Bai Yunfei sat on the bed, his eyes staring at the roof somewhat absently. He massaged the places on his body that had been beaten black and blue. As he massaged them, his tears disappointingly streamed down — unwilling, humiliated, helpless — so what? It was impossible for him to change this… Bai Yunfei stroked the jade pendant hanging on his chest. His tears had stopped streaming down. This was a white cloud-shaped pendant about the size of a thumb. It was somewhat crudely made. One could tell at first sight that it was not made of a good material. But because it had been kept next to his skin and gently stroked by him for years, it looked especially glossy and even slightly gave off some light — this was the only memento Bai Yunfei’s mother had left him.

“Mom… Is there really any point for me to live this kind of life?”Bai Yunfei murmured while looking at the jade pendant in stupefaction.

“One day, when my little Yunfei grows up, he will be like a white cloud in the sky, floating freely without constraints…”

His mother’s loving words seemed to be resounding in his ears again. Bai Yunfei forcefully wiped the tears on his face then slapped his own face.

“I can’t be like this! Mom’s birthday is about to come. I still must save some money to repair mom’s and grandpa’s graves. I can’t let mom see me unhappy!”

After several deep breaths, Bai Yunfei slowly calmed down and began to think about what he had encountered today.

“What was wrong with me? On the street… it seemed I wasn’t myself. How could I go and provoke those young masters of rich families…”

“Though now I’m still myself… a great deal of new, odd things seem to have appeared in my mind… I can carefully feel them, but I’m always unable to recall them clearly.”

“Could it be I’ve worked too hard recently so hallucinations occurred? But I didn’t feel anything unusual before that.”

Bai Yunfei slapped his head with force several times again. It seemed he was trying hard to search for something in his head once more.

“Item Upgrade Technique… What is this?”

Right at this moment, the bed under him suddenly shook for a short period. He nearly fell down from the bed.

“Oh, it’s loosened again? This bed is really…”

Bai Yunfei bent down and saw that a leg of the bed on the left had become shorter by a length. Originally there had been something put under it to raise it, but just then he had moved about on the bed so that thing had already moved to one side.

Bai Yunfei picked up that thing from under the bed then weighed it in his hand — it was none other than a brick.

When he was about to get up and put it back under that leg of the bed again, a string of information suddenly popped up in his mind.

“Item grade: Normal.”

“Damage: 9”

“Upgrade requirement: 1 soulforce.”

The sudden appearance of these pieces of information gave him a start, his hand trembling. The brick then fell to the ground and the information in his mind disappeared.

Bai Yunfei looked around in a somewhat fearful manner but did not discover anything. After a long time, he finally put on a brave face and picked up the brick again. As expected, the information appeared. When he put the brick on the floor, the information in his mind disappeared. When he picked it up again, that information reappeared.

“Indeed… This points to it, right? But what does upgrade mean?”

“Upgrade…”

Just as this thought appeared in Bai Yunfei’s brain, he felt an emptiness in his mind. It seemed something in the depths of his soul had gone missing, but it was also indescribable. In just an instant, this kind of feeling disappeared.

“Upgrade successful.”

This piece of information flashed across his mind. He lowered his head and looked at the brick in his hand again.

“Item grade: Normal.”

“Upgrade level: +1.”

“Damage: 9”

“Additional damage: 1”

“Upgrade requirement: 2 soulforce.”

Bai Yunfei felt that the brick in his hand seemed to be a bit heavier than before and also seemed to be sturdier than before. It was impossible to tell if this was his illusion or not.

“Some more information. Damage… indicates power, right? When I upgraded it, the power increased? What the heck is this? Or am I dreaming?”

Bai Yunfei pressed an injured place on his waist and it hurt so much that he took in two breaths of cold air — he was not dreaming.

“This… Could this have something to do with my abnormal behavior in the evening?”

Bai Yunfei pondered hard for a good while again but still ended up without a thread so he simply stopped thinking. This did not seem to have any disadvantage and he himself did not feel unwell either.

“If I continue to upgrade it… what will happen?”

This kind of curiosity could not help emerging in Bai Yunfei’s mind.

“Upgrade.”

That feeling of his heart skipping half a beat appeared like a flash again. Yunfei hurriedly stared at the brick.

“Upgrade successful.”

“Item grade: Normal.”

“Item upgrade level: +2.”

“Damage: 9”

“Additional damage: 2”

“Upgrade requirement: 3 soulforce.”

Yunfei brandished the brick and always felt that it seemed to have become even sturdier.

“Let’s upgrade it a few more times and see…”

Not long after that…

“Upgrade successful.”

“Item grade: Normal.”

“Item upgrade level: +6.”

“Damage: 9”

“Additional damage: 6”

“Upgrade requirement: 7 soulforce.”

But when Bai Yunfei upgraded it again, the result this time was different.

“Upgrade failed.”

“Oh? Failed? What does this mean?”

He took a look at the brick and saw that the upgrade level had changed from 6 just then to 5.

“So it can fail as well… And a failure causes a drop of 1 level?”

Now Bai Yunfei’s mind was full of curiosity. He had been captivated by this ‘interesting’ thing like a child who had found a novel toy.

He no longer took a look after each upgrade. Instead, he simply stared at the brick in his hand while saying nonstop in his mind:

“Upgrade.”

“Upgrade.”

“Upgrade.”

Bai Yunfei was somewhat excited. But when he was engrossing himself in saying so, he suddenly felt light in the head, as if his soul had been exhausted abruptly. His mind gradually became fuzzy and he slowly fell down on the bed.

The moment before he lost consciousness, he vaguely felt a string of information flash through his mind:

“Upgrade successful.”

“Item grade: Normal.”

“Item upgrade level: +10.”

“Damage: 9”

“Additional damage: 16”

“+10 Additional effect: Attacks have a 1% chance of stunning the target for a maximum of 3 seconds (when attacking the head, the chance of stunning increases to 5%).”