Chapter 40: Instant Death!
Xu Zhi could barely remember now whether she had felt even a shred of cowardice or fear when she first saw that question. All she knew was that now, she felt very confident about this “competition.”
She thought she might be getting a bit arrogant—but then again, didn’t she have a cheat code? Why shouldn’t she be arrogant?
“Wait, I haven’t even entered the race track yet, have I?”
Leaning on one hand and holding the game console with the other, the girl asked the question casually.
[You’ve long since been in it.]
The narrator’s reply didn’t surprise her. If she still hadn’t even found where the competition was, now that would’ve shocked her.
“Source power…”
Xu Zhi pondered silently, then suddenly thought of something:
“What would happen if I consumed a core containing the source power of a different attribute?”
She admitted it was a bit of a random idea—but once it popped into her head, she thought she might be a genius for coming up with it!
[How did you think of that?]
The narrator seemed genuinely surprised for the first time.
Xu Zhi smiled and said, “Just popped into my head.”
[…You’re not wrong. Eating a core that contains the source power of a different attribute would cause a clash of attributes, but because of the source power, your affinity with that attribute would still increase—as long as you can handle the trouble caused by the conflict.]
[That said, there is a gentler method…]
[But you’ll have to find it yourself.]
“Heh.”
Xu Zhi let out a cold laugh. “You really are addicted to being cryptic, huh?”
The narrator fell silent.
Not pressing the issue, Xu Zhi changed the subject:
“Say, how come you’re starting to act more human?”
Still, silence.
A sly glint passed through Xu Zhi’s eyes.
“That’s not good, is it? Maybe I should just throw you away?”
Silence.
“Not even a word? Boring,” the girl muttered, giving up on her childish probing.
She obviously wasn’t going to toss the game console. She was just teasing the narrator and trying to test its reaction a bit—but it didn’t bite.
Bored, Xu Zhi switched back to the screen showing her familiars, and after a short wait, both Gouzi and Zhen finished leveling up.
From the screen, she could clearly see the changes in them. Zhen looked even more majestic than before—larger, sleeker, and so finely built it looked like a divine creature crafted by the gods.
As for Gouzi… he had turned into a silver-white wolf.
“Whoa, cool!”
Xu Zhi blinked, impressed. She actually had a wolf as a pet now!
After admiring their appearances, she opened their data panels.
Sure enough, Gouzi’s species had officially changed to “wolf.”
[Familiar: Wolf Lv15
Spirit: 280
Body: 1700
Traits: Strength Lv6, Smell Lv5, Alertness Lv3, Sharpness Lv4, Intimidation Lv4
Special Abilities: None]
His physical stats had jumped massively, and a new trait—Intimidation Lv4—had appeared.
“That ‘Intimidation’… is it like Conqueror’s Haki from anime (One Piece reference)? Like, boom, presence shock…”
Xu Zhi’s thoughts wandered. Based on the name, it sounded about right.
She also recalled the battle roar from that giant bear—they could be similar abilities.
In any case, Gouzi had gotten much stronger after reaching Level 15, and that was definitely a good thing.
“Wait, should I still call him Gouzi?”
Xu Zhi hesitated, but honestly couldn’t come up with a better name.
Yeah, he was still Gouzi.
Then she opened Zhen’s page.
Strangely, Zhen’s species hadn’t changed much—the description had just gone from “falcon” to “Saker Falcon.”
[Familiar: Saker Falcon Lv15
Spirit: 480
Body: 1500
Traits: Sharpness Lv5, Agility Lv8, Endurance Lv5, Strength Lv4
Special Ability: Instant Death Lv1]
“Huh?”
Xu Zhi was surprised to see a special ability?
[Congratulations. Your familiar is exceptionally gifted. Upon leveling up, it glimpsed a spark of enlightenment and awakened a supernatural ability: Instant Death.]
[Instant Death: As the name implies, when this ability is activated, the familiar’s attacks have a chance to cause immediate death.]
[This death is irresistible, irreversible, and unalterable.]
[However, the ability is extremely powerful and consumes tremendous energy. At its current state, your familiar can only use this ability twice before completely exhausting its supernatural energy.]
[Also, the higher the ability level, the greater the success rate. Currently, the success rate is less than 0.01%.]
[Please work to increase your familiar’s level.]
A success rate of less than 1 in 10,000 and only two uses? That sounded practically useless—but even so, Xu Zhi was so excited she nearly jumped up.
“This is god-tier!”
Because it could grow—its power wasn’t capped from the start!
It was only Level 1!
“Zhen… are you sure you’re not some divine emissary? How are you this amazing?” The girl’s eyes sparkled with joy.
Now that she had some footing, it was far better for her familiars to have a weak early-game skill that could grow into something terrifying, rather than a stronger but limited one.
After all, she finally had time and space for them to develop.
With joy in her heart, Xu Zhi tapped her familiars’ little heads on the screen and encouraged them:
“Go get ’em.”
During the fight with the giant bear, she had already noticed how much teamwork and synergy the three of them had. That gave her peace of mind to finally sit back and read.
Lately, she had started reading about weapons and martial arts. After all, her body had fully recovered. With Gouzi and Zhen leveling up, she felt almost no different from a normal person.
Still, it was all theoretical—maybe it was time she asked Shen Jinwen for real guidance.
She hadn’t contacted Shen Jinwen much lately… she wondered how she was doing.
Thinking this, she glanced at the time. It was only 3 p.m.—plenty of daylight left. No point putting it off. Xu Zhi grabbed her console and got up to head to Shen Jinwen’s place.
But as she passed by the window, her gaze wandered outside—and she spotted several figures moving through the fog.
Her steps halted at the window.
There were four figures outside, moving quickly and quietly, cautious in their every motion. They didn’t look like fanatics—more like normal humans.
Who are they? Why are they here?
As she stared at the silhouettes in the mist, Xu Zhi suddenly realized something:
Her eyesight had gotten better, too.
Was it because her body had healed?
Or… was it her supernatural ability?
