Chapter Thirteen: The Trial Begins

The Queen Mother, beset by attacks from all sides, saw her "children" dying in droves. Enraged, she unleashed a psychic assault, which gravely injured Wood. Baldy and Gu Feng quickly realized what had happened; they themselves were immune to the Queen Mother's mental attack, but Wood, an F-grade warrior, was not. Seeing him wounded and the Queen Mother preparing for another psychic strike, Baldy acted swiftly, waving his hand and releasing a particle wave—a B-grade skill—against the Queen Mother. Unlike Wood's feeble attempt, Baldy's attack was devastating.

His blow not only shattered the insects guarding the Queen Mother, but also toppled her towering form, as massive as a house. He was about to finish her off when Wood suddenly stood up, summoning his psychokinetic floating cannon, which unleashed its full firepower upon the Queen Mother. The recent brush with death had forced Wood's mental strength to break through its limits, and the mechanical voice of Little Dingdang echoed in his mind:

"Mental power mutation, critical threshold surpassed. Basic Material Plane Agent now possesses psychokinesis. Award: 500 points. Mental strength increased by 30. Agility increased by 30!"

Yet, under the looming shadow of death, Wood had no time to ponder these words. Hearing the term 'psychokinesis,' he instinctively summoned the floating cannon and attacked the Queen Mother. The poor Queen Mother, already grievously wounded by Baldy, was then bombarded by the floating cannon, her life nearly spent, her wailing cries devoid of threat.

However, hearing her shrieks, Wood became tense and, without thinking, waved his hand and unleashed another particle wave. But his mental strength was nearly depleted from both the psychic cannon and previous efforts. Pushing himself to the extreme, he felt a sharp pain in his head and collapsed unconscious on the spot…

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Wood did not know how much time had passed before he slowly regained some awareness. He felt trapped, as though locked inside a pitch-black box, unable to move or cry out—a nightmare from which he could not awaken. Steeling himself, he struggled to open his eyes and heard a delighted voice, "He's awake!" He sensed several people gathering around him.

It took a while before his strength returned, and with a firm squeeze of his fists, he snapped into full consciousness. Before him stood Baldy, Gu Feng, and Zi Gui; the surroundings suggested he was back at the base.

Everyone was overjoyed to see Wood awake. Zi Gui threw an arm around his shoulders, exclaiming, "Brother, you're finally back!" Wood was deeply moved, until Zi Gui continued, "If you hadn't woken up, who would help me get my Transformers?"

... Wood was speechless.

Baldy laughed sheepishly, "Gu Feng and I originally planned to let you handle things yourself for training, but we didn't expect the Queen Mother to mutate so fiercely—almost got you killed. Sorry!" He pressed an oval-shaped metal item into Wood's hand. "After you killed the Queen Mother, she dropped this. We don't know what it is—consider it a memento of your first battle!"

Wood examined the metal object, puzzled as to why the creature had metal in its belly. Hearing Baldy say he killed the Queen Mother, Wood asked, "How is that possible?"

Gu Feng grinned mischievously, "It wouldn't have been, normally. Ten of you couldn't have taken her. But Baldy wounded her severely, and then you bombarded her with your psychic floating cannon, finishing with a particle wave. She died with resentment! If she knew, she'd never accept being killed by a low-level warrior."

Everyone laughed, Wood scratched his head in embarrassment, "Heh, just lucky!" Then he asked, "How long was I out?"

Gu Feng held up two fingers.

"Two hours?" guessed Wood.

Gu Feng shook his head.

"Not two days, surely?" Wood exclaimed.

Gu Feng nodded, "Correct!"

Wood hurriedly checked his Plane System, and was startled by what he saw:

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“Basic Material Plane Agent: Injected G-virus evolution fluid. DNA evolution: Constitution 155; Agility 170; Mental strength 320; Immunity acquired. Result… Agent’s physical attributes have reached F-grade warrior level;

“Agent’s mental power mutated, now possesses basic psychokinesis: Control!”

“Agent has integrated B-grade skill: Particle Wave, current level: 2 (upgrade conditions…”

Wood wondered, "What does basic psychokinesis mean? My particle wave skill leveled up?"

"Ah!" Baldy was startled—he hadn't paid much attention to basic psychokinesis, but generally, each skill requires enough practice to upgrade. Wood had only used his skill three times—how did it level up?

