The skill upgrade functions attached to the Add-on LV3 and LV4 were already selected by Xia Yu to prevent accidents like what happened to Yin Shulan. Immediately after gaining enhancements from the brown bear, he allocated the points accordingly.
Now, the three skills he obtained from the brown bear were at the following levels:
Endurance LV4, Strength LV3, Bipedal Walking LV2.
Next, he started reviewing the rewards offered by Add-on LV3 and LV4.
The optional rewards for LV3 include: Hosted AI Personality, Skill Upgrade to LV5, and Add-on Solidification.
The optional reward for LV4 included: Body Retrieval Opportunity, Skill Upgrade to LV6, and Marker Slot.
For the LV3 reward, Xia Yu didn’t hesitate—he chose Add-on Solidification. However, the LV4 reward made him hesitate.
During the brown bear incident, he fully realized that modern society was an era of firearms. If he had had a firearms skill at that time, combined with the brown bear’s physical abilities, he could have taken on all encountered squads single-handedly, escaping in a rampage.
Although public order in District One wasn’t as chaotic as in other districts, it was still better to prepare for firearms-related skills.
Therefore, he was quite tempted by the Body Retrieval reward. However, the Skill Upgrade to LV6, which could elevate a LV5 skill to LV6, also strongly attracted him.
The Skill Upgrade to LV6 had only appeared twice so far: once during the previous exam mission and now here—making it extremely rare. In contrast, Body Retrieval Opportunities were relatively common, randomly appearing from Add-on LV3 rewards.
After hesitating briefly, Xia Yu ultimately chose the Skill Upgrade to LV6.
His current skills were:
[Pharmaceuticals LV6, Music LV5, Exam-oriented Education LV5, Dexterity LV4, Programming LV4, Endurance LV4, Dressing LV3, Language LV3, Coquetry LV3, Business LV3, Painting LV3, Comfort LV3, Massage LV3, Strength LV3, Inspiration LV3, Martial Arts LV3, Intimidation LV2, Makeup LV2, Driving LV2, Mental Therapy LV2, Ikebana LV2, Buddhist Philosophy LV2, Bipedal Walking LV2, Night Vision LV1, Elegance LV1, Video Games LV1, Telepathy LV1, Dexterity Add-on LV1, Exam-oriented Education Add-on LV1].
Xia Yu didn’t immediately choose a target for Add-on Solidification. He planned to use it on firearms skills later, so he could go practice at the shooting range. He didn’t believe that the identity he entered would easily provide access to guns or afford wasted bullets.
As for the remaining skill upgrade, without hesitation, he allocated it to Music.
With Music at LV6, he should be able to compose the piece “Spirit of the Wilderness.”
Compared to a firearms skill that would likely go unused, his personal interests in life were more important. After all, District One was a peaceful district. Even if there were gunmen, one or two wouldn’t be any match for Xia Yu.
Then, picking up his phone, Xia Yu sent messages to An Siyao, Xu Youxiang, and others, explaining his disappearance for the past three days.
Everything was settled now, so Xia Yu pulled the covers over himself. Although the system ensured he slept on time every day and his body wasn’t physically tired, the three-day escape had left him utterly exhausted.
As he drifted off to sleep, he vaguely thought: the brown bear had reached the point of entrusting its life to him, yet its affinity was only LV4. Then what kind of LV4 was You Xue?
This girl was such a brother complex, always eagerly offering women to her brother.
He couldn’t figure it out and eventually fell asleep.
In the afternoon, when he woke up, the first thing he saw were a pair of eyes very close to his.
They belonged to An Siyao’s eyes.
Seeing him awaken, An Siyao was delighted.
But Xia Yu was startled for a moment. Anyone waking up to find someone staring at them would feel a bit creeped out.
To get back at her, he raised his head and lightly kissed An Siyao’s lips.
The girl immediately blushed and turned her head away.
Satisfied, Xia Yu got up from bed and saw You Xue standing at the foot of the bed and Hu Lianglu standing outside the door.
This made Xia Yu a little embarrassed.
What should one do when caught being intimate with their girlfriend by their younger sister and the girlfriend’s best friend?
He decided to act as if nothing had happened.
After getting up, Xia Yu and the others went to An Siyao’s villa to play.
Spending half a day with An Siyao, the next day Xia Yu visited Xu Youxiang to soothe the restless girl.
Then, on the morning of the third day, he began thinking about the issue of firearms talent.
