by N. Heller
"How's it?" Ji Shanqing asked, his voice thick with curiosity, "Did you feel anything different?"
Deun did not reply. His irises suddenly rolled to both sides.
Lin Sanjiu looked at Deun with her eyebrows raised with a question. When she was going to call out to him, her arms began to twitch. And before she could say anything, she was overwhelmed by a spiral of familiar trembling. In an instant, she fell to the ground with a loud thud, and she lost her control over her own body.
[Planar World] had upgraded!
"Sis'!"
She somehow heard her grand prize was calling out to her, but she couldn't hear anything but a muffled voice. It was as if they were communicating underwater.
As she continued to tremble, she felt somebody come near to her and ask, "What's wrong with her?"
It was Deun. Ji Shanqing did not have the bandwidth for Deun's question now.
He yelled, "Move aside!" before went forward to help Lin Sanjiu up from the ground. Then, he froze. He turned his head and looked up again. Deun seemed a lot bigger than he was a few minutes ago.
He stood there like a tower. His towering body blotted the sun and cast a long shadow on the two people below him. On his flat, stupid-looking face, his two eyes were getting further and further away from each other. There was strange light flickering in them.
It was at this moment that the grand prize suddenly realized that Lin Sanjiu still had his portrait in her hand. Turning his head, he saw that the drawing dropping out from her hands.
In the next second, Ji Shanqing and Deun pounced at the drawing at the same time.
The grand prize was nearer, so he got to the drawing before Deun did. He'd covered a larger portion of drawing under his body while Deun only got hold of the corner.
Deun did not dare to use too much strength as he pleaded, "Let go!" for he was afraid of tearing up the icon.
His size wasn't the only thing that had gotten bigger, and his voice had become louder too. Every word that escaped his lips were loud enough to cause buzzing in Ji Shanqing's ears.
Huffing, Ji Shanqing placed the weight of his upper torso on top of the portrait. He couldn't talk now, for he did not know what he should say, and all he wished was that Lin Sanjiu would finish her upgrade soon.
Deun stared at Lin Sanjiu with his two large eyes, which the grand prize did as well. Usually, it didn't take long for an Evolving Ability to finish its upgrade and seeing that Lin Sanjiu would soon recover from her convulsion, Deun moved his flat face closer to the grand prize and roared, "Ha!"
The word carried an immeasurable amount of strength, hitting the grand prize and Lin Sanjiu, who was very near to the grand prize, away. They rolled along the ground for a few yards before stopping.
As for the portrait, it had slipped off from the grand prize's hand and fell on the ground when he was thrown into the air.
"Divine power level 1!" Deun yelled out loud happily. He hunkered down and picked up the portrait from the ground, "I've finally advanced to Divine power level 1!"
Just when his fingers were about to touch the portrait, the portrait was pulled by something further away. As if it had been bestowed with life, the picture continued to skid along the ground a few paces forward.
Stunned, Deun quickly went after it and extended his arm. However, the painting once again slipped away from his fingers. Deun's countenance turned grim. He pounced forward, but his attempt was futile as the portrait once again nimbly avoided him.
Following which, Lin Sanjiu's wavering voice filled his ears, "... What do you think you are doing?"
Raising his head, Deun found that Lin Sanjiu was sitting in front of him. Her eyes were cold and filled with killing intent. She wasn't grabbing the portrait, not that she was able to do so in her current state. The picture just floated in the air, moving around her like a fluttering butterfly.
"Give me the painting. I'm now a god with level 1 divine power," Deun cast a sidelong glance at her, "Hand over the portrait now, lest you want to fall to the mighty force of the punishment of a god!"
The reason he wasn't afraid of Lin Sanjiu was that he saw she was still trembling.
Not only could she not stop shaking like a sieve, but even her Higher Consciousness was also affected. Not pulling the painting to herself wasn't out of a wicked sense of humor, it was just that her Higher Consciousness was acting somewhat erratic right now, and she couldn't control it as smoothly as what she usually did.
