No one could take my stats away!

A light drizzle began falling over the dark, damp island. In the firelight, the two mushrooms stained with human blood were still slowly writhing, searching for hosts.

Zhang Ming stared at his stat panel, repeatedly activating Toxin Resistance.

He recalled what he had seen in the valley: fungal colonies blooming across the hills like red spider lilies, like a silent hell.

I might have accidentally inhaled some fungal spores back then and become infected.

Without Toxin Resistance, I might have been done for pretty soon... just like the local natives.

These spores are so toxic that they took a year off my lifespan in just half a day.

The local natives... they're probably all gone.

At that moment, Zhang Ming grew furious.

I've only ever gained stats, and now these parasitic mushrooms have stolen a point from me!

Thinking about that lost point of lifespan hurt as much as Goriot losing a sack of money. It utterly ruined his mood.

The warm current generated by Toxin Resistance kept circulating through his body, but he found nothing else.

Yet Zhang Ming still couldn't stop worrying. The mushrooms that had wiped out an entire civilization were wriggling at his feet like leeches. How could he not worry? He knew where his anxiety came from. If he stayed active on this island for long enough, infection by spores would be inevitable. Who could stand losing a little lifespan every few days?

The dancing flames lit his face red. As he fidgeted uneasily, a bold idea rose in his mind.

What would happen if I roasted these mushrooms and ate them?

Since they grew in my lungs and lived symbiotically with me, they shouldn't be lethally poisonous. Otherwise, I'd already be dead.

I'll just eat them! They're protein, after all. Maybe they'll even restore that point of lifespan.

Even if they're poisonous, I can clear the toxins with Toxin Resistance.

If I die, my dick points skyward. If I live, I'll live ten thousand years!

At that thought, Zhang Ming became even more restless, itching to try.

The unknown was the most frightening thing of all.

But if the parasitic mushrooms were edible, he could turn the unknown into the known.

He took a deep breath, picked up a branch, skewered one of the mushrooms writhing on the ground, and held it over the flames.

Under the scorching flames, the mushroom soon shuddered a few times and stopped wriggling.

He cut it into pieces with his knife and roasted them a little longer.

Steeling himself, he stuffed the strange charred lump into his mouth. It tasted like enoki mushrooms?

Apart from a faint bloody taste, it was actually pretty good...

He chewed twice and swallowed. A powerful warm current welled up from his stomach!

Before he could celebrate, agonizing pain erupted inside him. Zhang Ming felt as though he had swallowed a high-explosive bomb. His entire belly had been blasted into chaos, every internal organ blown clean through!

Beads of sweat the size of soybeans dripped from his forehead. This wasn't a toxin, but a special kind of "spirit" flooding into his body.

The pain came in wave after wave and lasted half an hour. Drenched in sweat, Zhang Ming opened his eyes.

To his surprise, his [Perception] stat had risen by one point.

That was only half a mushroom?

Although gaining the point had been more than a little agonizing, the pleasure of growing stronger made it impossible to stop.

Roast it a little darker, and it tasted like chicken, nice and crunchy.

Roast it a little more tender, and it had six times the protein of beef.

"Again!"

"No one can take my stats away!"

It took him more than three hours to eat the two parasitic mushrooms, forcibly raising his [Perception] by four points!

Zhang Ming, however, was drenched in sweat, as though he had just been dragged out of the water. His clothes were completely soaked.

His mind churned as though countless ants were crawling around inside it, causing excruciating pain.

These mushrooms do have some side effects. Toxin Resistance isn't all-powerful, either...

But these two mushrooms grew as parasites inside my own body. That means I'm basically eating myself, so the side effects are just barely tolerable...

Zhang Ming couldn't shake the feeling that he had discovered some sort of bug and become a perpetual-motion machine.

Whatever the case, I still came out ahead. Four points gained in Perception, one point lost in lifespan. A net gain of three points!

Plenty of twists and turns today, but an enormous haul!

Zhang Ming lay back in his chair, watching the drizzle fall from the sky.

He wasn't afraid of his lifespan decreasing, because he could raise it again by transferring stats.

He had even found a source for his next stat points!

Earth.

The Oceanic Survey Fleet, near the Mysterious Zone.

"Of the three thousand people who entered the Mysterious Zone, approximately three hundred and thirteen fell unconscious. Common symptoms included an irregular heartbeat, persistent high fever, palpitations, cold sweats, vomiting, and diarrhea. The exact cause could not be determined. Generally, these people wake within one to two days, with a relatively high probability of gaining a superpower."

"This is almost identical to the data provided by the Americans."

In the Special Affairs Department, Li Xianfeng lay in a hospital bed, listening to the experts' report.

After everyone aboard their ship returned from the Mysterious Zone, about ten percent of them had fallen unconscious, including him.

This bout of unconsciousness had lasted roughly two days and two nights before his condition improved.

"How's the satellite monitoring data? Have you found anything in the analysis?" Li Xianfeng took a sip of warm water from his bedside table and asked wearily, "Have you found the island Zhang Ming is on?"

"Several key experts fell unconscious, and the computers aboard the ship aren't supercomputers. Their processing power is limited, so data analysis has been progressing rather slowly."

"But... we most likely won't be able to find Zhang Ming's island."

Li Xianfeng asked, "If we can't find the island, how did he hear the satellite broadcast?"

Everyone fell silent.

In theory, the skies above Earth and the skies above the Mysterious Zone belonged to two different parallel worlds. Yet Zhang Ming's Radio could somehow pick up broadcasts from Earth?

It had left the experts questioning everything they thought they knew.

Li Xianfeng gave a bitter smile. "Well, perhaps his Radio is a Strange Object. Since supernatural objects have appeared on Earth, there ought to be some in the Mysterious Zone too."

"That's possible. By the way, have you awakened any superpowers yourself? As usual, that information needs to be entered into the database."

"I..." Li Xianfeng fell silent for a few seconds.

He frowned. "I feel as though the whole world has changed a little. I can see things very, very far away, and my sense of smell and hearing have improved too. Is this..."

"An Extrasensory Perceiver?" The young woman responsible for registration smiled, not particularly surprised.

Physical abilities were the most common category, and Extrasensory Perceivers accounted for a considerable proportion.

"The biggest advantage is that you won't need glasses anymore. You won't develop age-related farsightedness or become nearsighted, and you'll only need four hours of sleep a day... Now, I need to test your eyesight, sense of smell, and hearing."

The results came back quickly. Li Xianfeng's sensory abilities were indeed several levels above those of ordinary humans.

Among Extrasensory Perceivers, however, he was merely average.

"Well then, please get some rest. We won't disturb you any longer."

After the infirmary door closed, the room fell silent.

Li Xianfeng stared at the ceiling above him and sighed softly.

He had concealed the ability he had gained.

On the surface, he was an unremarkable "Extrasensory Perceiver," but in reality, he had another ability.

And that ability was strange-so incredibly strange that he had instinctively chosen to lie.