118: Chapter 118 Level 3 Authority

When thinking about combat skills, Cao Xiao felt something was off. It wasn't that there was a problem with their combat skills, but he suddenly realized that Duan Hong and the others hadn't even moved. How could the Detection Function have checked their combat skills? Physical attributes could still be explained—it was nothing more than observing muscle and bone structure or cell intensity and activity to infer strength, agility, and stamina. Modern technology could do that too, just not as precisely.

To know combat skills, an evaluation can only be made when someone is using them. Mostly, professional people are needed to judge based on their own experience, or big data is used for analysis, but even then, the results wouldn't be particularly accurate.

So, in this situation, there was only one possibility: the Detection Function could directly link to a person's brainwaves and read the memory information stored in their mind. In the future, as long as he gave the command to read someone's memories, no one would have any secrets before him, whether in body or heart.

This ability didn't make him happy; instead, it made his skin crawl and sent a shiver down his spine. This was a taboo power. No one could accept having their inner world browsed at will; if discovered, it would lead to a fight to the death. He also had no interest in prying into others' secrets. It wasn't about morality or law, but rather knowing that knowing too much isn't necessarily a good thing. It's rare to be blissfully ignorant in life; the more one understands the world, the more one doubts the meaning of life. Once one sees through the mortal world, the heart becomes like stagnant water, making it hard to experience the joy of living again.

Otherwise, this ability, akin to mind-reading, alone could have made him highly successful, becoming a prophet-like psychological expert, a detective who solves cases like a god, or someone who uses others' private secrets to control them or blackmail them for wealth. Although this ability could let him gain without effort and do as he pleased, it would also cause him to lose himself and fall into depravity.

Shaking his head, he put these strange thoughts behind him. Cao Xiao didn't talk much, and Duan Hong and the others were also men of few words. The several-hour flight was very tedious, so he simply closed his eyes and began to sleep. It was already midnight when they arrived in Cape Town, and the night passed without incident.

The next day, Cao Xiao woke up early to practice boxing and had Wu Feng take some men to receive the yacht. He told them to stock up on supplies, fuel, and fishing gear, as they would go sea fishing tomorrow. The yacht was fully staffed, so he didn't need to recruit anyone. He planned to return to China in a few days once Dapu finalized the oil field matters. Keeping the yacht in Cape Town was useless, and he didn't plan to take it back to China, as it would take too much time—at least twenty days from Cape Town to Qionghai Province. So, he had to have people sail it back early and dock it in Hong Kong; it would be convenient for future sea trips. If time weren't so tight, he would have even changed the ship's registration number and sent it to a shipyard for a new Huaxia-style paint job and name; the name "Star of Cape Town" really wasn't that great.

After dinner, with nothing to do and thinking about returning home soon, he thought about bringing some South African specialties back for his family and friends. For many, the first impression of South Africa is gold and diamonds, but there is actually another thing known alongside them as the "Three Treasures of South Africa." That is rooibos tea. rooibos tea, also known as Doctor's Tea, is currently the most fashionable herbal drink, sold in over fifty countries and regions. Besides that, South Africa has other very famous specialties like ostrich eggs, fruit juice, red wine, indigenous crafts, African wood carvings, and abalone.

Although the name rooibos tea contains the word "tea," it is not "tea" in the ordinary sense. Its literal meaning is "red bush," referring to the color of the plant after it is dried or fermented. The growing conditions for this tea tree are extremely harsh; the trees can only be harvested after three years of growth. The entire cultivation process strictly prohibits the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and the harvest period is only three to four years. During processing, no additives, preservatives, or colorings can be used. Only about ten thousand tons of tea are produced annually, of which 6,500 tons of premium grade tea are for export.

rooibos tea is rich in minerals such as copper, iron, zinc, fluorine, potassium, manganese, and magnesium. Long-term consumption helps alleviate and treat insomnia, irritability, headaches, constipation, nervous tension, joint pain, stomach pain, fatty liver, and high blood pressure. For pregnant women and infants, besides supplementing trace elements, it can also prevent and reduce symptoms like allergies, anorexia, vomiting, and susceptibility to colds. Since it contains no caffeine or oxalic acid, it is an excellent drink for those prone to kidney stones. The antioxidants it contains help delay aging and enhance the immune system. Some authoritative experts even say, "If you start drinking Doctor's Tea at thirty, you won't need a facelift for the rest of your life!"

rooibos tea is not expensive; in Huaxia, a 50-gram box costs less than 40 huaxia currency. It's even cheaper at the source, and one can buy authentic, high-quality premium goods. Wanting only the best, Cao Xiao found the manufacturer's contact information online and directly placed an order for one ton of the finest gift-boxed rooibos tea, which cost less than two million rand.

