Chapter 3: Did I Get Transported to the Tsukihime Set?
Wei Gong Shirou actually answered correctly by applying the templates of Clock Tower, Jewel Mage, and Brisach.
Little did he know, it was a complete cross-server chat.
So, Charlotte still wanted to continue probing whether Wei Gong Shirou was from Japan’s Hybrid family, Serpent Teeth Eight Families.
But halfway through typing, she was startled to find that Wei Gong had sent a message saying he had an urgent matter and would chat later, then went offline.
You ran away again!?
Looking at the grayed-out avatar of the lone figure, Miss Charlotte couldn't help but puff out her cheeks, stomping her foot in frustration.
Hmph, even if I haven't inherited the position of school director yet and my power is limited, I will uncover your secret sooner or later.
—
Avoiding the young lady's entanglement, Wei Gong Shirou let out a long sigh.
Phew… Alchemic noble family… When he heard that, his mind always recalled Goldolf, the chubby director from FGO, whose Alchemy specialty was 'turning rotten meat into marbled beef,' and who came from the Clock Tower's Department of Law.
However, his impression of the Clock Tower, that massive yet actually bloated magical association, was so poor that he didn't want to talk about it much. In the FGO timeline where human history was in crisis, the other two major organizations of the Mage's Association each showed their unique abilities, but only the Clock Tower performed poorly.
Moreover, the Clock Tower would issue 'Sealing Designations' for 'rare talents' and dispatch Seal Designation Enforcers to capture and 'reclaim' them.
What counts as a rare talent?
When Wei Gong Shirou hones his Projection Magic to its extreme, manifesting the Reality Marble, Unlimited Blade Works, in a human body, that would fall into this category—no, it's possible he would be subjected to a Sealing Designation as soon as he could project noble phantasms.
Therefore, even if the Clock Tower established schools and set up branches worldwide to recruit disciples, he found it hard to feel any goodwill. Rather, he should view those Western powers as hypothetical enemies.
However, Wei Gong Shirou's hasty logout this time wasn't entirely an excuse to escape.
Because he received an encrypted call from his bounty hunter teammate, Old Tang.
"Old Tang?"
"Haha, it's me. Wei Gong, my friend, there's news about the ancient sword 'gan jiang and mo ye' you were looking for!"
From the other end of the phone came pure American English and an eager tone, and the image of a man with drooping eyebrows and a very pleasant face immediately became clear in Wei Gong's mind.
Old Tang, full name Ronald Tang, seemed to be a Chinese-American. After dropping out of high school, he lived in the Brooklyn slums, usually taking on bounty hunter missions to make a living.
Old Tang claimed his abilities weren't strong, but he had great luck. Even on dangerous missions exploring ancient tombs and ruins, others would often be covered in injuries or wiped out in misfortune.
Only he, a natural at getting lost, could always manage to pull off incredible feats through guesswork, and after digging up ancient treasures, he would leisurely retreat unharmed, which led his peers to constantly curse him for having 'dog-shit luck'.
Wei Gong Shirou and Old Tang met during a previous mission. Old Tang was astonished when he saw Wei Gong Shirou effortlessly crafting Alchemic artifacts, and he cheerfully said, 'Just hand those broken antiques over to me, brother, and I'll resell them after packaging them as 'masterpieces excavated from a certain ancient ruin'… you can make a fortune just by lying down.'
Then he clapped his hands and laughed, saying, 'From now on, Old Tang will dig for treasures, and Wei Gong will forge fakes. Once your production increases, my friend, I'll find some connections in the hunter circle, open an agency, bring in a few more brothers, and we'll partner up to take on these kinds of missions. We'll all get rich together.'
'I'll provide the people, you provide the effort. We'll dig for treasures, open coffins, and get rich. We'll each go our own way, and we'll both have a bright future.'
Old Tang's vision was perfectly round, and Wei Gong complimented him, saying, 'My respects, my respects, let's work together. Also, 'we'll each go our own way' isn't used in that context; you've misused that Chinese proverb.'
