Chapter 46 Grass Carp

Cao Yu was quite satisfied with this evolution of his.

Being able to summon a formless, invisible assassin at any time and place—to anyone unaware, the method of attack was practically indistinguishable from psychokinesis.

Yet its essence was not psychokinesis. This would lead opponents to miscalculate, creating a form of intelligence deception... Well, he could also use close-quarters combat to deceive the enemy himself, and then ruthlessly hit them with a heavy dose of "psychokinesis" out of nowhere.

In an instant, Cao Yu conjured up multiple deceptive combat strategies.

He had to admit that this ability's traits were truly suited for stabbing people in the back.

However... Cao Yu's gaze fell upon the slightly playful little girl, and his brow furrowed slightly.

It wasn't that he was puzzled as to why his avatar was a little girl.

When forging an avatar through the *Secret Canon of Commanding Immortals*, the anthropomorphization process was guided by one's own subconscious desires.

The human subconscious harbored far too many things, and many of them were detached from conscious awareness. Cao Yu wouldn't have even been surprised if he had forged a "dog avatar."

At least he managed to forge a human.

It was just that... the more he looked at this little girl, the more she resembled his younger sister from his past life—his biological sister.

Upon closer inspection, Cao Yu found that not only did she look alike, but her personality was remarkably similar as well.

In his previous life, his sister had been a mischievous brat during her childhood. She often caught insects to play with, either tearing off their legs, crushing parts of their bodies with stones, or piercing their bellies with needles and pinning them to the ground just to watch them struggle... After starting school, she frequently bullied others as well... In short, his naughty sister had received plenty of "stick education" from him when she was young.

Now it seemed he had run into one again... Cao Yu felt a mild headache coming on.

*Could it be that my yearning grew into an illness, piling up a massive amount of desire in my subconscious, causing my superpower to anthropomorphize in the image of my sister?*

Cao Yu traced the logic in his mind.

Did he miss his family that much?

After pondering for a moment, he couldn't help but sigh inwardly... Human emotions were truly complex; when they lived together, he found them annoying, but once they were out of sight, he missed them.

After transmigrating, his thoughts of how to return weren't because he particularly loved his past life, but simply... to take a look at his family, to see how they were doing now.

Whether they were alive or dead, he needed to see for himself.

With the hope of returning, this lingering thought was almost impossible to cut off.

Unwittingly, Cao Yu realized that the birth of the little girl had intensified his craving for the B-grade item, the "Gate of Two Realms," in the mall shop.

It only required 90,000 achievement points to travel between world sectors.

And besides farming dungeon achievements, the methods for accumulating achievement points...

Cao Yu summoned the system interface, his gaze falling upon the system name: 【Strongest Player v1.0】.

Ever since activating the system, he had harbored a hypothesis—the "1.0" suffix in the name presumably referred to the system's current version.

Since there was a "1.0," would there be a "2.0," "3.0"...? If not, this suffix would seem redundant and entirely inexplicable.

Details from when he activated the system flashed through his mind... After pouring 100 evolution points into his spirit, it activated directly.

*If the system truly has version distinctions, could it be related to my mental strength?*

*Currently, my evolution progress is stuck at 10%. If I can clear another dungeon, obtain the authority to break through the E-grade limit, and raise my evolution progress to 11%... will new changes emerge by then?*

Cao Yu knew this was an unfounded guess.

Yet, he hoped this guess was correct.

The current efficiency of accumulating achievement points was a bit too slow.

*I hope it really brings me a surprise.*

Raising his evolution progress to 11%—Cao Yu temporarily set this as a small, short-term goal.

At that moment, the little girl trotted over to his side, tugged at the corner of his shirt, and pointed at a passing bald man.

"Carp, look at that bald guy, he's so funny."

Only a tiny tuft of hair remained on the bald man's head, which was blown upward by the breeze, fluttering in the air like a colorful ribbon.

Cao Yu: "..."

Because the two of them were mentally connected, he instinctively transmitted his voice directly through his mind:

*It's Cao Yu. Don't get my name wrong next time.*

"Oh."

The little girl didn't care about such trivial matters at all, her gaze still locked onto the bald man a few meters away.

She seemed to care only about her own whims and interests.

