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.
close your eyes and open them again, only to find yourself transmigrated into the role of a villainous male supporting character. Readers familiar with urban wish-fulfillment novels know that it is only through the relentless antics of the villainous male supporting character that the plot between the male and female leads can progress. As the villainous male supporting character, Long Aotian not only has to bully the female lead, harass the second female lead, and flirt with the third female lead, but he also has to go all out to antagonize the male lead. In the end, when his body is discovered, he is still clutching half a moldy fried dough stick in his hand. Fully aware of the plot, Long Aotian is determined to change his fate, starting with the female lead! In the beginning, the female lead lacks confidence: "Big brother, I hope I didn't scare you?" In the middle, the female lead treads carefully: "Brother Long, please don't hit me, okay?" Later on, the female lead becomes coquettishly clingy: "Aotian, it's time to pay the 'public grain' tonight." Long Aotian's legs go weak, and he feels like crying: "I taught you to be thick-skinned, not shameless!"
] This is a dark fantasy-themed dating simulation game. The main gameplay involves containing various monster girls and investigating the truth of a world shrouded in mist alongside your companions. However, due to his love for the dark and bizarre atmosphere, Luo Wei ended up turning a dating game into a detective mystery game. Women? Women only slow down his quickdraw! To Luo Wei, the female leads in the game are more like tools to perfectly clear levels and squeeze out rewards. For Luo Wei, flirting with every girl he meets and then discarding them is standard procedure. Worried about characters losing affection points? No need. With his maxed-out charm stat, Luo Wei is practically a "human incubus." A little psychological manipulation and those points come right back. It's a bit scummy, but the paper cutout heroines in the game won't actually come at him with real cleavers. However... Luo Wei has transmigrated. He's accidentally entered the second playthrough of this game. His past actions have caused all the girls to transform into terrifying yanderes. Due to the game's setting, most of the heroines he once contained are "troubled girls." Obsessive, twisted, mentally unstable, all aggressive yanderes... The type who will kill you if they can't have you... Luo Wei wants to cry but has no tears left. "I really just want to survive..." In short, this is a story of battling wits and engaging in a love-hate relationship with yanderes.
u serious?" Chen Feng watched helplessly as his painstakingly trained disciple, fresh off a championship victory, publicly abandoned him. "You had your chance, but you didn’t appreciate it. Now, face the consequences of your choice!" Chen Feng possessed the "Master System," a treasure trove of supreme martial arts techniques, capable of molding ordinary individuals into peerless prodigies. "Legs like yours? A shame not to train in the Crippling Kick." "Ever heard of a palm strike that descends from the heavens?" "Auntie! I see extraordinary bone structure in you—a martial arts prodigy, one in ten thousand." The once-defiant senior disciple, now watching her juniors rise to fame one after another, dominating the internet, was consumed by endless regret.
【Prologue: The Beginning of It All – Use holy water to heal the saintess tainted by demonic energy, then converse with her.】 Shen Nian stared at his older sister sipping yogurt, lost in thought. So you’re telling me my sister is the saintess, and yogurt is the holy water? 【Main Quest 1: Brave Youth, Become an Adventurer! Reward: Rookie Adventurer Title.】 【Side Quest 1: Find the Adorable Kitty! Reward: 1000 Gold Coins.】 Shen Nian: "Wait, I’m a high school senior here—did some guy who got isekai’d accidentally bind his system to me?" Hold on, completing quests gives gold rewards? Titles even boost stats? Is this for real? (A lighthearted, absurd campus comedy—not a revenge power fantasy.)
