"It exploded! It exploded!"
"No wonder, it's the class committee! Telekinesis spilling over, my brain feels so nourished."
"One brain falls and a thousand are refreshed!"
Exclamations of surprise rose from the surrounding students.
Liu Jun shrank into the corner, listening to the sound of rain outside, joyfully recalling the little game from his past life.
The story's protagonist is a mushroom with a rebellious spirit.
In the game.
There is a small world called "Mushroom Soup," where you can throw in materials into that sand table world to evolve various Talent Mushrooms, plagues, infections, concealment...
In short: throw in materials, evolve mushrooms, nurture talent.
"I'll check it out when I get back, being cautious never hurts."
Throughout the entire day of classes, Liu Jun seemed a bit absent-minded, but his heart was full of anticipation.
Until school ended.
With the sound of a bell, students swarmed out of the classroom.
A new batch of striving students appeared on the track, running and practicing in the rain.
The motto being: as long as you don't collapse from exhaustion, push yourself to the limit.
After all, if you don't reach Tier Three, you'd truly only live until your early thirties in this life.
"Let's go."
Li Feng patted Liu Jun on the shoulder, "Stop envying them, we can't handle extra training like they do. It'd wreck our health."
Li Feng already had a bald spot on his head, but overall, he was a very tall and handsome member of the school basketball team.
Zou Anmeng seriously nodded, "We can only attend eight hours of classes a day, only those rich ones can afford extra lessons."
Zou Anmeng, at just eighteen years old, already had the charm of a mature woman, and her every move exuded a mature allure, while her school uniform bestowed upon her a pure yet irresistible allure.
"Yeah, let's head out."
Liu Jun was also eager to go home to check out his Golden Finger.
He grabbed his backpack, changed shoes, opened an umbrella, and walked beside Li Feng and Zou Anmeng, out the school gate.
The three considered each other family friends.
Now they were comrades, working together while lending their minds and repaying loans.
The story had to be traced back to their parents, who were also borrowing partners during their student years, all of whom passed away in their thirties.
The three, when they were still in junior high, inherited their parents' will, continuing to pay off those "mind loans" they left during their lifetime, attending school with the Intelligent Brains left to them.
In fact, there were quite a few cooperative families like this in Rehe City.
— Fierce tigers always walk alone; cattle and horses gather in herds.
This was the ultimate wisdom of Rehe City.
If there was no breakthrough, Liu Jun's original future was all too clear.
Just like his parents, lying in a hospital bed due to illness in their thirties, leaving their inheritance to future generations, resultant in the descendants of the three of them sticking together.
Mind loans, loan after loan passing from generation to generation, was no joke.
Such a cycle, until Liu Jun's son, or even grandson, had the hope of breaking through as a Tier Three Telekinesis Master, opening a new chapter in the family genealogy, and achieving class transcendence.
"Since traveling to this world, from the year when I awakened my innate wisdom at the age of three, as a baby I knew, life here unfolds predictably at a glance."
Liu Jun's gaze was wistful, carrying a backpack, leaving one footprint after another with his canvas shoes.
"In the past life, with societal development, things like mortgages and car loans were predictable to me, thought it was already at its peak."
"Never expected that in this more developed scholarly world, even auxiliary Intelligent Brains would require loans, otherwise, you'd belong to the born-intelligently challenged..."
"But now, everything's different."
"Life has newfound hope."
As for the two childhood friends next to him discussing Xu Changsheng, Liu Jun had no intention of sharing today's experiences with them.
Entrusting one's life to someone else's character is inherently the most foolish act.
Li Feng brought up today's topic: "Poor Xu Changsheng, doesn't everyone secretly struggle? Why put on a show?"
Liu Jun chimed in, "With the pressure from studying nowadays, who doesn't have a bit of cyber-mental illness? Everyone wants to vent a bit. Heard it's all because Xu Changsheng's missing father had a gambling problem, lost everything, and disappeared in a black market casino."
Zou Anmeng sighed, "Well, I heard there's more to it, something about the school belle's mom scheming against Xu Changsheng's parents before her death, that's why the school belle has so many resources now, it's truly despicable."
Li Feng widened his eyes, "Where'd you hear such gossip? The school belle naturally has fantastic qualifications! Must be some girl spreading rumors to tarnish her name, Xu Changsheng's dad just had a gambling problem."
Liu Jun unassumingly agreed, "Yeah, around Xu Changsheng, he's only got a chubby loyal family friend left."
Li Feng: "Unlike those three, we won't end up scheming against each other! We're lifelong friends! Once I, Li Feng, break through as a Tier Three Telekinesis Master, I'll make sure you two live in comfort!"
Under the setting sun, the three of them walked into the misty streets with rain, rain corroding every building structure around.
In the distance, smokestacks emitted thick black smoke and exhaust; towering buildings of the steel jungle stood tall, huge neon billboards advertised the latest lightweight mechanical attire.
Everywhere you looked, pedestrians with heads down played with holographic projection glasses, scrolled through short videos, with their cheap prosthetic legs activating auto-navigation, making it unlikely they'd bump into someone.
Entering the subway station, they boarded the crowded electric train, starting their over-two-hours commute to the neighboring Cangyun City.
Housing prices in the school district of Rehe City were too high, forcing the three of them to rent on the outskirts of the neighboring city.
In the carriage, because it rained often, it was full of sweaty smells and mud-rain smell carried by shoes.
A group of students and office workers were crammed like a tin of sardines, filled with despair, numbness, pain...
A thoughtful slogan was posted in the train carriage.
