Free Web NovelChapter 6: Chapter 6: I’m Sorry, Big Brother
"Spiritual Armor (Incomplete), Purple, Upgradable, Entry Level.
Instantaneous Skill, Energy Storage.
Your powerful Spiritual Power has elevated your understanding of the spiritual world. You have begun to draw power from the voidlike depths of the Abyss through your Spirit. Every moment, you can obtain Spiritual Energy from the Void and store it. When you decide to use this Spiritual Energy, it will all be converted into your Spiritual Armor. The armor’s duration is dependent on the energy spent, up to a maximum of 10 seconds. Each time this Skill is leveled up, the maximum duration increases by 5 seconds.
After activating the Battle Armor, one-third of your Spirit Attribute’s value will be added to your other Attributes. All your attacks will inflict Spiritual Shock, and you will gain a certain amount of damage reduction."
In "Abyss," there are various achievements. Completing them grants rewards, which are sometimes just in-game currency or experience, and other times a chance to draw for a Skill.
Each player has a limited number of active skill slots, which can vary based on their Profession and Skills, but there is no such limit for Passive Skills.
As for Skill Quality, it’s the same as Equipment and item quality, divided into: Gray (Ruined), White (Common), Green (Fine), Blue (Excellent), Purple (Epic), and Yellow (Legendary).
It’s rumored that there’s an even higher quality, Red (Mythical), but no one has ever seen one, so it’s just considered a rumor.
Skills themselves are very rare, and a Purple Skill is already outstanding. Many Level 10 players might not even have one, which just goes to show how lucky Duan Fei was this time.
Moreover, Skills also have their own proficiency levels. "Beginner" is the first stage after learning it, followed by stages like Proficient, Minor Success, and Great Success.
After obtaining the Skill, Duan Fei found Spiritual Armor had been added to his active skill bar.
Behind the Skill’s icon was a (0/100) counter, indicating its Energy Storage rate.
After calculating the rate, Duan Fei realized it would take him about four hours to charge up a single, full-duration cast of Spiritual Armor.
Although he could only be a hero for ten seconds, the Energy required for the Skill came from Spiritual Energy from the Void, didn’t consume stamina, and had no side effects, so it was still pretty good.
While figuring out how to use his Spiritual Armor, Duan Fei continued downward. He found he reached the first basement level without any trouble; the strange phenomena from before had vanished.
Pushing open the door to the first basement level and turning on his flashlight, Duan Fei frowned.
Behind the door was a pile of cumbersome machinery. Massive transistors and exposed copper wires crisscrossed everywhere, giving the place a distinct, clunky, ninety’s-era Soviet bloc feel.
The huge machines emitted a deafening roar, and the ground trembled with their operation. Condensation dripped from the pipes overhead, landing on the copper wires with an immediate SIZZLE.
"Little Fatty, it’s your time to shine," Duan Fei messaged.
"Look on top of the machine. There should be a four-digit error code. Tell me the code, and I’ll look up the solution. Oh, and open the maintenance kit and spray the fluorescent mist around. It can provide a light source for about fifteen minutes, which should be enough to protect you while you work."
"Got it."
After relaying the error code to Little Fatty, Duan Fei immediately opened the maintenance kit and began examining the items inside.
The maintenance kit wasn’t heavy; he could carry it around with one hand.
There weren’t many things inside, but each one looked exquisite. Next to every item, a line of small text was written: "A Rongge Company Product. Rongge Company, Your Trustworthy Good Neighbor."
The moment he touched a box containing something that looked like a tube of toothpaste, a translucent panel materialized in front of him.
"Electric Repair Toolset: Uncontaminated, White, Can be taken out of the instance.
Description: A current-driven toolset equipped with an AI-assisted system. It can resolve some simple malfunctions on its own.
Note: Cannot be used on the human body. Also cannot be used to become a master of magnetic fields."
’So there are magnetic field fanatics here too!’
"Fluorescent Spray: Uncontaminated, White, Can be taken out of the instance.
Description: After pressing the switch, it can create a fluorescent layer with a brightness of 8W to 200W. The brightness is determined by the amount of fluorescent material applied at one time. The more you spray, the brighter it gets."
These two were the main items in the maintenance toolset. Although their quality wasn’t high, they were both quite practical.
