NOVEL WEB Chapter 161: Chat is the last hope!
Leon's eyes burned from hours of futile scrolling, the golden screen's light flickering like a taunt.
His vision blurred at the edges, and the faint ache behind his brow pulsed with each scroll.
He had had enough of endless doom scrolling now.
He had tried everything; there was nothing that could help him, and no information about holy energy.
He couldn't rely on the system shop anymore. He had to do this himself, even if he had to build another mana core on his own. He didn't know how, but he would try.
He remembered that in Lin Fang, it was mentioned he had the hardest time when he broke through to the Lesser Divinity rank. He had nearly lost his life because the last step to reach Lesser Divinity was to transform one's own heart into a mana heart.
Which would be made using their own mana.
It was a painful and enduring task.
Other than this, there was nothing else mentioned about creating a mana heart.
No process, nothing—only a snippet of the story where he nearly died while creating his mana heart.
What if I created the same thing using Holy Energy?
It was only a thought that came to him for a moment, yet it was the only one that gave hope—even if it was just 0.1 percent.
Which was a hundred times better than wasting his precious time on pointless scrolling through the cosmic shop.
But this time, he had a clear intent and a specific target in mind.
One hour.
That would be the time he would give himself for searching for something on creating a mana heart—or even better, a manual that might contain everything up till Lesser Divinity. That would be too useful to him.
The goal and the limit were already in his mind.
With just a thought, a transparent golden shimmering screen appeared in front of him.
Opening the cosmic shop with his mind, he searched for manuals on cultivation.
The result showed up, but there wasn't a single one in sight that had anything related to Lesser Divinity—only for the cultivation ranks below. The prices ranged from 500k to 1 million for the manual.
Yet they didn't have the information he needed.
The manuals shared the same ceiling in the the Ethereal Realm, but prices varied depending on the vendor selling them.
He didn't find any famous ones, such as Lord of the Time and Space or Dimensional Keeper, when scrolling naturally.
The algorithm favored them.
But when they hadn't uploaded a manual, their results naturally wouldn't come out.
He would buy a good manual later on, but for now, he saw no point in buying one that didn't contain what he was actually looking for.
He changed the search and directly used Mana Heart this time.
The result shocked him, as this was the first time the screen was completely blank.
A cold prickle crept across his skin, and the silence from the screen was almost deafening—a void where he'd expected a flood of words.
There was no result at all, which made him feel a bit weird, as no matter what he searched, at least something would come.
Previously, when he was frustrated, he had searched for shit without a motive behind it, only backed by his anger.
Yet so many results came up.
Like Dragon shit.
Hydra shit.
And many other monster shits—he had felt he had entered some forbidden zone in that moment.
This is really weird.
The same was true for mana cores—he couldn't find any in the cosmic shop.
He didn't know if the vendors didn't sell it, or if there was something else in play, like a thought forming in his head—
Is it possible that the cosmic shop itself has blocked these items?
He didn't know the reason, but it was unnatural.
So the goal of finding the manual to guide his way failed, yet he hadn't lost hope.
What if I can't find any manual? It doesn't matter either way.
I have a cosmic chat full of the strongest beings in the universe—the weakest being, Lesser Divinity, which is just the requirement to obtain the cosmic system. Why don't I try to ask the beings from there?
He was going to ask about the mana heart. He wanted to know more about holy energy. It felt like a topic that one of the strong organizations in the divine realm had been trying to safeguard.
It was clear why he couldn't find anything on the Holy Element.
The cosmic chat protected users' identities, so he might find someone odd who's willing to chat about these taboo topics.
He opened up the Cosmic Chat as the list of different chat groups flashed before his eyes.
The interface chimed softly, a cool artificial breeze brushing his face as hundreds of chat icons shimmered into view.
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[Welcome user Elemental Paragon into Cosmic Chat]
[COSMIC CHAT – THREAD #313]
Topic: When Your Sword Wanted to Kill You
Mode: Private
Participants: @EdgeOfHearts, @Bladewhisperer, @SharpRomance...
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[COSMIC CHAT – THREAD #342]
Topic: Ethical Dilemmas of Necromantic Farming
Mode: Private
Participants: @HarvestMoonlich, @CropseReanimator, @BoneMealSpecialist...
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[COSMIC CHAT – THREAD #377]
Topic: What to Do If Your Familiar Beast Won't Move Out
Mode: Private
Participants: @CaveEvictionExpert, @DracoLandlord, @GoldPileMediator...
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[COSMIC CHAT – THREAD #401]
Topic: Accidentally Summoned Deities and How to Politely Ask Them to Leave
Mode: Private
Participants: @GodsbaneDiplomat, @PantheonCustomerSupport, @CelestialBouncer...
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[COSMIC CHAT – THREAD #429]
Topic: Potion Mishaps: I've Turned Into My Own Familiar
Mode: Private
Participants: @AlchemyFailsDaily, @FurAndFeathersAnon, @MeowgicUser...
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[COSMIC CHAT – THREAD #457]
Topic: Tips on Surviving Your First Dungeon Date
Mode: Private
Participants: @SwipeRightForMimics, @DungeonRomanceGuru, @CupidOfTraps...
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Leon could see it opened with different threads on the front page.
But the problem was—all the threads were private, and he couldn't get the naming sense of these powerful beings. It was fine with their own names—they might be aware of each other's worlds since they were all from divine realms.
But the titles of the topics were rather unfitting compared to what he had expected from them. But maybe that was the point—they were just upfront set to not let others know what was being talked about in the group.
He found a few public chats, but his eyes were locked onto the one he had joined the previous time. It had the most significant number of members in it. He decided on that chat, hoping to find his answer in the group of hundreds of thousands of powerful beings.
As he focused on the chat, the faint sensation of countless distant presences seemed to press at the edges of his mind, their curiosity as untangible as a shift in the air.