Zhang Ming said irritably, "Same deal as always. Have some eggshells."
"Awoo, awoo!" The turtles, big and small, cried out happily, gratitude shining in every pair of eyes.
We eat eggshells too.
We turtles eat anything except mushrooms.
Especially bird eggs. We might not get a single one in a hundred years.
"Such simple happiness. Even a few scraps make you this happy."
A few minutes later, Zhang Ming noticed that a seagull icon had appeared on his status panel.
When he focused on the icon, a vague sense of understanding immediately surfaced in his mind.
[Ability: Extraordinary Vision. Greatly enhances your Dynamic Vision and allows you to see ultraviolet and infrared light. (Inactive. Requires 12 attribute points to activate.)]
His heart leaped with delight.
This ability was quite practical, though the price of twelve attribute points was a little steep.
He had only just obtained Toxin Purge a few days ago and had barely recovered the attribute points he had spent.
Now he had gained Dynamic Vision as well. At this rate, his attribute points were coming in a little slower than his Superpowers.
Zhang Ming found himself with a happy problem.
After considerable deliberation, Zhang Ming chose to activate Extraordinary Vision.
The experience this time was fairly ordinary. He seemed to become a seagull, soaring through the skies.
Perhaps it had evolved Extraordinary Vision over countless generations to catch fish, or perhaps to avoid predators.
By the time Zhang Ming came back to his senses, it was already late at night.
The sea turtles had shown some consideration, adding firewood before they left.
"Extraordinary Vision!"
A large amount of spirit gathered around his eye sockets, forming a complex energy circuit.
Under the effects of Extraordinary Vision, his field of view changed dramatically.
He could see infrared and ultraviolet light now, much like a scene viewed through night-vision goggles...
Infrared dominated the night, bathing the entire world in red.
The sheet-metal shelter, coconut palms, coconut-shell water containers, and crab spear all glowed a vivid red in the firelight.
The change in visual perception was deeply disorienting for Zhang Ming. He seemed to be looking at a world that was stranger yet more real, leaving him with an indescribable sense of unreality.
Fortunately, this was not a passive ability. As soon as he dispersed the spirit around his eye sockets, Extraordinary Vision stopped working.
As his sight returned to normal, Zhang Ming stared at the bright flames and sank into thought.
What he had just seen reminded him of a philosophical question: suppose someone had a peculiar form of color blindness and perceived two colors differently from everyone else-for example, seeing blue as green and green as blue-yet had no idea he was different.
Then neither he nor anyone else would know that his perception differed from theirs.
This question was known as the color-blindness paradox.
The most profound impression the color-blindness paradox left was that "no one can truly experience what another person experiences."
Or perhaps everyone saw, heard, and tasted things differently, and only the names they used were the same.
"Forget it. Why am I getting hung up on this?" Zhang Ming kept feeling that he was becoming obsessive. After spending so long alone on a deserted island, every little thing sent him down a rabbit hole.
On another note, however, Zhang Ming discovered that he seemed unable to use two abilities at once.
Aside from his innate [Attribute Conversion], he now had three supernatural abilities to manage: [Strength Burst], [Toxin Resistance], and [Dynamic Vision].
Using these three abilities required technique. He had to circulate the spirit inside his body in specific ways.
He had to concentrate to activate them successfully.
Yet he discovered that he could not divide his attention. As a creature capable of processing only one task at a time, he could not make his hands fight each other independently.
To give a concrete example, using a Superpower was like solving a math problem. He could not solve two problems simultaneously; he had to tackle them one at a time.
Perhaps some people could divide their attention, but Zhang Ming could not do so yet.
"What am I supposed to do?" Zhang Ming frowned, sitting beside the fire and trying again and again.
"If [Strength Burst] and [Dynamic Vision] can't be activated simultaneously, switching between them will cause some minor trouble in combat."
"Two or three abilities are still manageable, but if I keep getting more Superpowers, it'll become a serious problem."
"Could practice really be the only way to solve this..."
Zhang Ming tirelessly switched between [Strength Burst] and [Dynamic Vision], trying to make them coexist.
But no matter what he tried, switching between the two abilities still took a second.
"Then why can [Attribute Conversion] be activated at the same time as other abilities?"
Zhang Ming used [Attribute Conversion], redistributing his attribute points back and forth.
The flow of spirit was so complex that he could neither clearly perceive it nor understand it, yet it required no concentration at all. Thus, [Attribute Conversion] could be used alongside other abilities.
After pondering it for ages, Zhang Ming could only attribute this to [Attribute Conversion] being an innate ability. It came as effortlessly as breathing, engraved into his body's instincts.
The others, however, were acquired abilities that required conscious thought.
One was an innate instinct, while the others had been learned. There were bound to be differences.
"Forget it. I'll stop thinking about it... If nothing else, practice makes perfect."
Over the next few days, Zhang Ming kept collecting bird eggs by Borrowing the Tiger's Might!
The peaceful martial world was thrown into turmoil once more.
The mysterious Mushroom Freak appeared out of nowhere, intent on unifying the martial world!
A bloodbath swept across the little island!
For the denizens of the martial world, this was a catastrophe they could scarcely resist!
A brave hero had once stepped forward to oppose the Mushroom Freak, only for the freak to unleash his signature move, Goddess Scatters Flowers, with a vicious grin.
The hero was instantly scared out of his wits, reduced to a coward who fled in panic.
One hero even accidentally plummeted from the sky, forgetting all his martial prowess and smashing into a bloody pulp.
Once word spread, not a single hero in the martial world dared oppose the Mushroom Freak again!
After its long silence, the martial world had finally gained a true... Martial Arts Overlord!
"Ahem, ahem. So I ate a few of your eggs. They were all egg white, with no embryos. They couldn't possibly"
"hatch into chicks!"
"Stop circling me! If you keep dropping bird poop, I'm really going to get angry!"
Comrade Zhang Ming, Martial Arts Overlord and bird hater, enjoyed the grand distinction of being surrounded by an avian entourage wherever he went.
Several birds circled endlessly overhead, crying miserably.
These stupid birds did not dare provoke him directly, so they became high-altitude bombers instead, dropping bird poop from above every so often.
Fortunately, Zhang Ming had keen senses and nimble reflexes. Not a single dropping had ever hit him.
Old Zhang bent down and threatened, "Do that again, and I'll throw rocks at you!"
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