It wasn't until after they finished eating that Battle Wolf 004 finally took out the stone.
Battle Wolf 009 looked at Qi Xu in surprise, hesitated for a moment, and asked, "Should we give it to A'bian? Her luck is too good, and all the color fragments she collects are very precious. Who knows how long it will take to gather them all."
"With A'bian's luck, there's no need to worry about her. You use it first. Back when we got the 100 color blind box fragments, I said that any future resources would be prioritized for you."
Battle Wolf 009 finally absorbed the stone's energy directly, feeling a bit embarrassed, but soon he couldn't smile anymore. It felt as if all the bones and muscles in his body were being shattered.
Qi Xu was startled. Before giving the stone to Battle Wolf 009, he had repeatedly confirmed that absorbing its energy would indeed turn someone into an Ability User.
He hadn't expected the process to be this painful. He was rolling on the ground, howling in agony. Even when Battle Wolf 009 was severely injured before, he hadn't howled like this.
Qi Xu originally thought Battle Wolf 004 would be more heartbroken and worried, but turning his head, he saw this guy had already started recording a video. Great, just great. The Battle Wolves truly are a united and loving big family.
Battle Wolf 009 suffered through waves of pain for nearly an hour before the agony finally began to subside a little.
Dongfang Yuan was anxious to grind mileage and kill monsters; unable to sit still, she left early. Battle Wolf 004, worried that his monthly ranking would drop too much, also took off.
Qi Xu guessed this was just an excuse; his main motivation was probably to share the video with the rest of his bros...
Qi Xu had a bunch of things to attend to as well, so in the end, only Chinese Master Chef was left to watch over Battle Wolf 009.
Qi Xu first contacted Wealth Comes From All Directions and introduced him to Cheese Foam.
Cheese Foam was absolutely astounded. How did Invincible Black Whirlwind have such capable people under his command? Incidentally... he also guessed the real reason why Xie Shaoning and Jinwen Xingmangyue suddenly went from being broke to filthy rich.
He immediately engaged in in-depth cooperation and negotiations with Wealth Comes From All Directions. Wealth Comes From All Directions breathed a deep sigh of relief—this was what a proper regional top ranker should be like.
Not like those two weirdos from before: one with persecution paranoia, and the other with chronic abnormal hysteria.
Afterward, Qi Xu opened his message panel to check all his unread messages from the past half month.
"9999+"
After having Qiuqiu filter out the unimportant messages and "begging messages," there were still over 100 left.
Qi Xu checked them one by one. First were his monster friends, mostly sending daily greetings. Not finding it troublesome at all, Qi Xu replied to each of them with a long string of "sweet words."
While he was at it, he also made an appointment with Iron Belly for Cheese Foam and Xie Shaoning to have custom weapons made there.
Finally, he saw a few cross-regional messages from strangers.
Shadowkill: "Hi, are you free lately? I got a treasure map secret realm. Interested? We can be considered friends who fought together in a dungeon. I don't need any other supplies, I'll give you a slot for free."
Endless Longevity: "The Assassin's Hall is quite efficient. Thanks for the recommendation."
Qi Xu was quite puzzled. If their efficiency was good and she was satisfied, why hadn't they killed Shadowkill yet? Had they reached a deal? Come to an agreement?
However, gathering 5 players who were always ranked first on every monthly leaderboard was no easy feat.
Before leaving the treasure map secret realm this time, Qi Xu specifically asked about it. Jinwen Xingmangyue originally had a "perfect winning streak," but someone sniped her top spot last month.
Cheese Foam Eight Percent Sugar was also short two times. Not to mention Xie Shaoning; during his most miserable period of constantly switching regions, he missed out on the monthly top spot several times.
Since Endless Longevity knew about this and was very interested, it proved she had likely always been number one. Qi Xu couldn't help but recall how she would frantically cough up blood just from speaking a few extra words...
And Shadowkill. If he couldn't participate, he definitely wouldn't be so enthusiastic about finding teammates to join him.
However, having just come out of a treasure map secret realm, and with the end of the month approaching, Qi Xu didn't really want to go straight back into another one. He was sick of them.
So he replied to Shadowkill: "Not free recently, it'll have to wait until next month. Have you gathered all 5 people yet?"
Shadowkill: "You finally replied to my message."
Seeing that it was such a meaningless remark, Qi Xu ignored him and casually replied to Endless Longevity: "You're welcome."
At this moment, Battle Wolf 009's miserable screams finally stopped, and Qi Xu hurried over.
Battle Wolf 009 lay pitifully on the ground, panting heavily. He was drenched in sweat from head to toe, and his limbs were still trembling.
Chinese Master Chef stood nearby, unsure whether to help him up or just fret. Eventually, he grabbed a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice, put a straw in it, and fed it to him sip by sip.
"How is it? Did you awaken successfully?"
Battle Wolf 009 nodded slightly in excitement; he couldn't manage any larger movements.
Qi Xu could tell from his expression that not only had he successfully awakened an ability, but it was likely quite an extraordinary one. Otherwise, he wouldn't be this thrilled after suffering such agonizing pain.
After resting for nearly 20 minutes, Battle Wolf 009 finally sat up and straightened his body. "Boss, awakening successful. The ability type is Copy. I can freely copy the ability of any Ability User.
Currently, it's at Level 1, so I can only copy it for 30 minutes, followed by a 10-minute cooldown. After 10 minutes, I can choose a new target to copy. I can only copy each Ability User once per day."
Qi Xu's eyes widened in astonishment. "Good heavens, that's overpowered!"
Battle Wolf 009 nodded. "Suddenly, all that pain feels worth it."
Qi Xu thought about it seriously. It was quite fitting for Battle Wolf 009 to awaken this skill. He was already a versatile fighter with no obvious weaknesses, and his personal combat power was very strong.
The team had gained another jack-of-all-trades player, which was a great thing. Qi Xu finally breathed a sigh of relief. He really didn't want a single one of these teammates who had been with him from the very beginning to fall behind.
"It's very powerful, but all skills have a proficiency issue. If you haven't used the copied ability before, you probably won't be able to maximize its effect, and it might not necessarily be the icing on the cake during a fight.
While we don't have much going on right now, you should prioritize picking a few skills to practice every day. That way, if you need to use them later, you'll be somewhat familiar with them. For example, my Crimson Strike, Sister Yuan's Domain, Little Song's Invisibility, and Egg Seven's Lightning Control."
Battle Wolf 009 nodded earnestly. The boss was the boss; he had immediately pointed out the biggest drawback of this skill.
Although there were many types of skills he could copy, how could a temporarily copied skill compare to the results of someone practicing day and night? This skill was practically tailor-made for a hardcore grinder.
