Chapter 52: Lord of Demons

Starlit Moon Hotel.

Inside Yun Xuan’s room.

“Congratulations, Host, for obtaining the Sister Weapon: Frost Snow.”

“Frost Snow: A hot-weapon attack, locked onto Dark Valkyries, unable to cause damage to this world, invisible to ordinary people. Master the timing of its use in battle.”

Yun Xuan looked at the screen, where a silver-haired girl appeared, a sniper rifle slung across her back. She wore a sailor uniform beneath a layer of crystalline ice armor.

“A hot-weapon attack is actually quite decent,” Yun Xuan mused, valuing this aspect. Compared to Bai Xue’s swordsmanship, hot weapons were both safer and more practical.

He glanced outside, pondered briefly, and decided to act at night.

…

Night fell.

After dinner, Yun Xuan, as usual, left his room and headed for a secluded alley, where he summoned Frost Snow.

“Sister Weapon: Frost Snow, reporting in,” the silver-haired girl announced coolly.

“Can you handle sniping from that tall building over there?” Yun Xuan asked.

“Obeying the master’s command,” Frost Snow replied. Her crystalline armor dropped to the ground, transforming into a block of ice. She stepped onto it and soared into the sky.

Her entire body was sheathed in ice crystals, and without the virtual screen, Yun Xuan couldn’t see her at all.

Such was the purpose of the ice armor—it could render Frost Snow nearly invisible as she flew, though it came with the drawback that she couldn’t attack while airborne.

Compared to Bai Xue, Frost Snow possessed a futuristic, almost out-of-era quality.

Watching Frost Snow vanish into the distance, Yun Xuan finally summoned Bai Xue and began their night’s operation.

…

Three o’clock in the deep night.

A Starlit Moon Hotel employee eyed Yun Xuan, who looked utterly exhausted, with thinly veiled disdain. In their minds, anyone returning this late had clearly been up to no good.

Yun Xuan noticed the looks but paid them no heed.

Tonight, together with the previous night, he had finally managed to defeat one hundred Dark Valkyries, earning himself a silver-tier skill draw.

Returning to his room, Yun Xuan tossed his clothes aside and stepped into the bath.

“Begin the draw,” he instructed, settling into the bathtub to enjoy this rare moment of leisure.

“Congratulations, Host, you’ve obtained Intermediate Writing,” the cat-eared system guide announced cheerfully.

No sooner had the words fallen than a gentle smack landed on Yun Xuan’s head.

A torrent of knowledge about online fiction flooded his mind—how to depict characters, events, settings, the artful use of language.

Yun Xuan rubbed his head; Intermediate Writing seemed like a solid reward, especially since it came with several well-written light novels.

Previously, the silver-tier skill Sculpting awarded from the level-two package was only at the beginner level; Yun Xuan considered it a mere ability.

But this newly won skill, like Drawing, was already at the intermediate level.

From this, it was clear that the silver-tier skill draw had a high probability of awarding intermediate-level abilities.

After his bath, Yun Xuan lay down and quickly drifted off to sleep.

Frost Snow and Bai Xue eyed each other warily, neither saying a word.

Worried that another Dark Valkyrie might appear while he slept, Yun Xuan could only order both to keep watch.

…

Over the following two days, Yun Xuan went out every night at nine and returned at three in the morning, drawing many scornful stares from the other contestants.

Even in this era, where otaku culture was so pervasive, at least a third of the participants were apprentices of traditional artists.

Their upbringing made it impossible for them to live as Yun Xuan did, and so they looked down on him in order to feel superior.

Yun Xuan cared nothing for their opinions; he was simply maximizing his skill gains and exchange points. Their gazes wouldn’t cost him anything.

After two more nights of hunting, he earned another silver-tier skill: Intermediate Tea Ceremony.

On the night of the nineteenth, Yun Xuan set his phone aside, having just checked in with Yun Xun’er about the restaurant. Business was booming; on the first day alone, they’d made 150,000 in net income.

The numbers continued to climb. If not for the limits of working hours, reservations could have surpassed a thousand per day.

Currently, they served around 800 guests daily, which kept Ye Shan, Yuan Ting, and the others so busy that they felt a fair amount of pressure.

Yet they were happy, honing their culinary skills in such an environment, and Yun Xuan had rewarded them with the freedom to experiment with the restaurant’s ingredients and create original dishes. They barely had a moment’s rest.

Many guests left messages on the Xuanxue Restaurant’s homepage, urging for extended hours, but Yun Xuan paid it no mind.

He’d never intended to rely on the restaurant for profit. Food might be a mainstay of life, but compared to the anime industry, it was insignificant.

A single light novel adaptation could out-earn months of restaurant revenue, and Yun Xuan could simply use his exchange points to achieve that.

The restaurant was a tangible asset—a highly profitable business on the surface—so he no longer needed to worry about Yun Xun’er and Yun Xue’s future.

Simply put, he didn’t trust that so-called angel. If he ever disappeared from this world, the restaurant would be the legacy he left Yun Xun’er and Yun Xue.

Yun Xuan had thought things through. Even if he wasn’t around, with Ye Shan, Yuan Ting, and the others, in three years’ time, Yun Xun’er and Yun Xue would have amassed a fortune close to a hundred million.

“Tomorrow is the main competition, but there’s still no task. Looks like I’ll have to wait until tomorrow,” Yun Xuan noted, seeing the time had reached 11:58.

At midnight exactly—

“Ding-dong, side quest triggered.”

“Side quest: Achieve a top-ten finish in the Starlit Moon Cup to earn 100 exchange points; top five, 200 points; top three, 300 points; first place, a random bronze skill upgrade. Only one reward can be claimed,” the cat-eared guide announced.

“Not a bad side quest. I’ll aim for first place, finish the competition, and then move on to other tasks,” Yun Xuan smiled.

There were far fewer Dark Valkyries around the capital these days. Clearly, they weren’t like ordinary game monsters, endlessly spawning in one spot.

Yun Xuan drifted off to sleep, content.

…

Deep in the ocean, within China’s territorial waters.

At the bottom of the sea, a vast laboratory was shrouded in layers of sealed space, a place no human could ever approach.

Inside, a black-haired girl no taller than one meter thirty wore a dark robe, surrounded by a myriad of instruments on her worktable.

“Hmph, damn gods. One day, I’ll escape this place,” she muttered, gazing at the culture vessels before her, each containing a Dark Valkyrie.

At the end of the row, a white board bore the words: Demon King Project, The Chosen.

“Demon Lord, we have lost two hundred Dark Valkyries,” a voice echoed in the lab.

“Have the Chosen been detected?” the black-robed girl asked without looking up.

“Not yet. Unable to connect to the Dark Valkyrie network,” the voice replied, utterly devoid of emotion.

“So it’s as I thought. Even the Dark Valkyrie network can be blocked. Looks like I’ll have to intervene personally,” the black-robed girl murmured, gazing at the object in her hand.

With this, she could temporarily appear in the human world. Even without her power, she could experience much through the bodies of the Dark Valkyries.

(P.S. Your friend, the Demon Lord, is now online. Please feed her some recommendation votes, hehe.)