381: Chapter 381 There's no such thing as a free lunch.

The wishing coin lay quietly in his palm, its icy touch making Chen You's blood boil with excitement.

He casually stuffed the coin, engraved with a bizarre smiling face, into his backpack and turned his gaze toward the Nine Nether Heaven-Devouring Kun.

Its massive body, which had once blotted out the sky, was now fixed at a length of about ten meters.

After all, this was a main city; if there were no restrictions, the Nine Nether Heaven-Devouring Kun would likely have crushed the place into ruins.

The Kun's deep blue skin still shimmered with galaxy-like patterns, and the palace on its back had also shrunk proportionally.

The world-destroying pressure was gone, but as a mount, it was still incredibly flashy.

Chen You leaped up and landed steadily on a flat area of the Kun's back.

The surface felt soft and even had a temperature-regulating effect.

As expected of a mythological-grade transport tool, its comfort level was maxed out.

"Mentor!"

A gruff voice exploded from below.

Sander rushed over with heavy strides, her two-meter-tall muscular frame somehow managing a frantic, shuffling run.

She looked up, her face full of coarse flesh written with unwillingness and fanaticism.

"Where are you going? Take me with you! I can still train!"

Sitting on the Kun's back, Chen You looked down at the City Lord of Cangxing City.

Right now, he just wanted to quickly ditch this fanatical fan he had completely hoodwinked and find that "wishing machine."

"Sander," Chen You said, folding his hands with a deep tone, "Do you know why the top artists throughout history choose to wander during their peak?"

Sander froze, shaking her head blankly.

"Because the true essence of art lies not in mechanical repetition, but in the vastness of the world." Chen You pointed to the night sky above.

"Your current state is like a bowstring pulled to its absolute limit."

"If you keep training, not only will you fail to progress, but you'll lose that precious 'sense of brokenness.'"

Sander's pupils constricted, and she suddenly clutched her chest.

"I understand..." she muttered to herself. "Mentor, you are going to find new inspiration for my sake! You are going to use this vast world to cleanse my soul of its worldly stains!"

"It's good that you understand," Chen You said, his expression unchanged. "Go back and sleep. Without my permission, you are not allowed to touch a basketball again."

With that, he sent out a mental command.

The Nine Nether Heaven-Devouring Kun let out a low cry, its tail fin swaying as it carried Chen You slowly toward the city gates.

Flying was prohibited in the main city, so it could only hover half a meter off the ground, gliding along the streets in a manner that was extremely flashy yet slightly stifling.

Players and NPCs along the way made way for them; once they saw it was Chen You, they immediately relaxed.

Chen You sat upright on the Kun's back, sporting the dark-gold "destiny sovereign" title and enjoying the attention of the masses while calculating the location of the wishing machine.

A Hidden Unique Quest.

The value of those words went without saying.

Moreover, this was a complete stroke of luck. He absolutely couldn't let a free opportunity slip away!

The moment he passed through the tall city gates and stepped beyond the boundaries of Cangxing City,

A system notification rang in his ear.

[System Notification: You have left the main city area. Restrictions lifted.]

BOOM!

The Nine Nether Heaven-Devouring Kun beneath him suddenly erupted with a powerful surge of energy.

Its ten-meter body expanded rapidly against the wind, its deep blue light illuminating the surrounding wilderness.

A hundred meters, a thousand meters...

In the blink of an eye, a true void behemoth stretched across the horizon.

Its massive twin fins unfurled, slicing through the clouds in the night sky.

Gales howled, and sand and stones on the ground were swept into the air.

Chen You stood on the Kun's back, which was now as wide as a plaza, feeling the wind rushing against him.

"Take off."

The giant Kun raised its head, its tail fin striking the void heavily.

Visible ripples appeared in space as the massive body turned into a streak of deep blue light, soaring into the sky.

The acceleration was intense, but an invisible shield on the Kun's back perfectly blocked the high-altitude air pressure and cold currents.

Chen You pulled up the map and began to wander aimlessly over the wilderness maps.

