Shen Yuan had his full day rest and returned to the research quarter the day after. During his preparation checkup, he remembered the things he needed and asked Yang Mei, "Can you give me something that can detect General Zhou's presence?"
Yang Mei looked at Shen Yuan as if he said something stupid. "You are inside General Zhou's neural space. Everything in there is him."
"Just trying my luck." Shen Yuan shrugged. He more or less expected that answer. "What about something that can help me analyze my surroundings? Though I can do it myself and I had no problems so far, I rather use the time to actually do my mission."
"Deciphering your experience from our numerical data alone is impossible, so we can't determine what kind of system you'd need and whether we need to make a specialized one. The best we can try is equipping you with an AI assistant."
"Forget it, then."
The last thing Shen Yuan needed was an AI assistant that recorded both his and its every activity. So far, the portion of vulture in him hadn't been detected by the scanning device, but if the AI assistant connected to his neural chip, there was no doubt he would be exposed.
"Did you upgrade your chip yesterday?" Yang Mei analyzed the results of the examination.
Shen Yuan nodded. "I did my own checkup and found my A-grade chip isn't enough to sustain my increasing neural strength after the last session. With two successions, it'll probably increase more after this, so I did the upgrade."
"Jumping straight to triple A?"
"Might as well."
Yang Mei sighed. "You do understand that if your neural chip output is bigger than what your brain needs, there's a 90% chance it will overcharge and cause you to go berserk?"
"Don't worry. I'm not using it anytime soon. My mouth does most of my job."
"As long as you understand. Let us proceed with the next session."
***
Shen Yuan opened his eyes to find himself in a narrow alley, a significant difference from his previous experience, and could hear the hustle and bustle down on the main street. There was nothing in particular around or on him that indicated who he was or what his role was.
Another big difference was the weight on his head. His hair draped far down his back, reaching just past his waist, and it was only a half of it. Another half was bundled up and held firm in place with a jade hairpin.
Only a jade hairpin. Magically so.
He wore a high-necked, wide-sleeved, plain white robe with a window at the center of his chest, exposing 5 four-pointed diamonds tattooed down his sternum. It was topped with a light blue outer robe, bound together with a sky-blue sash. Subtle, silver swallow birds decorated the outer robe by its hems, blending to its lighter gradient further down the piece.
The buildings around him were all constructed of wood and rough stones but the precise architecture and calculated design—in addition to his clothes—indicated he wasn't as far as in the prehistoric. Most likely around classical or middle age.
Or maybe an entirely new world with similar settings. Who knows? The previous world was exactly that. There was no time in real history when magic existed.
Much to his luck, he was thrown in the middle of nowhere with nothing to ground him with. Before finding the vulture or the general, he had to first gather information.
He walked out of the alley and joined the stream of people flowing along the stone-paved street.
The first thing he noticed was the clothing trend. He had thought his clothes were strange but roughly half of the people around him had the same opening on their chest, showing a similar tattoo as his. Most had 2 or 3 diamonds, some had 1, but none had 4, much less 5 like his.
The other half of the fashion trend was dominantly worn by men—lean, built men. Their long hair was fully bound with either a ribbon or a metallic headpiece that looked like a cuff. Their clothes fitted their upper figure that showed off their muscle lines and none of them wore double layers to display their tattoo.
But rather than on their chest, it was on their back, snaking down their spine. Most had 4 to 6 with those less muscular ones having only 2 or 3.
He figured the tattoo was a significant indicator of something when the people around him looked at his chest with unmasked shock and started whispering to each other. He bought a paper fan from a small stall and spread it over his chest to hide it.
Just like in the previous two worlds, his money pouch generated the money he needed. Though there was no way for him to check his balance, he assumed it was like the first world where it was the same as his real-life account. Not that his balance was used up or anything.
Starting from figuring out what the tattoo meant sounded like a good idea. The problem was finding a place or a person where he could ask about, potentially, such common knowledge without attracting unwanted attention.
While in thought, he saw an establishment nearby where people gathered and seated in its courtyard, openly accessible to the public. When the curtains up front opened and revealed a stage, he realized it was a play and decided to take a look.
He joined the crowd who didn't get a seat at the back and asked the lady next to him, "Excuse me, what is this play about?"
"It's about the legend of the dragon bride. It's my favorite rendition of the play," the lady answered full of smiles and pointed to the man on the stage. "The actor who plays the dragon lord is very handsome, isn't he? He's also a 5-star activator. I wouldn't mind being his second or third wife."
Shen Yuan looked at the actor and inwardly noted the word 'activator' when he saw the 5 diamonds on his back.
Asking about it directly would be strange. He decided to figure it out from context. "The legend of the dragon bride?"
"What? You don't know? Did you live in a rock or something?"
"I've been ill and spent most of my time recuperating in bed until now."
"Ah…I see." The lady shifted from disbelief to pity and readily explained, "The legend of the dragon bride is one of the most famous stories about the origin of catalysts and activators. Simply put, it's about a man who sacrificed himself to save his sister from being offered to the dragon lord by their village. Moved by his selflessness, the dragon lord fell in love with him and accepted him as a bride rather than eating him,
"He turned the man into a catalyst so that he could harvest his energy without taking his life and gave the man the ability to conceive. Humankind then evolved from their descendants and became what we are now. You should watch it yourself. You'll understand."
Shen Yuan nodded in gratitude and followed her advice to watch the play until the end. It was a fruitful watch.
Those with diamond tattoos on the front were called catalysts while those who had it on the back were called activators. The catalysts carried energy in their body that they couldn't personally use themselves. The activators, on the other hand, had the ability to wield spiritual power but not the energy needed to cast them.
They were like batteries and appliances, hence the name.
The diamond tattoo on a catalyst's body indicated the amount of energy they had while the tattoo on an activator's body indicated the maximum amount of energy they could use. 1 diamond on a catalyst equaled 1.5 to 2 diamonds on an activator, depending on their strength.
From observing the people around him more, Shen Yuan also figured out a couple of things.
A catalyst generally didn't want to have an activator that was weaker than them as a partner. On the other hand, it was normal for an activator to have 2 or 3 catalysts as partners because their level cap was higher. The number of catalysts they had was both a symbol of strength and status.
Relationships between catalysts and activators came in different forms though most became lovers as a result of their dependencies.
The horrible news was, aside from the bride from the legend, there hadn't been a 5-star catalyst recorded in history that it had long been regarded as a myth. No doubt, his energy came from his neural strength.
Not that knowing this in advance would change his decision to upgrade to a triple-A neural chip. He wouldn't be able to bear his lover's life force otherwise.