After much analysis, the group could only attribute it to the mutation of Wood's mental power. Zi Gui solemnly declared, "Life and death often trigger greater potential. Wood must have unlocked his potential between life and death!" Everyone agreed. Wood said, "I’d rather advance and upgrade in a normal way, thank you very much!"

Everyone laughed heartily.

Though Wood had been injured during the Plane Mission, the task was accomplished perfectly. With the Queen Mother dead, the insects began attacking each other until none remained. Zi Gui proposed taking everyone to his home planet for a proper vacation, but upon hearing the spaceship journey would take three days, everyone declined.

So, they decided to rest one night on E4 Star.

"Plane Mission Evaluation… Querying data… Task completed. Participants receive 1,000 reward points. Mutant Queen Mother slain cooperatively: 2,000 reward points."

Unexpectedly, Wood really had killed the Queen Mother. He sighed inwardly at his luck, though the main credit went to Baldy for wounding her—the bulk of the reward points must have gone to him.

Glancing at the item trading bar, Wood was shocked: there were over a hundred high-grade energy crystals and more than fifty supreme energy crystals. What was going on? He quickly summoned Little Dingdang:

"Ah Mu has entered into a cooperation agreement with the Silicon-based Plane Agent. According to the contract, a large quantity of meteorite iron was delivered, and energy crystals were paid!"

Wood remembered that once the agreement was signed, it would execute automatically; as soon as the other party paid energy crystals, the Plane System would notify the robots to transfer the meteorite iron. In just a few days in the sci-fi plane, the other party had taken a vast amount of meteorite iron—evidently, the Silicon-based Plane had a tremendous demand for it.

Scratching his head, Wood felt the energy crystals came too easily. They were universal currency in the planes—could they really be so cheap? Regardless, he now had enough to upgrade his system.

“… Energy sufficient, reward point condition met… Plane System upgrading… Basic Material Plane System advanced to C-grade… Technological items evolve… New function added—Plane Store: Agents can directly sell or purchase items below C-grade. Agents can travel to and from the Plane Trading Space. Note: Upgrading to B-grade requires 1.5 million energy points and 3,000 reward points.”

"Plane Store!" Wood had heard Baldy and Gu Feng mention it several times. He immediately ordered Little Dingdang to open the store. The Plane Store was essentially a list, displaying items from F-grade to S-grade. Wood's system was C-grade, so he could only view items up to C-grade; anything higher was greyed out, inaccessible.

He was astounded by the variety—strange and whimsical items abounded: Dwarf Beans, guaranteed to make you shorter (who would buy that?); Gender-changing Pills: choose to be male or female as you wish; Swim Water: eat it, you can breathe underwater—but if you’re out of water, you’ll suffocate… Such things left Wood dumbfounded.

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Most of these bizarre medicines were F-grade items. Starting from D-grade, items became much more practical:

"Transformation Capsule: One capsule contains an entire house. A sci-fi item, essential for home and travel!"

"Energy Fruit: Rapidly restores mental and physical strength. A magical item—perfect for combat!"

"Miracle Beans: Heals severe injuries instantly. A magical item—indispensable for survival!"

"Flying Magic Oil: Doubles agility for half an hour. A magical item—ideal for escape!"

"Basic Skill Card Set: Function: Enhances fundamental martial abilities. Manufacturer unknown. With it, you need not bother practicing basic skills!"

Wood estimated there were at least several thousand items in the Plane Store, but many were useless, and some agents marked their items at exorbitant prices, making them impossible to buy.

He spent half the night browsing, finally exchanging ten high-grade energy crystals for a transformation capsule (housing included), a set of basic skill cards, some energy fruit, and miracle beans.

Everything else was either impractical or priced so high by other agents as to be unattainable.

Little Dingdang: "Current… Basic skill card set, integrate?"

"Integrate!" Wood bought the skill cards because his fundamentals were lacking; though he’d learned some grappling and Muay Thai, it was good to supplement his basic abilities. As the cards disappeared, a martial artist's image appeared in his mind—punching, kicking, sword thrusts, blade strikes—the essential skills for close combat.

"Beep…!" Immersed in the understanding of basic skills, Wood was suddenly interrupted by the Plane System. On the screen appeared a message: "Basic Material Plane Agent… triggering agent trial program. Please prepare immediately, trial will begin in twelve hours… Difficulty… unknown!"

Damn, what was this about? Wood was shocked—he had never heard of it before.

(Celebrating my new book's ranking at number ten—here is Chapter Three) Page (3/3)