Chapter 735: The Inevitably Wrong Misfortune Coin
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 735: The Inevitably Wrong Misfortune Coin
"Assist with an experiment?"
I was a bit surprised by Sister Teryx’s request. Usually, I was the one asking others for help with my experiments; this time, the roles were reversed.
However... since the subject of the experiment was that coin, I didn't really mind. After all, I was quite curious to see what this Transcendent item could actually do.
"Yes, it won't take much of your time," Teryx said.
"Of course. How should I assist? Do you want to test how I can convert this coin into Luck to buff myself?" I asked curiously.
"No. I’m not particularly interested in effects that can only be triggered by the one who birthed the item. If you're interested in that, I wouldn't mind helping you test it, but I imagine you could conduct that kind of experiment on your own," Teryx said with a smile.
She didn't believe for a second that Xiao Han lacked the professional skills to test a Transcendent item. In fact, she suspected the girl's talent might even surpass her own.
"That won't be necessary. I've actually tested it a few times since it came into my possession. However, the conversion between matter and Luck requires deeper research, and I don't want to spend too much time on that just yet," I said quickly.
While I didn't plan to dive into that research immediately, I had my theories. For instance, I suspected the coin wasn't made of matter from the start; rather, the power of Luck had been used to grant it material attributes.
At its core, it was still the concept of Luck. It hadn't truly become matter or a Transcendent material—at least, not in the way Transcendent materials crystallized into physical substances. It seemed to involve certain Transcendent phenomena unique to the birth ritual of Transcendent items.
"Fair enough. Your lack of interest actually suits my plans perfectly." Teryx toyed with the coin. "In that case, let the experiment begin."
"Understood."
"But before we start, I want you to understand a concept. Since this Transcendent item evolved from the prototype of a Lucky Coin, do you know what the effect of a Lucky Coin actually is?"
"Mhm... I know a bit." I recalled the information I’d gathered from the Appraisal Skill earlier. Its effect wasn't simply to bring good luck, but to help one make the right choice. "When faced with a dilemma, you toss the coin, and it provides the most suitable answer. There’s also a chance it might land on its edge; if that happens, it's best not to toss it a second time for the same issue."
Furthermore, one couldn't use sleight of hand. For Transcendents, observation and calculation were trivial; a keen individual could determine or even influence the outcome the moment the coin left their hand. Doing so would prevent the Lucky Coin from producing any beneficial effect.
"Correct. It seems you're well-informed. We'll use that as our reference template to test this coin. How does that sound?"
"Sounds good," I agreed, nodding.
"Now, pick a number in your head. It has to be either 0 or 1. Once you've chosen, keep it to yourself and don't tell me yet. When you do tell me later, don't lie." Teryx explained the procedure.
"Okay." I nodded. Based on her explanation, I already had a general idea of what she was trying to do.
In my mind, I silently chose "0." Then, I looked at Teryx. "I've made my choice."
"Then... it's my turn." With a smile, she placed the coin on her thumb and flicked it into the air. It landed steadily back in her hand.
When she opened her fingers, the side with the silhouette of my head was facing up.
"Alright. My answer is... 1. Am I right?"
"No," I said, shaking my head regretfully.
"Wrong? Interesting. Could this be a Misfortune Coin?" Teryx joked with a smile. "Just kidding. It's only one test; we can't jump to conclusions yet."
"If it's wrong every single time, then there's effectively no difference between it and something that's right every time, is there?" I remarked.
"A very good point." Teryx’s smile widened as she held up the coin. "Shall we continue?"
"Sister Teryx, do you feel any side effects from using it?" I asked.
"Side effects... I'm sorry, I don't seem to perceive any." Teryx paused, focusing her senses again before shaking her head. "Perhaps the side effect is something as ethereal as a drop in luck?"
"Maybe. If so, it really would be a Misfortune Coin."
"Let's keep going."
After assisting Sister Teryx with dozens more attempts, we finally confirmed its Transcendent nature.
