Chapter 40
On this foundation, the other effects are the true skills of this hidden profession.
【Magic Siphon】 is a passive skill with a simple effect: it converts 20% of the spell damage dealt to enemies into the user's spiritual energy.
This is an important passive skill that compensates for the insufficient mana of a Whisperer, greatly enhancing Ye Bai's endurance in battle.
Initially, Ye Bai planned to allocate her talent points to 【Crafty Hands】 - 【Weapon Mastery】 to unlock combo skills for all weapons. However, after discovering the practical value of the 【Identification】 talent in reality, she realized the significant worth of this talent tree.
Currently, she hadn’t seen any race on the Star Network with a similar talent. Ye Bai suspected that as an ancient human at the bottom of the evolutionary chain, she could choose her own path of evolution.
Ye Bai allocated her talent points to the second-level talent of 【Identification】, 【Insight】.
Accompanied by a familiar golden light, Ye Bai suddenly found herself uncontrollably clutching her head.
It felt as if an ice pick had pierced her brain; the 1% pain sensation didn’t kick in this time. It was as if her head had been cracked open, and a cold wind rushed in, triggering some indescribable mysterious changes within.
After a while, that sensation faded, and Ye Bai finally regained her composure, staring blankly at the talent page.
【Insight】
Passive Effect: Crisis Perception. Encountering hostility will trigger a warning, with the warning distance depending on the level difference between herself and the hostile target.
Unique Active (Weakness Observation): Weakness Observation, cooldown of 5 seconds, no cost, 90% chance to discover the target's ordinary weakness; 60% chance to uncover hidden negative traits; 10% chance to identify the target's fatal weakness (the probability of all discoveries decreases by 30% for each tier difference with the target).
This is also a talent that aids in combat. Here, the tier refers to job changes; for instance, if Ye Bai uses Weakness Observation on a second-tier enemy after her first job change, she would only have a 60% chance to discover ordinary weaknesses and a 30% chance to find hidden negative traits, with no chance of identifying fatal weaknesses.
The pain of upgrading talents was something Ye Bai hadn’t anticipated. She increasingly suspected that game talents might correspond to genetic evolution in real life. But then again, why did her job change feel so mundane? Clearly, she had mastered so many spells she hadn’t understood before.
The mysteries of the multiverse were piling up…
Exhaling deeply, Ye Bai logged off and returned to reality.
This time, she distinctly felt a stronger control over her mental power, and her perception of the surroundings became easier and clearer—
If before she needed to transform her limbs to ‘touch’ and gather information, now her spiritual form felt as if her soul had left her body, able to ‘see and hear.’
Ye Bai released 【Insight】 on the nutrient pods around her.
Then, her spiritual form ‘saw’ that on the surfaces of these nutrient pods, there were spots resembling cracks appearing in different locations.
Among them, the pod with the most spots was indeed the one she had just inspected, the one closest to its next malfunction time.
This confirmed that Weakness Observation applied to machinery as well; the more weaknesses there were, the greater the likelihood of malfunction—no doubt about it.
Ye Bai then located the ‘spot’ on her own nutrient pod.
After some thought, she gathered a minimal amount of mental energy and directly released a low-tier version of 【Light Arrow】 at the weak point inside.
This nutrient pod didn’t necessarily operate on electricity; light-based spells had broader applications in this era, suitable for disguising mechanical failures. If it involved a gravity manipulation technique, that would be even more complicated. Changing gravity on a spaceship could lead to unpredictable consequences, and Ye Bai had no idea what might happen.
A streak of light appeared and vanished within the mechanical structure of the nutrient pod, causing no reaction.
Ye Bai remained calm and used Light Arrow on the other two weak points.
After one observation, she saw the next malfunction time drop from over a thousand hours to 382 hours.
This confirmed that the spell was effective.
So, Ye Bai targeted the first weak point again, slightly increasing the energy, roughly to the level of a youthful version of 【Light Arrow】.
“Zing…”
A burst of sparks erupted from the crack in the nutrient pod, the green light indicating normal operation extinguished, immediately triggering the alarm of the ship's monitoring system.
