RNP Page 23
Page 23
After all, no one can maintain hope and rationality when they know they are essentially dead.
[But you're no ordinary person. Knowing that you're simulating something, you're not afraid at all. Not only are you not afraid, but you're also staring intently at the chest of Black Swallow's close-fitting vest, trying to find meaning in life in that swaying motion.]
"Don't slander me!" Latis said righteously, giving Serfar a fierce look as his breasts rose and fell with his breath, and spat out a disdainful remark:
"Nothing more than that!"
He subconsciously lingered his gaze on the soft, mountain-like mound beneath the red feathered robe, then continued looking at the simulated text.
[You've been diligently observing Black Flash Swallow's work from inside the container for a week. The black-haired, bespectacled girl in overalls is just too adorable. As a soul, you've broken free from the shackles of worldly morality and become a purer, more serpentine being.]
Finally, the day arrived when she finished her preparations. Inside the container, you saw her look up and make a heart shape with her hands. A warm feeling welled up inside you, and you couldn't help but think, "Is this what it feels like to fall in love?"
You look down, only to be horrified to find that she has already opened your chest, poured some hot water over it, cupped your heart in her hands, and then, with a captivating smile, made a heart shape with her hands again.
"Don't you dare mess with my heart!" you angrily cursed, then sighed, "Fine, my heart was shattered into pieces by my good sister who rejected me the year we graduated."
As your body gradually deactivated, you could clearly feel your soul becoming freer. However, at that very moment, you saw Black Swallow inject something into your limbs. She raised her head, tilted it in thought for a moment, and wrote to you: "Activation potion."
A powerful gravitational pull suddenly swept over you, and you could feel your body, which had just gained freedom, instantly losing it. You gritted your teeth, resisting the sensation, and silently muttered, "Looks like I'm about to be stuffed into an all-in-one machine like a CPU..."
As if sensing your thoughts, your limbs began to struggle against the gravitational pull directed at you, and the way they struggled was...
Your right arm is curled up, your magnificent biceps bulging high; while your left arm, not to be outdone, is doing a reverse Russian push-up!
The right leg was rather mediocre, just spinning like a propeller; while the left leg took a different approach, hanging high from the chandelier and performing pull-ups at a rate of ten times per second!
[Powerful, truly powerful! As expected of Latis's limbs, they are practically innate warrior bodies!]
"Damn it! He's slandering me!" Latis slammed his head against Serfal's stomach with a thud. Serfal's eyes opened slightly, then rolled back.
Four mentors have turned their backs on you. Which one will you choose?! As your body gradually dies and your limbs become increasingly detached, you must immediately choose a force to embrace your body!
"I don't want to live such an abstract life!!" you howl in despair, plunging headfirst into the descending tunnel, struggling to maintain your balance against the four powerful forces of gravity, intending to return to your main body!
Suddenly, you feel a tiny gravitational pull, independent of your limbs, vibrant and perfectly attuned to you. Overjoyed, you shout, "As long as it's not those four abstract creatures!" and then rush in without hesitation!
[After a long while, you open your eyes and suddenly find Hei Shan Yan, looking embarrassed and annoyed, muttering curses at you while writing in her magic notebook. Her writing posture looks like that of a primary school student, a stark contrast to her intellectual appearance.]
For some reason, you felt your perspective could rise and fall. Finding it amusing, you tried it several times until you saw the extremely embarrassed and angry Blackfly aggressively approaching you, grabbing you with both hands, and violently shaking you up and down before you finally calmed down, feeling dizzy.
You took a deep breath, looked down, and found your legs, now limp, lying on either side of you. Looking forward, your gaze swept over your eighteen-pack abs and then over your own stubble-covered chin.
"Wait, this location..." You suddenly broke out in a cold sweat, looked around in disbelief, remained silent for a long time, and muttered to yourself:
"How come I woke up one morning and now my surname is Niu (牛)?"
Chapter 37 Brother Niu's 365 Days
[After being reluctantly cared for by Ms. Blackfly, your new form has stabilized, and you have gradually accepted the fact that your height has regressed to only 20 centimeters.]
Just like Tiga has Shiny Tiga and Black Tiga, you, Latias, also have an additional "Bull Latias" form. You even added a further subdivision, calling it "Hard Latias" and "Soft Latias." However, considering that "Soft Latias" doesn't sound very good, you changed it to "Super Hard Latias" and "Hard Latias."
[For Ms. Blackflash Swallow, your all-in-one machine experiment was undoubtedly a success, but it didn't achieve its intended purpose. If it were her hand that became the all-in-one machine, you could undoubtedly greatly accelerate the calculation speed of the magic notebook; if it were her feet, you could also serve as the power source for her alchemy hut, intelligently considering her walking routes.]
