Zhao Lingyun's sudden words completely stunned Lin Mo, who was controlling the clone from backstage.
"You misunderstood," Lin Mo directed the clone to speak to the innocent-looking Zhao Lingyun, "I helped you not because I wanted something from you... Alright, I do want something, but not your body."
"Earlier, when I told President Gao that you had to agree to be my girlfriend, it was only to help you escape and get away from Director Zhang's control, because I knew you didn't like him."
Lin Mo didn't know that, in Zhao Lingyun's eyes, his explanation looked like rejection.
Zhao Lingyun pressed her left hand against her left leg, which had already been repaired by the system inside the game but still felt nonexistent to her. She lowered her head in disappointment and shame.
Because she knew that the only thing she had worth showing was this face.
Or to put it more directly, the only thing of value she had was her body.
Otherwise, even someone like Director Zhang might not have looked at her twice.
From the beginning, when Mo helped Zhao Lingyun, she believed he was the same as Director Zhang and was after her body.
In fact, Zhao Lingyun had felt lucky about it, because at least she still had this tiny bit of "value."
But now, Lin Mo said he wasn't interested in her body.
To Zhao Lingyun, those words were the same as denying the only value she had.
"So even you think I'm a useless cripple who can't do anything?"
"No," Through the clone, Lin Mo said to Zhao Lingyun, "You have huge potential that ordinary people don't have. What I value is your ability."
"I can help awaken your potential, and what I want is for you to become my teammate and help me fight in God's Oracle."
Zhao Lingyun shook her head, tears spilling from her eyes uncontrollably, "Stop trying to comfort me!"
"In real life, I'm a cripple who can't do anything right."
"In God's Oracle, I'm trash with no talent and no strength!"
"What potential could someone like me possibly have that's worth your attention?"
Zhao Lingyun looked up at Mo and cried as she spoke, "I know you're pitying me and feeling sorry for me, but I don't need your pity or sympathy!"
"Thank you for helping me today."
"Also, President Gao returned the bride price money Director Zhang gave my family on your behalf. That was what he promised you. Give me some time. I'll find a way to gather the money and pay you back as soon as possible," After speaking, Zhao Lingyun turned around and left in a daze.
Only Mo remained there, carrying Lin Mo's consciousness and standing there in confusion.
———
"What just happened?"
"Did I say something wrong?"
Beside him, Ning Xi said, "Brother Lin Mo, you didn't say anything wrong, but you indirectly denied her value."
"She stayed with Director Zhang because she knew he wanted her body. Maybe outsiders can never understand it, but only Sister Ling'er knows that this is her only 'value'."
At this point, even Ning Xi couldn't help sighing softly, "How low must someone's self-worth be for them to treat their body as the only value in their whole life?"
"Sister Ling'er is so pitiful."
"What else could I do?", Lin Mo deliberately glanced at Ning Xi and pretended to think seriously, "Should I have agreed and let her be my girlfriend?"
"Of course not!", Ning Xi frowned slightly and said in a hurry, "Brother Lin Mo, you're mine!"
"Hmph! How can you be someone else's boyfriend?"
Lin Mo grinned, "Oh? That possessive?"
Ning Xi's face turned red.
"Besides, Brother Lin Mo, your clone has a time limit. It'll disappear after thirty days. Even if you really let the clone be with Sister Ling'er, what if she truly falls for you? When the clone disappears, how would she accept the fact that the person she liked never truly existed?"
"At that point, she'd even think Brother Lin Mo had been lying to her all along. The trust that was finally built would collapse in an instant."
"Mm."
Through the clone's vision, Lin Mo looked at Zhao Lingyun's fading figure and said thoughtfully, "Looks like there's only one way."
"Help her awaken her potential, unlock her SS-grade talent, and let her see where her real value is."
As for how to remove Zhao Lingyun's talent seal and activate her SS-grade talent, Lin Mo already had a plan in mind.
In his previous life, when God's Oracle descended, rare treasures fell from the sky, causing every race in the God's Oracle world to fight over them.
Even supreme races like the Protoss, Dragon Clan, and Angel Clan, which were normally impossible to see, appeared before the players.
Although Lin Mo had never seen it personally, he once heard other players talking about it by chance, ("Do you know this Zhao Ling'er? Before God's Oracle descended, she was a cripple born without talent.")
("Then why does she have an SS-grade talent now? She even made it into the top hundred rankings of the Dragon Nation server.")
("At the beginning of God's Oracle's arrival, I personally saw her smear the corpse blood of a royal dragon prince on herself to hide her aura while escaping the Black Dragon Emperor's pursuit. After that, she unexpectedly gained an SS-grade talent.")
("Holy shit? The corpse blood of a Black Dragon royal prince has that kind of effect? Is the corpse still there? I'm going to smear some on myself too. I want an SS-grade talent as well.")
("Useless. I smeared that royal dragon prince's corpse blood on myself too while escaping the Demon Dragon Emperor's pursuit, but look at me, nothing happened. It probably only works on people born without talent.")
Only then did Lin Mo understand, "The suppression power of Zhao Ling'er's SS-grade talent is too strong. Only the royal blood of a supreme race in the God's Oracle world can remove the suppression."
The God's Oracle world had countless races. According to strength, they were divided into ordinary races, rare races, and supreme races.
For example, the Shadow Clan that Lin Mo destroyed earlier in the level-three main city Blazing Ember City belonged to the most common and lowest-status ordinary race on the God's Oracle continent.
The Human Race, Beast Race, and Elf Race that players could choose at the start were all rare races with relatively noble status.
Above them were the peak races of the God's Oracle world, the supreme races.
'The Black Dragon Clan that unlocked Zhao Ling'er's talent seal in my previous life was one of the supreme races in the God's Oracle world. But the God's Oracle world has more than just the Black Dragon Clan among its supreme races.'
The supreme races of the God's Oracle world were mysterious and hard to find.
But Lin Mo just happened to know that within the territory of Inferno City, the level-two main city where he currently was, there was a domain belonging to a supreme race.
'That's right!'
'It is—'
'The Protoss, Divine Tomb!'
Lin Mo's original plan had been to enter the Divine Tomb dungeon and use a capture scroll to catch a Protoss priest, then evolve the Ancestral-grade Divine Descent · Seraph.
Because only Divine Descent · Seraph possessed heaven-defying divine powers like Undying Arts and Resurrection Arts that could reverse fate and turn the tide.
In the future, after God's Oracle descended and the game merged with reality, these powers would become something countless top players in this real world of death dreamed of having. Essential for both home and travel.
And now, while evolving Divine Descent · Seraph, Lin Mo could also explore the Divine Tomb.
If he could find the blood of the Protoss royal family, he could remove Zhao Ling'er's talent seal and awaken her SS-grade talent.