Chapter 105: Birthday

Qiao Suisui was dizzy from this illness and made up for all the sleep she hadn't had in days. She dreamed that she had finally returned to the real world, running home excitedly to see her family she hadn't seen for a long time, but froze in place when she opened the door. It turned out the whole family was sitting at a round table celebrating her younger brother's birthday.

They were singing birthday songs happily, letting her brother make a wish, and after blowing out the candles, he took the gift from Mom and opened it; it was the latest mobile phone, worth over ten thousand. And she had only eaten cake in the past eighteen years when it was her brother's birthday.

They sat together so complete.

As if they didn't feel that this family was missing anyone.

Qiao Suisui stood at the door of the house, slowly closed the door, and stood at the door for a long time. In a trance, it seemed like someone was calling her name...

"Qiaoqiao."

"Qiaoqiao..."

"Qiaoqiao, don't cry, I'm sorry."

"Qiaoqiao, I love you..."

Qiao Suisui opened her eyes, gasping for breath, her eyes full of tears, and the pillow was wet.

Her forehead and neck were covered in sweat. Seeing her wake up, Zongfang picked her up and patted her back gently.

"Alright, alright, it's all in the past."

Qiao Suisui looked at him somewhat distractedly, whispering in a trance: "Did you call me back?"

"What?" Zongfang thought she hadn't woken up yet, wiped the sweat from her body, and asked: "What did you dream about?"

Qiao Suisui took a long time to pull herself out. She leaned her head on Zongfang's shoulder and whispered in disappointment: "Dreamed about a birthday..."

There was no such thing as a birthday in the interstellar, let alone this kind of ritual. The birth date of every beastman would be printed in the file as a number, used as a citizen certification code, and that was the only use for it at most. They paid more attention to pairing and some sacrificial rituals. Perhaps it was also because the birth rate of newborns was too low, and the matter of reproduction itself had been industrialized, so there was no custom of celebrating birthdays.

But Zongfang had read records of this kind of folk custom in books on ancient human studies, so he knew that the 'birthday' Qiao Suisui mentioned was something meaningful to her.

"When is your birthday?"

Qiao Suisui shook her head, used this small action to wipe away the tears that flowed out with his clothes, and said: "I don't remember."

She quickly forced herself to adjust her emotions, using the excuse of wanting to take a bath in the bathroom to let Zongfang go out, but in reality, she wanted to sort out by herself how she should go next.

This dream reminded her that she was only one step away from activating the transmission function. She had been thinking about going back, but was the life after going back really what she wanted? This matter of going back seemed to be an answer used to avoid thinking from the beginning.

She wasn't familiar with this world, so she felt scared, and also because she decided to have the ability to protect herself after understanding the rules of this world. But excluding those fears and unease, she began to adapt to this world more and more, adapt to its rules, get used to being taken care of by Luka and the others, and even found a way to improve her strength... It seemed, she wasn't as repulsed as she was at the beginning.

And in the real world, was there really anyone waiting for her to go back?

Qiao Suisui counted in her mind and only counted three people. One was her good friend Lin Xixi, one was her mentor Guan Weizhi who had the grace of promotion, and the other was her younger brother, Qiao Jiming.

Thinking of him, Qiao Suisui's emotions became very complicated.

She was resentful, resentful why Mom was always biased; she was only one year older than Qiao Jiming, but she had to let him have everything, take care of him everywhere, and all good things were always only one portion.

At the same time, her resentment had nowhere to vent, because Qiao Jiming would always leave good things for her, and privately save money to buy her birthday gifts. Her first dress was a gift from him. She wished Qiao Jiming was a terrible and selfish person, so she could hate him justifiably. But he happened to be clean-looking and had good grades, and since childhood, he had been following behind her calling "Sister," "Sister," and wherever she went, he followed.

The heat steamed her cheeks red, making her delicate brows and eyes even more moving. Qiao Suisui opened the storage grid and put the 【Beauty Pill】 in her mouth; this thing couldn't be exchanged for points, and it was only rewarded after every childbirth. She hadn't cared about it because her mentality wasn't good a few days ago, but now she began to take stock of her small warehouse.

Besides the 【Earthen Building】 that hadn't been used yet, this time she was also rewarded with an 【Apartment】. She planned to expand the inn directly and open another branch. In addition, there were many weapons, she casually touched an Emei piercer, felt it was short and sharp, very suitable for her to use, so she pinned it to the top in the storage grid. There were also some miscellaneous materials, the most important of which was the mental power origin stone.

Qiao Suisui took out one, closed her eyes, and used the last method to melt the origin stone on her chest. Sure enough, after a while, a warm current flowed to her limbs and bones, and the system's voice sounded—

【Congratulations to the host for the mental power upgrade, your current mental power level is B.】

She mobilized her mental power using the theoretical knowledge learned at school. This time, there was no burden of pregnancy, and she only felt she had endless energy in her body, and her intention could be transmitted further, with a wider radiation range.

Qiao Suisui wasn't satisfied. She took out the remaining four origin stones rewarded and pressed them all into her heart at once.

"Hmm..."

She bit her lower lip in pain. This impact was too fierce, and the heat flowed wildly in her body. Her hand pressed against the edge of the bathtub, her fingertips turning white from the force.

Qiao Suisui endured the pain and mobilized her mental power. After a while, the heat in her body finally dissolved, and the power of the origin stone and her original mental power fused very well.

【Congratulations to the host for the mental power upgrade, your current mental power level is: S.】

From B to S, this was something even Qiao Suisui hadn't expected!

It seemed that the effect of using four origin stones together was much greater than one, but it required enduring this process of fusion.

She put her hand in the water and closed her eyes, only to see blue flames appear in the water in an instant. This was the Fire Control Technique taught by Sang Yan, combined with her own understanding and current mental power, creating underwater fire.

The original pure Fire Control Technique had a weakness, which was that it could be restrained by water control. But Qiao Suisui's fire control completely evolved away this weakness. Sang Yan's fire was the Dragon Pulse, not something ordinary water could restrain; only beastmen with mental power higher than his had a chance to break his fire. Qiao Suisui's mental power was already considered top-tier among male beastmen, and combined with the unique underwater fire, her combat ability directly doubled.

It was just that her basic attributes were relatively low now, such as physical strength, endurance, etc., far inferior to an ordinary male. This point could only be added by exchanging attribute points for 3000 points. But she hadn't truly decided to stay in this world yet, so she didn't want to spend points randomly.

Being able to improve her mental power without spending 1 point, Qiao Suisui was already very satisfied.

"Qiaoqiao, are you done?"

Hearing Zongfang knocking on the door outside, Qiao Suisui let the system help her disguise her mental power, so that others would still see it as C-level, and then answered: "Done."

She wrapped herself in a bathrobe and walked out barefoot, her wet hair still draped over her shoulders.

As soon as the door opened, mist and heat rushed out from inside, blowing the candle flame to flicker.

Zongfang reached out to protect the candlelight, Qiao Suisui looked at him blankly, and saw him holding a small cake with a candle inserted on it, hearing him say: "In the future, when we celebrate your birthday every year, we will add a candle, okay?"

Zongfang: Already honest, desperately trying to please.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 106 =====