I Can Control Resources

"Hahaha, Gao Neng, you lose... you lose!" Gao Xiaomeng’s excited laughter rang out almost the instant Gao Neng was sent flying.

She was truly overjoyed.

What could possibly be more gratifying than defeating Gao Neng?

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

Although, there was still one more clash to go.

But if she could win the second time, then she would definitely win the third time.

Gao Xiaomeng was grinning so wide she could hardly close her mouth.

’Gao Neng is finished!’

’He can’t beat me, the Xiaomeng Queen.’

’Hahaha, from now on, he’ll have to cook delicious food for me, the Xiaomeng Queen. He’ll also have to give me massages, pound my back, rub my feet... Just thinking about it is so exciting!’

BOOM!

After being sent flying, Gao Neng finally slammed into the cliff wall.

A three-meter-deep crater appeared.

It was even wider and deeper than Gao Xiaomeng’s.

"Hahaha..." Gao Xiaomeng looked at Gao Neng in the distance, her laughter growing even more smug, her body trembling with mirth.

As expected, she, the Xiaomeng Queen, was the strongest.

Gao Neng had been sent flying.

He was sprawled out in the crater, unable to get up.

This was a golden opportunity!

GULP, GULP! Gao Xiaomeng was ecstatic, but she still maintained a shred of caution, so she immediately swallowed the remaining three clumps of magnetic energy.

BUZZ!

Rampant energy flooded her body.

The feeling of power made her involuntarily let out a meow.

"MEOW!!!"

The sound was clear and high-pitched.

It perfectly represented Gao Xiaomeng’s current mood.

"Gao Neng, get up and accept your despair!" Gao Xiaomeng charged forward. She had to seize this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to deal Gao Neng another despairing blow.

...

There’s a feeling known as being bittersweet—a mix of pain and pleasure.

Gao Neng wasn’t sure if that was what he was experiencing right now, because his body ached, and his heart ached just as much.

’If it weren’t for Gao Xiaomeng’s treacherous kick, I definitely wouldn’t have lost... At least, not this badly. I would have still had a fighting chance.’

So, a high-IQ academic prodigy like him had actually been duped by a cat?

This was simply outrageous!

Gao Neng was furious.

But at the exact moment he slammed into the cliff wall, a mechanical voice sounded in his ear, turning his pain into an indescribable joy.

"Ding! Congratulations, Host. You have completed the third stage of the quest ’A Real Man Bravely Challenges 20,000 Meters.’ Reward: a third opportunity to upgrade a special ability."

’A Real Man, 20,000 Meters! This is the 20,000-meter mark?!’ Gao Neng remembered that he and Gao Xiaomeng had started fighting around the 19,000-meter mark.

But now, without even realizing it, they had fought their way to 20,000 meters?

The quest was complete!

And it seemed he had reached the 20,000-meter mark without encountering any danger. Could you blame him for being happy, for being joyful?

Gao Neng looked around.

It really seemed like there were no Dark Creatures, no vines or creepers, no gray mist, or anything else that might be a Dark Creature.

It felt like a pocket of peace that had appeared out of nowhere.

Although, the situation was a bit strange.

But no matter what, the quest was finally complete, and he had his third chance to upgrade a special ability. This was, after all, something worth celebrating.

’So, what should I upgrade?’

For a moment, Gao Neng hesitated.

Special Abilities: 1. Glare At You (Intermediate). 2. Four Symbols (Epic). 3. Life Element Fusion (Intermediate). 4. Celestial Book Deduction (Intermediate). 5. Source (Epic).

Special Skill: Infinite Possibility (Intermediate)

Because every ability seemed pretty good.

Glare At You was very practical, allowing him to see an opponent’s information and weaknesses with a single look. It was practically an essential skill for fighting opponents above his level.

And Celestial Book Deduction was equally useful.

Especially after discovering that Gao Xiaomeng had stolen his fighting techniques, he felt a strong urge to upgrade Celestial Book Deduction another level.

However, he quickly dismissed all these thoughts.

Because Gao Xiaomeng was already charging toward him, her aura overwhelming.

What was there to hesitate about?

Among all his special abilities, there was only one that could directly increase his strength, and it was precisely because of this ability that he had managed to gain a slight upper hand in their clashes.

The most urgent task right now was to crush Gao Xiaomeng.

Otherwise, life in the future...

...would probably be very difficult.

Although he had already decided in his heart that he wouldn’t admit defeat even if he lost, this didn’t affect his determination to crush Gao Xiaomeng.

If he couldn’t even crush a cat, was he still Gao Neng?

"System, upgrade ’Life Element Fusion’!" Gao Neng said immediately.

"Are you sure you want to upgrade Life Element Fusion? Once upgraded, this change cannot be reversed. The system friendly reminds you..."

"Can you cut the crap? Just upgrade it already!"

