Memes and the Wishing Machine

"Humanoid Wish Machine?"

Ji Donglai raised an eyebrow as he looked at this entry, his eyes filled with surprise.

"Yes, Team Leader Ji," Elder Yang said.

"The above is the entry provided by the Valuable Item Appraisal. This lifeform from another world is, in essence, a humanoid wish machine."

"The so-called cultivation techniques are merely manifestations they create after making a wish. I suspect that every being from that other world is a small, self-contained wish machine."

"Interesting. Everyone is a superhuman? So that is the truth behind martial arts!" Ji Donglai remarked, a hint of regret hidden in his eyes.

After all, they did not possess this wish machine entry, which proved that those cultivation techniques were impossible for them to practice.

Superhumans had always possessed shockingly weak self-preservation abilities, developing abnormally in only one direction, which made their strengths and weaknesses very obvious. If they could use these otherworldly techniques to compensate, it would be quite excellent.

"Team Leader Ji, the focus is actually on the meme entry mentioned earlier," Elder Yang reminded him. "This small wish machine possesses the ability to self-replicate and proliferate."

"As long as a lifeform with the ability to think for itself makes contact or touches it, it will be irreversibly infected and turned into a humanoid wish machine."

Upon hearing this, Ji Donglai was shocked. "You mean..."

"Yes, the entries for the dozen or so people, including F-Superman, should have gained an additional wish machine meme."

Elder Yang said with a bitter smile, "To prevent the further spread of the meme, the entire Dragon Hidden Base has now been sealed off and quarantined, prohibiting any entry or exit."

"I'm afraid that's unnecessary," Ji Donglai said, covering his head in frustration. "The other hundreds of locations where the Energy Tide erupted likely already have people coming and going. It can't be stopped."

After a moment of silence, Ji Donglai said, "Let's leave it at that for now. You continue researching that experimental subject. I've found a better one here; I'll send it over to you once I capture it."

Before he could cut the connection, he saw a video call request from the King of Bad Jobs, which gave him a bad premonition.

"Boss, bad news," the King of Bad Jobs said with a grin on the video. "Guess what? Heh, I lost track of the guy. It was a real professional job."

Ji Donglai, his face dark, couldn't be bothered to engage with him and replied perfunctorily, "Fine. Write a report later. Write thirty thousand words of reflection on this failure and hand it to me. Also, don't video call me in the future. If there's anything, have your handler coordinate with me."

"Don't be like that, Boss. Why are you in such a rush? Yi giao mi gi..."

Not giving the King of Bad Jobs a chance to spout more internet slang from before the Great Cataclysm, Ji Donglai immediately hung up the phone and said to Elder Li with a headache, "The experimental subject I mentioned just escaped. I'll send it to you once I catch it."

Elder Yang nodded, then asked curiously, "Was that the King of Bad Jobs just now?"

After receiving an affirmative reply from Ji Donglai, Elder Yang understood.

The so-called King of Bad Jobs was a guy who played with stale internet memes regardless of time or place. Sometimes, a single sentence would be mixed with two or three popular internet memes and regional jokes. His reputation was so great that almost everyone had heard of him.

In the afternoon, after Fang Can finished his nap, he heard a thunderous explosion from afar.

"Is there a demolition going on over there?"

Fang Can frowned slightly, feeling that something was wrong because the sound in the distance was a continuous series of roars.

It wasn't just him; the students in the classroom also craned their necks to look toward the direction of the explosion, only to see countless massive pillars of fire surging into the sky.

"This is definitely a battle between superhumans!" someone exclaimed in surprise.

At this moment, throughout the entire city, accompanied by the massive roar, an invisible pressure emanated from the West District of Z City.

This feeling was like being late for work or school on a Monday morning; it made everyone feel heavy in their hearts, a sense of slight panic, and the closer one was, the more obvious this feeling became.

Ten kilometers away, it was the anxiety of being late for work; five kilometers away, it was the pressure of a bad gacha pull; one kilometer away, it was the terror of discovering you were on a podium in front of everyone while wearing only your underwear...

As for within a hundred meters, it was no longer something that could be described as pressure; ordinary people would lose consciousness instantly upon approaching.

"This feeling..." Fang Can couldn't help but frown. "Why is it so familiar? It should be a mental-type superhuman, right?"

Just as Fang Can was thinking, the massive pillars of fire in the distance began to spread, and the roaring sounds began to push toward the city center, followed by air-raid sirens that resounded throughout the city.

Accompanied by the sirens, the entire city began to evacuate in an orderly and practiced manner. Things like this happened several times a year, and people were already used to it.

Silently following the rest of the school to evacuate, everyone knew that this was another false alarm.

Because in the past, battles between superhumans basically didn't last long, usually ending within a few minutes.

Sure enough, less than two minutes later, while Fang Can was still going downstairs, he heard the air-raid sirens stop. The pillars of fire in the distance had already disappeared, and then the teacher turned back to notify everyone to return to class.

"I knew it, it's always like this..."

"What a buzzkill. If they had kept it up a bit longer, we wouldn't have to go to class today..."

"Boring. I wanted to see blood flowing like a river..."

Listening to the low complaints of his classmates, Fang Can didn't join the discussion. Instead, he felt suspicious in his heart: was that inexplicable pressure from just now really just a coincidence?

Not disrupted by the small interlude of the superhuman battle, Fang Can continued to act like an ordinary student, learning step by step.

Compared to the physical training in the other world where he practiced until his hands cramped and occasionally had to self-mutilate to trigger his talent, his current studies were practically comfortable.

But the more comfortable he felt, the more uncomfortable Fang Can became, feeling as if time was being wasted in the classroom.

After all, in a situation where he could be transported to another world at any time, who knew what the situation was like in that other world? Being able to improve even a little bit was good.

Knowing that this inexplicable sense of irritability wouldn't help him, Fang Can swallowed a dose of Arsenic while studying, letting the calmness of Genius Mode suppress his negative emotions.

"I can't waste too much time at school. I can learn all this knowledge in just one night. Next, I should consider how to break away from the school phase."

Fang Can thought calmly, considering how long it would take for Talent 2 to heal his body if he broke his arm or leg.

And whether this approach was more cost-effective compared to the study time gained.

Under various considerations, the day of study passed quickly. When Fang Can got home and reached for his keys, his arm paused slightly, then he continued to open the door as if nothing had happened.

But only he knew that his Extreme Misfortune Brings Prosperity talent had been passively activated, and his heightened intuition allowed him to sense that a predator at the top of the food chain was vaguely hiding in the room.