Chapter 31: Sooner or Later, You Will Lose Me...
Alpha Ji had indeed grown stronger; now, the dog head she projected onto Ye Chao could be seen by others, turning into a real dog head.
This was amusing—no, actually, it was dangerous!
If Xu Tiange, in a fit of rage, smashed the dog head with her hammer, wouldn’t that…?
Alpha Ji quickly considered the ramifications, ready to act, but Ye Chao was already greeting Xu Tiange: “What monster? I’m right here, aren’t I?”
Alpha Ji was so nervous, her white fur seemed to sweat in blocks.
Ye Chao, get a grip! Greeting Xu Tiange with a dog head—do you think she won’t swing her hammer? Or are you getting cocky?
Xu Tiange stared, meeting Ye Chao’s eyes.
Then she put away her hammer and came up to Ye Chao, angrily rubbing the dog head. “Why have you turned into this? It doesn’t feel quite right.”
It certainly didn't feel right—was it a hallucinated projection? But…
Miss, are you just going to believe this so casually? Don’t you find anything strange about it?
The truth was, she didn’t. There was absolutely nothing off; Xu Tiange smoothly accepted Ye Chao’s dog head form, rubbing him until he swayed up and down, left and right.
After a while, she realized Ye Chao might not know what he looked like now. She took out her heart-protecting mirror for him to see.
The so-called heart-protecting mirror was something almost everyone in this world possessed. It was essentially just a small mirror, with virtually no defensive power; its function was akin to a bodycam or dashcam.
The mirror could perfectly reflect everything ahead and refract light, and optical ability users here could retrace the mirror’s light changes to perfectly reconstruct scenes reflected in the mirror over a period of time.
They observed and replayed battles, reviewed incidents after they occurred, even monitored exams—teachers used this technology to record every detail.
In the mirror, a dog head was reflected.
Ye Chao: ⊂((・⊥・))⊃
He turned to Alpha Ji, finally understanding why she hadn’t vomited upon seeing him, but laughed inexplicably instead.
Huff, huff… Alpha Ji was still laughing uncontrollably, but she finally willed the dog head form away from Ye Chao. Of course, to her own eyes, it was still a dog head, but in reality, Ye Chao had returned to normal.
As long as she kept her output lower, only projecting on the imaginary layer and not onto reality, it was fine.
Ye Chao wasn’t angry; instead, he stroked his chin and pondered. This dog head transformation seemed trivial, but on reflection, it had a lot of potential!
“Hey, what is that… human? Beauty? What’s your relation?” Xu Tiange stopped rubbing and her gaze swept back and forth between Ye Chao and Alpha Ji.
Alpha Ji really had grown stronger; Ye Chao’s real dog head, and she herself was projected directly into reality. Xu Tiange had simply been so fixated on Ye Chao that she hadn’t noticed.
Human? Beauty? Did she mean herself?
Oh? I don’t even need to exert myself and others can see me? Previously, I had to rely on Ye Chao setting up a local network…
Yes, projecting onto Ye Chao or onto herself—after all, it’s the same principle.
“If you praise me like that, I won’t be… happy,” Alpha Ji was initially quite pleased, since her favorability towards Xu Tiange was as high as 200—one in the sky, one underground compared to Ye Chao.
Until she noticed Xu Tiange’s gaze gradually cooling…
---
Xu Tiange swung her hammer at Alpha Ji, then turned to Ye Chao: “Ye Chao, what’s with this woman? Who is she?”
It was as if the main wife was interrogating her husband, asking if this one was the mistress…
Alpha Ji, ever perceptive, immediately understood.
=￣ω￣=
Miss, you’re asking like this… Never mind the favorability score, don’t you think we’re mismatched in certain ways?
Under Xu Tiange’s stern gaze, Ye Chao’s negative emotional intelligence finally turned positive for the first time! Or perhaps, even a fool sometimes gets it right?
“This is my pet, just a pet.”
Alpha Ji:凸(｀0´)凸
[Favorability -99!!!]
Damn, you dare say I’m a pet? Have you ever seen such a stunning pet?
Though she was indignant, seeing Xu Tiange wield her hammer, Alpha Ji wisely kept silent—her EQ of 250 wasn’t fake.
