[Mystery] Second Order

The [Symmetrical Butterfly] was an anomaly with an extreme obsession with "symmetry."

When it was young, it would sneak into human rooms at night to adjust the furniture, and even trim the eyelashes of sleeping creatures until the left and right sides were perfectly symmetrical.

Anything asymmetrical would make it anxious and restless.

As it slowly grew up, its power increased and its temper became increasingly irritable, leading it to use violent means to achieve the symmetry it desired.

Chen Miemie, currently in his glowing-dot-man state, thought about it carefully.

Having OCD wasn't a crime, but using violence to force others to comply with one's OCD was extremely obnoxious.

"You're the [Symmetrical Butterfly], right? In the final moments of your life, I'll allow you to state your name."

"What arrogance. I see your hairstyle isn't symmetrical either..."

A yellow beam of light pierced right through the body of the [Symmetrical Butterfly].

"What a pity, you didn't cherish the opportunity to leave your name behind."

Chen Miemie lowered the finger that had just fired the yellow light wave, very satisfied with the power of his "Piercing Wave."

The [Symmetrical Butterfly] was actually not weak at all; its passive ability directly trimmed the target's limbs to achieve its desired effect.

It was just that Chen Miemie in his Eternal Moon state was too strong, so the [Mystery] of the [Symmetrical Butterfly] had no effect on him.

After the butterfly died, the people around noticeably breathed a sigh of relief.

Before they could even express their thanks, Chen Miemie had already vanished.

Tonight's main objective had been achieved: Chen Miemie obtained the special item dropped by the [Symmetrical Butterfly].

It was a miniature specimen of the [Symmetrical Butterfly].

Upon returning home, Chen Miemie began his tier advancement.

He had already found out beforehand that the special items dropped by anomalies all had different methods of use.

Food-type items were the simplest; you just had to eat them directly.

Object-type items were more troublesome, requiring frequent use after acquisition. For example, a bar of soap would require constant bathing to use it up as quickly as possible.

As for abstract-type items, their methods of use were even more bizarre and varied.

Chen Miemie's specimen wasn't considered a particularly rare object; it merely needed to be applied to any part of the body like a disposable tattoo sticker.

Qinghua and Loop held Chen Miemie down, stripping him of his clothes until only his underwear remained.

Qinghua: "I think putting it on your leg is a good idea. It's low-key, and others won't see it."

Loop: "Why hide such a beautiful butterfly? It would be best to put it on your arm."

Bobo: "How about putting it on his butt?"

Chen Miemie: "Stop messing around, all of you. This thing can be wiped off in a few days anyway. Just press it onto my back and get it over with."

Before he even finished speaking, Qinghua's cold hand pressed against his back.

As the butterfly pattern materialized on his back...

Chen Miemie felt... absolutely nothing.

He summoned his own yellow-subtitled status panel.

[Chen Miemie / Eternal Moon [Mystery Degree]: Infinity [Immortality]: Infinity, Abilities: Moonlight, Witch's Luck, Walking on Behalf of the Moon]

Chen Miemie: ......

What the hell, why is there no change at all?

Wait, right now his [Mystery] was infinite. How much was a tiny increase to infinity?

Still infinite.

Chen Miemie realized that under the Eternal Moon night, he probably had no way of seeing his growth in his normal state.

"Alright, let's just go to sleep and check again tomorrow morning."

The night passed without incident.

At 8:00 AM.

The first thing Chen Miemie did upon waking up was to test his abilities.

After waking, he immediately noticed that his "Moonlight" ability had undergone a qualitative change.

When his [Mystery] was at 0.99, he could emit a faint glow like a small flame if he tried with all his might;

When his [Mystery] was at 1.9, he evolved into a high-intensity flashlight, capable of shooting moonlight over twenty meters in a single direction; at the same time, he gained the ability to manipulate the moonlight, materializing it into some soft objects.

Now, he clearly felt that he had evolved once again. He could release intense, searchlight-like moonlight in a fan-shaped area in any given direction.

Furthermore, manipulating the moonlight had become much easier, and the volume of the materials he could materialize was much larger.

"In terms of intensity, there is definitely a huge increase, but why do I feel like this ability lacks lethality?" Chen Miemie frowned.

If he were to fight other Mystics, he couldn't exactly use a move like "shining moonlight on you to death," could he?

When in doubt, ask. Chen Miemie immediately sent a message to ask his teacher, Dawn.

Chen Miemie was different from others.

For other Mystics, their [Mystery] was their core secret.

But for Chen Miemie, it didn't matter if his Moonlight ability was exposed. Xiao Hong, Xiao Shuang, and his own Xiao Heng were his true core secrets.

