Faith Power

After completing his life metamorphosis, Gao Jing's senses had undergone a fundamental improvement.

His connection with the Copper Anchor had also become closer and more solid!

When he had just awakened in the bathroom earlier, he had already sensed a change in the Copper Anchor.

If the Copper Anchor that morning had been like a dried-up pond, then the Copper Anchor that afternoon...

It was practically a giant sandpit.

Every last drop of moisture had been squeezed out; grab a handful, and it was nothing but dry sand and gravel!

Gao Jing's intuition told him that after he had been struck by the snake's blood and returned with grave injuries, it had been the Copper Anchor that saved him.

Without the Copper Anchor, Gao Jing would undoubtedly have died!

Yet the Copper Anchor had paid a price for it.

What had it lost?

Gao Jing noticed that beneath the desk lamp, the Copper Anchor's gleam was far dimmer than before.

But the silver scales were all still there.

There were still seven of them.

None had been lost because of this.

So it had nothing to do with the silver scales.

And that was far from all Gao Jing had discovered.

That evening, when Gao Jing was having a buffet at the Nine Dragons Grand Hotel, he distinctly sensed something like a drop of water falling into a sandpit inside the Copper Anchor as the waitress came over to clear his plates and spoke with him.

Later, when he had stepped in to help Tony after witnessing an injustice on his way back, an even trickling stream had flowed into the Copper Anchor.

He had felt something similar before, and he could sense it from time to time.

But Gao Jing was certain that he had never experienced such sensations when he had first obtained the Copper Anchor.

Until...

A glint flashed through Gao Jing's eyes.

He set down the Copper Anchor and turned on his laptop.

The battered laptop creaked and groaned, taking a full minute to reach the desktop.

When Gao Jing opened his browser and logged into Bilibili, he discovered that his account had accumulated a whole pile of unopened notifications—@ mentions, likes received, and private messages!

And virtually all of them came from the video he had uploaded early last night.

Three-Year Animation Graduation Project.

The video Gao Jing had uploaded on a whim had only been online for a little over twenty-four hours.

Yet it had already racked up 110,000 views, over 2,000 danmaku comments, more than 5,000 likes, and over 3,000 coins!

The comments section below had also received more than a thousand messages.

"Laughing first out of respect."

"The guy above laughed too soon. This isn't a comedy!!"

"Holy crap, this is amazing!"

"Was this reposted from somewhere?"

"If this is the graduation project of someone who studied animation for three years, I might as well jump off a rooftop."

"666!"

"It should be original. The uploader is a true master!"

"China has this level of skill? I don't believe it."

"Believe it or not, the video is right here. Watch it yourself."

"The modeling, the lighting and shadows, the detail effects—absolutely stunning!"

"Progress bar warning!"

"Why is it so short?"

"Uploader, you're too short!"

There were complaints and doubts among the danmaku and comments, but there was even more amazement and praise.

Those who doubted it believed that this astonishing CG video had been reposted by Gao Jing from elsewhere, and refused to believe it was his original work.

Yet not a single skeptic could find the video's source.

That was why it had received so many likes.

Gao Jing noticed that his ID, "g93," now had over two thousand followers.

It had originally only been a single-digit number.

Gao Jing was an old Bilibili user. The "g" in his ID represented the initial of his name, while "93" was his birth year.

Besides Bilibili, he used the same ID on AcFun, Weibo, video sites, Fish Live, Tieba, forums, and other online platforms.

Gao Jing had never expected his video to catch fire on Bilibili so quickly—even a small fire was still a fire.

Before this, he had been the sort who lurked and freeloaded. He had never uploaded any video content and rarely even posted danmaku comments.

He had been an obscure nobody, silent and unknown.

With no followers, no publicity, and absolutely no foundation, such numbers were truly astonishing.

Gao Jing guessed that quite a few people had voluntarily spread the word for him.

After all, the video had been shared many times.

But that was not the point. Gao Jing had no desire to become some internet-famous uploader.

With the misleading title, uploading a short clip filmed in the Great World was not a problem. Nobody could possibly make an association that matched the truth.

But if he uploaded videos from the Great World frequently, things would be hard to say.

