Interlude: Attributes, Sanity, Crisis

Xia Lun abruptly opened his eyes. At that moment, there was nothing on the table except a black carbon pen.

With a slight thought, the crudely made Voidwood Box appeared out of thin air on the table with a dull thud!

"Can it really do that?" He blinked in surprise.

A moment later, Xia Lun snapped his fingers with great interest. With a crisp snap, the Voidwood Box vanished into thin air again.

He held out his right hand, and the revolver appeared in his palm. Then he held out his left hand, and the shortsword "Night Plume" appeared as well.

Xia Lun rose excitedly. With a slight flick of his wrist, the blade slashed straight toward his desk. A cold gleam flashed past, followed by a clear hum, but just as the blade was about to strike the wooden desk, it dissolved into a cloud of scattered silver motes.

"Bzz!" The clear hum came to an abrupt halt, like a flowing spring suddenly crashing into a concrete dam.

Xia Lun's wrist continued downward, passing through the desk, and then the shortsword reappeared.

"Interesting." Smiling, he flourished the sword. "As long as I have enough imagination, I can pull all kinds of tricks with this in combat."

He continued experimenting with considerable excitement, and six minutes quietly passed amid his repeated attempts.

[Information Panel upgrade complete]

A line of cobalt-blue text swept past Xia Lun's vision.

In an instant, immense anticipation surged through him like a wave. His brows rose instinctively.

"Let's first see how well it displays item information!"

Xia Lun lowered his head and looked at the Voidwood Box on the table.

A breeze-like chill brushed past his eyes. In the next instant, cobalt-blue information surfaced across the box's surface like flowing water.

[Voidwood Box: A strange, crudely made box. Items placed inside can be brought into a scenario without being manifested through recollection. At the same time, this wooden box can block most forms of detection.]

[Detailed Category: Paradox Item]

"Whoa, that works pretty well." Xia Lun was quite satisfied. He turned to look at his desk.

[Pinewood Desk: A fairly old desk that seems to carry a faint scent of pine. Thanks to proper care, it appears it can still be used for a long time.]

Xia Lun nodded. After hesitating for a moment, he picked up the photograph on the table that recorded the "interlocking triangular symbol."

Will the Information Panel work on this? A trace of doubt crossed his mind.

In the next instant, a stream of cobalt-blue information emerged from the photograph.

[Special Photograph: A photograph recording the special ritual Calling.]

[Esoteric Ritual "Calling": At a specific time, on a specific plane, draw the specific ritual depicted in the photograph and pay a specific price. This may allow you to "call" a specific individual from another dimension, causing them to replace a specific vessel.]

[Note: Using this ritual will greatly reduce sanity. Please use with caution.]

"Huh?" Xia Lun was stunned. He blinked in disbelief. "That photo really contains an occult ritual? No, does soul-swapping technology actually exist in reality?"

For a moment, he even felt slightly lost. The change in his state of mind was like having a picnic on a sunny meadow one second, only to be dragged into an underground tomb filled with Walking Corpses and ghosts the next, forced to fight for survival.

He had suspected that the symbols in the photograph might be a ritual with supernatural power, but suspicion was only suspicion, while confirmation was confirmation. The psychological impact of the two was completely different.

"When I drowned, I saw similar symbols nearby too. Doesn't that mean someone wanted to replace me?"

Xia Lun drew a deep breath and slowly sorted through his somewhat chaotic thoughts.

"If that's the case, then my drowning and terminal illness definitely had something to do with these people. Perhaps according to their plan, someone would replace me after I died of illness."

"Although I've cured my terminal illness and temporarily foiled their scheme, if I put myself in their shoes, they definitely won't let this go."

"But on the bright side, I still have a three-month window. They don't know I've cured my terminal illness yet. I have to make full use of this time to investigate and improve my strength."

In an instant, pressure and urgency crashed into Xia Lun's heart like a sudden downpour, completely sweeping away his previously relaxed mood.

To be fair, he had never feared fighting others, but the enemies he faced now were simply too mysterious. Their purpose was unknown, their identities unknown, their abilities unknown—if not for the Information Panel, he might never have realized these enemies truly existed.

"At least I know they exist now." Xia Lun consoled himself. "Let's keep looking at my attribute panel."

With that thought, he suppressed the worry in his heart, silently summoned the Information Panel, and looked toward the attributes section.

At a thought from Xia Lun, the cobalt-blue Information Panel slowly unfolded before him. His gaze swiftly skipped over the first half and landed directly on the attributes section.

[Personal Attributes]

[Note: The baseline value for a normal adult male is 10. Every increase of 1 point is not linear, but exponential.]

[Strength: 11 (Base Condition 10; Specialty "Reflexive Evasion" provides a minor training boost +1)—You are as strong as a soldier. Your strength is fairly decent, but only by ordinary standards.]

[Constitution: 10 (Base Condition 6; Specialty "Familiarity with Pain" provides a moderate training boost +2; Esoteric Specialty "Transcendent Regeneration" provides a moderate esoteric boost +2)—Due to your serious illness, you were once close to death. But through proper training and the blessing of supernatural power, you have miraculously gained the constitution of a normal person.]

[Agility: 16 (Base Condition 15; Reflexive Evasion provides a minor training boost +1)—Quick-eyed and quick-handed, with lightning-fast reactions. Your speed of thought, reaction ability, muscular explosiveness, and coordination all far surpass those of ordinary people.]

