Chapter 176: Reborn and Transformed

His consciousness returned to reality. Bai Bai Zeming sprang up like a carp flipping, leapt out of bed, swiftly retrieved the goods temporarily stored in the group shop, and laid them out on the single bed in his rented room.

Gazing at those fine things that did not belong to this world, Bai Bai Zeming was so moved he nearly wept.

Four years… a full four years!

He could finally take control of his own destiny!

Without hesitation, Bai Bai Zeming immediately dashed to the bathroom, turned on the showerhead, adjusted the water temperature with his palm, and filled a bathtub with warm water.

After finishing all that, he stripped off his clothes at the fastest speed of his life and stepped into the bathtub with that serum.

About ten minutes later, Bai Bai Zeming, with a towel wrapped around his waist, barefoot and bare-chested, pushed open the door feeling refreshed and clear-headed, and walked to the full-length mirror in the bedroom.

At this moment, he seemed to have been reborn from the ashes, his entire bearing transformed, gaining more confidence and sharpness, as well as a faint sense of pressure.

His height had also increased by two to three centimeters thanks to the injected serum, and his chest and abs, already trained for a year, now swelled as if being inflated, brimming with explosive power and a sense of strength.

Staring at the brand-new version of himself in the mirror, Bai Bai Zeming's face broke into a satisfied smile.

He turned his head and looked toward the puddle-covered floor of the bathroom, and the bathtub whose water level had dropped a notch.

At this moment, the water in the bathtub was faintly blackened, seemingly mixed with many impurities expelled from his body.

And indeed it was exactly so—the cultivation-specialized version of the serum enhanced the meridian-related effects, possessing the ability to open up the meridians of the Zhou Tian and expel toxic impurities from the body.

A faint stench permeated the room, causing Bai Bai Zeming, whose senses had been enhanced, to frown slightly.

After a brief thought, he turned and walked into the bathroom, gripped the rim of the bathtub with both hands, exerted a little force, and easily lifted the entire tub, dumping out the faintly blackened water inside.

"Thud!"

A muffled crash rang out as the heavy wooden bathtub hit the ground.

Bai Bai Zeming clenched his fist, his face unconsciously filling with excitement.

The solid-wood bathtub he had purchased already weighed forty or fifty kilograms on its own, and with the water inside at nearly seventy percent, a quick calculation would tell anyone the total weight was definitely over two hundred kilograms!

Such a heavy bathtub, for the him of before, even budging it would have been extremely difficult.

But now, he could grip the rim of the tub and lift it effortlessly.

This strength must be at least one or two tons, right?

Thinking of this, Bai Bai Zeming, amid his excitement, also became careful in every movement he made.

Especially those two anti-aging serums—Bai Bai Zeming didn't even dare touch them, afraid that one careless slip would crush the two seemingly fragile syringes.

Still, leaving them lying on the bed all the time wasn't a solution either.

After a moment's hesitation, Bai Bai Zeming opened the chat group and consulted the big shots in the group.

Soon, Big Shot Yun Ye from the Tang Brick world gave him a rather delightful suggestion—

Namely, to use the group shop's mechanism to temporarily list the items and store them in the chat group!

Learning this, Bai Bai Zeming finally understood why there were always some outrageously overpriced, shady goods in the shop—turns out they were things temporarily stored in the chat group by veteran members!

Without hesitation, he immediately listed all the goods on the bed, keeping only the suitcase-style steel battle suit.

That very evening, Bai Bai Zeming carried the disguised suitcase out of his room, went up to the rooftop of the apartment building, confirmed no one was around, set the suitcase on the ground, and stepped onto it while barely containing his excitement.

"Hum—"

In an instant, the suitcase lit up with the blue glow of an arc reactor.

The silver-and-red metal immediately began to deform, spreading up along Bai Bai Zeming's thighs.

Unlike the original Mark 5, the upgraded battle suit's donning speed was greatly improved—simply stepping the right leg onto the suitcase allowed the metal components to automatically deform and spread across the entire body along the thigh.

In just a few short seconds, a battle suit brimming with mechanical and sci-fi flair had been donned onto Bai Bai Zeming's body.

He excitedly swung his arm, stretching his joints and body, and discovered that this battle suit not only did not hinder his agility, but actually greatly amplified his strength and speed.

The next second, the silver faceplate covered his cheeks, and two square eye-sockets flared with blue light.

At the same time, a blue holographic screen materialized before his eyes, projecting the world outside the faceplate.

"Loading artificial intelligence…"

"Loading complete. Good evening, Mr. Bai!"

"A product of the Treasure Pavilion, Intelligent Butler No. 46, at your service!"

There's even an artificial intelligence?!

Bai Bai Zeming was both shocked and delighted.

After some questioning, he finally learned that the artificial intelligence was not built into the battle suit itself, but was a perk for every group member—once Lin Dage located this world in the future, he would be able to meet No. 46's true form at the dojo.

"Truly worthy of being the big shot who runs the group shop—absolutely loaded!"

Bai Bai Zeming praised the big shot in his heart, then immediately struck up a conversation with No. 46.

Like the intelligent butlers of other group members, No. 46 also possessed rudimentary consciousness, capable of giving real-time, logical responses to Bai Bai Zeming's questions just like a real human.

