12 world

It has begun?

Most people would not have fully believed such a news article, but Ren Suo clearly knew what had happened—the training had begun.

Ren Suo had done his own calculations on the number of people who would be involved. There were three stages in the training to be the best priest, of which there were at least a hundred people in each stage. Only one of them would be able to proceed to the next stage and accordingly, if there were a hundred people in stage 3, there would naturally be ten thousand people in stage 2, and so in the first stage, there would be a million people!

That also meant that a million people participated in the training the previous day, and within an hour, 900 thousand of them failed and returned to reality!

Ren Suo was relieved—the setting of "Holy Priest: Survival Battle" was legitimate, and the deities would truly allow the trainees to return, and in addition, 'transform' them to become healthier and fitter when they returned.

Almost all of the one million who participated in the training were people who were less fit, were disabled, or ill with chronic diseases. For various reasons, they were less prominent people, who would usually remain at home, and hence, they might not have been noticed when they disappeared during the training. The training lasted only one hour and it was also natural for most of them to have disappeared without being noticed during that short amount of time.

Additionally, although one million people were a large number, they were dispersed all around the globe, and hence, it was not a huge number when compared to the total global population of seven billion. Furthermore, although those people said that they had "a mysterious encounter", they did not gain superpowers but instead became healthier, and hence, it had not garnered widespread attention as yet.

The government would have likely intervened and blocked access to relevant information while initiating investigations into the origins of the "Ruler of the Wind, Rain, and Snow", the "Master of the Holy Light", and the "Heart of Everlasting Warmth".

However, when the time arrives and "Naisser_Ren" releases his new video…

Ren Suo was also eager to see how the hints he had hidden through the game would be presented in the video. However, there was a one day break between each stage of the training, and based on the trend of Naisser_Ren's videos, he would not release videos showing events which had not occurred, and thus, the earliest that the new video would be released was two days later.

Ren Suo took a look at the profile of "Naisser_Ren", and indeed, he had not released any new video. It appeared that he would release a video showing all the stages in one go.

Or would he edit it into a series?

Ren Suo stopped thinking about that and loaded up the game [The All-Devouring Soul] with a slightly heavy heart.

That game would likely be how most of his time would be spent that month.

The difficulty of the game truly matched up to the "3+ stars" it was given, more than Ren Suo had imagined it to be.

It was a single-save game with auto-saving functionality, and previous game checkpoints could not be reloaded. Ren Suo had failed in the previous try and had no choice but to restart again from the beginning.

The start of the game was a world map.

Numerous colors filled the entire world map, but there were three main categories: the blue, the yellow, and the red.

Blue-colored regions had the least sources of Reiki and comprised largely of oceans and the North and South poles.

Yellow-colored regions had an average amount of Reiki resources and comprised largely of cities and towns of Europe and Australia.

Red-colored regions had the most resources of Reiki, comprising largely of densely-populated cities like the Pacific Federation, Fanying Nation, Xuan Nation, and South America.

The time was written on the top left corner of the screen: X May, 16:45.

At the bottom of the screen was a message: [Press ○ to begin random selection.]

Indeed, the game would automatically generate the life form that would be controlled, whether it was an air, land, or sea life form, and where it would be born.

If the player did not want the various attributes to be generated at random, he could simply spend merit points to select accordingly.

1 merit point was required to select the spawn area, 2 merit points were required to designate the type of the generated life form (plant or animal), and 3 merit points were required to specify the life form that would be generated.

Ren Suo had always allowed the game to progress naturally, and likewise, he let the game generate the life form at random. The map began to shrink and his location was set at a mound in a mountain range in the southwest of Xuan Nation–

The scene changed and the screen plunged into darkness. The only light source was far ahead and in the darkness, Ren Suo saw a life form.

It was long and thin, with scales covering its entire body. It had four short and thick legs, and a flat but long tail. Its back was slightly raised and as Ren Suo moved the stick on the game controller, the creature ran forward accordingly.

Shortly after, it managed to dig out of the burrow, and Ren Suo could now see the burrow it was in from the outside. The creature did not receive any command from Ren Suo and curled up into a ball on the ground. Its scales were brown in color, much like the ground.

The creature was a pangolin.

[Press △ to open the evolutionary tree.]

It was an exciting moment. Even though Ren Suo had just started a new game, he could not help but feel anxious at that point.

When the evolutionary treemap opened, Ren Suo saw the entire progression of the pangolin, as well as its scientific name: Xuan Nation pangolin.

A green-colored energy bar could be seen on the left side of the screen. At present, it showed the current energy status and four statistics of the pangolin: Damage 6, Defense 10, Movement 8, Recovery 7.

