茶杯狐 -CUPFOX

As per Old Xia’s requirements, Xiang Kun controlled a coin to levitate in front of his body. He then manipulated it to orbit around him, like a “satellite”.

Next, he compelled the coin to fly towards the wall of an abandoned factory.

The coin smacked into the wall and then fell to the ground, leaving no mark on the surface of the wall.

For the time being, he was unable to command the coin to accelerate continuously and stably in a particular direction along the electromagnetic track he had constructed. The force he could exert was still limited, and it became extremely weak as it moved away from his body, making it difficult to control steadily.

After retrieving the coin, Xiang Kun, watching Old Xia record their observations with a special symbol, was struck by a sudden inspiration.

“Give me all the coins you have, as well as that steel bead. I have an idea I’d like to try out.”

Xia Libing didn’t ask any unnecessary questions, she simply handed over the few coins and bead that Xiang Kun had given her. Then she watched as those “super-connected objects” began to levitate one after another around Xiang Kun.

Not only the numerous coins from Old Xia, but also the beads that Xiang Kun had originally carried with him were taken out from his pocket and made to float around him.

While controlling so many “super-connected objects”, Xiang Kun could no longer make them rotate or jump. He merely made them float around him like “spirit bodyguards”.

Xiang Kun closed his eyes and focused his attention on the dozens of “super-connected objects” around him, beginning to create a magnetic field that he could use to exert force on himself through their influence.

Some of the “super-connected objects” began to drift upwards, levitating near his head, while others were scattered around his body.

Dust began to rise from the ground around Xiang Kun, as if small whirlwinds were forming.

Xia Libing, who was not far away, noticed that her hairs, and the hairs on her head, were all subtly “lifting”.

Xiang Kun suddenly opened his eyes, and the “super-connected objects” around him scattered as if they had lost their souls.

It wasn’t that Xiang Kun had reached his sensing limit, but he suddenly remembered something important and interrupted the process.

Xiang Kun walked in front of Old Xia, pulled out his cellphone, and handed it over to her. “You, get back a bit.”

Xia Libing took the cellphone and moved back five or six steps.

Xiang Kun motioned with his hand, “A bit further.”

So, she continued to move backwards.

After arranging Old Xia at a sufficient distance, Xiang Kun returned to his original position and resumed his interrupted operation.

The dozens of “super-connected objects” were rising into the air again.

Gradually, miniature whirlwinds began to appear around him again, dust rose from a few centimeters to several tens of centimeters, and some small particles seemed to be attracted, darting into the middle of those “super-connected objects”.

There was a faint glow around Xiang Kun, gathering and flowing. After a while, his feet began to lift slightly off the ground.

His shoes were just 3 or 4 centimeters off the ground, almost instantly falling back down the moment they were in the air. The glow on his body also disappeared and all the “super-connected objects” fell to the ground, out of control.

But Xiang Kun, excitedly shouted at Old Xia, “Did you see that?”

He quickly realized, however, that Old Xia was too far away and his levitation height was too low. Not everyone had his super vision and would have found it hard to observe.

Therefore, Xiang Kun scanned the surroundings and targeted a five-story office building. He raised his hand, picked up the scattered “super-connected objects” on the ground, and carried them towards the building.

Xiang Kun didn’t use the stairs. He pushed off the wall, used the frame of the second-floor window to hoist himself up, and then climbed up the building rapidly.

He hadn’t specifically trained for parkour or building-climbing, but during the process of running towards the building, he had already created several plans to reach the top based on his own mobility and the structure of the wall. He chose the quickest route that showcased his physical abilities best.

It took Xiang Kun less than ten seconds to climb to the top of the five-story building.

Just like the abandoned factory area, this office building was also designated for demolition and empty of people.

On the rooftop, Xiang Kun waved at Xia Libing, signaling her to watch closely. Then, he started walking to the other side of the roof and began to sprint.

With the space on the roof, Xiang Kun broke into a full sprint. When he reached the edge of the roof from where he had climbed up, he took a big stride, jumped up, stepped on the railing, pushed off with full force, extended his arms, and leaped off the roof.

As he was sprinting, several “super-connected objects” clung tightly to his body. As he leaped off the roof and hovered in the air, these “super-connected objects” also rose as if they’d been activated.

Leaping from the roof, Xiang Kun looked like a bird ready to take flight. His posture looked pretty cool.

But that was the coolest he got.

