114 System Update

Seeing that the black crystals could be used for the system update, Ning Shi did not hesitate to top up 1000 black crystals.

With that, the update progress jumped by 1%.

Ning Shi’s heart was filled with joy. The joyous feeling of spending money on a game emerged, and he used 100000 black crystals in one go.

[The system update energy is ready. Do you want to update now? Yes, no.]

[Estimated time for this update: 24 hours. During the update period, the game system backpack can still be used as usual. The avatar hack function will function as usual. The system hints will be sent as normal.]

The backpack could still be used, and it didn’t affect the avatar hack function either, so Ning Shi simply clicked “yes.”

[Game system version 3.0 update in progress… 0.1%… 0.2%…]

As the game system entered the update, Ning Shi followed the troops to transport the black crystals.

After sending the black crystals back to the base, Ning Shi and his subordinates had a good meal in the food pool with the black crystals, and their energy began to recover.

It was just that he was still not used to being so deprived of sleep. Seeing that the war insects under his command flew back to black crystal mine No.18 after eating, ready to continue mining, he did the same.

When he arrived at the mine, he gave his subordinates brainwave instructions, “Pile the black crystals in the cave. Without my order, don’t transport them back to the base.”

He then went to the cave where the black crystals were piled up and fell asleep.

It was a good sleep, and Ning Shi only woke up after a full 12 hours.

At this moment, the black crystals in the cave had already piled up into a small mountain again, so Ning Shi continued to steal some.

This time, he stole more than 300000 black crystals.

He looked at the system and saw that the update progress had reached 60%. Then, he began to devour the 450000 war insect corpses in his backpack.

[You have devoured the corpse of a war insect soldier. Body size +0.1cm, defense slightly increased.]

…

[You have devoured 20000 war insect corpses. Devour skill has been upgraded to Tier 5.]

[Devour, Tier 5: You can devour the corpses of war insect soldiers, captains, lieutenants, and generals to strengthen your war insect body. The devouring speed has greatly increased. Note: This skill can only be used when you have transformed into a war insect.]

After the Devour skill reached Tier 5, Ning Shi’s war insect spike could release an extremely weak devouring light. When the light shone on the corpses of the war insects, they would melt into liquid and integrate into his body.

With that, Ning Shi devoured nearly 30000 war insects again.

[Your war insect body length has reached 50 meters. You have reached the genetic limit of a war insect lieutenant. Please devour a war insect general. You can only continue to devour and grow after obtaining the general gene.]

He reached his limit again. To conceal himself, Ning Shi changed his body to merely more than one meter long.

Seeing that there was nothing to do, he joined the mining team.

After all, he was a good young man who had received a proper education. If all he did all day was steal ores, he would feel guilty.

Guilty pleasure.

He couldn’t just focus on pleasure though, he had to do some work.

This was because the war insect generals might come to the mine for an inspection, not to guard against the subordinates, but to prevent enemies from attacking the mine.

Unexpectedly, such an act had imperceptibly given Ning Shi some deterrence.

The next day at 6 am, the game system sent a series of hints.

[The game system version 3.0 update is complete. The game system is officially separated from the cell phone and is now bound to the host’s soul.]

[Game system version 3.0. New ability: Main body hack entrustment.]

[The host’s perspective can be freely switched between the main body and the avatar. When the host switches perspective to the avatar, the main body can choose to sleep or be entrusted to the system hack.]

[The memories and experiences generated by the hack will be automatically synchronized when the main consciousness takes over again.]

[As the host has used advanced energy to update the system, you have received two additional rewards:]

[1. Hatchery. A representative existence of the insect ecosystem. It can be used to hatch and reproduce new insect tribes.]

[2. Insight technique has evolved into the Eye of Truth]

[Eye of Truth: it can detect the information of all living creatures, including the information of others in the game world and the real world. The amount of information it can detect depends on the comparison of the spiritual power between the host and the target.]

[Note 1: The information obtained by the host is calculated by the game system. It is only for reference. The physical value is not equivalent to the target’s actual combat power. Please take note.]

[Note 2: The Eye of Truth can be used an infinite number of times, but every usage will consume the host’s spiritual power. If used too many times in a short time, it will damage the soul’s origin.]

[Note 3: The Eye of Truth is a sensory skill. When used, it may be easily detected by experts with strong perceptions and attract their hostility. Please use it with caution.]

One had to admit that this update was very powerful. In the future, Ning Shi could switch back and forth between his main body and avatar at will, and his main body could hack too.

In this way, the main body and the avatar were truly indistinguishable from each other.

