First, there were changes inside the Pure White Mini Holy Grail.
When the female shop owner picked up the Pure White Mini Holy Grail, she saw ten strange little Runes, with Black Flame and red backgrounds, swirling inside the cup, growing larger and smaller as they moved about. When they touched the walls of the cup or crossed the plane of the cup’s rim, they vanished like sandcastles obliterated by a 220-pound child, only to reemerge from the bottom of the cup. The number of Runes always remained at ten.
Without much thought, Ren Suo immediately realized this must be the visualization of the Desire Collection Amount. After all, the oddities of the Pure White Mini Holy Grail had begun to manifest only after he had collected 10,000 Desires.
Of course, more importantly, these Runes subtly induced discomfort. They were reminiscent of the characters Ren Suo had seen scrawled in public toilets—yes, just like those left by people who, having no toilet paper, used their hands instead. Then, suddenly possessed by the spirit of Wang Xizhi, they would excitedly use feces as ink and fingers as a brush to scribble nonsense on the toilet walls and doors.
Given that these Runes were not the color of feces, they looked more like writings a dying person might scrawl in their own blood, exuding an eerie aura.
Next, the exchange list underwent a price reduction:
"A cup of 1% Prayer Concentration Holy Water: 1 Merit Point"
"A cup of 10% Prayer Concentration Holy Water: 25 Merit Points"
With Ren Suo’s "Plucking Feathers from a Flying Goose," he could now get 1% Prayer Concentration Holy Water completely free of charge—as "Plucking Feathers from a Flying Goose" was guaranteed to trigger, and its minimum benefit was a ’-1 Merit Point expenditure.’
Although Ren Suo was now quite capable of extracting keyphrases on his own, having official system assistance was a relief—he could now devote more attention to assessing the ’significance’ of each keyphrase to concoct the perfect flavor.
Subsequently, two new exchange items appeared:
"A cup of 1% Desire Concentration Sacred Wine: 5 Merit Points"
"A cup of 10% Desire Concentration Sacred Wine: 40 Merit Points"
The game, seemingly aware of the relatively high cost, directly revealed the effects of the Sacred Wine:
"Desire Holy Wine: A strange beverage produced when supreme power is infused with Desire. Upon consumption, receive hints from the Sea of Desires, randomly learning 1 to 5 fundamental cravings of the customer."
Ren Suo understood at a glance—this was specifically meant for those who skipped out on the bill and for Demons and Ghosts without keyphrases.
Compared to Prayer Holy Water, Desire Holy Wine was more targeted but also pricier; however, it could be worth drinking when facing particularly troublesome bosses. Moreover, unlike the Holy Water that had to be consumed in advance, the decision to drink Sacred Wine could be made after listening to someone’s life story, acting as a trump card.
Overall, the changes to the Pure White Mini Holy Grail were positive. With only 26 Merit Points left, Ren Suo couldn’t afford much squandering. Using "Plucking Feathers from a Flying Goose" to get 1% concentration Holy Water for free, Ren Suo felt he had managed to snag a bargain from the Mini-World Game Console.
The Mini-World Game Console was so benevolent, it was surely operating at a loss!
This must have been a benefit for meeting the conditions in advance, or perhaps... the cities with the highest Concealment Concentration were just too difficult, compelling the game to tilt the benefits slightly in this aspect to increase the players’ success rate.
But if players didn’t have the Pure White Mini Holy Grail, wouldn’t they have to rely solely on themselves the whole way?
Or does the Mini Holy Grail simply expedite the appearance of the Krypton Gold channel and lower the exchange prices? But how could rewards from one game pay for the Krypton Gold in another?
Ren Suo kept his doubts to himself, deciding to exchange for a cup of Holy Water and continue listening to the story of the Zashiki-warashi.
The little girl with white hair, Mako, remembered little of her life as a human. She only recalled memories after her Resurrection:
"I was playing outside and accidentally fell to my death. It seems they never found my body. When I awoke, besides my hair turning ashen, everything else seemed unchanged."
"Only now, ordinary people seemed unable to see me; only innocent young children could."
"I was very scared because this was twenty-three years into the future after my death. I didn’t understand anything, didn’t know anything, couldn’t do anything—and no adult could see me..." Mako’s face revealed a look of bewilderment, much like a lost child.
"Then I walked and walked, until I encountered Natsuya."
