Potential Growth Value and a Visitor

“You don’t know this, but a supermarket is a place full of resources, and most mishaps happen in such places…”

Luther and Lin Sanjiu walked carefully along the aisles of dark shelves, watching each other's back every so often. They both held a red wine bottle in one of their hands. They had no choice since that was the only thing near the entrance which could be used as a weapon; the other items were all pretty much useless. A red wine bottle was not a reliable weapon to use against a duoluozhong, but they could at least throw the bottle at it and run.

They had purposely let Marcie lie flat between two dead bodies at the entrance. At first glance, she looked no different from a corpse. They could not tell if she would wake up unhappy, but that was a problem Luther had to deal with...

“Let’s go to the Ready-To-Eat section…”Luther whispered. Just when he wanted to suggest that they should eat starting from the Ready-to-Eat section, he smelled a strong rancid smell. Unwilling to accept this, he reached out to grab a box of potato salad. Just as he held it, he threw it away. “They’re all spoilt! They’re all in this putrid state!”

“Isn’t that obvious?” Lin Sanjiu asked rhetorically, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

After they had spent at least twenty minutes, the two of them managed to explore the entire supermarket groping around in the dark. Other than the few bodies which were found further inside, nothing else was out of the ordinary. They no longer had to be on alert. Both of them put down the red wine bottles and continued walking. It was tiring to hold a bottle, walking around.

“Even though there is no sunlight, it is really too dark in this basement supermarket… do you know where we can find some flashlight?” Luther was feeling a little annoyed, “Ever since we came to this Hyperthermal Hell, I have only been in the dark.”

“Let’s look for it later. I am not sure if they sell it here since this is a high-end import supermarket.” As they exchanged conversation, they quickly reached the food section. Each of them grabbed a few packets of food item and carried them in their arms, even though they were unable to read the labels to see what they contained. “I remember that they did sell lavender scented candles… it should be fine as long as we have some light.”

As they chatted quietly, Luther managed to open the packet in his hands.

“Oh, these are chips...” he called out being pleasantly surprised. Suddenly, a voice reverberated through the quiet supermarket, “Luther! Come out now!”

It was Marcie’s voice.

“Marcie? Marcie, you’re awake.” Luther heard her voice and quickly pulled Lin Sanjiu along as he ran; they reached the entrance very quickly. Under the light that seeped down from upstairs, he noticed that Marcie was standing in-between two dead bodies, and her face was filled with resentment. Her darkened expression contrasted starkly with that bright red hair of her.

Luther explained himself cheerily and offered the potato chips to her, trying to appease her. Only then did she make a “Humph” and decided to overlook the matter. Subsequently, she turned to look at Lin Sanjiu and hesitated for a moment, not saying a word.

Lin Sanjiu did not know why but she suddenly felt a little anxious. She put down the tidbit she was eating, and asked Marcie, “Is there something wrong with my stats?”

“I wouldn’t call that a problem… maybe I haven’t collected enough samples.” Marcie smiled in a consoling manner: “Your stats are a little different from those I have collected before.”

“What do you mean?” Lin Sanjiu quickly asked.

“It is not that easy to explain like this. Why don’t you see for yourself?” just as she said this, Marcie’s nails grew out again. Different from before, this time round, there was a faint golden glow on the tips of her nails.

Marcie looked around and found a place that was darker. She signaled for both of them to come to her. Next, using her index finger, she wrote some words in mid-air — each word appeared with a golden glow, floating in mid-air.

Lin Sanjiu tried to suppress her astonishment but with little avail.

“Your stats are on the left,” Marcie explained and continued writing: “I will write down Luther’s stats for you to make some comparisons.”

【Lin Sanjiu’s Passive Skills】

Heat Resistance Adaptation： Able to effectively resist environmental temperatures up to 125°C.

Keen Senses： Not always accurate, but the probability of it being accurate is high.

The third skill is currently being developed.

【Lin Sanjiu’s physical stats】

Height： 168cm

Weight： 56kg

Average timing for 100m dash： 11.6s

Reaction time： Considerably quick

Vision： 5.0

Body fat percentage： 18.5%

Muscle mass percentage： 45.7%

Potential Growth Value： High

When Marcie finished writing, Luther was the first one to exclaim “Huh?”, which made Lin Sanjiu even more nervous. Marcie rolled her eyes at him and continued saying to her, “This are not all your stats. I chose some of the more important categories. I will write down the other information after we made the comparison.”

Lin Sanjiu nodded and read through her own stats quickly.

Since she was young, she had been good at sports, being quite nimble. She did well in the Phys Ed classes that most girls hated, scoring a high score for her college exams. Naturally, she had always been teased by boys with phrases like, “All brawn and no...” Anyway, other than her potential growth value, the numbers seemed normal to her.

Just as Lin Sanjiu was deep in thought, Luther’s stats started to appear in mid-air as well.

【Luther’s Passive Skills】

Extreme Climate Adaptation: Able to survive in climates with extremely high or low temperatures.

Enhanced Condition： Improved physical capabilities.

Optimized Speed： Improved agility.