Natural Talent: Burrowing (Press R2 to activate. Requires 20 seconds to burrow into the ground, the strength of the ability increases with higher Damage.)

Current Status: Full (No effect).

The energy was currently full and there were two options at the bottom: "Evolve", "Devolve".

"Devolve" was greyed out—it was only the beginning of the game, and the game character had not undergone any evolutionary changes.

Ren Suo selected "Evolve" and three cards appeared on the screen. Ren Suo's eyes lit up momentarily!

The three cards were: "Scales of Armor", "Tough Palm", and "Mangle"!

The "Scales of Armor" card was red in color with the words written in grey. Its effect was: Adds a defense armor of 5 Defense points to the life form, refreshes every day.

The "Tough Palm" card was red in color with the words written in blue. Its effect was: Adds a defense armor of 15 Defense points to the life form, refreshes every day, but creates a wounded buff—"causes the life form to receive moderate damage, and all abilities of the injured life form would be decreased by 30%, and 3 hours of non-movement are required to recover."

The "Mangle" card was red in color with the words written in blue. Its effect was: For every damage dealt with the life form, its overall ability would be strengthened when it recovers. Minor injuries increase overall ability by 1 point, moderate injuries increase overall ability by 2 points, and major injuries increase overall ability by 3 points.

There was no need for hesitation and Ren Suo picked "Mangle"!

If the location was set in the city, Ren Suo might have considered "Tough Palm", since the pangolin was unable to win humans in a fight. But in the wild, it was the best place to level up through training, and "Mangle" would allow it to grow much stronger in just a few days, such that it would not be able to be captured by humans with hunting equipment!

A crimson-red pattern flashed on the body of the pangolin, indicating that it had been evolved with the "Mangle" ability.

Based on Ren Suo's initial observations, "Mangle" was one of the best evolutionary abilities in the early stages of the evolutionary map!

Ren Suo controlled the pangolin to scout a few rounds around the area and finally saw a spider on a tree. He immediately controlled the pangolin to scurry over.

The pangolin was one of the best life forms Ren Suo had been randomly given amongst the few rounds he had attempted the game—it could climb trees, burrow into the ground, swim in the water and had relatively sharp claws. It was much better than the fat hog that Ren Suo controlled in his first attempt at the game, and the living environment was much better as well.

Recalling the hog, Ren Suo truly felt that he was unlucky—it already did not appear promising to be controlling a pig, but what made matters worse was that it was a hog in a cage, waiting to be slaughtered. There was nothing much that Ren Suo could do in that situation!

The spider on the tree appeared quite big, but it was slightly confused looking at the pangolin. Big Brother, I am not part of your diet.

Nonetheless, the pangolin swiftly maneuvered through the spider's web and caught the spider. The pangolin jumped down to the ground with the spider in its small paws and easily crushed the spider while remaining unharmed.

The pangolin naturally could not eat the spider, unless Ren Suo evolved the spider with the "Universal Diet" ability. Otherwise, the pangolin could only feed on insects like termites and bees at present.

A green smoke emerged from the body of the dead spider and landed on the pangolin's body. Following which, Ren Suo saw the empty energy bar rise just slightly.

After playing for three hours, the same amount of time had also passed in the game. From afternoon till night, the pangolin caught and killed numerous spiders, bird eggs, pheasants and even a lost monkey. To capture the monkey, the pangolin had been injured moderately severely and with the Mangle ability, it then managed to puncture the throat of the monkey.

After that, the pangolin's energy bar was refilled, and Ren Suo selected "Evolve" once again!

There were still three cards that appeared: "Omnivore", "Armored", and "Universal Diet"!

The "Omnivore" card was red in color with grey text. Its effect was: Allows the life form to feed on both animals and plants, and increases its overall ability by absorbing the Reiki.

The "Armored" card was red in color with grey text. Its effect was: Adds a defense armor of 5 Defense points to the life form and enhances the effect of the next evolutionary ability.

The "Universal Diet" card was red in color with blue text. Its effect was: Allows the life form to feed on both animals and plants while ignoring all toxic and poisonous effects (digestion time is increased), and increases its overall ability by absorbing the Reiki.

There was no need for hesitation and Ren Suo selected "Universal Diet". The pangolin was an animal who could only feed on insects initially, and abilities like Omnivore and Universal Diet would appear in the first three evolutions. If he did not choose any of such abilities, the pangolin would easily starve to death.

On the screen, a red glow of light emerged from the teeth in the mouth of the pangolin, and its teeth appeared much sharper.

