Filly and Vishi both noticed that Ash's expression suddenly became very strange.

If you could describe it with a pie chart, it might be about 30% confusion, 30% anger, 30% amusement, plus 10% disdain.

Ash's mood right now is like seeing Harvey being well-mannered or hearing Igula sincerely apologize, summed up in one sentence——

Oh, still pretending in front of me?

Ash is no longer the naive player he once was. Since Death Mad Sword Maiden, Black and White Witch, and Youlan Weiser all exist, this so-called 'talent-seeking event' is actually about selecting lucky mages to be your teammates/tool people, and it's mandatory. The target can't refuse; once picked by Ash, they immediately become operators, practically a slave market.

Ash seemed to see three imprisoned operators in an exhibition cabinet: 'Demon Maid,' 'Ya Sha Jin,' and 'Chaos Songstress.' Now, as long as he spends enough source crystals, he can take one home to create happiness.

Still pretending to be a game system now, but you're clearly a forced labor system!

However, Ash wasn't really upset, after all, it's not him doing the hard work.

It's just that yesterday there was nothing, and now suddenly there's a talent-seeking event, which means that this summoning system can't just ignore distance and forcibly sell people. At the very least, Ash would need to trigger the local talent market for it to recruit attractive individuals into the card pool for free.

But the card pool comes for free, while Ash wants to draw operators. That, he has to spend real money, real source crystals!

He now understands that source crystals aren't just a resource for drawing cards, but an important resource capable of driving divine beings!

Using the example of the Dream Awaken Divine Being, a source crystal can allow her to cast 'Delayed Awakening,' a spell that can cause a Holy Domain mage to trigger a Faded Dream in the Distant Realm and thus climb Ruby Mountain.

Though it's not as crude as that, one source crystal indeed gives a Holy Domain mage one chance to become a Legendary Mage! Spending three source crystals for a card draw wouldn't be so bad if he gets an operator, but if he ends up with a consolation prize like a Physical Strength Potion, Ash feels like he's losing out on three Legendary Mages!

But even if it's a loss, Ash has to draw. While source crystals are strategically valuable, for Ash, who doesn't have divine beings, they're at most a bonus. The only way he can use source crystals is to let his Technique Spirit absorb their energy to cast spells, without him needing to provide magic power.

But Ash isn't lacking in magic power. The three secret poisons of Golden Fish, Seven-colored Tail, and Faded Dream not only convert all his magic power to Sword Power, but the Sword Power can also elevate his Technique Spirit's power to four wings. Using source crystals instead actually reduces his combat strength.

Even if Ash worries about depleting his magic power in a desperate situation, keeping just one source crystal should be enough—for the energy contained in one source crystal is sufficient for his entire Technique Spirit to work overtime until it drops dead.

If Ash ventures into the Divine Domain and commands divine beings, he might really be able to fully abandon the summoning system and accumulate source crystals daily. But as someone new to being Legendary, rather than drowning in a surplus of source crystals, it's better to convert this wealth into another form that will continue to accompany him.

Or if Ash returns to Gospel, he might not even need to consider seeking new operatives. While he's contemplated whether to recruit new members to ease the team's tense atmosphere, after thinking it through carefully, Ash suppresses this escapist thought.

Having more teammates is certainly better, yet the Sword Maiden is strongly opposed to introducing newcomers. Her ideal team resembles a small boat, manned by only her and Ash, in the Sea of Knowledge. Although the Witch hasn't said anything, she merely hopes Ash could gain more support, but if given a choice, she wouldn't want any newcomers either.

Even Ash himself feels the current team is very much capable of adventuring through the Void Realm. If he had to say, he thinks the composition of the party in the Distant Realm is optimal: the Sword Maiden handles close-range explosive output, the Witch is the mid-close range control specialist, Vesper solves all kinds of puzzles, while he provides support, defense, and healing as a long-range tactical aid.

As long as Ash returns to Senluo and finds a way to rescue the God of Silver Lamp from the deep darkness, the team will be whole again.

If Ash returns to Gospel, everyone can quietly train, and there wouldn't be an urgent need to increase combat effectiveness. At that time, even if just for the Sword Maiden and Witch's peace of mind, he would be willing not to recruit any new operatives.

However, now that Ash has been dragged into the Kingdom of Allstars, he urgently needs a trustworthy tool person to share the burden. This talent-seeking event perfectly replaces the talent market's niche, capturing Ash's pain points, performing root cause analysis on the need, forming a combo that creates a closed-loop ecology of being compelled to draw.

Ash glanced at the new operator list, and first, he immediately recognized who 'Ya Sha Jin' is—apart from Tamasi, there's nobody else alive in this world known as Ya Sha Jin.

But Tamasi isn't even a mage. Can she be drawn? And if Tamasi isn't at Ruby Mountain, then it's meaningless for Ash to draw her out. Is he supposed to coerce Tamasi into coming to Ruby Mountain?

The name 'Chaos Songstress' made Ash first think of the Sword Maiden, after all, she can sing too, but it's unlikely to draw two Sonia·Sevi, so it must be someone Ash doesn't know.

But as for 'Demon Maid'...

Ash glanced at the nearby blond, horned girl, soft and cute like a little lamb, thinking that even the talent-seeking event knows it's been exposed and doesn't intend to pretend anymore. Who else could be the 'Demon Maid' other than Filly?