Eagle Eye： Greatly improved scope of vision and improved night vision.

Parkour： Having cat-like dexterity.

The sixth skill is currently being developed.

【Luther’s physical stats】

Height： 174cm

Weight： 70kg

Speed： 120

Strenght： 89

Max attack： 101

Potential Growth Value： 192

Once Marcie had written down a few categories, Lin Sanjiu understood where she was coming from. Marcie noticed this and stopped writing. “You should be able to tell, right? Luther’s stats are generated conceptually using my ability, and they are like… well, a game character’s.”

Lin Sanjiu nodded. Her eyes lingered many times on the line “Potential Growth Value”.

“I don’t know why but I am unable to conceptually convert your data. It is not to say that it is too impossible, but it is not necessary. All your stats are as they are, you can get this from any physical examination… That’s not all. Most importantly, it is that Potential Growth Value,” Marcie explained calmly.

“Everyone, at least for all the people we’ve met, displayed a fixed number under their Potential Growth Value. Unless they get a rare opportunity, those numbers don’t change… You are the first exception.”

Luther’s “192” was still glowing faintly in mid-air.

Lin Sanjiu frowned, but Marcie continued, “Among Posthumans, Luther’s Potential Growth Value is considerably high. That is to say, you should be about the same level as he is…”

[204.]

Lin Sanjiu lifted her head and exclaimed, “Ren Nan! Ren Nan’s Potential Growth Value was 204! I used my ability on his corpse so I could see a lot of his information… It seems that my stats must be pretty good!”

Luther looked as though he had been punched in the stomach. He yelled, ”How can that guy have a higher potential growth value than me?! That’s impossible! I am the Heavenly King of Potential…”

“The Heavenly King of Stupidity suits you better,” Marcie sighed faintly, turning to face Lin Sanjiu. “That’s right. Do you understand now? Your stats are just too abnormal… I have no explanation for this now.”

“It’s alright.” Lin Sanjiu laughed. Originally, she had no concept of such stats and abilities. Since she knew her stats now, it was different. She thought about it for a moment and set it aside. Just as she planned to tell Marcie to sit and eat with them, Luther suddenly paused and asked, “You said that… you kept Ren Nan’s corpse with you?”

“Yeah,” Lin Sanjiu answered and dug around in her pocket. She found it empty. She suddenly remembered that she had changed her outfit before leaving. Her Ren Nan card must have been in the pocket of the previous pants she was wearing. “It is in the condominium. What’s the matter?”

Luther slapped his thigh, “That’s great! We will rest when the sun is out. We should go back later at night and search his body…”

Remembering the weird posture of Ren Nan’s corpse, Lin Sanjiu felt a little uneasy. “Search his body?”

Under the faint golden glow of the words, her cat-like amber eyes looked even lighter and brighter.

Luther was looking quite gleeful, “We have to see what he left behind. People like him who have experienced a few worlds would usually bring some valuable stuff around. The items could be very handy.”

“Since you killed him, those items also belong to you,” Marcie quickly added, as if she was afraid that Lin Sanjiu might misunderstand.

On the contrary, Lin Sanjiu did not really care, she smiled and said, “Okay. We can go back later at night. What do we do now?” As she spoke, she passed the packet of digestive biscuits to Marcie.

Marcie took out two pieces and starting munching, “I think this is quite a good place. We have food and drinks, and there isn’t any sunlight here. We should find some items to light up the place. Then, we could clean up the mess first…” as she said this, she lifted the chin of one of the corpse.

She was right. Even though the air was dry, they could not tell if the bodies would still rot in such high temperature. As the three of them were thirsty and hungry, they cleared through a heap of food like a tornado and drank more water. Luther was the first one to leap up, “Let’s go. Let’s get ourselves some lavender-scented candles!”

As they knew that there were no threats in the supermarket, this time round, they moved much quicker. Without taking much time, the supermarket was lit with the soft glow of candlelights. As the candles burned, a pleasant lavender scent filled the supermarket.

“We have already experienced two worlds. This is the first time we had such a romantic atmosphere,” Luther smiled as he said this to Lin Sanjiu, while he was dragging a dead body by its shoulder jerkily along the ground.

“How can you find this romantic when you are dragging a dead body,” Lin Sanjiu lifted the legs of that dead body, finding his comment rather amusing. “Heavenly King, can you be quicker?”

Both of them carried the body, slowly dragging it up the escalator, step by step. Marcie was standing at the top of the escalator, keeping a watch out. She signaled that it was safe. This was an army gesture that both Luther and herself learned from the previous world. Both of them hurried to the first floor and dumped the body on another heap of corpses.

These people were once alive… Lin Sanjiu felt a little disturbed. She sighed in her heart and asked, “How many dead bodies are left?”

“Not many. Just two to three corpses which are over in the cosmetic area.” Luther wiped his sweat. His rabbit-like fair skin was now red. As he said this, the three of them climbed down the escalator and headed to the cosmetic section.

“Bang!”

Suddenly, they heard a ramming sound, it reverberated clearly through the supermarket.