[The Weather Collective Management Bureau reminds you: Rain makes the roads slippery, to keep the train's air fresh and clean, please use your Intelligent Brain to block your sense of smell before entering the train!]
Clatter!
The train moved.
The carriage constantly swayed, sharing fleeting rusted architectural views along the way.
Cangyun City, upon returning to the rented apartment, Liu Jun said a few words to the other two and quickly went back to his room, closing the door.
[Please join the glorious Mushroom Soup evolution!]
[Once evolved, it cannot stagnate, whether life collapses or reaches the end!]
Immediately, a Mushroom Soup scene appeared before his eyes.
One by one, Talent Mushrooms being cooked inside.
In the rolling mushroom soup, three nodes of initial talent emerged.
[Mushroom Soup] is a large pot similar to a storage bag. This physical space produces mushrooms, with options such as x2, x3, x4 for idle placement, accelerating the talent production speed.
Currently, it is at normal speed.
In a past life, you unlocked multipliers by watching ads.
But now, you can't watch ads anymore, and don't know how to speed up idle placement.
In the mushroom soup, the three cute expression talent mushrooms float up and down with the clear and delicious broth.
The first talent mushroom makes a forbearing expression.
[Low Symptoms: Strengthen incubation period, reduce symptoms.]
The second talent mushroom makes a zzZ~ sleeping expression.
[Low Consumption: Increase energy utilization rate, requiring relatively less energy to maintain cell operation.]
The third talent mushroom makes a wise expression.
[Low Wisdom: Possesses some low-level wisdom.]
These three choices are a classic opening.
Only after selecting the low prerequisite talents can you select higher-level talents, evolving step by step.
[Low Symptoms], the first thing to eliminate, currently as the king of mushrooms, has no infection ability, so latent ability is naturally useless.
[Low Wisdom], very important in the game, wisdom accelerates mushroom evolution speed, but in reality, issues in all aspects become too large.
To be safe.
He decisively chooses [Low Consumption] first.
In the next moment, Liu Jun's eyes saw a 3D projection of his entire body.
He looked like a pot of boiling hot soup.
As if breaking out of a cocoon into a butterfly, his entire essence, spirit, and vitality were completely different.
Then.
His entire body began to melt.
The nuclei of all the cells in his body started to melt, disassemble, and restructure.
His entire flesh and fat scattered on the ground like a mushroom mat, and his internal organs followed suit, revealing a set of crystal-clear white human bones.
"Is that my skeleton?"
Liu Jun crawled on the floor and discovered he had become liquid.
He naturally appeared as a true form:
Mushroom!
A thought naturally floated into his mind: I am a fungal mushroom with a [Low Energy] talent.
In the next moment, the liquid flowed back.
The mushroom liquid wore the skeleton like clothing.
Liu Jun resumed human form, swung his arms, squatted, stretched, stood up relaxed with a crack, swayed his arms, and punched the air.
"Has my state advanced?"
He was somewhat incredulous:
"I've actually jumped straight to Tier Six of the Rain Realm? Crossed five minor realms? This already surpasses the top student in our school, right?"
In this world, Telekinesis Masters are divided into four realms—Wind, Rain, Thunder, and Lightning.
Wind Realm: Simply controlling objects with telekinesis, where telekinesis is like the wind, initially a breeze brushing the willows, later like the wind blowing waves of wheat.
Rain Realm: Can solidify into substantial spiritual spikes, initially like gentle spring rain, later like tempestuous downpours.
Thunder Realm: Telekinesis like thunder, a collision of thoughts, the mind explodes like thunder, and spirit scatters directly.
"Good, good, good." Liu Jun smiled, delighted, rubbing his palms as he paced back and forth in the room.
"I have become a mushroom? I finally qualify to not be human?"
"Have my bodily ailments also been resolved?"
He felt his body was so healthy for the first time, perfectly returning to his eighteen-year-old youth.
In this world, cloning, replication, and artificial body modification technologies exist, bodies are merely interchangeable shells.
But only the wealthy qualify to not be human.
In this highly developed world, humans are just an intermediate process in biological evolution history.
Other Telekinesis Masters cultivate spiritual energy, abandon the flesh, becoming eternally immortal Wisdom Gods, once regarded as scholars' patron gods, Wenqu Star.
In a sense, Liu Jun has completed ascension at this moment, others undergo artificial body modification, I...
Mushroom modification.
Soft, bouncy, cute, exuding a rich fragrance.
He was infused with a woody bouquet, carrying the earth's nurturing weight, with the richness of truffles.
"Do I smell good?"
Liu Jun felt he was the life bred by the delicious mushroom soup.
Setting aside these chaotic thoughts.
A mushroom talent developed in a few days.
Going on like this, who knows what his life structure will become...
A sense of lightness and joy filled his whole body, followed closely by an unparalleled hunger.
He decisively took a Tier Two telekinesis supplement from the bedside safe and injected it fiercely.
As the nutrients flowed in, like a bright yellow flame burning under a pot of mushroom soup, a mysterious number flickered at the corner of his eye again.
The idle placement multiplier became x2.
"Can I enhance the idle placement multiplier by supplementing nutrition and burning the mushroom soup with intense fire, accelerating the awakening of the next talent?"
This ability was even more powerful than he imagined.
Closing his eyes slightly, activating telekinesis from the spiritual telekinesis master, shedding light inwardly, he discovered his entire body's cells had started various branching mutations, nuclei fungi-ized, virus-ized.
I, the ultimate being.
What I need to do is to nurture myself quietly and steadily.