CHAPTER 97: CHAPTER 97: COULD THIS GUY BE A REINCARNATOR? (TWO IN ONE)

EDITOR: DRAGON BOAT TRANSLATION

Ren Suo blinked, a thought suddenly striking him.

The Pangolin suddenly started to run out. Huo Liang hurriedly followed, "Wait, don’t go—"

The house wasn’t large, just two bedrooms and a living room. Even if Pangolins have poor vision, the calendar would definitely be hung in an obvious place. As soon as Ren Suo came out, he saw the calendar placed on the cabinet, prompting the Pangolin to scurry up to it in a whiff of smoke.

Displayed on the calendar was the information for today.

"May Xth, Lunar Calendar X month X day, auspicious for marriage..."

However, as the Pangolin gazed at it, the "May" on the calendar suddenly changed to "X month X day"!

When the Player was not paying attention, it defaulted to May. But when they did take notice, it refused to accurately reveal even that piece of information.

Seeing this, how could Ren Suo not realize that the game’s setting was either in a parallel universe or the future? According to the traits of the Mini-World Game Console, this was most likely the future! As soon as he uploaded his game, everything he played would become a reality manifested in the future!

So, am I controlling the future Pangolin, causing the world lines to converge and affect the present? Or did the Mini-World Game Console calculate the entire universe, knowing the complete future and all its changes? But why doesn’t the game want me to know the exact time of this future?

These meaningless and unverifiable thoughts were quickly interrupted because Huo Liang picked up the Pangolin and said seriously, "—I want to become stronger, Pangolin, teach me!"

"I can provide for you! Become my divine beast!"

The Pangolin slapped his hand away with a paw and slipped into the room to pick up a floor tile.

Has this kid read too many novels? Ren Suo mused. Does he really think he can just randomly find a divine beast? This is an illness; it must be cured! I’m out of here. My time is extremely precious, and the damn World’s Strongest’s Combat Power has gone up by a few hundred again!

Huo Liang, seeing the Pangolin struggle free, knew its answer and felt very dejected, slumping against the wall. However, he saw the Pangolin didn’t leave after picking up the floor tile but stood in the living room, looking up.

"Hm?" Huo Liang looked up and saw a small light bulb hanging in the living room.

His living room had incandescent fluorescent tubes for nighttime use and a small light bulb for after going to bed. The small bulb provided basic, energy-saving, and non-glaring illumination for him and his mother during nighttime trips to the bathroom.

"Do you want it?" Huo Liang asked the Pangolin.

At this moment, dialogue options rarely appeared on the screen—

① Nod

② Shake head

Ren Suo naturally chose to shake his head.

"Ah?" Huo Liang was surprised. "Then what do you want?"

The Pangolin raised its claw, still pointing at the light bulb.

Huo Liang stared at the light bulb for a long time and tentatively asked, "Do you want the lamp holder?"

This time, the Pangolin nodded.

And so, after a while, a forcibly removed lamp holder ended up in the Pangolin’s hands.

’Lamp Holder Used for 36 Years’

’Spiritual Energy Quantity: Minimal’

’Enhanced Evolution Probability: 50%’

’Absorption Time Required: 16 hours and 16 minutes’

’Scorching Heat: Having been used for 36 years, this lamp holder is filled with the Force of thunder, Fiery Flames, and Radiance. Absorbing the Spiritual Energy from this Spiritual Object may enable the activation of the Elemental System evolution in the next Evolve cycle.’

’Exorcism: While in use, this lamp holder can bring Serenity to the hearts of Living Beings and has a scorching effect on demonic entities.’

This really is... a great item! This trip from the countryside to the city was worth it! Ren Suo thought. I can’t believe I found such an awesome Spiritual Object in an ordinary family’s home! This seems to be an old residential building; maybe other rooms have similar treasures!

However, from the Pangolin’s perspective, a weak and aggrieved face was staring at it.

"I took down the lamp holder. Mom is definitely going to scold me severely."

On the screen, Huo Liang gazed at the Pangolin, his hands clasped in supplication. "You’re so spiritual, surely you have a way to make me powerful, right?"

Outside the screen, Ren Suo scratched his face. You better pray that I can get through this save in one go and score high...

***

Me, a fat guy, the kind with acne.

These plain descriptions laid bare Chen Zile’s sadness. Being fat didn’t mean one was deprived of rights; after all, there were always a few miserable students in every class who couldn’t squeeze into the circles of Successful and Showy People, huddling together for warmth. So, Chen Zile still had several good friends in real life.