Namely: every time a choice was made, it resulted in failure.
This failure was a form of predestined defeat.
For example, if I thought of "0," and Teryx decided that heads was 0 and tails was 1 before tossing the coin, the result would inevitably be tails. Once Teryx accepted that result and said "1," she failed.
There was another scenario: Teryx could choose not to follow her own rules, swapping the designations for 0 and 1 mid-toss. Even when she disregarded her own established logic, the final result she gave was still wrong.
In other words, from Teryx’s perspective, as long as she didn't know the result I had already set in my mind, any answer she derived based on the coin would be incorrect.
The actual heads or tails didn't matter. What mattered was that the final answer Teryx spoke, based on the coin's result, was guaranteed to be wrong.
We also tested some control groups. For instance, if she didn't use the coin to derive an answer, she wasn't affected.
The influence stemmed from whether one participated in the process and used the result as a basis. To get more specific, a cafe wasn't the ideal place for an experiment of this scale.
However, based on this "guess the side" test, we could reach a conceptual conclusion: the result is always wrong!
At least, a correct result had yet to occur...
"This... this is practically a causality-level ability, isn't it? How can such an absolute power exist?" I said, find it somewhat hard to believe.
"Causality? No, it hasn't reached that level yet. Or rather, in the Transcendent domain, even causality has a range of application; it's not absolutely insurmountable. This is simply a forced manifestation of luck influenced by the power of Luck. I've studied Lucky Coins before; they have similar traits. They can influence even Transcendents to a certain degree," Teryx explained.
"I see..." I didn't know much about this field, so I chose to take Sister Teryx’s word for it.
However, the coin's ability didn't seem to have any loopholes. Even if you knew the final result would be wrong, you couldn't be certain until the moment the result was realized.
Even if you tried to change your mind at the very last microsecond, the post-regret result would still be wrong.
Therefore, in principle, it couldn't be used like a Lucky Coin. The holder was destined to be an Unlucky Guy, though others might potentially benefit from the predictable failure.
Additionally, if the answer was known from the start, the toss was meaningless—the Transcendent item simply wouldn't activate.
"This truly is a fascinating coin," Teryx couldn't help but marvel.
"So... Sister Teryx, have you felt any side effects yet?" I asked curiously once more.
"Sorry, I still don't feel like I've paid any price. Perhaps... this is just a 'holding trait' of the item, and we haven't touched upon the usage method that requires a cost." As a witch with deep knowledge of alchemy and Transcendent items, Teryx quickly proposed a possibility.
"A holding trait? Does that mean we haven't found the correct way to use it yet?" I asked, frowning.
"Very likely. After all, Luck-based alchemy items can provide a correct answer without a cost. This one simply provides a wrong answer; it's not that surprising. Remember, its prototype was a Lucky Coin alchemy embryo."
"When you put it that way... it makes a lot of sense." I nodded, accepting the explanation.
"Many Transcendent items impose side effects just by being held. Perhaps the fact that every choice is wrong is part of the side effect itself," Teryx speculated.
"Is that so? Sister Teryx, you really do know so much more about Transcendent items than I do. If I were exploring this on my own, I wouldn't even know where to start."
"Oh, stop flattering me." Teryx shook her head with a smile, then picked up the coin again. "Let's do one last test. If nothing else comes up, we'll end the experiment here. I'll take the rest back to the laboratory for further testing."
"Sure." I nodded and silently thought of "0."
In previous trials, I had tried thinking of "0" ten times in a row, but for some reason, Sister Teryx had guessed "1" every single time.
It truly was uncanny.
"Ready?" Teryx asked.
"Mhm."
As I nodded, Teryx tossed the coin as she had before. It flipped through the air and landed in her palm.
This time, when Teryx opened her hand, it was tails. The pattern on the back looked a bit like a fleur-de-lis, though that didn't seem to matter.
"Any thoughts, Xiao Han?"
"Well... I was thinking, what if after the answer is guessed, we flip the coin over? Wouldn't the final result then match what I said?"
