A Cherished New Model

At this moment, Bai Chuan once again opened his panel.

Name: Bai Chuan. Race: King Cobra. Length: 5.3 meters. Lifespan: 7 years 4 months. Points: 26 (61%). Abilities: Final Growth Lv2, Snake Venom Lv2, Agility Lv2, Strength Lv2, Clairvoyance Lv2, Scales Lv2, Energy Saving Storage Lv1, Danger Perception Lv1, Flexible Lv1, Swimming Lv1, Digestion and Absorption Lv1, Digging Lv1, Heat-Sensing Pit Lv1, Diving Lv1, Underwater Breathing Lv1... Ability Structure Library: Python, Frog, Grasshopper, Vine Snake, Kite, Water Snake, African Spiny Mouse... Editable...

Above were all of Bai Chuan's gains over the past half year.

One thing worth mentioning was that the data displayed on his panel had finally become much richer, and now he could clearly confirm his current body size.

This ability had appeared one day during the past half year. He was looking at his ever-growing body, but didn't know exactly how long he had become, and was quite troubled by it.

Unexpectedly, the panel seemed to have received his distress. When he opened the panel, a new function suddenly updated.

That was the body size statistics function.

This made Bai Chuan realize that this panel likely had many hidden functions he still didn't understand.

For example, the Agility Lv1 that had inexplicably appeared half a year ago, and the Scales that had suddenly upgraded to Lv2 during this recent period—both left him somewhat baffled.

Unfortunately, this thing was just a dead object, without even a panel manual or anything.

Other than that, his biggest gain over the half year was finally saving up 30 points.

However, because he had occasionally strengthened a few auxiliary abilities during this time, such as the Heat-Sensing Pit he had been looking forward to, as well as Digging and Diving, he was left with only 26 points in the end.

But this amount of points was still quite ample, considering that even a Lv2 ability was only worth two points.

The only somewhat regrettable thing was that over such a long period, he hadn't found a single ability above Lv3.

Thinking back to how he, a King Cobra that had almost no natural predators in the food chain, only had abilities at Lv2.

Bai Chuan guessed that perhaps Lv3 abilities might only be possessed by the overlords at the very top of the biological pyramid.

If the truth was as he guessed, then Lv3 might represent the power of a king.

After recalling his gains over this period, Bai Chuan finally looked again at the extremely rare model he had been lucky enough to catch and eat in the past few days, and which had only just finished being analyzed today—

The African Spiny Mouse.

This was an animal whose name alone was thought-provoking.

It made Bai Chuan wonder for a moment whether the place he was in was the world he was familiar with, or another continent of the world he had once lived in.

But the clothing on the human corpse he had seen earlier confused him again.

Unable to figure it out no matter how he thought, Bai Chuan couldn't be bothered to dwell on it. Instead of wasting time on that, he'd rather think about how to make himself stronger.

As for why this model was said to be extremely precious?

That had to do with his abilities.

Race: African Spiny Mouse. Abilities: Reproduction Lv2, Smell Lv2, Forced Shedding Lv1, Regeneration Lv1, Intelligence Lv1, Digging Lv1, Climbing Lv1...

Most of the African Spiny Mouse's abilities were no different from the mice Bai Chuan usually saw, but it had two special abilities: Forced Shedding Lv1 and Regeneration Lv1.

[Forced Shedding: When the host encounters a dangerous predator, it can forcibly shed most of its skin tissue to distract the predator and escape.]

[Regeneration: When the host is injured, it will rapidly consume biological energy to heal the wound.]

The first ability wasn't very useful—it was an ability of the weak. But the second ability, Regeneration.

That was anything but ordinary.

Regeneration!

This was an incredibly powerful ability that many strong predators sought but could never obtain.

In this dangerous jungle, even overlords at the top of the pyramid, like tigers and brown bears, wouldn't dare say they could never get injured. All they could do was be careful, and then even more careful.

