This is really not mechanical ascension
Chapter 215 - 122: Finally Able to Reduce the Cooldown Time of Switching Controlled Objects_2

Chapter 215: Chapter 122: Finally Able to Reduce the Cooldown Time of Switching Controlled Objects_2

Li Ming suddenly smiled, and the dagger in his hand disappeared, his smile bright and sparkling, "Oops, just kidding, look how scared you are."

Chen Yan’s throat moved, her face pale as death, and all she wanted now was to leave this place.

She forced a smile in agreement, then hurriedly left.

Was he really that frightening?

Li Ming shook his head; of course, he wasn’t merely trying to scare Chen Yan. He also wanted to see if, through the Torch, he could find out who the other group was.

"After all, I am one of your key investment targets, nearly shorted by someone. You should at least check it out," he murmured, opening the box on the ground filled with the knick-knacks he had bought that day, taking control of each one.

What he valued most was the [Soul Mask].

[Soul Mask--D-grade (Damaged): Created with hafnium alloy as the main material in combination with a quantum matrix.

Control Conditions: 6000 points of metal energy

Control Effect: Concealing Blessing--100%

Control Ability--Psychic Shielding: Distorts one’s image in the eyes of life forms below D-grade and in common surveillance equipment.]

After he took control, he tried it out, using a smart device to take his picture. The entire image was indeed distorted, but it didn’t disappear completely; it was like a mist.

He then proceeded with an upgrade, investing 60,000 points to raise it to C-grade. The heavily faded half-face armor returned to a pale gold color, and a series of stripes and channels formed a unique pattern.

The Concealing Blessing became 150%. Li Ming had not tried out this effect before; he feared that it needed to be stacked to an extremely high number to change.

The ability could now shield against C-grade life forms as well as advanced surveillance equipment.

After experimenting again, he found that the original mist-like image had turned into something like a distorted transparent body, barely noticeable if not looked at closely.

Li Ming was very satisfied; whatever he did next would be even more concealed, but now he only had about 40,000 points of metal energy left, which made him clench his teeth—it was vanishing too quickly.

He had to think of a way to get more.

...

Chen Jinglong, the dean, was very efficient, and early the next day, the items were delivered, stored in a large storage device.

"The teacher said that the items must be personally delivered into your hands no matter what," said Yuan Hong with a smile brimming with meaning, gold-rimmed glasses and a suit making him look even more like a scoundrel than yesterday.

"Please thank the dean for me. Going back, tell him to remember me for any good deals like this," Li Ming teased.

Yuan Hong was in a hurry, setting the items down and then leaving, apparently having other matters to attend to.

Rubbing his hands together, Li Ming couldn’t wait to move them into his room. As the cold mist spread, the silver storage box opened, and a mechanical arm lifted a metal cabinet, carefully laid out with ten ore stones of varying sizes.

Each had different colors and were contained in separate tanks, mostly imbued with strange powers.

Li Ming couldn’t help but rub his hands together; enhanced by Mother Ore, the Controlled Objects could potentially obtain abilities similar to superpowers, which were quite powerful.

The frequently used Controlled Objects had already been strengthened by Mother Ore, but there were a few left.

Also attached to the storage device were several sticky notes, each bearing the name of a Mother Ore. A quick search on the Star Network revealed their traits.

"The dean is quite generous, saying ten pieces, and indeed giving me ten," Li Ming grinned, feeling quite pleased, not expecting the dean to have so many Mother Ores.

He absorbed them one by one, and the Special Energy refined from these Mother Ores should last him a long time.

"What if I cut these Mother Ores in two, would I get two portions of Special Energy?" he mused aimlessly.

The birth of Mother Ores required extremely fortuitous circumstances, and unless particularly massive, they were usually not cut, as certain traits could easily be damaged by the cutting.

Soon, the last piece was also absorbed, a neat array of ten types of Special Energy displayed on the Control Bar.

Just as a sense of satisfaction began to surge in Li Ming’s heart, a prompt popped up on the control page—

[Do you want to consume ten portions of Special Energy to reduce the cooldown time for switching Controlled Objects?]

Hmm?

At first, Li Ming was startled, but then he perked up instantly.

