Cat Girl hoped Li Ban could take her up there.
But where exactly was "up there"?
At first, Li Ban thought Cat Girl had also figured out that the Wizard World was a virtual reality, and that she wanted to go to the Laboratory.
But after thinking about it carefully, he realized that was impossible.
When she spoke of him "coming down from above" and asked him to "take her up there," she didn't sound like she was referring to the world where the Laboratory was located.
Therefore, Cat Girl was still referring to the special region corresponding to the identity of a Wizard.
Li Ban had no idea where Wizards were located, but he could tell it definitely wasn't a place ordinary people could enter. He couldn't give Cat Girl any promises.
Nor did he have any intention of taking advantage of her misunderstanding to use her.
Although Cat Girl had her own motives every time she helped him, their cooperation had gone smoothly so far. Li Ban wanted to maintain this good working relationship.
"I can't help you right now," Li Ban told Cat Girl directly. "I can barely protect myself at the moment, and I don't even know where I'll end up in the future."
Cat Girl shook her head gently, her veil swaying to reveal a slight smile on her face.
"It doesn't matter. No one who steps up to a gambling table is guaranteed to win. I bet on you before, and I'm betting on you now."
Li Ban closed his eyes briefly, hiding his inner conflict.
Cat Girl was betting on him because she believed he was a Wizard.
But right now, he was just an undercover agent from another world.
A "character" who might never return once his mission was complete.
Actually, if the Wizard World could continue running like this forever, who was to say it couldn't be called a real world?
It was just like Li Ban's original world, which had so many unsolved mysteries and unexplainable bizarre phenomena.
If a higher civilization suddenly came along and declared that his original world was also a virtual simulation made up of base data and operating rules, would he consider the virtual world meaningless because of it?
Some were carbon-based lifeforms, while others were digital lifeforms. But as long as their minds were independent, who could deny the meaning of their lives?
The longer Li Ban lived in the Wizard World, the more he could feel the vitality of everyone here.
Everyone had a past, their own thoughts, and their own desires.
Even if this was a virtual world, it was a world where AI was already equivalent to a human brain.
He could no longer treat the people here as simple aggregations of data.
Li Ban slowly opened his eyes. Not knowing how else to respond to Cat Girl, he could only say, "If I get the chance to go up there, I will definitely help you. But it's highly likely that I'll just grow old here, or even die an unnatural death."
Cat Girl smiled, not forcing Li Ban to make any other promises.
Li Ban pursed his lips. "Do you know where I can get Spiritual Rhinoceros Fruit?"
"You need a large amount of spiritual rhinoceros?"
Li Ban nodded. "If possible, I'd like to buy some. As you know, I'm... a bit different from other Spirit Practitioners. It's not convenient for me to go into the details."
"Understood." Cat Girl didn't press the issue. In her eyes, it was only normal for anomalies to appear on Li Ban. "Given your current strength, you must have already used a Spiritual Rhinoceros Fruit, but the person who gave it to you never explained its origin. A Spiritual Rhinoceros Fruit isn't actually a naturally growing fruit. It only grows inside the bodies of Spirit Practitioners."
"You mean... from their corpses?"
"No, from living Spirit Practitioners. Heh, did you think it was a fruit planted on dead bodies?" Cat Girl chuckled, her shoulders shaking slightly. "It is the pure, condensed spiritual rhinoceros formed when a Spirit Practitioner already at full spiritual rhinoceros capacity continues to absorb it, yet can no longer take it in."
"When a Spirit Practitioner extracts it into the outside world, a thin membrane forms on its surface, making it look like a fruit. That's why it's called a Spiritual Rhinoceros Fruit."
"Because it is made of condensed spiritual rhinoceros, the speed of absorbing a Spiritual Rhinoceros Fruit is three to five times faster than absorbing spiritual rhinoceros from the air."
Li Ban sighed in amazement. "So it's basically a 'savings account.' But if someone could store up a few extra Spiritual Rhinoceros Fruits, wouldn't they be able to rapidly boost their strength and reach full spiritual rhinoceros capacity right after advancing?"
Cat Girl, however, shook her head. "Condensing a Spiritual Rhinoceros Fruit is extremely difficult. Spirit Practitioners below the 5th Tier are completely unable to control the excess spiritual rhinoceros; it naturally dissipates from their bodies. And when a 5th Tier Spirit Practitioner is condensing a Spiritual Rhinoceros Fruit, they can barely use their abilities at all. Otherwise, the Spiritual Rhinoceros Fruit will break and the spiritual rhinoceros will scatter."
