Stronger with Crimson Modifier

Wu Yang didn’t answer immediately.

Instead, he took a deep breath.

Only after the whispers in his ears and the stabbing pain in his mind faded did he sit up with the girl’s help.

Then, he looked at the girl.

"I’m okay! Thanks for your help this time, Coal Ball!"

The cat-eared girl before him was none other than the black cat from moments ago, now in human form.

"Hmph! Don’t get the wrong idea. It’s not that I care about you, it’s just that I’d be dragged down with you if something happened."

Feeling Wu Yang’s gaze on her, the cat-eared girl scoffed and turned her head to the side.

She acted as if she couldn’t care less about what Wu Yang had said.

However, the pair of cat ears on her head, twitching slightly, betrayed how much she enjoyed his words.

Wu Yang was already used to this.

His gaze shifted to the closed black book on the table.

Recalling what had just happened, his expression flickered uncertainly.

He didn’t understand why simply looking at a single image would cause such a violent reaction.

After all, nothing like this had ever happened before.

"Coal Ball, do you know what just happened?"

Wu Yang rubbed his temples with his fingertips to ease his lingering headache, looking over at the cat-eared girl.

Upon hearing this, the cat-eared girl’s expression also grew grim.

"If I’m not mistaken, the image must have contained some existence of an utterly terrifying Life Level, much like some Alien Origin Bodies that cannot be looked at directly!"

the cat-eared girl said in a low voice.

"Such an existence can’t be observed by the naked eye. Any medium used to view it is susceptible to Erosion."

Hearing her words, Wu Yang’s hands paused on his temples.

"Are you saying it used the sketchbook as a medium to attack me?"

But the cat-eared girl shook her head.

"No. To be more precise, it was an unconscious act. The entity itself might not even be aware of what happened here.

It’s like how a normal person’s eyes would be burned if they stared directly at the midday sun."

Wu Yang froze.

He never would have expected such a situation.

What terrified him most was that he hadn’t even looked directly at the being.

He had only observed it indirectly through the sketchbook, yet it had resulted in such a severe backlash.

As he thought of this, the final image flashed back into his mind.

At the last moment, the image in the sketchbook had become clear and realistic.

He finally saw clearly what it was.

It was a colossal serpent with pale, deathly scales.

The moment he recalled this image,

he let out a muffled groan, his temples throbbing violently.

The headache, whispers, and the static in his vision, which had just begun to subside, all came rushing back.

𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

It felt as if the entire world was starting to peel away before his very eyes.

"Dammit!"

Wu Yang gritted his teeth, forcing himself to divert his attention.

As his thoughts pulled away, the sensation gradually subsided.

He only recovered a dozen or so seconds later.

Thinking about what just happened,

his voice came out raspy, as if squeezed from between his teeth.

"What in the world was that thing?"

Dread and uncertainty welled up inside him.

He had once been just a perfectly ordinary person.

But...

ever since he’d gotten this sketchbook,

everything had changed.

His life had been completely turned upside down.

What no one knew was that...

all those so-called Alien Origin Bodies...

...came from him.

No, to be more precise...

...they were all products he had created in this sketchbook.

The sketchbook’s Ability was to manifest illusory things into reality.

As long as he drew an Alien Origin Body’s form and defined its Abilities on the pages,

a new Alien Origin Body would appear in the world.

Unfortunately,

the sketchbook had certain limitations on what it could manifest.

And, driven by his own hobbies and interests,

he had chosen to create one Alien Origin Body after another.

However, to avoid dying in some unforeseen accident,

after he had figured out how the sketchbook worked,

the very first thing he did was arrange some life-saving measures for himself.

Thinking of this,

he lifted his wrist to look.

The string of Buddha Beads that was originally on his wrist had undergone a drastic change.

There were originally eighteen beads on it.

But now, the floor around him was littered with shattered beads.

Only three remained on the string.

And even these three had fine cracks on their surfaces.

It looked as if they would shatter at any moment.

Seeing this,

the color drained from Wu Yang’s face.

He had heard the sound of something shattering earlier,

but he never imagined so many had broken.

This was an Alien Origin Body he had tailor-made for himself.

He had named it the [Black Buddha Bead].

Each Buddha Bead not only represented a life, but also contained a different Ability.

These included abilities like Extreme Speed, Absolute Defense, and immortality.

It was, you could say, an Alien Origin Body that integrated offense and defense, with no obvious weaknesses.

But now, fifteen of the beads had shattered.

Didn’t that mean he had died fifteen times in that single instant?

Without this Alien Origin Body,

he would have been long dead.

At this thought, a drop of cold sweat trickled down his forehead.

Wu Yang didn’t know...

that the reason his reaction had been so severe...

was because the sketchbook, following his instructions, had rendered Hu Qi’s true form in a high-definition, realistic style.

This was far more serious than situations where people had only glimpsed a scale or a claw.

...

The only silver lining was that the string of Black Buddha Beads wasn’t completely destroyed.