Dawn didn't like chatting via smartwatch and directly told Chen Miemie to come find her in the afternoon.

It was the same old place: the Recursive Corridor.

At 2:00 PM, Chen Miemie's palanquin arrived.

During the day, the Recursive Corridor looked barren, with very little vegetation on the mountain walls on either side of the canyon.

Fierce winds blew constantly here all year round, severely eroding even the rocks.

Dawn was still floating in the air. She had actually fallen asleep in the bone-chilling hurricane.

Chen Miemie called out several times, but his voice was drowned out by the howling wind and failed to wake her.

Fortunately, Chen Miemie found the rope Dawn used to tie herself down while she slept.

So, just like playing tug-of-war, Chen Miemie forcibly pulled the human-shaped kite named Dawn back down to the ground.

With such a huge commotion, Dawn was naturally awakened.

Actually, she woke up after Chen Miemie only pulled two or three times. She had been pretending to be asleep the rest of the time, secretly observing Chen Miemie's abilities.

It wasn't as simple as finding the wind rope tying Dawn down and just pulling her down.

Her wind rope was the product of materializing wind. It looked like a rope, but it was actually made up of countless tiny wind blades, wind thorns, and wind nails.

If an ordinary Mystic dared to pull this wind rope with their flesh and blood, their hands would instantly be stripped down to bare bone.

But Chen Miemie was fine. He was alive and kicking, pulling with even more vigor as he went.

He didn't have this ability himself; it was Qinghua who noticed the anomaly of the wind rope in advance and turned his hands into porcelain.

Where his hands touched the wind rope, there were countless friction sounds like fingernails scratching across porcelain, but the howling wind was too loud and covered up this subtle noise.

When Dawn was only a dozen meters from the ground, she "woke up."

"Stop pulling."

"Oh." Chen Miemie stopped.

After Dawn reached the ground, she first had Chen Miemie use his full strength to create many moonlight constructs.

There was no moonlight during the day.

Chen Miemie first emitted moonlight himself, and then began his manufacturing.

Soon, a large batch of moonlight blankets with crooked and misshapen edges appeared on the ground.

"Teacher Dawn, I'm out of energy."

"That's enough. You really need to practice your control, but it has indeed become much stronger. Chen Miemie, do you know the difference between [Mystery] 2 and [Mystery] 1?"

Chen Miemie shook his head.

"At [Mystery] 1, you completely awaken your ability, begin to constantly explore and gradually familiarize yourself with it, and at the same time, you develop some skills that belong exclusively to you.

Take me as an example. When I was at [Mystery] 1, I also felt that the gentle wind had no lethality. When used to hit people, the force was too weak and would scatter upon impact.

But as I continuously mastered the power of the wind, I began to develop skills like wind blades, acceleration, and flight based on the wind's characteristics of being light, invisible, and highly malleable.

All of this takes time. It took me a full year to advance from [Mystery] Tier 1 to [Mystery] Tier 2, and my pace is considered normal. Compared to that, you have ranked up way too fast.

Ranking up quickly is not a bad thing in itself. It shows that you progress fast and have great potential, but everything has its pros and cons.

Progressing too fast leads to a lack of control over your power. You have not had the time to properly think about how to utilize your abilities, let alone develop your own exclusive skills.

What kind of flowers your [Mystery] can bloom, and what kind of fruit it can bear, depends entirely on you.

So, what I need to do next is brainstorm and develop my own skills?

Yes.

Wait, that is not right. My partner Xi is about the same age as me, and she already has her own codename!

Are you sure you want to compare yourself to [Painter]? She started learning to draw at the age of five and skipped three grades in school. By the time she awakened her abilities, she had been drawing for over a decade. What level of mastery do you think she has over painting?

Chen Miemie immediately shrank back in silence.

After all that, it turns out her partner was a legendary genius?

Chen Miemie returned home from the Recursive Corridor.

She sprawled out on the sofa like a corpse for a bit before getting up to eat a roast chicken.

Night fell. Just like the day before yesterday, it was another blood-red rainbow moon.

Xiao Hong, I missed you to death. Quick, bring up my personal status panel.

[Okay. I missed you a little bit too.]

[Chen Miemie (Xiao Hong Blessed Edition) [Mystery Level]: 2.0 [Immortality]: 9, Abilities: Moonlight, Self-Healing, Berserk, Corrosive Infection, Witch's Luck]

No matter how many manual strength tests were conducted, it was not until this moment, seeing the 2.0 on the panel, that Chen Miemie finally felt truly at ease.

Heh heh, from this day forth, I am a mighty [Mystery] Tier 2 expert.