The sky had turned dark. The pangolin was also injured and Ren Suo controlled it to eat the meat of the monkey from before and its status changed to:

Repleted (all abilities decrease by 10% until digestion is complete)

Moderate injury (all abilities decrease by 30% until full recovery)

Ren Suo controlled the pangolin to burrow a hole to rest. He selected "Fast forward 12 hours" and the day arrived immediately.

As daylight broke, the pangolin's injuries recovered fully and digestion was complete. Its overall ability was now over 10 points.

On the top right corner of the screen were two values indicating combat ability.

The first value represented the pangolin's combat ability: 27.

Whilst the second value represented the combat ability of the strongest creature in the world: 43650.

Ren Suo recalled that the combat power of the strongest creature in the world had been 43250 the night before.

Only a night had passed and the combat ability of the strongest creature had increased by 400 points, which was equivalent to 15 of his pangolins!

To complete the game, the player had to control his character to beat the world's strongest creature!

In Ren Suo's previous attempts at the game, the life forms he had controlled leveled up at a rate much slower than that of the strongest creature. Some of the life forms he controlled could not even deter humans from capturing it and was kept by humans and studied as rare animals…

"Nonetheless, it is still too difficult to level up in the jungle…" Ren Suo muttered. He felt that it was indeed a pain, saying, "If only it spawned in another country, there would at least be bears or crocodiles to kill and feed on, and it would definitely be so full from eating animals and plants. There are none of such animals here in Xuan Nation unless there are heavenly treasures I have not discovered."

"The best way to level up as fast as possible is still to enter the human territory, and find… items filled with Reiki to devour!"

The next day, Ren Suo was awoken by a phone call.

"It's Yu Kuangtu here, I have sent the information to you via WeChat, verify the authenticity of the information by today and write a general evaluation of it. For example, whether it can be trusted, cannot be trusted, or can be fully trusted," Yu Kuangtu said.

"… Okay, okay," Ren Suo replied.

Ren Suo looked at the time and saw that it was 10 a.m. He put down the mobile phone and freshened up, then turned on his computer to download the document which Yu Kuangtu sent on WeChat.

Although Ren Suo should have been "Practicing before starting work", Yu Kuangtu must have thought that Ren Suo was lazing around and so decided to get him to work beforehand.

The document was merely titled "0503" and it looked like a date. But the moment Ren Suo opened the document, his eyes narrowed almost to a line.

"Scientific name: Grim Bird Wyvern"

"Type: Spirit, Ghost"

"Emergence: Transformed from birds that feed on decomposing carcasses, where carcasses are abundant."

"Special Features: Both of its wings emit blinding light and its mouth can emit waves that penetrate metal and wood; they are susceptible to sonic booms and fire; likes to linger around cemeteries and hospitals."

It contained information about the monsters that Ren Suo had revealed through his character in "Holy Priest: Survival Battle"!

"Naisser_Ren" had not uploaded any new videos on the internet, and yet the information had appeared. That meant that the people who participated in the second stage of the training had returned, and at least one of them had revealed the information according to what Ren Suo had said in the game then.

Although only a small number of monsters, like the Hungry Ghost Demon, had appeared in Lianjiang City, that did not mean that other special types of monsters had not appeared elsewhere. As long as such information spread on the internet and was discovered by members of the Countermeasure Division of the other areas, the information would naturally become important.

Nonetheless, at that time, Ren Suo had intended to be the first one to discover the information. It could have earned him some benefits. However, the time when the trainees would return and where the information would be uploaded to was uncertain, so unless Ren Suo trawled through the internet on his computer all day long, he was unlikely to be the first person to discover that information.

Ren Suo quickly browsed through the information and confirmed that it was indeed the content that he had revealed previously. He pondered for a moment and added small pieces of information in the document—at that time, he had purposely omitted some details that could be deduced from the drama series in order to reduce the amount of information that he said.

And now it was apt to fill in the gaps in the information, in a pretense that he had worked hard.

After spending 15 minutes finishing up the work, the Yee-fu noodles with beef briskets with fried bean sauce, as well as a plate of vegetables, which Ren Suo had ordered from the stall downstairs, had also been delivered. After his call with his mother the day before, Ren Suo realized that he had indeed not eaten vegetables the past few days.

As Ren Suo ate his lunch, he turned on the game console and continued playing the game. Ren Suo was relaxed as he played the game, since starting a second save file was not allowed before completing the first.

It had to be made known that [The All-Devouring Soul] was an extremely addictive game, especially after the pangolin that Ren Suo controlled acquired the two abilities "Mangle" and "Universal Diet". Ren Suo's tactic was such that he would allow the pangolin to be injured, and then, control it to feed on a full meal at night, then wait for its overall ability to increase the next morning.

Ren Suo would fast forward the time in the game until the next morning, and observe how much the pangolin's overall ability and combat ability increased respectively.