Special Energy is needed to reduce the cooldown time of switching Controlled Objects?

Li Ming was surprised. This was indeed an accidental discovery. Without this unforeseen incident, he had no idea how long it would have taken to accumulate ten units of Special Energy.

It was not because of the difficulty, but rather because he would probably have to expend it, which made it hard to keep accumulating.

"Couldn’t even give a heads-up," Li Ming shook his head, naturally choosing to consume, to reduce the cooldown time for switching Controlled Objects.

On one side of the Control Bar, neatly arranged rows of Special Energy vanished, one after another.

Information that seemed to come from nowhere flowed through his mind, "The original two-hour wait time, now only requires one hour."

"It’s been reduced by half, huh."

Li Ming felt quite exhilarated, but then he thought about it and his face fell, "With the nature of the Control Upgrade, next time it probably will require consuming 100 Mother Ores."

The more he thought about it, the more it seemed to be the case; a halving again next time, probably from an hour to half an hour.

If it kept halving, in the end, the energy consumption would increase, and the time saved would become less and less.

"A few minutes of reduction would probably be enough; I could switch several times in one bout," Li Ming imagined the future.

Power form, speed form, defense form, comprehensive form, possibly even a Superpower form, it would definitely be awesome.

He couldn’t help but burst out laughing, then sobered up at the thought of the necessary consumption, "Alas, there is much to do and a long way to go, but at least now I know what can be used to reduce cooldown time."

Back to reality, he needed to keep his feet on the ground and continue developing the gene seed, until the night deepened.

When he went to sleep at night, he dreamed that he had opened a treasure chest full of Mother Ores.

But those Mother Ores had gone crazy; they grew mouths and legs and chased after him, biting at his heels, which scared him into breaking out in a cold sweat.

"This won’t do, being chased by Mother Ores. I have to absorb them all."

Li Ming gritted his teeth and covered his head to take revenge.

The night clouds gathered thickly, and lightning flashed suddenly, followed soon after by a gathering of raindrops, which fell down with a pattering sound.

In a high-rise apartment, the curtains were tightly closed, and the room was only dimly lit. Several figures sat casually on the sofa and chairs, none of them speaking.

It wasn’t until the doorbell rang that a half-body image popped up on the wall-mounted screen. It showed a man in a blue rain cape.

"Open the door..." The voice was muffled. Someone opened the door, and the scent of the rain rushed in, droplets of water dripping from the edges of the raincoat as he entered.

"Firework Master..." the people inside addressed him.

The Firework Master said impatiently, "What’s with the dark lighting?"

Flipping a switch on the wall, the overhead lights turned on, and columns of bright light illuminated the entire room as if it were broad daylight.

The pupils of the few present contracted momentarily, remaining silent.

"I’ve called you here for two things," he said, shaking off his body, scattering droplets all around as he looked around:

"First, did any of you make a move against Li Ming yesterday? Was it your people?"

"Our people have all been caught. No one knows who that heavy-armored unit and sniper belong to." Several people shook their heads around the room.

"Find out as fast as possible." His tone grew stern, "A Level 16 developmental potential, only he could draw [Superpower Istanbul]’s attention. If he dies before the plan, all our efforts will have been in vain."

"He must not be lost!"

"We understand." The people nodded in unison, faces filled with resolve.

"Another thing, the Firework Apostle is coming." As soon as the words were out, the rest showed a mix of excitement and fear on their faces.

The Firework Master continued as if he hadn’t noticed, "However, due to one incident after another on Jingnan Star, the difficulty of smuggling has increased significantly. It’s going to be troublesome for him to get in."

"Do any of you have a way to deal with this trouble?"

"This..." The people exchanged glances, and finally, their gaze settled on one man, in his thirties, with an ordinary face and a stubbled beard. He hesitated, "Although I have been undercover in Jingnan for many years, the channels I’ve come in touch with are not high-end."

The Firework Master frowned and was visibly annoyed, "Who killed Fu Zongchen? Any leads?"

"Not at the moment." This time, someone chimed in quickly: "It’s said that the investigating team has even started to suspect that someone at the scene has a Space-related Superpower."