Based on past experience, he gave up on searching for it himself and instead focused on how to obtain a Body Retrieval Opportunity.
By raising someone else’s affinity (Add-on) to LV3, there might be a Body Retrieval option among the three choices offered.
He checked the affinity levels of everyone in his list.
You Xue LV4, An Siyao LV3, Xu Youxiang LV3, Wen Ziying LV2, Black Cat LV2, White Cat LV1.
Wen Ziying and the Black Cat were the most likely candidates to be raised to LV3.
Wen Ziying wasn’t easy to fool. Her LV2 affinity was obtained only after she self-initiated a confession and shared her family situation with Xia Yu. Raising Wen Ziying’s affinity to LV3 in a short time seemed quite challenging.
Xia Yu turned his gaze to the Black Cat by the window.
“Meow?” The Black Cat sensed something ominous and immediately got up to run.
Of course, Xia Yu wouldn’t let it escape. Using Free Selection, he entered the Black Cat’s body.
Shaking his body and scratching his chin, Xia Yu adjusted to the Black Cat’s body and started walking.
Although it had been a long time since he last used the Black Cat, Xia Yu still had the feel for it. He walked out of the room and into the small living room outside, where You Xue was watching TV on the sofa.
Seeing the Black Cat, the girl waved at it: “Xiaohei, come here!”
Xia Yu approached the sofa and, with a push from his back legs, jumped from the ground.
It had been several months since he last used the Black Cat body. While walking was no problem, he encountered issues when attempting to jump.
With a thud, he fell back to the ground.
The scene instantly became awkward.
Lying on the ground for two seconds, Black Cat Yu rolled on the floor, pretending the fall was a deliberate maneuver, not a mistake.
“You clumsy fat cat, you can’t even jump anymore.” You Xue saw through Black Cat Yu’s trick and picked him up, stroking his fur.
“You’re the one who’s fat!” Black Cat Yu patted the girl’s leg. The softness had definitely increased.
Normally, You Xue would argue that she hadn’t gained weight, but now her attention was completely focused on the fact that the Black Cat had just spoken.
Startled, she immediately dropped the cat.
Black Cat Yu landed steadily on the sofa and tidied his fur: “What, you don’t recognize me just because I’m speaking?”
You Xue protectively put her hands in front of her chest, asking in confusion: “Brother?”
“It’s me.” Xia Yu answered.
Hugging the Black Cat again, You Xue looked at it in astonishment: “So you can speak even when you’re in an animal’s body?”
“At first, I couldn’t. Later, I could.” Xia Yu answered.
Originally, an animal’s body structure wasn’t suitable for human speech. When he first entered the cat’s body, Xia Yu had tried speaking—it was extremely difficult and the words were hard to distinguish.
Moreover, a speaking animal was too shocking, so he didn’t try again until the brown bear incident. At that time, he had prepared for pronunciation difficulties but was surprised to find the bear spoke smoothly.
Generally speaking, this should have been impossible. Later, Xia Yu figured out the reason.
It was due to the effect of Language LV3 he had obtained from Wen Ziying.
“But, why do you sound like a little girl’s voice?” You Xue asked again. This was also the reason she had been frightened into dropping Black Cat Yu.
Xia Yu remained silent. He couldn’t explain this. What could he do if the Black Cat just had a little girl’s voice? He was equally desperate!
Previously, when he tried speaking as the Black Cat, due to pronunciation difficulties, he had made grating, awkward sounds. This time, after optimization from Language LV3, the true timbre was revealed. He only realized the situation after speaking, otherwise he would never have opened his mouth.
After all, the bear had a hoarse, neutral voice, so why did the Black Cat become a soft, cute little girl’s voice?
Putting Black Cat Yu down, You Xue pondered for a moment, then looked at him with expectation: “Since you can speak now, does that mean next time you can become a cat girl?”
“Abandon that dangerous idea!” Xia Yu replied.
“Hehe.” After petting the Black Cat twice more, You Xue continued watching her TV show.
Xia Yu yawned, thinking about how to deepen the Black Cat’s affinity.
Last time, reaching LV2 was by letting the Black Cat eat its long-coveted goldfish—two of them. Now, should he feed it four goldfish?
Xia Yu felt this was somewhat unreliable. Last time, the Black Cat wanted to eat fish because You Xue had bought goldfish and placed them there, letting the cat see them every day but never allowing it to eat them. Thus, the cat developed a strong desire to devour the goldfish.
