Life Game In Other World
Chapter 603: Mission Reward (Super-sized - for Monthly Votes)

Chapter 603: Chapter 603: Mission Reward (Super-sized Chapter for Monthly Votes)

[Please choose one of the following three options:]

[1. Replica of the Eternal Flower’s Stamen:

A replica made in reference to the stamen of the Eternal Flower.

This stamen must be soaked in clear flowing water, and if it leaves the source of the flowing water for more than ten minutes, it will wither.

The clear water that has soaked a replica of the Eternal Flower’s stamen will naturally possess the power to clear away resentful spirits and to clarify thoughts.

Long-term consumption of this water or extended activity in the vapor from its evaporation can gradually increase one’s ability to resist the erosion of resentful spirits, longing for sunshine, longing for daylight, and thoughts will gradually become simple and pure.

Please be cautious, as long-term influence under the replica of the Eternal Flower’s stamen can gradually make thoughts extreme, and Transcendents with Talent Sequences may develop a strong rejection reaction over time, leading to insanity.

The effects of the replica of the Eternal Flower’s stamen are ineffective against Angels.]

[2. Butterfly’s Dance Skirt:

A beautiful and sexy dance skirt that changes shape according to the wearer’s figure, outlining the wearer’s best physique.

One who dons this skirt will possess a unique charm, attracting the attention of all sentient beings around them.

The user of the Butterfly’s Dance Skirt can command sentient beings who fall at their feet, controlling their desires and thus their actions.

Please be cautious, as those who are deeply immersed in desires are more easily captured by them.

Please be cautious, as those who manipulate desires will also be controlled by them, and non-desire related Talent Sequence holders may go insane due to desire.

The Butterfly’s Dance Skirt cannot control the desires of Angels.]

[3. Contaminated Mechanical Core:

A Mechanical Core hidden deep within ruins, its constant contamination gives it an appearance of flesh interwoven with machine.

This Mechanical Core can change its shape to a certain extent and can connect with any mechanical device, granting the holder control over the connected machinery for a short period.

Please be cautious, as the Mechanical Core has been eroded by unknown contaminants, and using it too frequently might draw terrifying scrutiny.

Please be cautious, and ensure that the device is offline before connecting, and avoid connecting the Mechanical Core to artificial intelligence that has become sentient, as it may lead to unpredictable consequences.

Please be cautious, as unknown contamination accompanies the Mechanical Core, affecting the bearer’s mental state, and if the bearer feels they are being watched, please stop using the Mechanical Core, as it may lead to unknown consequences.]

As all the reward introductions appeared in his field of vision, He Ao began to read them one by one.

The first was still a knockoff product reliably produced by the system’s counterfeit factory, a fake stamen of the Eternal Flower.

With his past experience of the fake Book of Knowledge and the fake World Tree Branch, He Ao was no longer surprised by the appearance of replicas from the system.

However, though the system produced fakes, its standards were high, and it generally did not fake anything unrelated to Divine Beings.

The Book of Knowledge corresponded with a good friend, and the World Tree Branch with the Life Goddess.

And this Eternal Flower must also correspond with a Divine Being, but He Ao had not yet come across the knowledge of this particular Divine Being and did not know who it specifically corresponded to.

He Ao’s eyes swept over the introduction of the ’Replica of the Eternal Flower’s Stamen’.

Clearly, this was an item with area-of-effect abilities for Transcendents.

The water soaked with the stamen, as long as one drank it or even just inhaled the vapor, would be affected by the power of the stamen.

Short-term contact could repel resentful spirits and cleanse one’s thoughts, but long-term exposure could lead to extreme thoughts and insanity.

Actually, looking at it this way, the power of the stamen seemed to be a weakened form of ’contamination,’ which, when mild, had more positive than negative effects, but when intensified, it revealed the true face of contamination.

The system did not provide a clear distinction of the severity of this contamination, leaving it up to the user to explore.

However, this time the level of the reward seemed very high; it used to say what level the item was effective against.

This time, it went straight to saying ’ineffective against Angels.’

