My Avatar is Becoming the Ultimate BOSS

Xia Pingzhou opened his eyes, still seeing the floor of the express train's carriage, yet it no longer swayed as before. The train had stopped, and the sounds of it moving were gone. Instead, there was an announcement reminding passengers to take their belongings.

He turned his head to see the kimono-clad girl beside him staring at him intently, motionless.

Looking around again, he saw that all the passengers on the express train had already disembarked. The carriage was empty, with only him still asleep on the train, unable to be awakened—he had been engrossed in trading from the perspective of Machine No. 3.

"Kitty, what's wrong?" Ayase Origami asked.

"Nothing... just a bit sleepy." Xia Pingzhou said while getting up, yawning lightly, and retrieving his suitcase from the overhead luggage compartment.

He picked up the suitcase and disembarked the train with Ayase Origami, stepping into the night of Hokkaido City. The glow of the Sapporo Radio Tower cast down on them.

After a while, they settled in a luxurious five-star hotel near Dadong Park according to the hacker's arrangements.

The night was deep, and the time was close to midnight. They didn't go out, resting early in their room. Ayase Origami went to bathe, while Xia Pingzhou sat by the window, staring dazedly at the scenery of Sapporo.

Suddenly, he remembered something and pulled up the skill tree panel to take a look.

[Bridge of Humans and Demons: Temporarily fuse your International Chess Species with a Demon Chess Species (fusion time depends on your "Spirit Attribute") (Contracted Demons do not belong to a chess species and thus cannot be fusion targets).]

"Right, I have yet to try out the effect of this skill." He suddenly realized, it had been several days since learning this skill from Bergen, yet he had always pushed it aside.

But this was partly due to being too busy on Machine No. 1's side, with one major event following another, leaving no room to stop. Now that his brother joined Rainbow Wings, he could finally take a breather.

"Could my brother be brainwashed by the Salvation Society's spy within Rainbow Wings? If so, that would be troublesome... Black Cocoon's whereabouts would be exposed in an instant." Xia Pingzhou thought, "But since my brother runs so fast, even if he can't beat the Salvation Society's spy, he should at least be able to escape, no need to worry."

Not long after, Ayase Origami emerged from the bathroom in a fresh kimono.

Her hair was damp, clinging to her pale skin, exuding the scent of citrus shampoo. Usually, she would control pages of paper to adhere to her hair, absorbing the moisture, making it dry instantly without worrying about damaging the hair quality.

But today, she didn't do that. She just sat on the bed, looking down at the hairdryer at the corner, brought it over with paper pages, then raised her head to gaze unblinkingly at Xia Pingzhou sitting by the window.

Xia Pingzhou lifted his eyes from the book "The Dancing Girl of Izu," meeting her gaze.

He seemed to instantly understand her meaning, as long companionship made him increasingly aware of this peculiar doll-like girl's thoughts. So, he went over, sat down, picked up the hairdryer, plugged it in, and started blowing her hair with it.

Lowering his eyes to touch her locks, they seemed as soft as snowflakes. Ji Minghuan suddenly recalled the scenes of his parents helping him dry his hair in childhood, but those memories were long past, like a series of yellowed photographs.

"All done."

Moments later, Xia Pingzhou turned off the hairdryer's power, placing it on the bed.

"A good cat helps its owner dry hair." The kimono-clad girl opened her eyes, gently curling up her lips and reaching to fondle his hair.

"Then can you help me with something?"

"What?"

Without warning, Xia Pingzhou released the Celestial Driver, filtering through the chess shadows swirling in black and white to select the "Queen's Statue" and the Disposable Demon Chess Piece "Flame Demon."

He summoned the Queen's Statue beforehand, but kept the "Flame Demon" chess shadow pinched between his fingers, delaying its summoning. The silvery regal colossus knelt on the floor of the room, nodding in readiness.

"Can you prevent the room from catching fire or being damaged?" Xia Pingzhou looked at Ayase Origami, "I want to try out a new ability, but I'm too lazy to go out, kind of tired after traveling all day."

The kimono-clad girl nodded. The pale pages of paper rose like a heavy snowfall, neatly covering the windows, leaving no gaps, with superb soundproofing effect.

With a "click," Xia Pingzhou crushed the chess shadow of the Flame Demon. Suddenly, in midair, a fireball appeared swiftly, raising the room's temperature noticeably, akin to hitting the wrong setting on an air conditioner.

Its flames divided into two parts, light and dark, with the lighter flames forming the body, and two small dark fires embedded deep within, serving as its pair of eyes.

The Flame Demon exhaled, spurting out a rapidly vanishing tongue of flame like a circus performer, illuminating the faces of Xia Pingzhou and Ayase Origami.

Ayase Origami lowered her gaze, catching the stray sparks falling from the Flame Demon with pages of paper to prevent the hotel room's floor from igniting suddenly.

"Bridge of Humans and Demons." He whispered.

[Prompt: Please select the targets for releasing "Bridge of Humans and Demons" (conditions must be one "International Chess Species" and one "Disposable Demon Chess Piece").]

"Queen's Statue and Flame Demon."

As the words fell, it seemed as if an invisible bridge extended within the room, linking the bodies of the Queen's Statue and the Flame Demon at both ends.