If the combat power increased, he would naturally want to test the increase in the performance of the pangolin. Previously, it spent much effort to kill the monkey, but now, it could quickly puncture the monkey's throat in one try—"Universal Diet" did not only enhance digestion but also strengthened the sharpness and force of the pangolin's teeth and jaw.

Furthermore, after its overall ability increased, the pangolin's strength also increased greatly. It could now capture and kill birds, spiders, and insects with much ease, and for it to "best absorb nutrients", Ren Suo even controlled the pangolin to feed on more nutritious fruits.

A few hours passed as Ren Suo controlled the pangolin to scout around the area, capture and kill other creatures, eat fruits, and sleep, and subsequently observe how much stronger the pangolin grew, then repeat the same cycle again…

One minute in real life was also one minute in the game, but it was possible to fast forward the time if the character in the game was sleeping or en route to a location.

It was presently noon in the game, and the pangolin had just eliminated a nest of snakes. It was slightly injured and slightly too full, so Ren Suo decided to just let it sleep until the next morning.

The energy bar of the pangolin was not full, but there were no longer many creatures worthy of capturing and killing in the vicinity. Without hesitation, Ren Suo chose to send the pangolin towards a city area inhabited by humans!

Ren Suo had already checked and found that the pangolin was in the vicinity of Jingnan Province and there seemed to be cities nearby. And as expected, after the pangolin walked for about three hours in the game, a highway appeared!

However, as the pangolin proceeded onto the highway, Ren Suo saw that a car accident had taken place not far away.

A truck had flipped to its side after crashing into a poplar tree by the side of the road. There was no other vehicle on the highway except for the truck, and it was likely that the truck had crashed as the driver was too tired.

Ren Suo controlled the pangolin to walk over and found a man in the cab. It appeared that he had hit his head against the steering wheel and was bleeding at the forehead. The truck seemed to have not been equipped with an airbag, but it was common for most domestic trucks to not be equipped with an airbag due to the higher costs involved.

All would be well if no accidents were to happen, and even a fool would not voluntarily crash the truck he was driving. However, if an accident happened and luck was not on one's side, the outcome would be as such.

Fortunately, an anti-collision bar had been installed at the front of the truck, and it had only crashed into a tree. The cab had not been deformed, or otherwise, the driver could only be rescued after the firefighters arrived.

Was there any way to save him? Ren Suo took a look around and found that the truck had not overturned entirely. The front of the truck, the poplar tree, and the slope were balancing one another, and there was space below.

While saving people was not part of the criteria to pass the game, killing people was in fact more likely to be one of the criteria—killing small animals earned Reiki, so it must be the same to do the same with humans.

If Ren Suo had a sudden inspiration and interest, he might well start a save file where he would "kill to be a saint", and enhance his abilities by massacring large groups. He could enjoy the attempt at the game, and nothing would go wrong as long as he did not upload that save file as his final score.

He was still experimenting in the game, and it was more important for him to pass the stage while maintaining the bottom line.

The windows had all shattered and Ren Suo controlled the pangolin to gnaw at the driver's seat belt until it was able to drag the driver out of the cab slowly. With the help of gravity, it was not too difficult for the pangolin to pull a fully-grown adult, in addition to the fact that the bite strength of the pangolin was sufficiently strong.

After spending a few minutes dragging the driver to a safe location, Ren Suo realized that the driver's injury to the forehead appeared serious. It was uncertain if the driver could survive, for there appeared to be no one on the highway even after a long while.

If only I could heal his injuries…

Ren Suo blinked and navigated to the "Equipment" page outside of the game.

At that time, a new character [The All-Devouring Soul] was added to the list of game characters, which was equipped with the ability "Unlimited Energy".

Unlike the other game characters, many abilities were unable to be equipped to [The All-Devouring Soul], including "Unlimited Energy", "Fighter Novice", "Touch of Recovery"… Many abilities could only be equipped by human characters.

As such, Ren Suo equipped [The All-Devouring Soul] with "Ability: Clothes"—it gave his game character an additional 1 Defense point.

Since it could be equipped with "Ability: Clothes", it was naturally able to be equipped with "Ability: Heal". Ren Suo equipped [The All-Devouring Soul] with "Heal" and returned to the game, and realized that—

Indeed, the pangolin had an additional 1 Recovery point.

"The pangolin does not have a breathing current, can it really not be invoked…" Ren Suo muttered as he ran out of ideas, and had tried his best to save the injured driver. Nonetheless, the save file might not be uploaded anyway, and Ren Suo controlled the pangolin to leave.

