The entire process lasted a full ten minutes.
Lin Mo slowly opened his eyes. He felt as though the whole world had changed.
The air was fresher, the colors more vivid. Even the breeze around the Elf girls nearby carried a hint of sweetness.
"How do you feel, Sir Lin Mo?" Fendona asked with concern, joy shining in her eyes.
Lin Mo looked down at his hands. His skin had become fair, smooth, and lustrous.
Instinctively, he clenched his fists.
A sense of explosive power surged through him.
This felt so fucking good!
A real, honest-to-God transformation!
He looked up and grinned at Fendona, revealing two rows of gleaming white teeth.
"How do I feel?"
Lin Mo rolled his neck, producing a series of sharp cracks.
"I feel like I could kill a bull with one punch!"
A ten-foot-tall Minotaur among the onlookers: ???
He snorted in displeasure.
Lin Mo: ...
"Ahem, I didn't mean you."
This was so awkward. What should I do?
Urgent! Waiting for answers!
Just as Lin Mo was reveling in this unprecedented power, a question surfaced in his mind.
He had consumed the Elves' entire reward himself, so how was he supposed to explain that when he got back?
He could only call it a loss, though not entirely.
He had turned an important research sample for Great Xia into a personal consumable. An enormous loss.
But he had gone straight from a pathetic office drone to a walking Gundam. An enormous win.
Life's dramatic ups and downs were just too thrilling.
"I'd like to head home right away and have our scientists draw some blood," Lin Mo said solemnly, changing the subject.
The fruit was gone, but wasn't he still here, alive and freshly dosed?
While its effects were just kicking in, he needed to see whether a blood sample or something could reveal its composition, and whether they could reproduce it!
After saying goodbye to Fendona and the Elves who had gathered to watch the effects, Lin Mo returned to his room.
Lying in bed, unable to sleep, he fell deep into thought again.
How was he supposed to get back now?
According to the pattern, he could only return to Blue Star while asleep.
But now...
He felt energized enough to stay awake for three days and nights, his mind so clear he could whip up a doctoral dissertation on the spot!
Energy kept surging through his body. Forget sleeping-all he wanted was to find somewhere to run ten kilometers as a warm-up!
Oh, shit!
Lin Mo's face fell instantly.
He tried lying back down, closing his eyes, and silently counting:
One sheep, two sheep, three hundred sheep jumping over a fence to line up for Big Gray Wolf...
It wasn't working!
The sheep in his head weren't merely bouncing around. Big Gray Wolf had even started discussing quantum mechanics with them!
Lin Mo despaired.
He had to find a way-a way to lose consciousness quickly...
Physical force!
Lin Mo heard Fendona talking to other Elves outside.
I've got it!
He stood, pushed open the door, and called down to Fendona beneath the tree.
"Um... Lady Fendona."
Fendona looked up with a radiant smile.
"What is it, Sir Lin Mo?"
"Nothing serious." Lin Mo scratched his head, looking embarrassed.
"Um... could I ask you a favor?"
"Please go ahead. As long as it's something I can do."
"Well, sorry for the trouble, but could you come up here?"
Once Fendona had come upstairs and entered the room, Lin Mo said with complete seriousness:
"Could you... knock me unconscious?"
Fendona: "???"
"Please!" Lin Mo pressed his palms together, then quickly lay facedown on the bed, gesturing at the back of his head.
"Hit me right here with your staff. Ideally, hard enough to knock me out in one blow!"
Ark Underground Base, Bell City.
In the bedroom of a suite, Lin Mo's eyes snapped open.
The familiar white ceiling came into view, along with the little bedside night-light casting a soft glow.
He was back.
He didn't get up immediately. Instead, he closed his eyes and carefully felt every change in this body.
His greatest worry had been that the surging power would remain on the Terra Continent.
Thankfully, it hadn't.
As his consciousness returned, the same power flowed into his body in the real-world base.
It felt like two characters on different servers under the same game account, sharing levels and experience.
"Perfect!"
"No, there's one thing that isn't perfect. When I get hurt on the Terra Continent, I suffer mentally too."
During his first trip, his teeth had hurt when they struck a gemstone. Later, a flying magical beast had sent him flying, leaving his whole body aching. Fortunately, neither had caused any lasting problems.
He would have to play it even safer over there from now on.
Whatever the case, he had hit the jackpot this time!
Lin "Walking Gundam" Mo was online!
With that settled, he suddenly kipped up, springing off the bed in one impossibly fluid motion!
That simply wasn't something a longtime office drone could do.
Feeling light on his feet, he clenched both fists. Explosive power filled every muscle fiber, giving him the urge to tear down a wall with his bare hands.
"At last, it's my turn to hit the jackpot!"
"Right, I need the experts to examine me immediately!"
Lin Mo snatched up the red emergency radio beside his bed and pressed the call button.
"Zhao! I'm back!"
"Arrange a physical examination for me immediately!"
"The most comprehensive one you've got! This is urgent-right now!"
The other end of the radio fell silent for two seconds.
Then Zhao Gang's rock-steady voice came through.
"Understood."
"The medical team will be there within five minutes."
Before long,
there was a knock at Lin Mo's door.
Lin Mo opened it.
Zhao Gang stood in the doorway. His presence alone seemed to dim the hallway lights.
"Lin Mo, what happened?"
"I ate an amazing fruit!" Lin Mo grabbed Zhao Gang's arm, so excited that spittle flew as he spoke.
"I ate something over there called a Life Fruit. It's fucking incredible! It doesn't just double your lifespan-it can give you a superhuman physique!"
"Quick, while it's still fresh! Draw a tube of blood and see if you can reverse-engineer it!"
He quickly recounted what had happened in the other world.
Before he could finish, rapid footsteps came from the far end of the hallway, sounding like someone running a hundred-meter sprint.
A group of people in white coats came charging over like a gust of wind. Leading them were Academicians Qian Zhenhua and Liu Chengen, followed by several medics pushing a stretcher.
Good grief. With a turnout like this, anyone who didn't know better would think I'd kicked the bucket.
"Comrade Lin Mo!"
"Are you all right?"
Seeing Lin Mo standing there, full of energy, everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief.
Lin Mo had no choice but to repeat the story.
"Lin Mo, is everything you said... true?" Academician Qian Zhenhua's hands trembled slightly, and his old-fashioned black-rimmed glasses bobbed on the bridge of his nose.
Academician Liu Chengen was a man of action. Without another word, he pulled a palm-sized portable scanner from his white coat and swept it over Lin Mo from head to toe, its beeps sounding nonstop.
"Every word!" Lin Mo bounced twice on the spot, rising a full three meters and touching the ceiling.
He even drove a punch into the concrete floor. The fist imprint left everyone dumbfounded.
This was specialized concrete, after all-hardly any weaker than steel!
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