Chapter 029 Unsatisfied Abilities Can Be Swapped with Those in Need

Unaware that she had unintentionally increased her favorability with him, Xia Xinyan felt quite relieved that this guy wasn’t overthinking things.

This time, she genuinely only wanted to use this excuse to help an old friend, and even felt a bit worried before speaking up that Ling Mo might suspect she had ulterior motives because her request seemed too sudden.

It seems this guy is still fairly easy to talk to.

—It must be said that even after being reborn, Xia Xinyan was not much different from Ling Mo in some aspects.

After all, neither of them had been in a romantic relationship before.

After finishing their meal, perhaps still caught up in the inexplicable guilt of not having accompanied her during the day, Ling Mo took the initiative to suggest playing a game: “It’s still early; do you want to run a dungeon?”

To be honest, he didn’t have much love for “Realm of Divine Presence” right now. Although he had been aware of the game before its release, his actual experience revealed that it was quite different from his expectations—not the kind of game that could immerse him deeply—in short, that was his current feeling based on his gameplay.

Not to mention the mysterious elements Xia Xinyan had mentioned about the game, just the pain sensation settings in-game were something he had no desire to experience again.

Even though the memory-dulling treatment had made him forget the specifics of his first dungeon experience, along with the pain from the final cannon blast, the feelings at that moment were still fresh in his mind. If it weren’t for Xia Xinyan, he might have disconnected as quickly as those two players he met at first.

Here, the distinction between this life’s Ling Mo and Xia Xinyan becomes clear. When Xia Xinyan first came into contact with the game, her understanding was also superficial, but she first experienced the Safe Zone dungeon, where there were no painful obstacles, and the wonders presented by the game were something she had never seen before, naturally capturing her heart effortlessly.

As she gradually realized that the game was not that simple, by the time she ventured into the Battle Zone dungeon, she already had some psychological preparation. Even if she didn’t like it, she had to endure it for the sake of money or the future.

However, Ling Mo was different now. His understanding of the game was still limited to the virtual reality games that exist in movies and novels; his motivation for playing was purely for fun. But the Battle Zone dungeon clearly lacked much entertainment value, so if the game didn’t leave him with a positive first impression, it would be hard for him to enjoy it.

He was only actively suggesting playing the game because he felt Xia Xinyan seemed very interested in it; it was one of the few common topics between them, and he naturally had to seize this opportunity, even if he didn’t like it.

If it weren’t for Xia Xinyan, given this trend, this life’s Ling Mo would probably end up as a rusty waste.

You could say that at this moment, the two were already heading down entirely different paths.

But Xia Xinyan wasn’t thinking about all that now.

Perhaps due to her past life’s experiences, she had presumptively assumed that Ling Mo had developed a fondness for the game, and his invitation this time was merely because he wanted to play. So although she couldn’t help but internally mock his heroic actions, she still empathetically agreed to his invitation: “Sure.”

Ling Mo immediately smiled: “I remember that clearing the dungeon for the first time activates abilities? I didn’t check what my ability is yesterday.”

“Then let’s hop into the game and see,” Xia Xinyan said as she went to the living room to set up the two Game Pods with a light chuckle, “Maybe it’ll be surprisingly strong.”

Ling Mo nodded and stepped into the game first.

As his consciousness sank in and he opened his eyes again, he found himself before the same island villa as before. Even though it was night in reality, this space was still basked in bright sunshine.

Speaking of which, last time he entered the game, he was dragged straight into a dungeon by Xia Xinyan, so he hadn’t thoroughly contemplated this place.

This Private Space seemed customizable?

Was it not nighttime?

—Just as the thought flickered through his mind, the sky suddenly darkened within a few seconds, transforming from noon to midnight, with a massive full moon hanging in the sky, casting a bright reflection on the sea. Even without any lighting, the island’s appearance was crystal clear under the moonlight.

A night scene that could only be seen in movies.

“…This is somewhat impressive.” Ling Mo walked to the glass walls, gazing at the distant sea with some awe.

He suddenly understood why this game dared to claim to be the “Second World.”

Aside from the pain sensations in dungeons, this game could completely fulfill any of their fantasies.

“Hm? Did you set it to nighttime?” Xia Xinyan’s voice suddenly came from behind. Turning to look, she was still dressed in her casual clothes, appearing fresh, with a bit of a neighborly charm that unknowingly tugged at Ling Mo.

He paused slightly, cleared his throat: “Uh… I wanted to see what nighttime looks like.”

“It’s beautiful, right?” Xia Xinyan also walked to the window beside him, gazing out at the scenery, faintly nostalgic, “This world’s scenery is far more wonderful than in reality.”

Limited to scenery.

But speaking of which, this was the kind of view she liked back then…

With them standing so close, Ling Mo could even faintly catch a glimpse of her enticing scent, which caused him to feel quite flustered, yet he still managed to maintain control over his inner turmoil, opening the game panel to distract himself.

The personal information panel had already unlocked after the first dungeon, containing all his information, including attributes and items, with the abilities section among them.

His ability was called [Fantasy Manifestation]—

He could manifest any object within his strength range, objects having a default existence time of one hour, and he could make them disappear beforehand or extend their duration.

The introduction was very brief.

But once you understood it, you could see just how overpowered this ability truly was.

There were no restrictions on the types of objects that could be manifested; the only limit was his own strength. Just that point alone was completely unreasonable.

Just like Xia Xinyan in her past life, at the last moment, she summoned an aerospace giant ship far beyond the current technology level, with one shot from its main cannon vaporizing all life in the ruins of two major cities—including herself.

He didn’t even need to have extensive knowledge of the items he wanted to manifest; as long as he had a rough idea of their shape and functions, the world rules would automatically assist him in completing the details—if feasible, he could manifest it.

Of course, this ability also had some drawbacks—manifested items were limited to “objects” only, meaning he couldn’t manifest any life forms.

Xia Xinyan had also tried to manifest a perfect girlfriend in her past life, and the result was a corpse of a girl still warm to the touch.

Speaking of which… it looked quite similar to her now.

Here’s a loophole—although he couldn’t manifest living beings, he could manifest bodies, meaning food, medicine, and similar objects could be manifested.

However, these objects had a fatal flaw: they would all disappear after one hour, and even if used, their effects would also vanish after one hour, inflicting a certain degree of backlash on the user—this sensation was a hundred times worse than forcibly throwing up after eating, don’t ask Xia Xinyan how she knew.

Even auxiliary healing medicines wouldn’t work; after their effects faded, they would cause some unpredictable side effects.

Xia Xinyan had suffered plenty on her path to discovering these drawbacks.

Rather, such an ability would be considered normal; otherwise, it would truly be inhumane.

Unfortunately, Ling Mo now seemed unaware of how cruel his ability was: “My ability… seems a bit useless? The items I manifest only last one hour? And right now, the number of items I can manifest is too few.”

Xia Xinyan: “…”

Unsatisfied abilities can be swapped with her; she’ll do two for one.