Yu’er just kept nodding and shaking her head, not saying much else. When asked if she was hungry or tired, she looked surprised, a very strange girl, likely shocked to the point of confusion. However, Xu Xiaoman thought Yu’er was incredibly beautiful, her skin so smooth it seemed almost unreal, almost as if water would come out if you touched it. Such a lovely girl, even Xu Xiaoman felt a pang of regret for not being born a man. She felt an urge to embrace and kiss this girl fiercely. With darkness approaching, Xu Xiaoman didn’t trust leaving Yu’er with her male colleagues, fearing they might lose control in the dark and make some mistake, so she decided Yu’er would stay with her. However, Wang Xiaoyun and another girl were still missing, and they couldn’t leave the mountain yet, which meant Yu’er would have to endure a bit longer.
Unexpectedly, the phone rang again; it was from another search team reporting they had encountered Wang Xiaoyun exiting the mountain. When they mentioned the other person’s name, Xu Xiaoman was visibly shocked, her voice rising, “You’re saying Lin Feng is with Wang Xiaoyun? The black-clad man we’ve been confirming is Lin Feng? How is that possible… Isn’t Lin Feng still in the hospital recovering?” This last part was her internal question. Could that weak, sleazy guy really be the mysterious, lone savior in the bandits’ den? Xu Xiaoman was astounded, unable to equate the two. Little did she know, at that moment, Lin Feng was actually unconscious, entirely dependent on the small Wang Xiaoyun for support as they staggered out of the deep mountains. They were fortunate to encounter a pair of armed police officers searching the mountain.
Soon, there was new news: in a corner of the Laojun Temple at the mountain peak, they found another girl’s body. She had been shot multiple times in the back, her death gruesome and bloody. Aside from this, there were no other discoveries. The bandits on the mountain, except for a few caught near the mountain gate, had mysteriously vanished, as if they had never been on Yuban Mountain.
However, according to previous intelligence and the accounts of those five girls, there should have been many more armed bandits on the peak, with an initial estimate of around sixty to seventy. And the girl who met a tragic end was seen by them, shot dead by a short, fat man in black. The police subsequently conducted a thorough search and lockdown of Yuban Mountain for several days but found nothing. Later, due to involvement in several cases including smuggling of arms, drug trafficking, counterfeiting, and molestation of women, the suspect was imprisoned and was not far from death. Meanwhile, a prolonged and extensive anti-crime campaign was launched in Yusan City.
The Aftermath of the 127 Incident (1)
That day was a weekend. Lin Feng stayed at home, working hard, and didn’t go anywhere. After suddenly fainting in the mountains and waking up, he found himself lying on the hard bed in his own home. The harrowing day at Yuban Mountain seemed like a lifetime ago. He later learned the full story from Wang Xiaoyun. The anticlimactic outcome bruised his male pride once again. Since then, he seemed to have changed. Partly to deal with the old witch who might reappear at any time, and partly because he felt embarrassed to be saved by the one he loved, he had lost his former laziness. Whenever he had free time, he diligently practiced the mental techniques taught by his grandfather. Today, with some free time, he spent considerable effort listing out every change that had occurred since he had Niuniu, thoroughly reviewing and reevaluating his understanding of Niuniu’s intelligent system.
The abilities he could now use included:
- Swift Wind Step, naturally taking the top spot.
- Remote Monitoring Mode, which required several minor abilities to be combined and consumed a large amount of mental energy to activate.
- Anonymous Text Message Function, which was somewhat impractical, like a chicken rib.
- Lin Feng wasn’t sure if this should be credited to the intelligent system or if he inherently possessed this legendary ability akin to the Murong family’s ‘use the enemy’s tactics against them’. This mimicry ability was incredibly strong and excited him. After just one glance at someone’s basketball shooting posture, he could instantly replicate it perfectly, or after a brief fight, he could mimic the opponent’s signature moves. Although this impressive function had only appeared twice in critical moments, Lin Feng wondered if it was really just the doing of Niuniu’s subpar intelligent system.
Lin Feng also noticed some minor changes in the background interface of what was claimed to be the smart phone system inside his consciousness, but he felt these changes were too slow and trivial to be of any real significance. He was still frustrated that he couldn’t freely customize the interface or make stylistic changes according to his own preferences. After all, who would buy a powerful smartphone and not try to tailor the system to their liking?
As for the relationship diagram and contacts that the system continued to add, Lin Feng was unsure how to categorize it, and it seemed to operate on its own mechanism, continuously updating itself. The occasional unexpected prompts might have been Niuniu’s intelligent system playing tricks on him, but for now, this system was more or less irrelevant to him.
In summary, Lin Feng categorized the changes in himself since he had Niuniu into two types: Active and Passive. The former he could repeatedly use and evolve by expending his charm, mental, and physical energy; the latter changed independently of his will, slowly, filling him with both anticipation and concern, fearing he might one day wake up to find himself transformed into something he could not accept… a monster!
Wang Xiaoyun had mentioned that when Lin Feng was practicing the “Tao Te Ching” in the forest, a golden shield suddenly appeared above his head, an anomaly too startling to ignore. After much thought, Lin Feng remembered similar scenes from online games. Indeed, upon checking his storage space, he found two magic cards with red crosses had disappeared. That strange shield was probably new equipment like the Swift Wind Boots. Recalling the sensations after equipping the boots, Lin Feng was eager to know what the effects of the now vanished cards were, but it seemed they appeared when he was deeply engrossed in practice, making it impossible to investigate. However, he was filled with anticipation for the remaining unopened cards in his storage space, hoping one day to unveil them all.
Lin Feng withdrew his mental energy from Niuniu’s intelligent system, gently caressing his left arm, where Niuniu, now shining like warm jade, automatically emerged, its touch as intoxicating as ever…
