47: Chapter 47 Realism surpasses 1000! Reward: Divine Skill - Spatial Cutting!

Torch Base.

The golden light of the ancient tree retracted and pulsed.

A dull, rhythmic breathing filled the entire altar plaza.

Su Chen leaned against the stone steps of the altar.

The system panel hung quietly in the corner of his vision.

The numbers on it were skyrocketing in a frantic manner.

"Realism + 47"

"Realism + 83"

"Realism + 112"

Everything that happened in the ruins of Qin Province was being converted into the purest Realism at a geometric rate.

The official attitude had completed a total turnaround.

From attempting to co-opt, it had turned into awe and reverence.

Distance creates beauty, and it creates even more Realism.

Su Chen watched the numbers on the panel stop jumping and finally settle.

"Current Points: 6050"

"Current Realism: 1010"

The text on the third line changed color.

From deep blue to brilliant flowing gold.

"Congratulations to the host, Realism has surpassed 1000, system upgraded to LV2."

"View new features?"

Su Chen took out his notebook.

He flipped to the title page of "Act V: Tracing the Source."

The tip of his pen drew a solid circle after the title.

A perfect curtain call.

He wrote a new list on the line below:

"Harvest: Points + 4950, Realism + 395, System Upgrade LV2, E-Rank Crystal × 1."

Su Chen stared at this line of text.

The days of eating instant noodles in a rental apartment with only one hundred and one yuan and thirty-five cents in his bank account were completely over.

Now, he held six thousand points and over a thousand points of Realism.

"View new features."

The panel expanded into a new sub-interface.

The golden border shone dazzlingly.

"LV2 Unlocked Features —"

"1. Tier 3: Fire-Bearer Kindling production permission: Requires D-Rank beast crystal × 1 + Points (cost TBD)."

"2. Ruin Fabrication Template · Advanced Version: Can fabricate medium-sized ruins (including functional spaces, residual energy fields, interactive mural memories), with the upper limit constrained by both Realism and Points."

Su Chen's gaze lingered on the first item.

Tier 3: Fire-Bearer.

This was his next breakthrough point.

The Tier 2 Watcher panel stats were enough to deal with E-Rank Anomaly.

But once a D-Rank or higher beast appeared, the combat power of Tier 2 might not always maintain absolute dominance.

Tier 3 was the true watershed.

And crafting Tier 3 Kindling required a D-Rank crystal.

Su Chen wrote two words in his notebook: "Hunt."

He closed the upgrade notification and opened his character panel.

"Host: Su Chen"

"Transcendent Rank: Tier 2 Watcher"

"Strength: 22 | Constitution: 24 | Speed: 21 | Mental Power: 10"

"Teleportation Range: 1000 meters"

"Flame Temperature Limit: 2000 ℃"

Teleportation and Flame were both basic abilities redeemed at the beginning.

The manipulation of flame form was already precise enough, but its power was limited by the temperature cap.

He glanced at the upgrade price for the flame ability.

Fifty thousand points.

Su Chen closed the upgrade panel directly.

He needed a more cost-effective means of attack.

No matter how strong the flames were, there were physical limitations.

Encountering enemies immune to high temperatures or with massive bodies, a single elemental attack could easily lead to a stalemate.

Su Chen pulled out the list at the bottom of the panel.

"Transcendent Ability Redemption Mall (Tier 2 Available List)."

His gaze passed over Fire, Water, and Lightning types.

Finally, it stopped at the very bottom.

Space type.

"Space Cut (Active): Using mental power as a guide, tear the spatial structure at a designated location to form an invisible cutting surface. The cutting range, precision, and power are influenced by mental power values and transcendent energy reserves. Points: 3000."

Time is supreme, Space is king.

No matter how hot flames are, they have a temperature limit; no matter how strong a physical attack is, it must make contact with the target.

Space Cut is different.

It doesn't cut matter; it cuts space itself.

Matter exists within space; if space is severed, matter is severed along with it.

The concept of "defense" does not exist.

Three thousand points.

After spending it, only a little over three thousand would remain.

"System, redeem Space Cut."

"Confirmed. Points deducted: 3000. Balance: 3050."

""Space Cut" has been bound to the host."

"Current mental power: 10. Space Cut basic parameters — Cutting distance: within 50 meters. Maximum single cut length: 3 meters. Cutting surface thickness: approaches zero."

"Note: The higher the mental power, the stronger the cutting precision, distance, and length. It is recommended that the host increase the mental power value."

A stream of information poured into his mind.

Su Chen's vision changed.

Invisible latitude and longitude lines appeared in the air.

Each line was marked with distance, angle, and density.

He extended his right hand.

His index and middle fingers pressed together.

He slashed gently through the air in front of him.

Silent.

Three meters away, a waist-high, forty-centimeter diameter broken stone pillar.

Was neatly split in two from the middle.

The upper half of the pillar lost its support and slid along the cut surface.

It crashed onto the stone tiles, kicking up a circle of dust.

Su Chen walked forward.

His fingers brushed over the cut surface of the pillar.

There was no debris, no cracks; it was smooth enough to reflect the golden light of the sky.

This wasn't cutting.

It was space "ceasing to exist" at that location for an instant.

The matter on both sides of the pillar lost its connection.

This move was extremely strong.

Su Chen withdrew his hand, and a sense of weakness from being drained washed over his brain.

The mental power consumption was immense.

In his current state, he could use it at most three times with full energy.

After three times, his mental power would be exhausted.

It was enough.

