Chapter 207: Feather of Balance

3:00 PM.

Sunlight slanted through the leaves of the small trees. Powders of various colors were scattered on the ground, and a few sparrows hopped on the fence, chirping endlessly.

“POP~”

With another soft sound, a cloud of blue powder billowed evenly from the box and immediately dispersed into the air, forming a hazy mist.

Under the sunlight, it even refracted into tiny, sparkling points of light.

“Alright! It’s a success!”

“We’re good to go!”

“Puru!”

Beside the box, two people and one ball high-fived and cheered in celebration.

“Hm?”

Suddenly realizing something was off, Lu Wei looked at Hess, completely baffled. “When did you get here?”

Hess: “Puru~”

Bai Ya: “Just now.”

Hess: “Pururu~”

Bai Ya: “He says he wants to eat the blue mushroom.”

“…”

“There are no mushrooms. Besides, you’ve got nothing better to do, right? Perfect. I’ve got a job for you.”

Lu Wei rolled his eyes, carried Hess back to the small wooden cabin, and put a “custom-made mini backpack” on him.

Back when they were in the forest, adhering to the principle of “even pets have to work,” he had asked Bai Ya to sew a bag for Hess.

And Bai Ya had indeed sewn one.

However, while Hess could “wear” it, his maximum Weight Carrying was only about two pounds.

Any heavier and he couldn’t move.

And even with just two pounds, he moved incredibly slowly, like a turtle crawling.

Of course, Lu Wei wasn’t about to compromise their travel speed just to lighten his own load by two pounds, so he had to give up on the idea.

But ever since getting the backpack, Hess could occasionally be put to good use.

Picking up a small stone from the ground, Lu Wei gestured with it in front of Hess, then pointed to the small river not far away and gave his order:

“Go to the river and bring back some pebbles.”

“Puru?”

Hess’s eyes were full of confusion as he tried to pretend he didn’t understand.

But when he saw Bai Ya walk over, he immediately knew playing dumb wouldn’t work. Reluctantly, he shouldered his bag and trudged towards the river.

“Why are you making Hess collect stones?” Bai Ya asked, a little confused.

“They’re to balance the weight in the boxes.”

Lu Wei went back inside and explained while sorting through a pile of scrap metal in the corner:

“This way, customers can’t screen the boxes by weight. The smell needs to be treated, too.”

“Oh, I see.”

Bai Ya nodded, her absentminded expression making it clear she wasn’t really interested in the details.

A moment later, she couldn’t hold back any longer and asked about Mirana again.

“By the way, have you gone to see Mirana since you got back? To talk to her?”

‘Are you ever going to drop it?’

Lu Wei turned his head and emphasized for the last time, “No! She betrayed Furen. What is there for me to talk to her about!”

Bai Ya pursed her lips gently. “But I feel like she must have had her reasons…”

‘Yeah, to heal Kairos’s leg.’

‘I really don’t know what she was thinking.’

“No matter what her reasons were, a betrayal is a betrayal. There’s no excusing it.”

“Excusing? Excusing what?”

“It means to forgive. It can’t be forgiven.”

“Oh… How about I go talk to her, then?”

Bai Ya asked hesitantly, “Even if we’re not teammates anymore, shouldn’t we at least get the full story?”

“…”

‘I bet you just want to go see the movie!’

Batman: The Lu-Clown

The thought made Lu Wei’s scalp tingle, and he immediately refused in a harsh tone:

“You’re not allowed to go! Starting today, we have nothing to do with her!”

“Huh? What if we run into her on the street…”

“Then we act like we don’t know her!”

“Oh, I see…”

Seeing how much Lu Wei seemed to hate Mirana’s “betrayal,” Bai Ya finally shut her mouth and didn’t say anything more.

She just quietly returned to her bedroom and took out a small notebook from under her pillow.

Flipping to the first page, she saw three names written there—

[Lu Wei]

[Furen]

[Mirana]

This was clearly the “whitelist” she had just written yesterday.

It was already pitifully short, and now…

“Sigh.”

Sighing, Bai Ya picked up her pen and gently crossed out the last name.

By five in the afternoon, thanks to Bai Ya’s efforts, all 20 “Equipment blind boxes” were complete.

Nine Ordinary Level, six Rare Level, four Extraordinary Level, and one Legendary Level.

‘Hmm… clearly, this is a bit too generous.’

However, this was just the initial ratio. After all, to build a reputation, he had to give the customers a little taste of success first.

Once the market was established, Lu Wei would definitely make the entire Heitai Town understand the meaning of “theoretical probability.”

“One box is priced at 3 Silver Coins, so 20 boxes would be 6 Gold Coins.”

“So is this Sword the grand prize?”