Seizing his chance, Ji Shanqing darted in to grab the painting, only to be thrown aside by Deun with a wave of his hand. Stunned, as Lin Sanjiu opened her eyes, Deun's had already pounced in front of her. Her vision turned black, and a sharp pain spread across her face. Like her grand prize, she was flung away as well.
"You have entered secondary school!" Mrs. Manas' voice rang out in her mind, and she sounded surprised, "Who could've thought that both of your abilities would upgrade at the same time!"
Torn in between the throbbing pain and the surge of fatigue, Lin Sanjiu thought she had heard Mrs. Manas wrong. At this moment, Deun, who had neutralized both her grand prize and her with practiced ease, strode towards the portrait in large steps, muttering, "Phew, he almost crushed my portrait."
It seemed that the portrait was wholly denied to be his possession. He was very close to the painting, yet Lin Sanjiu thwarted his effort by pulling the painting to her hand using her Higher Consciousness when his fingertips touched the concaves and convexes of the painting.
In the next second, the portrait vanished in her palm as she had turned it into her card.
Deun froze. He did not become smaller, but his face was growing redder until his whole countenance was scarlet with anger.
"Why can't you just give it to met?" The big guy exploded, sending his booming voice reverberating loud and far into the distance. It was apparent that the disappearance of the card did not affect his "divine power" at all, "That's my portrait! It's Mine! Give it to me! Now!"
"You still have your divine power even though I have put the painting away?" Lin Sanjiu asked with a low voice after she had calmed down her body. Her cheeks were flushed in red with exhilaration. It was as if she was delighted with the changes inside of her, "Hmm, interesting… Well, let's see what I can do now."
Deun came to a mental halt, as he did not understand what she meant. However, it did not stop the bloke that had just attained divine power from unleashing his rage. He gave out a loud cry, and without moving an inch, he sent another wave of energy towards Lin Sanjiu and her grand prize.
"That's right," Lin Sanjiu commented, as a knowing grin appeared across her face.
Deun stood stock-still, yelling and shouting in rage for two seconds straight. Then, he came to a sudden stop. A bewilderment expression was written entirely on his face, "Y-y-you destroyed my portrait? But it couldn't be..."
"Nope, I didn't," Lin Sanjiu waved her hand, calling upon the painting onto her hand.
Deun listened, mouth agape with incredulity.
[Congratulations on leveling up! [Planar World]-- level 4, and School of Higher Consciousness - Secondary School]
Description: Nobody had ever expected that, under the stimulation of external forces, these two abilities would level up at the same time. Since the timing and the trigger point of the level-up was too close, there are some reaction happened which given rise to a connection in between the two abilities
Active Ability: Planar World, School of Higher Consciousness
Level-up count: 4, High School
Forecast Date of Next Level-up: Oh my gosh! Have you not given up yet?
Level-up Benefit: The weight limit of a single conversion has now reached 4 tons, and you can now convert up to 64 items per day. If it continues to double like that, I believe that one day the number will become so big that I can't show it anymore. The depictions on the [Planar World] remained the same. The main upgrade of this level-up is the inconspicuous blank space below the picture.
The two upgraded a
bilities must be used together to bring out the best effect of them. Please follow the instruction as below.
First, release your Higher Consciousness.
Secondly, once your Higher Consciousness has touched your opponent's attack, activate the "Esthesis."
Next, once you have felt your opponent's attack, put your hand on top of the blank space of any cards. Let's use the [Tissue Paper] as an example.
Then, your opponent's attack will be turned into a card.
Finally, the "attack" that has been turned into a card will adhere to the [Tissue Paper]. If you wish to release the "attack," just throw the tissue paper.
In other words, Lin Sanjiu could now use her Higher Consciousness, in place of her hand, to turn an item into a card. Not only that, she was, too, able to convert a formless object into a card. However, there's a flaw in this ability as it would be rendered useless if her opponent's attack had overpowered her own.