However, when the driver was moved by the pangolin, the jade pendant around the driver's neck fell off. When the pangolin came into contact with it while it was walking away, a game prompt appeared: [Absorbing Reiki now.]

Eh?

Ren Suo was stunned for a moment. Ten seconds later, the absorption of the Reiki had completed, and the pangolin's energy bar was filled, and even in excess.

In the previous attempts, Ren Suo had not managed to find any "Reiki items", which was also why he decided to head to the city from the wild—it was impossible to catch up with the growth rate of the strongest creature in the world, even if he made his character eat humans!

Why did the jade pendant he encountered on the road contain Reiki?

Or perhaps, was the driver like the main character in School Beauty's Personal Bodyguard? Did he have many beneficial items with him?

Ren Suo chose to "Evolve" and realized that the options he were given were slightly more interesting:

The "Claws and Fangs" card was red with grey text. Its effect was: Damage of the life form would double permanently, but would not be higher than its total Defense and Recovery combined.

The "Fortified Defense" card was red with blue text. Its effect was: Defense of the life form would double permanently, but would not be higher than its total Movement and Damage combined.

The third option was the most fascinating one.

The "Second Sight+" card was red with blue text. Its effect was: The life form's second sight would be activated and it would be able to see the amount of Reiki present in all objects in view. The enhanced effect allows the life form to know the time required to absorb the Reiki in the object.

The emergence of Second Sight in the game was not strange to Ren Suo—it was indeed a necessary evolutionary ability. How else would Reiki items be found?

However, was "Second Sight+" due to encountering the jade pendant?

Without a doubt, Ren Suo chose "Second Sight+", and the pangolin acquired another ability.

[Press R3 to enter Second Sight mode.]

When Second Sight was activated, the entire background turned to a dark grey tone. The grass by the road was slightly green in color, and there was also some color on the cab of the truck. The driver appeared red in color, but his clothes were a dark green color!

The pangolin touched the driver's white vest (the kind that uncles liked to wear), and a small box appeared instantly on the right side of the screen.

[6-year-old Vest]

[Reiki content: Extremely scarce]

[Chance of Enhancement: 0.106%]

[Time Required to Absorb: 13 hours 25 minutes]

A vest had Reiki?!

Ren Suo did not believe in heresy, and controlled the pangolin to touch the driver's sock:

[17-year-old Sock (Smelly)]

[Reiki content: Moderately scarce]

[Chance of Enhancement: 0.03%]

[Time Required to Absorb: 24 hours 03 minutes]

How could a smelly sock also contain Reiki?!

[Adult Human]

[Reiki content: Scarce]

[Time required to absorb: Self-will of the life form has to be removed to be absorbed]

Indeed, it was not possible to directly absorb Reiki from a human. He had to be killed first.

Ren Suo continued looking for other Reiki items on the driver, and there were quite a few—his wallet, underwear, keys…

There was also the jade pendant, although its Reiki had been absorbed, the information could still be retrieved about it:

[36-year-old Guanyin Jade Pendant]

[Reiki content: None]

[Chance of Enhancement: 20%]

The chance of Enhancement was likely the contributing factor to the enhancement of the evolution option. At merely 20%, Ren Suo must have been lucky.

Who would have known that the Reiki setting of the game was so down to earth, Ren Suo had assumed that items from which Reiki could be absorbed would mostly be rare objects like doomed antiques and holy historical relics…

But now it seemed that most objects in the world were Reiki items, only that they differed in how much Reiki they contained, not whether they were a Reiki object or otherwise.

What Ren Suo did not expect was that there was an extremely old and slightly crumpled hundred-dollar note in the driver's wallet. It was an old version of the hundred-dollar note that was only in circulation ten years ago and had the heads of four notable figures on it. There was much Reiki in it, and it was easy to absorb as well!

[100 RMB note (1987)]

[Reiki content: Scarce]

[Chance of Enhancement: 8%]

[Time required to absorb: 36 seconds]

The Reiki content of humans was scarce, and the Reiki content in that note was also scarce, which meant that the amount of Reiki in the driver was actually similar to that in the old edition RMB note!

Ren Suo had no intention of taking the note—if the pangolin were to purchase anything using that note, it would either be captured and be made into a dish or be sent to a research organization. Instead, he let the pangolin absorb all of the note's Reiki right there and then.

However, at that moment, the siren of an ambulance sounded on the highway and Ren Suo saw an ambulance quickly heading towards the overturned truck.

Ren Suo looked around and found that there were no cameras before and after that section of the highway, so a car must have driven by and left after calling the police.

A firetruck and police car followed behind the ambulance. The paramedics were surprised when they found the driver to have crawled out of the truck by himself, but they quickly loaded the driver into the ambulance. In the meantime, the firefighters and the police took care of the truck and conducted preliminary investigations at the scene.

