Chen Rui glanced at one of the light screens. At once, it grew larger in response to his thoughts, then burst apart with a bang, scattering into points of light that quickly gathered into a three-dimensional human figure. It was translucent, and its appearance and clothes were identical to Chen Rui's. It could turn at his command, and beside it floated a block of text—written, amazingly, in Chinese, a language he hadn't seen in a long time.
Title: None
Evolution Level: None
Experience: 0%
Spirit Energy Value: 0
Overall Strength Assessment: Too low to calculate
This had to be a status panel. Spirit energy? A title? And why was there experience? Was this a game? Chen Rui found it vaguely familiar. Could the Super System really be some kind of game made by a Main God? Where were the unlimited bullets? The side quests? The Super Saiyan bloodline?
Then he flew into a rage. What did it mean, "Too low to calculate"? After all that effort, was this pathetic status panel all he had to show for it? What an insult!
The system's prompt sounded again: Would you like to enable automatic spirit energy absorption?
Chen Rui hurriedly confirmed, but nothing special happened. The Spirit Energy Value simply jumped from 0 to 1. He waited a long time, but it didn't change again. Just as he'd thought—another rip-off!
With a thought, Chen Rui returned the "Status" screen to its original size and looked at another light screen. This... looked like a skill tree. It was a tree-shaped diagram, and apart from its glowing roots, everything else was gray. Two icons shone at the roots. When he focused on either one, it changed into a corresponding animated image.
The first showed light shifting inside a human body:
Breath Concealment (Passive Trait)—Displays your strength as being at its lowest level, making it impossible for others to see through you. Can be canceled.
The second showed a hand resting on a stone, which crumbled into powder:
Aura Conversion (Active Skill)—Converts various forms of special energy into spirit energy and absorbs it. Each use costs 1 Spirit Energy Value. Duration: 30 minutes.
If he were powerful, that would be one thing, but Chen Rui was now among the weakest in the Demon Realm. The Breath Concealment skill was utterly pointless. And Aura Conversion was even more useless. You couldn't eat spirit energy or fly with it, so what good was it?
Chen Rui's dream of rising to the top in one leap had been completely shattered. His mood plummeted, and he felt utterly miserable.
So this was the Super System? It was no fun at all! What was the point of making the graphics so flashy and realistic?
Just then, that hateful prompt sounded again: High-purity life energy detected in the body. Convert it into spirit energy?
Chen Rui had a serious grudge against this "spirit energy." He answered indignantly, "Yes!"
At the same time, a man who had been sleeping on a hill beside Blue Wave Lake abruptly opened his eyes, disbelief written all over his face. The Symbiotic Contract inside him had suddenly changed. It was devouring his strength—and even his life—with the speed of a bottomless abyss, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.
After a long while, the terrifying pull finally began to fade. Pagliu's face had gone deathly pale. He felt that both his life force and strength had been greatly diminished, but what he felt most of all was shock. He had never heard of a Symbiotic Contract behaving this way!
"How could this happen?" Pagliu gasped, still shaken. "Did something happen to that human? If only I could go and check...but it's all because of this damn seal!"
The instigator, Chen Rui, had no idea how terrified Pagliu was. He watched the Spirit Energy Value rise rapidly, while his experience kept increasing. On the translucent human figure, a certain important part beneath the waist began to flash with white light.
Chen Rui was speechless. What kind of pervert had designed the Super System? Why was that part glowing? Was this so-called "high-purity life energy" some kind of... essence? If so, he had plenty of that—at least a hundred million doses' worth...
Before he could let his imagination run any further, the prompt sounded: Aura Conversion successful! Spirit Energy Value: 00, experience progress: 100%! Initial evolution requirements met. Begin marrow cleansing and complete evolution?
"Begin!" The prompt had rekindled his hope, and he immediately agreed.
As soon as the words left his mouth, the space beyond the hall blazed with dazzling light, as if a tremendous explosion had torn through it. The blast was so intense that Chen Rui's mind went "boom." The world spun, and he lost consciousness in an instant.
Early the next morning, Alice, eager to solve the mystery of Sandru's death, dragged Athena excitedly to the laboratory. There, the Lesser Devil told them Chen Rui was still in his room and hadn't gotten up yet.
"I'm already up, yet this guy's still sleeping in?" Alice pursed her lips in annoyance. "Go wake him up!"
Sli didn't dare disobey. He led Alice and Athena to Chen Rui's room. Chen Rui had long since escaped the dungeon, and now he was staying in the laboratory's "standard room."
"Master, Princess Alice is here. Please get up!" The Lesser Devil knocked on the door and deliberately shouted loudly, trying to sound as diligent as possible.
But there was no response from inside. The Lesser Devil knocked harder, but still got no answer.
"Chen Rui, I came all the way to wake you up, and you're pretending not to hear me?" Alice patted the door. "If you don't open up, I'll go in and molest you!"
