The drone arrived with the delivery, and he signed for it.
Although it was called a disc, it was actually a very soft membrane resembling liquid metal. One could faintly see patterns within it that occasionally shimmered.
Holding a disc worth 45,000 credits, Bai Xiaodu didn't dare to be careless.
He activated his 【Faced with the Pressure of Surging Big Rigs, the Outlaw Has No Retreat! It's Time for the King to Descend and Unleash a Wrathful Grimace!】 Galgame Love System, allocating the Allocatable Attribute Point he had obtained earlier to Charm.
A Warlock's cultivation and damage were calculated based on their Charm attribute. This was the most fundamental difference between them and Mages.
The Charm attribute didn't just refer to physical looks; it encompassed appearance, temperament, persuasiveness, affinity, mental strength, emotional state, and so on.
As the point was allocated, he soon heard an extremely faint rustling sound echoing throughout his entire body.
Gently standing up, Bai Xiaodu felt a strange sensation and subconsciously rubbed his arm. With a single rub, several dirty-looking flakes of dead skin sloughed off, exposing the ivory-white, brand-new skin underneath.
Directly allocating a whole point at once was a bit too brute-force, which was why it always caused quite a stir. However, the results were exceptionally outstanding.
The scions of great clans built up their attributes by forcefully gorging on various natural treasures; one could catch a glimpse of how unstable that foundation was just by looking at Arnold. On the other hand, Bai Xiaodu's enhancements were solidly obtained through system allocation, representing a steady, step-by-step upgrade with a perfectly firm foundation.
Standing in front of the mirror, Bai Xiaodu studied himself closely. He was slightly fairer than before, his spirit was more vibrant, his eyes shone brightly, and he had more of a lively presence to him. But his facial features hadn't changed much—probably because this face was already handsome enough and didn't need any adjustments.
With the preparations complete, it was time to get down to business.
Taking a deep breath, he applied the membrane to his head according to the instructions. Then, calming his mind and focusing his thoughts, he entered his sea of consciousness.
His consciousness quickly plummeted, arriving in a quiet, silent space.
The sea of mental consciousness, the dwelling place of the soul and thoughts.
This was a rather peculiar space, shrouded in darkness from top to bottom. The only light source was the owner of the consciousness himself, who was slowly pacing around inside.
The path here seemed endless, but Bai Xiaodu had some knowledge about this. The sea of consciousness did indeed have a limit, but one could never walk beyond its boundaries. Even if you felt like you had walked a very long distance, you were actually just spinning in circles in the same spot.
Hum.
This was the prompt; the disc was starting to work. The sound echoed in his head as continuous, illusory scenes flashed rapidly before his eyes.
Bai Xiaodu didn't dare to be careless. He focused his mind with all his might and pointed his finger at a patch of darkness. Following the instructions of the voice in his head, he continuously calibrated against those illusory scenes, slowly, steadily, and powerfully carving the runic patterns.
This was truly exhausting work.
The sea of consciousness was different from reality; Bai Xiaodu could feel his body drifting and unstable. Lifting a finger was easy, but aiming precisely without wavering consumed an immense amount of mental energy.
This was where the benefits of his upgraded Charm attribute showed themselves. If he were to check his real-time status panel, Bai Xiaodu would probably be surprised to find that his energy bar had grown significantly larger.
The more he carved, the more amazed he became.
The sea of consciousness possessed a natural rejection force. Staying inside for too long could easily cause mental exhaustion, and once one's resistance fell too low, they would be forcibly ejected. But by now, the time Bai Xiaodu had spent inside was already twice his usual limit. And that was while he was focusing entirely on drawing a spell rune.
After an unknown amount of time, a simple yet strangely beautiful rough pattern appeared before Bai Xiaodu's eyes.
He had drawn it.
However, Bai Xiaodu knew that this was merely the basic engraving of the spell's release. If he were to use it now, he would probably only manage to gather the ice element, but wouldn't even be able to shoot the ray outward.
To make Freezing Ray truly powerful, he needed to actively and continuously deepen the engraving of certain lines. These lines represented key elements such as range, concentration, and power.
Forcing himself to stay alert, Bai Xiaodu wanted to review the disc again to refine it further on this foundation. But at that moment, the disc's countdown reached its end.
“Thank you for using our product. We look forward to your next purchase.”
Accompanying the mechanical female voice, Bai Xiaodu's consciousness returned to reality.
The liquid-like metal paper slid limply off his head, accompanied by the sweat pouring down his forehead. His face suddenly turned deathly pale, and his vision swam.
The feeling was hard to describe, like staying up for several nights in a row, as if his very soul was being drained away.
Panting heavily, Bai Xiaodu swallowed hard with great difficulty. Sitting on the bed, the worst part was the ringing in his ears. It took him a long while to recover slightly.
And then came the hunger—an extreme, intense hunger.
The brain is the primary organ that consumes the body's energy. If a person were compared to a computer, entering the sea of consciousness was like forcing the brain to run on a dedicated graphics card, and engraving the rune was running it at maximum performance settings.
But the brain's natural development was very low, and humans could never get used to this feeling.
The hunger seemed to seep deep into his bones, like a person falling into the deep sea wrapped in unknown tentacles, with an indescribable dread crawling all over his body.
Opening his snack cabinet, he didn't even bother to take things out properly. He ripped open the packages and stuffed the food frantically into his mouth. He accidentally bit his finger with his sharp teeth, but he didn't care, greedily licking off the bead of blood that welled up.
He aggressively tore into the jerky and bread, wishing he could swallow his own tongue along with them.
Another half an hour passed before Bai Xiaodu finally returned to a normal state. At least his teeth were no longer chattering like crazy.
Glancing at the remaining liquid disc, Bai Xiaodu's eyes were now filled with awe and dread. This one would have to wait until tomorrow at the earliest. No joke, if he did it again, he felt like he would literally die.
After a brief thought, Bai Xiaodu picked up the virtual helmet and put it on.
Money had to be made, and spells had to be practiced. Simply casting the spell wouldn't put as much of a burden on his brain as entering the sea of consciousness did. Besides, it was best to strike while the iron was hot. So now was not the time to rest.
However, he really needed to set an alarm. Otherwise, if he was in poor condition tomorrow, it would affect his ability to coach Xin Hai'an. That was something Bai Xiaodu absolutely could not allow to happen.
He tidied up the room to prevent himself from accidentally wandering off in reality, and the helmet gradually sealed shut.
“Phew...”
His rapid breathing gradually stabilized.
Bright light burst into his field of vision, and Bai Xiaodu squinted uncomfortably. The illusory mist materialized into reality.
Crowds bustled back and forth, the streets flowed with traffic, and towering skyscrapers loomed over the entire world.
Bai Xiaodu quickened his pace.
The city center was where players gathered to take on quests and progress through the storyline. He had already scheduled an appointment with a client a few days ago, who was likely already waiting.
Breaking an appointment was something a qualified gaming companion would never do. Especially when the order was priced at 1,000 credits per hour.
Rate on N.U.
