"Ha… Hahaha!"

Yun Hao's bursts of laughter almost drowned the noise of the city as he almost jumped into the private pool in joy. At first, he thought that it was just a desperate and crazy idea, but now that he felt his body slowly being filled with vigor, he could not help but scream in glee.

He started hitting himself in the face, to see if his strength truly did return, and it did. Tonight was the third time that he had duplicated a Beast Core, and tonight was also the first time that he did not faint by doing so.

And to think he would also find a way to recover his strength by absorbing the Beast Core he duplicated, truly… he must be some kind of genius?

As soon as the thought perched in his mind that he was a genius, he quickly let out a light scoff as he finally sobered up. If he was a genius, then he shouldn't have needed to rely on his unnaturally gifted body to gain a scholarship at Tsinghai high school.

What he had was some kind of hack or a cheat. If he was just a little bit smarter, then he was sure he would have already been a billionaire by now with this kind of power. Once again, the thought that had not sat on his mind for a while reappeared inside his mind.

Just where… and how on earth did he gain this godly power? In truth, he felt like he didn't really deserve it. There were many others out there who truly had nothing, no matter how hard they worked for it. With Yun Hao, even without the power, there were tons of jobs he could take.

He could be a bodyguard, join the normal military, maybe even become a gangster if he truly needed to. So why exactly was he given this kind of power?

Yun Hao then quickly shook his mind. He had been asking the same question over and over again the first few weeks he had the power, and he knew he was not going to get an answer. And so, with that thought, Yun Hao grabbed his pouch and took the original Beast Core once again.

How did he know it was the original? Like always, he had no idea. But it doesn't matter, what's important right now was to test how long he could keep on duplicating the beast core and absorbing the copy.

And so, once again, Yun Hao felt the fatigue drowning his whole body as he was forced to sit back down on the floor. However, Yun Hao could feel that the exhaustion he was feeling now was slightly lighter than the one earlier-- his power truly was becoming stronger the more he used it. If only there was a visual indicator of how much it was improving, then it would have been perfect. But alas, he had no right to ask for more.

With the looming exhaustion traveling throughout his body, he once again gently placed Beast Core on his stomach. Even though he had already done it twice, absorbing the Beast Core was still a surreal experience. Although it was just a very tiny and sublime fraction, he could feel his body growing stronger and stronger.

It was like the sense of relief after a very intense workout-- it was almost addicting.

"..." He won't become an addict after this, would he? Yun Hao stared at the now dim and colorless beast core, before placing it to the side together with the other empty copy. He should probably buy some kind of glass container soon, as without a doubt… he was about to have hundreds of them.

Maybe put them inside an aquarium? Without a doubt, it would be a sight to see.

With a light chuckle coming out of his mouth, Yun Hao once again grabbed the original and continued to duplicate it.

Sadly, before he could reach even a hundred, he felt a sharp pain drowning his brain. It would seem that although the beast core may be rejuvenating his body, the toll in his mind remained the same.

He wanted to duplicate and absorb more cores, but his mind was already crying for him to stop, and his body had no choice but to obey. Yun Hao then slowly stood up, looking at the almost hundred beast cores around him.

Yun Hao did not really notice how long he was absorbing and duplicating the cores for, but considering the noise of the city was a lot tamer than before he started, it was probably way past midnight.

"...I'll clean this when I wake up," Yun Hao took one last look at the scattered empty beast cores, before heading back inside his room and groggily hopping onto the bed.

"..."

"..."

Although Yun Hao could feel his body wanting to sleep, he could not do so. The only thing he could do was grab the original beast core from his pocket once again, placing it right in front of his eye to stare inside of it.

"...Oh."

This was the first time he was ever seeing the beast core this close. Due to its small size, from afar, it looked like there was a small galaxy inside of it. But now that Yun Hao was looking at it like this, the inside of the core looked like some sort of animal, asleep and fidgeting.

"...Interesting," Yun Hao muttered as he let out a short yawn. He was really trying hard to fall asleep, but he still could not do so.

"..."

"..."

Finally, after a few more minutes of just staring at the beast core and lying on the bed, he did the most sensible thing he could think of.

"...Duplicate."

He would continue duplicating and absorbing the cores until he passed out. And as he wished, as soon as he absorbed the first one he duplicated, the whites of his eye revealed itself and he fell into unconsciousness.

***

Yun Hao thought that he could finally rest, but as soon as his eye was forcefully opened, the view in front of him quickly changed. He once again found himself on a gazebo, with the oddly still and unreflecting endless lake surrounding him.

'You are here again? I have told you countless times that you do not belong here.'

And once again, the voice that seemed to exist nowhere and everywhere whispered into his ears. The last thing he remembered when he was here during the Immersion was that one of the planets beyond the sky exploded, but now that he was looking at it again, it was once again there.

"Where is here, exactly?" Yun Hao let out a deep but short sigh as he spoke. But alas, the voice did not answer him.

'You do not belong here.'

Instead, the voice just continued to repeat itself.

'You should not even exist. You should be dead. You should be dead.'

But suddenly, Yun Hao could feel a sudden chill surround him as the voice seemed to become more and more agitated.

'Your existence will bring only doom.'

And as soon as the voice said that, Yun Hao could feel the gazebo tremble, as a bright light completely drowned the lake. Yun Hao did not even need to look out to the sky to know that one of the planets once again exploded.

'You should be dead.'

"Fuck you too." Yun Hao raised both his middle fingers as the light became even brighter. And soon, a ringing noise entered his ears, followed by unhindered darkness.

Yun Hao wondered where the ringing was coming from, but the only thing he needed to do was for him to open his eyes to realize that he was now awake, and the ringing was literally coming from his phone.

[Hello, is this Yun Hao?]

"...Yes," Yun Hao could not help but lightly groan as he sat himself up.

[You just woke up? I thought a sturdy and fit man like you would already be up and awake at this time.]

"..." Yun Hao could not help but blink a couple of times as he looked at the number on the phone, only to see Song Jian's name on it.

"Song Jian?"

[Unfortunately not, try a little bit older. W… wait, don't hang up! It's me, Song Ming…

...Jiji's mother.]