But privately, Chen Zile loathed his current state. The reason was simple: he was rejected when he confessed in his second year of high school, and the reason for rejection was particularly "touching":

"Ah? You like me because I treat you well? But... but I just want to rub your belly."

The thunderstruck Chen Zile was speechless for a moment before he finally said, "Then... sorry to bother you."

The girl looked at him cautiously and asked, "So, can I still rub your belly in the future?"

From then on, Chen Zile resolved to lose weight.

That resolution lasted three days, with a total exercise amount of two night runs. The second night run was cut short due to leg soreness (from excessive activity the previous day), and he obediently returned home to lie down. He got too hungry in the middle of the night and even got up to look for food.

Originally, Chen Zile had given up dreaming about his future—after all, who would choose hardship if it could be avoided? Fat otakus are the ultimate evolutionary state of humans, he thought, especially after watching "WALL-E," which made him even more convinced of this point. When humans stop working, they all become fatties!

Put simply, he had self-destructed, given up on himself, and tried to use boring fantasies to fight against societal beauty standards.

He thought he was a steadfast member of the "Fat Party," but when Chen Zile was chosen to enter the trials and personally sent a greasy, middle-aged white man to "heaven" with the "Rain P18C," he surrendered.

I want to be a handsome, stylish guy too!

However, in the trials, it’s easy to become handsome and slim; continuing to be fat is the hard part.

If you see Trial Participants who aren’t fat in the trials, then they have surely experienced something more terrifying than obesity in reality: disabilities, congenital diseases, chronic illnesses...

But these people hardly appeared in the third trial, because after they acquired healthy bodies, most of them rushed back to relish the experience in reality.

Chen Zile had met such a person in the first trial. He was a young man from the Mysterious Country who had lost his legs in a car accident. He was almost hopping around everywhere, hugging Chen Zile and laughing heartily, babbling in a Northeastern dialect that Chen Zile couldn’t understand. Finally, he asked Chen Zile to "send him back."

Chen Zile asked, "What if this is all fake? What if you die after ascending to heaven?"

"If I die, then I die," said the young man named Da Wei with a smile. "Whether I die and no longer burden my parents, or I obtain a good pair of legs and go back—either option is much better to me than being a cripple!"

People with disabilities really have it hard. However, being a fat guy isn’t easy either.

Chen Zile didn’t expect that he would actually feel the pain of being fat in the trials.

Who could imagine? After drinking four cans of cola in a row, Chen Zile’s belly almost swelled up, and the Fried Chicken Combo nearly made him vomit. I swear, after I leave this place, I’ll never eat fried chicken or drink that fat-inducing happy water again! he vowed.

In the first two trials, he drank an average of four cans of cola, ate three chocolate bars, and had two Fried Chicken Combos within an hour each game. If it weren’t for Chen Zile’s normally good appetite, he might have actually been sickened by the food.

Fortunately, there was a day to rest after the trials, and the rest area had plenty of entertainment facilities. Chen Zile took this opportunity to go to a manga cafe and thoroughly enjoy a manga series that hadn’t yet been fully fan-translated—it seemed these deities were quite the translation group themselves, he thought.

Now, Chen Zile had already made it into the third and final trial.

He was a lone warrior who had made it through the second trial with strong luck, already endowed with seven Blessings. Apart from adding two levels to "Scorching Heat" X-Ray Vision to guard against prone campers, all the rest went to "Starlight"; even the rewards from the two trial rounds were Starlight.

Yes, Chen Zile mainly used the Sniper Healing Device. Although he was quite fat, he wasn’t nearsighted. On the contrary, he had excellent dynamic vision. He had never lost in a fight, nor had he ever won—he almost always focused on Dodging attacks.

Moreover, he had even touched real guns when traveling abroad with his father and regularly played live-action CS; he was a genuine military enthusiast.

Although making it through the second trial had a lot to do with his extraordinary luck (Pleasure Zones, or safe zones, kept appearing beside him), his marksmanship stood out among all Trial Participants.

After receiving the Starlight Blessing, Chen Zile’s skills in the third trial were further enhanced. His Miraculous Hands Rejuvenation made him a veritable Holy Hand, especially to women. With a red-dot "Glorious 98K," he managed to achieve an outstanding record of "saving" 19 people in just three circle contractions.