South Africa is one of the world's six major grape-growing regions, with its wine production accounting for 3% of the world's total, making it the ninth-largest wine producer. While South African red wines are not as famous as the long-established wines of Europe, their flavor is unique, the quality is excellent, and the price is not high. He ordered a batch of famous South African wines like Constantia, Darling, Durbanville Valley, and Klein Karoo, which would be good for gifts or for personal tasting.

He also ordered a batch of the freshest ostrich eggs and had the merchant deliver them immediately. He also bought some packaged local specialty fruit juices. As for abalone, he didn't plan to buy any. The waters around the Cape of Good Hope are rich in seafood like abalone and lobster. He could catch some fresh ones himself when they went out to sea tomorrow. After the industrial mother machine's authority upgrade, the detection range would reach at least one thousand meters. In shallow waters, he could easily collect items from the seabed; catching seafood would be no problem.

After lunch, Cao Xiao took Ren Keyong's family to the largest craft market in Cape Town. He bought some high-end African wood carvings and indigenous crafts. After finishing his shopping, he was ready to head back, but as they passed a shop, a man in his thirties wearing a suit was at the door using the Huaxia language to invite them in to take a look.

Cao Xiao looked up at the shop's name and frowned. The sign had the name written in both English and Huaxia: "Teps Wildlife Craft Shop." Seeing the term "wildlife," Cao Xiao could imagine what kind of goods were being sold inside. South Africa has very comprehensive and strict wildlife protection laws. One cannot mistreat animals in public; otherwise, they will be sentenced, and the prison term is not short. Slaughtering animals must be done at designated locations with a license. Even if you raise a pig at home, you aren't allowed to slaughter it yourself; it must be sent to a designated slaughterhouse. After slaughtering, it cannot be sold directly but must be frozen first. Selling and harvesting marine animals requires a permit, and fishing is only allowed in certain non-restricted waters, with quantity limits. To South Africans, animals are their good friends, and friends must be treated like family. It is precisely because of South Africans' friendly attitude toward animals and strict protection laws that South Africa has become the country with the best wildlife protection in the world.

Yet this shop was selling crafts made from wildlife fur, horns, and bones, and it was a Huaxia person soliciting customers, which truly surprised him. One should know that in South Africa, crafts made from materials of certain animals are not allowed to be traded, especially African ivory and rhino horn, which are explicitly banned by the United Nations. If he entered the shop to buy and was caught, he would be sentenced. With doubts in his heart, he stood still, afraid of accidentally falling into a trap.

He checked the situation inside the shop from the outside. The shop was filled with many crafts made from animal materials: chopsticks, seals, chess sets, bracelets, necklaces, carvings, pen holders, cigarette holders, and more—a dazzling array. There were also raw items like zebra skins, antelope horns, rhino horns, ivory, crocodile skins, and python skins. The prices were even more outrageously high, often costing thousands or tens of thousands of us dollars.

Originally, he thought this shop was opened by a Huaxia person, but he didn't expect the boss to be white. As for hiring a Huaxia person to solicit customers, the intent was truly malicious. People would pay high prices for items and get arrested and sentenced for it; this was treating Huaxia tourists as suckers. If he hadn't understood South African law, he might have become one of them, and likely the biggest one.

Thinking of this, Cao Xiao's expression soured. He started walking forward, but secretly, he emptied the shop's warehouse. He even sabotaged the shop's surveillance and collected some high-value crafts from the display cases that were in the staff's blind spots. He wasn't worried about being discovered; even if the boss found a large amount of goods had mysteriously vanished, he wouldn't dare call the police. Although it's said that without trade there is no killing, Cao Xiao hadn't spent money to buy them. The boss not only failed to make money but also lost a large amount of goods and capital. His criminal capital was reduced, which in a way could be seen as indirectly protecting animals. That's how Cao Xiao saw it—he was doing a good deed with a clear conscience. The crafts and raw materials he collected wouldn't be sold or given as gifts, so they wouldn't circulate in the market.

