Transforming Succubus: Almost Doomsday

[Item Name: Where You Lack, Simply Tap.]

[Specialty: Please, a talking book is super cool. Durability (unless it loses its voice.)]

[Introduction: As you said, this is a talking book. Although in your world, audio books and listening devices are commonplace, that's not quite the same as a book that speaks on its own.]

[Status: Can be mutated.]

This was Zhou Baiyu's first mutation.

At this moment, Zhou Baiyu had not yet realized...

...that there was an "anomaly" in the direction of his mutation.

Because the deviation value had disappeared from the status bar.

Zhou Baiyu flipped through the book and randomly pointed at what looked like a tadpole script version of the character "贞".

Sure enough, the book read out a word "瓜".

Clearly, the pronunciation was still in the language of the gods.

Gods, when facing humans, speak in the language of the gods, but somehow humans can understand it.

But the book didn't work that way; the book mutated by Zhou Baiyu still could not convey language that he could understand.

Huang Miu, on the other hand, was startled.

"Wowza, that scared me! A voice popped out of nowhere, 'gua!' I thought it was a toad or something."

"How did you do that?"

Zhou Baiyu, in response to Huang Miu, wasn't very reserved. He acted profound when it was time to feign mystique, and was candid when it was time to be honest.

"It's called mutation. Simply put, it's about bestowing or swapping certain properties of an item to make it weird. Like this time, making the book reveal its inner text."

"That's a preposterous ability... Does that mean your life is filled with uncertainty?" Huang Miu looked at Zhou Baiyu in astonishment.

"Is it like... enchanting? And a really odd enchantment at that?"

Zhou Baiyu nodded, "Yes."

Huang Miu jumped up:

"What a great power! An amazing ability indeed!"

"Why are you so excited?"

Zhou Baiyu always felt that with Huang Miu's quirks, he was likely about to say something astonishing.

As expected, Huang Miu grabbed Zhou Baiyu's hands:

"Brother Jiang, you're now my sworn brother. The moment I learned about your ability, our friendship was set in stone."

Zhou Baiyu nodded:

"Okay, we were already friends."

Zhou Baiyu was unfazed. Including when he calmly declined Huang Miu:

"So if you're thinking of having me mutate some underwear that increases your strength, or some magic pills, or a lifelike puppet... forget it. Please don't make your friend do disgusting things."

"Darn it, you've seen right through me!" Huang Miu deflated instantly.

Then he added:

"Well, what a waste of a great ability. But for the moment, this book, though it can make sounds, is useless to our situation—we can't understand or make sense of it."

Indeed, they couldn't understand or make sense of it, so this mutation was a failure.

But Zhou Baiyu noted that the physical strain was incredibly low.

Suppose that after ascending to the third tier, due to his ability to imbue numerous properties at once, the mutation costs increased, restricting him to ten mutations per day, then in this library, he could mutate about... fifty times.

Mutation was like a bullet.

The weakness of Mutators stemmed greatly from the unpredictability of mutations and their enormous energy consumption.

But Zhou Baiyu's talent was to reduce that uncertainty, often hitting the mark with three shots, resulting in positive mutations.

The library now helped Zhou Baiyu overcome another issue—ammo count.

With pinpoint accuracy and ample ammunition, old Zhou had never fought such a well-supplied battle.

Despite the failed mutation, Zhou Baiyu quickly started his second one.

He held the book in both hands once again while Huang Miu watched this scene intently, and a few seconds later, he saw something miraculous.

[Item Name: Book Licker.]

[Specialty: This time it doesn't just talk—it's come to life. Durability—Infinite Durability.]

[Introduction: While it essentially retains the features of a book, it really is very low, oh. For a book on fantasy literature, it actually fancy its opposite, a tome on "Source Realm Social Psychology"—and in a ... bootlicking kind of way, only daring to steal glances from afar, too scared to approach.

I deem this to be a disgrace of categorization!]

[Status: Can be mutated.]

Once again, there was no deviation value. Zhou Baiyu still hadn't noticed this.

Because Zhou Baiyu and Huang Miu were both stunned by what happened next.

"This is bad, it's a deviant mutation!"

"What's a deviant mutation?" As soon as Huang Miu heard something was wrong, he too became nervous. Looking at the book, which seemed... to be stretching, he even refrained from breathing loudly.

Zhou Baiyu watched as the book leaped from his hands to the bookcase.

At that moment, the entire book unfolded, its pages curling as if they were hands rubbing eyes, the whole book arching backwards in a stretch-like posture...

As if it had just awakened.

Zhou Baiyu explained softly to Huang Miu:

"Mutations are classified into positive, neutral, negative, and deviant mutations, and they can be further subdivided according to degree."

"Deviant mutation... simply put, is a very bizarre kind of mutation. Once, I mutated a puppet, evil... it could decapitate someone in an instant."

Zhou Baiyu still remembered the mutation he performed in the Demon Clan Arena, the first time he manifested a deviant mutation, and the evilness of that doll was still vivid in his memory.

"In simple terms, a deviant mutation... may endow an item with a soul and life."

"An inflatable doll can come to life?"