Shadow Clone

Lu Li glanced at his post again and found a few boring replies. Most were from people begging for handouts, and one person even kept playing the victim, whining about how miserable his life was and demanding that Lu Li provide some support. Seeing that Lu Li hadn't replied for a while, the user slowly changed his tone, accusing Lu Li of lacking compassion and humanity, attempting to use moral blackmail to extort benefits. Lu Li remained silent for a moment before replying: "If you're that miserable, why don't you just die? Why are you still alive?"

He then closed the post to once again enjoy that sense of extreme, tranquil security. After trying it two or three more times, Lu Li realized that the Tranquility Meditation Method was no longer having any effect. Lu Li frowned; did this skill have a cooldown period?

He opened Moon Shadow Yifeng's post and saw that after his reply, many more comments had flooded in. Some were trash talk, with some calling Lu Li a show-off and others saying he had successfully courted death. Following that was a flurry of frantic replies from Moon Shadow Yifeng:

"You tried it, and you succeeded?"

"Did your soul increase by 0.02 and your spirit power by 0.04?"

"The initial effect can indeed strengthen the soul, but I suspect it only works the first time."

"Do not attempt to use it a second time. According to calculations, you need to rest for at least three hours before you can extract again. Continuous use in a short period may cause you to become addicted to the tranquil state, or you might make contact with an unknown existence..."

"In that state, every time you use it, your sanity will briefly decrease, and you might come into contact with something malevolent, so it is best to wait at least three hours before continuing."

"Why aren't you replying? You didn't actually use it again, did you!"

Lu Li looked at the long string of replies and replied with a simple "No," immediately receiving a response from Moon Shadow: "Add me as a friend for a private chat. I want to understand the data from when you used this skill in detail. That is all I need."

"If possible, I can meet you in reality. With my cooperation, we can definitely complete this skill."

"Forget it, it's not safe. After three hours, I will post my sensory experiences and data to this thread..." After typing this emotionless reply, Lu Li closed the thread and began designing his skill again. Until the Energy Module returned, everything could only remain a daydream.

He opened his exchange thread again, ignoring the bickering comments. Lu Li found a few potential trading partners, but after a brief conversation, he decisively blocked several of them. They all wanted to meet in person or demanded that Lu Li hand over the goods first; they were likely scammers. Even if they weren't, Lu Li wouldn't choose to meet in person—the risk was too great.

The forum possessed most of the functions of a chat app, such as private messaging, friends lists, and even personal profile spaces. It also provided transaction assistance, though it required an additional service fee. Some scammers used the excuse of saving on fees to insist on face-to-face trades. The best-case scenario was being scammed out of a module; the worst-case scenario was simply disappearing. As for where they went? Did that even need to be explained?

Later, Lu Li managed to connect with a player who had an Energy Module: Magic. Unfortunately, this player was determined to make Lu Li pay the 50-point service fee. After several rounds of negotiation without reaching a consensus, Lu Li lost the patience to play along and threw out his bottom line: he would pay 30, the other party would pay 20, or the deal was off. And just like that, the Energy Module: Magic was his.

Three hours later, Lu Li performed his second Tranquility Meditation. His soul did not increase, but his spirit power rose by 0.3 units. After posting the data and his sensory experiences to Moon Shadow's thread, Lu Li continued planning his skill.

When class ended, Lu Li stood up with his sketches, skipped the final period and all afternoon classes, and went to a small grove behind the school to begin experimenting with his skill. Following his planned sequence, Lu Li connected the modules—excluding the fear module—set the parameters, and activated his skill.

One unit of Shadow Magic was successfully extracted and channeled into the Spirit Module. Control was established. Under his will, he manipulated the shadow, solidified its form, and added the Primary Intelligence Template. "Come forth." A pitch-black shadow appeared in the clearing before him. The shadow was roughly humanoid and riddled with holes. Instantly, Lu Li felt that while he could normally command three times his own shadow, one person's worth of shadow was now occupied and unusable.

Lu Li felt there were two ways to control it: one was to use his spirit power to forcibly control the entire shadow, but the consequence was a rapid depletion of spirit power. The other was to issue commands to the shadow through his will, allowing the shadow's Primary Intelligence to act according to his intent.

"Take two steps forward!" Lu Li commanded directly. The shadow twitched twice before collapsing onto the ground. Lu Li then forcibly took over the shadow's entire body with his spirit power, controlling it as it stood up shakily. The next moment, Lu Li felt his body go hollow, and a wave of nausea washed over him. The shadow vanished instantly. Checking his panel, he saw that the period of direct spirit control had consumed 0.2 units, and the shadow had existed for just over a minute, completely exhausting his remaining Shadow Magic.

Afterward, Lu Li stood quietly in the shade for over an hour to recover his Shadow Magic and spirit energy. He activated the skill again, and a humanoid shadow appeared. After Lu Li demonstrated some basic movements, the shadow could understand his basic commands, but if the commands were too complex, the shadow couldn't react at all. Furthermore, for every minute the skill was used, it required an hour of cooldown before it could be tested again.

"With the current modules and the constraints of my magic, it seems I can't take this skill any further, no matter how I combine them. But at least this Primary Intelligence has memory; I don't have to teach it every time for it to understand commands." Lu Li sighed. He checked the shop to see if there were any modules to improve the skill. Although the skill was currently quite useless, its potential was excellent. Perhaps because of the fixed modules, the shadow was quite stable and didn't fear sunlight; even under intense light, it only increased his magic consumption slightly.

Once Lu Li increased his spirit power through meditation, his magic capacity would naturally increase. By then, he should be able to summon three similar shadows, even if such shadows still had little practical use.

Suddenly, Lu Li's gaze sharpened as he spotted a module...

Tomorrow will likely be the final chapter in the real world, and then the new game dungeon will begin. I hope everyone enjoys it. Also, please don't be disappointed that the protagonist's current skill is weak; at the primary stage, other players are even more miserable than Lu Li. The protagonist's abilities will be optimized step by step...