Chapter 696

Ning Chen walked while communicating with the system: "When can I upgrade the Density Control skill?"

Ning Chen always felt the "Density Control" skill was powerful, capable of killing invisibly without anyone noticing; for someone of his identity, it would be a sharp weapon.

But the system replied: "Detected that the host has not completed a new task in the short term; unable to upgrade the skill. Please wait for the release of subsequent new tasks."

It seemed he still had to complete tasks. Ning Chen felt a bit regretful; the "Density Control" skill was strong for both self-defense and attack, and not being able to upgrade it in the short term was truly a pity.

So Ning Chen asked: "When will a new task be released?"

"Roughly in half a year," the system answered, "but if there is an urgent task, it will be released early."

Ning Chen's eyes lit up: "So, after half a year, I will be able to upgrade the skill?"

"Theoretically, that is the case," the system's voice was calm, "but perhaps not half a year, perhaps three months. It mainly depends on when they release the task."

Ning Chen rubbed his hands, his voice slightly excited: "Remember to release the task as soon as possible; I've been quite idle these past few days. It would be even better if I could upgrade the skill."

Hearing this, the system replied no more. Ning Chen left the residential area and came to an abandoned factory that was relatively quiet and free of surveillance and people.

This factory was quite far from home. Ning Chen increased his speed and arrived at the destination before long.

He stood in the empty, deserted ground, gazing at his palm, and at the same time, attempted to use the "Space Tear" skill.

As he expected, the instant he silently recited those four words, a sudden gust of wind whipped up before him. Ning Chen immediately opened his eyes, his gaze suddenly freezing as he stared at a crucial fixed point before him.

It seemed to be a torn opening, suspended in mid-air. In the middle of the cavity was a starry color, and the entire crack was about an arm's length long.

The wind around the crack was strong, blowing so hard that Ning Chen could hardly keep his eyes open. He raised his hand to shield his forehead, squinting to examine the gap, and asked the system: "Can I complete the Space Tear just by going straight in?"

The system only reminded: "The specific use of the skill needs to be explored by the host independently."

Hearing this, Ning Chen took a deep breath. He gazed at the crack, seeming to hesitate.

But the next step, he lifted his foot and walked toward the crack firmly, without the slightest hesitation.

The wind grew stronger, and the closer he got, the more he felt an extremely strong suction. Like two magnets with opposite poles, it constantly attracted Ning Chen toward the center.

Ning Chen frowned, struggled briefly, then went with the flow, letting that thing suck him in.

In an instant, the sensation of the world spinning made Ning Chen extremely dizzy, as if he were being merged into a rotating galaxy and constantly performing circular motion. After entering the crack, he couldn't tell Dongnanxibei.

Ning Chen gritted his teeth. While calculating the time in his mind, he tried his best to stay awake. The system had not told him that entering a space crack would cause such dizziness.

But later, the dizziness gradually lessened. Ning Chen finally managed to open his eyes from the chaos. At that time, only ten seconds had passed, replaced instead by a sensation of weightlessness, feeling heavy-headed and light-footed.

The first thing Ning Chen did upon opening his eyes was to look around himself, but everywhere he saw was darkness; his eyes could see nothing. This feeling was like floating in the universe.

Suddenly, a strong beam of light came through, reaching Ning Chen's eyes. The intense light made him unable to open his eyes for an instant, and in the moment he closed them, he felt his body lift into the air.

When he could open his eyes again, Ning Chen found himself outside the train station of a neighboring city.

Seeing the glowing artistic characters on the train station, Ning Chen was stunned for an instant. The train station was lit up then, but there was no one inside, so naturally, no one knew he had arrived here.

But within half a minute, Ning Chen had already calmed down. He analyzed flexibly and confirmed that the effect of the "Space Tear" skill was the same as he had thought before, not much different from teleportation.

It was just that Ning Chen felt that using the "Space Tear" skill once consumed more than half of the physical energy in his body. After using the skill, he even lacked the strength to run at an increased speed.

Ning Chen shifted his gaze, saw a table by the street, thought for a moment, then walked over and sat down there.

He usually used his physical energy slowly and recovered quickly. After using skills like "Density Control," he almost didn't have to wait long; eighty percent of the physical energy in his body would recover, and within twenty minutes, all physical energy would be fully restored.

564. Life and Death on a Thin Line (16)

But Ning Chen sat on the bench, blowing in the late-night breeze for fifteen minutes, yet his physical energy showed no sign of recovering.

He frowned, looked down at his palm, and could clearly feel that his physical energy had not even recovered to half. This rare sense of powerlessness made Ning Chen somewhat panicked. He waited another five minutes before feeling the physical energy in his body slowly fill up.

Ning Chen sighed. Having truly no other way, he said to the system: "This skill is a bit weak."

The system replied to Ning Chen almost immediately: "This skill is a Level 2 skill; the Density Control skill is a Level 2 skill. They are of the same level."

Ning Chen felt the system was speaking on behalf of the "Space Tear" skill. He was stunned for a moment: "But it really is useless. Space Tear can only teleport to the neighboring city... and it consumes so much of my physical energy. This is far harder to use than the Density Control skill."

After saying this, the system did not answer Ning Chen for a long time, and finally blurted out: "... It's just that you don't know how to use it."

Hearing the system say this, Ning Chen couldn't hold back a laugh. He rarely heard the system speak with such personal emotion. The system's posture in saying those two sentences was exactly like protecting a child when unwilling to see one's own child bullied.

"What's the difference from teleportation?" Ning Chen said. "There is a problem with the skill's mechanism. The fact that it consumes so much physical energy means that if I want to use the skill once and then follow up with another offensive skill, I have to rest for several hours."

