Chapter 15 Power Surge

Jason and Bill, two Star Realm Apostles, are disconnected. Who knows what they're up to in that alien beast world? They haven't croaked yet, apparently, so the passive income hasn't been collected on the panel.

So, after converting the level eight blade mastery last time, the current resource reserves are 27,400 Star Realm Points and 224 points of informational particles.

Switching to the capability library that stopped real-time updates when Eternal Apostle Jason disconnected, Zhou Jing invested 7,000 Star Realm Points and 70 informational particles as fuel to convert the three-stage and four-stage enhancements of the Alien Blood Warrior system to his main body.

[Converting transcendent system - [Alien Blood Warrior (Three-Stage Enhancement)], [Alien Blood Warrior (Four-Stage Enhancement)]...]

[Conversion complete]

A familiar sense of power suddenly surged, quickly spreading throughout his limbs, with strength, speed, and stamina constantly increasing.

Zhou Jing thought it would be painful and had prepared himself, but now he found it wasn't uncomfortable at all.

His whole body felt as if it was soaking in warm water, comfortable and relaxed, without any of the pain of alien blood enhancement.

At the same time, the surge in power didn't bring any unfamiliarity or loss of control. It was as natural as taking back the power that originally belonged to him.

Meanwhile, the panel popped up with characteristic choices when his physique and resistance attributes broke through to the second tier.

[Physique increased to Tier 2]

[Please select a new trait from the following three options]

[1. Keen Reflexes - You possess keen reaction speed, with responsiveness exceeding ordinary people]

[2. Enduring Stamina - You have amazing stamina and rarely feel tired]

[3. Agile Figure - You possess outstanding agility and are faster than ordinary people]

"There are slight differences from the options when Jason's attributes advanced. It seems that the traits available upon advancement have a certain degree of randomness."

Zhou Jing raised an eyebrow. Without hesitation, he chose [Agile Figure], the same as Jason.

On one hand, he was most comfortable with it. On the other hand, speed improves battle capabilities more than the other two options. After all, in actual combat, speed is king, and choosing this is basically a safe bet.

[Resistance increased to Tier 2]

[Please select a new trait from the following three options]

[1. Tough Bones and Muscles - Greatly increases the toughness of bones and fascia, able to withstand greater pressure and impact]

[2. Enhanced Organs - Greatly enhances the defense and functionality of internal organs, making them less prone to injury, while also further improving immunity]

[3. Rapid Self-Healing - Enhances the body's self-healing ability, possessing extraordinary recovery power]

Zhou Jing was slightly stunned.

The resistance traits available for his main body's advancement were completely different from those available to Jason. He wasn’t sure whether that was good luck or bad luck.

Without the [Elemental Resistance] that Jason chose upon advancement, the side effects of the [Internal Discharge], [Quick Electro-Sensing], and [Lightning Release] traits obtained later couldn't be highly immunized.

However, there was [Rapid Self-Healing], a trait that made his heart race.

He only had one main body, unlike the Star Realm Apostles who could be constantly rebuilt. In Zhou Jing's opinion, [Rapid Self-Healing] was a must-choose. Even if [Elemental Resistance] appeared at the same time, he wouldn't choose it.

After all, there were many ways to immunize against the side effects of electric shock, and constantly increasing resistance attributes could also achieve the goal. Compared to this simple combination just to resist electric shock, self-healing was obviously more valuable.

[Selection complete, trait generated]

[Physique Trait: [Agile Figure]]

[Resistance Trait: [Rapid Self-Healing]]

Waves of power surged out, and the conversion was completed in a short while.

*Huff!*

Zhou Jing exhaled like an arrow, curiously testing his movements. There was no stiffness at all.

He was already familiar with this kind of physical fitness from Jason. He didn't need extra practice. He could control the surge of power very well, as if his body strength had always been like this. A sense of freedom of breaking free from shackles inexplicably emerged.

"It's been a long time since I felt so relaxed. This is the power I'm familiar with..."

