Ling Yi’s expression was relatively calm as the World Announcement appeared in front of him.

After all, it was not the first time he had triggered the World Announcement, and this might not be the last time.

There was nothing to be surprised about.

It was just that the rewards were more than he had expected.

Ling Yi didn’t plan to look at the rewards right now. Right now, all he wanted to do was go back and take a good afternoon break.

When he stood up from the sofa, Lin Shurou also came in with a glass of water.

“Here you go,”

“Oh, okay.” When he took the cup, Ling Yi noticed that she was looking at him in a daze.

Her snow-white face was filled with shock, and her watery blue eyes seemed to be frozen in place.

Ling Yi didn’t need to think to know that she was still in shock from the World Announcement.

He let her have her moment and continued to drink water.

*Gulp, gulp, gulp*

After he finished half of the glass, he put it on the table. He licked his wet lips and was about to rest in his bedroom instead when a hand stopped him.

Lin Shurou reached out her soft white hand to hold him.

“Are you 01?” She asked, her eyes wide open.

Ling Yi paused before he asked in surprise, “Can you tell?”

Lin Shurou grabbed his wrist tightly, her expression becoming complicated.

After a long time, she gradually regained her senses and moved her tender lips. “Thank you,” She gently said.

“No need to thank me.” He replied, a big smile slowly reached his face.

He extended his right hand and gently patted her smooth hand on his left wrist, “Just remember your promise.”

Upon hearing this, Lin Shurou’s flawless face immediately turned red. She lowered her head slightly and asked carefully, “You… You still remember?”

“Of course! How could I possibly forget?” Ling Yi’s eyes widened and he raised his eyebrows, “You’re not going back on your word are you?”

“I just….” Lin Shurou immediately tried to defend herself. “It just felt too sudden… But don’t worry, from today on, what’s mine is yours. We won’t be able to tell from each other.”

“That’s good… Then give me the Intelligence-Lowering Skill first.”

The rest could be discussed later, but this Intelligence Lowering Skill was something Ling Yi had been thinking about.

He couldn’t wait a moment longer!

“Okay,” She said.

Lin Shurou, who had regained her player identity, opened her rucksack and took out an orange-yellow crystal with nine light spots rotating around it.

Ling Yi took it and immediately activated his [Eye of Truth] to check.

[Dumbing Touch (9 Stars)]: Designate an intelligent target and cause its intelligence to decrease continuously for the next one minute. It can be used 10 times a day.

[Dumbing Touch (9 Star Skill) — Mutation Potential: Perfect]

“Hmm… Then I’ll go back to my room to rest.”

Seeing the “Perfect” Mutation Potential, Ling Yi almost couldn’t hold back the excitement in his heart. He almost smiled.

“Okay,” Lin Shurou blinked her eyes in confusion, but nodded nonetheless.

Then, she watched as Ling Yi teleported away.

“… It’s just an Intelligence-lowering skill. Why does he look so happy?” She wondered, sat back on the sofa and seriously thought about her next plan.

Suddenly restoring her player identity had caught her off guard. Now, she had to plan properly.

…

Meanwhile…

Ling Yi returned to the bedroom and closed the door. He quickly called out softly, “System, hurry! A mutation!”

[Are you sure you want to mutate the [Dumbing Touch]? (Requires 100 mutation points)]

“I’m sure!”

As soon as he finished speaking, he saw the orange crystal in his hand quickly blur, as if the crystal’s resolution had suddenly dropped, or as if it was covered in an indistinguishable mosaic.

After a full five to six seconds, the crystal in his hand became clear again.

Ling Yi put his hands together and rubbed the crystal back and forth in his hands. He then started to examine it with excited and curious eyes.

[Intelligence-lowering Halo (9 Stars) (Origin Rules)]: It has the following two rules:

[1. Active: Can greatly reduce the intelligence of the target. It will be ineffective when the target is more than 100 meters away from you.]

[2. Passive: When other units are malicious to you, the intelligence of the target will be reduced based on the degree of the other party’s malice, up to a negative number. This effect ignores time and space.]

What is intelligence?

Intelligence is a general term for memory, imagination, analytical judgment, comprehension, thinking, adaptability, learning ability, and other aspects.

It was the most important attribute of all intelligent creatures.

“There are no restrictions!”

Ling Yi’s eyes quickly scanned his room. When he saw that there was no restriction on the usage of the card, he couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

Then, he carefully examined the effects.

‘Active and passive lowering of intelligence? Yes, yes, this way, it will be effective no matter what the situation is!’

‘And this passive effect is a natural counter to those who are secretly trying to deal with me!’

Ling Yi quickly learned the skill.

[You have learned the skill [Intelligence-Lowering Halo (9 Stars) (Origin Rule)]]

Looking at the information in front of him, he heaved a long sigh of relief. His body is slowly relaxing.

He felt a strong sense of security, so safe that his eyes started to droop. He wanted to have a good sleep even more.

“I’ll sort out the other rewards later…”

His head feeling heavy, he climbed into bed and slept.

…

At the same time at the White Eagle Nation’s White Alliance headquarters…

In a spacious conference room, the geniuses among the White Alliance had once again gathered together. These geniuses were also known as the White Alliance’s “Think Tank”.

This time, they were asked to come up with a plan to find out the true identity of “01”.

“Geniuses, you should know that White Eagle and Shenxia have always been competitors. Now that Shenxia has such a terrifying newcomer, it’s impossible for us to not be anxious.”

A muscular middle-aged man with golden hair crossed his arms and glanced coldly at the group of young people sitting at the table. “I’ll give you ten minutes. I believe you won’t let me down,” he continued.

Then, the golden-haired middle-aged man decisively turned around and walked out, closing the door on the way.

The meeting room fell silent.

In front of everyone was the information on “01” that the intelligence team had gathered.

There were even speculations about 01’s identity and the personality and physical characteristics of the character as deduced by the behavior profiler.

“Gender, male. Age, between 20 to 25 years old.”

A handsome man with black-rimmed glasses picked up a document from the table and read it indifferently. “Shenxia. Height, approximately between 1.5 to 2m, well-proportioned. He has received a certain degree of education—”

“Alright, I’m done!” Someone interrupted him. “Let’s not talk about this information that everyone already knows. Everyone here is smart. Let’s just discuss the plan. Anybody volunteer?”

Although they were members of the Think Tank, because the matters of the entire White Alliance, big and small, were properly arranged by others, this group rarely summoned together to do any task within a year.

Everyone had other proper jobs.

Many of the people present didn’t even know the names of the others.

“Then I’ll go first.”

[Intelligence – 10%]

The man with black-rimmed glasses said.

His name was Woger, and he was turning 25 years old this year. He was currently a doctoral tutor at a famous school around the world.

Woger pushed up his glasses and glanced at the dozen or so young elites present. A trace of excitement appeared on his face as he began, “My method is to lure the snake out of its hole.”

“Since 01 is willing to donate the Monument, it proves that he is a man of justice with the world in his heart. To deal with this kind of person, we just need to grab a few people on the road and threaten him to come out. Then, it’s very likely that the other party will foolishly appear.”

[Intelligence – 20%]

“Of course, it’s better if you capture beautiful women or rich businessmen.”

[Intelligence – 30%]

“It’s not good to catch a child. Once discovered, it’ll be bad for us,”

[Intelligence – 40%]

“It’s even more impossible to catch an old man. If we accidentally injure him, we might be sued. It’s not worth it.”

[Intelligence – 50%]

“So in conclusion, we just need to grab a beautiful woman to threaten him and lure him out!”