The wind at high altitude was bitterly cold.
Though Flender had done his best to control his flying speed, by the time they reached their destination, both Le Bai and Oscar were chilled to the bone and shivering.
"You two, hurry and move around to raise your body temperature."
Seeing the two children hugging their arms and trembling slightly, Flender advised, "Don't let the cold seep into your bodies, or you'll get sick."
Le Bai and Oscar immediately started moving in place.
Five minutes later, when they felt warmth spreading from within, they finally stopped exercising and looked around at their surroundings.
"Lord Soul Master, is this your academy?"
Oscar pointed at the crude gate and asked, "Why does it look a little run-down?"
"Cough, cough!"
Flender coughed awkwardly twice.
Though he considered himself a fairly outstanding Soul Master, Flender was not good at managing things. Nor was he willing to do anything against his principles for money, much less curry favor with the powerful and wealthy. After so many years, it was only natural for the academy to end up like this.
"Well, that's mainly because... overly comfortable conditions can easily make Soul Masters lazy, so I deliberately made the academy look like this! Yes, that's right, exactly!"
Flender sounded like he was almost convincing himself. "Also, Oscar, starting today, you are a member of Shrek. From now on, remember to call me Dean instead of Lord Soul Master, understand?"
"Okay, Dean!"
Oscar accepted this readily. "Then, Dean, what should I do next? And what about Le Bai? Where will he live in the future? Can I come play with him often?"
"Hehehe, you sure have a lot of questions."
Flender smiled. "Then I'll take you to Le Bai's place first. Remember where it is. If you miss Le Bai in the future, just come find him yourself. The teachers won't stop you. As for what you need to do next, first, you must learn how to cultivate Soul Power. That is the foundation of a Soul Master. You also need to learn how to read and write."
"Huh? I have to learn reading and writing too?"
Oscar looked somewhat disdainful. "But I'm a Soul Master..."
"It's precisely because you're a Soul Master that you need to learn."
Le Bai suddenly spoke from the side. "If you can't even recognize words, then even if a precious secret manual were placed before you, you wouldn't be able to study it yourself."
"Uh, that's true!"
Oscar scratched his head. "Come to think of it, Le Bai, can you study with me? I mean learning to read and write."
"Based on what Dean Flender said before, perhaps I can."
Le Bai looked up at Flender. "Although I am not qualified to join Shrek for the time being, Dean Flender never said that 'those who are not academy students cannot attend classes at the academy.' So I think there is a good chance I can sit in on the lessons."
Flender looked at Le Bai in surprise again. "You're very smart! That's right, Shrek Academy does not prohibit people from outside the academy from sitting in on classes. In fact, children from the nearby village come here to study every day. As for Soul Master courses, children without Soul Power, or with Soul Power that is too low, would never be able to keep up with the curriculum set by the academy's teachers."
"So that means Le Bai can attend classes with me from now on, right?"
Oscar asked, not very confidently.
"That's right."
Flender smiled and rubbed Oscar's head.
Once upon a time, he too had had a good friend, a brother who shared his spirit, though his talent was poor and his Soul Power Level was not high.
Oscar was only six years old. Having left his hometown at such a young age, he was surely filled with anxiety. With a peer by his side, and a good brother he had grown up with since childhood, that anxiety could be eased to the greatest extent.
[It's all good!]
Flender thought.
Walking at a child's pace for five minutes, Flender brought Le Bai and Oscar to a village beside the academy and stopped in front of an old-looking Wooden House.
"I used to live in this house, but I don't need it anymore. You can stay here for now."
With a hint of nostalgia in his voice, Flender said to Le Bai, "It may look a little shabby from the outside, but everything you need is inside."
Le Bai's [Woodworking] skill was at a fairly high level, and he immediately spotted what was wrong. "Dean, when you say you used to live here, how long ago was that?"
"More than twenty years ago."
Flender asked strangely, "Is there a problem?"
Le Bai said nothing. He walked to the house's wooden door and lightly knocked on it--
Bang!
The rotted hinges could no longer support the door, and it fell inward.
Le Bai turned around and looked expressionlessly at Flender. "Dean, it seems I'll have to trouble you for some more materials and tools."
Flender borrowed tools from the villagers and bought some lumber. After handing it all over to Le Bai, he took Oscar into the academy.
Before leaving, Oscar said that he would come visit Le Bai often.
"Level 15 [Woodworking] is finally useful."