Ren Suo suddenly had an idea and controlled the pangolin to enter the ambulance first. There was a nurse inside the ambulance, but there was a stretcher at the door (the paramedics used the stretcher to lift the patient) and so the nurse would not have been able to see that a pangolin had crawled in!

The pangolin crawled right into the ambulance and squatted behind a table inside, in a corner that would definitely not be seen.

Ren Suo then fast-forwarded the time in the game by 2 hours.

Two hours later, the pangolin had indeed not been noticed and was still in the ambulance.

However, the ambulance was still moving.

Ren Suo fast-forwarded the time in 10-minute intervals, and very soon the ambulance came to a stop. A few paramedics unloaded the stretcher and Ren Suo quickly controlled the pangolin to get off the ambulance as well.

The area appeared to be a small housing estate. Only a building and a garden to the side could be seen, as the pangolin's view angle was very low. Ren Suo naturally moved the pangolin into the grass in the garden.

The time was 16:44 and there were a few hours before the sky would turn dark. But before then, Ren Suo had to find a place for the pangolin to stay in—he would not dare to let the pangolin sleep just anywhere in the city.

It was not just that the pangolin's vision was extremely poor at night, but also that he would very likely end up in a cage if it was found by other people…

Ren Suo controlled the pangolin to leave the small estate and realized that there was a primary school and a junior high school nearby.

There would not be anyone in the junior high school at night, and there could even be a canteen, where there would be food ingredients to consume. It was close to dismissal time and that seemed like a decent place to head to.

The only problem was that,

How could such a large pangolin cross the road…

"This is going to be troublesome…" Ren Suo muttered to himself.

Ren Suo then remembered that the pangolin's energy bar was almost filled—only a small part of the energy from the jade pendant had been used to evolve, but much of it still remained. After absorbing the Reiki from the hundred-dollar note, it was ready to evolve again.

Undoubtedly, evolution was faster in a society comprised of humans. In just a short few hours, the pangolin was able to evolve twice, without engaging in any combat. But that could, of course, be related to the immense potential of the pangolin—or rather, it was so weak that it could evolve just by absorbing a small amount of energy.

For that evolution, two options "Fortified Defense" and "Claws and Fangs" which were red with grey words appeared, and by then, Ren Suo could guess that grey words likely represented ordinary abilities, while blue words likely represented rare abilities.

However, the third option was of a color combination that Ren Suo had never seen before—yellow and red.

The card "Afterimage" was red with yellow words. Its effect was: Active ability that can be used three times a day. When in effect, the life form would be forced to enter a state of exhaustion (all abilities decrease by 25%, requires 60 minutes to recover; the stronger the Recovery ability, the shorter the time required to recover), and its Movement ability would increase by 30% within 10 seconds (Movement is raised to 522 points if the resulting Movement remains lower than 522).

The hint provided: An increased Defense can reduce the kinetic Damage on impact, or transform the ability into a Damage ability.

An active ability!

It was the first time that Ren Suo had seen an active ability. After selecting "Afterimage", an ability bar appeared on the left side of the screen. The "left" and "right" keys on the game controller could be used to select the ability in use, and pressing "□" would cast the ability.

Ren Suo selected the blue human figure icon representing "Afterimage" in the abilities bar. He controlled the pangolin to move into the grass by the road, and when there were no cars on the road, he activated "Afterimage" and made a dash for the school gate!

If I die, it would just be a few hours wasted anyway!

On the screen, the pangolin crossed the road as fast as lightning, living up to the ability's name "Afterimage". It was on the other side of the road almost in an instant, and slipped into the school through the fence!

When the pangolin burrowed into a bush inside the school, the effect also subsided!

However, the pangolin was also given an exhaustion debuff and needed one hour to recover, but it was just a matter of fast-forwarding the time in the game anyway.

After fast-forwarding an hour, the time was now 17:50, and the students of the junior high school had also been dismissed. The gates of the school were wide open and students carrying their school bags were seen flowing out the gates.

"It's still not time to explore…" Ren Suo said as he felt slightly frustrated. As he was about to fast-forward another one hour, the voice of a few students was heard between the bushes.

"Come, come over here, have a talk with us, your big brothers," one of the voices said.

"Hah, I am getting angry just by looking at you," another voice said.

"What are you scared of, is big brother going to hurt you?" another one of them taunted.

Three junior high school boys were surrounding another weaker high school boy. They were almost dragging the boy all the way to the back of the classroom building. They sounded as if they were mimicking gangsters.

Was it a case of school bullying?