After briefly familiarizing himself with No. 46's communication style, Bai Bai Zeming decisively switched to a mature-sister voice line and renamed her Lucy.

This name was taken from the earliest known human ancestor—the first person in the world.

Bai Bai Zeming bestowed this name upon her naturally in the hope that she would one day awaken advanced consciousness and become a true mecha girl… no, a true intelligent lifeform!

After all that, it was finally time for the part he had been looking forward to most.

Bai Bai Zeming took a deep breath and, mimicking Iron Man's pose in the movies, let his arms hang at his sides.

The next second, the propulsion system activated, and the silver-and-red battle suit shot straight up into the sky, trailing two distinct white streaks, vanishing into the pitch-black starry night above.

"Hahaha!!"

High in the air, Bai Bai Zeming laughed out loud, savoring the sensation of flight that humanity had long dreamed of.

It was just a pity that the battle suit blocked the gale rushing toward him, costing him some of the wild freedom of the experience.

Bai Bai Zeming felt a pang of regret in his heart, thinking that once he learned flight spells in the future, he would definitely try the feeling of flying with his physical body.

"Whoosh—"

The silver-and-red battle suit streaked across the sky amid the roar of its engines, whipping up howling gales in its wake.

In just ten seconds, his speed surpassed three hundred meters per second, reaching a state nearly equivalent to the speed of sound.

Just as Bai Bai Zeming intended to test the armor's speed limit, Lucy's gentle reminder came to his ears, suggesting that considering the sonic boom might cause a disturbance, he should not exceed the speed of sound.

Bai Bai Zeming found this very reasonable, so he abandoned the idea and instead reduced his speed.

About twenty minutes later, Bai Bai Zeming returned to his original position and slowly descended onto the rooftop.

After the armor detached from his body and turned back into a briefcase, Bai Bai Zeming picked it up, his eyes shining as he gazed at the city shrouded in night ahead.

Of the good things bought from Shangcheng, besides Spirit Roots, Spirit Stones, and Spirit Objects, he had already tried everything else.

"Then next, it is time to prepare for the upcoming time reversal!"

Thinking of this, Bai Bai Zeming turned and walked down from the rooftop.

To ensure that everything currently would not be altered by Qi Shen, the first thing he needed to confirm was the exact time of the super volcano eruption, which was the time of Qi Shen's Reverse World.

If the time reversal was indeed a full year, then he had only four days left.

However, since he had never lived to the moment of time reversal, he could not be completely certain.

To ensure he could precisely avoid the time reversal, he decided to enter the forbidden zone that magicians avoided, go to Renwu County, and see the super volcano of Yuge Mountain with his own eyes.

……

……

Time flew like a shuttle; in the blink of an eye, two days had passed.

Within those two days, the group members got along quite well with the two newcomers.

Even cautious Ainz was willing to upload various magic knowledge he mastered to the chat group and take out many powerful items to list on the group Shangcheng for low-price sale.

Lin Yu bought many mid-to-high-level weapons and equipment from him and carefully studied this power system originating from the game.

As for the files Ainz uploaded, most came from books and items within the game.

Regarding the magic knowledge inside, Ainz himself actually knew nothing about it.

But Lin Yu was different.

He already mastered the magic of the Frieren world and could apply his knowledge to understand the tiered magic of the Overlord worldview.

In just two days, his proficiency in tiered magic advanced by leaps and bounds; he could now seemingly release ninth-tier magic.

Such an exaggerated speed naturally made Ainz marvel at him as a celestial being, and he couldn't help but humbly ask about the theory of tiered magic.

Judging solely by strength, Ainz's game character body had long since reached the maximum level; let alone the ninth tier, even the supreme-tier magic above the tenth tier, he could release with ease.

However, regarding the tiered magic released through this method, Ainz only knew the result, not the reason.

In terms of magic knowledge and theory, he was actually inferior even to the lowest-level mage in the Other World.

Coupled with the high-intensity chatting over these two days, Ainz developed a slight sense of crisis regarding this unearned power.

He began to gradually change his mindset, wanting to master power that truly belonged to him, just like the other group members.

For this situation, Lin Yu was naturally pleased to see it, so he began teaching Ainz magic in the chat group.

Until the morning of the third day, when the chat group's daily activity reset, Bai Bai Zeming, who had been gone for a day, suddenly appeared and requested Lin Yu's help to implant a Spirit Root.

【Lin Yu: You have been buying the Spirit Root for almost three days now; why are you thinking of implanting it only now?】

【Bai Bai Zeming: Lin Dage, there is no time to explain; hurry up and pull me over!】

……Oh?

Has something happened?

Lin Yu raised an eyebrow, immediately clicked on his name, and sent an invitation.

In an instant, silver light burst forth, condensing into a silver teleportation gate.

Bai Bai Zeming, clad in silver-red armor, burst out of the teleportation gate and crashed straight into the ground of the Samsara Pavilion.

Lin Yu found it amusing, immediately waved his hand to freeze him in mid-air, and asked with interest:

"Tell me, what happened?"

Bai Bai Zeming stabilized his form, let out a long sigh, then removed the faceplate and said with a bitter smile, somewhat frightened: "Almost, just almost; the serum I just injected was wasted!"

"Oh?"

Lin Yu's heart stirred, and he said thoughtfully: "Time reversed?"

(End of this chapter)