Le Bai glanced at the information on his Panel, then looked up at the house. "All right. Next, I need to finish repairing and cleaning this old house before dark. As for dinner... I'll think about it while I work."
It had already been six years since Le Bai came to this world, which was very likely Douluo Continent.
Transmigration? Possession? Or reincarnation?
Le Bai did not know what had happened to him--for unknown reasons, he had lost part of his memories, including but not limited to his former name, age, parents, relatives, friends...
Even the name Le Bai had been given to him by Oscar's Father after he found him.
Ironically, Le Bai had lost so many important memories, yet he alone had retained all his memories of "entertainment": games, animation, comics, novels, and so on.
This made Le Bai's early days extremely miserable.
Because Douluo World was a world where entertainment methods and means were relatively primitive and scarce.
How could Le Bai, who retained memories of modern entertainment, endure a world with no internet, no computers, not even Flying Chess?
Worse still, even the basic living conditions were terribly inconvenient: no Flush Toilet, no running water, no electric lights, no gas stoves, no... In short, not a single tool of modern civilization existed!
The endless inconvenience and boredom had made Le Bai think of suicide many times. If his body had not been so small, he would have absolutely put those thoughts into action already.
Fortunately, the Golden Finger finally appeared!
The [Panel] was practically the only pillar supporting Le Bai's will to keep living.
As an old-fashioned, classic Golden Finger that was "not a system," Le Bai's Panel was very simple. It neither communicated with Le Bai nor provided any actual items, Cultivation Methods, bloodlines, or anything else. It had one and only one effect: "datafication."
But that was exactly what made it good!
For Le Bai, who had been bored enough to want to die, only this kind of Golden Finger could completely divert his attention.
Once he invested all his limited time and energy into researching the Panel, Le Bai's abnormal mental state was finally relieved.
At the same time, his research into the Panel produced important results.
The Panel's most important and powerful effect was "datafication."
At first glance, it merely allowed his condition and mastered skills to be displayed as data. In reality, however, it also included three enormous benefits: real-time feedback, progress without regression, and no bottlenecks.
Just as the literal meanings of those twelve words suggested:
Real-time feedback--this effect was of relatively little help to Le Bai in the early stages, but it meant far more to him than the other two. It was precisely because he could see the data change as long as he put in effort, that is, grinded, that Le Bai felt as though he were playing a fully immersive game. That was how he had endured until now.
Progress without regression--after being datafied by the Panel, Le Bai's abilities, or rather his various attributes, would improve through diligent training, but they would not decline just because he slacked off.
No bottlenecks--this was even more impressive. In theory, Le Bai could learn and master any skill, and he would not encounter any so-called bottlenecks in his subsequent improvement.
It was worth noting that Le Bai did not believe the Panel could allow him to ignore every limitation. Or rather, there was at least some upper limit.
It was simply that nothing he had encountered so far could reach that limit.
Another regrettable point was that only bottlenecks had disappeared. Datafication had no effect on Le Bai's innate talent, comprehension, or anything similar--theoretically being able to learn something did not mean he could actually learn it. Datafication did not improve Le Bai's learning efficiency or learning ability.
Still, no matter what, the Golden Finger was undeniably useful.
After finishing his research into the Golden Finger, Le Bai began carrying out all kinds of activities and experiments so that he would not return to his former state of crushing boredom. Through the changes in data provided by the Panel's real-time feedback, he treated his current life like a game, tirelessly and enthusiastically working to improve, grinding away at, every ability and skill on the Panel.
After personally seeing villagers release their Martial Souls, Le Bai was basically certain that this was the Douluo World he knew. Yet he still had one small doubt: was this truly the Douluo World he knew, or merely a world that happened to resemble the Douluo World he knew?
But no matter which answer was correct, it did not matter to the current Le Bai.
With no goals in life whatsoever, the only thing he wanted to do now was keep grinding until he reached the limits of the Panel, then do something to improve this world's lack of entertainment.
"Whew, done."
Le Bai wiped his sweat with the towel around his neck and looked at the completely renewed Wooden House. "The Septic Tank, made of wood, and the Flush Toilet, also made of wood--the lack of a rubber ring is a major problem. I need to find some kind of substitute. When I have time, I should look for some clay. It would be best if I could make use of this world's specialties... I wonder whether Shrek's collection has anything about Soul Guidance Device Crafting."
Before you continue