The Creatures That We Are

Chapter 699: Hidden Function

[Access granted.]

[You have accumulated 2301 Luck points.]

[Constitution: 440 Endurance: 441]

[Strength: 1104 Agility: 1851]

[Willpower: 2003 Charisma: 1502]

[Luck: 1777]

[Teleportation Lv6]

[Replicate Lv6]

[Fire Lv6]

[Double Lv6]

[Psychic Armor Lv6]

[Lie Detection Lv4]

[Lucky Lv5]

—Enter Talent Pantheon

No sooner had Gao Yang opened his eyes than he heard the sound of showering. He was in a familiar rectangular dorm room with four elevated beds with desks below. The south side of the room was the door, and the north side was the shared sink and bathroom.

Deep into the autumn, the morning sunlight was clear, and the slight breeze swept along the hallway into the room to rustle Gao Yang’s hair.

The door to the bathroom opened. Mi Shi emerged.

He was dressed in gray and black sportswear with a pair of old-fashioned sandals, holding a translucent plastic cup with a toothbrush frayed from long use.

He looked at Gao Yang with a gentle and bashful smile. “It costs 1920 Luck points to attempt comprehending a Talent.”

Gao Yang took two seconds to realize that his roommate was merely the form the system took.

“I thought you only ever turn into a woman,” said Gao Yang.

“I’m merely the projection of your rational...” The system stopped itself.

Gao Yang was surprised. “Aren’t you gonna finish?”

“You always interrupted me when I said that. I wonder if you don’t like to be reminded.”

Gao Yang paused. Ha, so the system grows, too.

“Would you like to check the current number of unclaimed Talents?” the system asked.

Gao Yang nodded. “Before that, I have a few questions.”

The system, in Mi Shi’s form, nodded slightly. “Go on.”

“I heard from Hong Xiaoxiao that when Mi Shi went wild, he acted like a freerider, but was much stronger. What is that about?”

“You already have the correct answer in mind. He’s the freerider prime.”

“Right.” Gao Yang posed another question. “Dust claimed herself to be the overtaker prime. Is it only a thing for greed monsters, or do all types of monsters have a king?”

—The pride monsters have leaders, which are equivalent to the monster primes.

—Can Wang Zikai be the wanderer prime?

—I don’t think there’s such a difference between life monsters, but in some way, the life monsters who have given birth to the Divine Scin and the Malediction could be considered kings.

—Then is there a slaughterer prime, a devourer prime, and a summoner prime?

—Is there a death monster prime, too?

The thoughts quickly flashed through Gao Yang’s mind.

“Please discover the answer on your own,” said the system.

It was to be expected.

Gao Yang then remembered something else. “When Mi Shi and Qiu Qiu were dragged into Ke Yo’s Strange Realm, their monsterhood didn’t wake up. But then they did. Is it because of the constraints of the realm?”

“No.” The system smiled. “It was because the conditions for awakening were not met.”

Gao Yang thought for a moment and came to a realization. When they got dragged into the realm, none of them had exposed themselves as awakeners—inside the realm ruled by particular laws, none of them could use their Talents.

Qiu Qiu and Mi Shi had only seen “regular humans” and couldn’t identify any awakeners, and thus the conditions necessary for their monsterhood to awaken were not met. They maintained their human form.

Once the Strange Realm was released, they were all knocked unconscious, Mi Shi and Qiu Qiu included. And as humans, they were unconscious for longer than awakeners. As a result, they never saw any awakeners from start to finish, thus escaping death.

Gao Yang dropped the issue after getting an answer.

“Check the unclaimed Talents.”

“Of course.”

“Mi Shi” went up to his desk and turned on the laptop, opening a Word document, which detailed the name of the twelve Rune types with the number of unclaimed Talents for each type.

Gao Yang found the Guard-type, and the number that followed was 5.

Outside of Absolute Defense and Unreachable, there were three other unclaimed Guard-type Talents.

It would take 1920 Luck points to attempt a comprehension. With over half of the awakeners gone, it took two attempts on average for him to acquire a Talent, which would be 3840 Luck points.

Given there were five Talents, there was only a one-tenth chance for him to acquire Absolute Defense. Were he unlucky, it would take him 19200...no, the number of Luck points required to attempt a comprehension would double after he succeeded in acquiring a Talent. Worst case scenario, it would cost him...119040 Luck points to acquire Absolute Defense.

Level 5 Lucky already evened out the chance of comprehension for all Talents. It was unlikely that he would get additional benefits.

Even if he tried to be optimistic and looked at the mean of the number, it would take tens of thousands of Luck points for him to acquire Absolute Defense.

This is hard.

Gao Yang sighed in his mind.

He looked at the system. “Don’t I get some privileges as the Divine Scion?”

“Don’t you get enough already?”

Gao Yang couldn’t say anything to that.

Objectively speaking, he did get many privileges already. Outside his luck, he had seven Talents, he had incorporated Fresh Snow’s curse, inherited the recessive energy of a life monster from his mother, a lightbringer of a grandmother, and an awakener of a father, who left him with the Guard Rune Circuit, and he had managed to survive between two opposing organizations and start his own group. Others might be unable to do as much over decades, yet he had gotten here in less than nine months.

Nevertheless, it was too slow, much too slow.

This was a game he couldn’t end on his side. No matter how many chips he had now, he would still end up with nothing if he couldn’t win until the end.

Gao Yang suddenly had a thought. “I remembered you saying that I triggered something way back...”

Mi Shi smiled. “A hidden function.”

“Right. But what happened to it?”

“You don’t have enough Luck to unlock it,” the system explained calmly.

“Still not enough?” Gao Yang was surprised. “How much is that gonna take?”

“Please discover it on your own.”

Gao Yang fell silent.

He deliberated between saving up Luck points for comprehension or trying to unlock a new function of the system, the cost of which was unknown.

He was a self-proclaimed high-piker, cautious but making the necessary gambles. He would stick to it!

Mind made up, he said, “Increase my Luck to 2000. I confirm.”

The system blinked. “Your Luck is now 2000. You have 2078 Luck points.”

“Is the hidden function unlocked?”

“No.”

In the past, Gao Yang would’ve felt the loss and even cursed the system, but he was calm now. He accepted the truth that bad things could happen to anyone in the world. No one was truly special.

After some thought, he said, “Put 10 more points into Luck.”

“Your Luck is now 2010. You have 2068 Luck points.”

“10 more.”

“Your Luck is now 2020. You have 2058 Luck points... Congratulations, you have unlocked the hidden function—Wishing Well.”