I really don't want to date a girl addicted to the internet!

The girl gritted her teeth, not looking back, and twisted the handlebars to start the engine, causing the vehicle beneath her to roar deeply. The drive wheels engaged with the heavy tracks, outputting powerful force to crush the snow crust.

The girl maneuvered the snowmobile to make a 180-degree turn. During this time, she vaguely saw the boy and the silver life form engaged in a seemingly endless melee. She forced herself not to think about it and followed her memory to drive in the direction the two had come from.

1016. Cheng Fei chooses to exchange.

Deep within the ice plains, a raging blizzard caused temperatures to plummet, as if trying to refreeze the hard blue ice that had existed for millions of years, turning a world devoid of life into a death zone.

On this land, only the last two life forms are fighting.

As both sides moved at speeds exceeding the limits of common sense, the ice crystals in the air instantly sublimated into a gaseous state, then condensed into a liquid state, and then refreezed and were torn apart by the airflow. These extreme physical changes left behind tangible motion trails on both sides.

In the zero-time state, Cheng Fei could see tiny ice crystals slowly drifting in the air, sparkling like frozen snowflakes, eerie yet beautiful.

The boy had no time to appreciate any of this; even at fifty times slower speeds, he and his failed creation moved like a fast-forwarded action movie, everything blurred in motion.

The boy abandoned all thought, his gaze fixed on the silver life form before him, and all his actions had only one purpose: to attack, and then attack again, using a frenzied offensive to hold off the enemy.

The failed attempt caught the boy's fist that shattered the air, its slender, silvery fingers clenching tightly, making the boy's knuckles make an unsettling crack, before effortlessly dragging him and slamming him to the ground behind it.

The boy smashed through the blue ice beneath him and slid along, bracing himself against the ground with his back to stop the momentum, then rose as fast as he could and rushed toward his failed attempt.

During this process, his muscles and bones experienced excruciating pain, which was then washed away by the continuous recovery power. The repeated pain stimulated his nerves, and the adrenaline made him lose his fear.

The failed creation stood still, its empty head staring at the boy as if observing something. Only when the boy's all-out attack reached him did it accurately grab his arm in mid-air and then smash him away into the distance, as easily as a human child throwing away an annoying toy figure.

The boy rolled on the ground, gasping for breath, then got up again. His twitching eyes blazed with ferocious anger and a death wish, like a porcupine going mad or a lion that was not afraid of death.

The boy attacked again, only to be easily knocked away by the defeated opponent who stood still.

After the world spun around, the boy crashed to the ground, gazing at the leaden clouds that pressed down on the earth. He gasped for breath, his lungs recklessly inhaling the extremely cold air, drawing oxygen molecules from it and channeling them into his body to supply his ever-consuming energy. It was as if he were accepting some forbidden power, at the cost of his soul gradually freezing.

He rested for only a second before getting up and continuing his attack.

The enemy seemed to have seen through the true nature behind his feigned bravado, and stopped taking the initiative to attack. Instead, they stood still and waited for him to get closer before retaliating, like an adult playing with a child who was already tired of it but had no choice but to respond.

The boy stood up again, clutching his shoulder and coughing violently, dragging his body, which had been injured and healed countless times, toward his failed attempt.

Although the enemy is invincible, he has already won as long as he continues to fight.

A silver hand suddenly appeared before the boy, interrupting his thoughts.

It didn't come out from the front, but from behind him.

The boy's pupils contracted, and with an incredulous look in his eyes, he slowly lowered his head and saw a slender silver arm emerge from his body, gushing out hot, scalding blood.

He instinctively looked up to look ahead, trying to find the enemy, but failed. He tried to turn around to look behind him, but found that his body was like being nailed to the wall, unable to move.

Until the silver arm withdrew, it seemed to take away the boy's strength as well. He staggered and fell to the ground, his chest pounding stubbornly, his eyes wide as he searched behind him.

The failed attempt stood behind him, not looking down at him, but simply standing there as if it were a trivial matter.

Blood was dripping from the silver life form's right arm, and its left hand was gripping a familiar-looking crystal staff, exactly the same one that Shen Xi had obtained in the corridor.

"Hyperdimensional Leap Scepter"

So you have one too?

That makes sense, since they were all failures.

The howling blizzard was so loud that his attention was also distracted by his injuries, and he didn't even react when his opponent used Flash.

The boy gasped for breath uncontrollably, but felt his limbs growing weaker and weaker, his internal injuries exceeding his capacity to heal instantly.

He blinked as he gazed at the leaden clouds.

It seems like it's almost over.

He wasn't quite sure how long it had dragged on; at first he was counting in his head, but later he couldn't muster the energy anymore.

The boy struggled to prop himself up and launched another attack on the enemy behind him, but his punch missed and he almost fell to the ground.

He looked up and saw that his failed attempt was walking away from him in some direction deep into the blizzard, getting further and further away.

For a moment, the boy thought the enemy was going to let him go, and although he didn't know why, he felt like he had escaped a disaster.

The next second, a thought worse than death suddenly surfaced in his mind.

His failed attempt only confirmed his death, and then he planned to chase after Shen Xi...

A chill colder than death seeped into his body from the wound on his chest, seeping into his limbs and bones, causing him to shiver violently.

What a joke! We've already gone this far, isn't that enough to save her life?

"You...stop right there!" The boy gritted his teeth and tried to stand up, but found that he couldn't do it no matter what.

The pool of blood flowing beneath him froze instantly, leaving a shocking red stain on the snow, just like the corpses at the entrance of the ice cave.

