As it turns out, when you run into someone who’s a bit of an idiot, their attempt to comfort you only makes it sting more.

Whether you don’t have a dick or you’ve got big boobs, neither is a good thing.

Fang Chang gritted her teeth. “Then can I change back?”

“The Shadow-Devouring Lord named you. Unless you can reach his level, there’s no way to undo his naming.” Li Zirong paused. “By the way, the Shadow-Devouring Lord is a god from another world. To him, you’re just an ant.”

Then, to make sure Fang Chang gave up hope completely, she pointed at herself. “I’m an ant too.”

Fang Chang was despairing. She’d only just transmigrated, entered another world, and become a player, and now this had happened.

The Shadow-Devouring Lord wasn’t her enemy, but he was her target.

“So unless I become a god, I can’t escape his influence?”

Li Zirong nodded. “Still, it’s not like there’s absolutely nothing you can do.”

“Huh?” Fang Chang immediately perked up and looked at Li Zirong expectantly. “What can I do?”

Li Zirong gestured with her mechanical fingers. “There’s no way to reverse your sex at its source. Under the will of the universe, even if you sculpted hundreds or thousands of dicks onto your body, they’d all be erased. But you can work within the rules, adapt to them, and create a walking avatar.”

Fang Chang didn’t understand what she meant and stared back in confusion. “A walking avatar? What’s that? How do I make one?”

“It’s an ability you have, one that comes with your Zombie Mother Nest mutant physique,” Li Zirong replied. “A Zombie Mother Nest is a special life-form with one soul and two bodies: an outer walking avatar and an inner true body. The walking avatar can reshape itself to a limited extent, taking on whatever form it wants. The true body stays hidden inside a spatial bubble. To fully manifest in the Present World, it needs to descend through the walking avatar as its medium. You can use this as a template and create the male body you originally had, while keeping your true body hidden. That won’t violate the will of the universe, because you’ll completely fit the attributes you described.”

Fang Chang thought it over for a moment, then finally understood. “You mean I make a substitute with a dick, then use him to go wild wherever I want?”

Li Zirong nodded. “But your power will drop sharply. The substitute is more like a projection, and a Shadow can’t do much. On top of that, your walking avatar won’t be able to use the weapon I specially made for you, so it’ll be even weaker.”

Fang Chang waved her little hand, unconcerned. “I don’t care if my combat power gets weaker. I just need a dick. And even if the walking avatar dies, that won’t affect my life, right?”

Li Zirong assured her, “It won’t affect you at all. That innate ability of the Zombie Mother Nest exists to protect its true body. It has a huge body but no matching combat ability. Its bulk even makes it hard to move. It’s almost like a plant, taking root wherever it lands. That’s why it evolved this spatial ability—to improve its chances of survival.”

Hearing there was a way to have a dick, at least temporarily, Fang Chang was overjoyed. She hurried over to Li Zirong and clung to her arm. The feeling of her chest pressing into something was strange, but at a crucial moment, she couldn’t afford to care. “Hurry up and teach me, Senior! I’m a man! I need a dick!”

Li Zirong felt a softness from that body part unlike anything she’d ever felt before. Thinking of her own body, she suppressed the urge to kick Fang Chang away, calmly slipped her arm free, and shook her head. “This is your innate ability. There’s nothing I can teach you.”

Fang Chang’s face stiffened. “So there’s really nothing I can do?”

Li Zirong gave a light cough, and seemed to take on a certain air as she spoke earnestly. “I can offer you suggestions, but I’m not all-knowing or all-powerful. You can’t expect me to handle everything for you. Besides, we’re both players. Our meeting this time was a coincidence, and we might never meet again. Independent thinking is important for a player. You have to learn how to do it, because you’ll have to face the worlds ahead on your own.”

Fang Chang felt a little down, but Li Zirong was right. She still had a long road ahead, and she couldn’t rely on other people for everything. She’d been incredibly lucky to get modified this time; she couldn’t expect to stay that lucky forever.

“Okay! I’ll try to learn, Senior.”

Li Zirong smiled with understanding, like a tireless teacher watching a naive student take one step at a time toward the halls of knowledge.

“Knowledge is power. If you want to learn more, you have to keep building on what you know. Experiments are an excellent way to do that.”

Fang Chang nodded and committed those words to memory. She wanted to be as powerful as Li Zirong—not only growing stronger herself, but also strengthening others.

Li Zirong continued, “And right now, you have a chance to build your knowledge.”

“What chance?”

“Do you remember the task I mentioned earlier?”

“The Corpse-Bloom?”

“That’s right. The Corpse-Bloom grows on the head of the Zombie Mother Nest. It’s one of its reproductive organs, and I want to pick it as research material. You can use it to study how it changes. It’s an excellent specimen to learn from.”

Fang Chang hesitated. From what Li Zirong had said, did this mean she’d have to make her official debut in a female body?

Seeing her hesitation, Li Zirong bombarded her with one reason after another. “Don’t forget, you promised to help me complete my task. And observing the Zombie Mother Nest will benefit you in all sorts of ways. It’ll help you quickly master some of your own power and speed up the creation of your walking avatar. Take a good look at the time. How long do you have before you return?”

At that, Fang Chang opened her status panel. The timer showed she had only one day left. Li Zirong’s modifications had taken so long! Fang Chang had been unconscious most of the time and had barely known what was going on.

The pressure of time began to close in around her. If she didn’t sort out the walking avatar soon, she’d have to return to the Present World in a female body. How was she supposed to explain that?

“Got it. There’s no time to waste—let’s get moving!”