Chen, Why Are You Blushing So Red?

Night was nearly over, and dawn had arrived.

A faint glow had begun to spread across the horizon.

High above the vast Exotic Beast Forest, an even brighter streak of light cut through the sky.

It headed straight for Cloud Sea City.

Only when it neared the outskirts of the city did the streak of light descend into the suburbs.

The light faded, revealing two figures: one old, one young.

It was Chen Ming's first time experiencing flight, and he couldn't help finding it novel.

He had to admit, the old man was a pretty good guy.

He'd even taken him along when making his escape.

"Hey, young man, are you really all right?"

After setting Chen Ming down, the old man studied his body.

Chen Ming looked rather abnormal at the moment. The exposed skin on his body was actually glowing red.

Because he had drunk the [Azure Flame Molten Fire], he could feel a vast amount of attribute energy swelling inside him.

His internal organs seemed to be heating up.

[-1!]

That was right. He had already started taking damage.

If his physical toughness weren't at bug-level, Chen Ming figured he would probably have exploded by now.

In the literal sense.

But he wasn't panicking at all.

To Chen Ming, his body was just a little hot.

No big deal.

"I'm fine. I should be thanking you for helping me get away, senior."

When Chen Ming spoke, visible heat wafted from his mouth.

He was like a furnace.

The old man: ...

You called this fine?

He felt that if the kid could light a fire, he'd be breathing flames as he spoke.

He might even burst open right there—one spark and he'd blow!

"I... uh, never mind. You'd better go on ahead."

He'd originally intended to chat more with this young man who drank magma.

He wanted to find out more about him and see which prominent lineage he came from.

But when he saw how the other man looked ready to explode at any moment, he held back.

Unlike exotic beasts, human bodies were extremely frail and couldn't digest substances containing attribute energy.

Only through gradual absorption could that energy be converted into the "foundation" needed for a Class Changer to awaken skills.

The young man's only hope now was to absorb the Azure Flame Molten Fire before something happened to his body.

Otherwise, there would be trouble.

He hardly dared imagine the consequences...

The kid's body might melt away.

"This young man..."

The old man looked in Chen Ming's direction, his expression complicated.

He guessed that the other man was most likely a hidden-class or dual-class Class Changer.

Otherwise, how could he possibly have an ability that seemed to grant brief immunity to damage?

He had once met an advanced SS-rank Class Changer from Huaxia whose skill granted 99% damage reduction for a full five minutes.

Terrifying!

This young man surely had a similar top-tier skill.

The old man drew his thoughts back and took a bottle of bright-blue liquid from his robes.

Looking at the [Moonlight Glaze] in his hand, he smiled with relief.

"With this, Xue'er will definitely be able to awaken a mental skill in the future."

Elsewhere.

Chen Ming was walking back toward the city.

It was almost 7 a.m.

In the suburbs, he could even see groups of Class Changers heading toward the safe zone outside the city.

They were preparing to start their third day of leveling.

Quite a few people spotted Chen Ming along the way.

There was no way they could miss him.

As he walked through the suburbs, his whole body was bathed in red light. He was impossible to overlook.

"Holy crap, that looks like Chen Ming!"

"Was he just coming back from outside the city?"

"Did he spend the whole night leveling in the wild?! What a grind."

"No wonder he's ranked first."

"If you like this book, add it to your bookshelf so you can find it again next time."

"Hey, what's going on with him?"

"..."

Chen Ming realized that he had suddenly become unusually popular.

Almost everyone who saw him along the way came over to greet him for no apparent reason.

Ding-dong—

Just then, his phone received a message.

Near the city, his phone had signal again.

Chen Ming took it out and saw that he had two messages.

One was a friend request, and the other was a message from Sun Yang—

[Chen, where are you?]

[Everyone's talking about you out there!]

Chen Ming sent back a "?"

Then he opened the friend request and saw that it was from Qin Zhixue.

Her message had only two words: "Team up."

"Right, Qin Zhixue is probably level 5 by now. She can enter dungeons in a team."

Once the team leader reached level 5, the entire team could enter dungeons.

And the experience and rewards from clearing a dungeon weren't split among the teammates, so there was no difference between going solo and going in a team.

The only difference was the rating after clearing it.

So when it came to dungeon challenges, teaming up was definitely better than going solo.

After all, having teammates naturally made clearing a dungeon faster.

That was especially true when teaming up with an SS-rank Class Changer like Qin Zhixue.

Chen Ming accepted Qin Zhixue's friend request.

After thinking it over, he sent her a message.

"Something's come up. I'll have to put off teaming up for now."

Chen Ming's top priority was absorbing the [Azure Flame Molten Fire] inside him.

Qin Zhixue replied almost immediately with a brief "Okay."

"Chen!"

Someone let out a loud cry in the distance.

It was Sun Yang.

He'd spotted Chen Ming from afar and came running over excitedly.

"Holy crap, Chen, why are you blushing so red?"

Sun Yang was stunned to see Chen Ming's whole body glowing red.

With a curious look, he stepped closer and looked him over from side to side.

Then he reached out and curiously touched Chen Ming's arm, which looked like a red-hot iron rod.

"Ah!"

"It's so hot!"

Sun Yang blew on his burned fingers and stumbled backward.

"Chen, are you turning into a mutant or something?"

Chen Ming looked like a walking human-shaped furnace to him!

Chen Ming didn't banter with Sun Yang. Instead, he asked about his leveling.

"What level are you now?"

"Level 2. Heh, I can't compare to you, Chen..."

Sun Yang rubbed the back of his head, feeling a little embarrassed.

Compared with the Class Changers who had awakened this year, his leveling speed was actually pretty good.

And he could reach level 3 today, which would still put him in the top 100 in Cloud Sea City.

But compared with Chen Ming...

His leveling speed was far too slow.

On the second day of the Grand Exam, his buddy had gone straight to the top of Cloud Sea City.

Even SS-rank Class Changers couldn't match his leveling speed.

Still, Sun Yang hadn't asked Chen Ming to take him leveling even once.

Not even yesterday, after learning that Chen Ming hadn't been teaming up with Qin Zhixue but leveling alone.

He knew Chen had his reasons for going solo.

Chen Ming nodded, then opened his character panel.

"I sent you an invite. Accept it."

"What invite?"

Sun Yang looked at his panel.

[Team leader Chen Ming of the "Bright Morning" team has invited you to join. Accept/Decline?]

Chen Ming said, "I have something to take care of for now. Once I'm done, I'll take you through some dungeons to level up."

He'd gone solo before because that was the only way he could fight.

Now that he could level up through dungeons, he naturally had to take his boy along.

"Chen, you're practically my adoptive father!"