Though without much basis, he has a strong premonition that he's bound to draw the 'Demon Maid.' Firstly, after this heavenly cooperation, his relationship with Filly is quite good. Secondly, once Filly becomes his operator, he doesn't have to worry about Filly using her demonic superior ecological position to coerce commands.

The more Ash thinks about it, the better it seems, thinking Aurora's Mage Manual finally did something decent this time. In earlier rounds, when he drew Black and White Witch, and then Youlan Weiser, both initially belonged to opposite factions. Were it not for Ash's superior leadership skills in winning over the operators, the team would be riddled with internal conflict now.

It was only the Sword Maiden who was always kind and harmless from the start.

When Ash first discovered the true identities of Youlan Weiser and Black and White Witch, he almost thought the summoning system could only find naughty women. This time, with cute, well-behaved tool people in the pool, it seems previous missteps were mere strokes of bad luck, and Ash could finally look forward to recruiting truly obedient and well-behaved operators!

Besides, the card pool also features limited items like 'Ruby Chains,' 'Hunter's List,' and limited resources like 'Flowing Gold Stream' and 'Fate Q&A Room.' Ash isn't sure about the 'Ruby Chains,' while the 'Hunter's List' seems related to the Ruby Mountain mage list system. As for 'Flowing Gold Stream' and 'Fate Q&A Room,' Ash finds them a bit baffling.

Aren't these resources points in the Void Realm? How can they be drawn?

Ash speculates this might be about placing resources in a heavenly kingdom, much like the Wish Pool in the Heavenly Kingdom of Thousand Wishes. He'd heard before that the kingdom's resources are pilfered from the Void Realm, but hadn't truly felt it—until he saw the summoning system steal the Flowing Gold River and Fate Q&A Room. Reflecting on how the starry sky of Dazzling Star and Allstars is essentially hell's heavenly curtain, Ash can't help but wonder if the Void Realm was once rich in resources, now almost a depleted and declining time.

Is Ruby Mountain bare because it was robbed clean?

Instead of being excited about outfits like Ash used to be, he now didn't really care. If the date went well tonight, Ash could even help the Sword Maiden change her clothes in person, so why bother with draws?

What really irked Ash was that there were outfits for Youlan Weiser in the package. How many times did this broken system want to remind Ash that Vesper was already dead?

"Mr. Heath..."

"Just call me Ash." Ash smiled warmly at his new operative, "I'll call you maid... no, Filly."

Do I look like a maid?

Filly looked at herself, wondering if she seemed too plain, and asked, "Um... aren't you going to kill this bad woman?"

"No, hold on. Let me see if there's a tool that makes her unable to live or die."

"You're already the torture device I can't stand." Vishi said leisurely, "I hate looking men in the eye. Want to stare at me for a few minutes to make me uncomfortable?"

"Can demigods brainwash people with their gaze? I'll remember this piece of knowledge." Ash opened the purchase center, a bit annoyed—he didn't have enough points to buy the 328-point Source Crystal pack.

Back in Senluo, to keep the Silver Lamp from burning out, he bought the 328-point Source Crystal pack, using nearly all the Source Crystals as a reserve for Silver Lamp.

Points could mostly be exchanged from Ash's Technique Spirit purchases. Now he only had over two hundred points left, enough to buy just one bag of Source Crystals, a total of 40 Source Crystals, plus two days of sign-ins for a total of 42, allowing for 14 draws.

But if there's no money, nothing can be done...

While thinking this, Ash suddenly noticed a little red dot on the upper left "mail" icon. When he clicked it open, he found a reward gift—

"Dear Operative,"

"Thank you for your understanding and support of the 'Mage's Handbook' over the past six months! Your 'Ten-consecutive Search Voucher' and 'Fashion Random Voucher' have been issued, please collect them promptly."

"Attachment: 'Ten-consecutive Search Voucher' and 'Fashion Gift Package'"

"Mage's Handbook Operations Team (Issued after six months)"

There's actually an operations team?

Ash scratched his head and took a look at the attachment. The ten-consecutive voucher was self-explanatory, while the fashion gift package was described as "Operatives' leftover outfits, specially found from the warehouse by the operations team as a gift, representing their recognition of the players"—such a stingy description.

However, when he opened it, Ash's eyes lit up:

"Moving Calamity·Observer"

"Slaughtering Sword Demon·Sword Maiden"

"Fallen Princess·Witch"

"Evil Mirror Master·Vesper"

Each outfit had a dark, cold, gray tone, coupled with everyone's stern, cruel expressions in the illustrations, it actually matched Ash's aesthetics. The Sword Maiden became cruel, the Witch crazed, Vesper became an indifferent tyrant hosting Evil Mages, and he turned into a maniac igniting the world... this illustration setting was quite cool.

But he still wanted to draw the Bride outfits for everyone.

However, Ash found it odd that while these outfits were visually appealing, they lacked any attributes, unlike the previous outfits he had drawn! Did they want them to wear these outfits or not?

Ash opened the search interface, took a deep breath, and chose to search!

"Confirm to consume 42 Source Crystals and the Ten-consecutive Search Voucher for 24 searches?"

"Confirm!"

First, 14 bursts of white light wasted Ash's Source Crystals—Energy Potions, Experience Potions, Career Potions. Then followed by 7 bursts of purple light, which were 2 bottles of Technique Spirit Joy Potion, 2 bottles of Pure Spirit Light Cocktail, and 3 bottles of Ruby Essence.

Finally, 3 bursts of golden light popped up!

"Ruby Chain"!

"Dark Silver Lamp Youlan Weiser"!

And... "Demon Maid"!

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

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