Zhou Jing was in a cheerful mood, cracking his neck left and right. He also opened the panel to take a look at the attributes of his main body.

[Transcendent Power System: [Alien Blood Warrior] - Four-Stage Enhancement (Lightning Leopard, Wind Howling Tiger, Golden Lightning Dragon, Aurora Dragon)]

[Cumulative Bonus: Physique +59, Resistance +55, Perception +33, Spirit +6, Energy +20]

[Skills: [Weapon Mastery - Blade Arts] - Lv8 (Perfected), [Hunter's Breath - Tempering] - Lv5 (Instinctive), [Hunter's Breath - Swift] - Lv4 (Proficient)]

[Current Attributes: Physique 70, Resistance 55, Perception 38, Spirit 17, Energy 20]

"Overall, it's slightly weaker than Jason's attributes, with only the spirit attribute being higher," Zhou Jing nodded to himself, not surprised.

After all, the number of skills between his main body and Jason differed too greatly. A dozen or so breathing techniques hadn't been converted, lacking some attribute bonuses.

Moreover, his main body was originally a normal person, unlike Star Realm Apostles who had very high initial strength.

"But they are all at the same level of combat power, without any essential difference. Even if it is slightly weaker, the attributes of the main body are still among the best in the four-stage enhancement... tsk tsk, seeing it this way, Jason is really quite fierce."

Zhou Jing was in a good mood.

Now that the main transcendent system was converted, he didn't plan to convert the other miscellaneous breathing techniques, because the attribute increase of a dozen or so breathing techniques wasn't much, but the conversion cost added up to a lot, resulting in low cost performance.

Since he didn't have any income now and the next plane intersection was coming soon, he wanted to save more resources for reserves.

With his current attributes and level eight blade arts, his combat power was already not much different from Jason's.

"Let's see how the self-healing ability is."

Zhou Jing calmed himself down, went to the kitchen to get a fruit knife, and unflinchingly cut a gash in the palm of his hand.

With his resistance so high now, sharp weapons couldn't easily break through his tough skin. He used a little force to open a cut, and fine beads of blood oozed out.

He counted the time silently. He saw that the cut in his palm stopped bleeding not long after, slowly closing up. After about ten minutes, there was no trace left.

"Well, although it far exceeds ordinary people, the recovery rate hasn't reached the superpower level of instant healing."

Zhou Jing roughly knew the situation.

There were superpowers such as accelerated regeneration and instant self-healing in the main world. That level of healing speed was basically recovering in a few seconds, which could be directly used in combat, making one practically unkillable.

The [Rapid Self-Healing] resistance trait he obtained was obviously still far from that level... unless he fought a prolonged battle, otherwise it could only be used to recover faster after disengaging from combat, preventing him from dying easily due to serious injuries.

Zhou Jing was still satisfied. "It's not bad. At least it's a life-saving ability. Maybe the healing speed will continue to increase as the resistance gets higher in the future."

…

Two days later.

The Crown Academy Hall, the instructor's office.

An internal meeting was being held. In addition to the instructors, Deng Yunjie and other leading students of the Crown Society also participated in the meeting.

"These are the participating freshmen we've selected during this period. Including the ten specially selected ones, there are a total of fifty, with five S-level, thirty-one A-level, and fourteen B-level."

Li Yun frowned as he flipped through the files of the fifty people.

He put down the information, looked around at everyone present, and said, "This is the selection of people this time. Let's discuss how to allocate the places for the arena competition and the team competition? Who will fight in the arena and who will fight in the team battle?"

As soon as he finished speaking, everyone immediately started discussing at once, with differing opinions.

The only consensus was that the team competition had more randomness and was not easy to control, while the arena competition was more about personal ability... and the ten specially selected freshmen were all suitable for fighting in the arena according to past experience.

Li Yun pondered and said, "Speaking of which, how has the tracking training of the ten specially selected freshmen been going during this period? Has there been any progress?"

Hearing this, the instructor in charge of the special training shook his head and said, "Even with special training, it's only been ten days or so. Of course, they haven't changed much."

