Chapter 31: Is the Essence of Leveling Up Giving Birth to Aliens?

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Wen Li had only just awakened and still looked somewhat dazed.

Yet Fu Qian could clearly feel that the aura emanating from her was far stronger than before.

Rubbing her eyes, Wen Li recognized Fu Qian standing over her. She jolted fully awake and instinctively reached down to feel herself.

Without question, a scream sharp enough to split the eardrums rang out.

There was no helping it. After taking so many lashes in succession, even the finest clothing would have been unable to withstand them.

Combined with the tears caused by her body twisting and deforming, Wen Li’s current state could hardly be described as anything short of covered in holes.

Hmph, as if anyone had been interested in looking!

“Congratulations on leveling up.”

Fu Qian gazed at Wen Li’s face and offered his congratulations with a beaming smile.

His delight was entirely sincere.

Ah!

Wen Li’s whole body trembled. She stared fixedly at Fu Qian’s face, so transfixed that she did not even realize her arm had dropped from where it had been covering her chest.

Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and released her perception. A power she had never experienced before surged within her.

She had truly reached the sixth rank!

She had really broken through her bottleneck and officially become a mid-level Transcendent!

“But… I truly don’t remember anything. I have no idea what happened.”

Wen Li frowned and murmured unconsciously.

“That’s the power of fortune. The Chosen One, pure and simple!”

Fu Qian let out a long sigh. Inwardly, he thought: There is no need to be modest. You really did nothing but sleep, while someone else endured all the hardship for you.

Of course, it was also true that you had taken quite a few kicks for it. The title of professional punching bag belongs to you and you alone.

The noise overhead was drawing closer. Tan Mingxue and the others would probably soon break through the ventilation shaft and enter, so Fu Qian asked Wen Li one final question.

“Your reluctance to hide in the safe room—is it related to your ability? If there is no one nearby whose emotions you can sense, are your own emotions repeatedly reflected and amplified?”

“How did you know…?”

Wen Li abruptly raised her head, but the person before her had already vanished. The empty safe room was left in utter disarray.

Obviously. If you did not have this problem, then whenever you wanted to avoid hearing other people’s emotions, why not simply hide somewhere? Where else would that unbearable torment come from?

The only explanation was that being alone caused you even greater suffering.

Back in the warehouse, Fu Qian reflected silently.

The strange phenomenon that had appeared when Wen Li leveled up had already made him suspicious. Now, he had finally confirmed it.

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Evaluation: Merciless Sacrifice to the Blade

Breaking free from a cocoon is a painful process, especially when you are the cocoon.

You personally eliminated an immature larva and allowed supernatural power to advance in a seemingly normal manner.

No one will ever learn this secret—not even Wen Li, whom you saved—just as no one knows what happens inside a cocoon while life is gestating within it.

Kill Count: Yifu ×1

Rewards: SAN +25; Inspiration +5

Replay the incident?

All done!

Fu Qian was extremely satisfied with the result of his final attempt.

The mist gate and the apparition in the warehouse had both disappeared, clearly indicating that he could clock off.

Thinking back, the black-and-white cocoon clinging to the mist gate had, in a sense, foreshadowed the relationship between Wen Li and Yifu from the very beginning.

“You personally eliminated an immature larva and allowed supernatural power to evolve in a seemingly normal manner.”

Taken literally, the supernatural power in the world of the containment scenario was rather strange.

When he had first entered, the immature larva mentioned in the prompt had naturally been assumed to be Wen Li, who needed protection. Now, however, it seemed that it had actually been referring to Yifu.

She had been growing silently inside Wen Li all along. Under normal circumstances, the moment Wen Li advanced to the sixth rank, her consciousness would have been completely replaced by Yifu’s.

By then, no one would have known that the mid-level Transcendent Wen Li was no longer the same person as before. Yifu, meanwhile, would have officially completed her emergence from the cocoon.

That was also the reason Fu Qian’s previous mission had failed.

An alien birth!

For some reason, Fu Qian suddenly thought of a line from a movie.

“To allow supernatural power to evolve in a seemingly normal manner.”

Those words indicated that, in that world, this process was unknown to everyone.

At least, most people had no idea that Wen Li’s advancement to the sixth rank would fundamentally involve such a transformation. They would merely regard it as an ordinary level-up.

In that case, the Night Watchers’ order to “observe and await developments” became rather intriguing. What did they know? Or had they merely sensed that something was wrong?

Of course, none of that mattered. It was time to go home and rest!

It had to be said that today’s workload had been rather heavy. Escort missions really were the most exhausting.

By comparison, the rewards for completing the containment seemed rather paltry.

Aside from the usual few rewards, there was nothing else.

Then again, on closer inspection, although the containment scenario had been filled with traps, he had not actually encountered any overwhelmingly powerful entity that he could not deal with.

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Besides, he had already gained plenty from his previous attempts.

He wondered whether the rewards would be upgraded if the Night Watchers’ resident big boss personally took action.

As for the incident replay, Fu Qian had not watched it.

For one thing, the process had been so brief that there was no need for an auxiliary recollection. For another, there had been quite a few nude shots of Miss Wen in it. He decided it was better to show some respect for this newly promoted sixth-rank Transcendent.

…

When Fu Qian returned home, the first thing he did was look up at the clock. To his surprise, it showed exactly the same time as when he had entered.

As expected, time in the real world did not pass while he was working. No matter how long he stayed inside, he would return at the exact moment he had entered.

Outside, the sun was still rising. It seemed as though nothing had changed.

Fu Qian shook his right hand, and a dark-red ring on his middle finger immediately caught the eye.

Under the sunlight, something inside it seemed to churn like blood.

Yet plenty had changed after all.

Recalling the moment he had swallowed the dark blood mass in a single gulp, Fu Qian could not help touching his chest again.

The memory was somewhat nauseating, but the image had undeniably been striking. On closer thought, it even possessed a peculiar beauty.

Come to think of it, since all the rewards he obtained could be brought back to reality, did that theoretically mean he could transform into that form in the real world as well?

Stop!

Fu Qian rubbed his face and interrupted his own audacious train of thought.

Had the appalling working environment really left him mentally contaminated?

Judging by the current situation, he could accept his million-yuan annual salary with a perfectly clear conscience.

Speaking of which, he had gone straight to work as soon as he woke up and had not even eaten breakfast.

Fu Qian went into the kitchen and spent a few minutes making himself a bowl of noodles.

As everyone knew, noodles were an indispensable treasure for people living alone.

This simple food required nothing more than a pot of boiling water and two leaves of vegetables to comfort a hungry stomach.

And as someone with no family or dependents, Fu Qian had extensive experience living alone and had long since mastered the art.

Most importantly, as one of the cheapest foods available, noodles perfectly suited his financial situation from before he had nearly gone bankrupt. He therefore kept a considerable supply at home.

Fu Qian looked at the steaming noodles on the table and was just about to pick up his chopsticks when a timely knock sounded at the door.

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