*I'll give you a name,* Cao Yu continued transmitting to her: *Since you are the Seven-Kill Goddess... let's call you Xiao Qi from now on.*

"Oh."

Xiao Qi's reaction was utterly lukewarm.

The next instant, her figure suddenly vanished from where she stood.

Following his intuition, Cao Yu looked toward the bald man. He saw that Xiao Qi's petite form had re-materialized in the space directly above the bald man.

As a spiritual entity, she possessed the instinct to disperse and coalesce at will.

Cao Yu watched as she hovered in mid-air, extending a tender little hand and, as if struck by a playful whim, plucked several strands of hair right off the bald man's head.

"Hehe..."

Cao Yu: "..."

He hurriedly recalled Xiao Qi back into his consciousness and used his willpower to restrict her range of activity.

Xiao Qi abruptly stopped giggling.

Cao Yu ignored the sullen emotions she projected.

The superpower avatar would obey any of his commands, and since that was the case, he couldn't be too polite when educating a mischievous brat!

On the other side, the bald man was startled, looking all around as he shouted, "Who! Who pulled my hair...?"

Cao Yu naturally blended into the crowd of passersby, wearing the quintessential expression of looking at a madman as he glanced toward the bald man.

Eventually, unable to bear the bizarre and judgmental stares of the crowd, the bald man left, deeply suspicious and paranoid.

Had other people's gazes not felt so piercing, he genuinely would have wondered if some monster crisis had broken out... This was utterly bizarre!

...

Upon arriving near the subway entrance, Cao Yu decided not to go down just yet. He found a quiet corner with few people, put on his Bluetooth earphones, and began replying to Chen Ran's messages.

Because of his cultivation practices, he hadn't touched his phone for two or three days. Chen Ran's messages had progressed from initially greeting him, to cursing his ancestors, and finally shifting to worry.

Not long after he replied, Chen Ran's voice call came through.

Once he connected, Cao Yu offered his congratulations first:

"Congratulations, congratulations. As expected of Queen-sama with level-six cultivation aptitude, easily handling a mere 10% evolution progress."

"You guy, you disappeared for three days and the first thing you do online is deliberately piss me off!" Chen Ran complained with dissatisfaction.

However, her moods came and went quickly, and she soon steered the conversation to business:

"By the way, what did you go off to do these past three days?"

"Ran a dungeon, took up quite a bit of time," Cao Yu replied casually.

"How could you sneak off to run a dungeon behind my back... Never mind, I called you to ask—I've got over a thousand evolution points here that I don't need right now. Do you want them?"

"Oh? Feeling so generous?" Cao Yu remarked.

"What are you thinking?" Chen Ran emphasized, "I'm lending them to you."

That Chen Ran would have this thought didn't surprise Cao Yu.

Before E-grade players met the condition of "three E-grade dungeons," their evolution progress was capped at a maximum of 10%.

For Chen Ran at this stage, evolution points were indeed of little use. Even if she used them for trade, over a thousand points wouldn't buy any decent items.

Then Chen Ran continued:

"I heard that the lower the numerical designation of a superpower, the more evolution points it takes to raise evolution progress. You must be really short on evolution points right now, right?"

"Thanks, little Chen," Cao Yu replied, "but I'm joining the Special Affairs Bureau today. I'll get 3,000 points right away, so I'll take the thought as the deed."

"Your onboarding notice is out already? That was pretty fast."

Hearing Cao Yu's reply, Chen Ran dropped the subject of money and smoothly shifted to another topic:

"There's one more thing. My older brother holds a pretty high position in the Sishuan Special Affairs Bureau. I asked him today if he could transfer someone from another district, and he gave me a positive reply. If you find yourself uncomfortable staying in Meishan District, just let me know and I'll tell my brother to transfer you over to my side."

"Tsk tsk, to think that a single, slight caprice of power can decide a person's destiny," Cao Yu sighed with emotion.

"What caprice of power?" Chen Ran retorted. "With your abilities, no matter where you stay, it certainly won't affect your rapid rise. It's just that Meishan District has too many foreign players and it's too chaotic; there are plenty of hidden dangers there. Oh, right, speaking of players, my big brother told me some explosive news today."

Her tone turned mysterious.

Her words successfully piqued Cao Yu's curiosity. He asked, "What news?"