Something like a wishing machine didn't sound like a fixed NPC; it was likely some kind of special wandering unit.

He currently had 100 points of Luck; logically, just wandering around should trigger an encounter. Maybe the thing would even fly straight into the Kun's mouth.

However...

One hour passed.

Two hours passed.

The horizon turned pale as the first light of dawn pierced the sea of clouds, shining on Chen You's somewhat stiff face.

Nothing.

Forget the wishing machine; he hadn't even encountered a single hidden mob with a question mark.

Chen You sat on the Kun's back and yawned.

Looking at high-altitude scenery for too long led to aesthetic fatigue, especially this kind of aimless wandering—it was practically mental torture.

"This shouldn't be happening."

Chen You rubbed his chin.

With 100 Luck, even if he didn't get an artifact, not even finding a quest item? Was that reasonable?

He decided to change his strategy.

Since he couldn't find it in the wild, he'd try his luck in crowded places.

The giant Kun changed direction and flew toward the nearest neutral main city, "Stormhorn."

As he approached the city, Chen You chose to land outside the gates, then unsummoned his mount and walked in.

Stormhorn was already bustling in the morning, with the cries of vendors and players shouting for groups intertwined.

Chen You strode into the city, his eyes scanning the head of every NPC.

According to his years of experience in online games, players with high Luck had a very high probability of triggering hidden dialogue or special rewards when talking to NPCs.

He walked up to an NPC stall selling grilled meat.

"Boss, give me a skewer of meat." Chen You handed over a silver coin while puffing out his chest to make the "destiny sovereign" title above his head more prominent.

The boss took the silver coin and roughly shoved a sizzling, oily skewer of meat into Chen You's hand.

"Three copper change. Take it and go, don't block the people behind you."

Chen You stared at the three copper coins in his hand, stunned.

No hidden plot? No falling to their knees in worship?

Not even a polite 'I see you have a Singular Skeletal Structure, young man, take this ancestral secret manual'?

He refused to believe it.

He walked to a street corner and stopped a hunched old man who was sweeping the floor.

This appearance was definitely that of a hidden master.

"Old sir, how many years have you been sweeping here in Stormhorn? Have you ever seen any peculiar machines?" Chen You asked respectfully, his voice full of hints.

The old man stopped his broom, his cloudy eyes looking Chen You up and down.

"Lunatic."

The old man spat, shouldered his broom, and turned to leave, muttering curses.

"Dressed like a decent person, but his brain doesn't work."

"A machine? You look like a machine to me."

Chen You stood frozen in the wind.

...

The noon sun was a bit dazzling, and the streets of Stormhorn were teeming with people.

Chen You crouched on the stone steps of the fountain at the edge of the plaza, taking a fierce bite of the grilled meat in his hand.

He understood.

He understood completely.

Luck +100 was indeed incredible, but a trigger of this heaven-defying level definitely couldn't be without limits.

If Luck were always active, he could just stand in the main city plaza every day and wait for artifacts and mythological skill books to fall from the sky.

In less than a month, he could drain all the resources of the Source Realm.

The system wouldn't allow such a balance-breaking loophole to exist.

"Internal CD! There's definitely an internal cooldown!"

Chen You swallowed the meat and brushed off the crumbs from his hands.

This kind of high-level trigger mechanism either had an extremely long cooldown or followed some kind of 'Metaphysical Law of Conservation.'

He had just gotten a unique hidden quest for free; the system had likely put him on a 'blacklist' for a short time. Right now, if he went to buy a lottery ticket, he probably wouldn't even win a consolation prize.

Having figured this out, Chen You was no longer in a hurry.

The wishing coin was in his bag anyway; the quest wasn't going anywhere.

Once the 'CD' was up in a few days, he'd stroll around the streets again, and maybe that wishing machine would pop out on its own.

He glanced at his skill bar.

The mythological skill "Shadow Clone" still had over ten minutes of cooldown.

"Time to log off."

Chen You stood up and stretched.