Flame for damage output, Teleportation for positioning, Space Cut for finishing.

This tactical combo was now complete, and he could calmly handle even a D-Rank beast.

Su Chen walked back under the ancient tree.

"System, can I use that E-Rank crystal now to promote Liu Yuyan to Tier 2?"

The panel flickered and popped up a reply.

"Insufficient permission. Current host rank: Tier 2 Watcher."

"System rule restriction: The host can only grant abilities to members by crafting transcendent Kindling. The member's maximum rank must be one tier lower than the host's."

"If you wish to grant a member Tier 2 strength, please first upgrade to Tier 3: Fire-Bearer."

Su Chen looked at this line of text and was silent for two seconds.

The member's strength level would always be one tier lower than his own.

Reasonable.

His persona was the Xinhuo President, the millennia-old Flame Keeper.

If a member's strength exceeded the President's, it wouldn't make logical sense, and it would lower his prestige.

He had originally considered using the crystal from the East Sea to push Liu Yuyan to Tier 2, while he remained firmly in the background commanding.

Now it seemed that wouldn't work.

Liu Yuyan would have to stay at Transcendent Tier 1 for now.

Then, this extra crystal would have a new destination.

Give it to Lin Xiaoman.

But this Kindling couldn't be given too easily.

He had to set a sufficiently high threshold for her trial.

Su Chen took out his phone and dialed a number.

...

In the west of Jingzhou, the largest electronics market.

On the second basement level, in the enterprise-grade server section.

Lin Xiaoman was wearing that oversized grey hoodie, the hood pulled extremely low, almost covering the upper half of her face.

She had a watermelon-flavored lollipop in her mouth.

She was pushing one of those oversized flatbed carts from a supermarket.

Piled on the cart were over a dozen unopened cardboard boxes.

They were all top-spec enterprise-grade hard drives, independent server motherboards, and uninterruptible power modules.

The electronics store owner was a pot-bellied middle-aged man, holding a calculator and following beside her, sweating profusely.

"Young lady, this order of yours is too big. There's no stock of these motherboards in all of Jingzhou; I have to pull them from Shenzhen. Regarding the price..."

Lin Xiaoman didn't speak.

She took her phone out of her pocket, her fingers tapping rapidly on the screen.

She pulled up a page and shoved it in front of the owner's face.

On the page was the bottom-price list for these motherboards from distributors in Shenzhen, with logistics costs calculated clearly, accurate to two decimal places.

The owner's expression froze.

"At this price. Charge the card."

Lin Xiaoman's voice was soft, and her speaking speed was extremely fast.

She handed over a black bank card.

The unlimited supplementary card given by Liu Yuyan.

The owner wiped his sweat, took the card with both hands, and ran to the card reader.

Lin Xiaoman leaned against the cart, moving the lollipop from the left corner of her mouth to the right.

Buying the hardware was just the first step.

When she got back, she still had to set up the server racks, build arrays, and write underlying encryption protocols.

The workload was ridiculously huge.

Her phone vibrated.

An unknown encrypted number.

Lin Xiaoman's back straightened instantly.

This encrypted band was one she had just set up in the internal network of Torch Base.

Only one person could call in.

She immediately pressed the answer key, stood straight, and even softened her breathing.

"President."

"How is the equipment procurement going?"

Su Chen's voice came through the receiver, carrying that habitual, calm tone without any fluctuation.

"The hardware is basically ready. It can be transported back to the courtyard house tonight."

"Very good."

There was a one-second pause on the other end of the line.

"I have just received guidance from the ancient tree."

Lin Xiaoman's ears perked up.

"In the cataclysm three years from now, the frequency of beast descents will far exceed the past. Xinhuo can no longer be blind."

"Your task now is to hurry and build Xinhuo's exclusive network and a global monitoring and communication system."

"You will become the eyes of Xinhuo."

Su Chen's voice deepened by half a degree.

"Once you complete this task, you can begin the trial of the ancient tree."

Beep.

The call ended.

Lin Xiaoman stood in the aisle of the electronics market.

Holding the phone in her hand.

The lollipop in her mouth stopped moving.

Build an exclusive network.

Construct a global monitoring and communication system.

This was not a job one person could do at all; this was the workload of a national-level cybersecurity team for three months!

It was too hard.

Perverted level of difficulty.

Lin Xiaoman's cheeks puffed out.

Her teeth clenched.

"Crack."

The watermelon-flavored lollipop was bitten to pieces in one go, the hard candy fragments exploding in her mouth.

But.

Finishing it meant she could begin the trial of the ancient tree.

Passing the trial meant she could obtain the Transcendent sequence.

She could be like Liu Yuyan, wear silver-white armor, and possess power beyond that of mortals.

She could truly stand on that line.

Lin Xiaoman's eyes lit up.

Reflected in her pupils was that pile of cold electronic components on the cart; her originally socially anxious and lazy gaze instantly turned into a kind of extreme fanaticism.

"Boss!"

She turned her head and shouted toward the checkout counter, her voice raised by two octaves.

"For the order just now, double the quantity of all parts!"

"Deliver everything to the western suburbs by midnight tonight!"

"If even one network cable is missing, I'll hack your inventory management system!"

The boss held the card reader, staring dumbfounded at this 1.52-meter tall lolita.

Lin Xiaoman flipped her hood back, revealing that baby face.

She gripped the handles of the cart with both hands, pushing the hundreds of pounds of equipment, and strode toward the freight elevator.

Go for it.

For Transcendence.

Even if she had to grind to death, she had to build this system!