Clearly, the so-called "Divine power level 1" of Deun was still far from reaching the maximum output of Lin Sanjiu.
Chapter 526 - An Old Friend
In the few hours before the next day arrived, Lin Sanjiu and her grand prize had found something new to waste time away. Both of them kept Deun by their side, conducting various kind of experiments on him, and the first thing they did was strip him n.a.k.e.d.
It seemed that the word embarrassing wasn't in Deun's dictionary. He was unconcerned even though he was in his birthday suit, sitting with his legs crossed and allowing the two people to study him.
"None," the grand prize ran his eyes here and there, up and down Deun's body multiple times to be certain that Deun had not deceived them, "He doesn't have any genitals."
"I didn't like that thing, so I took it off," said Deun, crestfallen, "I cannot understand why some gods would keep that. It's troublesome. It kept swinging here and there while I'm walking."
"He can remove his man parts just like that?"
"So where did these gods come from, and what species are they?"
Two questions flashed though Lin Sanjiu's mind in an instant.
Lin Sanjiu knew she wouldn't be able to get any answers at the moment, so she returned Deun's tattered shirt to him. Ever since Deun had grown bigger, his shirt had become larger as well. According to Deun, this was also the effect of "Divine power."
Divine power level 1 needed one idol, while level 2 needed two idols. When a god had reached level 3, he or she required four idols to advance into the next level. At level 4, such requirement doubled to 8. In short, the number of idols demanded would be increased twofold for each level, and the size of the idol must correspond to the height of the particular god.
If it wasn't possible to build a huge idol, they had to compensate it with numbers. This also explained the massive number of Deva's idols inside her territory.
And to them, Level 5 was a watershed in the divine power development.
Leaping from 16 to 32 might not sound like that much, but when you had to paint each drawing and carve each idol manually with your hands, it became a tiresome task. Even with the aid of her Special Items, Lin Sanjiu still needed a long time to finish drawing 32 portraits of Deun, let alone those "Inhuman" who sculpted and painted the god's idols with their own hands.
The maximum items she could convert into a card in one day was 64. Hence, after Lin Sanjiu had helped Deun level to Divine power level 6, she put the [Unfinished Drawing] away.
"What are you doing?" Rumor said that it was easy for a frugal person to become extravagant but very difficult to reverse the process. And now that Deun had tasted blood, he refused to return to his previously poor state. He stomped his feet in fury as he shook his body eagerly, "Why did you stop? Keep it going!"
Lin Sanjiu gave him a sidelong glance, ignored him, and focused on the [White Towel].
The [White Towel] was a resource she collected from Kisaragi Train Station. For the same item, she had another eight bundles inside her card. Whenever Deun's divine power leveled up, she would take out a towel and force Deun to throw an attack at her. Then, she stored those attacks in the card of [White Towel]. Right now, she had six cards containing divine power attacks, and she had a hunch that she was closing in on her cap.
Although she couldn't test it, she surmised that her maximum output should be comparable to that of Divine power level 9 or level 10.
"That's too weak..." She sighed inwardly, expressing dismay at her own capabilities.
Seeing that Lin Sanjiu wasn't going to paint him any more portraits, Deun muttered under his breath, "I'm a True God! Can't she show me some respect?"
He had seen with his own eyes that Lin Sanjiu had turned all his portraits into a card, and all the attacks he had thrown at her did not work at all, vanishing into the ether before they even touched her. Deun was desperate, but he couldn't do anything. He paced back and forth, impatiently to let off his steam.
He was now as tall as a three-story building, and he could hold both the grand prize's legs in his palm without sweating. However, even with his towering size, he couldn't do anything to Lin Sanjiu
The night screen came down. Lin Sanjiu and the grand prize decided to call it a day after they had enough of toying with Deun for the day. The moon was bright, and even with the white fog, there was some moonlight on the ground below coating the village with a bright silvery gleam, giving the village a cold and serene ambiance that looked like a utopia of peace and happiness away from the turmoil of the world.