As mentioned before, Ren Suo studied in a top-tier junior high school in his town. Discipline was strict and the students lived on campus every day. While there were still cases of bullying in the school, they generally only involved discrimination, such as not acknowledging them, not caring for them, ignoring them, or mocking them. But that was the limit and if it affected the student's studies or fights took place, the teachers would have had to step in.

Consequently, it was the first time that Ren Suo witnessed such a case of bullying where violence and money were involved. Ren Suo controlled the pangolin to follow them secretly.

Behind the classrooms was the sports field, and between the classrooms and the field was a toilet, likely meant for students to use during physical education lessons. There were numerous people playing basketball on the field, and so the group of boys entered the female toilet–

There were only male students playing basketball after school, so the female toilet was safer, and it was a logical choice.

After the boys entered the female toilet, the pangolin followed suit and immediately hid in the space under the sink, listening to the conversation quietly.

"Orphan Liang," the tall student said as he slapped the weaker boy's face a few times lightly. The weaker boy was extremely ashamed as the tall student said, "We let you off the previous time, so where's your money now?"

The weaker junior high school boy replied in a trembling voice, "I… I only have this much…"

The pangolin could not see how much the boy took out from where it was at, but the three hooligan-like students quickly answered the question. One of them said, "What? Two-fifty? Do you think we are beggars?!"

Two of the hooligan-like students started throwing kicks and punches at the weaker boy. The boy cowered and fell towards the wall of the toilet and let out a shout in agony. He cried as he said, "I only have this much breakfast money, I really only have this much."

"How dare you talk back?!" the student, who appeared to be the leader of the trio, shouted. He walked over and grabbed the weaker boy's chin and questioned, "What about your lunch allowance?"

"My lunch allowance is deducted directly from the bank card by the school every month…" the weaker boy said.

"You still eat the trash served by the school?" one of the trio mocked with a laugh.

"Wait, you said bank card, do you know the passcode?" another one of them asked.

The weaker boy quickly shook his head, saying, "I don't know."

"What a dumb kid, if you don't know then go back and ask! Do you have the brain of a pig? If your father is dead, then ask your mother for it!" the trio said.

The leader of the trio slapped the boy. He did not respond, and the other two students started rummaging through the boy's bag. They casually poured out all the contents of his bag, including his stationery and books.

"There really is no money," the two of them remarked.

"Forget it, there's nothing we can do about him. Let's go find Brother Kun…" the leader said.

It should be noted that although the game seemed extremely real, the details of the characters were computer-processed—much like "The Hitman", it was obvious that the characters were fake, but they tied in well with the reality and has a fairy tale effect.

For example, the three hooligan-like boys looked slightly contorted and abnormal, and they were brazenly arrogant.

On the other hand, the student who was bullied had a nose that appeared segmented and was thin and weak. Although he did not look very pleasant, he would not be despised by others. It felt like he was a small animal that looked pitiful and helpless.

The game was not comprised of missions, so it was completely up to Ren Suo whether he wanted to help the boy. His only worry was if he would immediately fail and lose his progress if his pangolin was exposed…

Nonetheless, the natural talent of the pangolin, "Burrow", was extremely capable. With that ability, the pangolin could burrow into any soil ground and hide there, providing it an escape route.

Ren Suo then controlled the pangolin to dash out from its hiding spot and bit the ankle of one of the hooligan-like boys!

The boy was protected by the Nike basketball shoe he was wearing, and Ren Suo even had to press "X" so the pangolin would jump and be able to bite the boy.

A shrill shout emerged from the toilet, and the boy jumped around in pain. However, the pangolin continued its attack and bit and clawed the ankles of the other two of the trio. The boys looked down to see a "mouse" as large as a cat biting them and started shouting loudly in shock, then ran away.

The trio shrieked, "Mouse! There's a mouse!"

Can't students these days not recognize a pangolin?

Only the weaker boy remained in the toilet, still crouching by the wall, looking at the pangolin in fear. Ren Suo did not bother about the boy and was preparing to leave—if the hooligan students brought a security guard over to catch the "mouse", it would be GG for him.

However, Ren Suo subconsciously pressed R3 and activated the "Second Vision" ability. He took a glance around the female toilet and found that there was actually a good "thing" in there!

In front of the cubicle that was closest to the door, beside the basins, there was a floor tile that was billowing thick, black smoke!

The pangolin walked over and a large chunk of information appeared upon contact:

[Floor tile from the female toilet that had been stepped on for 14 years (dirty)]

[Reiki content: Extremely little]

[Chance of Enhancement: 30%]

[Time required to absorb: 13 hours 16 minutes]

[Filth: A floor tile stained with the blood, urine, and body fluids of countless people, stepped on for over ten years, and dirtied by immense filth, but remained so resilient it remains intact till today. Absorbing the Reiki of this holy item can open up the Filth path in the evolutionary tree during the next evolution.]

