Chapter 106: Transformation

“The human world has become filthy again.” The long-haired man, clad in a luxurious black robe inlaid with brilliant gems, tilted his head upward at a forty-five-degree angle toward the sky.

“Chief Spiky, you’re a total jerk—remember what I said, I’ll be right here on Shenyang Street yelling at you.” The tattooed youth in a black shirt and sunglasses gestured wildly toward the camera.

“Why so serious?” The clown, painted in black and white, reached out a finger to tug at the corner of his mouth in the mirror.

In the living room of his new rental, rows of clothing racks held a dazzling array of cosplay outfits.

Li Cheng changed outfits, embodying one role after another. Each time he donned a new costume, his entire demeanor shifted dramatically—sometimes cold and brutal, sometimes compassionate and gentle, sometimes manic and extreme, sometimes calm and detached.

After several hours of exploration, he had nearly uncovered all the hidden mechanics of the skill [Experience Role-Playing].

One: assuming a role does not grant any personal attribute bonuses, nor does it magically bestow memories or abilities not originally his own.

Two: assuming a role slightly and temporarily alters one’s way of thinking. For example, when portraying Sherlock Holmes, scores in reaction tests, memory tests, and logical reasoning tests were slightly higher than when portraying other roles.

Three: assuming a role slightly and temporarily adjusts one’s moral standards, but never crosses the bottom line or induces excessive benevolence. The individual’s own moral framework remains dominant.

Four: the role assumed must have a clearly defined image; self-created roles are invalid. The more extreme the character’s design and the deeper one’s understanding of it, the more authentic the portrayal—and the more rationality points are restored per moment.

“The Killing Ground encompasses everything. Each player’s power system is wildly different, but all have three core stats: Physical, Spiritual, and Rationality.”

Li Cheng thought silently, “Physical represents the player’s stamina, Spiritual is the foundation of supernatural power, and Rationality is peculiar—it’s more like a real-time indicator of the player’s current mental state.”

Rationality is determined by the strength of an individual’s will, influenced by Intelligence and Perception. A normal person’s baseline Rationality is 100 points; if it drops below 70 due to intense stimuli or mental corruption, dizziness and discomfort set in.

At 50 points, memory becomes chaotic and consciousness grows foggy. At 30 points, the mind collapses and the player slips into unconsciousness.

If it reaches 0, there is no salvation—it is equivalent to brain death.

Physical and Spiritual can be restored quickly through drugs, internal energy cultivation, or buffs, but Rationality recovery is far fewer in methods and far more troublesome.

Li Cheng’s current Rationality stood at just over two hundred points. After spending hours daily using [Multi-Threaded Brain Domain Method] to study, he had to stop and wait for it to slowly replenish over time.

Now, with [Experience Role-Playing], he effectively gained a constant passive buff that restored Rationality—with almost no side effects.

If there was a cost, it was probably the fleeting reputation and the image others held of him.

“What’s an image? Can you eat it?” Li Cheng muttered, placing all the clothing racks into the Bone Corridor, then walking to his desk, opening the player forum, and checking auction listings.

【Rare Quality Consumable—Excess Steroids. Appears as a syringe. After use, permanently increases physical attributes, at the cost of -1 Intelligence; the head also becomes uncontrollably pointed】

【Common Quality Skill Scroll—The Willing Bite. Greatly increases fishing success rate. If there are no fish in the pond, you might still catch turtles, snakes, eels, toads, bicycles, or corpses】

【Rare Quality Equipment—Rib Launcher. Appears as a post-apocalyptic rifle. When fired, it automatically launches one of the user’s ribs, triggering a massive explosion】

【Fine Quality Consumable—Ten or Even Nine Points Suspicious Potion. Appears as a pink heart-shaped vial. After use, all senses increase to 3000% sensitivity, and endurance is temporarily enhanced, eliminating fatigue】

“What the hell is all this nonsense? Classic ‘nine is better than ten,’ right?”

Li Cheng’s face darkened. He scrolled with the mouse wheel, muttering complaints as he searched for potential purchases for his 4090 game coins.

Equipment and skill scrolls obtained from player loot boxes sometimes didn’t match needs. If the player’s guild had no interest and refused to bid, they’d list the items on the forum auction house, waiting for a lucky buyer—or a fool.

The auction house was enchanted with an effect similar to the Special Affairs Bureau’s [Oath of Compliance] scroll: all item information was absolutely truthful and reliable. The quality, however, was highly questionable.

That was normal. The truly good items had long been bought up by guilds. What appeared on the forum auction house were either absurdly niche or bizarrely rare items, listed by owners hoping to make a big profit.

The highest-selling item today was a Perfect Quality consumable: [Potion of Human Transformation]. Its effect: transforms a living being or an inanimate object into a human possessing standard intelligence and self-awareness, retaining partial attributes from before transformation.

Living beings were easy to understand: pets like cats, dogs, hamsters, birds, racehorses.

Inanimate objects included, but were not limited to: figurines, pillows, computers, phones, guns, tanks, warships.

At first glance, this seemed designed to fulfill otaku fantasies—turning a figurine wife/husband into reality. But upon deeper thought, it was actually quite powerful.

Sprayed onto a supercomputer, it would instantly create a powerful artificial intelligence capable of writing an entire program in seconds.

Sprayed onto a warship, it would instantly create a humanoid shipgirl with a speed of 30 knots and power exceeding 100,000 horsepower—her punch could shatter reinforced concrete bunkers.

“The average price of a Perfect Quality item is 12,000. For consumables, prices typically rise 20–40%. Yet this [Potion of Human Transformation]—barely ten minutes after auction opened—was bought outright by a mysterious buyer for 36,000. Clearly, they recognized its strategic value.”

Beneath this auction listing, many players, like Li Cheng, posted comments expressing awe.

【36,000 game coins? Who the hell is this billionaire, not even blinking before snapping it up?】

【I say the buyer got a steal. Think about it—besides tanks and warships, corpses and human skeletons are also inanimate objects】

【You mean?】

【Resurrect the dead. Bring back someone you cherish—or get creative. For example, extract your bones and flesh in batches while still alive and store them. After death, have someone pour the potion onto them to resurrect you. Achieve something like a lich’s phylactery or Voldemort’s horcrux】

【Hah, you’re being too idealistic. Inside the Killing Ground, nothing—not even the legendary Hidden Dead River—can perfectly resurrect a dead person. A being revived by this potion is merely a hollow imitation】

【I disagree. What is real, what is false? If appearance, voice, thoughts, memories, thinking patterns, and moral values are all identical to before, how can you say it’s not the original person?】

This debate stretched across hundreds of posts. Li Cheng clasped his head, leaned back, and his gaze slowly lost focus.

“Resurrecting the dead…”

(End of Chapter)