At this, Old Tang exclaimed, 'My friend, you even know Chinese?'
Wei Gong Shirou rolled his eyes, thinking, 'In my previous life, I was a true-blooded Celestial.' Instead, he found it quite strange that Old Tang, a fake Celestial who grew up in the beautiful country, suddenly started spouting Chinese.
Old Tang waved his hand and said that he recently befriended a Stardust player whose IP was in China and ID was "Mingming." The other party was young and played Zerg well, seemingly able to compete with him, and he felt they could become friends. So, when he had nothing to do, he practiced Chinese typing for chatting. He said that if the company grew bigger and stronger in the future, they could also expand their business and develop branches in China. Learning Chinese had many benefits.
Wei Gong didn't really want to hear Old Tang boast about his 'lonely as snow' mastery in the Stardust field, because Wei Gong didn't play Stardust at all.
"Alright, let's get to the point."
"Okay, the news about 'gan jiang and mo ye' depends on this mission. It's still you and me teaming up, and thankfully, Old Tang, I've been single for many years and was quick enough to snatch two spots, haha... Actually, I also used a lot of connections. The mission location is in a southeastern city in China, rumored to be a Chu Kingdom relic from the pre-Qin period, most likely the 'Three Kings' Tomb.'"
The twin swords gan jiang and mo ye, Red A's most iconic weapons, were also the first noble phantasms Wei Gong decided to project. Legend has it that they possess mutual attraction and extreme sharpness, forged by a Wu Kingdom couple by fusing Five Mountain Essences, Six Heroic Golds, and human lives, and ultimately used to assassinate the King of Chu. Both the assassin and the King of Chu were buried in the Three Kings' Tomb.
Then Old Tang on the other end of the phone mumbled a few more words, saying he wanted to set up a chat group to meet the employer, or rather, the mission agent, whom he had befriended through his connections.
Subsequently, Wei Gong found himself added to a… newly created Stardust chat channel. There were only three people in the channel: Wei Gong, Old Tang, and someone with the ID "Wa Zhu."
" ? "
So your connections refer to gaming connections!
"What's wrong with gaming? Being able to establish connections through it is also a skill!" Old Tang retorted, his voice full of righteous indignation.
"See that 'Wa Zhu' in the channel? She's the highest person in charge of this mission. The team arrangements for hundreds of people are all her word. She's also a master Protoss player; even I have to concede defeat!"
Anyone who didn't know might think Old Tang was forming a team to compete in the Stardust IEM Grand Finals.
Wei Gong Shirou truly couldn't find an angle to play along, so he dryly recited, "Oh, oh, that's truly impressive! What about 'Mingming' whom you mentioned earlier? How's his skill?"
"Ah, Mingming is still young, a bit lacking. He's barely below me, ranking third, but he has a lot of room for improvement." Old Tang's tone on the other end of the phone was quite arrogant, as if he made a 'fingertip universe' gesture with his hand.
Next, Old Tang introduced his "good brother Wei Gong" to Wa Zhu and praised him profusely, determined to hype him up as a once-in-a-century prodigy…
Wa Zhu merely looked at the message without speaking. After a while, she typed a sentence:
"An Alchemic talent with autonomously awakened bloodline? Which Hybrid family's disciple is he?"
"Hybrid family?" Old Tang was dumbfounded, not knowing how to respond. He himself was only half an "underworld person" and didn't even know the truth about the Dragon Race world.
"It refers to the non-human race. In the distant past, the descendants born from the union of humans and non-human races were also called 'Hybrids.' These bloodlines often have physical data far exceeding ordinary people and possess special abilities."
Wei Gong provided timely Popular Science, but his mood was somewhat complex.
The last time he heard the word Hybrid was… the last time he played 'Tsukihime' in his previous life. The Tohno family, who adopted the protagonist Shiki Tohno, was a Hybrid family of humans and Oni.
Which timeline is this? How did I get transported to the Tsukihime set?