"Flip it over? You mean manually?" Teryx hadn't tried that yet. She flipped the coin over with her finger and said, "Then this time, it must be 1, right?"
"..."
I responded with silence. "Then... flip it back and guess again?"
"Was 1 wrong again? Sigh..." Teryx followed my lead and flipped the coin back over. "The answer is 0?"
"Yes, the answer is—" I nodded, about to say she got it right on the second try, but in the next instant, the ceiling fixture above our booth suddenly gave way.
CRASH!
The decorative ambient light slammed onto our table. The glass shade shattered, sending shards flying across the tabletop.
The moment it happened, I activated my time sense. A protective spell flickered into existence before me, and I escaped unscathed.
Teryx didn't dodge. As a Transcendent Witch, she was immune to the damage from such a mundane accident.
However, her cup of specialty latte—which she had stirred but hadn't taken a single sip of—was flipped over by the falling light. The light-brown mixture of coffee and milk splashed out of the saucer, flowed across the table, and stained her skirt.
"Interesting..."
Despite the accident, Teryx remained perfectly calm, as if the chaos had nothing to do with her.
But her skirt was indeed ruined.
"It seems we've found the correct way to use it—and we've discovered its side effect."
Teryx cast a Cleaning Spell, vanishing the coffee from her skirt, and looked at me with a smile.
Only then did the cafe staff rush over. The shopkeeper looked like she was about to have a mental breakdown on the spot.
An accident in their decor had actually hit a Mentor!
"We are so sorry! This is all our—"
"It has nothing to do with you." Teryx turned to the approaching waitresses and the teary-eyed shopkeeper, cutting off their apologies with a smile.
"It's entirely our fault. For the compensation... we've given you such a terrible experience..."
"It's fine. This was actually our fault. We were conducting a small experiment here, which caused some trouble for your reputation," Teryx said, shaking her head. With a wave of her hand, she cast a Reshaping Spell, restoring everything to its original state.
I actually had that spell in my collection. It was quite expensive to cast, costing upwards of three digits, and it couldn't restore anything too complex—especially not Transcendent items—without a massive drain on mental power.
The spell essentially used a convenient magical platform to piece the physical matter back together.
It was a different concept from the complete time sense Sister Bai possessed. One was a physical reconstruction; the other was a temporal restoration.
Despite the apologies, the shopkeeper couldn't wrap her head around the idea that we were the ones behind the "accident."
In the end, they still insisted on compensation. Although neither Teryx nor I particularly cared for it, we accepted a symbolic amount.
"Xiao Han, that suggestion just now... was that a trial based on that Ley Line Manifestation from before? Making your own choice on top of a predestined result... that might be the meaning this Transcendent item wants to express. It might even be the core guiding principle of its birth ritual."
"Uh... maybe..." I nodded. While I had considered the possibility, I hadn't expected the result to be so literal.
"I really have to thank you, Xiao Han. If not for your idea, I might have tested it a thousand times back at the lab without ever discovering this effect. Changing a predestined result... what a fascinating concept." Teryx smiled. She had gained so much from this meeting!
It was more than worth it.
"Actually... it was nothing..."
"You really are as modest as the rumors say, Xiao Han."
Teryx walked side-by-side with me. Since the incident had happened at the cafe, and we had both gotten the answers we wanted, it was the perfect time to leave.
"Well then... our meeting ends here. I'll keep this coin safe for you. I'll return it once I've finished my testing."
"Mhm, I trust you'll take good care of it, Sister Teryx." I smiled. However, I didn't move to say goodbye just yet; I still had one more thing to take care of. "But Sister Teryx, could you wait a moment?"
"Is there something else, Xiao Han?"
"A few days ago, I met a kind student from the Wizard Academy. He gave me a Luck Wizard Tool." As I spoke, I pulled out the palm-sized crystal ball. "I was wondering... could this Wizard Tool be exchanged for some professional knowledge regarding Luck Alchemists?"