“So, among the three options I have, I’ll be picking…”
Right as he was done murmuring that, a frown took shape on Virus’ forehead as silence overtook the interior of his plane before it was broken again at last, “Ah, damn it. Let’s go back home for now.”
No longer being in the mood due to the call from Ella, now officially his ex-girlfriend, and the serious conversation they had, he opted to postpone making a vital decision regarding the three options he had available amongst ‘reserving as many Rifts as possible’, ‘entering the Rifts’, or his third alternative of ‘going back to the Cultivation Earth’ to hunt. “Let’s just see how it goes.”
Although he was truly excited and enthused about his newfound ability to be able to cultivate super fast by simply killing monstrous beasts and absorbing their energy, he had to admit the call he had just now had indeed killed the mood for the moment.
‘This is my fourth and last Rift today. Hmm, I already have eight Red-Crystals ready for absorption.’ Pondered Hu Yuexin to herself while counting the number of Red-Crystals she now had mentally.
Currently, she was in front of a two-star Rift standing alone, awaiting its nigh activation.
“Oh, there it is.” She whispered, catching the sight of her reserved Rift’s activity calmly.
She stood by the opening Rift for a couple of seconds, anticipating the incoming wave of monsters.
Unfortunately, the next instant, with no monsters at sight, the Rift started to close up by itself before it was no longer visible. “Crap, it was a dud.”
Dud or Empty Rift. The phenomenon where a Rift activates but spawns no monsters whatsoever before closing down and disappearing by itself.
In the past couple of years, although the number of empty Rifts had been very few and far between initially, as time passed, their number increased until it had become a very frequent thing nowadays.
Alas, the number of Rifts had increased much more all around the globe compared to its duds. Thus, one couldn’t really say the situation was getting better overall. On the contrary, it was getting worse.
“Whatever, I’ll just go back and consume them for now.” Being finally finished with her first round of monster hunting day, Hu Yuexin was extremely excited about the concept of absorbing the Red-Crystals’ essence and awakening her own personal Trait.
‘Hehe, I wonder what my Trait is. According to my investigations, every person seems to awaken their unique Trait depending on various variables such as their mentality, temper, bloodline, history, previous generations and ancestors, needs, views of themselves or the world, goals, dreams, emotions, and on and on.’
More accurately, anything in an individual’s life and experiences could be a variable and deciding factor at what that person’s Trait was going to be. And that was what made Traits so unique with infinite possibilities.
Of course, the Abnormal Associations around the world had come up with rough frames of various types of Traits one could awaken which were categorized into general classifications. Albeit, that was all they were, rough frames that could not include all prospects of today and tomorrow.
After Hu Yuexin returned to her wreck of a place which could hardly be called a room, she sat crossed legged before taking out a certain ‘Resistance Pill’ which was going to temporarily grant her five hours of resistance, 90% resistance to be precise, to the toxicity and pain of the Red-Crystals.
‘What an ingenios pill…’ She wondered to herself in some amazement as she ate it.
The reason Hu Yuexin was taking a Resistance Pill was that even though she was quite confident she could tolerate the level of agony that was accompanied during the process of the absorption of the essence inside the crystal, she was aware her physique was extremely weak to poison and the likelihood of her surviving due to being poisoned was absolutely meager.
Therefore, obviously, she would not risk it.
A few minutes after swallowing the pill, Hu Yuexin abruptly grabbed a knife and cut the palm of her hand with no hesitation whatsoever.
Following that, as her blood began to drop on the ground, she seized her first Red-Crystal before putting it in direct contact with the wound in her palm.
Despite this method being proven to be much more lethal and painful, it was without a shadow of a doubt, the current most efficient way of absorbing the flame-like substance within the crystals compared to the other method of keeping it inside the mouth like a lollipop. Therefore, Hu Yuexin didn’t even need to think about which method to utilize.
Seconds began to pass at once as she patiently endured and remained still without a single frown showing on her expression.
‘Based on what I read over the internet, the chances of awakening after ingesting the first Red-Crystal was nearly non-existent… I just hope it would happen by the time I’m done with all of my eight cryst- wait…’ This notion was just going through Hu Yuexin’s mind when she sensed some changes within herself.
By the time the feeling of shift ended, a single minute had passed by as the crystal became empty and colorless while being covered in her blood now.
Although quite shocked, Hu Yuexin was certain she had just gone through an awakening. ‘Seriously? On my first try, is this luck? Or talent?’
Of course, she did not have enough information regarding the workings of the Red-Crystal and how it affected a person to know the answer to that.
Nonetheless, putting aside her feeling of astonishment for the moment, Hu Yuexin shut both her eyes as she tried to control her newly awakened Trait in order to at least figure out what it was.
Unfortunately, however, no matter how hard she attempted, her Trait just wouldn’t respond.
‘Hmm? Why isn’t my Trait reacting in any way?’ While touching her chin with a finger, she started to contemplate the topic.
Sadly though, no matter how hard she made an effort to come up with a possible response, she just could not.
‘I guess fighting is the quickest way to understand and unravel the mystery of my Trait.’ As this thought showed up within Hu Yuexin’s head, she didn’t hesitate to open the Guardian app and reserve a Rift.
Currently standing in front of her reserved Rift, Hu Yuexin was patiently awaiting the inevitable triggering of the crevice on the fabric of space.
In the meantime, taking a quick glimpse of her watch, she muttered. “A few minutes more before monster discharge.”
That line was just spouted by her lips when abruptly, a peal of wild laughter garnered her attention.
“HAHAHA! Well, would you look at this, if it isn’t my lovely Yuexin!”