But…
“Pet?” Xu Tiange arched her thick, slanted brows, clearly skeptical.
“It really is a pet. Isn’t it odd? Teacher Guan’s parrot can talk, you know…”
“Of course I know, I see it often.”
“Exactly!” Ye Chao clapped. “This is actually a bird that can talk and even transform into a human.”
“You’re the bird! Your whole family are birds! And you think with such a clumsy lie, anyone will believe you…”
“Oh, so that’s how it is!” Xu Tiange relaxed, lowering her hammer.
Alpha Ji: (｡í_ì｡)…
Miss, are you really so gullible?
“Did you hear? You’re a bird now! Today’s free favor hasn’t been granted yet, right? This is it! It’s not something you can’t do, right?”
Alpha Ji was still pondering whether she should cooperate, wondering what Ye Chao would do if she didn’t. She hadn’t anticipated Ye Chao would use his scientific reasoning to block every escape, even sealing the walls.
[Favorability -66!]
“You—you—you, at this rate you’ll lose me eventually! Coo coo…”
“She really is a bird!” Xu Tiange’s eyes lit up, stepping forward to rub her bird head.
In the world only Alpha Ji and Ye Chao could hear, Ye Chao said quietly, “My family isn’t birds; my family is actually trees.”
Not a bird? Actually a tree?
Alpha Ji was utterly baffled. Was this… a joke? Where was the punchline? There was nothing funny at all! Someone with negative charisma shouldn’t try to make jokes—it’s mortifying!
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The dog team continued their journey.
The dachshund’s short legs weren’t quick; after all, this breed was developed to hunt badgers and other burrowing animals, and though considered a hunting dog, it wasn’t built for speed.
Xu Tiange, distracted by Alpha Ji, left Ye Chao finally free to examine his own imaginary space. He sensed that after his recent unconsciousness, both his powers and his imaginary space had undergone earth-shattering changes.
His psychic powers felt solid, tangible—as if he’d gone from yesterday’s two-star upgrade straight to three stars!
He was indeed close to—or perhaps already at—three stars. But this rocket-like advancement… was worth investigating.
Upon entering the space, he found
=￣ω￣=
it truly transformed!
His former imaginary space was a single room; now, it had become an entire building—
Yangtze Data Center! Alpha Ji had transplanted the Chrono Seed replica building in here!
A full twenty-nine-story skyscraper, with extravagant lighting, modern decor, desks and benches, computer screens, tea and coffee, elevators and stairs, all sorts of office equipment—even more underground floors than aboveground, and the surrounding paved roads and green belts…
There were even guards wandering about! Looking closer, there were people inside too—were these the legendary NPCs?
Previously, Ye Chao hadn’t even managed to enter the building’s replica before collapsing, so he hadn’t seen it clearly. Now, he could finally take it all in.
No wonder he kept fainting and waking, waking and fainting… Before, carrying around a single room, he’d fainted twice; now, carrying a whole building, he only fainted for a night? He was lucky not to have died!
He owed thanks to the F91 experimental model, with its vast space, enormous memory, and super-fast CPU, sharing much of the computational load—otherwise, the consequences would have been dire.
When he only had a room on him, Ye Chao had planned to store some books and materials for easy access. Now with an entire building, his original plan seemed narrow and trivial, like a needle in an embroidery—it simply wasn’t enough… He’d have to start from scratch.
“How did you manage to bring this thing out?” Ye Chao couldn’t help but ask.
“I like it. I miss home…”
Fine, you’re cheeky, but you make sense.
In truth, as Ye Chao stared in awe at the Yangtze Data Center, outside, Alpha Ji was also gazing up at the city ahead, expressing a similar amazement.
Even with the dachshund’s short legs, the rainforest-like complex jungle, and the intricate terrain, the trial ground was close to the city.
Wobbling, swaying, before they knew it, they had arrived at River City.
A massive city wall cut off the forest ahead, spanning the horizon and practically blocking the entire view.
Damn…
Alpha Ji stood stunned, gazing skyward, her mouth agape—her drool nearly running into her eyes!
There was no helping it; the architecture before her was truly beyond anything she could have imagined…