In the blink of an eye, Ian Song had already spent three days living in Daniel Zhang's apartment. During those three days, he never stepped outside even once.
"Ding! System upgrade complete."
At 1:50 PM that afternoon, the cold mechanical voice of the system sounded in Ian's ear.
With a thought, he summoned the system interface.
The upgraded system interface looked far prettier and more colorful than before. Ian's gaze immediately landed on his personal stats:
Host: Ian Song
Level: 20
Physique: 35,000 points
Mental Power: 3,500 points
Skills: Body Arts, Piano Master, Driving Mastery, Gun Master, Super Chef, Painting & Calligraphy Mastery, Eastern Medicine Mastery, Gambling Mastery, Language Master, Dance Master, Raging Tidal Surge, Thousand-Hands Strike, Ninefold Dragon Step, Whirlwind Thirty-Nine Kicks, Golden Needle Method, Fire-Arts Spellcraft
Divine Arts: Photographic Memory, Mastery Insight, Clairvoyant Vision, Radiance of Life, Spatial Stasis, Gravity Domain, Pill Condensation Technique, Puppet Mastery Divine Art, Omniversal God-Eye, Soul-Control Brand, Resurrection Divine Art, Beast-Taming Seal
Core Cultivation Arts: Origin-Nurturing Scripture, Azure Lotus Sword Codex, Dark-Gold Body, Phoenix Nirvana Art
Fictional Worlds: Activated
Fame Points: 20.01 billion
Next lottery draw: 5 billion points.
Logically, his mental power had already reached 3,500 points, so his level should be 34. Why was it still only 20?
"Meow-Meow, after the system upgrade, aside from the interface looking different, there aren't any other changes at all. What's going on?"
Faced with Ian's question, Meow-Meow didn't respond.
"Ding! System notification: After the upgrade, the host must increase mental power by 1,000 points and physique by 10,000 points to level up. Congratulations, host! You've reached Level 21 and earned one free lottery draw!"
"Does it have to be this stingy?" Ian complained, feeling thoroughly disgruntled.
"Congratulations, host! You have gained a subsidiary world. You have four options. Please choose one of the following four worlds within three minutes to become your subsidiary world!"
The system interface shifted, displaying scenes from four worlds: Great Qin Empire, Future Apocalypse, High Martial World, and Fantasy World.
Ian was stunned for a moment, then asked, "System, what exactly is a subsidiary world?"
"Host, please make your selection quickly," the system urged coldly.
"Damn it! I knew it."
Ian was speechless. As expected, this system never revealed any extra information.
His gaze swept quickly across the interface, and in the end he decided the Fantasy World was the most valuable—after all, its resources were the richest.
"System, I choose the Fantasy World!"
"Beginning world binding..."
"Binding complete!"
"Congratulations, host! You have obtained your first subsidiary world. You now have the right to freely alter the time flow of your subsidiary world. Would you like to change the time flow rate?"
A series of system prompts rang out, but when Ian heard the last one, he couldn't help but be overjoyed. He quickly said, "System, set the subsidiary world's time flow to one-to-one!"
"Adjusting time flow..."
"Adjustment complete. The time flow between the subsidiary world and the main world is now set to one-to-one!"
"Awesome!"
Ian clenched his fist in excitement.
Taking a deep breath, Ian decided to start the lottery draw.
"System, I want to draw a lottery!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the lottery wheel appeared.
But as soon as the wheel appeared, Ian noticed it had changed. Instead of the previous seven colors—red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and purple—the wheel now only had five options: Divine Art, Skill, Item, Blank, and Bloodline.
"Damn, there's actually a blank!" Ian felt nauseated. If his guess was right, that blank option definitely meant nothing.
Even though he was a little annoyed, Ian still tapped the big 'Prize' character at the center of the wheel. Instantly, the lottery pointer began spinning rapidly.
The pointer started slowing down, gradually sliding toward the blank.
"No way I'm that unlucky!"
Ian wailed.
Just as the pointer was about to stop, Ian's heart tightened. But at the last moment, the pointer nudged forward and landed on Bloodline.
The system interface changed again, and five bloodlines appeared on the wheel: Vampire, Elf, Divine Phoenix, Divine White Tiger, and Devil Race.
Seeing these five bloodlines, Ian immediately realized he still needed to tap once more.
So, he tapped the 'Prize' character again, and the pointer spun once more... Finally, it landed on Vampire bloodline.
A beam of light shot into Ian's forehead, and a thumb-sized drop of sinister blood appeared in his sea of consciousness.
At the same time, a block of information appeared in his mind: Vampire Bloodline—low-tier bloodline. Fusing it would greatly enhance physical strength and speed, improve healing, and allow power-ups via blood or moonlight.
There were vampires in the real world too, and Ian had done some research. Although fusing the Vampire bloodline would boost his physical strength and speed, the idea of needing to drink blood made him lose all interest in fusing it.
"Ding! Host, do you wish to fuse the Vampire bloodline?"
The system prompt sounded again.
"No! Keep drawing!"
The lottery screen reverted to the previous display, and Ian tapped again.
The pointer spun...
It finally stopped... on the blank slot!
And then... nothing happened!
Just as he expected, the blank slot really meant nothing.
"One more time!"
Ian tapped the 'Prize' character again, and the pointer spun once more.
This time, the pointer landed on the Item slot. The screen changed, and five items appeared on the lottery interface: Strength Fruit, Speed Fruit, Mental Fruit, Charm Fruit, and Hearing Fruit.
Ian tapped the 'Prize' character again. The pointer spun rapidly, then stopped at Strength Fruit.
A flash of light, and Ian suddenly held a fruit that looked part apple, part pear, exuding a tempting aroma. At the same time, a block of information appeared in his mind: Strength Fruit—after eating, increases strength by ten thousand jin.
"Oh, come on!" After learning the Strength Fruit's effect, Ian was speechless. The system's free lottery draws really were unreliable—out of three draws, one was blank and the other two gave him things he couldn't use.
For ordinary people, the Strength Fruit might be an incredible treasure, but for Ian, what use was an extra ten thousand jin of strength?
He casually tossed the Strength Fruit into his Storage Ring and decided to use Fame Points for a lottery draw.
With a thought, he tapped the 'Prize' character once more. His Fame Points dropped from 20.01 billion to 15.01 billion.
The pointer spun rapidly and finally landed on Divine Art.
The lottery interface changed again, displaying five Divine Arts: Designated Death, Transformation, Solar Fire, Lunar Fire, and Blood Control.
Just from their names, Ian could guess their basic functions. He was so excited that he tapped the Prize character again.
The pointer spun again...