Deng Yunjie leaned back in his chair and casually said, "How is that B-level Zhou Jing performing? Has his background been figured out? What is his combat power level?"

Among the ten specially selected people, the other nine were conventional choices with high potential. Only Zhou Jing was an exception, so everyone paid extra attention to him, fearing that he wouldn't live up to expectations and they had opened a blank card in a blind box.

The special training instructor scratched his forehead and said helplessly, "This... it's hard to say. If we only talk about the intensity of ability, Zhou Jing's physical fitness is actually not very strong. Among all the body enhancers in this session, he can't even be ranked in the first echelon, and is at most at the upper-middle level.

"But his combat talent and combat insight are outstanding, and his skills are superb, which is why his actual combat is so powerful... but in this way, the volatility is too great. He can easily win against opponents whose abilities are not prominent, but he can only use his skills to deal with strong enemies. Whether he can win depends entirely on his state and performance, and the fault tolerance rate is very low..."

Hearing this, Deng Yunjie thoughtfully said, "In other words, he is very good at bullying the weak, but can't fight head-on battles. He can only slowly grind strong enemies to death, and once he makes a mistake during this period, he will lose?"

The special training instructor nodded, giving what he thought was an objective evaluation:

"That's pretty much it. I think if Zhou Jing fights in the arena, he should pay attention to avoiding strong enemies. He can only steadily eat those whose abilities are not prominent, so he can't become the core.

"Ideally, he can exchange points with the strong ones from other academies. If he doesn't perform well, then he can only be used as cannon fodder to control the rounds, used to make up the numbers."

Deng Yunjie stroked his chin. "That makes sense..."

Li Yun thought for a while and made a suggestion:

"In this case, it will be difficult for Zhou Jing to achieve great things in the arena competition. Perhaps we should change our thinking and consider transferring him to the team competition? This way, we won't waste his special selection, and we can make use of his advantages. After all, most of the people in the team competition are A-level and B-level, and there are not many with outstanding abilities."

Hearing this, many people nodded in agreement.

"I think it's possible. Anyway, he's good at bullying the weak."

"Yeah, with Zhou Jing's style, he's only suitable for showing off when the freshmen's actual combat level is still very weak. When everyone's skills grow up in the future, his advantages will slowly disappear. He may not be of use in the academy competitions in the future... so the freshman competition is his rare stage. Let's consider him and let him go to a suitable stage, so that he has the opportunity to perform well."

Everyone spoke one after another. Whether out of kindness or rationality, they all felt that this arrangement was good.

Just then, a phone rang.

A group of people turned their heads to look and found that it was the special training instructor's phone ringing.

"Sorry, I'll go answer the phone."

The special training instructor waved his hand, took the phone and went out, closing the office door behind him.

Everyone retracted their gazes, not paying attention, and continued to discuss the allocation of the participating places on their own.

However, only a minute later, the door was suddenly pushed open.

*Bang!*

Everyone present was startled and turned their heads to look. They found that the special training instructor, who had only gone out for a short while, rushed in excitedly.

"What are you doing, being so jumpy?" Li Yun said with dissatisfaction.

"Everyone, the coach of the hall just told me some good news!"

The special training instructor raised his phone, with a look of surprise and excitement on his face, and said:

"Just now, Zhou Jing reported that his physical fitness suddenly increased a lot for some reason. It is likely that his ability has advanced or mutated!"

Everyone was stunned.

Superpower mutation?

This was a rare thing. Most superpowers can be enhanced through training, but mutation is a fundamental sublimation of a superpower. Not only does the basic intensity increase, but also new functions may be born, which generally means a qualitative change.

As for advancement... it's only been ten days or so. Even if it's a body enhancement ability, it wouldn't advance so quickly, right?

Could it be that Zhou Jing's body enhancement ability has some hidden effects and unknown potential?

"Let's go, let's go take a look!"

Li Yun got up without hesitation, directly suspended the meeting, and led everyone out in single file.