Mako patted Natsuya’s head and said, "It was like Destiny; I recognized at first glance that she was my sister’s daughter. When she saw me, she grabbed my hand, wanting to be friends, and invited me home."
"I saw my sister, all grown up. That little tag-along who used to follow me everywhere is now a mother herself. Just like our own mother, she’s hardworking, busy, always smiling... and she loves chatting with the other housewives nearby."
"Her lover was a very ordinary man, much like my father. Although he had smelly feet and a bit of a temper, and would come home drunk and agitated after social engagements, on his free days, he would always take his wife and daughter out to play, for picnics, or on trips..."
"A very ordinary yet enviable family. If I were still alive, I probably would have embraced such simple joys and grown up slowly, just like Natsuya..."
"I later hid in their home. Whenever Natsuya wanted to play with me, I’d appear; otherwise, I’d stay hidden."
"And after I started living there, their family’s luck kept getting better. They earned more money and had more leisure time, allowing them more opportunities to go out and play."
"One day, while they were away on a trip, I was home watching TV. Bored, I wandered around the house and found a diary with a password on the desk in my sister’s bedroom."
"I tried a few times—Natsuya’s birthday, her own birthday, her husband’s birthday, my birthday—none of them were right."
Mako looked at the female shop owner and said softly,
"It was my death anniversary."
"Actually, I was quite happy at that moment. As I flipped through the diary, I followed my sister’s emotional journey as she grew up: seeing her dislike for the sweaty Little Fatty who sat next to her in elementary school, her naive crush on a senior in middle school, her meeting her current husband in high school, and her experiences in college..."
"...and I also saw her guilt over my death."
Mako’s white hair grew longer, and the fingernails on both her hands sharpened. She gently brushed her nails against Natsuya’s sleeping face and whispered,
"I didn’t fall. It was during a break when my sister, wanting to startle me, pushed me."
"After I fell, she didn’t know what to do and didn’t dare tell the adults. Frightened of being scolded and unsure how to act, she just wandered around in the woods. Later, when the adults came looking and asked where I was, she lowered her head and said she didn’t know."
"The weather was bad then, so the adults couldn’t search the forest. My sister began to wail, and the adults, thinking she was upset because she couldn’t find her older sister, didn’t suspect her."
"Eventually, I was declared missing. Although my father and mother were heartbroken, they still had my sister. And this incident remained buried deep in my sister’s heart, revealed only between the lines of her diary."
Mako looked at the female shop owner, her lips blood-red, her skin like snow, her eyes rolled back, resembling a Ghost God.
"I’m deeply troubled."
"I feel the food here can soothe my troubles, so I came."
"If you can’t relieve my vexation..."
Mako held Natsuya, her left hand gently wrapping around Natsuya’s neck, her sharp nails pressing against her throat.
"I’ll just have to find my own way to alleviate my vexation a bit..."
Bringing a hostage to a meal was a first for Ren Suo.
The keywords were indeed three: sister, growth, happiness.
But Ren Suo felt that if he added ’family love’ to the sushi, it might just aggravate her.
If he added ’Understanding’ + ’Letting Go,’ the customer might become enraged: ’It’s not you who died, how can you just talk about letting go? Come here, let me kill you once, and then you can see if you can forgive me!’
If he added ’Joy’... the saying, ’The most important thing in life is to be happy,’ is ineffective on Ghosts.
Ren Suo felt deeply vexed. If it were any other customer, he would have already mixed in ’Understanding,’ ’Letting Go,’ ’Family Love,’ and ’Joy’—that concoction of mustard and crap would surely make them steam with rage.
But now, the other party was holding a hostage, and Ren Suo couldn’t just ignore it. Even if he chose not to play Ghost Walking in Tokyo, the problem between Mako and Natsuya would still exist.
Ren Suo knew many tragic events were happening in the world, and he couldn’t address them all. But when such things occurred right before his eyes, if he didn’t intervene, he felt he would be betraying the values acquired from his nine years of compulsory education and the powerful functions of the Mini-World Game Console.
Ren Suo had the female shop owner pick up the Pure White Mini Holy Grail again and chose to purchase the "Desire Holy Wine."
"Alright, let’s give it a try then," he thought. "Let’s see if the Sacred Wine can truly reveal the other person’s ’fundamental cravings’."