong, one of the main villains of Jackie Chan Adventures, the founder of an international blackhand organization. He got tricked by Shendu into going after Jackie Chan, only to be beaten up instead, and in the end he lost his entire fortune and became a bus driver... Tragic. Too tragic.

Shirou Emiya: A blackhand organization? Is Mr. Walong a bad person?

Shirou Emiya, the protagonist of Fate/stay night, a partner of justice, a good-hearted fellow... though he might not necessarily be the Shirou Emiya from Fate/stay night. He could be Archer, or even the Shirou Emiya from that nearby magical-girl series, so there are many possibilities.

Lu Mingfei: Probably. But to me he feels more like a comedic villain, like the Gray Wolf or Team Rocket...

Aqua: That kind of thing doesn’t matter anyway. So you’re Walong, right? I’m the water goddess Aqua. I was accidentally dragged into another world by a shut-in NEET and lost contact with heaven, so hurry up and give me some gold or jewels. Once I return to heaven, I’ll grant you a special otherworldly reincarnation bonus.

Aqua, one of the heroines of KonoSuba, the idiot goddess, the creator of the phrase, “If stupidity had a color, it would definitely be blue”... Looks like this is probably the version after Kazuma brought her to another world.

Shirou Emiya: Aqua... you won’t get money by asking like that, you know. But if you’re in trouble, I can make lunch boxes for you.

Aqua: Sounds good to me. Then I’ll look forward to your lunch boxes! In return, I’ll allow you to become one of the great Axis Cult believers.

Shirou Emiya: No thanks. I have no intention of joining a religion for now.

Houraisan Kaguya: Fufu, if you want treasures, I happen to have quite a few. Giving you a little would not be impossible.

Houraisan Kaguya, one of the characters from the Touhou Project series, appearing in Imperishable Night. A moon princess and an immortal lunar being, and in fan interpretations she is also portrayed as a shut-in... I wonder what version of Kaguya this one is.

Aqua: Really!?

Houraisan Kaguya: Of course. But I won’t give them to you for free... Play a round of games with me. If you win, you can choose one treasure from my vault.

Aqua: Bring it on! I’ll show you the strength of the water goddess!

Walong: Water goddess?

Lu Mingfei: Don’t mind her, newcomer. Miss Aqua always calls herself the water goddess... Just assume it’s true.

Aqua: Hey! What do you mean by that? I am a hundred percent a water goddess, okay!

Han Li: By the way, it seems there is still one member who has not introduced themselves.

Han Li, the protagonist of Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality, Han Runaway, the Old Demon Han, the Great Dao Ancestor of Time... Uh, with that Great Dao Ancestor of Time setting, could it be that Han Li is already watching this chat group from the future?

Chen Mo quickly glanced over the members. Every one of them was an extraordinary oddity—some from anime, some from web novels; some easy to get along with, others less so. Overall, it was a fairly even mix.

Then he looked over the chat group’s functions.

When the number of members reaches ten, a manager can be elected by a vote of the group. At that time, the chat group will unlock more functions.

That was the entirety of the announcement. At present, including him, there were eight people in the group. Walong and he had apparently entered at the same time. If newcomers always came in pairs, then the next time new members appeared would be when it was time to elect a manager.

Chen Mo looked again at the other functions of the chat group.

They were also extremely simple: only three in total, namely Red Packet, Item Space, and Lottery. There was no shop system, no mission system, and naturally no ability to travel to other worlds.

Perhaps once the chat group had more members later on, its functions would gradually become richer.

“Hey! Are you even listening to me?”

The man with glasses shouted loudly, dragging Chen Mo’s attention away from the chat group functions he had intended to inspect.

“Say something. Are you feeling guilty? It was you who brought us here, wasn’t it? I’m telling you, what you did is illegal, you know that? Believe it or not, I...”

The bespectacled youth’s voice rose higher and higher, irritating to the ear.

“Beyond comprehension.”

Chen Mo coldly interrupted him, then walked to one side, casually picked up a pebble from the ground, and flicked it forward.

With a soft click, the pebble seemed to strike something and bounced back. Yet there was clearly nothing in front of it—no obstacle at all, just empty air—and still it was thrown back.

“This is the protection shield of the Main God,” Chen Mo said coolly. “You can think of it as something from a sci-fi movie or magic. The shield has a time limit. If you want to test whether it’s real, come over and touch it yourselves.”

Half in doubt, half in fear, the others walked to where Chen Mo had thrown the stone. They reached out ahead of them, and their hands clearly met resistance in the air, as though they had touched an invisible transparent barrier.

“Th-this is impossible...”

The newcomers touched the Main God barrier in amazement, their hearts shaken.

The bespectacled young man still looked unconvinced. “This must be some kind of high-tech illusion, or maybe some magic act you’re all in on, or hypnosis of some sort...”

“The wisdom of mortals.”

Chen Mo glanced at him, then at his blond hair and pale skin, and smiled.

“Which country are you from? What language are you speaking?”

“What?” The man with glasses froze for a moment, then answered, “I’m a genuine American! Not some illegal immigrant. I’m definitely speaking English, so what else could it be?”

“What language am I speaking?”

“You’re speaking—”

The bespectacled youth suddenly froze. Only then did he realize that Chen Mo had not been speaking English just now at all. His lip movements did not match!

The others noticed it as well. They had all been speaking in their own native tongues, and had originally been wondering how these people understood their hometown dialects so well. But now it seemed...

Chen Mo ignored their reactions. With not much time left before the Main God’s protection was lifted, he had to get a handle on the chat group’s functions.

First was the Red Packet. As the name implied, it let one put something that belonged to oneself into a red packet and send it to a group member. If none of the recipients accepted it within twenty-four hours, the red packet would automatically return.

The restriction of “something that belongs to oneself” was... a little vague.

Did the clothes on my body count as mine? Did the weapons I carried count as mine? What about a stone with no owner that I picked up by the roadside?

To take it a step further: did I myself count as something that belonged to me? My abilities, my status as a reincarnator, my gene lock... did those count as “something that belongs to oneself”?

And there was also no mention of the size of the item the red packet could hold. Was there no upper limit?

With so many people around, it was not a good time to test this function. Chen Mo shifted his attention to the next item.

Item Space could store items within the chat group, such as red packet contents sent by members, items granted by the chat group, and so on. Its capacity was unlimited, but it could not store other objects.

However, there was also a storage space that could hold external items. The chat group provided two different kinds of Item Space: one dedicated solely to storing chat group items, and another that could store outside objects. But the capacity of this latter space was closely tied to the member’s level.

The higher the member’s level, the larger the Item Space. Each level corresponded to one cubic meter of storage.

Chen Mo looked at the members’ levels. Houraisan Kaguya and Aqua were tied for the highest at Level 100, followed by Han Li and Tokisaki Kurumi, then Lu Mingfei and Shirou Emiya, and finally Walong and himself.

No, because of Walong’s speech in the group just now, his level had already risen to Level 2, while Chen Mo’s remained at Level 1.

This function was fairly practical. Although the upper limit seemed a little low, it was useful enough.

Still, because of the crowd here, he could not properly test its effect. He would have to wait and try later.

As for the last function, the Lottery...

Chen Mo sent his consciousness into that option, then froze.

He had originally thought it would be a spinning wheel or some kind of prize pool lottery.

But what appeared before him was a button marked with the characters ROII.

Beneath those characters was a line reading: Remaining Lottery Chances: 1.