"Ding! Life Element Fusion upgrade successful."

"Beep. Congratulations, Host. You have acquired the new special ability ’Life Atom Fission (Advanced).’" The mechanical voice quickly rang out again.

’Life Atom Fission?!’ Gao Neng immediately opened his Attribute Panel.

Sure enough, the original Life Element Fusion had changed.

It had been replaced by Life Atom Fission.

He tapped on the description for Life Atom Fission.

"Life Atom Fission: The upgraded version of Life Element Fusion. In addition to all the functions of Life Element Fusion, this ability also possesses 108 new formulas."

"108 of them?" Gao Neng was stunned.

’So many positions... Oh, wait, no, so many formulas!’

At a glance, he saw a dense cluster of calculations—all sorts of additions, subtractions, multiplications, and divisions, along with elemental symbols, looking just like a swarm of tadpoles looking for their mother.

Furthermore, there was a theoretical explanation below.

To put it simply, this Life Atom Fission utilized the theory of "the perpetual motion of atoms."

Atoms are in perpetual motion. They are constantly vibrating, moving, and rotating. Even the atoms that make up our chairs are constantly in motion.

In addition, atoms have several different excited states.

If we give a large amount of energy to an atom, it will break free from its ground state energy level and reach an excited level.

In other words, if we apply a certain amount of thermal energy to an atom, we can expect that some electrons in low-energy orbits will move to high-energy orbits, i.e., farther from the atomic nucleus.

After an electron moves to a high-energy orbit, it must eventually return to its ground state.

In this process, the electron releases energy in the form of a photon (a particle of light).

An ordinary person would probably be dizzy after reading this far.

However, Gao Neng had never been an ordinary person, so he understood it all in a single glance.

Pretty amazing, right?

Just as the dorky system said, this new special ability really did contain 108 different positions—oh, wait, no, formulas.

Each formula represented a combination.

The original Life Element Fusion involved fusing different elements into the body’s muscles, giving the fused body resistance to those elements.

For example, fusing with iron would make him harder.

And fusing with copper would provide better resistance to electricity.

Of course, the true power of Life Element Fusion was its ability to fuse multiple different elements, stacking their hardness to form an alloy body.

But this kind of fusion, in essence, was still in the category of enhancing resistance and attack power.

But this Life Atom Fission...

...was different!

By using different formulas to transform and excite the atoms in his body, Gao Neng’s body could gain all sorts of different "amplification abilities."

For example: the Infrared Formula.

After modifying his eyes with the Infrared Formula, Gao Neng’s eyes would gain infrared capabilities, giving him night vision.

Of course, the application of infrared wasn’t limited to just night vision.

Moreover, there were different types of infrared, such as near-infrared, mid-infrared, and thermal infrared.

It was precisely because of this wide variety.

That this special ability contained a total of 108 different formulas.

The explanation was a bit complex.

But its practical application was quite convenient.

Gao Neng was the type of person who could find the exact formula he wanted in a pile with just one look.

Therefore, his choice was...

Laser!

There was an ancient song with some very nice lyrics.

"Love is a light, so green it drives you mad..."

Gao Neng wasn’t actually a person with a twisted sense of humor, but he still chose a green light and coated his long black saber with it.

"Three Slashes in One!" Gao Neng kicked off with both legs and charged with all his might to meet the diving Gao Xiaomeng. He was going to show her with his actions.

Swallowing energy, swallowing magnetic clumps, copying fighting skills—none of it was useful against him.

Because he was the ultimate cheater!

"Give up, Gao Neng, you’re no match for me!" Although Gao Xiaomeng didn’t know how Gao Neng’s saber had suddenly turned green.

She was confident enough.

After all, if Gao Neng couldn’t even block her second strike, how could he possibly block her third?

Besides, even if she felt something was off now, she couldn’t retreat. The agreement was to clash head-on.

Gao Neng wasn’t retreating.

So how could she?

’It’s green?’

’You think you’re so tough just because you’re glowing green?’

Gao Xiaomeng wasn’t flustered at all. She just raised her blades and slashed.

"Three Slashes in One!" Gao Xiaomeng also shouted, and a blue light once again shone from her two short daggers, forming a bright blue cross in front of her.

BOOM!

The long black saber clashed with the two short daggers once again.

And then, the two short daggers in Gao Xiaomeng’s hands broke...

Broke...

They didn’t even put up much of a struggle.

Because, on the saber in Gao Neng’s hand, there was a green laser of love.

How strong was it?

Stronger than an Electric Saber, at any rate!

"Hahaha, Gao Xiaomeng, now you know who’s the strongest, right?!" Gao Neng didn’t hold back much with this strike, because he knew Gao Xiaomeng was an Energy Body and had once devoured a liquid lifeform. If she were actually killed by his single strike, that would be utterly bizarre.

So, his slash landed directly on Gao Xiaomeng’s shoulder.