These attribute values look a lot like the ones from the Dungeons & Dragons tabletop campaigns in my previous life. Xia Lun inwardly grumbled. I didn't expect my Agility to be this high. Going by these numbers, even if I got transported to some fantasy world crawling with monsters and demons, I could play a ranger or rogue...

"But Agility actually includes muscular explosiveness too. Doesn't that overlap somewhat with Strength? Strange."

As he thought, he continued reading.

[Charisma: 14 (Base Condition 14)—You are eloquent and skilled at persuasion and encouragement. You are also skilled at deception and coercion. No matter what, you are someone adept at influencing others.]

[Perception: 18 (Base Condition 16; Esoteric Specialty "Transcendent Regeneration" provides a moderate esoteric boost +2)]

[—Your perceptive abilities are close to the limits of ordinary humans. You can see the fine patterns on a mosquito's wings, hear the soft sound of wind brushing past flowers, and rely solely on intuition to keenly grasp hidden connections between things or gain inspiration. But in exchange, you can also easily notice strange things. Oh, can you hear the universe singing?]

[Intelligence: 12 (Base Condition 12)—Your memory, imagination, and thinking ability are quite good, but they still fall within the range of ordinary people.]

Xia Lun gave it a brief glance and found that the attribute information on the panel roughly matched his own feelings. He then looked toward the final function unlocked by the Information Panel's upgrade.

His eyes shifted toward the sections for "Sanity" and "Physical Health."

[Sanity: Calm (0/0), critical error.]

"Critical error?" Xia Lun was immediately alarmed. He read it over twice more. "What's going on? And what does this 0/0 mean?"

He froze for a moment, then suddenly remembered the reading requirement for the Prayerbook of the Drowned—only living dead people and madmen could read it.

"Could I already be insane? But I clearly feel fine." Countless thoughts raced through Xia Lun's mind. "Or is it because I died once in my previous life, so I don't have a sanity attribute?"

"Or maybe my sanity is infinite? After all, according to the Information Panel, many effects that severely damage sanity seem to have no effect on me..."

His thoughts surged like the tide. Xia Lun was uncertain for a time, but by instinct, he vaguely felt that having his sanity displayed as "0/0" should be a very good thing.

"If my sanity really is locked, wouldn't that mean I can learn esoteric arts without limit?" Suddenly, a secret thought surfaced in his heart.

But in the next moment, Xia Lun shook his head. "Don't think like that. Wishful thinking is dangerous. Even if my sanity really is locked, I still need to maintain a basic sense of reverence toward those dangerous esoteric arts. Being cautious and prudent is the only way to avoid capsizing in a ditch."

"Let's take one last look at Physical Health."

With that thought, his eyes shifted toward the "Physical Health" section. In the next instant, his black pupils contracted sharply.

A sudden change occurred!

[Physical Health: Temporarily Healthy (Curse: The Decay Has Come, temporarily alleviated)]

[Curse (The Decay Has Come, temporarily alleviated): You have been infected with a powerful curse. Within 2140 hours, your lungs will wither away, turning into a puddle of pus, blood, and powder. When your lungs disappear, your end will arrive as well. Because you have temporarily resolved your body's symptoms through esoteric arts, the distance between you and complete decay has increased. However, decay will eventually come.]

[Current Maximum Survival Time: 3560:12:31]

"Huh?!" Xia Lun felt as though his heartbeat had skipped half a beat. In an instant, it was as if an icy spear formed from fear and oppression had pressed firmly against his chest. "I can only live for five more months?"

He reread it in disbelief, and his survival countdown decreased further.

[Current Maximum Survival Time: 3560:12:29]

Time ticked down second by second. Xia Lun felt his heart sink deeper and deeper. The pressure and urgency brought by the unknown enemy, the Foresight Club, multiplied under the weight of his anxiety about death.

At that moment, he felt as though he had suddenly been placed in a dark, freezing wilderness. All around him stood shadowy medieval monks as tall as giants, wearing black hoods. Like barbarians of ancient times conducting a sacrifice, they circled around him in a ritual procession, while he stood in the center like an offering.

He gathered his will and blinked.

In the next instant, the strange vision abruptly vanished. Xia Lun slowly exhaled.

The warm light of dusk spilled into the study. The warm-toned room still appeared cozy and leisurely, but Xia Lun no longer had the mood to relax.

After a moment of silence, he suddenly shook his head and muttered to himself, "Being nervous is meaningless. What matters is action."

"A curse is no different from a terminal illness. It's just another hurdle." He sat back down, lightly tapping the wooden desk with his fingers. The desk answered with a solid, warm touch. "When you encounter a hurdle, just get over it."

A few seconds later, he decided to tell a bad joke to ease his overly heavy mood. "Of course, if I can't get over it, then the hurdle will get me stuck to death—but either way, there's no need to wallow in anxiety and tension."

"I absolutely can't waste any more time. The only way to solve the 'Curse of Decay' can be found in the game. Now, during the scenario cooldown countdown, I need to increase my strength as much as possible so I can gain an exceptional harvest in the scenario."

"Specifically, I need to contact the information broker White Line right now and buy some items usable in the game. Then I'll obtain Nonhuman Toughness through dream entry. Finally, I'll try to acquire a new skill through the special recollection Courtly Tournament."

"All of this has to be completed within one month."

With that thought, Xia Lun's finger stopped tapping the desk.

He slowly stood up, walked to the safe, and took out an old-fashioned black flip phone.

He flipped open the phone and dialed the number of the information broker White Line.

"Beep... Beep... Beep..."