"Commander, you got knocked around? You good?"


    At the swanky Vi No. 1, Lisa caught sight of Ethan bouncing back home, all pumped up, and couldn''t help but get a bit jittery.


    Ethan was all smiles, "What do you take me for? So what if I''m out of a house and pocket money? Do I look like the kind of dude who just throws in the towel when things get tough?"


    Lisa pondered for a long while before hesitantly replying, "No."


    "..."


    Done with the sad talk, Ethanmanded, "Hit up No. 104, tell Andrew to meet me in two hours."


    Then he hustled back to his room.


    Ethan knew, with ckwood gone, his only backup was the psychic powers family simtor, his golden ticket!


    Right then, Ethan was all in.


    On hisputer, ckwood''s development was booming, the vigers were gearing up, even spawning a couple of Psychics, and a twenty-man soldier squad formed by the vigers was patrolling the vige.


    "ckwood Year 19, the refugees sheltered by ckwood have formed a sizable vige named Gratitude Vige. The vigers are protected by ckwood and worship it."


    "Spiritual Tribute +200!"


    "What the heck? I was gone just for a bit, and it''s alreadye this far?"


    Ethan was thrilled, silently praising his past decisions.


    Soon.


    The game scene shifted—


    "ckwood Year 20, your descendants have prepared the altar tomence the second of the grand decennial ceremonies!"


    "Your descendants have prepared a Tribute Offering for you—"


    "Fifty Tier-One Beast Blood Fruits!"


    "One male and one female Hundred-Mile Pigeon chicks!"


    "Detection: Hundred-Mile Pigeon chicks are live creatures. Would you like to spend 10 Spiritual Tribute points to retrieve them?"


    "Knew it could be done!"


    Ethan''s eyes lit up.


    These Tribute Offerings, all conveyed through the temple guardian beast, were sent by the people of ckwood.


    Though his real-world family had bolted, Ethan was hardly flustered, because these offerings could still bring him massive benefits, giving him a shot at turning things around!


    "Retrieve!"


    Soon, fifty beast blood fruits appeared next to the Mystic Burner on his desk.


    The fruits were vividly colored, their bloody scent hitting his nose.


    Ethan''s face lit up with joy.


    "Tier-One Beast Blood Fruit"


    "Cultivated with blood and the essence of psychic powers from nature, each fruit contains 50 psychic points, with a human absorption rate of 80%!"


    Awesome fruit!


    Ethan couldn''t help but grin, the psychic powers simtor was smarter than he''d imagined.


    In the game world, psychic abilities weren''t quantified.


    But in the real world, with the help of technology, the psychic energy absorbed during psychic cultivation was quantified. A Psychic at the Foundational Energy level only needed 100 psychic points to break through!


    And each additional level only required 10% more psychic energy.


    The worse the aptitude, the slower the absorption rate of natural psychic energy, but such fruits could directly store psychic energy for gradual digestion.


    Ethan could hardly imagine how much the rich kids would scramble for such divine fruits.


    Then came the Hundred-Mile Pigeons!


    "Chirp chirp..."


    Two chicks in the nest, eyes not yet open, chirping away. Normally, suchmon psychic beast chicks wouldn''t be worth mentioning.


    But...


    For the present world, these two Hundred-Mile Pigeons were a brand-new species!


    Just take them to a psychic beast schr, and those freaky scientists lurking in the field would probably break their necks trying to get these little guys, maybe even award Ethan with a ''Psychic Beast Discovery Award''.


    But Ethan had no ns to handle these little ones that way.


    "Stuff''s already here, looks like I won''t have to mooch meals for a while."


    Ethan breathed a sigh of relief.


    So there Ethan was, chilling with a beast blood fruit in hand, when bam! A pop-up appeared on hisputer screen.


    "wanna speed up absorbing this beast blood fruit''s powers? It''ll cost ya 1 Spiritual Tribute point per pop."


    Ethan was like, "Dude, what the heck?!"


    His jaw dropped. Speedy absorption? That''s a thing now?


    Absorbing the essence of these fruits into his system was no joke, usually a tough gig.


    In a sh, Ethan realized how wild this feature was!


    With enough Spiritual Tribute points and a stash of these fruits, he could skyrocket his psychic powers in a snap!


    But he held back, clicking ''No''.


    "This little power boost? Ain''t enough to fill a tooth gap."


    He shrugged it off.


    ncing back at the game screen.


    "Tribute Offering delivered, wanna bless your descendants with a Divine Gift?"


    Ethan jumped up, clearing stuff around him.


    He peeped at the mystical spear in his Storage Ring, unsealed by Granny Quinn, now shining bright.


    But that wasn''t all.


    There was something else in there, a big no-no for regr Psychics in this world!


    After a long chat with Granny Quinn, she agreed to gift it to him in a moment of joy, though things got a bit sourter. But a promise was a promise, and she delivered!


    "Teleport."


    With a click of his mouse, suddenly, a massive object thundered into the room!


    "Delivering your Forebearer''s Divine Gift—"


    "War AI Bionic Robot..."