Ye Bai quickly shrank her mental energy to match the size of the surrounding neighbors, anxiously waiting.
The nutrient pod would automatically register anesthetics to prevent the organisms inside from acting abnormally. When a malfunction occurred, there was a high chance that maintenance personnel would come to fix it.
Especially after Ye Bai noticed that no repair robots appeared following the alarm, she became even more convinced of this idea.
Time ticked by, and suddenly, the door at the end of the cabin opened.
In her tension, Ye Bai sensed someone entering, and her spiritual form was radiating light, unlike the unconscious inmates. Moreover, it wasn’t confined to her brain but extended beyond her body, forming an oval shape slightly larger than her physical form.
Her mental energy was projecting outside her body—she was at D-level!
Ye Bai subtly reduced the size of her disguised spiritual form while also realizing what her mental state was like when awake.
The maintenance worker appeared impatient, grumbling as he floated in front of Ye Bai, automatically passing the security verification before opening the outer shell of the nutrient pod to begin repairs.
Thanks to her sharper spiritual form and personal terminal, Ye Bai caught every word of his complaints.
“Damn it, only 69 hours until we reach headquarters, and it breaks down on the way. Why couldn’t it wait until we arrived? That wouldn’t affect my rating…”
“This damn group that eats people without spitting out bones, equipped with the Star Network but forcing restrictions on entering the multiverse. If it weren’t for the fact that Tutu City is crawling with their people, I wouldn’t care so much!”
“Looks like this component is broken. The γ-78 industrial star products are getting worse with each generation. The procurement of Tero must have pocketed quite a bit of kickbacks; he escaped responsibility for the last exhibition hall malfunction too.”
Ye Bai just hoped this person would keep complaining, but the next thing he said startled her.
“Seems like it’s not fully fixed. Oh well, this batch isn’t going to the exhibition anyway; it won’t matter much if they die.”
Not going to the exhibition? Ye Bai’s spiritual form suddenly lost its stable breathing rhythm and trembled.
The repairman looked up, his expression pausing.
In that instant, Ye Bai was already channeling her mental rays.
“Ah, so this is the problem! I knew it… I graduated with an A+ in mechanical maintenance!” The worker excitedly buried himself back into the repairs.
…Didn’t notice?
At this distance, less than a meter apart, and both at D-level, he didn’t notice her change? She was ready for a fight!
Ye Bai’s mind raced with uncertainty, recalling the reaction when she had probed the neighboring spiritual form… Could it be that her mental energy was different from that of normal mentalists?
As this thought emerged, Ye Bai immediately realized that this was the perfect opportunity to verify it!
So, she slowly altered the frequency of her mental waves.
Her spiritual form was right in front of the repairman, yet it seemed he was completely oblivious to Ye Bai’s changes.
Ye Bai’s current spiritual form was shrunk into a ball; it was impossible for him to be acting out of fear. Besides, this spaceship was definitely equipped with armed forces. If anything abnormal was detected, they would just trigger an alarm.
With the repairman showing no reaction, Ye Bai’s probing actions gradually became more exaggerated.
In the end, her mental energy extended out, twisting into an S-shape one moment and a B-shape the next, while he continued to work, completely unaware, packing up tools and sealing the nutrient pod’s outer shell with a few taps.
After the entire process, Ye Bai finally confirmed that ordinary mentalists, even at D-level, couldn’t control their mental energy as freely as she could. Not to mention actively extending and expanding their perception; it seemed their mental energy was a passive skill, perhaps only reacting when their spiritual form made contact.
The repairman left the cabin, and silence returned, with only the green light of the nutrient pod operating normally.
Ye Bai began to carefully analyze the information the worker had let slip earlier.
69 hours to reach headquarters, likely the headquarters of the Makur Group, which was probably Makur Star. He also mentioned an exhibition, which coincided with Ye Bai’s impression of the interstellar zoo.
If the spaceship’s destination was indeed Makur Star, Ye Bai felt a slight sense of certainty.
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