Xia Lun opened his eyes abruptly. At that moment, nothing was on the desk except a black carbon pen.
A thought flickered in his mind, and the next moment, accompanied by a muffled thud, a crudely crafted Voidwood Box materialized out of thin air on the desk!
Is it really possible? He blinked in surprise.
A moment later, Xia Lun snapped his fingers with interest. With a crisp click, the Voidwood Box vanished into thin air just as instantly.
He spread his right hand forward, and the revolver materialized in his palm; he then spread his left hand forward, and the short sword Night Plume appeared right after it.
Xia Lun stood up with great enthusiasm, flicking his wrist slightly. The blade slashed straight toward his desk, a bone-chilling reflection flashing past, followed by a crisp hum. But the exact moment before the blade was about to cleave the wooden desk, it transformed out of thin air into a scattering of silver fluorescent dust.
Hum! The crisp hum ceased abruptly, much like a clear rushing spring suddenly crashing into a concrete dam.
Xia Lun continued his wrist downward, passing over the wooden desk, and then the short sword materialized once more.
"Interesting." With a smile, he spun the sword in a flourish. "With enough imagination, this trick can be pulled off in all sorts of ways during combat."
Then, he tested it out quite excitedly for a while, and amidst the continuous experimentation, six minutes quietly slipped away.
[Information Panel upgrade complete]
A cobalt-blue message swept across the corner of Xia Lun's vision.
In an instant, a huge wave of anticipation surged into his heart, and his brows instinctively twitched upward.
Let's try out the effect of displaying item information first!
Xia Lun lowered his head and looked at the Voidwood Box on the desk.
A coolness like a gentle breeze brushed across the corner of his eye, and the next instant, cobalt-blue information welled up from the surface of the box like flowing water.
[Voidwood Box: A bizarre box of crude workmanship. Items placed inside can be brought into the scenario without the need for memory materialization. At the same time, this box can also block most detection.] [Detailed Classification: Paradox Item]
"Hoh, the effect is pretty good." Xia Lun was quite satisfied. He turned his head to look at his wooden desk.
[Pine Wood Desk: A rather aged desk that seems to have a faint scent of pine wood. Due to proper maintenance, this desk still looks like it can be used for a long time.]
Xia Lun nodded. Hesitating for a moment, he then picked up the photograph on the desk that recorded the "interlocking triangular symbols."
Will the Information Panel have an effect? A trace of doubt flashed through his mind.
The next moment, a cobalt-blue stream of information emerged from the photograph.
[Special Photograph: A photograph recording the special ritual "Calling".] [Secret Art Ritual "Calling": At a specific time and on a specific plane, draw the specific ritual shown on the photograph, and pay a specific price. Then, there is a chance to "call" a specific individual from the other dimension, causing them to replace a specific vessel.] [Remarks: Using this ritual will drastically reduce mental health. Please use with caution.]
"Ah?" Xia Lun was startled. He blinked in disbelief. "What's photographed here is really an occult ritual? No, is there really soul-replacement technology in reality?"
In an instant, he even felt a sliver of bewilderment. This change in state of mind could be analogized to picnicking on a sunny grassy meadow one second, only to be dragged into a catacomb full of walking corpses and wraiths to fight for survival the next second.
Although he had guessed that the symbols on the photograph might be a ritual possessing supernatural power, a guess was still a guess, and confirmation was confirmation. The psychological impact brought by the two was completely distinct.
When I drowned, I also saw similar symbols nearby. Doesn't this mean someone wanted to replace me?
Xia Lun took a deep breath, slowly sorting through his somewhat chaotic thoughts.
Put that way, the fact that I drowned and got a terminal illness must be related to this group of people. Perhaps according to their plan, once I died of illness, someone else would replace me.
Although I've cured my terminal illness now and temporarily thwarted their conspiracy, putting myself in their shoes, they will never let the matter rest at that.
But from a good perspective, I still have a three-month window. They don't know yet that I've cured my terminal illness. I must make full use of this time to investigate and improve my strength.
In an instant, pressure and a sense of urgency assaulted Xia Lun's heart like a suddenly descending rainstorm, and his originally leisurely mood completely dissipated.
Fairly speaking, he had never feared fighting with people, but the enemies he was facing now were somewhat too mysterious. Their motives were unknown, their identities unknown, and their abilities unknown—if not for the Information Panel, he wouldn't even have been aware that this group of enemies truly existed.
At least I know of their existence now. Xia Lun comforted himself. I might as well continue looking at my attribute panel.
With that thought, he suppressed the worry in his heart, softly summoned the Information Panel in his mind, and simultaneously looked at the attribute section on the panel.
Xia Lun moved a thought, and then the cobalt-blue Information Panel slowly unfolded before him. His gaze swept rapidly past the first half and went straight to the attribute section.
[Personal Attributes] [Remarks: The baseline value for a normal adult male is 10. The increase of every 1 point of value is not a linear increase, but an exponential increase.] [Strength: 11 (Base condition 10; Specialty "Reflexive Evasion" provides minor training enhancement +1)—You are as strong as a soldier, and your strength is not bad, but that is only in the general sense.] [Constitution: 10 (Base condition 6, Specialty "Familiarity with Pain" provides moderate training enhancement +2; Secret Art specialty "Transcendent Regeneration" provides moderate secret art enhancement +2)—Due to serious illness, you were close to death, but through reasonable training and the blessing of supernatural power, you have miraculously attained the constitution of a normal person.] [Agility: 16 (Base condition 15, Reflexive Evasion provides minor training enhancement +1)—Quick-witted and lightning-fast. Your thinking speed, reaction ability, muscle explosiveness, and coordination all far exceed those of ordinary people.]
