The System Finally Acted Human

Bai Zhu's back tensed instantly.

On the roof of North Warehouse, the woman in white looked straight over.

Hundreds of meters apart.

Separated by snowy slopes, wooden sheds, a convoy, and layers of dense forest.

Her expression did not change at all.

But Bai Zhu was certain she was looking at him.

"Fuck."

Bai Zhu pressed himself flat against the snow, his voice extremely low.

"How could she sense me?"

In his earpiece, Milluki's keyboard clattered to an abrupt stop.

"Are you sure?"

"She practically gave me a secret signal with her eyes. What do you think?"

Bai Zhu did not even dare raise his head. He slowly shuffled backward on his elbows, moving like a maggot wriggling through the snow.

He knew exactly what his advantage was right now.

The Forced Zetsu granted by the system was practically a god-tier survival skill in the Hunter world.

No Nen aura fluctuations.

No aura leakage like ordinary Nen users had.

As long as he did not expose himself and stayed out of sight, Nen users theoretically could not lock onto him.

He had relied on this trick through all those previous sneaky operations.

But the woman on the roof had not searched for him at all.

She raised her head and locked onto him directly.

It felt like he had activated stealth in the bushes, only for the enemy support to plant a true-sight ward right in his face.

Bai Zhu cursed wildly in his heart.

"Why does every new map in this damn place spawn a regional boss? And there isn't even a 'come fight me if you're my brother' sign here!"

Milluki's voice came through the earpiece.

"Quit messing around. Don't make any big movements. I'm switching the surveillance feeds."

"You'd better hurry. I don't think she came here to admire the scenery."

Milluki switched between feeds in rapid succession.

A Mechanical Spider crawled up the side wall of North Warehouse.

The instant its camera caught the woman in white's feet, the signal suddenly went black.

Milluki fell silent for half a second, then switched to the second one.

This one was hidden in a drainage ditch, with only its pinhole camera exposed.

In the footage, several Black Crystal syringes behind the woman in white slowly rotated half a turn.

The next moment.

The feed vanished.

The third one.

The fourth one.

They all met the same fate.

Even Milluki's breathing grew heavier.

"Bai Zhu, don't get close to her."

"You don't need to tell me that. I want to dig a hole and bury myself on the spot."

"All scout bugs that entered within twenty meters of her are gone."

"Blown up?"

"No."

"Electromagnetic interference?"

"No changes in the waveform."

Bai Zhu dug his fingers into the snow and slowly shifted toward the back of the broken slope.

Milluki lowered his voice.

"It's like they were nailed down by needles."

Bai Zhu paused.

"Invisible needles?"

"Can't rule it out."

"Can you stop using horror movie lines? I'm lying in the snow right now. The atmosphere is already perfect."

A voice cut into the underground channel.

Illumi spoke, with the sound of cart wheels rolling in the background.

"Stay away from her."

Bai Zhu immediately replied.

"Big brother, that carries more weight coming from you than Milluki, but could you two say something new? Like telling me who she is?"

"Don't know."

"Then what makes you so sure?"

There was a brief pause on Illumi's end.

"She isn't breathing normally."

Bai Zhu's heart sank.

Illumi continued.

"Her body temperature is low. She doesn't leak the aura an ordinary Nen user would when moving. She stands there, yet no one around her dares raise their head."

Milluki cut in.

"There's no record of her in the database either. I went through the Creation Society's core members. There's no face like hers."

Bai Zhu slowly retreated behind the broken slope, pressing his back against the frozen ground. At last, he was temporarily out of the roof's direct line of sight.

He let out a breath.

"Unknown, no aura, and she can still lock onto me from that far away."

"Great."

"This instance is getting more and more familiar."

Milluki was not in the mood for his joke.

"Your mission has changed. Don't contact her directly. Wait until the convoy moves. I'll use interference bugs to create chaos, and you only intercept the rear vehicles."

"What if she doesn't follow the convoy?"

"Then wait there and die."

Bai Zhu said nothing.