The failed attempt stopped, but did not turn around. It merely turned its head slightly, as if scanning the entire continent through space. Then, the teleportation staff in its hand lit up.

With a loud bang, the silver life form completely disappeared from the spot.

The world suddenly became extremely quiet. In the raging blizzard, the boy lay half-reclined, watching this scene without moving. His heart twitched, and he couldn't tell whether he felt sad or something else.

She's going to die.

The words suddenly appeared before the boy's eyes.

Before he knew it, a small doll that looked exactly like Shen Xi stood in front of him, expressionless, looking down at him.

Wearing a white fluffy fisherman's hat, wrapped in a scarf, and with a thick down jacket that made him look like a tourist who had just passed by.

"Are you still here?" The boy gasped for breath, his vision gradually darkening. He shook his head to look at the other person.

Severe injuries and the bitter cold were stripping away his life force together.

She's going to die, just like you.

This time, the text appeared above the little doll's head, like a game dialogue.

Sure enough, she and the system were one, the boy realized this, though he didn't know what the point of understanding it now was.

The young man thought to himself, "I know whether I want to die or not. I don't need this useless system to remind me."

You're the one who's useless.

The little doll's face turned cold, and a hint of displeasure appeared in its pure, dark eyes.

[Refusing to be loyal to her during missions, this is the consequence]

The little doll had unprecedentedly long text appearing above its head, its stubborn, pink lips tightly closed, creating an indescribable sense of incongruity.

"So what exactly are you, that you care so much about how I treat her?" The boy took a deep breath and spoke directly, feeling closer to death with each word he uttered.

Fragments of Wisdom

The little doll looked down at him, its eyes unblinking.

"...What does that mean?" The boy pondered whether it was a name or some kind of title. He took a breath and simply rolled over to lie down, which made him feel a strange warmth spread through his body, making him feel a little better.

[Shall we exchange?]

The little doll stood beside his head, just like the failed attempt from before.

The boy, his mind still hazy, grinned, about to instinctively sneer, when suddenly a thought struck him. He swallowed hard, looked at the other person, and gasped, "Would exchanging power with you... be enough to take down that guy?"

【easy】

The words appeared without hesitation, and the little doll's expression remained unchanged, as if stating a self-evident fact. Moreover, due to its cold little face that already looked down on the whole world with disdain, it had an aura of looking down on the world.

The boy made his decision in just half a second.

Given all that, what else does he have to worry about?

“Okay, let’s make a trade… whatever you want, it’s freedom or whatever.” The boy’s eyelids felt as heavy as lead and he closed them uncontrollably.

In his final, barely audible voice, he spoke with overwhelming hatred and murderous intent: "Just help me kill that thing."

[Exchange Confirmation]

Before the boy finally lost consciousness, the words appeared before his eyes.

……

In the heart of the blizzard-ravaged ice plains, time seemed to have passed for a long time, yet it also seemed to have only been a moment.

Cheng Fei suddenly opened his eyes and blinked blankly.

The petite Shen Xi disappeared, leaving only him lying on the ground, as if he had a strange dream before he died.

The excruciating pain in his chest continued, but his extraordinary endurance and rapid recovery gave him superhuman vitality. Despite losing a lot of blood through his torso and the harsh low temperatures, he did not die immediately.

When the boy tried to move himself, he found that even his fingers seemed to be frozen to the ground, with no signal returning to his brain.

So where is the power I'm exchanging? The boy asked himself.

As if in response to his question, words appeared before the boy's eyes.

[Additional Agreement 1: Allows the host to pay for free exchange of power, which will be returned afterward; the more times this is done, the higher the cost.]

It will be returned later, so it's temporary.

Furthermore, the more times it is done, the higher the cost will be. Does changing his freedom a few more times mean that he will be completely deprived of his freedom?

The boy blinked, feeling that his chaotic thoughts couldn't grasp the meaning, but it didn't really matter.

[Attribute cap for this exchange → 20]

[Acquisition of Extraordinary Abilities → Disabled]

As usual, there was no intention to answer him; instead, new content was being refreshed on its own.

What is meant by attribute cap?

What's the point of having a cap? It would be more useful to just raise it to 20.

Furthermore, the ability selection has been disabled. Could it really mean that he is allowed to add more than 9 attribute points?

The boy had just formed this idea when new text kept refreshing, making him hold his breath for a moment.

[Exchange Officially Open]

[Freedom → Power]

[Points: 9,100 → Unlimited]

[Exchange complete]

The boy blinked hard, even doubting that it was all a hallucination he had before his death.

The text suddenly disappeared.

He felt a pang of loss for a moment, then thought for a moment, opened the system interface, and checked his balance.

[Points: Unlimited]

Two unremarkable characters floated there, as ordinary as if they were modified using a cheat engine when playing a single-player game.

The boy hesitated, then tried choosing to spend 100,000 points to add more.

Endurance: 9 (Extraordinary) → 10 (Superior)

The boy's heart suddenly began to pound violently, and an unexpected power surged into his body, causing the weakness to recede rapidly. He could even feel the wound on his chest healing at a visible speed, and the granulation tissue growing there caused an itchy sensation.

He paused for a moment, then checked his balance again.

[Points: Unlimited]

The boy gradually came to understand everything.

He first focused his mind to activate Time Zero, slowing down time.

Time zero, slowed down fifty times.

The blizzard suddenly froze, and tiny ice crystals shimmered in the air, turning it into a beautiful yet eerie misty snowfall.

"Too slow." The boy's soft voice fell into the frozen world.

He chose to add points.

Agility: 9 (Extraordinary) → 10 (Exceptional)

The world has become even more frozen.