Ye Chuan finished clearing out the monsters and surveyed the scattered remains. He used his spiritual sense to search but couldn’t find a second energy core.
"Looks like only that leader dropped one core for me, and not every leader even drops one. These things are way too rare," Ye Chuan muttered, staring at the core in his hand as he pondered.
If that were the case, unlocking the entire tech tree would probably take a long time.
"Ke Ning, any way to get more of these?" Ye Chuan finally handed the core to the bespectacled science girl beside him.
"This is…?"
"The energy core I mentioned earlier. Just extracted from a monster," Ye Chuan explained.
Ke Ning pinched the core between her fingers. At a glance, it looked like nothing more than an ordinary gemstone, and a rather impure one at that.
"You need this?" she asked, adjusting her glasses.
"Yeah. Badly."
"Understood." Without further questions, she let the floating cube beside her drift closer to the core. Holding out her palm, she allowed the cube to scan its composition.
After a moment, Ke Ning pulled up a translucent window and skimmed through the core’s analyzed components.
"If you have other similar mineral materials, I can replicate this stone for you," she said.
"Replicate?"
"Correct. Replicate."
Ye Chuan immediately retrieved a spirit crystal from his backpack space. "Try this."
After all, the spirit crystal was the closest thing he had to a similar mineral.
Taking the crystal, Ke Ning examined it briefly, looking slightly puzzled. "Do you just enjoy collecting minerals?"
"Uh, they’re useful."
She didn’t press further, slotting the spirit crystal into the cube. A blue light flickered for a few seconds before a brand-new energy core materialized.
"Will this do?" Ke Ning asked.
Ye Chuan took it and immediately inspected it—
[Item: Energy Core
Contains condensed power. Can be used to unlock tech tree points.]
It actually worked!
Ke Ning was like Doraemon!
Ye Chuan was growing fonder of this glasses-wearing girl by the minute—she was basically a walking treasure trove, delivering one surprise after another in such a short time.
"Can you replicate as many as I have materials for?" he asked.
If he could mass-produce spirit crystals with his own replication magic and then have Ke Ning convert them into energy cores, wouldn’t that be perfect?
"You might be disappointed. The Cube V3 can only replicate one per day at most," Ke Ning said.
One a day…
Not ideal, but at least it was steady income.
Clutching the core, Ye Chuan glanced at the tech tree and unlocked the most basic node.
[Unlock successful: Obtained Mental Recovery Lv.1 (Increases spirit regeneration speed.)]
"Small gains are still gains," Ye Chuan muttered, but then he suddenly noticed his spiritual sense range had expanded significantly.
Huh?
Stronger than he expected.
Looking at the densely packed skill points on the tech tree, he realized that unlocking all of them would bring terrifyingly powerful enhancements.
Even a 1% boost was still a boost.
Damage stacked up percentage by percentage.
While Ye Chuan was absorbed in studying the tech tree, Ke Ning walked over to the spatial rift. She gazed at the shimmering light within before directing her Cube V3 to scan it.
The rift pulsed with an eerie blue glow as Ke Ning stood motionless, occasionally adjusting her glasses.
After a while, the cube finished scanning, and Ke Ning seemed to have obtained the data she needed. She turned and gave Ye Chuan a slight nod.
"That should do it, right?" Wang Yanran asked. Though she had no idea what Ke Ning was doing—or what that floating cube even was—she had learned not to ask too many questions.
After all, sticking with the experts meant guaranteed rewards. No need to stir up trouble.
Just then, the rift began visibly shrinking. What had once resembled shattered glass in space was now rapidly repairing itself.
"…" Ke Ning seemed to understand something but merely nodded without speaking.
"Does the rift disappear once all the monsters are eliminated?" Ye Chuan wondered.
"That seems to be the case here, though some rifts remain. Most follow this pattern, though," Wang Yanran explained.
"Alright, let’s head back first."
…
After returning home, Ke Ning headed to her room—or rather, her lab. But as she passed through the hallway, a head suddenly popped out from the wall, grinning mischievously.
Ever since she had successfully startled Ke Ning once, Lan Xiaoke had taken a liking to scaring her, thoroughly enjoying the way the girl trembled in response.
"Alright, Ke Ning has work to do. Stop messing around," Ye Chuan said, spotting Lan Xiaoke’s sneaky antics. He pinched her cheek and shoved her back into the wall, then smacked her butt.
"Go play your games."
"Okaaay~" Lan Xiaoke flailed her legs before finally vanishing into the wall.