The grand prize started a fire in the center of an opening. The orange-red hue licked up into the sky and created a stark contrast with the silver glow of the moon. As the colors played off one another, their surroundings became warmer. Since the dilapidated houses and beds had been flattened to the ground, they had no other alternatives left but to spread a mat on the ground and sleep under the sky. Then, the grand prize cooked a large pot of mee soup, topped with a few bird eggs and a huge chunk of spam.
Of course, Deun was left out of this dinner as well.
"You can go to sleep first." After they had their stomach filled, Lin Sanjiu called out to her grand prize, "I've leveled up, so I want to try whether or not I can enter Astral Plane tonight."
"How about him?" The grand prize pointed his finger at the giant shadow far away from them, "We can't just leave him there. It's too dangerous."
"Check and see whether [Notebook] has any Special Items that we can use to restrain him," Lin Sanjiu said after a short contemplation, "We can still keep him. His Divine Power is pretty useful."
Put everything else aside, for the very least he could provide her a limitless of supply of Divine power level 6's attack.
"Alright then," Ji Shanqing answered, and just as he took the [Notebook], the shadow, which looked as huge as a hill suddenly screamed and ran towards the outside of the village.
"He heard our conversation?" The grand prize asked, his countenance was blank with perplexity.
"Gosh, I have never seen a god as stupid as him," Lin Sanjiu cursed impatiently. She went after Deun, "All his portraits are with me now, where does he think he could run to?"
Although Deun was intellectually-challenged, his speed as a god with Divine power level 6 was something to be reckoned with. He soon covered half of the mountain in a matter of second. Since her grand prize was in the village, Lin Sanjiu did not dare to go too far away. Just when she was going to release her Higher Consciousness, the shadow in front suddenly stopped and stood in a trance under the sky.
Stunned, before she could grasp the whole situation, she saw Deun had run towards her.
"What the hell—"
She never had a chance to finish her sentence. With the help from the moonlight, she saw Deun face, ashen-white and entirely written with fears. Her blood went cold.
She raised her head and looked ahead. Before her lay chain of undulating mountains, standing silently amongst the dark. The birds had stopped chirping, and only the whistle of the wind could be heard. When Deun ran past her,
she extended her arm and clutched at his large-as-a-flag hem, hissing, "What the hell have you seen?"
Deun shouted uncontrollably, a mindless scream of pure fear sliced over the silent of the night. They began to fall as soon as they were flung into the air. When Lin Sanjiu looked down, the thing below that met her eyes had made her heart stopped jumping for a moment.
The grass and the trees were all uprooted, and as if somebody had installed a zipper on it, the forest ground beneath their feet had opened up, slowly revealing the darkness within.
The entire forest was a terrible mess. The rocks, grasses, tree roots, everything in the forest was swaying along with the vibration. As the ground was torn asunder, all of them fell into the void below. For a moment, the soil and the mud flowed together, and the moon dimmed. Deun was tall, standing at the height of a small building yet now he looked just like a piece of rice stuck to the corner of a lip compared to the black emptiness that had just revealed itself.
Lin Sanjiu's mind raced, and as she thought it was another dimensional rift, or perhaps too much sand and mud had fallen into it, a long stretch of dark red suddenly rushed out from the bottomless void. However, there was too much sand and soil disrupting her vision, so she couldn't see the entirety of the being very well in the dark. Thrashing and falling fast in the air, Lin Sanjiu made a desperate attempt by flourishing her [Tornado Whip] around, thrusting herself away from the "zipper" and successfully avoided the fate of being gobbled up by the giant crack.
When she turned around in midair, she caught the full picture of the deep red thing that swung madly in the air.
It was a large, meaty tongue.
The surface of the fleshy and flexible tongue was coated with a thick layer of yellowish-white fur. After it had extended itself out of the black hole—Lin Sanjiu now knew that it was a mouth—she found there was a layer of sticky saliva glazing over the two sides of the tongue, flickering under the moonlight.