Chapter One: Enhancement

Chapter 1: Enhancement

The blinding white light before Liu Mengchao slowly began to fade.

The pristine white Main God Space materialized before his eyes once more.

"Welcome back, Lord Emissary," Gaia’s voice chimed softly in his ear. "We can certainly consider our harvest this time to be quite abundant."

An abundant harvest?

"Indeed, Lord Emissary," Gaia seemed to notice Liu Mengchao's confusion and patiently explained, "Because of the wager mode this time, for every single point added to the prize pool on our end, the opposing Main God Space was forced to match it, which means..."

"Which means..." Liu Mengchao pulled up the prize pool interface before him.

Prize Pool Balance: 1.1 million.

"It hasn't increased by all that much," Liu Mengchao pouted, saying, "Due to my unfamiliarity with the *Another* world, I wasn't able to fully mobilize the emotions of the reincarnators. Looking at it now, a prize pool of just 1.1 million points is still a bit too small."

"No, it is already quite substantial," Gaia's voice betrayed a hint of joy. "Please wait just a moment."

Scarcely had Gaia finished speaking when Liu Mengchao noticed the prize pool figure before him suddenly begin to fluctuate.

At first, it rose by tens of thousands, then surged by hundreds of thousands, before finally leaping upward by a full million points in a single breath.

By the time the numbers finally ceased their frantic dance, Liu Mengchao's breathing had grown slightly ragged.

Prize Pool Balance: 3.1 million.

"How could this be..."

"These are the points the opponent lost from the wager," Gaia sounded utterly delighted. "Mars's emissary—was his name Qingyun? He used a total of two million prize pool points to initiate this wager mode. Therefore..."

"Therefore, those two million prize pool points now belong to me."

Liu Mengchao broke into a smile.

The tiny stream that had previously represented the prize pool suddenly swelled. A river, grand and majestic in appearance, materialized right before Liu Mengchao.

Within the river's current, human smiles, tears, and seven-colored lights flashed ceaselessly.

"My prize pool..."

Liu Mengchao stood up, walked to the riverbank, and gazed down into the water. A sudden, swelling sense of accomplishment surged straight to his heart.

"That is not all, sir. Turn around and look."

Following the direction of Gaia's voice, Liu Mengchao spun around.

The Tree of Causality had grown larger as well.

The trees of causality now representing *Highschool of the Dead* and *School Days* stood taller than he was. The leaves representing side quests on the trees had increased from two leaves on a single tree to four leaves.

"This is..."

Liu Mengchao lowered his gaze to look beneath his feet.

A pitch-black expanse—the soil of the Tree of Causality.

"That's right. As the number of reincarnated worlds increases, the Tree of Causality can absorb more nutrients, causing it to grow naturally larger."

Liu Mengchao nodded. The soil surrounding the Tree of Causality beneath his feet now spanned nearly half the size of a soccer field.

"At this point, the growth of the Tree of Causality is still far from its limit. Very few emissaries manage to harvest a seed of the Tree of Causality in their very first world, yet you have experienced three worlds and already possess two such seeds."

Hearing Gaia's words, Liu Mengchao suspected she might even smile in her sleep.

True to form, before Gaia's joy could subside, she continued, "Even better news follows. The reincarnated world *Another*, which originally belonged to the opposing Main God Mars, has been completely rendered unusable. This means that during the upcoming Main God group battles, their fantasy realm will no longer include the laws of the *Another* world."

"Well, that is truly... cause for celebration," Liu Mengchao nodded, then suddenly paused. "Gaia, whose building is that over there...?"

"It is the reincarnator lounge you created."

Liu Mengchao nodded and asked, "Can I create one for myself as well? After all, if I want to speak with them, not having a room of my own simply won't do."

"That is entirely unproblematic."

The moment Gaia finished speaking, a flash of light erupted before him. When Liu Mengchao regained his senses, the blinding white Main God Space had vanished.

A three-hundred-square-meter room, enclosed by walls on all four sides.

There was only a single door, inscribed with the words: *Reincarnation World*.

Liu Mengchao nodded; this was precisely the reincarnator lounge he had created.

Right beside the door bearing the words *Reincarnation World* hung a visual telephone.

This was the sole tool through which reincarnators could communicate with one another.

Beep...

Before Liu Mengchao could even place a call, the screen lit up.

A black ponytail tied behind her head, her forehead covered in beads of sweat, yet her eyes still dancing with a smile—a smile brimming with joy and profound relief.

"You survived, Liu Mengchao."

The figure on the screen said with a smile.

"It's been so long, Qi Xiaoxiao, yet your chest still hasn't changed a bit. Still as flat as ever," Liu Mengchao remarked to the person on the screen.

Crack...

A burst of static suddenly flashed across the screen.

Another person's portrait slotted itself into the view.

"Liu Mengchao, you're cutting it a bit close."

