Whose consciousness had she awakened?
Was it the “program” implanted by the virus, or the memories from her time as a player resurfacing?
Or had it generated an entirely new and unique consciousness?
Thinking this far, Li Ran felt a headache coming on for no reason.
“Damn it, I’ve been influenced by that lunatic. I’m here to complete a mission, not attend a philosophy lecture. What this world ends up becoming has nothing to do with me. I’m leaving eventually, anyway.”
Having sorted that out, he no longer felt so conflicted, and immediately shifted his focus elsewhere.
“The mission rewards this time are actually pretty generous. Plenty of stats and points, plus a rare piece of gear—hehe, this is a huge profit.”
The stat points were auto-assigned, but what Li Ran was most curious about was the piece of equipment he’d received.
[Shoulders: Victor’s Pauldrons (Rare)]
[Requirement: Eerie Power 1000]
[Stats: +100 Eerie Power, +100 Strength, +100 Agility, +200 Constitution]
[Passive Skill – Augment: Can designate a skill to be augmented, diversifying the skill and randomly generating one to two enhancement effects.]
“This is it? And they call it a rare item?”
Maybe it was because most of his previous gear had been top-tier, but this one felt quite average.
Both in stats and in skill.
Still, at least it didn’t conflict with his current loadout.
Better than nothing.
After equipping the item, Li Ran assigned the passive [Augment] to [Shadowfang Bite], and on top of the original skill, two new effects were added.
[Augmented Effect – Grasp of the Shadowfang]: Enhances the arm's shadowfiend form. The shadow hand can grab targets from a distance, controlling and damaging them. Usable up to three times. Cooldown: 1 hour.
[Augmented Effect – Shadow Snatcher]: Causes enemy and shadow to separate for 1 second. Attacking the separated shadow inflicts equal damage and stagger to the enemy. Cooldown: 1 hour.
Li Ran had assumed skill augmentation would simply boost damage or something like that.
He never expected to gain two entirely new abilities: [Grasp of the Shadowfang] and [Shadow Snatcher].
“Two control-type skills?”
He was itching to try them out.
Taking the elevator to the first floor, he spotted a crooked-neck tree standing alone by the door, looking as forlorn as a single stray dog.
“You’ll do nicely.”
As soon as he spoke, Li Ran’s eyes narrowed and his arms surged with dark shadows.
Unlike before, when his arms transformed into wolf-like shadowfangs, this time, what emerged was a giant ghostly hand hovering above his arm, moving as he moved.
“Grasp of the Shadowfang!”
Li Ran thrust his claw-like hand toward the crooked tree in the distance.
In a flash, the ghostly hand vanished and reappeared, gripping the crooked tree by the roots and tearing it from the ground.
With a sharp pull, the ghost hand and the tree flew from afar to land before him.
“Boom!”
With a crushing fist, the crooked tree exploded into a cloud of wood chips.
The sheer power left him speechless.
Li Ran stared, wide-eyed.
“Skill augments are this insane?”
He admitted—he had spoken too soon earlier.
“Let’s try Shadow Snatcher now.”
Glancing around, he found—perfect—a second lonely tree nearby.
He walked up to it, shadows gathering again around his hands, and a pair of black ghost hands floated before him.
“Go!”
With a jolt of his arms, the ghost hands flew like magical appendages toward the tree’s shadow.
While the tree was unaware, he stole its shadow.
“Holy crap!”
The sight left Li Ran’s jaw on the floor.
A second later, the tree’s shadow wriggled free and returned to its original position, the tree never having realized anything had happened.
Now imagine if it had been a person.
If you stole someone’s shadow while they weren’t paying attention, beat it to a pulp, and then returned it…
That poor bastard probably wouldn’t even know what hit him.
“Too bad it only lasts a second—just one second of control.” Li Ran felt a bit regretful, but deep down, he was satisfied. When your strength was overwhelming, one second was all it took to end someone.
At first, the gear hadn’t looked promising. But once equipped, it provided two powerful new skills—exactly the kind he needed in the shadowfiend series. This would give him a serious edge in future fights.
After completing the madman’s mission, Li Ran’s points now totaled 6100.
“Let’s see if the store has anything good.”
…
…
Building No. 3
“There are snacks on the coffee table, and other food in the fridge. If you get hungry, help yourself—though I don’t even know if you can eat. Sigh.”
Lu Zhaohui glanced at Song Linjia sitting on the balcony.
“I’ve got a mission this afternoon. Gotta go shopping with Meng Ge and her mom. I’ll come see you tomorrow.”
Seeing that Song Linjia didn’t respond, just sat there blankly like a soul had left her body, Lu Zhaohui shook his head and left with a sigh.
“A gentle breeze, warm sunlight… if only this were the real world.”
Song Linjia slowly raised her right hand. The sunlight shone perfectly onto her arm, yet she felt no warmth at all.
“I can’t taste or smell anymore… even the rest of my senses are fading. Why am I still alive?”
“My body was burned to ash in the fire, but my soul’s been placed in a porcelain doll?”
“Can souls really just be swapped around like that?”
“If it’s possible to place a soul into porcelain, maybe it can be placed back into a real body too—all I need is a new body!”
As the thought struck, Song Linjia suddenly stood up. The abrupt motion caused her body to make creaking ceramic noises.
Her eyes burned with a new intensity—hope had sparked in her heart.
She stepped up to the balcony’s edge and looked out toward the west side of the complex. “The clinic. The clinic might be able to help me.”
She remembered Li Ran once mentioned a clinic on the west side that could treat players. When Chen Jiabin lost his arm, it was reattached there without any aftereffects—he only ended up infected by the virus later.
“If I’m careful and make it back before midnight, I won’t get infected.”
With that in mind, Song Linjia started walking toward the door, her porcelain body clanking and creaking with every step.
“No matter what it costs, I will reclaim a living body. Even if it’s not mine, as long as it frees me from this damned porcelain shell, I’ll take it!”
If she had to live as a porcelain doll for the rest of her life, she’d rather jump off the 11th floor and shatter into pieces—end it all.
Even if she did survive the 15 days, who could guarantee she’d ever return to her original form?
She could bring the powers she gained back to the real world after surviving 15 days, sure. But that didn’t mean she’d be restored to normal.
If she returned as a porcelain doll to reality… she’d rather die.
There was a glimmer of hope now—however slim—that she could become human again. She had to seize it, no matter what.
Walking as a porcelain person was no easy task. Every step made a loud clang clang sound. After much effort, Song Linjia finally arrived in front of the clinic on the west side.
“This is it.”
She looked up at the sign above: Dr. Lan’s Clinic.
“Hello, miss. How may I help you?”
As soon as she entered, a pure-looking nurse greeted her warmly at the door.
Song Linjia wobbled forward like a weeble, tightly grabbing the nurse’s hand and asking, “You can fix me, right?”
The nurse froze, feeling the cold, hard, porcelain texture in her hand. Her eyes widened in shock—but then she smiled strangely.
“So… you want to become human?”
(End of Chapter)