Besides them, there were just some consumable fuses and transistors. No item description window even appeared for them, so they probably weren’t anything good.
Duan Fei gladly accepted the two items, feeling quite satisfied.
Just then, Little Fatty finished reading the manual and said to Duan Fei, "Found it. A fuse is blown. You need to replace... Holy crap! You didn’t use it!"
"You’re the one who’s useless!"
"I meant, you didn’t use the fluorescent spray!"
"I figured it was fine. I didn’t see any Monsters."
"Because it’s right behind you, mimicking your every move!"
Even though watching the strange creature on the monitor didn’t cause his Spirit to drop, Little Fatty still felt a sense of terror creeping up from the soles of his feet.
Behind Duan Fei, a shadow darker than darkness itself was stuck to his back. On the shadow’s head, glowing dots and an arc formed a white smiley face, with a single white teardrop next to one of the dots for eyes.
Little Fatty felt his adrenaline spike.
While silently cursing Duan Fei for being so reckless, Little Fatty quickly searched the manual. "That’s a Shadow Person, a strange creature that hides in the dark to hunt. It slowly approaches its prey, then makes all sorts of noises to get their attention, tormenting them until their Spirit collapses. It’s always behind you, so you can’t see it, but you can always feel its presence. It’s too late to get to a bright area now. It’s already inside your shadow."
As he spoke, the little cutie began to make its move.
Because it was always behind Duan Fei, he couldn’t see it.
But Little Fatty, watching from behind the monitor, could see everything clearly.
He saw the Shadow Person reach out and knock over a metal barrel, which made a shockingly loud noise as it fell.
Then, it pressed close to Duan Fei’s ear and let out the giggle of a little girl playing, sending shivers up his spine.
Duan Fei felt like the creature was a mosquito: invisible, but constantly making its presence known.
Sitting down on the floor, Duan Fei asked, "How do I get rid of it?"
"Find a mirror or something reflective, then stare at your own face in it. The creature will do everything it can to distract you during this time. Ignore it and hold on for thirty seconds."
A mirror was easy enough to find; Duan Fei remembered there was one in the security room.
Following Little Fatty’s instructions, he replaced the generator’s fuse, then endured the Shadow Person’s harassment as he returned to the security room. He took the mirror from the desk and began to gaze into it.
Because his Spirit Attribute was already very high, the Shadow Person’s harassment didn’t increase it any further, leaving only the purely physical annoyance.
Without the satisfying thrill of his Attributes increasing, the creature had truly become just an annoying mosquito, which irritated Duan Fei to no end.
Picking up the mirror, Duan Fei finally saw the shadow’s true form.
Thanks to the automatic ’beautification’ effect of his high Spirit, the creature now appeared as a dark-skinned, twelve-year-old girl, hanging from his neck with a smug smile.
Seeing that Duan Fei had picked up the mirror, the dark-skinned girl panicked for a moment but immediately broke into an arrogant, mischievous grin.
Pressing close to Duan Fei’s ear, she whispered tauntingly, "Small fry~ Small-fry big bro~ A small-fry big bro who knows nothing and still tries to act tough~ Aww, you’re so lame~"
Duan Fei: "..."
[The Female Little Demon Shadow Person’s words have stimulated your Spirit. Her arrogant tone has settled your Spirit, and your Spirit Attribute has been temporarily increased by 5 points within this instance.]
"You’re only Level 1, right? You don’t know anything, do you? Wow, to come here without understanding a thing... you’re so pathetic."
[The Female Little Demon Shadow Person’s words have stimulated your Spirit. Her arrogant tone has settled your Spirit, and your Spirit Attribute has been temporarily increased by 5 points within this instance.]
"And you’re just staring motionlessly into a mirror. You think you’re actually going to see something? Small fry. So useless."
Duan Fei held up three fingers.
"Oh my, is the small-fry big bro getting angry? But what can a useless thing like you even do? Small fry, small fry."
"In thirty seconds, I’m going to blast you to smithereens!"
"Huh?! Um, big bro, you’re joking, right?"
"Twenty-five seconds..."
"Um, I was just kidding! Can we call a truce?"
"Twenty seconds..."
"You can’t actually do it, right? Your Spirit is strong, but you don’t have any real offensive skills, right?"
"Fifteen seconds."
"I’m sorry, big bro!"
