Qi Yan stepped out of his house, placed his hands on the ground, one leg bent forward in a lunge, the other stretched straight back, assuming a starting position.
Boom!
Qi Yan pushed off the ground with force, and his body instantly vanished.
At this moment, citizens leisurely strolling the streets of Magnolia Town after dinner suddenly felt a gust of wind sweep past them.
"Ah—!"
A young girl in a skirt suddenly had her skirt lifted by the wind, giving some onlookers an eyeful. The girl quickly pressed her skirt down with her hands.
"Hmm? Why is it windy?"
It was clearly a windless night, so why such a sudden, strong gust?
About a few dozen seconds passed.
Whoosh!
Qi Yan reappeared at his doorstep.
Whoosh—!
When Qi Yan suddenly stopped, a powerful gust of wind blew, causing stones on the ground to roll.
"Thirty-three seconds."
He didn't need a timer; he was like a machine himself, a stopwatch precise to several decimal places.
Qi Yan was so shocked by this number that he was speechless.
To adapt to the intensity of the transformation as quickly as possible, he diligently completed the basic training tasks assigned by the system every day.
Although these tasks offered no rewards, the ability to tangibly improve his physical fitness was the greatest reward.
The first time Qi Yan ran a lap around Magnolia Town, it took him about thirty minutes.
And now, he had only spent a little over thirty seconds.
The distance around Magnolia is approximately 10,000 meters.
He completed it in thirty-three seconds, meaning he ran roughly 300 meters per second.
"Three hundred meters per second!!"
Calculating this number, Qi Yan himself was startled; this was already close to exceeding the speed of sound.
He was indeed a monster; his speed was so fast that even Gojo Satoru's Six Eyes couldn't catch him.
Moreover, he felt that his current physical strength seemed to be restricting Fushiguro Toji's full potential; if he could unleash it completely, his speed could even surpass the speed of sound.
"Strong! Truly too strong!"
Qi Yan was extremely excited; this golden character was incredibly powerful. Mira was indeed his goddess of luck.
Qi Yan deactivated the Take Over state.
Just as he deactivated the Take Over state...
A sharp muscular pain radiated from all over his body.
"Ugh ah ah ah ah!!"
Qi Yan couldn't help but let out a painful howl.
It hurt! It really hurt so much!!
Qi Yan had never experienced such pain before; this muscle pain felt even worse than a broken bone.
"System! What exactly is going on?"
If he didn't understand, he would just ask the system.
"The host has pushed his physical abilities beyond their limits, and his own physical quality cannot keep up, which is why he is experiencing muscle pain."
"What?! There's a side effect like that?! Why didn't you say so earlier?!"
"The host didn't ask!"
"Actually, if the host simply perseveres with training and masters Sun Breathing, Full Concentration: Constant, the pain will greatly diminish."
So, it still hurts!
Seeing the system's response, Qi Yan gnashed his teeth in frustration, but at this moment, the pain had already left him no energy to complain.
He could only lie motionless in bed. Even a slight breeze would make him wince in pain, and he didn't dare to shout, because shouting made it hurt even more.
The night passed, and Qi Yan endured pain for the entire night. He had never felt a night so long.
It wasn't until the sun slowly rose and sunlight shone on him that he could barely move; at least his fingers could move a little.
Qi Yan opened the system panel.
Then, he selected the blue, green, and white character cards.
"Do you want to recycle these character cards?"
"Yes!"
"Recycling successful! Congratulations, your magic power has increased by ☆!"
A surge of magic power gushed from his magic source, nourishing his entire body. Immediately, he felt his body's pain significantly alleviate.
"System, what exactly is going on? This time I recycled so many character cards! How did I only get half a star of magic power increase?"
Magic power was the foundation of everything; only with stronger magic power could he better unleash the strength of the characters he took over.
"This is all based on an algorithm. The higher the magic power star level, the greater the consumption to upgrade!"
"It's always 'algorithm, algorithm.' What kind of algorithm is it exactly?"
"To upgrade from four-star magic power to five-star, 1000 magic power points are required!"
"Recycling white cards yields 10 points, green yields 20 points, blue yields 50 points, purple yields 800 points, and gold yields 3000 points."
Qi Yan's mouth twitched when he saw the prices; there really was an algorithm.
The value of purple and gold cards seemed the highest, but in Qi Yan's opinion, it was still too low.
Even 1000 or 10000 blue character cards couldn't compare to a single golden character card. Indeed, anything below blue was just an experience card.
He wouldn't be able to go to the guild today, and having completed some high-intensity missions these past few days, he was also a bit tired. It was a good time to rest well while his body recovered.
Just as Qi Yan lay down and was about to doze off, a noisy sound came from outside.
"Qi Yan!! Qi Yan!!"
Qi Yan groggily opened the door and saw many people standing at his doorstep.
They were all familiar faces: Natsu, Gray, Happy, Erza, Mira, Elfman, Levy, Laki... Qi Yan couldn't help but widen his eyes: "You... why are you all here?"
"We came to play with you!!"
Everyone said in unison.
Mira smiled and said, "You moved into a new house, didn't you? Everyone heard and came to celebrate your housewarming."
Qi Yan slapped his forehead: "My apologies! I've been so busy lately that I completely forgot about this. Welcome, welcome! I'll go buy groceries and cook right away."
Qi Yan remembered that he had also promised to treat Mira to a meal.
Erza said, "No need! We all brought things! Let's have a barbecue party here today!"
"Oh oh oh oh oh oh!!"
With that, everyone started getting busy: some started fires, some grilled meat, and others brought out their specialty dishes. The entire courtyard suddenly became lively.
Soon, everyone gathered around, eating meat, drinking, and chatting happily.
This scene made Qi Yan feel a little dazed, as if his home hadn't been this lively in a long time.
The party continued until midnight before everyone reluctantly left.
After everyone left, Qi Yan lay in bed, reflecting on the day's events.
"Guild… comrades…"
It was as if at this moment, he truly understood the meaning of a guild and comrades.
At this very moment, he felt that he had truly become a member of Fairy Tail.
"This feeling isn't bad!"
******
Time flies, years pass like shuttles.
Half a year passed in a flash.
Eastern Ishgar Continent
Oulali Kingdom
In a hidden building somewhere.
At this moment, thousands of people in black robes were gathered here, performing a mysterious ritual.
In the center of these people, a group of people were tied to wooden stakes, which stood upright on the ground. Below the stakes were piles of firewood.
There were hundreds of these people, men and women, all with their mouths gagged, their eyes filled with terror and despair as they looked at the surrounding crowd.
A masked man stepped forward: "From now on, we will perform the sacrificial ritual!!"
"These villagers are innocent. These three hundred pure lives will guide him to descend here!!"
"The great Black Mage Zeref!!!"
"Oh oh oh oh oh oh!!!"
All the black-robed figures shouted excitedly.
"For us to walk with him in this world, let the sacrifice begin—!!!"
Suddenly!!!
Boom—!!!
An explosion destroyed the main gate.
"What's going on?!"
A slightly frivolous male voice rang out:
"Ah ah~! You really made me search for a while!"
Soon, a young man with freckles, wearing an orange cowboy hat, and bare-chested walked in through the gate.
"Yo! Black Magic Cult bastards, good evening!"