Next, as Xiang Kun started to fall downwards, a force suddenly pulled him upwards by half a meter, but then he quickly started freefalling diagonally downwards again. After descending a bit, another force jerked him upwards.

In this way, Xiang Kun’s “flight” from the fifth floor was interspersed with what felt like someone kicking him upwards every time he descended a bit. He tumbled and rolled, descending a bit then getting kicked upward, repeating this pattern until he landed on the ground.

Lying on the ground, feeling as if a dozen of his bones had broken, his internal organs had started bleeding, and major parts of his skin were bruised, Xiang Kun couldn’t help but lament in his mind. Things hadn’t turned out quite as he had imagined. He had hoped that he could use the influence of the “super-connected objects” to elegantly glide a distance with his arms spread, then land stably on his feet and run a distance on the ground to alleviate inertia.

Frequent footstep sounds echoed from afar, growing nearer; Xiang Kun knew it was Old Xia.

After Xia Libing dashed over, she immediately fell to the ground beside Xiang Kun, lifting her hand to feel his neck.

Xiang Kun looked at her sideways, saying helplessly, “I’m still alive, I’m ok. Just need a few minutes to rest.”

But looking at Old Xia’s face, Xiang Kun was taken aback―Old Xia was half kneeling on the ground, her gaze was bright as she looked at him, her cheeks seemed a bit red, her breathing frequency was slightly fast. Even without sensing the pair of chopsticks with her, he could tell that she was experiencing excitement and elation like he’d never seen before. Moreover, she was clenching her fists, seemingly restraining something.

Xiang Kun immediately understood what was going on. Earlier, he had suddenly had a spark of inspiration about the application of the “super-connected objects” ability, and his emotions had unknowingly become overly excited―otherwise, not affected by those emotions, even if he felt that he had a chance of success, he would not have run up to the fifth floor and jumped down, injuring himself so badly.

Old Xia was also affected by his “emotional assimilation”, and had generated the same frequency of excitement.

It seemed, that Old Xia was even more excited than he was.

However, the glow in Old Xia’s excited eyes unnerved Xiang Kun somewhat. According to the effect of “Emotional Assimilation”, Xiang Kun was excited because of the groundbreaking exploration of his own abilities, thrilled by his inspirations and successful attempts. Similarly, Old Xia, affected by this and having witnessed the whole process, felt the same excitement and jubilation.

Thus, it was clear that now that she had rushed over and confirmed that he was alive, under the influence of such emotions, Old Xia looked at him with an impulse to dissect and probe him,to understand exactly how he accomplished these things.

If Xiang Kun were a flying device or a robot, Old Xia would probably have started unscrewing him by now…

Fortunately, Xiang Kun’s emotions had calmed down by now. The influence of “Emotional Assimilation” couldn’t last too long on Xia Libing; she soon returned to her previous sober, rational state.

“What happened to you up in the sky just now?” Since Xiang Kun assured her he was fine and could recover, Xia Libing, who had regained her emotions, didn’t do much further, but sat with legs crossed, took out her notepad, and started asking questions.

As Xiang Kun answered Xia Libing’s questions, his body was rapidly recovering. The crisp popping sounds that emanated were the sounds of his dislocated bones repositioning themselves.

Although it seemed a little awkward, the experiment this time actually yielded a lot of valuable findings and breakthroughs.

Initially, Xiang Kun’s influence on “Super-connected Objects” from a distance was quite weak. After eliminating the mutated spider and having Little Fatty Girl begin to “develop” his electromagnetic related abilities, he could only control relatively light “Super-connected Objects” in areas extremely close to his body for limited movement.

But on the high-speed rail back to Citong, Little Fatty Girl helped further develop certain functions, opening up new ways for him to think and find a broader application space.

That is, his control and influence on “Super-connected Objects” should no longer be confined to “Super-connected Objects” itself. Instead, through this influence, he should affect the surrounding environment of “Super-connected Objects” — shifting from “changing oneself” to “transforming the environment”.

As a result, changes in the environment can further affect “Super-connected Objects” or even other objects or himself.

According to his speculation on the high-speed train, theoretically, in the future, he could be able to achieve Electric Mastery Flight without completely relying on the atmospheric electric field, by affecting enough “Super-connected Objects”.

But by his estimation at that time, the earliest breakthrough in this application would happen after his next Blood-drinking Period. After the body undergoes mutation and evolution according to the abilities developed by Little Fatty Girl and his understanding and expansion, and establishes more “Super-connected Objects” for support as “hardware functions”.