That is to say, it seemed that the abilities of this item would be effective against anyone below the rank of Angels, as long as they had not become Angels themselves.

He Ao moved his gaze away from the ’Replica of the Eternal Flower’s Stamen,’ and looked at the next reward.

Then his eyes paused,

"Butterfly’s Dance Skirt."

This skirt seemed to be an item related to the Witch of Desire, with abilities that quite fit the temperament of the Witch of Desire; it could control others through desire, thereby enhancing the wearer’s power.

Actually, in He Ao’s timeline, the Witch of Desire and the Witch Church were characters that spanned the entire Gene Potion storyline.

The first time He Ao came into contact with Gene Potion was in the third official Copy World, where the character Roy was being pursued by the Witch Church. It was in that Copy World that He Ao, with the help of a good friend, killed a sub-body of the Witch of Desire.

This time, He Ao had used the Witch of Desire’s lightning to destroy Wells, the instigator behind the Gene Potion incident, pushing the secretive entity behind Wells back into the coffin.

What started there, ended there.

Perhaps this was the reason why the system generated an item related to the Witch of Desire.

The ability of this "Butterfly’s Dance Skirt" was ineffective against angels and would repel all Talent Sequences not related to desire, driving its holder into madness.

The previous "Eternal Flower’s Pistil (Replica)" also repelled Talent Sequences, but it was not specified whether it was partial or total.

It seemed that as one approached the rank of angels, the mutual repulsion between transcendent powers grew stronger.

He Ao’s gaze continued downwards to the "Contaminated Mechanical Core."

The way this Mechanical Core manifested its power was entirely different from the other two transcendent items.

Both the "Eternal Flower’s Pistil (Replica)" and "Butterfly’s Dance Skirt" were cases of very definite direct manifestations of transcendent powers, and ineffective against angels.

This Mechanical Core, on the other hand, could "control all mechanical objects."

That is to say, its power depended entirely on the strength of the machinery it could find.

If He Ao found a C-level Blazing Angel Mech, it would exhibit C-level power, and if He Ao found a B-level Supersonic Levitating Warplane, he would exhibit B-level power.

Well, if one could find an angelic level machine...

Immediately after, He Ao shook his head, expelling the thought from his mind.

Even in Copy World, He Ao had never heard of the Federation manufacturing angelic level machinery; that seemed to be a domain unreachable by human technology.

However, this Mechanical Core had its limitations, which were "artificial intelligence" and the "network."

The system seemed to be cautioning He Ao not to let this thing come into contact with artificial intelligence and networks, or it might cause unknown consequences.

If it were just a simpler machine, integrating artificial intelligence might have an effect, but He Ao couldn’t imagine what connecting it to a network could cause.

So, since the issue doesn’t lie with the "machinery," it must lie with the "contamination."

The name of this transcendent item was "Contaminated Mechanical Core."

The focus of the entire item is probably not on the mechanical core, but on the contamination.

He Ao looked at the three items, pondered for a moment, and made his choice.

[You have selected "Contaminated Mechanical Core"]

[Reward has been issued, please check.]

The reason for choosing the "Contaminated Mechanical Core" was not complicated.

He Ao had just triggered the achievement "Silent Night Coffin Nail."

According to the effect of "Silent Night Coffin Nail," the refreshed reward might include items of "higher rank."

The previous two items, "Eternal Flower’s Pistil (Replica)" and "Butterfly’s Dance Skirt," were clearly below the angelic rank; only this "Contaminated Mechanical Core" did not have a clearly stated rank limitation.

This indicated that the Mechanical Core could be that item of a higher rank, and even if not angelic, it would certainly be higher than B-level.

Merely some contamination could lead this Mechanical Core to reach beyond B-level, which proves that the source of this contamination might come from an existence higher than angels.

For instance, Divine Beings.

This was an artifact inherently contaminated by a Divine Being.

Moreover, the system specifically emphasized that excessive use of this artifact could attract unknown attention, which means, in a sense, it was an artifact that carried the gaze of an unknown Divine Being.

There was much to work with here.

After all, the more friends, the merrier.