But why, why are you a bull?
"Huh?" Latis's gaze was blank, seemingly calm and expressionless, but in reality, he had been gone for a while.
[Ms. Black Swallow thought for a long time but couldn't figure out how to use you. She had no choice but to keep you in her pocket to observe and record the all-in-one machine's operation.]
[But this still bothered her, because as an engineering student who often keeps her hands in her pockets, having you in her pocket made it impossible for her to fully extend her arms. She had no choice but to force herself to get used to the way she held you, and surprisingly, sometimes it was quite comfortable, like having a hand warmer.]
[And you, as the bull involved, are also quite troubled. After all, you don't have a mouth and can't communicate with Black Swallow, so you can't tell her that even as a strong man with bat-like back muscles, you can't endure a workout like "super deadlifts" all day long. What's more, Black Swallow's hands are a bit cold, making your muscles feel very intense during "super deadlifts," resulting in a huge buildup of lactic acid, making you incredibly sore.]
Time passed day by day. Sometimes, you would sneak away when Black Swallow forgot to pay attention to you to look through her magic notebook, and then silently appear on the ground when she couldn't find you, making her involuntarily pat her forehead and sigh that she had forgotten again.
[Blackfly's magic notebook records her various studies and inner journey since she first encountered magic at the age of seven. You learn, bit by bit, that she is a wandering adventurer from the United Nations of Yanium, a country on the other side of the Atlantic continent, who, after vaguely traversing the floating islands, became lost in the foreign land of the Kingdom of Norard.]
Although the United Nations of Yanium is not a nation completely covered by the goddess of magic and the magic network like the Kingdom of Norard, it also highly reveres the power of magic.
However, as a child, Yashutia (who wasn't yet called Blackflash Swallow) found the simple and brutal magic styles, such as Evocation, that were popular in the magical world utterly boring. After logging onto the magic network once and witnessing this magical world that rejected the necromancy faction, she stopped studying mainstream magic and instead devoted herself to studying alchemy, which was related to life, death, and creation.
[Having left society at a young age to live alone in the wilderness, Yashutia lacked common sense of morality and ethics; she was only devoted to her beloved pursuits and tirelessly sought new knowledge.]
Based on the progress you've seen so far, she's basically mastered ordinary animal creations and has moved on to human creations. However, it seems she hasn't come into contact with anything like the magical golems or mechanical creations you've heard of, such as the magic tower the pony used, or other devices you perceive as belonging to alchemy.
"It seems that even among alchemists, there is specialization," you thought to yourself, flipping through a few more pages while Black Flash Swallow carried the wrench to work on the legs of the Golden Hut.
The Magic Notes mention an organization called the "Adventurers' Guild," headquartered in the United Nations of Yanium, but with branches throughout the continent of Atlantis.
The Adventurers' Guild is a place where good and evil are irrelevant, only order matters. Whether you're a righteous holy knight, the most unscrupulous warrior, or a ruthless and vicious thief, you can openly buy and sell information or post quests here.
[Ms. Blackflash had purchased various monster materials from the Adventurers' Guild for crafting activation potions, and had also sold a human hand with micro-intelligence. In her notes, she wrote: "I heard that the customer who bought the micro-intelligence hand became a triple-wielding swordsman with it, but unfortunately, he was eventually cut down by that hand. In short, this social experiment was a failure."]
The last few pages of her magic notebook contained some schedules and memos. You could barely make out that she seemed to have made deals with some powerful figures in the Kingdom of Norard, but due to her disdain for the orthodox factions, she didn't hand over any truly valuable technology and even left some backdoors.
[The above is a compilation of Black Flash Swallow's past from fragmented reflections in your Magic Notebook. It is not guaranteed to be accurate, so you don't know if she was aware that assisting you with "super deadlifts" every day would make you extremely uncomfortable.]
[On this day, as you were enthusiastically flipping through Hei Shan Yan's newly written notes, you suddenly felt a pair of cold little hands grab you tightly and shake you up and down a few times. Your heart skipped a beat, and when you turned around, you found Hei Shan Yan staring coldly at you.]
"So that's why my notes have been looked at lately! It was you!" She reached out and gently brushed away the traces of sticky residue you had left on the notes, then grabbed your head angrily and shouted.
"I almost forgot you were an all-in-one computer! Five years have passed, haven't you lost your senses yet? Damn it! How many of my notes have you read? Answer me!"
[As you were violently shaken, you felt like you were about to vomit white foam. You wanted to speak, but you couldn't open your mouth. You could only try to open your eyes wide, and tears streamed down your face.]
[“Huh?” Suddenly, the black swallow stopped moving. You thankfully tried to slow your racing heartbeat, but when you looked up, your heart sank.]
