The King of Black Fog

[Li Changzhou Settlement Report]

[Survived, Rating +1]

[Assisted by others, killed the creatures 'Sage Rat Tail' and 'Goldfish Herb,' Rating +1]

[Assisted others in killing 'Monkey King,' Rating +0.5]

[...]

[Li Changzhou Settlement Report 2]

[Killed 2 strugglers, Rating +2]

[Special privileges detected, rating doubled, Rating +4]

[Summary: Li Changzhou Total Rating +6.5, Final Rating 'A+']

[Gained 85% purchasing rights for this arena competition]

[Total earned 75 Value Points... Two identity cards detected, please distribute——]

[Total earned 150 Game Coins... Two identity cards detected, please distribute——]

[2 bus tickets, 1 subway ticket]

（Distributing Game Coins——Black: 150 coins: White: 0 coins）

（Distributing Value Points——Black: 61 points; White: 14 points）

"How is it?" Two female college students stared at Li Changzhou.

They were asking about the effects of upgrading the white identity card.

"Two attributes, a bit higher, the black fog got higher." Li Changzhou answered, assigning all attributes to Agility.

[Player 'Agility' attribute maxed, break limit?]

(No)

"The black fog?" Yang Qinglan asked.

"I'll try." Li Changzhou closed his eyes— last time at the tech building, closing his eyes also did the trick.

A humanoid black fog stood at the edge of the platform, swirling, its "feet" not touching the ground, like a demon about to break out of its cave and raise hell in the human world, ready to start a massacre.

"No use." Li Changzhou opened his eyes, "It ignores me, huh, this fellow has quite the temper, quite rebellious."

"Fellow? Bro, could it actually be yourself?"

"Great! Has spirit, never obeys anyone's orders, I'm just that kind of man!"

"Qian Xia, let's start exchanging."

"Yeah, Qing Lan, what do you want to exchange?"

"Hey?"

The experiment wasn't over, and Li Changzhou once again attempted to grab a skill for Li Qianxia.

As he thought about 'giving "Thunder Roar" to Li Qianxia,' Li Qianxia, as an external life form from Li Changzhou, personally witnessed the black fog.

The platform was small and mostly occupied by buses, the swirling black fog stood behind Li Changzhou, reaching out towards the identity card of the howling monkey.

Li Qianxia forgot to breathe, the 7-foot-tall black fog filled her entire vision, and the sky seemed to darken.

Waves of rolling black fog looked like cleavers, stripping her flesh piece by piece, making her feel as if everything was being taken from her, about to be devoured by the black fog.

A cold, spine-chilling sensation crawled up her spine.

"It worked." She heard her brother's voice, so distant.

"Unfortunately," he added, "the level dropped by one."

"Still C, not bad." Yang Qinglan said, then suddenly realized something was off and looked at her.

"Qian Xia?" She inquired doubtfully, her voice sounding like it was coming from underwater.

"What's wrong?" Her brother leaned over, his expression shifting from triumphant joy to serious concern.

He grabbed her shoulders with both hands: "Qian Xia! Qian Xia!"

He called out repeatedly, and Li Qianxia wanted to respond, but it felt like she had fallen into the sea, where opening her mouth would flood her with water.

Worry filled her brother's face, and Li Qianxia felt she should quickly speak up to ease his concern, yet she felt oddly carefree, as if nothing really mattered.

Her gaze unconsciously drifted, suddenly catching a glimpse of blood, her brother's left arm, which had finally stopped bleeding, was bleeding again.

Li Qianxia suddenly snapped alert, struggling out of the water, the roaring of the Nu River "boom" like colliding against a rock, assaulting her ears.

Intense nausea and discomfort swept over her, her body shaking uncontrollably, emitting involuntary groans.

Li Changzhou hurriedly supported her, sitting beside her, carefully embracing and laying her down.

"Qian Xia, what's wrong with you?" He restrained his anxiety, trying to ask in a gentle voice.

Li Qianxia gasped for breath.

She looked up at the blue sky above the canyon, slowly turned her head, clutched tightly at the clothes on Li Changzhou's chest, and murmured, "Brother..."

"It's okay, I'm right here." Li Changzhou hugged her tighter, his face against her cold, sweaty forehead.

Unspeakable panic filled his heart, having faced many life-threatening situations, he had never felt so helpless and desperate.

His sister had been with him since birth, the only blood relative he had in the world.

If she were gone, what would studying law or running a firm matter? What use would all the money, fancy houses be? Even if he acquired all skills and became invincible, what good would it be?

"Brother..."

Li Changzhou pressed his ear to her mouth.

"You... your arm is bleeding."

"Yeah, it hurts a lot." Li Changzhou forced a smile, his fingers brushing away tears of pain from her eyes.

Yang Qinglan kneeled beside them, holding Li Qianxia's cold trembling hand, her obsidian-like eyes filled with concern.

Li Qianxia rested for a while before finally recovering.

Then immediately, as if nothing had happened, she energetically exclaimed, "No more! Never again! I won't be greedy for a bargain again! I'll buy skills with money!"

Assured that his sister was truly alright, Li Changzhou also couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

"Do you want it?" he asked Yang Qinglan, "Both 'High-Speed Movement' and 'Special Flying Skills' are pretty good."

