Finally, the lottery pointer stopped on "Transformation Divine Art."
Whoosh!
A flash of light streaked by—a golden seed shot into Ian Song's sea of consciousness, followed by an intense wave of pain that nearly made him faint.
Ian gritted his teeth and endured.
After about a minute, the pain faded. Instantly, a sense of enlightenment and information about the Transformation Divine Art filled his mind.
Transformation Divine Art: Eighth-grade divine art. Can transform once every three days, but the target's strength and mental power cannot exceed the host's, or the transformation will fail. Once a transformation succeeds, the target is permanently stored as a template and can be switched to at any time.
"Let's try it!"
Ian recalled Daniel Zhang's appearance, then activated the Transformation Divine Art. With a flash of light, he had already transformed into Daniel Zhang.
He went to the bathroom and looked in the mirror—he was now the spitting image of Daniel Zhang. The only question was whether he could fool SkyGrid.
That evening, Daniel Zhang returned from school and even brought Ian a meal.
"Give me your Identity Card!" Ian said to Daniel Zhang directly.
"Master, what do you need my Identity Card for?" Daniel Zhang asked, but still handed it over to Ian.
"I'm going out to test something—see if I can pull off a perfect deception!"
Under Daniel Zhang's astonished gaze, Ian transformed into his likeness.
Once Daniel snapped out of it, he saw Ian about to leave the living room and quickly said, "Master, even if you look exactly like me, my Identity Card contains a genetic sample. So, no matter how perfect your transformation, SkyGrid will still catch you!"
"Got it," Ian replied calmly.
Ian answered blandly, then opened the door and walked out.
However, to avoid exposing his identity, Ian decided to get far away from the apartment before putting away the Signal-Masker.
Half an hour later, Ian was already five kilometers away from Daniel Zhang's apartment. With a thought, he stowed the Signal-Masker in his Storage Ring.
One minute.
Two minutes.
Three minutes passed, and no city SWAT teams showed up. In other words, his Transformation Divine Art could really fool SkyGrid's detection.
Makes sense—an eighth-grade divine art like Transformation Divine Art is far beyond what normal technology can detect.
Just to be safe, Ian stayed in place for another five minutes. Still, no SWAT appeared, so he was finally reassured.
Next, he needed to find a suitable person to become in order to live in this world.
Back at the apartment, Daniel Zhang was anxiously pacing the living room. Seeing Ian return, he was overjoyed: "Master, you weren't chased by the city SWAT, right?"
"Relax, it's fine!"
Ian smiled, walked over, and sat down on a special sofa made of high-tech materials, then beckoned Daniel Zhang to come over.
Daniel respectfully sat down beside him. "Master, what are your orders?"
"Let me ask you—do you know anyone around 20 years old, with no parents or relatives, and a withdrawn personality who doesn't attract attention?"
Hearing Ian's question, Daniel Zhang thought hard.
After thinking for a full minute, he said with some excitement, "Master, there's a guy in our School of Business who fits your criteria. His name is Landon Lu, he's 20 this year, and apparently his parents both died a few years ago—cause unknown. The guy's good-looking but extremely withdrawn, a cultivation maniac who barely interacts with anyone except for class and training, and his rented apartment is pretty close by."
Hearing this, Ian gave Daniel Zhang an approving look and continued, "Do you have a photo of him?"
"Yeah. Since he's pretty handsome, when he first enrolled, tons of girls chased after him. Too bad he's like a block of wood—completely ignores all of them!"
As he spoke, Daniel Zhang pulled out his phone, tapped the screen, and a projection interface popped up. After a few more taps, a 3D image of the guy appeared in mid-air.
"That's Landon Lu?" Ian asked.
"Yes, Master!" Daniel Zhang nodded.
Ian memorized Landon Lu's appearance, then asked for his address. He immediately activated Clairvoyant Vision to scout his apartment.
Soon, he found Landon Lu.
The guy was sitting cross-legged in his living room, practicing a mental secret art.
With a thought, Ian used the Art of Great Teleportation to appear in Landon Lu's home. Before Landon could react, Ian branded his brow with the Puppet Mastery Divine Art.
Then he began interrogating him for personal information.
The information matched what Daniel Zhang had said: five years ago, Landon Lu's parents died together in an interstellar disaster. Coincidentally, both parents were orphans, so he had no relatives at all.
Their deaths hit him hard. He became withdrawn and devoted himself to practicing mental secret arts, hoping to become a Psychic Adept and uncover the truth behind what happened.
Five years of bitter training, but he wasn't from a wealthy family, so his mental arts were crude. After all that time, his mental power just barely reached 0.9—breaking through to 1 seemed nearly impossible.
Even so, he never gave up and kept grinding away.
Obsessed with training, Landon Lu had almost no friends after entering university.
After learning Landon Lu's background, Ian decided to take his place. He asked for more details, and Landon answered every question.
But since he'd just used the Transformation Divine Art once, Ian had to wait three days before he could become Landon Lu.
Three days later, Ian returned to Landon Lu's apartment.
He sent Landon into the Divine Temple for safekeeping. Out of guilt, Ian taught him the Origin-Nurturing Scripture, letting him train inside the temple. Once Ian leaves this world, Landon can reappear and continue living under his own name.
Suddenly, Ian realized he'd overlooked something.
Meow-Meow had only told him his sole mission was to survive—never said how long he had to stay here, or how this world's time flow compared to the main world.
Thinking about it, he decided to ask the system both questions just in case.
Given the system's usual attitude, it definitely wouldn't answer.
Sure enough, just as he expected, the system ignored him.
The next day, now transformed into Landon Lu, Ian walked out of the apartment and headed to the School of Business.
Landon Lu's apartment was less than a thousand meters from the School of Business, so he quickly arrived at the campus gate.
The School of Business had over two hundred years of history.
Despite its long history, the School of Business only had a bit over three thousand students.
Classes were pretty easy—usually just one in the morning, sometimes another in the afternoon if it was a public course, which students could skip, and no classes on weekends.
Ian walked to the classroom without greeting anyone—and of course, no one greeted him either.
Inside, several dozen students were already seated. His arrival only made a few people glance up before ignoring him again.
Ian went straight to the back row, sat down, tapped his metal desk, and a holographic screen popped up. He browsed through the content for the next class.
In this era, paper books had long since been phased out.