Honkai Star Rail: I must live a peaceful life

"Never mind all that—could you do that again?" Milo shook his head, a hint of amusement in his voice.

"Huh?" Eureka looked puzzled.

"What you asked at the door just now—could you ask it again?" Milo explained.

"'How's my weapon repair coming along, and about how much longer will it take?'" Eureka repeated uncertainly. "You mean that?"

"Yes, exactly that." Milo nodded and replied with exaggerated seriousness. "It'll take a while longer, but if you're willing to pay extra, I could speed things up."

"You really are something..." Eureka was speechless. So you're trying to squeeze more money out of me before leaving, huh?

She didn't mind that Milo had deliberately delayed the delivery when he could have finished earlier. He named his price, and if she could accept it, that was that.

Eureka pulled out a Tesser gold coin and tossed it to him, giving him a sidelong glance. "Can you speed it up to under two minutes?"

Not bad at all, Milo thought as he eyed the short-haired girl. Though he had no particular impression of her before, it was clear now that she was quite wealthy.

Tesser gold coins, Ell silver coins, and Nat copper coins—this was the Empire's currency system from centuries ago. Even with the widespread adoption of personal terminals and virtual currency, it hadn't been abolished. However, gold coins were no longer minted due to material constraints.

The long-unchanged exchange rate was 1:25:2000 between the three currencies, with virtual currency having the same purchasing power as copper coins. In theory, this gold coin was worth 2,000, but that wasn't a realistic valuation anymore.

These days, a Tesser gold coin was worth more than that just for its material value alone. Collectors would easily pay double, and that would be considered cheap. In this lawless area, getting over 10,000 for it wouldn't be unusual.

And she just casually tossed over a Tesser gold coin just to speed things up—this girl was truly loaded.

Seeing the money, Milo got serious. He activated his ability, and the scattered components on the table naturally levitated, rotating into approximate positions before self-assembling and interlocking.

Electric fields flickered between the parts, maintaining the connection of alchemical circuits. The components joined at intricate angles, as if an invisible hand had compressed them together, transforming them back into the original mechanical greatsword.

No—this was even better than the original weapon. The blade gleamed with a cold light, inscribed with enhancement runes, or rather, miniature alchemical arrays. It could directly draw external energy for power, or increase output through personal energy supply.

"There you go, under two minutes." Milo waved his hand, controlling the mechanical greatsword to float before Eureka, his tone casual and natural, showing neither pride nor satisfaction.

This attitude struck Eureka as odd, yet somehow familiar—it reminded her of how her grandfather used to be.

Though the original scene had faded from memory, it now returned like a prompt while reciting a lesson. The parallels between then and now were truly striking.

Perhaps all exceptional people were cut from the same cloth?

"Now then, shall we leave this place?" Milo suggested as he stood up. "This spot isn't suitable for intense fighting."

"Fine by me. I'm not familiar with this area yet, so you lead the way," Eureka nodded in agreement, naturally making way for Milo.

Milo: Can I mention that I'm not really familiar with it either?

Never mind that he, Milo, was such a homebody he relied on mooching off his neighbors' experimental dishes—given her background, she might have actually spent more time here than he had.

Milo shook his head internally but said nothing. This was the old city district after all, and abandoned places weren't hard to find. He'd just look for hiding spots based on his escape route criteria.

Though shaking off the Lightless Wings' pursuers was unlikely—they were nearby, and there wasn't enough time to eliminate traces—an ambush from a defensive position was still feasible.

After all, with sixteen against one, the advantage was theirs. How could they lose with such overwhelming force? Even though the enemy had succeeded in a counterattack last time, they were probably in bad shape now.

Even knowing there might be an ambush, they'd definitely charge in head-on—that was the optimal strategy when you had overwhelming force. At most they'd maintain basic caution, but detecting Milo beforehand was impossible.

Actually, being detected would be abnormal. With such a massive advantage on our side, anyone focusing entirely on defense must have a screw loose.

Milo led the way toward the abandoned areas, with the two walking naturally side by side.

The street lamps gradually changed from pristine to deteriorating, their poles showing rust and moss, some even missing chunks. The buildings increasingly resembled abandoned construction projects.

Once the surroundings had quieted enough that footsteps and breathing became noticeable, circles of faint light wove around Milo, forming nested arrays that constructed a spherical barrier, isolating the internal environment from its surroundings.

"Light Concealment, Sound Suppression." Milo intoned the incantation. In classical mystical arts, gestures and incantations had tangible enhancing effects—many even functioned like confirmation buttons, requiring the name to be spoken to take effect.

Eureka glanced at Milo in surprise, her thoughts aligning with his—both felt they'd encountered a hidden SSR-rare entity. In reality, they had been colleagues before coming to this lawless area.

Classical mysticism and contemporary mysteries weren't of the same system. It was difficult to learn and master, requiring self-exploration. Among ten thousand mystics, there might be ten thousand and one different array systems, yet they shared a commonality—their effects left no conventional traces.

This was actually quite normal. After all, classical mysticism didn't even involve physical enhancement, theoretically had no realm levels, so how could it produce obvious traces like energy fluctuations? Only fellow mystics had any chance of detection.

This was currently a very beneficial effect for Milo, incredibly convenient for concealing his presence.

He wasn't worried about being discovered. Mystics were truly rare—in all of York City, perhaps only he and Jessica understood classical mysticism.

Moreover, the Lightless Wings' elite assassins were mostly internally trained, all from the same system for better coordination in joint kills—completely different from the more intermediary-natured, elite-diverse Disorder Assembly.

If they were being pursued by the Disorder Assembly, Milo would worry about detection, since he learned his mystical arts from there, and most of the Astral Sound leadership had previously worked for the Assembly. But the Lightless Wings...

Sorry, but you're really not qualified for this.

End of Chapter