Of course, just this point alone was not enough to make He Ao choose it.

Because compared to the previous two items, this Mechanical Core had a significant disadvantage; it was limited by the technological level of the place where He Ao was located.

After all, although it could manipulate any machinery, there first needed to be machinery for it to operate.

In the main world, it was very difficult for He Ao to obtain powerful machinery, and because it couldn’t connect to the network, this item could not assist He Ao with any online processing like Eve could.

Moreover, manipulating other people’s machinery could potentially be illegal.

But there was one place that could eliminate these disadvantages.

That place was the relics.

As remnants of a once-destructed high civilization, they were filled with a large number of powerful, uncontrolled, and unclaimed machinery that He Ao could use at will; and if any were damaged, it wouldn’t be a pity, as they were everywhere, and he could simply pick up another one.

From this perspective, the Mechanical Core was more useful than those Mechas and warplanes that could neither be maintained nor find a power supply, which the system had previously scrounged together.

Moreover, the high tower inside the relic that He Ao had previously entered, which contained items related to ’Super Memory,’ seemed to be a powerful machine in itself.

He Ao now already possessed a B-level item that could enhance his own strength, ’The Fake Master Bracelet,’ so he needed a B-level item that was more auxiliary in nature.

’The Pistil of the Eternal Flower (Replica)’ and ’Butterfly’s Dance Skirt’ were both indirect-acting auxiliary Transcendent items.

However, the effect of ’The Pistil of the Eternal Flower (Replica)’ took too long to activate, it could not deal with emergencies, and it was obviously intended for short-term group benefits or long-term group poisoning, neither of which was particularly helpful for He Ao’s current situation as a lone traveler.

As for ’Butterfly’s Dance Skirt,’ it required manipulating others through their desires to help oneself, and He Ao did not like this kind of direct control that could potentially be illegal, plus this skirt could easily lead to cognitive errors, where the risks far outweighed the benefits.

Therefore, all things considered, ’The Contaminated Mechanical Core’ was the most suitable item for He Ao at the moment.

And unlike the previous two Transcendent items, ’The Contaminated Mechanical Core,’ being merely a core, did not have the effect of repelling Talent Sequences; the mental influence was only from the corruption of the unknown Divine Being it carried.

And He Ao had a bit of experience and resistance when it came to dealing with the corruption of Divine Beings.

In the next second after He Ao made his choice, a faint gray glow appeared in front of him, covering his vision.

Then, this glow converged and transformed into an object the size of a thumb.

Half of this object looked like half of a dodecahedral piece of machinery, pitch-black and flickering with a faint blue glow, while the other half was covered with irregularly shaped, throbbing flesh.

The flickering light and pulsing flesh expanded and contracted at the same rhythm, as if playing a strange symphony in the depths of space.

He Ao reached out and touched the object.

A twist of chaotic, machine-like murmuring suddenly exploded in his mind, as if these whispers came from the depths of distant space, but also as though they emanated from every corner around him; they entwined, screamed, advising He Ao to abandon the shackles of flesh and descend into the eternity of machinery.

He Ao’s movements paused slightly and then, unimpeded, he picked up the object.

Originally, he had some anticipation for these murmurings brought about by the contamination, but it seemed, not very impressive.

Not to mention the murmuring during the outbursts of good friends like the Witch of Desire, nor the whispers from the tomb of the War God.

Perhaps because of the distance, the quality of these murmurs did not even match the chaotic thoughts brought by the hidden presence in the depths of the sea in the last Copy World.

Well, all things considered, indeed, not so great.

Felling the seemingly unaffected response from He Ao, the murmuring infiltrating his mind seemed to be provoked, becoming even more distorted and noisy.

He Ao toyed with the Mechanical Core in his hand, feeling the information conveyed to his mind by this object.

This information was concise: it could control all machinery and also transform its shape to a certain extent.

There was nothing about networks, artificial intelligence, or contamination.

At the thought from He Ao, thin black tendrils, like tiny tentacles, extended from the mechanical side of the Mechanical Core into the air, undulating and flitting about.