The next moment, their bodies were suddenly drawn onto the bridge, merging together, twisting and fusing, until a brilliant crimson light burst outwardly.

When the glow faded, a brand new figure appeared in the room.

Judging from the overall outline, it still had the humanoid structure of the Queen's Statue, but her daggers had vanished, replaced by a longsword forged of raging fire, with flames ebbing and flowing along its blade like the tide.

At the same time, behind the Queen's Statue, a pair of massive wings forged from flames slowly unfurled. With each vibration, a shower of highly heated fire rain scattered outward, leaving a pitted and scarred trail on the floor.

The bright firelight outlined her majestic and noble demeanor, with an elegantly long neck akin to a swan, standing proudly. Her breastplate was covered with flame-corroded cloud patterns.

[Notice: After the fusion of the "Queen's Statue" and the "Flame Demon" through the Bridge of Humans and Demons, it has transformed into a brand-new Chess Species, the "Flame Queen."]

[The powers possessed by the "Flame Queen" are: "Flame Transformation" (briefly transforming the body into a flame form), and "Flame Pillar" (raising the long sword to extend the sword forged by flames along the direction of the sword tip, forming a pillar of flame).]

"Is 'Flame Transformation' only applicable to the Queen herself, unlike the original 'Nihilization' which could be applied to others?" Xia Pingzhou pondered. "It seems chess species fusion has its pros and cons, but it definitely enhances combat abilities."

Scratching his forehead, he became curious about more combination possibilities, like fusing the Knight statue with the Flame Demon. What new abilities might emerge? Perhaps the Knight's powers would transform into something like "Flame Charge"?

As he was thinking, another panel popped up in front of him, interrupting his thoughts.

[Based on your "Spirit" attribute strength, the fusion time will last around 5 minutes. During this period, you can separate the Queen's Statue and Flame Demon at any time.]

The Queen, majestic and awe-inspiring, hovered suspended in mid-air, vibrating her fiery giant wings.

However, the kimono-clad girl remained unfazed. As she clapped lightly, she silently used pages to catch the fire sparks shaken off by the Flame Queen, preventing them from setting the hotel room ablaze.

"Is it done?" she turned to ask.

"Yes, there's no need to test other abilities," Xia Pingzhou nodded, knowing how to use these moves effectively in combat from the moment he saw the powers described.

Thus the short-term goal is to hunt more demons, complete training progress tasks while collecting more disposable demon chess pieces, attempt various "Bridge of Humans and Demons" combinations, and smoothly apply these techniques in battle.

That way, the combat power of the second machine can receive a considerable boost.

"You've done well."

Xia Pingzhou said this while recalling the Flame Queen. The Flame Demon, as a disposable chess piece, disappeared from the chessboard, but the Queen's Statue remained.

The good news is that Xia Pingzhou's chess library still has two "Flame Demons" left. He had previously used all other disposable demon chess pieces against the Red Light, but the Flame Demon was never used due to its ineffectiveness.

Then, he retracted the Mobius strip-shaped chessboard back into his body, and the black-and-white flowing light disappeared.

Xia Pingzhou thought: I should have a fighting chance now against high-end quasi-calamity level, though I'm still far from the threshold of catastrophe level.

Unlike Yaguba, currently, the three branches of the second machine have not reached the branch's endpoint. This machine lacks skill points severely, but this also means the machine's potential is higher, with ample room for improvement.

"Do you need me to help you hunt demons?" Ayase Origami suddenly asked, seemingly noticing his thoughts.

Xia Pingzhou pondered: "I actually have no problem hunting demons alone unless facing those like Bai Tanlang might be tricky, but battles can easily get complicated, like when a couple of people from the Exorcist Association randomly join in, so having you around is better."

"Should we head out?"

"Let's rest early and talk tomorrow," Xia Pingzhou looked at Ayase Origami's drooping eyelids, "You seem too tired to go on."

The kimono-clad girl nodded, covering her mouth with her hand, and eyes downcast, she yawned at the floor.

"Goodnight, little cat."

"Goodnight, Cezar."

She blinked and slowly turned her head, staring at Xia Pingzhou without moving.

"...Cezar?" she asked softly.

Xia Pingzhou blinked slightly, usually exchanging goodnight with Cezar, the childish kid, while operating the third machine, resulting in him mixed up accidentally.

"Cezar is... the name of the Queen's Statue," he said haltingly, "She's aware and often exchanges greetings with me."

The kimono-clad girl leaned her hand on her chin, silently assessing him. After a while, her faintly furrowed brows suddenly relaxed. She was too tired, some issues were best left alone, and she lay down on the soft big bed, closing her eyes.

Xia Pingzhou breathed a sigh of relief and quietly covered her with a blanket before lying down on another bed. He placed his hands on his chest and closed his eyes.

A night passed without words.

The next morning, when he awoke from the bed, the sky was just starting to brighten. The Sapporo Tower emitted a warm glow in the dim blue atmosphere, and the sun slowly rose, burning off the white mist over the distant mountains.

He picked up his phone from the bedside, finding a message from a hacker.

[Hacker: The leader has arrived in Hokkaido. You'll meet them today to discuss jailbreak plans.]

[Xia Pingzhou: Understood.]