“Xiao Lei, how do you feel after absorbing that crystal core?”

Since there were only Duan Xue, Duan Lei, and himself in the room, Li Chenzhou simply asked directly.

“Boss! I feel great!”

Hearing Li Chenzhou’s words, Duan Lei immediately became excited, looking at Li Chenzhou with red eyes and saying:

“After absorbing that crystal core, my body has been strengthened, and I’ve gained two skills and a talent!”

“What?”

Li Chenzhou was shocked, staring blankly at Duan Lei.

Crystal cores do have a chance of giving both skills and talents simultaneously, but that probability has always been legendary. At least, Li Chenzhou had never heard of anyone getting both a skill and a talent at once in his previous life, especially when absorbing the first mutated crystal core.

Especially… two skills? Each evolver can only have one skill and one talent. What's going on with Duan Lei?

“You… tell me in detail!”

Li Chenzhou was so shocked by Duan Lei's words that he stammered a bit. As for Duan Lei himself and Duan Xue, because they didn't know how difficult it was to obtain skills and talents, they didn't have the same feeling as Li Chenzhou.

“My strengthening direction is mainly mental power. Although strength, agility, and endurance have also been strengthened, I can feel that the degree to which other attributes are strengthened is far worse than mental power!”

Duan Lei said. Because there was no Killing System, his physical attributes were not datafied, including other strengtheners and evolvers in this world, and even Li Chenzhou in his previous life.

“I have a feeling now that my mental attributes have reached some kind of… bottleneck, just like what’s described in martial arts novels. Unless I make some breakthrough, it's impossible to continue improving.”

Duan Lei carefully considered his words as he spoke in detail. Li Chenzhou nodded secretly. This feeling was actually that the attributes had reached the upper limit of the current level. Anyone who could reach this level would have this feeling.

“As for skills, my skill is Mental Control. It has two ways to use it. One is to directly control people or other creatures, making them act completely according to my will.”

Because his loyalty had reached one hundred, Duan Lei had no reservations:

“However, this method consumes a lot of mental power. Although I haven't specifically tried it, according to my prediction, I can only maintain this control for about ten minutes at most, and that's still against someone one level lower than me.

If it’s a creature of the same level as me, then I can only control it for three minutes at most. If it’s one level higher than me, then it might only be a few seconds. Moreover, this control can only target a single entity. After the skill失效 (shixiao, fails), the target will remember everything it did while being controlled.”

Looking at the helplessness on Duan Lei's face when he said "only a few seconds," Li Chenzhou almost slapped him.

What do you mean "only" a few seconds? Controlling someone above your level! In battle, even if this absolute control only lasts for one second, or even a fraction of a second, it’s enough to change the outcome of the battle.

Li Chenzhou had never heard of such an ability in his previous life. The only skill similar to this one was Mental Deterrence. Mental Deterrence can only make the target sluggish, unable to control its actions, and cannot be used against targets with a higher level than oneself, and it can only last for a maximum of three seconds.

But even so, Mental Deterrence has already been listed as one of the three great skills. Duan Lei's skill can be said to completely crush Mental Deterrence.

“Then… what about the second skill?”

Looking at Duan Lei, who had a hint of regret on his face, Li Chenzhou suppressed the urge in his heart and asked through gritted teeth.

“The second skill is Enemy/Ally Perception. I can use mental power to detect a target, and then I can know whether it harbors hostility or goodwill towards me!”

Duan Lei immediately replied:

“If it’s hostility or malice, the other person will appear red in my eyes. The darker the color, the deeper the hostility. Conversely, it’s green. If there’s no color, it means neutral. However, this detection also has its flaws. The target will feel a burst of dizziness the moment I use my mental power.”

“Dizziness. Will the other person know that you caused it?”

Li Chenzhou frowned. This ability to detect enemies and allies was quite useful, even though it was an auxiliary ability, so he wanted to confirm it.

“Probably not!”

Duan Lei shook his head:

“Unless the other person's mental power is much higher than mine.”

“Try detecting me!”

Li Chenzhou said immediately.

“Okay!”

Duan Lei immediately used mental detection on Li Chenzhou. Li Chenzhou indeed felt a momentary dizziness in his brain, but it was only a very short moment, maybe only 0.01 seconds.

Moreover, Li Chenzhou paid attention to it and found that he just felt dizzy. If he didn't know in advance, he wouldn't be able to detect where this dizziness came from, just like Li Yunshan before.

“Hahahaha! I knew the boss was really good to us!”

At this time, Duan Lei also laughed happily. Although he had the detection skill, he didn't dare to secretly use it on Li Chenzhou. Now that Li Chenzhou took the initiative to ask, he could naturally know Li Chenzhou's attitude towards him.

“Sis, the boss is green, and the color is quite deep, emerald green, like jade!”

Duan Lei pointed at Li Chenzhou's head excitedly and said to Duan Xue. Hearing his words, Li Chenzhou had a black line on his face, finally unable to bear it, and slapped him on the bed:

“What the hell do you mean ‘emerald green’? I’m not even married yet, how can I be green?”

“Pfft!”

Although it was just the beginning of the apocalypse, Duan Lei’s legs had recovered and he had gained seemingly powerful abilities, so Duan Xue was quite happy now. After hearing Li Chenzhou's words, she immediately realized what he meant, and couldn't help but laugh out loud.

“No, boss, you really are green…”

Duan Lei was a little confused, raised his head and argued with a look of grievance. But before he could finish speaking, Duan Xue pounced on him and pressed his head into the pillow.

There was no need for Duan Lei's detection skills. Now, even Duan Xue could see that Li Chenzhou's face had turned green. If Duan Lei said a few more words, it was estimated that Li Chenzhou would turn red and want to kill Duan Lei!

“Okay! Let him get up! There’s still a talent he hasn’t talked about yet!”

Looking at Duan Lei being pressed on the bed, Li Chenzhou said helplessly to Duan Xue:

“Hmph! It’s a good thing his legs were broken before. Otherwise, with the way he talks, he would be beaten to death outside in less than two days!”

“Boss, I’m sorry, I didn’t…”

Duan Lei finally realized where he was wrong at this time, and said awkwardly. Then he realized that something was wrong, so he quickly changed the subject:

“That what, my talent is pretty powerful. It’s a range-based, group attack type called Shattered Soul. When activated, it launches a soul冲击 (chongji, impact) with mental power on all targets within a ten-meter radius of myself. The light ones will have confused consciousness, and the heavy ones will die directly. The effect is determined by the difference between my and the target's mental value.”

“Regardless of friend or foe?”

Li Chenzhou took a deep breath. This talent was even more powerful than his own Mist of War, except… all targets? That's a bit of a pain…