Ning Shi asked a key question, “Under such circumstances, if the main body dies, will the avatar die as well?”

The system sent him lines of hints again.

[When the main body dies, the avatar will automatically dissipate. To enable the system’s function of maintaining the avatar’s survival even after the main body’s death, please upgrade the game system to version 4.0.]

[For the game system to be updated to version 4.0 requires World Energy. Low-level and advanced energy cannot power the update.]

Ning Shi had thought that he could do it like those Russian dolls. If his main body died but the avatar was still alive, he could divide his soul again and build another main body.

In this way, as long as the enemy did not kill both his main body and avatar at the same time, Ning Shi would not die.

It was just that this ability would only be available in the upgraded version of the game system.

S-level spiritual crystals and black crystals were both advanced energies. What was World Energy? Ning Shi had never seen one before. Perhaps it was the world essence in origin treasures?

Putting aside his speculations, Ning Shi used the Eye of Truth on a war insect captain who was mining next to him.

[Eye of Truth activated. Target: War insect captain No. 3002. Comparison of the host’s and the target’s spiritual power: 30/13. All information about the target is available.]

[Character: War insect captain No. 3002]

[Physique: 20 (30)]

[Spiritual Power: 13 (16)]

[Appearance: 3 (war insects don’t need to mate)]

[Family Background: 7 (advanced insect tribe captain)]

[Bloodline: War insect captain]

[Profession: War insect captain]

[Skills: Rapid flight Tier 5, spike Tier 7]

[Talents: war insect body (blue), penetration (blue), combat nature (blue)]

[Achievements: none]

[War insect body (blue): Possesses an extremely strong war insect body. Physical defense increased by 300%, elemental defense increased by 300%, and energy recovery increased by 300%.]

[Penetration (blue): Attacking with the spike brings a certain amount of space penetration damage.]

[Combat nature (blue): War insects are aggressive by nature and are never afraid of battle. They are immune to the intimidation skills of other tribes. On the battlefield, the more war insects die, the stronger the combat power of the surviving war insects. Their combat power can at most be increased by 200%.]

A war insect captain already had such insane combat power. No wonder the war insects were once a kingly insect tribe.

It must be known that the body of the war insect captain was only 4cm long. For such a small creature to have 20 points in physique was simply abnormal.

The system explained.

[The war insect has a high physique, mainly because of its speed and physical sturdiness. Its strength is not particularly strong. War insect captains can devour their own kind to become stronger, thus in theory, their physique can reach 30 points.]

[The war insect’s spiritual power attribute is strong in will but weak in wisdom and perception.]

Physique and spiritual power were comprehensive concepts, each with its own emphasis. As such, the numbers were only for reference and did not represent actual combat power.

After checking the information of the war insect captain, Ning Shi tested the function of switching his perspective between the main body and the avatar.

[Do you want to switch your perspective to the avatar? Yes, no.]

He clicked “yes”.

[Please select your main body state. 1. Dormant. 2. System hack.]

Ning Shi chose to hang up, and a hint popped up from the system.

[Host, please set up the fast-switching mode to achieve light-speed switching.]

Ning Shi set a switch password according to the hint, “think in my heart to switch my perspective to the avatar”. Then, he choose for the system to not ask every time he wanted to switch, and also for the main body to be left to the system hack on default every time he switched.

Then, he began the first switch.

In an instant, Ning Shi’s consciousness descended on his game avatar in the World of Moen. At this moment, the game avatar was practicing the Bloodline Guidance Technique in the training room.

There was no one else in the room.

Then, Ning Shi muttered to switch in his heart and his consciousness returned to his war insect body in the insect world.

After switching back and forth a few times, he had completely mastered and adapted to the perspective-switching function.

This kind of operation was indeed faster and more convenient. Moreover, the main body could hang up too now, so the speed of his strength improvement would be faster!

After trying out the Eye of Truth and perspective-switching, Ning Shi saw an ovary-shaped life form in his backpack.

The living being was sleeping quietly in the backpack, its body rising and falling with the even breathing sound.

[Hatchery, Level 1. Able to produce insect tribe soldiers. This hatchery has the insect tribe gene editor function. Please use the gene editor to edit the soldier genes.]

[The soldiers can fuse with the genes of various insect tribes. Gene editing doesn’t work in the sense that the more genes you fuse, the stronger the insects will be, and the better the results will be. The results of gene editing are unpredictable.]

[The soldiers will determine the future development direction of the insect tribe. Once decided, the hatchery will not be able to reproduce any other types of soldiers. Please carefully choose the best soldier gene combination after countless editing.]