"You'll almost never see Spiritual Rhinoceros Fruits on the market, and even if they do appear, they are incredibly expensive. Unless someone is truly desperate to raise their identity and needs to reach full spiritual rhinoceros capacity as quickly as possible, no one would spend that much money to buy one."
"But if you want to advance to a Copper Badge as quickly as possible, you really do need to reach full spiritual rhinoceros capacity soon. After all, a Copper Badge is a 3rd Tier identity."
Li Ban nodded in understanding. It seemed he would have to abandon the idea of buying Spiritual Rhinoceros Fruits on the market.
With his current financial resources, he probably couldn't even afford half of one.
Cat Girl urged him, "If you really want Spiritual Rhinoceros Fruits, just ask the person backing you. After all, he's the one who's truly in a hurry, not you."
Cat Girl didn't know that Zhai Liu could, at most, provide Li Ban with Spiritual Rhinoceros Fruits to reach full spiritual rhinoceros capacity in two elements; he couldn't possibly provide him with Spiritual Rhinoceros Fruits to reach full spiritual rhinoceros capacity in all five elements.
Still, Li Ban acknowledged her advice. "I will."
"Do you have anything else to ask?" Cat Girl tilted her head. "I'll be leaving Yu Province for a while soon. I probably won't be back for about a month."
"Not for now—have you received a mission too?"
"I have. I am a Gold Badge, after all."
Li Ban was about to ask if it would be dangerous, but then he realized—how could a Gold Badge assassin's mission possibly not be dangerous?
"Take care."
Cat Girl smiled without a word, waved at Li Ban, and turned around, vanishing into the depths of the alley.
After Cat Girl left, Li Ban exited the alley. He waited until nightfall, changed into dark clothes, and entered the Black Market once again.
Now that he had saved up some money and no longer needed to hoard it for Spiritual Rhinoceros Fruits, Li Ban planned to buy some of the items he had seen during his last visit to the true Black Market just to be prepared.
It was the same shantytown as last time, with the entrance hidden among the piles of garbage.
Since Cat Girl had shown him the way before, Li Ban easily found the true Black Market.
In the gloomy little tunnels of the Black Market, he once again encountered the human skin masks he hadn't been able to examine closely last time.
Only this time, there were a lot more people gathered around the vendor's stall than before.
As Li Ban walked over, he heard an argument breaking out from that direction.
"No way! You must refund the money!"
It turned out to be an after-sales dispute.
Li Ban drew closer, standing among the crowd, wanting to see what defects these human skin masks had.
The two sides of the confrontation were a man and a woman on one end, and a goatee-sporting old man sitting behind the stall on the other.
Due to the fierce argument, more and more people came over to watch.
Relying on his sharp eyesight, Li Ban remained standing on the outermost edge of the crowd.
The Black Market lived up to its name; there was no guarantee there weren't pickpockets lurking about.
Despite being surrounded by so many onlookers and having customers loudly demanding a refund, the goateed old man behind the stall remained completely unbothered, puffing on his dry tobacco pipe.
"My apologies, you two. My little stall operates on limited capital. Once goods are sold, they are strictly non-refundable and non-exchangeable."
Among the arguing customers, the woman had a face full of fierce, fleshy jowls and a bandit-like aura. Holding up what looked like a puddle of soft flesh, she cursed nonstop.
"To hell with your 'strictly non-refundable'! This human skin mask of yours turned into a mushy mess after just three days of use. When I put it on, I looked like a damn female ghost!"
"If you don't refund the money today, I'll peel off your face instead!"
The woman's companion hadn't said a word, but his gaze toward the stall owner was dark and gloomy, as if he was ready to kill at a moment's notice.
However, the goateed stall owner unhurriedly began to spread a waterproof tarp over his goods.
"Is this your first time at the Yu Province Black Market, you two?" a burly man watching the spectacle asked with a smile, his arms crossed.
The woman glared at the burly man, about to continue her cursing, but was pulled back by the man beside her.
The man's gloomy eyes darted left and right before he suddenly changed his mind.
"Let's go."
What was about to be an entertaining spectacle dissolved into nothing.
The burly man who had just been enjoying the show shook his head. "And here I thought I'd get to see Human-Faced Goat's signature trick again," he said, disappointed.
Li Ban glanced sideways at the burly man, who also seemed to be a regular at the Black Market.
However, although his eyes were on the man, his hand reached out in the opposite direction.
"Snap!"
He crushed the pickpocket's hand that had been grabbing his coin pouch.