Chapter 223: Fusion

The white bone gate crashed heavily onto the floor of the holographic warehouse, its parts rotating, folding, expanding, and extending like a Rubik's Cube, dazzling the eyes.

The gate's height rose steadily to five meters before its transformation gradually slowed and ceased trembling.

Not far away, Hui Yu, seated cross-legged in his gaming chair and wearing headphones as he played a horror game, remained completely unaware, still marveling at the game's audio, "This game's sound effects are insane—I can almost feel the earthquake."

Li Cheng rolled his eyes, too lazy to comment, and stepped forward on his own toward the white bone corridor.

The system prompt sounded naturally,

【Would you like to spend 5,000 game coins to upgrade the holographic white bone corridor's quality to "Perfect"?】

Yes.

The game coins in his inventory vanished instantly; the heavy gate slowly opened.

Creak—

The white bone corridor, once the size of an underground prison, now expanded to cathedral scale.

Its interior design shifted from transparent glass enclosures surrounding stone pedestals forming cells,

to the removal of glass barriers, with pedestals now differing in height, some larger and taller than others.

【Item description updated】

【New effect: Image Overlap. Fuse any two temporary skills recorded on the holographic white bone corridor to enhance their strength. Fused skills may be separated again.】

【New note: During the existence of the new skill, the original skill materials cannot be used.】

【New note: After separating a fused skill, at least 24 hours must pass before using the original skill or attempting fusion again.】

"Oh?"

Li Cheng raised an eyebrow in surprise—the new effect of the Perfect-quality holographic white bone corridor seemed unusually powerful.

Most equipment, items, and skills consume Qi value, which has a fixed upper limit; one powerful skill capable of deciding battle outcomes far outweighs a pile of weak ones.

The 【Image Overlap】 effect is essentially waste recycling, upgrading temporary skills that have become obsolete as Li Cheng's level increased.

"The question is, which skills should I fuse?"

Li Cheng looked at the skill slots in his player panel; his current ten temporary skills were:

Death Curse Torrent, Bloodlust Fury, Cut Wound Bleeding, Wing Glide, Misleading Slander, Small Gravitational Energy Ball, Summoning Technique: Thousand Paper Cranes, Absorb Brain Entropy, Hundred Arts This Is Aim, Leopard Jump.

As Li Cheng focused his attention on these skills, the stone pedestals inside the white bone corridor slowly moved and drew closer to one another.

The skill descriptions on the pedestals also changed.

Li Cheng blinked in slight astonishment, "It can automatically predict the fused skill's effect? That's surprisingly user-friendly."

Predicting fusion outcomes greatly saved Li Cheng from trial-and-error costs. He arranged and combined all skills, cross-referencing his current stats, and quickly finalized his plan.

First, 【Bloodlust Fury + Cut Wound Bleeding】—these two skills shared similar attributes: the former temporarily increased attack speed, the latter increased external wound bleeding in enemies.

After fusion, the newly created skill was:

【Temporary Skill Name: Bloodlust Draught】

【Type: Spirit Energy】

【Effect: Massive Bleeding. Causes all targets within 100 meters bearing visible external wounds to bleed profusely from their injuries.】

【Cost: 70 Qi points】

【Cooldown: 30 minutes】

【Note: "Drinking only broth all day is bad for your health. Today I feel like having something solid." The Vampire Prince said to an old man suffering from arterial sclerosis, clutching his blood vessels.】

Li Cheng forcibly ignored the ridiculous, cringe-inducing note, grabbed a bucket, then slashed two uneven cuts into his palm and activated the new skill.

Hiss—

The two palm wounds immediately erupted with blood, spraying violently like a shaken soda can suddenly opened.

Perfectly matched the 【Massive Bleeding】 effect.

"Total blood loss is roughly 600ml. The deeper, wider wound bled significantly more than the other. If the wound were on an arm, thigh, or torso, a single cut could produce over 1000ml of blood."

In battles among the extraordinary, victory hinges on the slightest margin; a sudden burst of bleeding, even if not fatal, could freeze an opponent for an instant.

Next, 【Absorb Brain Entropy + Misleading Slander】.

The fused skill was named 【Extract Brain Entropy】—it delved deeper into the mind and allowed verbal prompting to extract specific memories.

Its cooldown and cost matched the original 【Absorb Brain Entropy】 exactly.

"The original temporary skills varied in strength—this fusion effect seems to use the stronger original skill as the base and the weaker one as an add-on."

Li Cheng pondered, then turned to the next: 【Wing Glide + Leopard Jump】.

The new skill was named 【Leopard Double Jump】—it allowed a temporary second jump mid-air, defying physics, while retaining the momentum from the first jump.

Double jumps are common in modern video games—platformers, action-adventures, even shooters.

After activating the Inverted-Yin Form with the Two-Yi Blade, Li Cheng's physical strength had already surged; he could easily clear the pole vault world record without a pole.

Now, with Double Jump, he could leap over tall buildings even without riding a heavy motorcycle.

"The cooldown for 【Leopard Double Jump】 is zero, and it only costs 3 stamina points—it can be left active as a passive skill indefinitely."

Li Cheng was highly satisfied and turned to the next: 【Small Gravitational Energy Ball + Hundred Arts This Is Aim】.

The new skill was named 【Medium Auto-Aim Gravitational Energy Ball】.

Building on the original gravity ball, it enhanced gravitational pull and added an auto-aim effect—the sphere would continuously track its target after launch, pursuing up to five kilometers until impact.

During this process, if it encountered obstacles, the sphere would even dodge them autonomously.

"Effectively turned it into a guided skill."

Li Cheng nodded; the original gravity ball's biggest flaw was that it would latch onto the first solid object it touched.

Even a cup of water or a sheet of paper blocking its straight flight path could prematurely trigger the explosion, causing the skill to miss.

With auto-aim added, such failures would no longer occur.

All four new skills fused, leaving only Summoning Technique: Thousand Paper Cranes and Death Curse Torrent—these two had poor synergy.

The estimated fusion result is summoning a paper crane that spits black water.

Because the paper crane itself is too small in size, the death-curse black water it spits out is also very little, not even as good as the original skill, so Li Cheng did not fuse it, and for now left it in the skill bar, waiting to inscribe some other fusion material later.

The White Bone Corridor is done; next up is this.

Li Cheng looked down at the perfect-quality, general-purpose item upgrade taser lying quietly in his inventory.

This thing is pretty much the same as the anti-wolf taser on Taobao — blue and yellow color scheme, rubber-grip handle, two metal prongs exposed on the outside.

Its effect is upgrading one premium-quality item to perfect quality.

Li Cheng scanned his inventory. The premium-quality items he currently possessed were, respectively, the out-of-fuel nuclear lighter, the information-integration glasses, the automated three-dimensional warehouse, and the electronic pet egg — these four.

(End of chapter)