Back at the villa with nothing to do, he spent time drinking tea and chatting with Ren Keyong's family in the living room. Before he knew it, evening had arrived. Cao Xiao didn't rest early. He went back to his bedroom, locked the door, and lay on the bed, but his mind was focused on the virtual panel of the industrial mother machine's personal options, silently waiting for the authority upgrade to complete. When the clock's hour hand pointed exactly to twelve, the information on the personal panel finally changed.

Administrator: Cao Xiao

Current Authority: Level Three

Personal Combat Power: 11 (Stamina 8, Strength 9, Agility 7. The comprehensive average of the three plus 3 for combat skills.)

personal space: 100*100*100 = 1,000,000 cubic meters

Technological Knowledge: Primary High-tier Technological Civilization

Operating System: 49th Generation Intelligence

With the current authority upgraded to level three, personal combat power and technological knowledge hadn't changed. Only the personal space had grown a thousand times larger. It wasn't the five-fold side length change pattern he had guessed; it had directly become ten times the side length of level two authority. Moreover, the subsequent text "Living objects cannot be stored" had also disappeared. He wondered if this meant he could put living creatures inside without them being obliterated. Verifying this was simple: he just had to try collecting a living being. Previously, when living things couldn't be stored, they couldn't be collected at all, not even a single ant.

With a thought, he intended to use the Detection Function to find some small creatures in the nearby seawater. But when the Detection Function expanded, he was dumbfounded. He clicked on the detection panel in disbelief. Only after seeing the four zeros following the detection radius did he confirm his eyes weren't playing tricks on him. The detection radius hadn't expanded tenfold to one thousand meters as he had imagined; it had expanded a hundredfold, becoming ten thousand meters. What does ten thousand meters mean? Ten thousand meters equals ten kilometers. A world track and field champion would have to run at full speed for twenty-six minutes to cover it. The world's highest peak, Mount Everest, is 8,844 meters high. The deepest point of the world's deepest trench, the Mariana Trench, is 11,042 meters. The maximum flight altitude of a standard civil airliner does not exceed 12,600 meters. A detection radius of ten thousand meters covers an area of 314.6 million square meters, or 314.6 square kilometers, which is slightly larger than the land area of the Maldives excluding its territorial waters, and equivalent to the urban area of the developed Huaxia city, Hangcheng.

The changes from this upgrade to level three authority far exceeded his estimates. The ten-thousand-meter detection radius alone was a pleasant surprise. Since the detection range had increased a hundredfold, the side lengths of the five spaces—collection, processing, manufacturing, scientific research, and energy—had all increased a hundredfold, reaching ten thousand meters. Their volumes had all become one trillion cubic meters, or one thousand cubic kilometers. Such a massive volume could already hold some smaller asteroids or even a large mountain. If used to store minerals, he could probably pack up and take all the ore from the Rand Basin he visited yesterday. The world's largest oil field could be drained of all its oil in one go. But where on Earth would there be so much mineral and oil for him to mine! Such a large volume was enough for him to do whatever he wanted, not to mention the other spaces were just as big.

He directly collected a mass of seawater containing seaweed and small fish from the bottom of the nearby sea and put it into his personal space. He also collected some small insects and animals from nearby. There was no air in the space, so he collected some air from the distance and bound it together to envelop these small creatures. Five minutes passed, and these creatures were not mysteriously obliterated. Aside from being panicked, their bodies showed no changes, and they were still lively. To him, this was the greatest benefit brought by the authority upgrade. It meant that if he encountered danger, he could also hide inside the space, and the industrial mother machine's main body would disappear with him. This was a true sanctuary. Since living beings could be put in, he could transform the space into an ecosystem, constructing a natural environment where people could live. As the space continued to grow in the future, he could achieve self-sufficiency and no longer rely on external supplies. Even if the Earth were destroyed or the Sun exploded, it wouldn't affect the survival and reproduction of people within the space.