Come out! Rocksteady Guardian!

Rover nodded and pointed the gourd at the stone pillar.

This time, she finally absorbed the Echo without any surprises.

"As a Resonator, once you absorb a reverberation with your Pangu Terminal, you can transform into an Echo to fight," Bai Zhi reminded her.

Rover nodded in understanding, then looked at Lu Li again.

Everyone else turned their attention to Lu Li as well.

Chixia asked curiously, "Lu Li, you're not a Resonator. Even if you absorb an Echo, you shouldn't be able to transform, right?"

Lu Li gave her an enigmatic smile.

Then he raised his gourd toward the Echo, copying Rover's pose.

"Go! Pangu Terminal!"

A second later, the Echo turned into particles and was absorbed into his Pangu Terminal.

Information about the absorbed Echo also entered his mind.

So this Echo was called Rocksteady Guardian.

Everyone watched him curiously, waiting for Lu Li's next move.

After all, only Resonators could transform into Echoes.

Ordinary people without resonance abilities couldn't transform.

The corner of Lu Li's mouth curled upward. His first step toward becoming a Pokémon Master started here!

"Come out! Rocksteady Guardian!"

Lu Li swung his gourd forward. Rocksteady Guardian, who had already become a reverberation, was now an Echo, purified by his Pangu Terminal.

"Is this... the Pangu Terminal's 'Projection' function?" Chixia scratched her head in confusion.

The Pangu Terminal was a miraculous device, with all sorts of built-in tools such as the Grapple and Levitation functions.

Projection was one of those built-in functions.

Bai Zhi frowned deeply. "No... that's not right."

The Rocksteady Guardian Lu Li had released wasn't motionless like a projection. Instead, the Guardian was full of life.

Chixia stammered, "Th-this... Rocksteady Guardian came back to life!"

"That's right." Lu Li nodded in satisfaction.

He motioned for Rocksteady Guardian to raise an arm, then scrambled up and sat on it.

"Rocksteady Guardian, let's go!"

"Rumble, rumble!" Rocksteady Guardian roared twice in delight, and the ground shook with every step forward.

Chixia said, "Uh... did Lu Li absorb Rocksteady Guardian just to use the Guardian as a mount?"

"Of course not." Bai Zhi's eyes flickered. "It seems he still has plenty of secrets..."

No one had ever heard of an ordinary human being able to make an Echo obey them.

Even Resonators only used their resonance abilities to briefly transform into Echoes for combat.

At least, Bai Zhi had never heard of any human or Resonator who could release an Echo and travel alongside them.

She didn't know whether it was a function of his Pangu Terminal or an ability of Lu Li's own...

If the citizens of Jinzhou City could all use an ability like this...

In short, Bai Zhi's desire to study Lu Li was growing stronger and stronger.

Lu Li looked at Rover and patted the spot beside him.

Rover's lips curved slightly. She grabbed Rocksteady Guardian's arm and, in one swift movement, took a seat beside him.

"Nice view," Rover praised.

The other three women watched with faintly resentful looks.

"Ah!"

As they continued toward Jinzhou, Chixia suddenly cried out.

"There's a Beacon up ahead!"

Lu Li looked in the direction she pointed and saw a Beacon glowing red beside the road.

"When you see a Beacon, remember to register and activate it. Beacons offer some protection, so you should be relatively safe within five meters of one."

Yangyang added, "You can also teleport between Beacons, which makes things much more convenient for Resonators."

"Rover, Lu Li, could you let me have your Pangu Terminals for a moment?"

After taking their Pangu Terminals, Yangyang transferred the data from the gourds and registered them.

Then the Beacon's glow turned blue.

"That's all it takes?" Lu Li asked curiously.

"Yes."

Lu Li tried using the teleportation function.

The scene before his eyes flashed, and he found himself transported from Rocksteady Guardian's arm to the Beacon.

"Oho! This is fun! I love it!"

Bai Zhi said, "..."

Yangyang told Rover, "You have a Tacet Mark on the back of your hand, and you carry a Pangu Terminal. Although its design looks different, both are signs of a Resonator."

Lu Li asked, "Then what am I?"

Rover had also climbed down from Rocksteady Guardian by then. "You're my friend."

Lu Li looked at her, touched.

Chixia said, "You don't have a Tacet Mark, but you do carry a Pangu Terminal. Could you be..."

"I'm...?"

"I've got it! You're a Sonator!"

"?" Lu Li gave her a flat look.

"So you're just chopping 'Resonator' in half? Then, in terms of universal reason, I should be a Nator!"

"Uh..." Chixia put her clever brain to work. "I guess that makes sense..."

Bai Zhi shook her head helplessly. What a pair of goofballs...

Chixia said, "Some Resonators, like Yangyang, can use their resonance abilities to sense information through the wind. That's how she could tell a Tacet Field was forming nearby earlier."

"I can't sense anything like that at all, hehe." Chixia scratched her head sheepishly.

Still, she was a Fusion Resonator, so that was perfectly normal.

Resonators were divided into six attributes: Aero, Electro, Glacio, Fusion, Spectro, and Havoc.

Different Resonators also had different combat abilities, though those depended on various factors unique to each individual.

For example, Chixia's resonance ability was Blazing Flame Leap. She had been a Resonator for six years, and reportedly, she had been in an environment of intense flames and heat when she first resonated.

Now a Jinzhou Patrol Commandant, Chixia had an enthusiasm like an inextinguishable flame, always bounding through Jinzhou's streets and alleys with endless energy.

She could turn that enthusiasm into an endless stream of bullets pouring from her fingertips.

Chixia continued, "Besides, hardly anyone wanders around out in the wilderness these days."

With the region around Jinzhou affected by the Lamentation, almost no one apart from the Midnight Rangers and Resonators ventured out. After all, wandering Remnants were everywhere in the wilderness now.

Encountering a less aggressive Remnant might be manageable, but if you ran into a large one, you were better off fleeing immediately.

Just then, the system's voice sounded in Lu Li's mind again.

[Long-term quest 1: Increase intimacy with Resonators.]

[Time limit: None]

[Quest reward: Obtain a portion of the abilities of Resonators whose intimacy reaches 80.]

[Ding! You may check intimacy at any time!]

Lu Li raised an eyebrow. Now, besides using Echoes to fight, he could improve his own abilities too.

Did this quest mean he could gain resonance abilities of all six attributes?

And he could get them through intimacy...

Lu Li let out a wicked laugh. "Heh heh heh..."

He checked the intimacy levels of Chixia and the others.

[Rover intimacy: 60]

[Chixia intimacy: 60]

[Yangyang intimacy: 50]

[Bai Zhi intimacy: 50]