The Lesser Devil broke into a cold sweat. Athena sniffed and sensed something was wrong. She stopped the little princess from banging on the door, then shoved it with one hand. The poor wooden door splintered under the female swordswoman's monstrous strength.
But what they saw inside left all three stunned. Chen Rui lay on the bed, neither alive nor dead, the sheets soaked through with black liquid that gave off a foul smell.
"Chen Rui!" "Master!" The three cried out in unison.
The royal palace's outer courtyard, Aldas's laboratory.
Princess Shea frowned and asked Aldas, "Why did this happen?"
"I'm not certain," Aldas said thoughtfully. "It was most likely caused by yesterday's challenge. Sandru's reputation as the Empire's greatest genius wasn't undeserved. The poison in that last potion of his may have been far beyond the ordinary. Even with a Grandmaster's divine sense protecting Chen Rui, he couldn't be completely immune. That's probably why he's unconscious now."
Gauss nodded beside him. Judging by the black liquid that had seeped from the human's body, this seemed the most reasonable explanation.
After Chen Rui had left the previous night, Shea had been secretly annoyed by some of the things he'd said. Now, seeing him poisoned and unconscious, his life hanging in the balance, she reflected on what had happened. This human had risked his life to do the Dark Moon a great service, yet she had nearly killed him herself. It truly wasn't fair to him.
Shea sighed softly and asked, "Master, when will he wake up?"
Aldas replied, "The most dangerous moment was probably last night, but even I didn't notice it. Fortunately, he made it through. His condition is stable now. He has a slight fever, but nothing else seems wrong. Perhaps the Grandmaster's divine sense is slowly controlling and neutralizing the poison. I expect he'll wake up after some time. Since we don't know the precise ingredients in Sandru's Soul-Eater Potion, it would actually be unwise to give him any potion."
Shea nodded and stood up. "I have state affairs to attend to. Tell me as soon as he wakes up."
Aldas nodded. Gauss looked a little surprised, as if he hadn't expected the Eldest Princess to care so much about her human apprentice.
Alice and Athena were beside Chen Rui's bed. Even the normally scheming little girl looked unusually anxious. Sli had already cleaned the filth from the human's body. His breathing was steady, but his face was flushed, and his slight fever wouldn't let up.
At last, the unnatural flush on Chen Rui's face gradually faded, and his breathing grew heavier. Athena, who had been watching him closely, noticed first. Alice and Sli hurried over.
Chen Rui opened his eyes and stared at Alice and Athena in surprise. "Why are you here?"
"When we arrived, you were unconscious in bed. You've only just woken up, after nearly a whole day..." Athena said.
"I was so worried!" Alice looked as if she were on the verge of tears, though it was hard to tell how much of it was real. "You had all this black liquid coming out of you. When I wiped you down, I saw everything. You have to take responsibility for me..."
Even Athena's eye twitched at that. Nearby, Sli had practically reached the level of worshipping his master's skill with women—after Athena, now even the little princess...
The Lesser Devil, whose mind was full of complicated thoughts, was desperate to hear the gossip, but he was also afraid that he'd learn too much and the little princess would silence him. After thinking it over, he decided to go outside first and notify Master Aldas.
Aldas hurried over, and when he saw that Chen Rui was awake, he quickly asked, "How are you feeling?"
"I'm fine." Chen Rui could feel that his body had undergone a tremendous change. He couldn't test it in front of everyone, so he brushed them off. "I don't know what happened. It just suddenly came over me."
The black liquid Alice and the others had described was probably the result of that "marrow cleansing."
"It seems Sandru's Soul-Eater Poison really was powerful. It even caused this kind of reaction. I was careless yesterday, but at least you're all right now." Aldas was even more convinced of his theory and explained it to Chen Rui. Seeing the master so generously cover for him, Chen Rui was happy to play along, wearing an expression of sudden understanding.
Chen Rui was eager to find out the details of his initial evolution, so he pretended to be tired. "I still feel a little worn out. I'd like to sleep a bit longer."
"You just woke up, and you're going back to sleep?" Alice pouted unhappily.
Only then did Chen Rui remember that he still owed Alice a story. "Sorry, little princess. I really don't feel well today. Could I tell you tomorrow?"
"No problem," Athena said. "It's almost dark anyway. We can wait until you've recovered."
"The princess has been fairly pleased with you lately, so get some rest," the little girl said, unusually considerate. Then she raised her little fist. "But remember, it has to be a good one!"
Aldas offered Chen Rui a few words of encouragement, and then everyone left the room.
As soon as the door closed, Chen Rui eagerly entered the Super System in his mind. The space he remembered exploding had changed a little.
In the murky space, there was now a cloud-like mass of gas, with tiny flecks of dust drifting slowly around it. Beyond this, Chen Rui instinctively sensed another, deeper change.
That was it—time. This formerly lifeless space, with no beginning or end, finally had a concept of "time."
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