"Later, you can use this as a skill, giving the enemy a skill first when you encounter them," said Yang Qinglan.

"The enemy won't just hand over their identity card, will they?"

"Then do you think, after seeing Qian Xia's performance just now, I would just hand over my identity card to you?"

"...It's like not leveling up at all," Li Changzhou said, somewhat frustrated.

It wasn't for this reason.

He was only slightly regretful about the side effects of plundering skills for others, but what really bothered him was making his sister go through pain.

Li Qianxia noticed her brother's thoughts, grabbed his right hand, gently shook it twice, and smiled at him reassuringly, making Li Changzhou feel half better.

"Let's exchange skills," he said.

"Mm! (Mm.)" The other two responded simultaneously.

They hadn't managed to increase their value level this time, upgrading from Level 3 to Level 4 required 400 experience points, and this game was far from sufficient.

The returns did not correspond proportionally with the risks. How many people could endure until the value points were maxed, and how many could achieve full marks in all four categories?

Difficult, difficult, difficult.

Only Li Changzhou, because the 'Twins' could share his sister's experience and had a blank card, dared to wager on obtaining double attributes with fewer experience points.

But he needed to consider the safety of Li Qianxia and Yang Qinglan.

They were on the same bus as him; could they withstand the risk?

"Ah! Here it comes again, every time I see so many skills, I hate it, hate why I am only allowed six slots for skills!"

"Even if you had countless slots, you wouldn't have enough money to buy them."

"Qing Lan, you're so sharp-tongued."

"It's not sharp-tongued; it's reality."

Li Changzhou snapped out of his thoughts, slid through the identity card interface, and the skills scrolled, just as his sister said, invariably many."

'Swallow Shadow Flight,' speed of 360 km/h, appears as a shadow in flight to normal eyes.

'Bird Style·Hibernation,' enters a hibernation state, enhances cold resistance and starvation endurance.

'Scythe Wings,' palms as sharp as a scythe (For birds, it means: wings as sharp as a scythe—other animals accordingly).

'Swan Style·Ascension,' maximum flying altitude reaches 9,000 meters.

'Bird Style·Molting,' consumes a lot of physical strength to shed aging and damaged skin for new, tender skin (for birds, feathers instead).

'Red-billed Oxpecker Style·Song,' sounds more pleasant.

'Nightingale Style·Chirping,' singing level is outstanding; vocal range is widened.

'Great Bustard Dance,' dances elegantly, very beautifully.

'Peacock Feather,' increases charm by +1 during courtship.

Li Changzhou looked again; his charm was at 9, adding one point would make it full, but he wondered if charm could exceed its limit.

'Peacock Feather,' restricted to the Peacock Clan.

Treasure what is ours, adhere to the usual rules, stubbornly unchanging, doomed to extinction!

'Hawkeye,' freely adjust viewing distance and focus, capable of spotting prey on the ground from 2,000 meters in the air.

'Gardener Bird Style·Gardening,' constructs pavilions and other structures.

'Crimson Bee-eater Style·Nesting,' burrows to nest on cliff faces.

'High Mountain Vulture Style·Sky Burial,' dive attacks fatally wounded creatures from high altitude, always devouring the opponent.

The more skills there are, the more creatures participated in this game, yet only 20 survived.

"Bro~~~~"

Here it comes.

The Li Changzhou who had just been heartbroken for his sister, ready to die for her, now wanted to hit someone.

"Big brother~~"

"Speak. Don't twist your waist, are you grass?"

"I, um," Li Qianxia said coyly, "I want to buy the Basket-Fern Moth's transformation."

She was very embarrassed; the skill was expensive and required a high purchasing authority.

Together, the siblings had a total of 590 Game Coins, and this skill cost 580 coins, considered expensive in the C grade.

Li Qianxia's purchasing authority wasn't sufficient either.

She had to sell all the previously collected eels (the electric ones, never used), Du Hua (a masochist character), and this time's gorilla, along with a hummingbird's Identity Card, to reach enough authority.

She herself felt it wasn't worthwhile, hence this time her tone was more annoying when calling her brother.

"Buy it, buy it," Li Changzhou handed over the identity card to her, keeping only a female hummingbird's identity card for himself.

"Thank you, bro, mua!"

Don't misunderstand; she just kissed the air, and Li Changzhou disliked her saliva.

[Name: Basket-Fern Moth Style·Transformation]

[Type: Skill]

[Quality: C]

[Special Effect: Transform into an owl]

[Minimum Use Conditions: Intelligence 6, Charm 1, having exactly two eyes]

[Introduction: Transforms the user into an owl that can perch on a human's arm, maintaining the same charm and speed as before the transformation]

[Note: Since it is an owl, naturally comes the instinct to eat mice, insects, small birds, and lizards. Oh, and it's best not to relieve yourself anywhere, particularly in front of acquaintances who know you aren't really an owl]

"I can fly now! I've got seventy-two transformations! Hahaha!"

Amidst Li Qianxia's arrogant laughter, Li Changzhou turned his gaze towards Yang Qinglan.

"What do you plan on buying?"