A moment later, her head popped out again, this time with a cat-like expression. "Hey, Ye Chuan, I’ve reached Foundation Establishment now."
"Oh?" Ye Chuan gave her a surprised glance and probed her aura, confirming her newfound strength.
"Not bad. But with this much spiritual energy, even a pig could ascend."
He wasn’t about to credit Lan Xiaoke’s laziness for her progress—it was all thanks to his own blood, sweat, and heavy spending.
"Keep it up," he said.
"Will do!" Lan Xiaoke blinked her big eyes at him, sparkling with expectation.
Ye Chuan crossed his arms. "What? Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Foundation Establishment… comes with rewards, right?"
Lan Xiaoke distinctly remembered Ye Chuan promising her a hefty sum if she broke through to this stage. That was why she had been grinding so hard lately.
"Oh? Forgot about that," Ye Chuan said.
"Whaaat?!" Lan Xiaoke lunged out and clung to his leg. "You promised! I didn’t forget!"
"I feed you, house you, and let you game all day, and now you’re asking me for money?" Ye Chuan said, arms still folded.
"Wuuu…" Lan Xiaoke wilted, slinking back toward her room like a dejected caterpillar. "Fine… I’m going back…"
Seeing this, Ye Chuan pulled out his phone and transferred 50,000 to her.
He had previously agreed to give her 5,000 per minor breakthrough and more for major ones.
The moment Lan Xiaoke heard the notification sound, she immediately slithered back and hugged his leg again. "Hehe, Ye Chuan, you’re the best!"
Her pitiful expression vanished faster than flipping a page.
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
ial death, also known as "shè sǐ" in Chinese, generally refers to... well, never mind, it's not important. My name is Ye Cheng, and I'm about to experience social death firsthand. ... 【Host, your mission is to confess your love to the young lady of the Dongfang family, the current student council president, in a way that will be unforgettable for everyone at the freshman ceremony!】 【Host, assist the girl with a sprained ankle in front of you to reach the infirmary, and fulfill the wicked thoughts in your heart!】 【Host, act on your desires and punish the arrogant young lady before you mercilessly!】 【Host, follow your instincts—abandon shameful surrender, begging, or groveling, and ruthlessly criticize the domineering, ill-mannered young lady in front of you!】 【Host...】 Ye Cheng: "Here, here, you take this host role—I quit!" Wait, why is the girl with a sprained ankle the daughter of a mafia boss? And what kind of punishment method is this for the arrogant young lady? Also, who the heck said anything about wicked thoughts in my heart? Come out here, let’s settle this one-on-one!!! ... The haughty student council president, the scheming mafia princess, the fragile yandere young lady, the airheaded maid-in-waiting, the mixed-blood loli/...
. As long as he maintains the villain image and follows the plot to the grand finale, he can obtain generous rewards and return to the real world. So Gu Chen'an entered the role and began to act as a scumbag villain, but who would have expected that the female leads could hear his inner thoughts. Miss Su from the Su family was shocked: "I originally thought Gu Chen'an was a scumbag, but I didn't expect he turned out to be a gentleman! What? You said I have to call off the engagement? I definitely won't, I'll piss you off!" Bai Yuan Tian was dumbfounded: "Young Master Gu is usually unreasonable and a complete brat, but he actually calls me little sweetie in his heart? What, Young Master Gu even said he likes me?" As the female leads' images collapsed more and more, the plot also collapsed with it. Gu Chen'an looked at all this chaos. "Ladies, don't aggro me, if you keep this up the male lead really will stab me, I still need to survive to the grand finale!"
orn and Humiliation】【Forced Love】 In his past life, Lin Ran was betrayed and murdered by his girlfriend and family, while the yandere female aristocrat, who had treated him as a mere plaything, avenged him by doing in his enemies. Upon seeing the yandere female aristocrat lying in the same coffin, ready to die with him, Lin Ran realized how profoundly mistaken he had been. Reborn, he abandoned the fickle campus beauty and wholeheartedly embraced the yandere female aristocrat's arms. "Ran! If I dig out your eyes and turn them into a specimen, you'll only be able to look at me!" Lin Ran: "Darling, kiss me!" "Ran! If I break your legs, you won't run away anymore, right?" Lin Ran: "Love, hold me tight!" "Ran! If..." Lin Ran: "Hush now! Love me more!" Luo Yao: ... Seeing his scumbag dad: "Take him out!" Seeing his stepmother: "Get rid of her!" Seeing his brother: "Eliminate him!" Seeing his white moonlight: "Send that to Southeast Asia!"