“Huh? It has two lines of stats?”

“That must be worth at least 3 Gold Coins!”

“By that calculation, aren’t you making no profit at all?”

Beside him, Bai Ya stared at the gleaming silver One-handed Sword in Lu Wei’s hand, a look of astonishment on her face.

Little did she know, this was all part of Lu Wei’s plan.

He had just bought this Sword from the Black Market this morning, and it was indeed worth 3 Gold Coins.

But the only person who could possibly pick the “grand prize blind box” was Reck.

After all, just yesterday he had promised to give him a One-handed Sword with two lines of stats.

Since he was going to give it away anyway, he might as well use this opportunity to do some promotion for himself.

On one hand, he could give the Sword to Reck through “legitimate” means.

On the other hand, it would also make others believe that there really was a “grand prize” in the blind boxes.

“You’ll understand tomorrow.”

Too lazy to explain to Bai Ya, Lu Wei placed the Sword into a marked box and gently closed the lid.

He stood up, dusted off his hands, and turned his head to ask, “By the way, what time did you agree to meet Marcus and the others?”

Bai Ya replied, “Six o’clock, at the Sunken Ship Bay Tavern.”

“Alright, let’s get ready. We’ll head out soon.”

The blind boxes were ready, and the “actor” was about to take his place… Lu Wei was full of confidence in this new project. He tossed out that last sentence and went back to his room, planning to rest up so he could have a few extra drinks tonight.

Bai Ya, however, was quite diligent. She planned to use the time before they left to build the wooden trough she hadn’t gotten to earlier.

“First, I’ll nail these two pieces together, and then… huh?”

Holding two wooden planks, she suddenly caught sight of something small in the dirt out of the corner of her eye.

She put down the planks and picked it up. It was a wooden twenty-sided die.

“Captain, look~”

She got up and ran to the window, pushing it open from the outside and holding up the die to show it off. “I just found this in the yard~”

“…”

Lu Wei had been lying on his bed, fantasizing about whether Freya would “sacrifice herself” for Furen. When he sat up and saw it, his expression immediately turned strange.

‘Well now, feudal superstitions are making a comeback!’

‘Hmph, this just proves it. This thing is ultimately unreliable.’

‘The day’s almost over, and I haven’t had any bad luck.’

‘In fact, everything has gone smoothly.’

“Just leave it there.”

Muttering to himself, Lu Wei lay back down and continued his fantasy from where he’d left off.

Bai Ya placed the die on the windowsill and went back to building the wooden trough.

“BANG BANG BANG~”

Soon, the sound of hammering nails came from outside the window.

But after just a few moments of hammering, the sound changed to the CLATTERING of stones, mixed with Hess’s whimpers.

“Puru?”

“Alright, alright, that’s enough.”

“Pururu…”

“Mhm, good work. I’ll take you out for a drink tonight.”

“Purururu!!!”

“Hey, don’t be in such a hurry. We’ll go in a bit… Huh? What’s this?”

Suddenly, Bai Ya’s voice stopped short.

A moment later, she was seen running back to the window, holding something else.

“Captain, Hess found this by the river.”

“…”

‘Dammit! I was just getting to the good part of my fantasy!’

Gritting his teeth, Lu Wei sat up again and glanced at the black feather in Bai Ya’s hand.

“Seriously, why are you making such a big deal out of a feather???”

“Why are you yelling at me?”

Bai Ya pursed her lips, aggrieved. “It’s not a feather. It looks like one, but it feels like metal.”

‘So it’s a metal feather, then.’

‘It’s not like similar accessories don’t exist.’

“Toss it over here, let me see.”

Still too lazy to get out of bed, Lu Wei muttered impatiently.

Bai Ya, also unhappy with his attitude, tossed the feather to him through the window and went back to hammering, pouting.

‘It’s obviously a Cloak clasp or a hat ornament.’

Lu Wei caught the feather, made his initial judgment, and then used Precise Identification.

[Feather of Balance]

[Species: Accessory]

[Level: Rare]

[Value: 25 gold]

[Introduction: A special seven-inch-long feather. It is one of the three identity verification tokens for core members of the Dusk Shadow Association: “Dynamic Balance,” “Static Balance,” and “Mental Balance.” Wearing it grants the “Dynamic Balance” effect.]

[Dynamic Balance: Passive Skill, no Magic Power Consumption, no Attribute requirements, requires “Pupil Color” and “Hair Color” verification.]

[The wearer will gain a theoretically perfect sense of balance, whether walking on the deck of a ship amidst giant waves, on a cable in a gale, or upon a spider’s silk as fine as a strand of hair.]

[Note: To achieve eternal balance, one must eternally advance.]