The screen was divided into three sections. Occupying the bottom half of the rectangle was Liu Mengchao's own face. In the upper right corner was Qi Xiaoxiao's smiling face.

In the upper left was a doll—a doll clutched tightly in someone's arms.

"Why didn't you answer for so long? Did you forget about me? I am Liu Ling," said the doll on the screen.

"How could I?" Liu Mengchao said with a smile.

Crack... Crack...

Liu Mengchao couldn't help but frown. More static erupted on the screen before him, bustling with activity like a New Year's festival—lively to the absolute extreme.

"Liu Mengchao!"

Takashi Komuro's face suddenly lunged forward, appearing in the lower right corner of the screen. Yet in Liu Mengchao's view, there was still a trace of lingering hostility in his eyes.

"Liu Mengchao..."

That was Miki's voice. Liu Mengchao abruptly shifted his gaze to the lower left corner.

Miki, with her short black hair, had now removed her white eye patch. Her mismatched red and green eyes gazed at him full of tenderness.

"It certainly is lively... Speaking of which..."

Liu Mengchao's words were interrupted once again.

This time, the interruption came from Qi Xiaoxiao.

"Thank goodness. I thought you had failed the Main God's question and wouldn't be able to come back," Qi Xiaoxiao said with a smile. "However, seeing you appear here once more sets my mind at ease."

"Hn. I told you before, there was no need to worry about him. At the very least, mental imbalance is something that will never happen to Liu Mengchao."

This time, it was Liu Ling who replied.

"Therefore, trusting our companions is what we ought to do," Qi Xiaoxiao nodded and said, "When I returned to the Reincarnation Space last time, I obtained a total of two thousand Main God points. Then I spent one thousand of those points to heal my body."

"That much?"

Xiaoxiao nodded. "Because I had accumulated many minute internal injuries from martial arts practice in the past, coupled with the severe injuries I sustained during my duel with that person last time, it cost quite a few points. However, the injuries on my body are now completely healed, and as a blessing in disguise, referencing the boxing manuals in the Main God Space has elevated my strength to a whole new level."

With those words, Qi Xiaoxiao tapped her toes on the ground and glided backward, allowing herself to be captured fully within the frame of the screen.

"Ha!"

With a soft cry, Qi Xiaoxiao struck out with fists like mallets, holding them horizontally beneath her lapels. Without splaying her feet, she stepped forward naturally, gliding forward smoothly as she explained.

"This is the 'Floating Pound Technique' from the Three Emperors Cannon Pounding. Though it appears weightless, its force penetrates the entire body, carrying the weight of ten-thousand-jin boulders."

Before her voice had even faded, Liu Mengchao felt a flash of white light pierce through Qi Xiaoxiao's eyes. The momentary pressure was so intense that it even forced him to squint.

Yet someone else fared far worse than Liu Mengchao.

Takashi Komuro slumped backward onto the floor, gasping for breath. Even through a screen, Qi Xiaoxiao's momentum had completely overwhelmed him.

However, Qi Xiaoxiao's movements were far from over.

Her left foot tapped lightly into the void, her right hand formed a fist, and with a sudden vibration, it detonated with the sound of wind and thunder.

In an instant, her gaze turned fierce.

At that moment, in Liu Mengchao's eyes, Qi Xiaoxiao seemed to vanish entirely, replaced by a towering Mount Tai suddenly thrusting up before him.

"Ultimate technique..." Qi Xiaoxiao's voice drifted over slowly, resembling the drifting clouds atop Mount Tai's peak, "...Five Mountains Suppress the Sea!"

The pillars of heaven collapse, Mount Tai topples!

Boom!

Liu Mengchao felt a sharp pain in his eardrums. By the time he recovered his senses, Qi Xiaoxiao's room on the screen was filled with dust and smoke.

The alloy-crafted wall had been dented inward by a single punch from Qi Xiaoxiao, as if a genuine Mount Tai had truly collapsed within her room, crushing the wall beneath its weight.

This momentum...

"This is the pinnacle of national martial arts Gang Energy."

As the dust and smoke slowly cleared, Qi Xiaoxiao appeared in the center of the room.

"This is the realm I was attempting to break through to before our martial arts tournament," Qi Xiaoxiao regulated her breath slowly. "Beyond Gang Energy lies the legendary realm of shattering the void and seeing one's divine nature without decay—the absolute peak of the martial path. Liu Mengchao, this time, let me protect you."

Protect?

Liu Mengchao snapped back to his senses, looked at the dashing and heroic Qi Xiaoxiao on the screen, and suddenly smiled. Facing the impending Main God war, Liu Mengchao felt his confidence grow just a little bit more.

After quite a while, everyone finally recovered from the shock brought by Qi Xiaoxiao.

"I've enhanced my abilities as well," Liu Ling said with a smile toward Liu Mengchao. "One D-grade side quest and five thousand prize pool points—I didn't leave a single one behind, I spent them all."