Chapter 5: Molding (1)

“What sort of nonsense is this?”

A huge fluorescent panel floated quietly in front of him. Zhou Jing was attracted to it, and his face was full of surprise as he read it.

The panel was light blue in color, and there seemed to be tiny lines that looked like electronic circuits on it. However, a closer look showed that there was nothing there.

Zhou Jing suddenly felt a strong sense of déjà vu.

Why does this thing look so much like the game interface of various immersive virtual games on the market?

Did I accidentally turn on a virtual game. But I didn’t wear a game helmet before I fell asleep, and this doesn’t feel like I entered a virtual game… Could I really be dreaming?

Zhou Jing stared at the LED panel in front of him, perplexed.

Buzz—

At this moment, a large amount of information suddenly surged into his mind, almost causing his thoughts to freeze.

After digesting the information for more than ten minutes, Zhou Jing finally sorted out the contents of the message and understood the current situation and what the interface in front of him was for.

“This thing… has the ability to travel between planes?”

Zhou Jing widened his eyes in disbelief. Only then did he confirm that he seemed to have encountered some unimaginable situation.

This interface seemed to be able to allow him to enter different planes… To be precise, in the information he received, the planes were called “Astral Realms.”

He did not enter with his real body. Instead, he had to create different Astral Apostles. He had to project his consciousness into them and make the Astral Apostle his mortal shell and carrier.

The Astral Apostle had an independent body and was not related to the main body. Even if it died, it would not affect the main body. If an Astral Apostle died, the interface would create a new Astral Apostle Interface. However, the cooldown period was uncertain.

As for being an Astral Apostle, he could collect two special resources whenever he traversed the Astral Realms. The upper right corner of the interface showed the details.

[Astral Realm Points: 0]

[Explanation: Whenever the Astral Apostle participates in events and activities in the Astral Realm, it will induce automatic adsorption of the free realm energies. After undergoing a special processing method, it will be converted into the resource of “Astral Realm Points.”]

[Information State Particles: 0]

[Explanation: This resource will be generated when the actions of the Astral Apostle in the current Astral Realm has a certain degree of influence (including but not limited to completing the current life model’s goals, obtaining specific achievements, having a certain impact on the evolution of the current world, etc.)]

These two resources had many functions. From the information he received, he understood that the Astral Realm Points, or Astral Points for short, were the “universal currency,” and most functions consumed the Astral Points.

As for Information State Particles, they were even rarer ‘special currencies.’ They could only be obtained when certain special functions were triggered.

The Interface for Astral Apostles was divided into two sections, ‘Trait Profile’ and ‘Ability Profile.’ The former was the personality of this template. When he used an Astral Apostle to travel in another plane, the more his actions matched the characteristics of this template, the more he could increase the synchronization rate of the carrier. It seemed like this would increase his efficiency in obtaining Astral Points and Information State Particles.

The ‘Ability Profile’ reflected the attributes and abilities of this apostle.

As it was not related to the main body, the Astral Apostle’s ability belonged to the host and would not be given to the main body. Only knowledge and memories would not be restricted. When he controlled the Astral Apostle to ‘clear,’ the world would then undergo a qualitative change, allowing the training results of the Astral Apostle to be selectively transferred to the main body.

The “clear” was only based on Zhou Jing’s own understanding. The current template displayed [Apostle Permanence Standard: 0 / 80]. This corresponded to how much Information State Particles he was able to obtain through this apostle.

This meant that every Apostle had to accumulate 80 Information State Particles before this character could be considered “permanent.” Only then could he convert his abilities to his main body and “clear” the area…

Completing the life goal of an apostle in the astral world was the most important way to “clear” the level.

If an ordinary Astral Apostle were to die, he would need to create a new template. However, if an Astral Apostle who had “cleared” the area died, their condition and accumulation before death would be completely preserved. He could still use this body to re-enter the Astral Realm—this was the meaning behind the word “Permanence.”

So, if the Astral Apostle obtains extraordinary powers and clears the area, I can inherit the Astral Apostle’s powers?

Zhou Jing roughly understood the function of the interface, and his eyes instantly lit up, his heart thumping.

Is this real life? Which deity answered my calls?

Isn’t this my dream of becoming a Super!

He had seen many strange abilities in the Super League programs: spitting fire, spitting water, playing with snakes. But he had never heard of anyone with the ability to travel between realms!

Therefore, Zhou Jing was not sure whether his Astral Realm Interface was his own awakening ability or some other unknown phenomenon.

But no matter what background or cause this panel had, it seemed to be an opportunity for him to choose another life.

No matter how deep the water was, he had to grasp it!

He kept thinking about it. He did not think that a mighty force that could allow a person to travel between realms was a plot against him… there was no need to take such convoluted measures to attack his powerless self.

“There’s no point worrying…”

Zhou Jing took a deep breath.

At that moment, he felt as though he was looking at his own life. Right now, there was a fork in the road that led to a mysterious and unknown direction.

The Supers that he wanted to become, the forced migration that he wanted to get rid of… the path was within this new direction.