If the impact grew too great, it would be hard to prevent someone with ulterior motives from digging into the truth.

Even in Hollywood, the very best CG special effects could burn through tens of thousands of dollars per second!

It was considerably cheaper domestically, but still extremely expensive.

So it was best to quit while he was ahead.

And the real point was that the reaction to this video had given Gao Jing more conjectures and guesses.

That was, the "water droplets" absorbed by the Copper Anchor most likely came from other people's...

From the attention, admiration, respect, worship, gratitude, affection, and other emotions directed at him, the owner of the Copper Anchor.

Or perhaps thoughts.

The so-called Faith Power!

The concept of Faith Power had existed since ancient times, and Gao Jing did not have any deep understanding of it.

For now, he could not be certain that his conjecture was entirely correct.

But Gao Jing could be one hundred percent certain that the Copper Anchor desperately, desperately needed this power!

Gao Jing even suspected that his earlier decision to upload the video had been influenced by the Copper Anchor!

Of course, he could not discard the Copper Anchor because of that.

Since he could not part with it, Gao Jing decided to further probe its secrets.

He would begin with Faith Power!

His intuition told Gao Jing that it would also bring him enormous benefits.

Over the next week, Gao Jing did not enter the Great World for another adventure.

His body was still evolving. His height had actually increased by another two centimeters, reaching a full 1.85 meters!

His strength, speed, reflexes, senses, and everything else had improved accordingly.

While adapting to the changes in his body, Gao Jing had gradually learned how to control it effectively.

That way, he would no longer be troubled by his overly sharp hearing, sense of smell, and other senses.

After all, hearing everything too clearly and having a nose that was too sensitive were not necessarily good things.

There was no need to go into the details.

But while Gao Jing had learned to control his body, he could not control his wallet.

He was nearly unable to afford food!

The most immediate consequence of the metamorphosis was Gao Jing's greatly increased appetite—and his refusal to eat anything but meat.

To fill his stomach, he had no choice but to rush around the major hotels and restaurants of Cloud City, hopping from one buffet to another. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a late-night snack—four meals a day were indispensable.

Fortunately, Cloud City was a major tourist destination with a great many hotels and restaurants, so Gao Jing did not have to keep milking the same one or two buffet places.

Otherwise, it would have been far too embarrassing.

Even so, Gao Jing was often awakened by hunger in the middle of the night.

So he bought large quantities of beef jerky, chocolate bars, and other high-calorie foods to keep beside him.

In addition, because he had grown a full seven centimeters taller, none of Gao Jing's old clothes fit anymore, and he could only spend money on new ones.

Money flowed out like water.

In just one week, not only had all his savings been drained dry, he had also borrowed quite a bit of money from Boss Ma's family!

Watching the amount on his Huabei account dwindle lower and lower, Gao Jing decided to return to the Great World.

Just as Gao Jing began making preparations, his phone received a push notification for a local news story.

Registration for the Ninth Cloud City Summer International Marathon closed today. The number of registered participants had set a new record, and the official race would be held next Saturday!

Over the past few years, Cloud City had hosted three international marathons every year in spring, summer, and autumn. Of them, the summer marathon had the longest history, the most participants, and the largest prize money.

Gao Jing had run a half marathon during his senior year of university, though he had not achieved any ranking.

Although his physical fitness had been quite good, compared to those who trained in long-distance running year-round, he had truly been far behind.

They were not on the same level.

But the Gao Jing of today was utterly incomparable to who he had once been.

His gaze froze upon his phone screen.

The news stated that this year's Cloud City Summer International Marathon offered a champion's prize of fifty thousand US dollars, while the runner-up and third-place finishers would receive thirty thousand and twenty thousand dollars respectively.

Besides the generous prize money, Cloud City Television would also broadcast the entire race live!

Gao Jing could not help but feel his heart stir.

He was desperately short of money, while the Copper Anchor was desperately short of Faith Power.

Once he won the marathon championship, both needs would be met!

After considering it for only a few seconds, Gao Jing decisively opened the website link attached to the news and entered the official site of the Cloud City Summer International Marathon.

On the relevant webpage, he entered his name and identification information.

He successfully registered before the deadline!