Sensory Abilities

Since the place he lived in couldn't even be considered decent by the standards of the Arakawa District, a civilian area,

it was only somewhat below average.

As he walked along the long street, Xi Shenlian naturally and clearly sensed that the surroundings were permeated with a feeling of age.

It felt like looking at an old man who was entering the twilight of his life.

However, none of this mattered to him anymore.

Now, wherever he went, he could only feel that life was filled with sunshine and beauty.

It couldn't be helped.

He had already embarked on the invincible-protagonist path of a feel-good novel's life, so why would he still care about those trivial matters?

There was simply no need to bother with them.

"Oh!"

"My God!"

"The world is so damn beautiful!!"

While sighing emotionally, he passed a snack cart at an intersection and caught the aroma wafting from the vendor's stall.

Although he could clearly smell the scent of artificial flavoring coming from the large pot of food being cooked,

Xi Shenlian didn't care in the slightest.

He casually reached out.

Under the vendor's gaze, which was as if he had just witnessed a magic trick, Xi Shenlian conjured a large-denomination ten-thousand-yen bill out of thin air and handed it over:

"Give me one Flavored Octopus. Add plenty of chopped green onions and sauce."

"Oh, that's a great magic trick!"

The vendor, unaware that Xi Shenlian had truly created a banknote on the spot, praised him for being able to perform magic so casually, but still spoke with an awkward expression:

"But, young man, I don't have that much change right now. Would a mobile transfer work?"

"It's fine. Don't worry about the change. Just give me the food."

In this world,

online payments had already existed for more than a hundred years and had developed into a highly mature system.

However, because many remote areas had no signal, and because phones could run out of power, among other reasons,

the tradition of using banknotes had been preserved.

It was just that, as the times changed, relatively fewer people used them.

Hearing Xi Shenlian's words,

the vendor looked at the ten-thousand-yen bill Xi Shenlian had handed over, then at Xi Shenlian's obviously impoverished clothes.

The vendor immediately hesitated.

"...Are you serious?"

Ten thousand yen wasn't a particularly large sum, but it was still a full day's wages for most people.

"Of course. I've already given you the money, so just hurry up and give me the food."

"All right, then."

Although he was somewhat confused by the situation,

the vendor was secretly delighted inside, and a smile still crept onto his face.

--

A few minutes later,

sitting inside a taxi,

with the food held in a paper box,

Xi Shenlian used a toothpick to spear a cut piece of octopus leg that was still steaming. He put it into his mouth and chewed casually.

The taste is all right...

But the seasoning is too strong...

Although he instinctively gave the food a bad review the moment it entered his mouth,

he knew very well

that there was probably nothing wrong with the food. The problem was with him.

Although he had just awakened, after undergoing two rounds of adjustment and adaptation in the Learning Space, he had already mastered control over the output of his own strength and could effectively avoid damaging various external objects.

However, some of his bodily functions were still overly sensitive.

His sense of taste, smell, hearing, and sight... were all the same.

Now, he could see flowers and plants more than ten kilometers away with his naked eyes, hear insects chirping across several kilometers, and easily smell the scent of every pedestrian outside the taxi...

To be honest,

for him, who had yet to fully adapt to the changes in his senses,

this was not a comfortable experience.

All kinds of noisy sounds were even more raucous in his ears than a bar, seriously interfering with his hearing.

His overly sharp vision allowed him to see the pores on other people's skin, which was more or less disgusting.

And his excellent sense of smell made him feel as if he were in some strange place—a gigantic toilet filled with all kinds of perfume and feces.

All of this made him understand that he still needed to adjust himself further.

However,

the reason he had come out to wander around was not only to buy some things. He also wanted to adapt more quickly to his actual condition in the outside world.

He could feel it.

As he continued coming into contact with various external objects,

some instincts deep within his body were also gradually awakening on their own.

This would slowly grant him the ability to regulate his own senses.

--

More than twenty minutes later,

after casually tossing several tens of thousands of yen to the driver,

Xi Shenlian arrived at one of the few prosperous areas in the Arakawa District and calmly chewed the last piece of octopus.

At this moment,

his sense of taste had already been adjusted to a level close to that of an ordinary person.

This allowed him to fully savor the deliciousness of the food.

His vision and hearing had likewise been adjusted by external stimuli to a level close to that of ordinary people.

Moreover, he could switch between levels and make fine adjustments at will, as if operating some kind of precision instrument.

After throwing the empty paper box in his hand into the trash can beside him,

he looked straight up.

He directed his gaze at the gradually brightening sun.

In the process,

his pupils continuously contracted.

This brought his vision to a level comparable to that of many telescopes.

From this perspective,

the sun was already bright enough to blind an ordinary person.

Looking at it directly with the naked eye was no different from staring straight at an exploding flashbang.

Yet Xi Shenlian, who was looking up at the sky, didn't feel the slightest sting. His vision remained just as clear.

It was as if his eyes could directly adapt to changes in light.

And that was indeed the case.

Inside the Learning Space,

he had discovered long ago, through adjusting the environment, that his eyes possessed the ability to adapt to their surroundings.

Even in the dead of night, they could retain most of his vision.

As for breathing,

he could now easily go without breathing for an hour.

This meant that he could even swim into the deep sea without the aid of any equipment.

The obvious changes in his senses and physiology made him feel as though he were transforming into another species...

Not long afterward,

The lives of ordinary people and superhumans, huh...

Xi Shenlian withdrew his gaze. With a faint smile on his face, he directly walked toward the street ahead.

That was where various high-end clothing brands in the Arakawa District were concentrated.

It was also a place he had only ever dared to pass by in the past, never enter.

For a penniless person,

walking around in there

was as uncomfortable as a stray dog being exposed under a spotlight.

Now, Xi Shenlian needed to go there and get himself a proper outfit.

Putting everything else aside,

although he didn't feel cold at all,

walking around outside in a short-sleeved shirt during winter was still somewhat strange...

Besides, if he wanted to better enjoy the life that belonged to him, his clothing and appearance were ultimately unavoidable issues.