These tendrils seemed to be the ’interface’ through which the Mechanical Core connected to other machinery.

Then He Ao controlled the Mechanical Core to retract these tendrils and under his will, the small core slowly shrank, compacted, transformed, and ultimately became a mechanical ring adorned with twisted red lines.

Inspired by an aesthetic sense from the memories of Vian, He Ao adjusted some parts of the ring’s structure, placing the flesh portion inside the ring bezel and the mechanical part on the outer rim, while altering the proportion of flesh to form special patterns on the bezel.

The parts that could not be compacted formed a mechanical, angular ring surface above the bezel.

The final ring embodied a beauty that melded both mechanical and eerie elements.

With the status of this ring, it could not be placed inside a Pirate Treasure Box.

He Ao slipped the ring onto his right little finger.

Since the inside of the ring’s setting was all flesh, the ring felt quite comfortable and didn’t constrict his finger too much.

He Ao picked up the Miracle Wand at his waist and cast a "Silence Concealment" on the ring.

The "Silence Concealment" from the Miracle Wand could be applied to up to three transcendent items simultaneously, and the three items He Ao had chosen were the Pirate Treasure Box, the Miracle Wand, and this Mechanical Core Ring.

At this moment, the polluting power roaring in He Ao’s mind seemed to have finally tired out; its mumbling became a lot quieter, subsiding to banality.

He Ao skillfully adjusted this pollution to align with the cognitive pollution brought by "The Fake Master Bracelet."

The two different pollutions quickly produced an offset, and once again, the pressure on He Ao was greatly alleviated.

Then He Ao looked at his field of vision, where the last subtitle was currently displayed,

[Super Exchanger task current progress: 9/12]

It seemed the Super Exchanger task was related to Exchange Stars, and He Ao had accumulated a total of 9 Exchange Stars to date; thus, the task progress was 9/12.

He Ao didn’t know what the outcome would be once the task was finished.

That line of text slowly disappeared from He Ao’s line of sight, signifying that this settlement had fully concluded.

He Ao glanced at the bottom right corner of his field of view at the remaining time for the next copy world,

161:08:09.

Over one hundred sixty hours had vanished, and the time interval remained seven days.

The system hadn’t refreshed to bring martial arts-related rewards for two consecutive times.

He Ao then brought up his personal attribute panel.

[He Ao]

[Authority level: Advanced Player]

[Physical Condition: 1194]

[Skills: Talent Sequences 272: Super Memory (C-level), Basic Firearms Mastery, Talent Sequences 72: Secret Art Mage (C-level)]

[Mechanical Modification: None]

[Martial Arts: Qi Refinement and Spirit Transformation (C-level)]

His basic physical condition was still 1194.

He briefly activated and then deactivated Super Memory, because during this copy world, the level of mastery he achieved with Super Memory raised the additional physical condition from 540 to 576.

With Super Memory activated, He Ao’s physical condition soared to 1770, a number that was far beyond the C-level limit.

The cooldown period for marking with Super Memory was further reduced. The cooldown time needed to upgrade to B-level had dropped from thirty days to twenty-one days and this time it fell to around sixteen days.

The reduction had become smaller, indicating that it was becoming increasingly difficult to decrease the cooldown time further on.

He Ao had marked Wells during his last modification in the copy world; one of the marks went into cooldown. After the reduction of the cooldown and soul enhancement at the end of the copy world, the cooldown time for this mark was now only two days.

Knock, knock, knock—

Just then, a slow knock sounded at the door, "He Ao, are you there? It’s me, Li Cheng."

"Coming," He Ao replied and turned around, walking to the door. He unlocked the security lock and opened the door,

"Director, what’s the matter?"

He looked at the gentle middle-aged man in front of him, who even had a bit of a student’s air about him.

This was Li Cheng, the director of the Research Institute and the strongest transcendent in the main world.

Li Cheng lived in the hotel room next to his.

"Some good news and some bad news,"

Li Cheng’s gaze swept over He Ao, and he smiled gently, "Regarding the news about this relic opening, looks like we’re going to have to work overtime and hold a meeting tonight."