To repeat this, he would probably need to buy several more goldfish and place them in front of the Black Cat for about ten days.
He decided to start by working on daily life interactions.
After sunbathing on the balcony for a while, Xia Yu had You Xue take him to a nearby pet store.
Upon arriving at the store, he looked around the shelves and began pointing with his cat paw.
You Xue had the clerk pack everything the Black Cat pointed at and returned home.
After helping the Black Cat experience all the purchased items, Xia Yu received a disappointingly indifferent response.
The cat tree wasn’t fun? The fish jerky wasn’t delicious?
Xia Yu couldn’t understand why the Black Cat showed no reaction at all. He pondered what the Black Cat usually liked to do.
He didn’t know the answer. Although the Black Cat’s nest was in his room, he hardly paid attention to it.
Approaching You Xue’s feet, Xia Yu glanced at the height of the sofa, felt the wind direction, performed precise calculations in his mind, then leaped, landing steadily on You Xue’s lap.
His actual target was beside You Xue, but since he made it up anyway, it wasn’t a big issue.
When Black Cat Yu reached her feet, You Xue had already noticed him and wasn’t startled by his sudden jump.
“You Xue.” Black Cat Yu spoke.
“Hmm?” The girl responded.
She was somewhat puzzled. Her brother hadn’t used the Black Cat’s body in a long time; he only occasionally petted it when passing by. Why did he suddenly remember the Black Cat today and even bought so many things for it?
Originally, You Xue thought her brother was tired of being human and wanted to experience cat-like playfulness. But after playing briefly, he stopped.
“What does Xiaohei usually like to do?” Xia Yu got to the point.
“Sleep and get his fur stroked.” You Xue answered.
Xia Yu thought for a moment and decided to combine both. He fetched a pillow with his mouth, lay on it to sleep, let You Xue stroke his fur, and focused his telepathic ability on You Xue.
The comfortable kindness from You Xue, combined with the soft pillow beneath him and her gentle stroking, soon lulled Xia Yu into sleep.
After confirming the Black Cat was asleep, You Xue placed him on her lap.
She felt that maybe Xia Yu missed her after being away for three days and, not wanting to act clingy in his original form, chose the Black Cat’s body to indulge in a form of self-deception.
What a helpless brother. You Xue sighed.
Not knowing how long he slept, Xia Yu drowsily woke up but didn’t open his eyes, continuing to enjoy this rare tranquility.
Although humans are social animals, they aren’t necessarily fond of noise. Occasionally, they need some quiet time alone.
When in his own body, Xia Yu always had to accompany various women or play different games. Now, in the Black Cat’s body, he didn’t need to do anything—feeling relaxed and pleasant.
Rolling over, Black Cat Yu asked You Xue to scratch his belly.
After eight hours like this, he returned to his own body.
The Black Cat’s Add-on remained at LV2 without change, but Xia Yu gained rare comfort.
He planned when to do this again, this time inviting An Siyao to stroke him.
After An Siyao, he could try Liu Manman, Hu Lianglu, Yu Ningmeng, and others.
Tomorrow, he would visit Wen Ziying, and the day after, take the Black Cat to An Siyao’s.
After making these decisions, Xia Yu played games.
Two days later, on December 4th, Xia Yu logged into Wen Ziying’s body.
After a moment of darkness, what he saw was an unfamiliar ceiling.
It was Wen Ziying’s ceiling—Xia Yu was seeing it for the first time.
“Feeling unwell?” Xia Yu asked Wen Ziying. It was already 9 a.m., and Wen Ziying should have woken up at 7.
“No.” Wen Ziying’s voice was somewhat cold. Coldness could imply either distance or concealment.
Looking around, Xia Yu picked up the phone by the pillow, opened the screen, and saw a forum page.
This forum belonged to a TV station, where people could discuss TV programs. The forum had high traffic, nearly the largest entertainment forum in the country, with many celebrities using it to make announcements, bypassing newspapers.
This forum already had some characteristics of a microblog, and he wondered when Yu Ningmeng planned to launch the microblog project.
Putting that matter aside for now, Xia Yu looked at the screen. Wen Ziying was browsing a thread titled “White Bird.”
Xia Yu initially thought the girl was lamenting “White Bird” for being a potential masterpiece ruined by the female lead’s acting.
But after glancing at the thread’s content, he realized he was wrong. Compared to what the thread described, the failure of “White Bird” was relatively mild.
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