The system said coldly: "Since you don't want to use it, you can put it in the Skill Shredder."

Ning Chen frowned: "You guys have such a thing?"

"We have everything," the system said. "Only you would think that skill is useless."

Ning Chen curled the corner of his mouth: "Alright." He did not wish to talk to the system anymore. In such a short time of chatting, his physical energy had already recovered by half.

Although it was still a bit slow, it was enough for him to use the Space Tear skill once more.

Ning Chen knew where the limit range of this skill was; teleporting back to his previous location should still be possible. So Ning Chen silently recited the four words "Space Tear" in his heart and waited for the skill to start using automatically.

In this bout of dizziness, Ningchen silently recited his destination in his mind. After a wave of dizziness that was both uncomfortable and nauseating, he opened his eyes again and found himself back at the empty ground where he had used the skill before.

Alright, Ning Chen sighed silently in his heart. Although this skill was a bit useless, at least its accuracy was high. Used well at a critical moment, it could save a lot of time and might even save his life.

Ning Chen calculated the time during the teleportation process; finally, the estimated time for the entire process was about fifteen seconds.

Acceptable; this time isn't too long.

There was one more skill not yet tested, but Ning Chen felt this skill didn't need overly complex testing, after all, the name itself was quite easy to understand.

Finally, Ning Chen decided he would just test the upper and lower limits of this skill and then stop.

It was a pity that the Space Tear skill could not teleport to any check-in point. Before, Ning Chen had held a little fantasy about this skill. If the teleportation distance could be farther, even farther, then he wouldn't need to spend a day or two rushing on the road; instead, he could directly save the time spent on the journey.

After returning to the empty ground, Ning Chen immediately began silently reciting the "Time Stop" skill.

This skill was far more convenient than the "Space Tear" skill and also more commonly used. If it could be upgraded to max level, it would then be a skill a hundred times stronger than the "Density Control" skill.

He still didn't know where Si Shiya was, but what Ning Chen could determine was that Si Shiya was definitely not safe now. It could basically be guessed that someone had controlled her. Once Ning Chen could determine her location, another fierce battle would have to be fought.

By that time, his skills were estimated to be at max level.

After Ning Chen silently recited the four words "Time Stop," suddenly he felt a sensation of being unable to breathe.

Ning Chen immediately adjusted his breathing while fixing his gaze on the scenery around him.

The most direct thing he could observe was that the wind had stopped; originally, the autumn wind blowing against his face carried a chill, but once the skill finished, that wind became completely still.

The leaves stirred by the wind ceased their swaying; the scene, already quiet at dawn, grew even more tranquil, and for a moment Ning Chen even felt as if he had gone deaf.

It was as if he had entered a place cut off from the world; the visual impact of seeing the surrounding scenery freeze in an instant was too great.

Ning Chen opened his mouth slightly and let out a sigh of wonder; he tried taking a few steps forward, and his body felt no discomfort, so it seemed that apart from the initial sensation of suffocation, the entire skill process caused no discomfort.

While timing in his mind, Ning Chen hurriedly observed changes in the surrounding environment, but in fact this skill could only freeze all scenery around him; beyond that, nothing changed.

The moment ten seconds passed, the entire world suddenly returned to normal.

The first thing Ning Chen felt was the wind blowing against his face, still carrying a chill as before; beyond that, the motionless leaves began to sway in the wind, and Ning Chen heard a "rustle."

Because he had been timing in his mind, he knew the skill's duration was roughly ten seconds.

Ten seconds.

Ning Chen murmured these words in his heart.

For most skills that require timing, ten seconds was far too short; applied to any other skill, the number ten would be utterly useless.

But "Time Stop" was different; after all, it was a Level One skill, and ten seconds could actually accomplish quite a lot.

Ning Chen was quite satisfied with this skill; he carefully sensed the stamina he had consumed and found that after using the skill, his stamina had hardly changed.

A joy rose in his heart; without a doubt, this skill would become the strongest one in his possession so far; if used well, he could win easily, and if he encountered missions like escorting people away from Cangbei again, he could handle them more easily, at least he wouldn't be so reckless.

Ning Chen felt quite joyful inside, but immediately the System splashed a bucket of cold water on him.

"Notice: Because your current level is insufficient, upon detecting that you possess a Level One skill, you may use this high-level skill only once per day."

Ning Chen froze.

He opened his mouth and asked incredulously, "Once?"

The System replied, "Yes."

The next second, Ning Chen sneered, "Does your System lack those few uses?"

The System responded quickly, "No."

"Then why..." Ning Chen paused again, his expression turning slightly helpless, "Fine, fine, I know; this is another of your System's rules, right? Since that's the case, I have no motivation to complete missions anymore; a Level One skill usable for ten seconds a day—what use is that?"

Ning Chen had thought this skill was powerful precisely because it consumed the least stamina, and the intervals between each use would be much shorter; if he truly encountered difficult, tricky matters, the "Time Stop" skill would definitely be the first choice.

But after the System suddenly said that, Ning Chen suddenly felt unwilling to use this skill anymore; after all, for him, ten seconds a day was practically nothing.

"Better than nothing," the System said.

Hearing these four words, Ning Chen almost rushed over to argue thoroughly with the System; he repeated these four words in his mind, still feeling lingering anger.

"Better than nothing? You restrict a Level One skill like this, and you tell me it's better than nothing?" Ning Chen frowned and said, "You might as well not give me this skill."

The System said, "This system is a reward obtained after completing a mission; it is what you deserve, not something I issued to you."