Chapter Forty-Two: The Nine-Dragon Elixir

Emerging from the deep-sea fish tank, Chen Lai subconsciously glanced at the sky outside. Although time inside and outside the dungeon remained synchronized, seeing the sun rise as usual still brought a sense of reassurance.

Putting on his clothes, Chen Lai looked at his bedside. The items he had purchased before entering the dungeon had all arrived. The Kowloon Potion, the Military Combat Technique manual, and the General-Purpose Deep-Sea Powder were all exquisitely packaged and placed on the nightstand, presumably brought in by his mother.

"Kowloon's Might... why does that sound so ominous?"

Chen Lai picked up the heavily wrapped package. Upon opening it, he discovered it wasn't the kind of injectable syringe he had imagined, but rather a powdered mix meant to be dissolved in water.

The powder changed colors. Before coming into contact with sunlight, it was as blue as the ocean, but once stirred into a cup, it presented a brilliant, multicolored spectrum. Through the larger granules, one could even glimpse their original forms.

"Did the items recycled by the Deep Sea Corporation all get ground into powder and sold back to us?" This sudden thought crossed Chen Lai's mind, and he felt that the concoction before him possessed a strong attraction, as if he deeply craved it.

*Gulp, gulp.*

By the time he came to his senses, he had already chugged it down.

"Holy crap, it's freezing!"

With a cup of Kowloon Potion in his stomach, Chen Lai immediately felt the changes. A powerful, thrilling sensation crashed against his brain, slowly unfolding the history of every ingredient before him, much like a documentary on fine cuisine...

Players risked life and limb, cheating death in the deep-sea game, and the items they won through hard work ultimately transformed into sustenance for their mouths. How could such an exhilarating experience ever compare to ordinary potions?

"So, this potion really is recycled item fragments..." Chen Lai was somewhat speechless. He stood up and stretched his body. The moment he stood straight and locked his knees, he uncontrollably leaped three meters into the air, his head going *thud* as it struck the ceiling.

The enhancement to his physical body was so immense that it exceeded his nervous system's capacity to adapt.

Outside the door came the clacking sound of his mother's slippers. She had clearly heard the commotion and walked over to open the door.

"You're awake, hurry up and..." Chen Fang originally wanted to tell him to come eat, but seeing the white dust disturbed by his feet, she was momentarily at a loss for words.

"Stop playing games, come eat first," she finally said, pulling the door wide open as the aroma from outside drifted in.

"Cooking congee this early in the morning, Mom?" Chen Lai carefully stepped outward, slightly afraid that he might accidentally hurt his mother because he couldn't control his newfound strength yet.

"Next time you play games, tell me in advance when you're coming out. You haven't gotten up to eat, and it's wasted so much of my time making food for you over the past half month," Chen Fang scolded irritably.

"I'll definitely come out as soon as this match is over."

"God knows how long a single match of yours lasts!"

"Anyway, it definitely won't exceed a month." As Chen Lai slurped his congee, he carefully pinched the spoon, trying to master his current physical strength.

"A month? The red beans have already gone fuzzy. Next time, order takeout; I'm not cooking for you anymore." Chen Fang nagged while glancing at the clock. "I'm not arguing with you anymore, I'm off to work."

"That hotel is miles away, Mom. Quit that job. What's the point of working for two or three thousand a month?"

Chen Lai once again tried to persuade his mother. Although his latest dungeon run hadn't yielded a massive cash fortune, truthfully, someone with transcendent powers like him no longer cared about such a tiny debt. Whether it was physical debt elimination or borrowing money to pay it off, handling this amount of cash was effortless.

Therefore, he no longer wanted his mother to run around exhausting herself. The original body owner had lacked capability, leaving his mother to suffer. Now that he had arrived and become a regular within the Deep Sea Corporation system, if his mother still suffered, wouldn't his arrival have been in vain?

Facing Chen Lai's persuasion, Chen Fang didn't speak. She simply picked up her empty congee bowl and carried it into the kitchen, persisting in her plan to leave for work.

She was far too stubborn. The older generation was just like this; they could enjoy life, yet refused to do so, feeling deeply uncomfortable the moment they stopped moving.

Chen Lai felt helpless. He said no more and simply ate his congee with pickled vegetables.

Halfway through the meal, the door rumbled open, accompanied by Zhang Long's booming voice:

"Have you drunk? Have you grown stronger?"

Chen Lai opened the door, looking at him with a helpless expression.

Zhang Long pinched his arm and patted his shoulder. "Look, what did I tell you? Totally overpowered! Absolutely overpowered!"

"What's that smell in the room? Did Auntie cook congee?"

"Yeah. Have you had breakfast? Pull up a chair and have a bowl with us."

"Oh, now that's lovely! Think about it, this is different—scoop it up while it's hot, drink it down while it's hot."

"Would you please stop talking like Lu Xun?"

"Oh."

And so the two of them sat down, each taking a side and continuing to drink their congee.

"I never expected you to actually see through the disguise of that 'deity.' You've got skills!" Zhang Long drank a few mouthfuls and suddenly gave him a thumbs-up.

"How did you even get parasited? How did Amon track you down?" Chen Lai was actually curious about this as well.

"Ah, don't even ask." Zhang Long waved a hand dismissively. "It was actually only half a day after I found that fortune-turning ritual painting. I even asked you back then if the ritual was safe, and you said it was safe."

"I did not."

"Right, *He* said it. That three-segment honorific name—whether typed in player chat or spoken aloud—is a summons to Him. Using some unknown method, He managed to intercept and confuse my private messages." Zhang Long still sounded somewhat emotional recalling it.

"His authority is Error, similar to a Trojan virus. Wherever there's a loophole to exploit, He's there... and the loopholes in the deep-sea game are simply countless. The players themselves are the biggest vulnerabilities."

Chen Lai spoke with such certainty that it made Zhang Long glance at him sideways. "Weilong, you really know way too much. Did you cross over to Earth from another world?"

"If I told you I was Sherlock Holmes, would you believe me?"

"Believe it? Why wouldn't I? Things like the deep-sea game already exist; time travel and resurrection are just small potatoes, aren't they?" Zhang Long was very calm. As a veteran player, he had long since grown accustomed to bizarre occurrences.

"I used the Kowloon Potion. What about the Deep Sea Powder you helped me buy? How do you use that stuff?"

"Sprinkle it evenly into the deep-sea fish tank. This stuff can help you activate the deep-sea fluid, continuously strengthening you throughout the game. If the dungeons you experience are intense enough and your power level is high enough, this enhancement effect will be even more pronounced."

"Just keep in mind that this stuff is single-use. If you kick the bucket inside a dungeon, the Deep Sea Powder goes to waste... In my view, only players like you can make good use of it. Most gold-miners die off way too quickly and can't bear the expense of buying Deep Sea Powder."

Zhang Long offered a brief explanation. Judging by the twitching of his facial muscles, he had bought quite a lot of it and died quite a few times himself.

"Have you picked your next dungeon yet? I'm planning to duo with you again. Honestly, playing with anyone else bores me, but duoing with you always brings unexpected surprises."

Zhang Long dragged his chair closer, knowing that Chen Lai would occasionally commit some rookie mistakes, so he could step in and provide some background knowledge... It was truly bizarre; despite seeming like a veteran in every aspect and possessing premonitory foresight regarding the plot, Chen Lai still constantly made rookie mistakes. [Great Might Heavenly Dragon] could be considered the most peculiar student of the Acetic Academy in this batch.