147: Chapter 147 Delicious and I love to eat, I'll eat more later.

Gu Changming lunged toward that blurry figure.

As he reached out, the eternal furnace within his mental world quietly accelerated its operation.

The moment his fingertips were about to touch the other party, an extremely thin, special membrane silently coated his palm; "death" did not descend.

Instead, the blurry figure writhed violently the instant Gu Changming's fingertips touched its body.

Like a wax statue scorched by high heat, its edges began to melt and collapse, letting out a silent hiss.

Gu Changming didn't stop; instead, he spread his five fingers and then closed them again, as if trying to snatch the entity into his hand.

Under this action, the figure struggled even more intensely, while its form collapsed further.

After a bout of writhing, it transformed in Gu Changming's hand into a constantly twisting, deep-black mass of gas, roughly the size of a human head.

Gu Changming withdrew his hand, the black gas mass held firmly in his palm, still weakly twitching and rolling.

After glancing down at it, Gu Changming opened his mouth.

Without any hesitation, he brought the black gas mass to his lips and stuffed it into his mouth.

His throat bobbed as Gu Changming swallowed it into his body.

At the exact moment the "curse" was swallowed.

Inside Gu Changming's mental world, the speck of "flame" that had been steadily burning at the core of the quietly floating, slowly rotating eternal furnace was suddenly doused with a bucket of intense oil.

Boom!

The flames instantly surged!

The complex, profound patterns on the furnace walls lit up one by one, the flow of light accelerated, and the entire furnace emitted a low hum as its operational efficiency abruptly jumped several levels.

Streams of cool yet majestic Mental Power surged out from the furnace, pouring into Gu Changming's mental sea.

Gu Changming glanced at the mental attribute column on his status panel.

At this moment, the numerical value for his mental attribute was jumping at a speed visible to the naked eye.

361... 365... 370...

Looking at the leaping numbers, a hint of joy flashed in Gu Changming's eyes.

Not bad. It's delicious, I love it, and I'll eat more later.

This wasn't some Hidden Rule, but a real experience from his previous life.

In his previous life, he had also been lucky enough to be selected in the first batch, becoming a cursed Lucky One.

However, he soon discovered that after being cursed, the burning efficiency of the eternal furnace within him had improved significantly.

After some experimentation, he reached a conclusion: his eternal furnace Meditation Method seemed to strongly counter this Assessment content, specifically countering the blurry figure curse that stared at him.

curses were a form of energy and a form of emotion, and they were precisely one of the "fuels" required by the eternal furnace.

Subsequently, he tried to get closer, and the burning efficiency of the eternal furnace inside him grew even greater.

Back then, he had also harbored some suicidal thoughts, so he simply tried to reach out and grab the entity.

In the end, the result was very successful.

Just like now, he swallowed the entity into his body, converting it into nourishment for his mental world.

It could be said that in his previous life, the reason he was able to catch up after falling behind for so long was that the boost provided by this Assessment was particularly vital.

During this Assessment, his Mental Power level was directly elevated to the ranks of top-tier powerhouses in human civilization.

After swallowing the blurry figure, Gu Changming turned his head and looked toward the Xinhuo Stronghold.

The Xinhuo Stronghold was the gathering area with the most humans nearby; there were bound to be quite a few cursed people there.

If he wanted to properly utilize this Assessment content and "eat" his fill, he would have to make a trip over there.

This was also one of the reasons he chose to earn points in this secret realm near the Xinhuo Stronghold.

...

Unlike when Gu Changming had come before, the Xinhuo Stronghold had undergone earth-shaking changes.

Now that the strength levels of most human adventurers had risen, their ability to renovate the gathering camp had also increased significantly.

The current Xinhuo Stronghold occupied a vast area, similar to a small-to-medium-sized city of the past. The perimeter consisted of iron-gray metal walls dozens of meters high, with no excessive decoration, only necessary fortifications and lookout nodes.

The scene inside bore some resemblance to cities of the old era, though the buildings were dense, mostly consisting of apartment blocks ranging from three to seven stories.

And because the construction materials were various otherworldly materials purchased from the mall panel, the buildings possessed some peculiar styles.

Overall, the current Xinhuo Stronghold looked like a miniature social gathering area that humans had gradually developed after adapting to this new era.

...

South District of the Xinhuo Stronghold.

This was a relatively chaotic area within the Stronghold.

On a street where the sunlight was squeezed into a narrow sliver by the towering buildings on both sides.

Two men in deep gray uniforms walked side by side.

They both wore a silver-white badge on their chests. The specific meaning of the badge was unclear, but it represented their identity: Enforcers within the Stronghold.

Once the population in an area becomes large enough, certain social classes and orders automatically form.

And these two were currently the Enforcers maintaining order on the surface of the Xinhuo Stronghold.

Of course, this was just a title; most of the time, their reputation didn't count for much in this chaotic Stronghold.

The ones who truly had the final say in each district were still the "bosses" of those districts.

The two walked for a while.

The Tall and Thin Subordinate on the left couldn't help but speak up: "As soon as this damn Assessment started, never mind the usual troublemaking punks, everyone else has gone into hiding too, terrified of being touched by someone. Some are even running out of the Stronghold... where are we supposed to find anyone?"

Zhao Chenghan on the right gave an "mm" and then chimed in: "We still have to look, otherwise we can't report back to the higher-ups. If we really can't find anyone, then we'll just have to think of another way." He smiled.

They continued walking forward.

The Tall and Thin Subordinate seemed to remember something, turned his head, and asked curiously: "By the way, Zhao Chenghan, I remember your hometown was over in Hujiang City, right? Why did you run all the way here? Wasn't there a pretty big faction over there... what was it called again?"

"Tinder..." Zhao Chenghan picked up the thread.

"Right, Tinder." The Tall and Thin Subordinate clapped his hands and continued asking: "Why didn't you join them? They're said to have some kind of previous official background; wouldn't that be better than our place?"

Hearing this, Zhao Chenghan's eyes suddenly darkened.

The Tall and Thin Subordinate noticed the change in his expression, leaned in closer, and showed a mischievous smile: "Oho, looks like there's a story there."

Zhao Chenghan didn't immediately reply. His eyes flickered as a figure with a crow perched on his shoulder surfaced in his mind.

"It's not much of a story, I was just slandered by someone, so I didn't want to stay there anymore," Zhao Chenghan said in a tone that suggested he didn't want to elaborate.

"Oh?" The Tall and Thin Subordinate became even more interested. "Tell me about it."

Zhao Chenghan paused for a moment as if thinking, then said: "Back during the second Assessment, there was a guy who, in order to save his own life, tripped a young girl in the team and later framed me for it. You can probably guess what happened next; anyway, I left and ended up here..."

"There are all sorts of people these days, don't overthink it," the Tall and Thin Subordinate patted his shoulder in comfort.

Zhao Chenghan nodded. "True, but I still get a bit angry thinking about it."

The Tall and Thin Subordinate smiled. "Then if he's still alive and you run into him again, what will you do?"

Zhao Chenghan's eyes flashed, and Gu Changming's final words echoed in his ears once more: "Are you just going to let him go like that? Not kill him?"

"Then of course I'd take my revenge and kill him," Zhao Chenghan replied.

"Haha." After speaking, the two looked at each other and both burst out laughing.