A murky white gel dripped from Black Swallow's chin. She looked bewildered, seemingly unable to comprehend it. After a moment of stunned silence, she gently sniffed the strange smell in the air, hesitated for a moment, then scraped some of the gel off her face with her finger, examined it carefully, and gently put it into her mouth.
[“I’m awesome!” you screamed internally, then felt your body undergo a super evolution—from “super deadlift” to “super super deadlift”!]
Black Flash Swallow swallowed the strange gelatinous substance in its mouth, then its eyes suddenly lit up. It picked up its magic notebook and began scribbling away, all the while staring at you with a strange look.
"This is terrible!" A chill ran down your spine, and you screamed in your mind in terror, "Grandpa Cow is going to be eaten!"
Chapter 38 Niu La, a Shake-Up Milkshake
Perhaps it's because you're not just a simple cow, but a cow-and-puller machine; the milk you produce is unique from both a nutritional and flavor perspective.
You've probably fantasized about fulfilling your innate mission in the dead of night or the long dawn; you've even planned to transform into a jack in certain special situations, showcasing your amazing muscles. But you never imagined that one day you'd become a breakfast milk.
[“Hey, Subject 404, I’m back again!” Hearing this enthusiastic voice, you instinctively cower under the covers. However, your honest transformation into a “super deadlift” body gives you away, and a small hand slips under the covers and pulls you out.]
"I need high-purity milk today. I've been staying up late lately to catch up on new knowledge, and my brain feels like it's not working properly. Please help!"
Hearing the Black Swallow's vibrant yet merciless pleading, your base involuntarily began to work diligently. Accompanied by the roar of an engine and the leakage of coolant, you knew that your breakfast milk had been produced.
"I'm starting!" Black Swallow cheerfully thanked you, then grabbed your body and began to shake you vigorously, swaying itself from side to side as it shook you, humming some folk tunes from its hometown.
"Damn it, you idiot!" you screamed angrily in your mind. "Don't treat your grandpa cow like a milkshake! Show me some respect!"
[I don't know when you came to believe your surname was Ox, but this fully demonstrates that the soul's perception originates from the physical body's existence. Your case should be framed in the halls of the Atlantean school of soul studies for future generations to admire.]
When your engine started vibrating, Black Swallow knew you were ready to produce agricultural products. To avoid wasting food, she painstakingly aligned the output port and then increased the final vibration frequency.
"Ughhhhhh!" you screamed, opening your mouth and closing your eyes. In that instant, you remembered the stream of medicine that gushed out after the nurse pushed the syringe, the hydrogen peroxide that was sucked out when you swung the tubing during chemistry class, and Shenzhou V, the first manned rocket.
This montage transforms into pristine white agricultural products fluttering in the air, brimming with exhilarating pride. It represents the joy of harvest, the heartfelt nurturing of this world by you, Mr. Niu, a testament to love and dedication, and eternal life.
Black Swallow took out a tissue to wipe her mouth, sighed contentedly, and then frowned.
The sheer volume of agricultural products presents a significant challenge for warehousing and transportation, and for someone like her, a quirky individual with a passion for scientific experiments, this has become a painful point that perfectly fuels her research interest.
"Why not just connect it directly to the receiving port later?" She looked at the size of your production machine, a conflicted expression on her face, and scratched her messy curly hair, which had become disheveled from days of research. "Never mind, let's finish what we're doing first."
You stumbled back to your desk, disoriented. The humming machine drained the last bit of cooled oil. You, the production machine, rested for a long time before returning to your "super-hard" state.
[“The wandering girl bullies my old age and weakness, how can I tolerate her stealing from me to my face!” You recited a poem in indignation, then staggered over to look at Black Flash Swallow’s latest magic notebook, practicing as you read.]
Yes, Black Swallow no longer cares about you peeking at her notes. For her, producing breakfast milk is your primary function, and peeking at your notes is just a flaw that can be overcome. Just like Shenzhou users have to get used to fixing their own computers, and Apple fans have to adapt to the inherent limitations of their phones, as a loyal customer of a milk-based breakfast product, she can accept your shortcomings.
[However, you discovered that after your condition stabilized, the connection between magic and the magic network returned to your body. This might be strong evidence that cultivation level is linked to the soul. It is recommended that you submit your work to the Soul Academy.]
In short, during these days, you continued to learn and improve yourself. You mastered all of Black Swallow's current progress in "Bird Creation," "Fish Creation," "Reptile Creation," "Soft-bodied Creation," "Insect Creation," "Magic Scroll Making," and her newly begun research on "Magic Puppets."
