He glanced at his post again and saw a few pointless replies. Most were people begging some big shot to take them under his wing. One person even kept playing the victim, going on about how miserable his life was and how hard things were for him, then asking Lu Li for support. When Lu Li didn't reply for a while, he gradually changed his tone, accusing Lu Li of having no compassion or humanity—in short, trying to guilt-trip him into handing over some benefits. Lu Li stayed silent for a moment, then replied, "If you're so miserable, why don't you just die? What are you still living for?"
Then he closed the post and went back to enjoying that profound sense of security and tranquility. After trying two or three times, Lu Li realized the Tranquility Meditation Method no longer had any effect. He frowned. Did this skill have a cooldown?
He opened Moon Shadow's post and saw that after he'd replied, many more comments had appeared. They were all garbage—some accused Lu Li of showing off, while others said he'd successfully gotten himself killed. After that came a flurry of replies from Moon Shadow Yifeng:
"You tried it? Did it work?"
"Did it increase your soul by 0.02 and your mental power by 0.04?"
"The initial effect could indeed strengthen the soul, but I estimate it only works the first time."
"Don't try using it a second time. According to my calculations, you need to rest for at least three hours before extracting again. Using it repeatedly in a short period could make you become addicted to the tranquil state, or bring you into contact with unknown entities..."
"Every time you use it in that state, your rationality temporarily decreases. You might come into contact with something unpleasant, so you should wait at least three hours before trying again."
"Why aren't you replying? You didn't use it again, did you?"
Lu Li looked at the long string of replies and answered that he hadn't. Moon Shadow immediately replied, "Add me as a friend so we can talk privately. I want to learn the details of your skill-use data. That's all I need."
"If possible, I can meet you in person. With my help, we can definitely complete this skill."
"Forget it. That's not safe. After three hours, I'll post my sensations and data in this thread..." Lu Li replied expressionlessly, then closed the post and began designing his skill again. Until the Energy Module came back, all he could do was brainstorm.
He reopened his own trade post, ignoring the stream of insults, and spotted a few people who said they wanted to trade. After talking with them, Lu Li promptly blocked several. Every one of them wanted to meet in person to trade, or wanted him to hand over the goods first. They were probably all scammers. Even if they weren't, Lu Li wouldn't agree to meet in person; it was far too dangerous.
The forum had most of the features found in chat apps, such as private messages, friends, and even personalized profile spaces. It also facilitated trades, but charged an additional fee. Some scammers used the excuse of saving on fees to arrange in-person trades. The best-case scenario was getting scammed out of a module; the worst was disappearing without a trace. Where did they go? That hardly needed explaining.
After that, Lu Li did get in touch with a player who had an Energy Module: Magic. Unfortunately, the player insisted that Lu Li pay the full 50-point fee. After several rounds of negotiation, they still couldn't agree, and Lu Li eventually ran out of patience. He gave his final offer: he'd pay 30, and the other party would pay 20. Take it or leave it. And so, he got the Energy Module: Magic.
Three hours later, Lu Li tried the Tranquility Meditation Method a second time. His soul didn't increase, but his mental power rose by 0.3 units. He posted the data and his sensations during meditation in Moon Shadow's thread, then continued planning his skill.
When class ended, Lu Li stood up with the diagrams he'd drawn. He skipped the last class of the day as well as all his afternoon classes, then headed to a small grove behind the school to test his skill. Following the sequence he'd planned, he connected every module except Fear and set the parameters. Then he activated the skill.
One unit of Shadow Magic extracted successfully. It flowed into the Spirit Module. Control established. By my will, I manipulate it and bestow shadow upon it, solidifying its form and adding the Primary Intelligence Template. Come forth! A pitch-black shadow appeared in the empty space before him. It was roughly human-shaped, riddled with holes. In an instant, Lu Li felt that although the one-person-sized portion of his shadow—which he'd previously been able to use alongside a shadow three times his own size—was still there, he could no longer control it.
Lu Li now sensed two ways of controlling the shadow. The first was to use his mental power to directly control the whole thing, but that would drain his mental power extremely quickly. The second was to issue commands through his will, allowing the shadow's basic intelligence to carry them out.
"Walk two steps forward!" Lu Li ordered. The shadow twitched twice, then collapsed onto the ground. Lu Li forcibly took control of its entire body with his mental power and made it stagger to its feet. The next moment, his body felt drained, and a wave of nausea rose within him. The shadow vanished. He checked his status panel and saw that directly controlling it with his mental power had cost him 0.2 units. The shadow had existed for just over a minute, and all his remaining Shadow Magic had been used up.
Lu Li then stood quietly beneath the shadow of a tree for over an hour, until his Shadow Magic and mental energy had fully recovered. He activated the skill again, and a human-shaped shadow appeared. After he demonstrated some basic movements, the shadow could understand some basic commands. But if a command was even slightly more complex, it couldn't react at all. And after using the skill for less than a minute, he had to wait an hour for it to cool down before he could test it again.
"With the modules I have now and the limits of my magic, it seems like no amount of rearranging can improve this skill any further. Still, at least this Primary Intelligence Template has a memory, so I don't have to teach it how to understand commands every time." Lu Li sighed and checked the shop for modules that might improve the skill. It was pretty useless for now, but it had great potential. Perhaps because of the Solidification Module, the shadow was fairly stable and wasn't afraid of sunlight. Even when exposed to strong light, it only consumed a little more magic.
Once Lu Li increased his mental power through meditation, his magic capacity would naturally grow too. By then, he should be able to summon three similar shadows, though even then they still wouldn't be very useful.
Suddenly, Lu Li's gaze sharpened. He'd spotted a module...
Tomorrow would probably be the last chapter set in the real world. After that, the story would move on to a new game instance. I hope everyone enjoys it. And don't complain that the protagonist's skills are too weak right now. Other players have it even worse than Lu Li at the beginner stage. His abilities will gradually be improved from here on...
Before you continue