Because once injured, it meant their condition was poor and their combat power would plummet.

At that point, whether dealing with rivals of the same species or hunting, everything became much harder.

If they were unlucky enough to encounter wound inflammation or infection, even the king of the jungle might fall.

After all, those microorganisms were the real ruthless killers that drew blood without a trace.

Therefore, in the wild, preserving oneself was the highest priority.

This was also why the majestic king of the jungle, the tiger, would ambush its prey whenever possible.

All of it was to secure the highest reward with the lowest cost, without getting injured.

But once one had the Regeneration ability, these overlords wouldn't hesitate to go head-to-head, trading injury for injury, without worrying about their own wounds.

You have to understand that those overlords, under normal circumstances, would never go all-out to avoid injury.

If they could use seven-tenths of their strength, that was already good enough.

Only when facing certain death, in their dying throes, would they unleash their full power.

But now, with this ability, those overlords could essentially activate their full strength at any time.

In short, this was an ability where the strong only grow stronger, and the weak only grow weaker.

The effect it had on different hosts was worlds apart.

If Bai Chuan strengthened this ability, to say nothing else, at least his survival capability would skyrocket.

Just thinking about it was exciting.

And this ability added another layer of insurance to the plan Bai Chuan had in mind for the near future.

The familiar process appeared once again, but this time, two models shot up into the air. One was the previously strengthened Kite model, which he had captured later, and the other was the newly acquired African Spiny Mouse model.

Bai Chuan first extracted the Regeneration ability from the African Spiny Mouse model, then placed it into his own body. Perhaps because the ability was genetic in nature, with no external limbs involved, it began to fuse on its own as soon as it was placed, achieving a compatibility rate of 90%.

Next, he extracted the Strength LV1 (Chest Aberration) from the Kite model and inserted it into the snake body, positioning it about one-third of the way down from the head.

That is, when the King Cobra raised its head and propped up a third of its body, this muscle would be right near the ground.

This was the best position he had found through constant trial and error during this period. The reason he hadn't strengthened it earlier was due to concerns about the Regeneration ability, afraid the two might conflict.

As the abilities fused, a massive muscle bulged out, and at the same time, the Agility LV2 in his panel dropped to LV1.

But Bai Chuan paid it no mind.

The next moment, he extracted the Claws LV2 from the Kite model and placed it right at the location of that muscle mass.

Instantly, as the two abilities merged, a miraculous scene unfolded.

Seeing some readers from the previous chapter confused about why Bai Chuan didn't kill the ant and bring it back to scan, here's an explanation.

At that time, Bai Chuan's body had already reached nearly 4 meters, and he was a snake with no limbs, relying on his mouth to attack. So killing an ant the size of a grain of rice was actually very difficult.

Has anyone ever actually touched a snake? A snake's scales aren't all on a flat plane; they overlap with subtle bumps and grooves. With those irregularities, it's hard for Bai Chuan to crush an ant with his body.

Anyone who's tried using a seemingly flat brick to crush an ant as a kid knows that method doesn't work on ants.

As for using his snake head to poke? That wouldn't work either. Anyone who's carefully observed snakes knows their mouths can't fully close like a human's. There's a small gap where the tongue extends, and the tongue is very sensitive.

Bai Chuan, being someone who values his life, wouldn't risk poking with his head unless there was life-or-death pressure from outside.

Even if he managed to kill one by chance, it would be hard to bring it back. As for holding it in his mouth, a snake's mouth structure is different from a human's. Humans have saliva and hands to easily retrieve things from their mouths, but snakes tend to swallow things easily.

No one knows if eating something they shouldn't would cause problems for snakes. Some ants are also poisonous, and being in the wild, they might carry all sorts of strange microorganisms.

Bai Chuan didn't dare gamble. He could succeed by playing it steady and safe; there was no need to be a gambler. Not to mention, he had already discovered earlier that the panel's strengthening abilities could conflict with each other, requiring rationality.