Chapter 6: More Information on the Panel

In the afternoon, the sun slanted westward, and the dim, faintly cool evening glow filtered into this lush primeval forest, casting a dappled pattern of shadows.

Having returned once more to his safe dwelling—the tree hollow—Baichuan finally relaxed.

He let out a helpless sigh. "In the end, I was still dragged down by a snake's vision!"

Fortunately, today's experience gave him a much clearer understanding of his panel.

Originally, having eaten his fill today, he had wanted to go look for creatures that possessed powerful abilities yet were weaker than himself—for example, the most famous ones: cockroaches, tardigrades, and the like.

But after searching the entire afternoon, he couldn't find a single one!

First, cockroaches. Back when he was human, he would see cockroaches scurrying about every now and then; sometimes when he didn't want to see them, they would偏偏 keep appearing before his eyes, causing him endless torment.

But now, when he deliberately set out to look for cockroaches, he couldn't find even one—or perhaps he had encountered them but they flew away before he noticed, or perhaps he had encountered them but couldn't recognize them.

Because his current vision is that of a snake. As mentioned before, a snake's vision is colorblind and only sensitive to things that move.

Sometimes when he slithered past, if a cockroach happened to be sitting still, he wouldn't notice it at all.

So he simply couldn't find any.

As for tardigrades, that was even more absurd. Although in his previous life he had heard of their illustrious name because the creature was so outrageously famous, he had only ever heard of it.

He vaguely recalled that they seemed to live in damp places near streams, generally clinging to things like moss.

So he searched the entire vicinity of the stream, barely finding something resembling moss, but no matter how hard he stared at it, left and right, he simply couldn't find any information about tardigrades.

He guessed this might be because tardigrades were too tiny—completely invisible to his naked eye as it was now—so he couldn't obtain their ability model at all.

As for why he had this guess, he had a basis for it: because during this period today, besides deliberately searching for cockroaches and tardigrades, he had also taken the opportunity along the way to test out his panel's capabilities in various ways.

He discovered that his panel didn't seem to be a traditional system, but rather a special ability born from him.

Because its scanning function wasn't like the scanning in traditional novels, where a single glance at a target would yield its information.

It had two ways of generating models: eating, and not eating.

First: eating. Unless he actually swallowed the target, his scan could never parse out all of the target's information and generate a model.

Second: not eating. If he didn't render the target incapable of resistance, then no matter how hard he focused his attention on staring at it, his scan wouldn't react at all.

Finally, whether he swallowed the target or rendered it incapable of resistance, his scan needed time to acquire the target's information and generate the model.

Among these, scanning something inside his stomach was the fastest; next, the closer the target's size was to his own, the faster it was; the smaller the target's size, the slower it was.

This information was provided by the Jinshe and Jianwenfu from the morning, and the Mazha and Qingwa from noon, respectively.

Originally, after finishing the Jianwenfu in the morning and about to leave, he suddenly stopped halfway and realized—why had he been obsessing over which food to eat to obtain ability models?

Right. He couldn't eat two at once, but did obtaining an ability model require him to actually swallow it?

Not necessarily. After all, he still had a scanning ability.

It turned out all his previous agonizing had been a complete waste of time—his mind had gotten stuck and he'd been a fool.

This sudden awakening made him turn back to the original spot and scan the Jinshe's ability model as well, and only then did he discover that the speed for a swallowed target differed from that of a directly scanned one.

You could say that direct scanning was only half as fast as swallowing.

This discovery led him, from then on, to search for the targets he wanted while simultaneously testing out his panel's capabilities.

He discovered once more that the closer the scanned target's size was to his own, the faster it was.

Moreover, among creatures of similar size but different species, the target he was more familiar with tended to scan faster.

This proved that the scanning ability and he complemented each other—as long as his knowledge and understanding increased, the panel's scanning ability would improve along with it.

If that wasn't his own ability, then what was it?

……

After reviewing the day's gains, he opened his personal panel once more.

"Name: Baichuan."

"Species: Yanjingwangshe."

"Lifespan: 8 years."

"Points: 0 (3%)."

"Abilities: Zhongchang LV2 (details), Sedu LV2, Energy-Efficient Storage LV1, Danger Perception LV1, Qiangzhuang LV1, Flexibility LV1, Scales LV1, Swimming LV1……"

"Ability Model Library: Laoshu, Jianwenfu, Jinshe, Qingwa."

"Kedianji……"

……

Baichuan scanned the panel carefully once more, found it matched exactly the changes he had predicted, and only then nodded in satisfaction.

Because this proved that the patterns he had previously summarized weren't wrong, weren't something he had merely imagined.

"Looks like after tonight, my points should be able to accumulate to 10%."

Baichuan nodded, and was just about to close the panel when he suddenly paused.

Something's off!

Something feels off!!

The number of models in the Ability Model Library seemed wrong, as if something was missing!

Realizing this, Baichuan redirected his attention to the panel's Ability Model Library—only Laoshu, Jianwenfu, Jinshe, Qingwa, Mazha?

It seemed one model was missing?

Right—the rabbit! The hare!!

After carefully recalling, Baichuan finally remembered what model was missing: the hare model he had strengthened yesterday!

So the question came—why had the hare model disappeared?

Was it that all models in the Ability Model Library had a time limit? Or was it that models disappeared after being strengthened?

He should know the answer to this question tomorrow; he hoped it wasn't what he was thinking—that it was a time limit.

If that were the case, things would really be bad.

Weighed down by heavy thoughts, Baichuan activated high-efficiency digestion mode, closed his snake eyes, and fell into a deep sleep.

……

The next day, when the sky had just barely brightened.

Baichuan, who had woken early, hurriedly opened the Ability Panel and looked toward the Ability Structure Library.

【Ability Structure Library: Laoshu, Jianwenfu, Jinshe, Qingwa.】

……

"Phew～" Seeing that no abilities had disappeared above, Baichuan finally let out a sigh of relief, as if a burden had been lifted.

Fortunately, the most terrifying thing had not happened.

What he feared most was that the Ability Structure Library had a time limit—if that were the case, then if he happened to obtain a rare, uncommon ability but had no points, wouldn't he only be able to watch the ability go to waste?

Luckily, it didn't.

But now that the hare model had disappeared, it seemed he would have to go replenish it today; after all, that hare's Minjie LV2 was still quite strong and worth keeping.

Recalling the place where he had previously hunted hares, Baichuan slowly began crawling out of the tree hollow.

Swimming upward toward the top of this primeval forest.

Speaking of which, one has to mention the environment Baichuan currently found himself in.

The place he was in was a continuous stretch of mountain ranges, full of towering peaks and rugged ridges, with tall, thick trees everywhere, and he was located in the primeval forest at the foot of these mountains.

(End of this chapter)