As for the creation of human bodies, since you simply cannot understand her definition of the human body, you cannot master the corresponding skills through her logic. You can only memorize them by rote, attempting to reshape your body and reproduce these experiments after cultivating your physical body to legendary level.
Five years later, you've become a powerful warrior with the strength of a second-ring mage and a sixth-ring warrior. Meanwhile, through your daily interactions, you unexpectedly discover that Blackfly is actually only a mage below the fourth ring, yet he can create enchanted scrolls of the highest sixth ring through his understanding of magic.
Such talent inspires your admiration. You see, although your strength has improved rapidly with your ability to unleash your power at will, you still haven't grasped the true nature of magic and magical essence.
[You gradually become accustomed to producing agricultural products daily, but the increasingly difficult research on the Black Swallow makes it more and more dependent on the nutritional value of these products. Due to your improved capabilities, the nutritional value and flavor of your produce have greatly increased, so you no longer only consider how to provide nutrition for the day at breakfast; a small glass of milk before bed has also become a routine. In short, your production line has begun operating 24 hours a day.]
"You brat, I'm just surnamed Niu, I'm not actually a cow!" you roared angrily. After the Black Flash Swallow plundered the products from your production line, you lay weakly on the table and began to meditate. You silently awaited the day you would cultivate to legendary status. On that day, you, the Dragon King, would return and surely exact your revenge!
"Latis, don't be a cow!" Latis, who had been silent for a while, finally couldn't help but shout out, "What is a shake-shake milkshake? What kind of montage are you using?! Am I going to become a legendary cow?! This simulator, what kind of crap is this plot?! Don't make it so I can't read the novel!"
[Amidst your persistent cursing, the day has finally arrived. Your physical body has broken through the legendary barrier, causing a great upheaval in the world. Countless mages couldn't help but change their expressions, thinking that another demon king had appeared in this world.]
[You initially wanted to quickly access the character creation interface to reshape your body back to its original form, but unfortunately discovered you didn't have enough materials. You'll have to wait until you're officially born before collecting materials to reshape your body. Anyway, your knowledge of magical puppets is already quite basic, so creating some cybernetic limbs should be easy.]
[Just then, it was time for your breakfast milk. You looked at the slightly more mature Ms. Black Flash Swallow as she walked in and gave a cold smile. Now, it's your grandpa's showtime!]
Chapter 39 Brothers, fire at me!
[The moment the first drop of breakfast milk entered Black Swallow's mouth, she sensed something was amiss. Her keen perception of magic made her uneasy, but the die was cast, and besides, the production line was stuck in her throat, making it difficult to let go.]
After the breakfast milk had been produced for half a minute, she finally began to panic. The bloating in her abdomen made her realize that she had already received enough nutrition for the day, and drinking any more would fall into the category of overeating.
However, this could not dispel your resentment at being treated like an ox for seven or eight years, so you produced violently, produced with all your might, produced with great effort, produced with great energy, produced with all your might, produced with great difficulty, produced with little energy, produced with no energy left to produce...
[A full ten minutes later, you finally swallowed the black swallow amidst the overflowing breakfast milk and left the room in high spirits.]
"Farewell, cage!" you shouted excitedly, taking one last look at the unconscious Black Swallow on the ground. Her belly was swollen, and white milk was still overflowing from her mouth, probably because her body was completely full. You shook your head, ultimately deciding not to end her life.
Although she's treated you like a workhorse for the past seven or eight years, she's still influenced by your diverse and adventurous nature. And while she may seem evil to the people of Atlantis, her character and aspirations are pure; with proper guidance, she can easily be brought back to the right path.
"Fopola, open the door!" you shouted, your words cryptic, then you slammed your head against the door of the alchemy hut, forcefully stretching your body in the golden sunlight, tears welling in your eyes and streaming down your face—tears you hadn't shed in so long.
For some reason, the sun doesn't seem to be shining very brightly today...
You frowned, opened your eyes, and saw a pair of slender, long boots, somewhat dirty and deformed from a long journey.
Looking up, you see a familiar black robe covering the newcomer's calves. The robe, originally plain, is now adorned with intricate patterns edged in dark green and brown. The wide hood is not up, and the half-elf's long silver hair gleams warmly in the golden sunlight, giving him a touch of charm compared to his short hair.
Many years have passed, and time has left no trace on Ateliers' face, but it has frozen his expression into an unyielding ice.
[You notice that, compared to before, Ateliers now wears a pair of exquisite wooden earrings, and a crown she hasn't worn before. She's also holding a thick, large grimoire, which looks several times larger than Blackfly's magic notebook.]
"King Herod, this should be the real residence of Yashutia! All other locations have been ruled out!" You hear a subordinate loudly reporting to Ateliers not far behind him.