Reverberation

Long Ao didn't take it to heart: "Among the people from North City, other than Guan Jinyue, there's no one of much use. If you and I join forces, suppressing her shouldn't be difficult."

"No, Long Ao, you should have also received a message from Ross." An Changqing showed his Green Bubble chat history. Ross from Zero Academy had approached him.

Since teaming up wasn't restricted by academies, it naturally meant the stronger the teammates, the better. Ross's idea was very simple: if the four strongest people teamed up, they would naturally form the strongest squad.

His idea was fine, but the premise was that they would actually agree to it.

An Changqing naturally rejected him. Long Ao looked at the chat history, only then belatedly opening his own Green Bubble app. Sure enough, he saw a message from Ross. It was just that his Green Bubble notifications were always at 99+, so he rarely paid attention to messages from unsaved contacts.

Compared to this, he paid more attention to the messages sent by the academy terminal.

"If Guan Jinyue agreed, just her and Ross alone would be hard enough to deal with. Not to mention, if he invites experts like Kamishiro Chizuru from Kamiya Academy, it will be very troublesome."

Long Ao snorted coldly, "Who cares? We can't control her anyway. We'll just crush them."

Chen Guan nodded silently. The live comments had spoiled that Guan Jinyue was related to Baal. Moreover, he felt that given the usual tropes, there was an eighty percent chance a demon descent would be triggered. The team battles and the secret realm competition were indeed great opportunities to stir up trouble.

After a brief further discussion, the four dispersed to make their own preparations.

Chen Guan returned to his room and opened his status panel, ready to go on a spending spree and purchase a new ability.

The first thing that caught his eye was his Popularity Points balance.

Popularity Points: 35743

His defeat in the battle against Ross didn't significantly affect the growth of his Popularity Points. His previous ambiguous interactions with his main body, the fierce clashes in the arena, the earth-shattering showdown in the finals, and the heated discussions brought about by the mystery of Guan Jinyue's identity had instead brought in a continuous stream of revenue.

His Popularity Points had reached an unprecedented peak.

"Over thirty-five thousand points... enough to redeem a new ability." Chen Guan's eyes swept over the dazzling array of options on the ability exchange list.

Previously, in order to quickly build up his combat strength, he had chosen the Illusionist ability, which perfectly matched his high Spirit attribute. The results had been remarkable.

However, the Illusionist leaned heavily towards crowd control. When facing opponents like Ross, who could directly see through the essence of matter, or Guan Jinyue, who dealt with spatial rules, its limitations began to show.

He needed a more direct, more destructive, and more unique ability to complement the Illusionist.

Mythological Ability: Echo (Blue / Incomplete)

Price: 35000 Popularity Points

Seeing that Chen Guan was about to buy it, the System panicked: "Host, please think twice! This is an incomplete version. If you have bad luck, this ability will get you killed."

This was a gambler's ability that had just refreshed in the store.

Chen Guan originally disliked this kind of luck-reliant gambler skill, but unfortunately, it was of the Mythological type.

That was the Mythological type, after all.

Just looking at An Changqing showed how terrifying the Mythological type could be. Which proper Mythological ability in the System didn't cost an astronomical figure?

Mythological abilities easily cost hundreds of thousands of Popularity Points each. He had been craving one for so long, and now that there was finally a cheap one available, the System just had to insist it was incomplete. Whether the ability was incomplete or not, wouldn't he know?

As for it getting him killed...

High risk, high reward.

Besides, an alt account couldn't die anyway. Are you threatening me with something I don't even have?

Chen Guan thought of his main body in the black iron coffin, and he thought of Baal and the Source Return Group—these terrifying things revealed by the live comments. A Mythological ability; he was definitely buying it!

"Fortune favors the bold, System." Chen Guan's eyes narrowed. "Redeem Mythological Ability: Echo (Blue / Incomplete)."

"Deducting 35000 Popularity Points. Remaining Popularity Points: 743."

Buzz...

Unlike the pure infusion of knowledge from when he previously redeemed skills and abilities, this time, Chen Guan felt as if his consciousness had been thrown into a vast, boundless river of time made up of countless shattered lights and chaotic whispers.

He saw the birth and death of stars, saw giant gods walking upon the earth, heard ancient sacrificial songs and sorrowful cries, felt the forging and betrayal of covenants, and touched the weaving and collapse of rules... Countless chaotic, complex, and incomprehensibly ancient fragments of information washed over his consciousness.

This was not learning, but rather listening to countless murmurs.

He didn't know how much time had passed. It felt like a fleeting moment, yet also like a thousand years. He witnessed countless trials and tribulations.

Chen Guan's consciousness returned. He had a splitting headache. The gray mist in his spiritual world churned violently. It seemed as though some indescribable things had been added, yet it also felt like nothing had changed.

He knew what he had obtained.

Mythological Ability: Echo (Blue / Incomplete)

Effect: Passively enhances sensitivity to ancient auras, mythological remnants, and rule fluctuations. When actively triggered, it consumes a large amount of spiritual power to attempt to listen to and draw upon echoes related to myths, history, and concepts in the surrounding environment or from past contact, granting a random effect.

The duration and intensity of the effect depend on the strength of the echo itself, the spiritual power consumed, and the degree of resonance. It has a long cooldown, and after use, there is a certain probability of attracting unknown attention or suffering from residual influences.

Currently Recorded Echoes: None

Sure enough, it was an ability that relied entirely on luck.

It had no fixed skill tree, its effects were random, and he had to acquire the echoes himself. If he ended up attracting something from a chaotic evil faction, he might just drop dead. It was a complete gambler's ability.

But Chen Guan wasn't disappointed. The passively enhanced perception was quite useful, and the active ability... although unstable, could absolutely create miracles at critical moments.

Acquiring echoes wouldn't be too hard either. An Changqing's ability and Baal itself should fall within the scope of echoes.

It was just that the former would likely be benign, while the latter would probably be lethal. However, if used well, it could probably serve as a suicide bomb. He would just need to adjust the range limits and place himself far away before using it.

He tried fine-tuning his spiritual power to sense the ability. In his spiritual world, at the edge of that cluster of gray mist, a few extremely dim specks of light faintly emerged. They were like imperceptible dust in a starry sky, representing echoes that could be recorded. However, they were all out of reach, and it was impossible to determine what they specifically were.

As expected, he couldn't draw upon any echoes right now. He had to capture the skills himself, like catching pets.

After trying a bit more, Chen Guan finally gave up and looked at his current status panel again.

Name: Chen Guan

Identity: First-year student at Huaqing Academy

Abilities: Life Type - Fortitude, Spirit Type - Illusionist, Mythological Type - Echo

Special Skills: Military Combat Techniques (Blue), Heavy Weapon Mastery (Green), Basic Scythe Techniques (Green), Breath Concealment Technique (Green), Stargazing Meditation Method (Blue)

Attributes:

Strength: 15.7

Stamina: 10.5

Agility: 10

Intelligence: 5

Spirit: 25.4

Popularity Points: 743