"You don't know?" Blu tilted her head, laughing mysteriously.
"Yes, you never told me. Why are you laughing like that?" Arthur frowned deeply.
Blu only smiled wider.
Arthur had a bad feeling about this. And sure enough, Blu raised a hand and made a strange gesture that turned his face beet red.
"What the hell are you doing?!"
"Just showing a gesture that symbolizes your power. Why?" she asked, grinning mischievously.
"The hell?! Stop it!" Arthur snapped, flustered. It wasn't just the gesture—it was the seductive posture and the exaggerated motion of swallowing that totally threw him off.
Blu stopped but looked far too pleased with herself.
"Tell me what my power is," Arthur asked again, forcing himself to stay composed.
"Copying—by swallowing things," she said sweetly.
Arthur froze.
He had suspected as much, but hearing it aloud was soul-crushing.
'Damn. I'm screwed.'
Still, a small hope sparked in his mind.
'Maybe there's a void in my mouth, like a pocket dimension? So when I swallow things, they just get stored? That would be cool. Heh, I really am the MC! Maybe there's a loophole…'
But he didn't dare say that out loud.
'If I jinx it, I might end up swallowing something alive.'
"Sigh… So, why is that my power? And why wasn't it listed before?"
"What do you mean? It is listed," Blu said innocently.
"No, it isn't!" Arthur scowled. 'Got you now. She's bluffing.'
"It really is. Are you blind, Arthur? Are you okay?" she asked with exaggerated concern.
Arthur was already pulling up his status window, unaware Blu had a trick prepared. She couldn't alter the window on her own—but she could once he opened it.
Sure enough, the moment the window appeared, Blu shouted:
"Look! There's a treasure behind you!"
Arthur flinched and turned—pure instinct.
Then his heart dropped.
'Damn it… I fell for it.'
He spun back and saw the now-edited status window:
---
Name: Arthur Kasadin (Ji Sen)
Level: 2 (95 XP / 300 XP)
Credit Points: 1100
Age: 0 (20)
Mental Power: 90
Physical Power: 1
Cultivation: None
Technique: None
Inventory: [Black Book of Necromancy of the Northern Hell], [Blood of the Ruined Kings], [Universal Pouch]
Shop
Inborn Talents: Fire, Water, Earth, Metal, Crystal, Space, Time, Chaos
Passive: Copying — By Swallowing
Arthur went pale.
'She knew. She really knew. Damn.'
He didn't say a word, still trying to save face.
'All this because I swallowed that cube when I didn't have a pocket? And now it's my power?! Wait… can she hear my thoughts? Oh no…'
"Do I really need to swallow to copy?" he asked, weakly.
"Yup!" Blu beamed.
Arthur's soul nearly left his body.
'What if I have to swallow a sword? Or poop?! No way. No way!'
Then a thought struck him.
"Wait… does my mouth have a spatial void?"
"Yes," Blu answered calmly.
Arthur lit up.
"What the hell, that's awesome!"
"What, you planning to swallow a coin? A sword? A whole house?" she teased.
Arthur grinned. "Maybe."
"But remember," she said with a smirk, "this is just your baby body. You won't be stuck in it forever right? Just like before you transmigrated?"
That calmed him down a bit. He had panicked without thinking.
Then Blu raised a hand.
"Want to try another trial?"
"Now?"
"Yes. But be warned, once you start, you have to finish it. It's low in difficulty, but your passive has a flaw."
Arthur narrowed his eyes. "What flaw?"
"You'll find out. Let's go."
She snapped her fingers—and the dark space vanished.
They were suddenly in a jungle.
The air itself was a thick, humid blanket, heavy with the scent of damp earth and alien blossoms. All around him, the jungle rose in a suffocating tapestry of green, where massive trees towered overhead, their canopies so dense they stole the sky. Vines as thick as his arms hung like slumbering serpents, brushing against his shoulders as he pushed forward. Everywhere, the jungle was alive with sound—the chittering whir of unseen insects, the deep-throated calls of animals that echoed in the dense air, and from a chilling distance, the sharp, predatory screech of something that made the blood run cold in his veins.
Before Arthur could ask anything, Blu whispered in his ear:
"Proceed forward. The treasure's on the map. When you reach it, copy the item. But once you do you'll have to kill yourself or be killed."
"WHAT?! Kill myself?!" Arthur shouted.
"Yup, yup, yup!" Blu's voice chirped, then she vanished again.
Arthur stared blankly into the trees.
'Oh heavens, why?!'
He groaned and took a breath.
"Where's the map?"
A floating interface appeared now fully gamified. When he checked the distance to the treasure...
"Fourteen kilometers?!"
Arthur had to do it, theres no choice tho the journey was a long and harrowing parade of nightmares. Arthur moved through a world where massive trees towered overhead, and vines as thick as his arms hung like a curtain. He had held his breath as lions the size of elephants shook the ground with their roars, their tusks gleaming like scimitars. He watched a panther so stealthy it dissolved into the shadows like mist. The shadow of a bird the size of a house once plunged him into an artificial dusk, and he froze for an hour as a river of red ants marched past with military precision, scouring the life from everything they touched. Yet, through sheer stealth and a thread of pure luck, Arthur had somehow made it through.
Still, he pressed on.
At last, he arrived at a colossal golden temple.
It was impossibly wide he imagined it could hold 159 blue whales side by side. Giant golden dragon statues curled around the entrance.
"Easy," Arthur muttered, solemn.
The temple radiated a holy aura. Inside, he walked nearly an hour before reaching a huge door. It looked like it weighed tons but it opened at the lightest touch.
"Right, it's a trial," Arthur reminded himself.
Inside were golden monk statues, all facing an altar at the center. Resting atop it was a crystal egg, glowing faintly.
Arthur walk towards the altar and picked it up.
It was warm, smooth, and the size of a fist but slippery.
"Alright, let's get this over with—"
Suddenly, the temple began to tremble.
The egg slipped from his hands and shattered on the floor, releasing a thick, gooey substance.
"Arthur! There's no time—the statues are awakening! Get the substance!" Blu shouted.
"Do I really have to swallow it?!" Arthur yelled in horror.
"Yes! Imagine it smaller! If you don't, you'll be stuck here forever!"
"This is just a trial, right?!"
"NOW!!"
Note: My eyes hurt. That's all for today (5/24/2022).
Note: Blu is referred to as "she" because she's using a woman's body.