Chapter Two: Liang Jing's Awakening Ability

Liang Jing took a full day to rest, primarily to understand his innate supernatural ability. Recalling the white, translucent mysterious rune structure in his sea of consciousness, a smile curled on his lips. All the pain he had endured was finally worth it—even being ignored by everyone, reduced to a fish on the chopping block, was worth it—because the power he awakened was so extraordinary, it was almost defying the heavens. Liang Jing called his ability “Replication.” Yes, he possessed the power to duplicate any object.

This ability was far more powerful and complex than Yang Yuyuan’s fire-type powers, and it took Liang Jing a long time to grasp its nature. Yet, the ability was already astonishingly formidable. Only yesterday, Liang Jing had lamented the destruction of his Warrior Leather Armor during the battle with the Steel-Spined Beast, but while researching his awakened power, he found a solution.

When Liang Jing activated the white, translucent rune in his sea of consciousness, he instinctively understood its purpose. Without thinking, he scanned the damaged Warrior Leather Armor. The rune emitted a white, translucent membrane that enveloped the armor, slowly penetrating its surface. As the membrane seeped through, a dotted three-dimensional model of the armor appeared in his mind, accompanied by a progress bar starting at 0%.

This was the model of the Warrior Leather Armor—the complete version. The progress bar tracked the rune’s scanning of the object’s structure. As the bar advanced—0%...1%...14%...51%...78%...97%...100%—it took less than a minute for the rune to finish scanning the armor. The model was fully generated, and the translucent membrane withdrew into the rune, noticeably dimmed, clearly depleted. Using this innate ability consumed energy, just as Yang Yuyuan’s fireball spell required energy; he could only cast a few dozen before exhausting himself. Fortunately, the leather armor was relatively simple in structure.

The rune then prompted Liang Jing to generate the object. He gave the command without hesitation. The rune began relentlessly drawing the energy awakened within him, which had been slowly circulating in his body. Now, as he used the rune to generate the object, that energy was steadily drained.

Energy from within flowed into the rune, which flashed with complex, mysterious symbols, then released a shimmering, patterned energy into the dotted model of the Warrior Leather Armor.

A miracle occurred.

As the patterned energy filled the model, the armor took shape, growing from a ghostly outline to solid form, emerging from nothing—like divine magic. The progress bar below filled—0%...8%...17%...27%...41%...67%...81%...88%...91%...93%...

Finally, under Liang Jing’s anxious gaze, after about five minutes (his watch, unaffected by electrical energy, kept good time), the progress bar for the Warrior Leather Armor slowly reached completion. The anticipation reminded him of waiting to download romance action films from Japan before the world changed; this time, his spirits soared. He knew the world had transformed, and he no longer needed to console himself with romance films—soon, he would have his own experiences. Liang Jing was nearly moved to tears, inwardly roaring his love for this chaotic, dangerous, and ruthless world. He resolved to overthrow all the helplessness, all the rules and constraints imposed on the downtrodden, to defeat the privileged and seize every gentle maiden. Love was just an illusion; with enough money, anything could be bought. From now on, whenever he saw a girl he liked, he would take her—roaring, roaring... And in a quiet corner of his mind, he whispered that playing with certain women was fine, but he couldn’t accept them as his own, since he was too traditional for that trend.

Truly, Liang Jing, a traditional butcher and bachelor, deserved to be nearly thirty and still without a wife, even a lecherous virgin with repressed desires—he had brought it on himself. If he wouldn’t accept certain women as wives in modern China, he’d have to go to kindergarten to find a young girl and raise her himself. But as a downtrodden man, even with modest demands, it was hard to find a wife. No matter how many cars or houses he had, those women wouldn’t look at him. Perhaps it was precisely those materialistic women that made Liang Jing so extreme and so traditional—a wounded man is easily broken.

Once the replication was complete, the energy within him was nearly spent. Suppressing his excitement, he shouted in his mind, “Appear!” and looked in satisfaction at the brand-new, flawless Warrior Leather Armor that now lay in his hands, his consciousness fully withdrawn from the sea of consciousness.

The first thing he did upon returning was ignore the emptiness caused by the massive energy depletion and immediately examine the armor. Sure enough, its texture and feel matched the original, and it retained all its attributes.

Warrior Leather Armor—Quality: White, Resistance: 5, Toughness: 10, Weight: 5, Equip Requirement: Strength 1.

Gazing at the pristine, complete armor, every attribute and quality identical, Liang Jing’s heart raced with excitement. Perfect! Identical! With this “Replication” ability, who could still claim that no two leaves are alike in the world?

Looking at the rune in his sea of consciousness—now called the Replication Rune—Liang Jing decided to name it so from now on. Eating Steel-Spined Beast meat, he waited until his energy had recovered enough, then conducted several experiments: pebbles, steel balls, even toothpaste, all could be replicated successfully, consuming little energy. However, replicating living beings was much more troublesome; even scanning them took much longer and required vast amounts of energy, let alone creating a duplicate.

If the energy was insufficient and replication failed, he would end up dizzy and exhausted, as if he had spent a night in intense activity with a beauty, his essence drained, feeling hollow and unreal.

In conclusion, replication consumed his internal energy. As long as his energy was sufficient and his level wasn’t vastly different from the item to be replicated, he could duplicate it without issue—the only variable was the time required. For example, he managed to replicate a mosquito that hadn’t mutated, though it seemed rather bewildered and low in intelligence, much like a newborn.

None of this dampened Liang Jing’s mood. This innate ability was absolutely extraordinary. It wasn’t just about replication; in fact, calling it replication didn’t fully capture its scope. The Replication Rune (white, translucent rune) operated in two steps: first, scanning and analyzing the dotted three-dimensional structure. If Liang Jing possessed relevant knowledge, he could even understand the composition of the scanned object—a magnificent ability. With it, he could gradually learn the structure of mutated monsters, the reasons for their evolution, and the makeup of various items. The second step was generation, which Liang Jing couldn’t comprehend yet; the technology involved was too advanced. He could only use it instinctively, like operating a computer without understanding how it worked—the principles were opaque, dizzyingly complex. All he knew was that energy was channeled in, something appeared from nothing, and the result was a finished product.

His thoughts raced, his steps grew lighter. Though his innate power wasn’t for combat but rather support, its complexity and mystery far surpassed Yang Yuyuan’s, and its impact on his strength was immeasurable—greater even than direct combat abilities…

Everyone, perhaps you’d like to suggest how this innate power could be used? Leave your thoughts and advice in a review…