The sliver of energy was extremely faint, comparable to the difference between the water in a tank and that of a river when contrasted with the energy provided by the Vermilion Fruit.
As soon as this minute energy appeared, it fluctuated and was about to dissipate. He Ao quickly held his breath and focused, controlling the movement of this energy with his thoughts, making it circulate within his body along the route outlined on the first page of the small book.
Even so, by the time he induced its flow, more than half of that energy had already dissipated.
Mysteriously, after this energy left the chest cavity, its rate of dissipation slowed, and it gradually merged into He Ao's body.
As He Ao led this weak force to flow through his body like a fish, he felt a faint strength gradually emerge in response to this circulating force.
It seemed that not all of the Vermilion Fruit's power had dissipated yesterday; a portion had integrated into his body, permeating his muscles and bones.
However, this part of the strength must have been only a small fraction; the majority was used to unblock the 'channels' within his body.
Before consuming the Vermilion Fruit, these channels were completely clogged, preventing any energy flow. But the Vermilion Fruit cleared these blockages, so that He Ao could induce the flow of energy following the path drawn in the small book.
The path illustrated on the first page of the small book was short. It started from the chest cavity, passed through the heart atrium, then down the left shoulder, through the elbow all the way to the fingertips of the middle finger before returning the same way, passing through the arm, across the clavicle to the right shoulder, wrapping around the right hand, and then back to the chest cavity.
After completing this circuit, the faint energy had all but exhausted itself.
After one circulation, He Ao felt as if his physical condition had slightly improved, though the increase was extremely slight.
The improvement was mainly concentrated in his hands and heart.
It appeared that the weak energy had integrated into his body.
At this time, He Ao began to understand the meaning of "Qi Induction"; it seemed to involve drawing 'Qi' or 'energy' from the outside world into one's body to strengthen one's physique.
However, it seemed that this energy could only be absorbed with the first breath at the arrival of Dawn; no matter how much he huffed and puffed now, there was not a trace of energy left in his chest cavity.
With the completion of this energy circulation, He Ao fell into brief contemplation. He had often breathed at the arrival of Dawn before, so why hadn't he felt it then?
He began to compare what was different about himself now, as opposed to before. First and foremost, he had never been aware of the existence of 'energy' before; secondly, compared to his current state, he felt that his former body was more 'chaotic,' with the 'channels' within more blocked and tangled.
Compared to the current 'smooth, clean mirror,' He Ao's internal state before consuming the Vermilion Fruit resembled a chaotic sandy beach filled with gravel.
The energies were like fine grains of gold sand; it is hard to find a minute speck of gold on a cluttered sandy beach, but much easier to spot one on a smooth, clean mirror. Thus, He Ao was now more easily able to detect those minute energies.
He Ao felt most people in the world were likely the same as he had been before eating the Vermilion Fruit, with their insides being a jumbled mess and lacking the consciousness to actively sense abnormalities within, and therefore they could not detect the energy inhaled into the chest cavity at Dawn.
Of course, many people simply didn't get up at Dawn.
The energies seemed to exist in the chest cavity for only a very brief moment, perhaps gone in the blink of an eye.
It was uncertain whether the energy dissipating in the chest cavity was being naturally absorbed by the body.
If it were being absorbed, didn't that mean the physical condition of all humans in the world was slowly improving?
Or, perhaps not just humans?
But looking at the current situation, most of the energy in the chest cavity was dissipating anyway, and even if absorbed, it was only a tiny fraction.
However, dwelling on these thoughts was useless now.
After trying for half an hour and confirming he could not absorb any more energy, He Ao decided to give up.
He had things to take care of today.
Maybe it was because of the improved physical condition, but after staying up all night, not only did he not feel any tiredness, he felt more energetic than ever.
In addition to preparing ingredients for his night-time street stall, today's tasks included repairing the ceramic tile that was broken by a young man yesterday and the damaged security door.
He Ao tidied up his belongings, boiled four plain eggs, took a carton of discounted milk, tucked it into his pocket, shouldered a large backpack, and went downstairs.
He needed to visit the building materials market, which was quite far from the neighborhood where he lived. There was an early bus that went directly there, but if he missed it, he would have to wait another hour.
So he bustled around until noon before he returned home.
The day before, eight tiles had been shattered in a fight. The floor tiles in He Ao's home were the old 400*400mm ones commonly used in older houses. He had searched the building materials market for a long time, but couldn't find ones that matched exactly, so he settled for some that were a similar color to his own home's tiles.
Eight yuan a piece, sixty yuan for eight tiles.
He then looked at security doors. He had intended to take this opportunity to replace his home's security door, but he found out that even the cheapest ones cost over a thousand yuan.
So instead, he spent ninety-eight yuan on a hammer that was over ninety centimeters high, planning to hammer back into shape the deformed part of the door and make do with it for a bit longer.
After a simple lunch, He Ao got busy. There was some cement left from the last time he had done some wall building, so he cleaned up the broken tiles, replaced them with new ones, straightened out the door, and that was about it.
Of course, it sounded simple, but by the time He Ao finished, it was already after six o'clock.
He put everything away, just sat down at the table to rest, when he noticed the scenery in his field of vision begin to change.
[There is 00:00:01 left until the next game begins.]
[There is 00:00:00 left until the next game begins.]
[Start the game now?]
[Yes][No]
He Ao stood up, took out the camera from his study, placed it in the living room, plugged in the power, checked whether the memory card was inserted properly, then went offline, and positioned the camera to face where he was sitting.
Then he chose [Yes]
[The game is loading.]
[Welcome to Copy World game.]
[Matching you with a life role randomly.]
[Match successful.]
[Your role is: Apprentice Investigator Ande.]
[Have a pleasant time playing the game.]
——
"Miss Selena?"
The nurse's soft call awakened the daydreaming blonde woman,
She turned her head, giving the nurse a soft smile, "Hello, is there something I can help you with?"
"Miss Selena, your communication bracelet is glowing," the nurse cautiously pointed at Selena's right hand, then glanced at the window, "So you like sunflowers."
"Yes."
Selena nodded gently. She pressed a button next to her, and the huge floor-to-ceiling window displaying the sunflower fields flickered and changed to a somewhat bald middle-aged man wearing glasses, sitting in an office, apparently reading a newspaper.
The nurse tactfully left the room.