After bidding farewell to Shen Jiayi, Bai Ci and Qu Ling drove away together in the wedding planning team's car, parting ways later on during the journey.
The moment for the instance to end arrived right then. Bai Ci only had enough time to send out a police report, with no way of knowing if any relevant authorities would come to handle it.
Her vision flashed white, and in the next second, Bai Ci had already returned to her personal independent space.
After several rounds of remodeling, the space had transformed from its initial minimalist, cold style into something cozy. A soft suede recliner sat in the center, and a warm, gentle light bathed the entire area.
Bai Ci relaxed completely, collapsing straight into the recliner and letting out a long sigh.
This trip to Tianmi Village could certainly be considered a physically exhausting ordeal.
Setting aside all the work coordinating with the wedding planning team after entering the village, there was climbing through windows in the dead of night, escaping on a spaceship, and the final battle at the church—she had been running almost the entire time.
After working hard for six full days, her body was thoroughly exhausted, but her mind felt a bit lighter instead.
Bai Ci adjusted herself into a comfortable position against the back of the chair and pulled up the evaluation screen.
[Instance Name: Red Church]
[Basic Information]
Player: Bai Ci
Time Elapsed: 6 days, 2 hours, 11 minutes
Overall Evaluation: A
Actively advanced the plot, helped key characters embark on a new life, demonstrated strong insight and adaptability in the field, and successfully resolved the most urgent crisis at hand. However, hidden dangers still lurk in the shadows, waiting for a new cycle of growth.
[Basic Rewards]
Experience: 50
Points: 200
[Special Rewards]
1. Gift: Affection
I don't know. I love you.
(Effect: Can be used to enhance any owned item, adding a new mental-type trait effect to it. The higher the compatibility with the chosen item, the stronger the enhancement effect will be.)
Bai Ci scanned the A-rank evaluation, feeling a bit dissatisfied. But after a moment of calm reflection, she accepted it quietly.
Because the hidden dangers had not been fully eliminated, her evaluation stopped at an A, leaving her unable to achieve an S-rank perfect clearance.
Combining this with her experience from previous S-rank instances, she had already realized that the standard for obtaining an S-rank evaluation was to resolve the incident entirely, leaving absolutely no lingering issues.
Although the explosion at the Red Church had destroyed the Boss's main body and wiped out all the complicit wrongdoers in Tianmi Village, the Yilan Star species had existed on Earth for an unknown number of years, and it was highly likely they did not rely on this single location to multiply and thrive.
To say nothing of other places, just within that wedding planning company of theirs, quite a few employees had already been replaced by aliens.
The line in the evaluation, "hidden dangers still lurk in the shadows, waiting for a new cycle of growth," was indeed spot on.
Bai Ci felt a silent pang of regret, reminding herself to pay closer attention to this next time.
Speaking of which...
Bai Ci's thoughts drifted for a moment, her hand unconsciously caressing the ring on her left middle finger.
At the end of the instance, she had finally remembered why those red flowers soaking in the cultivation vats had looked so familiar.
In truth, it had been quite some time since she had thought of that person.
...
Bai Ci let herself sit in silence for a while. Once she had composed her emotions, she began to inspect the rewards from this instance.
The item she had obtained this time was called [Affection].
How should she put it? Bai Ci was already used to the fact that most of the gifts she received had names that gave no clue as to what they actually looked like.
She pulled the item from her backpack, and a small, delicate flower bud appeared in the palm of her hand.
Whether drawn out by Bai Ci's gaze or simply because of its internal mechanics, the flower bud slowly unfurled in her hand, eventually settling into a state of full, perfect bloom.
Affection is when the flower in your heart naturally blooms upon seeing you.
The flower's petals were triangular and angular, with a deep, pure black base, their edges tinged with a ring of dark red, resembling dried blood.
In any case, it was a species Bai Ci had never seen before in the real world.
The strange appearance of this item was nothing; the important part was its effect, which could add a mental-type effect to other items.
No matter the game, items capable of enchanting other items were always precious.
Bai Ci had seen some posts about items shared by the Explorers while browsing the forum, and this was no exception in Anomalous Infection.
This kind of enchantment would not affect the evaluation of the original item's strength.
In other words, suppose there were two items with similar effects: one had that effect naturally, while the other achieved it through an enchantment.
Under instance conditions where the first item's effect was restricted, the second item would not be restricted despite having the same effect.
Bai Ci decided to strike while the iron was hot. Since she had already taken it out, she might as well test the compatibility between [Affection] and her other items one by one, then choose the one with the highest compatibility to enhance.
The first item she took out was Gluttony.
The vine doll hadn't even gotten close to the dark red petals yet, but its originally curved brow and eyes instantly grew sharp.
A familiar, defensive hiss.
There was no need to even look at the panel; based on Gluttony's reaction alone, it was clear just how terrible the compatibility between the two items was.
Of course, out of caution, Bai Ci still took a glance.
0%.
Yes, it really was exceptionally poor.
She put Gluttony away and proceeded to compare the other items.
Red Thread Connection and Oblivion—the natural effects of these two items had absolutely nothing to do with the mental aspect. Naturally, their compatibility did not exceed 20%.
The compatibility for Body Stitching and Grow with Time was slightly higher, hovering around 50% to 60%.
Never-Ending Curtain Call caught Bai Ci by surprise, with its compatibility reaching as high as 82%. Was it because Fu Liu and Sang Lan shared a common language when it came to running alt accounts?
Matching all the way to the end, Bai Ci looked at her left middle finger. The compatibility between the ring, which had the words "Withered Flower" in its name, and Affection, which took the form of a flower, climbed all the way to 98% before finally stopping.
“This is the one,”
Bai Ci heard her own voice say.
Placing Affection onto the ring, its petals dissolved instantly, turning into fine particles of dark red and black light that surged entirely into the ring like threads.
The entire process ended very quickly. In just a few breaths, the enhancement was complete.
The ring's appearance did not change at all due to the infusion of Affection's power; it remained a simple, plain silver band.
However, looking closely at the effect description on the item panel, it had already been updated.
[Withered Flower and Ring]
Effect: 1. Can ward off low-to-mid-tier spiritual entity attacks. When the defense is triggered, the ring will heat up as a warning.
2. Before the ring is destroyed, it can continuously protect the holder's mental sea, isolating a certain degree of mental pollution, mind control, cognitive alteration, and other effects, while granting immunity to fatal mental damage.
Bai Ci looked at the effects with great satisfaction. After closing the item panel, she opened her personal player information panel.
Rate on N.U.
