Anime Multiverse: Building a Pantheon from Scratch

Fingerprint scan—click. As Luo Shu pushed open the door and entered his home, he took a deep breath. Walking over to the sofa, he ignored the shattered window glass and the clothes that had been thrown to the floor earlier. Wordlessly, he reached into his pocket and pulled out two items: a deep blue gift box containing the "Heart of the Demon" and the dark red "Lucky Wallet."

He placed both Abyssal Artifacts on the glass coffee table, pushing aside the leftover cup noodles from the day before, then slumped onto the couch. His eyes locked onto the two items as he fell into deep thought, clearly considering how to handle them.

"Living Abyssal Artifacts, huh…" Luo Shu muttered as he stared at the pair in front of him. Then, he called out calmly, "System."

[I am here.]

"How do I communicate with these two Abyssal Artifacts?" he asked.

[Target artifacts are classified as 'living'—they possess a degree of instinctual behavior but lack developed intelligence. Dialogue is not possible.]

Luo Shu paused for a moment at the answer but then let out a quiet sigh of relief. If these two artifacts had no intelligence, then their previous behaviors—like the Lucky Wallet falling out of his pocket twice, or the Heart of the Demon leading Mira to him—could be chalked up to instinct. And if it was just instinct, it meant no mastermind was plotting against him from the shadows.

Of course, that was assuming the system's explanation wasn't a lie.

Luo Shu never thought too highly of himself. In his past life, he was just an ordinary guy. It wasn't like he was so important that someone would go to such lengths to manipulate him. If a truly powerful entity had wanted to snatch these artifacts, they could've done so by force. If there really was someone so bored they'd go for this convoluted approach, then he might as well accept his fate.

With that thought, Luo Shu issued a new command: "System, re-analyze the two Abyssal Artifacts."

Artifact identification was free of charge. As the system had claimed, it spared no effort when it came to helping Luo Shu grow stronger.

[Identification results as follows:]

[Artifact: Heart of the Demon (Elite Tier)]

[Formed from the heart of an Elite-class succubus who died unexpectedly, then refined through alchemical means.]

[Main Ability: Hypnotize women below the Elite Tier. Produces one drop of 'Succubus Blood (Excellent Tier)' per calendar year.]

[Side Effects: (1) Cannot be actively used by females. (2) Hypnosis is nullified if the user dies. (3) Repeated use on the same target causes obsessive desire toward the user, drastically enhancing her basic stats and transforming her into a succubus.]

[Artifact: Lucky Wallet (Heroic Tier)]

[Crafted by a Grand Alchemist using a scale from the Demigod-tier creature "Serpent of Fate."]

[Main Ability: When the wallet contains both a photo ID and money, and is lost while being worn, retrieving it grants the user one instance of demigod-level luck.]

[Side Effects: (1) Wallet will instinctively seek a more fortunate owner. (2) If no photo ID is present, ownership is void. (3) After three losses—even if recovered—it will abandon its owner.]

After carefully reading the descriptions, Luo Shu furrowed his brow and stared at the two items. Then he asked tentatively, "System, can you recycle these two Abyssal Artifacts?"

The moment he asked that question, the ring inside the gift box and the wallet both trembled simultaneously. As if they understood his intent, they began shoving against each other on the small table, jostling for space like two kids fighting over attention—each trying to push the other off the table in hopes of being the one Luo Shu would keep.

[Reply: The system has no recycling function. Furthermore, possessing gifted artifacts increases the host's influence and monthly point income. Please be advised.]

"No recycling, huh…" Luo Shu sighed in disappointment. If he could recycle them, he could've cashed in big: 80,000 points for the wallet and 60,000 for the ring—that's a fortune.

As it stood, while he was asset-rich, he didn't exactly have liquid wealth, which was just… awkward.

"So, I'm basically stuck keeping these around and using them, huh?" the moment Luo Shu said that the ring and the wallet stopped fighting and dropped back onto the table with a thud.

If it hadn't been for the ring-shaped indent on the wallet that caught the ring, Luo Shu might have even doubted that they had been fighting in the first place.

"Speaking of which, I didn't gain any points when I picked these up. Is it because I'm not their official holder yet?"

[Correct.]

[To confirm ownership of the Heart of the Demon, it must be worn on the ring finger.]

[To confirm ownership of the wallet, a valid ID must be stored inside, along with at least 150,000 yen in cash. Risk of loss still applies.]

Luo Shu fell silent for a moment, his gaze lingering on the words "risk of loss" in particular. Then he asked the artifacts, almost theatrically, "Alright then—you two. What benefits do I get for keeping you?"

Sitting on the couch at night and seriously questioning a ring and a wallet might seem absurd, but both Abyssal Artifacts actually responded.

The Heart of the Demon, with its crimson gemstone and vertical pupil, seemed to weep, releasing two shimmering drops of red liquid before dimming slightly.

The wallet, not to be outdone, spat out Tachibana's driver's license, followed by stacks of ten-thousand-yen bills—one after another—until it had expelled thirty of them. Then it stopped moving.

Luo Shu glanced at the ring. "So your offer is… two drops of Succubus Blood? What good is that?"

[Answer: Two drops of Succubus Blood can upgrade a common ability like 'Mind Reading' into the Excellent-tier ability 'Hypnosis.' Your follower, Kasumigaoka Utaha, can use it to raise her ability rank.]

"…As much as I want to ask if this means Kasumigaoka Utaha's going to evolve into a succubus, I guess I'll let that slide for now."

Unable to resist, Luo Shu muttered a complaint, then immediately imagined what Utaha would look like as a succubus. Just as his body started to react, he snapped out of it, cut off the fantasy, and reached for the ring, slipping it onto his ring finger. He then picked up the wallet and opened it.

Inside the wallet, the transparent plastic sleeve was clearly meant to hold an ID. Peeking in, Luo Shu found a single 100-yen coin.

His expression turned strange. "So other people need to put in 150,000 yen as activation collateral, but for me… 100 yen is enough?"

The coin jumped inside the wallet, landing right on the text as if affirming it.

"Alrighty then…"

With a shrug, Luo Shu gathered the cash on the table, added his own money, and stashed it all in the inner pocket of his blazer. Then he folded up his student ID, placed it in the wallet, and slid the wallet into his pocket.

"Looks like having 'living' artifacts isn't so bad after all," he remarked playfully. "I just hope these side effects don't actually apply to me."

As if in response to the artifacts' earlier bootlicking, the system flashed a prompt:

[Side effects of Abyssal Artifacts will not apply to the host unless they exceed the system's upper limit.]

"Oh? Even you are pledging loyalty now?" Luo Shu laughed helplessly, shaking his head as he leaned back on the sofa in a relaxed sprawl.

"System, list out my current accumulated points."

As soon as he finished speaking—

[Ding!]

—the familiar notification chime rang out.