[Challenge Mission: Ode to the Anemo Archon by the Sea]
[Help Barbatos lead the students of Haizhou Academy in a seaside performance of a beautiful symphony.]
[Reward upon completion: 4,800 Primogems and 4.8 million yuan in real-world currency]
After reading the system's mission prompt, Lu Chen exchanged a shocked glance with Raiden Ei.
"What's wrong?" Raiden Ei, unable to see the system's content, asked in confusion. "Why that expression?"
Lu Chen dropped onto the couch, stunned by the mention of 4,800 Primogems and over four million yuan.
That's thirty pulls!
But after a moment of reflection, he realized that a reward this generous must come with a serious challenge.
This task was absolutely absurd. Getting the Electro Archon into a school was hard enough—now they wanted to bring in Barbatos, the Anemo Archon too?
"Ode to the Anemo Archon by the Sea"… Did they seriously want Venti to act as a music teacher and lead students in a beachside choral performance?
This was peak performance art.
Did this ridiculous "Reality Teyvat System" even know what it was doing...
Raiden Ei watched Lu Chen's expression shift from joy to concern and back again, his face a whirlwind of emotions...
So she silently took a bite of her small cake.
She'd noticed back in Inazuma that Lu Chen often fell into strange bouts of deep thought. After seeing it enough times, she stopped being surprised.
After a long pause, Lu Chen finally turned to her.
"Ei, did anyone come by the house today? Did you see Venti?"
"Venti?" Raiden Ei furrowed her elegant brows, trying to recall the name.
"Who's that?"
"Oh, right!" Lu Chen quickly corrected himself, realizing "Venti" wasn't a well-known name. "Barbatos!"
"Barbatos!?" Raiden Ei set down her cake. "The Anemo Archon of Mondstadt? He's descended into this world too?"
"Yep. He's arrived in the real world," Lu Chen said, glancing at the time. Based on past experience, Venti should've shown up already.
"No." Raiden Ei picked up another piece of cake. "The house has been quiet all day—except when I was cooking."
"…"
Lu Chen gave her a side glance. So you know how noisy you are when you cook?
It was loud enough that Old Zhang from downstairs came knocking repeatedly, and Lu Chen never knew how to explain it.
Every time, Old Zhang would sigh and grumble, "Kids these days…" before being escorted back downstairs by Lu Chen...
Back to the matter at hand.
Unlike Raiden Ei, Venti hadn't appeared directly in the house. That made things tricky.
Lu Chen stood, grabbed his coat, and decided to head out and search for him.
The Anemo Archon was carefree and unconventional. Unfamiliar with the rules of the real world, he could easily cause a scene...
"I'll come with you," Raiden Ei said, wiping her mouth and standing up.
Lu Chen turned to her. She explained, "Since Barbatos is here, I should meet him."
She went to the wardrobe, picked out a light pink coat from the clothes Lu Chen had bought her, stood in front of the mirror, and after a moment of thought, paired it with a vintage leather handbag.
Damn, the country bumpkin from back then really learned how to dress? Lu Chen couldn't help asking, "Where'd you learn that?"
"From TV," she replied.
Looks like aside from Inside Man, TV had given her some decent exposure...
Lu Chen understood why she was taking this so seriously. If it were just a regular Genshin character, she wouldn't care. But Venti was one of the Seven Archons of the mortal world.
After the Archon War, only seven victors remained on the continent of Teyvat. They built nations on the ruins of the fallen, marking the start of the age of the Seven Archons.
When the Seven once gathered, Raiden Ei—who had not yet become the Electro Archon—had met Barbatos briefly.
Lu Chen had also attended that legendary Seven Archons banquet. It was quite the spectacle.
A thousand years had passed. Of the original Seven, only three remained. To Raiden Ei, Barbatos was a "dear old friend" worth remembering.
They left the house together, searched the downstairs area, and then the neighborhood—but there was no sign of him.
"Where could Barbatos be…"
Lu Chen and Raiden Ei exchanged puzzled glances.
"If a powerful being entered my perception range, I'd notice immediately. But I haven't sensed anything unusual here," she said.
So, Venti hadn't descended nearby? Lu Chen's gaze drifted past Old Zhang playing chess downstairs and into the distance.
The neighborhood was calm and peaceful. Outside, traffic bustled.
Who knew where Venti had gone...
Just as Lu Chen was racking his brain, Old Zhang suddenly started shouting.
"Thief!"
"There's a thief in the building!"
Lu Chen walked over, puzzled. Old Zhang was in the park playing chess, complete with snacks and drinks, surrounded by his usual group of retirees.
Now, they were all on their feet, looking around.
"What's wrong, Mr. Zhang?"
Old Zhang was fuming, beard bristling. When he saw it was Lu Chen, he got even more worked up.
"I just crushed Old Li in chess, turned around—and my wine was gone! That was a gift from my youngest! I'd been saving it for years…"
Wine? Not money—wine?
Lu Chen looked over. The stone table had a chessboard and shot glasses for baijiu, but no wine bottle.
"That's what you get for showing off, ha ha ha..." Old Li mocked.
Old Zhang pointed at him, too angry to form a proper sentence. "You—you! You took it, didn't you? Terrible at chess and even worse as a person..."
The atmosphere flared up like dry grass meeting a spark. The old men launched into a full-on shouting match...
"Mr. Zhang, you guys go ahead and chat…"
Lu Chen quickly pulled Raiden Ei away from the chaos.
"Looks like our Wine Archon, Venti, might've descended here..." Lu Chen said confidently.
Ambushing a 70-something retiree? No sense of honor! Only Barbatos could pull something like that off.
"Do something useful, Barbatos!"
Raiden Ei couldn't help laughing, her amethyst eyes filled with amusement. "Honestly, the first time I met him, I got the feeling we'd never get along. And he really does love his wine."
Lu Chen sighed and walked out of the park into the bustling streets. If Venti had just vanished from there, then the only place left to search was the city streets.
It was rush hour, with traffic everywhere. Finding Venti now would be like finding a needle in a haystack...