[Unyielding: Every life form that steps on it may trigger a fall.]

Stepped on for 14 years… The toilet was older than the junior high school students.

Indeed, the cubicle that was closest to the door was the most commonly used cubicle in the female toilet. That tile would have been stepped on the most number of times, and similarly, it would likely be stained with the bodily fluids of the female students, especially since that was the toilet that the girls in their physical education lessons would head to… since the girls would "occasionally" be excused from the lessons.

Compared to the driver's jade pendant, the tile was apter as a "Reiki item". Not only was there a higher chance of activating Enhancement, but it also had existential abilities—if even a floor tile could have an "unyielding" nature, Ren Suo could finally be made to believe that all objects had a spiritual essence.'

Ren Suo was still slightly unsure of the Reiki content settings in the game, for he had previously encountered "extremely scarce", "moderately scarce", and "scarce", and now, there was "extremely little".

However, based on the "Second Vision" mode, the floor tile contained much more Reiki than the hundred-dollar note, which meant that "extremely little" was more than "scarce".

With the same line of reasoning, above "extremely little", there should be Reiki content descriptors like "moderately little" and "little".

The tile was not big and the pangolin could dig it out and take it away. Ren Suo controlled the pangolin to begin the digging—actually, he just needed to press and hold the ○ button, and the pangolin began working its way with its small claws.

However, Ren Suo overestimated the pangolin's ability and underestimated the floor tile.

The tile had, after all, been stepped on for more than ten years and remained intact, and the attachment of the tile to the ground was unexpectedly strong. The pangolin spent a few minutes before it managed to dig out the entire tile.

But at that moment, hurried footsteps and loud voices could be heard from the outside. "It's inside!"

"Hurry, catch that big mouse!"

"Damn it, the bite is so painful!"

It was unclear whether the trio had brought a teacher or a security guard, but there was no doubt that they were here to seek revenge. However, they were in their school uniforms, and there were obvious injuries on their leg, so any adult would naturally believe them.

It's going to be troublesome now. If the pangolin did not have the tile with it, activating "Afterimage" would definitely allow it to escape. Looks like I have to leave the tile behind and escape first, and come back at night to retrieve it…

"Come inside here!" the weaker boy said.

Ren Suo realized that the weaker boy had not left the toilet and was slowly replacing the books into his bag.

The boy had also heard the voices outside, and he hugged his bag and walked over to the pangolin. He gestured for the pangolin to go in.

To go in or not?

Ren Suo did not deliberate too much and let the pangolin into the bag with the floor tile. It was obvious that the boy wanted to save the pangolin, and Ren Suo chose to believe him.

At the most, I just have to restart from the beginning again.

It was pitch black inside the bag and only the teacher's voice could be heard, asking the boy where the "animal" had gone. The boy said that the animal had crawled into the water pipes, then slipped away quickly.

Ren Suo fast-forwarded the game by 30 minutes, to find the pangolin lying on a bamboo mat, beside the weaker boy's bag.

Where was the floor tile?!

The pangolin crawled into the bag in search of the tile when the sound of footsteps came from outside the bag. The boy held a clean tile in his hand as he looked at the pangolin rummaging through his bag. He could not help but ask in surprise, "Aren't you asleep?"

Is sleeping the default setting for fast-forwarding…

The boy placed the tile in front of the pangolin and said, "You look like you really wanted this tile, but it was very dirty, so I washed it."

Was it still effective after washing?

The pangolin touched the tile and found that the information of the tile had not changed, except that the "(dirty)" word in its name was gone.

Good, it is now time to bring the tile to a safe place and fast-forward 13 hours to absorb the Reiki.

Ren Suo controlled the pangolin to carry the tile and was about to run away, when the weaker boy rubbed his palms together and said, "Well… I am Huo Liang, it's nice to meet you."

How silly, why would the boy talk to a pangolin?

But Huo Liang continued, saying, "Are you one of the Reiki creatures that the news has been reporting? You can understand me, don't you? Thank you for saving me."

Reiki creature? The news?

Ren Suo thought about it, but the nation had not announced any of such news.

"I don't want my mother to worry… But I am not smart, and I was born with congenital heart disease. My body is weak and my mother has no choice but to work outside every day to pay for my medicine," the boy said.

Huo Liang lowered his voice and said, "And I am not talented either, so I did not make it into the Practitioner School. There was a year three senior in our school that had Practitioner talent and not long after he entered the Practitioner School, he now has an Extraordinary Ability…"

Hold on, the Practitioner School has not started, has it?