A level 5 "Starlight," for Chen Zile, meant his Sniper Healing Device was almost unaffected by wind, electromagnetic waves, and other factors, only influenced by gravity, making aiming almost free of prediction difficulty.

Now the fourth Pleasure Zone was about to shrink, with only 34 people left. Chen Zile positioned himself at the edge of the circle, Calming his Heart and waiting for those outside.

Chen Zile’s strategy of focusing on "Starlight" brought him huge benefits during the second, third, and fourth circles when everyone was running towards the Pleasure Zones, maximizing the advantage of the sniper rifle. However, by the fifth circle, as the zone became too small and everyone’s combat distance shortened, assault-type Healing rifles would reign supreme.

Thus, Chen Zile had to "send" as many other Trial Participants to "heaven" as possible early on, reducing the number of participants in the later circles and minimizing the chances of close-range combat to ensure the advantage of his Sniper Healing Device remained!

RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE—

That’s the sound of the Great Vicious Dragon! Chen Zile thought. What a bunch of fools, actually daring to ride the five-person vehicle, the Great Vicious Dragon? In the Land of Light, the best single-person moving vehicle is indisputably the Flying Thunder Dragon; its lightning-fast speed makes any prediction useless unless you’re very close, making it extremely hard to intercept. Next is the Unicorn Snow-walking Beast, which can block some Healing effects.

Even Chen Zile’s level 5 "Starlight" couldn’t hit the Trial Participants on a Flying Thunder Dragon unless he was standing directly in front of it.

The Great Vicious Dragon, although not slow, had almost no defensive power, turning the Trial Participants riding it into sitting ducks!

Hearing the footsteps of the Great Vicious Dragon drawing nearer, Chen Zile switched to the Glorious 98K, patiently waiting for the vehicle to appear.

It’s reached the back slope of the opposite hill! It’s about to appear!

Just then, Chen Zile heard the footsteps of the Great Vicious Dragon come to a halt.

We’re about to enter the circle; why are you stopping?

Chen Zile estimated the distance with his naked eye and felt reassured. There’s at least a hundred meters between here and the opposite hillside. Even with Max Level "Scorching Heat," they wouldn’t be able to see me.

So—

A flash lit up the opposite hillside, and then Chen Zile’s "Shoddily Made Inferior Dragon Sacrificial Mask" suddenly brightened with a SWISH, blazing with Fiery Flames, frost, and lightning, transforming into the "True Dragon Sacrificial Mask."

But I haven’t ascended to heaven yet! The opponent doesn’t have an enhanced Sniper Healing Device. A level 3 helmet is enough to withstand one shot. My Health Points only rose to 95%. I can still be saved!

Almost instantly, he rolled backward and tumbled down the slope.

This kind of fall wouldn’t trigger Divine Protection, and Chen Zile’s rotund body provided the best possible cushioning at this moment. It took only a few seconds for him to reach the bottom of the hillside, where he hid in a bush like a phantom tank, drinking cola and eating a Fried Chicken Combo!

However, at that moment, a Holy Grenade landed on the ridge and rolled down next to Chen Zile.

"DAMN IT!—"

Even as Chen Zile transformed into a handsome, flat-topped guy with a six-pack, he couldn’t fathom how the opponent knew his location or was so sure he would be hiding in the bushes to Heal. It definitely wasn’t "Scorching Heat"; "Scorching Heat" doesn’t have such a terrifying range! And the timing was very tight. Chen Zile considered the throwing distance of the grenade. The opponent must have charged over immediately after shooting my helmet, reached the ideal distance, and then thrown the Holy Grenade over the hillside. That’s the only way I wouldn’t even have finished my fried chicken before ascending directly to heaven. Was it their skill? No, it was my own perfect reception of their attack. Rather than calling it skill, it’s more like... they knew exactly where I was, how I would react, and where I would hide! Keep in mind, I hadn’t fired a single shot from that location, was wearing tactical camouflage gear, and was motionless in the bushes. It was absolutely impossible to spot me from a distance! That person’s actions were as if they had experienced it all before. Like someone who had been through this trial, loaded a previous save game, and was doing it all over again.

Therefore, Chen Zile took advantage of his last moments before ascending to deeply imprint the image of the person—another fatty—who had sent him to heaven into his memory.

That person’s bizarre behavior and apparent foresight reminded me of a popular internet buzzword lately. And considering the many odd events recently, with the state even preparing to open a Cultivator School, the appearance of anything wouldn’t be surprising. Could it be... this guy is a Reincarnator!?