Milluki immediately started cursing.

"Don't pretend you didn't hear me! If she follows the convoy, retreat immediately! If you can't save the pregnant women, find another way next time. If you die, there won't be a next time!"

Bai Zhu raised a hand and touched his earpiece.

"Fatty."

"What?"

"You've been acting more and more like a human lately."

"Don't disgust me."

"I'm not. Let me play with your toys next time. Do you have any life-sized ones?"

"Get lost! Don't even think about touching my babies!"

"Tch, cheapskate!"

Bai Zhu had just been about to retreat another two steps when a blood-red notification suddenly appeared in his vision.

[Detected that the host has encountered extreme danger.]

[As the host's future use of Zanpakuto Shikai and Bankai requires matching physical attributes, the Body Enhancement System is being unlocked ahead of schedule.]

[PS: Do not let your own power tear your body apart.]

Bai Zhu froze completely.

The blood-red text flashed twice across the translucent panel, then a new tab appeared.

[Body Enhancement]

Bai Zhu looked at the new interface and nearly burst into tears on the spot.

"System."

"You finally acted human."

Milluki heard him muttering and immediately grew alert.

"Which customer service agent are you talking to now?"

"Fate's customer service finally replied to me. It even unlocked premium features."

"Did getting blown up damage your brain?"

"Stop talking. I'm paying to get stronger now."

Bai Zhu opened the enhancement interface.

Then fell silent.

The panel was extremely bare-bones.

[Strength: 80]

[Agility: 90]

[Stamina: 60]

That was it.

That was really it.

Bai Zhu stared at the interface for three seconds.

"Where's intelligence?"

"Where's my health bar?"

"Where's mental resistance?"

"Where's critical hit rate?"

"Did you outsource this system to college students?"

"No, even college students today would disdain making something this low-grade."

Milluki was completely baffled.

"What exactly are you doing?"

"Looking at a slapdash operation."

"Slapdash?"

"The kind that fools its customers without even writing an instruction manual. You wouldn't understand."

Milluki sneered.

"Then you should be familiar with it. Haven't you used my family's products?"

"Don't insert yourself into this so quickly."

Bai Zhu turned his attention back to his achievement points.

[Remaining allocatable achievement points: 306]

His total Reiatsu was now 7,460, but he only had 306 allocatable achievement points.

He still needed this stuff to draw Kidō in the future.

But that woman in white had practically shoved the words "extreme danger" into his face.

Save them?

Save my ass.

Money was just a bastard. If it was gone, he could earn more.

If he died, no one would click the system panel no matter how pretty it looked.

Bai Zhu first raised his Strength from 80 to 100.

Then he raised his Stamina from 60 to 100. Mainly because it looked better that way.

He had 246 points left, and he dumped them all into Agility.

[Strength: 100]

[Agility: 266]

[Stamina: 100]

Confirmed.

The next second.

There were no visual effects.

No level-up sound.

Yet it felt as though his body had been dismantled and reassembled from within.

His bones made faint cracking sounds, his muscles burned in waves, his chest was forced open, and his heartbeat suddenly accelerated before quickly stabilizing.

Lying in the snow, he absentmindedly pressed his fingers against the ground.

Crack.

Several fissures split across the frozen earth.

Bai Zhu lowered his head and looked at his hand.

"Damn."

Milluki immediately pressed for more.

"What? Did she move?"

"No."

Bai Zhu flexed his wrist.

"I feel like... I'm ridiculously strong now."

Milluki fell silent for half a second.

"Weren't you practically about to collapse just now?"

That was then. Now I'm Superman!"

Bai Zhu braced himself against the ground and pushed lightly, sending half his body springing straight out of the snow.

He quickly dropped back down.

He had moved too fast and nearly launched himself out of cover.

"Whoa, this agility boost is a little hard to get used to."

Milluki's voice turned suspicious.

"Did you secretly take some kind of drug just now?"

"I never do drugs. Doing drugs is illegal."

"I don't get it."

"It's better that way. If you got it, you'd start charging me."