The values of these attributes look very much like the stats from the Dungeons & Dragons tabletop sessions of my past life, Xia Lun muttered inwardly. I didn't expect my Agility value to actually be this high. Judging by this value, even if I transmigrated into a fantasy world full of all sorts of freaks and monsters, I could moonlight as a ranger or rogue...
However, the Agility attribute actually involves muscle explosiveness as well. This seems to overlap somewhat with Strength, which is strange.
Thinking along these lines, he continued to look downward.
[Charisma: 14 (Base condition 14)—You are glib of tongue and skilled in lobbying and inspiring; at the same time, you are also adept at deception and coercion. Regardless, you are someone skilled at influencing others.] [Perception: 18 (Base condition 16, Secret Art specialty "Transcendent Regeneration" provides moderate secret art enhancement +2)] [—Your perceptual ability approaches the limit of ordinary people. You can see the minute textures on a mosquito's wings, hear the soft rustle of the wind brushing against flowers, and you can also, purely by intuition, keenly capture the secret connections between things or gain inspiration. But as a price, you also easily capture strange things. Oh, did you hear the universe singing?] [Intelligence: 12 (Base condition 12)—Your memory, imagination, and thinking ability are quite good, but still within the realm of ordinary people.]
Xia Lun glanced over them briefly and found that the attribute information on the panel basically matched his own feelings without much difference, so he looked at the final function after the Information Panel's upgrade.
His pupils shifted slightly, looking at the "Mental Health" and "Physical Health" sections.
[Mental State: Serenity (0/0), Severe Error.]
Severe Error? Xia Lun was startled on the spot, and he looked over it repeatedly twice more. What's the situation? And what does this 0/0 value mean?
He froze for a moment, then suddenly thought of the reading condition for the Prayerbook of the Drowned—only the living dead and madmen could read it.
Could it be that I'm already insane now? Yet I clearly feel fine myself, Xia Lun's thoughts raced as he continuously pondered. Or is it because I died once in my past life, so I don't have the mental state attribute?
Or perhaps, my mental state is infinite? After all, according to the Information Panel's description, many effects that would severely impair mental state seem to have no impact on me...
Thoughts surged like a tide, and Xia Lun felt somewhat hesitant and indecisive for a moment, but relying on his intuition, he vaguely sensed that the mental state value displaying "0/0" should be a tremendously good thing.
If my mental state is truly locked, wouldn't I be able to learn secret arts infinitely? Suddenly, a covert idea welled up in his mind.
But the next moment, Xia Lun shook his head. Don't think like that. Wishful thinking must not be entertained. Even if my mental state really is locked, I must maintain a basic attitude of awe toward those dangerous secret arts. Caution is the only way to avoid capsizing in the gutter.
Let's take a final look at physical health.
With that thought, his pupils shifted, and he looked at the "Physical Health" column. The next instant, his black pupils suddenly contracted.
Drastic changes arose abruptly!
[Physical Health: Temporarily Healthy (Curse: The Decay Has Come, Temporarily Alleviated)] [Curse (The Decay Has Come, Temporarily Alleviated): You have been infected by a powerful curse. Your lungs will wither away within 2,140 hours, turning into a puddle of pus and powder. When the lungs vanish, that is also when your end arrives. Because you temporarily resolved your body's symptoms through a secret art, the distance between you and complete decay has grown further away, but decay will eventually arrive.] [Current Maximum Surviving Time: 3560:12:31]
"Ah?!" Xia Lun felt his heartbeat skip half a beat. In an instant, it was as if a cold spear condensed from fear and oppression was pressing firmly against his chest. I can only live for 5 months?
Incredulous, he looked at it once more, and this caused his survival countdown to further decrease.
[Current Maximum Surviving Time: 3560:12:29]
Time ticked down second by second, and Xia Lun felt his heart sink further and further. The pressure and sense of urgency brought by the unknown enemy, the Foresight Club, multiplied exponentially, amplified by the anxiety over death.
At this moment, he felt as if he had suddenly been placed in a dark, cold wilderness. All around him were indistinct, towering medieval monks as large as giants. These monks all wore black hoods, circling around him in a ritualistic pilgrimage much like ancient barbarians performing a sacrifice, while he stood right in the middle of the circle like the sacrificial offering.
He gathered his willpower and blinked.
The next instant, the bizarre illusion abruptly dissipated, and Xia Lun slowly let out a breath.
The warm twilight sunlight spilled into the study, and the warm-toned study still appeared cozy and leisurely, but at this moment, Xia Lun no longer had the relaxed state of mind.
After a moment of silence, he suddenly shook his head, then muttered to himself, "Tension is meaningless. The key is action."
"A curse is no different from a terminal illness; it's just yet another hurdle." He sat back down in his chair and gently tapped the wooden desk with his fingers, the desk responding with a solid, warm tactile sensation. "When you encounter a hurdle, you just cross it."
After another few seconds, he decided to tell a cold joke to alleviate his overly heavy mood. "Of course, if you can't cross it, then you get wedged to death by the hurdle—but regardless, indulging in anxiety and tension is completely unnecessary."
"I must never waste time again. The method to solve the 'Withering Curse' can only be found in the game. Right now, during the scenario cooling-off countdown, I need to maximize my strength as much as possible in order to obtain outsized gains within the scenario."
"Specifically, I must contact the intelligence dealer White Line right now to purchase some items usable within the game; then acquire 'Nonhuman Toughness' through dream entry; and finally attempt to obtain new skills through the special memory 'Courtly Tournament'."
"All of this must be completed within a month."
Thinking to himself here, Xia Lun stopped tapping his fingers against the wooden desk.
He slowly stood up, walked over to the safe, and then retrieved an old-fashioned black flip phone from inside it.
His finger flipped open the phone cover, and Xia Lun dialed the number of the intelligence dealer White Line.
"Beep... beep... beep..."
Before you continue