What surprised him was that in just a few short days since Little Fatty Girl developed the new ability, even without a single Blood Drinking Period, he had already found the means to levitate with the aid of “Super-connected Objects”. Although the elevation was only a few centimeters, but it was a considerable feat, considering he weighs over two hundred pounds.

This means that, in terms of “function”, he already possesses the ability to fly directly, but the ability’s “magnitude” and control are not enough yet.

It can be assumed that he will make progress much faster in expanding this ability than initially projected.

Perhaps after one or two more Blood-drinking Periods, he could fly whenever he wants, regardless of the weather conditions.

After his body fully recovered, Xiang Kun turned over, sat up and asked Old Xia, “So, any thoughts?”

Xia Libing shook her head: “This feeling is not good, it seems like you might lose control.”

Xiang Kun was stunned, then realized that she was talking about the excited emotion, not his flying.

“This emotion is exactly that, it’s excitement and elation. But it’s not really losing control, it’s just excessive focus. Actually, if you haven’t got caught in this kind of emotion, I can quickly recover my rationality through sensing the ‘Emotional Infusion items’ around you, relying on your usual… emotion.” Said Xiang Kun.

Xia Libing thought for a moment and said, “Try it again.”

“Try what? Get excited like just now? That can’t be done, I can’t get there yet, emotions aren’t that easy to get to.”

As Xiang Kun was speaking, he suddenly prickled his ears and then stood up frowning: “Someone is approaching… No matter, it’s about time anyway, let’s head back.”

Xia Libing also got up, patted her pants and began to pack up the things they had brought.

They brought a lot of equipment, packed into a shoulder bag and a backpack, of course, all carried by Xiang Kun. Though the weight would not be light for an average person, it was nothing to Xiang Kun.

However, after a few strides, Xiang Kun stopped, told Xia Libing the sounds he had picked up nearby, and then said: “The people who just arrived are electric bicycle thieves. They’ve hidden the stolen bikes in a warehouse at this abandoned factory. My mother had her electric bikes stolen before… twice…”

Xia Libing looked up at him, quickly understood what he meant and took out her phone ready to call the police.

“No signal.” Xia Libing frowned as she tried her phone. Even after a restart, it showed the same.

“Isn’t my phone with you?” Xiang Kun said.

“No signal either.” Xia Libing checked Xiang Kun’s phone and shook her head.

Xiang Kun instantly realized it must have been affected by his disruption.

“In that case… let’s split up. You stay a bit further away for a while, it should recover then…” As Xiang Kun was speaking, he changed his mind: “No matter, let’s just go have a look first. There are only three of them anyway, I want to conduct an experiment.”

Xia Libing naturally had no objection and followed Xiang Kun towards a corner of the abandoned factory area.

Xiang Kun hid the two bags they had brought in a building, then after some circling with Xia Libing, they peered around a corner and looked towards a warehouse not far away: “It’s there.”

Xia Libing, squeezing in under his head, followed Xiang Kun’s line of sight, and saw a van parked outside a warehouse, with a ramp set up on it. Someone was unloading electric bicycles from it.

All those electric bikes were of different brands and varying ages. According to the information Xiang Kun had just heard, these were all stolen.

“What experiment are you planning to do?” Xia Libing asked.

In a low voice, Xiang Kun explained to Old Xia for a while, telling her what he was going to do and what she needed to do.

A few minutes later, a tall, skinny young man outside the warehouse, who was unloading the van, was suddenly hit by something on his head. He cried out in alarm and shock, and then detected a dark object rolling on the ground.

As he looked around, he walked over and picked up that object, which had hit him – it was a pig’s trotter, which looked crispy on the outside.

The tall, skinny young man looked around in confusion, trying to find where the pig’s trotter came from: “Who was it? Who threw it?” According to the feeling just now, the trotter seemed to drop from directly above?

“What’s the matter?” A stout middle-aged man emerged from the warehouse and asked with a frown, “What are you shouting about?”

“Somebody threw a pig’s trotter at me…” The young man said, handing the pig’s trotter in his hand to the middle-aged man for inspection.

“What pig’s trotter?” The middle-aged man asked incredulously.

The young man was also taken aback to find that the pig’s trotter, which he had been holding just a moment ago, had disappeared, and there was nothing in his hand!