Chapter 85: Mommy?

After tallying up their gains, it was time to upgrade the train.

The upgrade materials had been prepared long ago, with only the final Upgrade Module remaining.

Mu Bai had already taken the Upgrade Module out of her Storage Space and placed it with the rest of the spoils.

It was a mechanical part encased in transparent material.

Mo Cha picked up the mechanical core, about the size of a heart, and placed it in the Material Stacking Area.

She tapped the upgrade button on the touchscreen.

[The train level for Players Mu Bai, Ye Qi, Tang Shifu, and Mo Cha has been raised to Level Four. Medical Room blueprint unlocked.]

[The bathroom can now be upgraded. After upgrading, a bathtub will be added, and it can be used by two people simultaneously.]

[Current Level: Four. Requirements for next upgrade: 40 kg of Silver, 10 kg of Gold, 1 Train Essence (Gold Coin), 1 Intermediate Train Upgrade Module… Prerequisite for upgrade: Possess a Medical Room!]

Inside the train, the notification from the Train System flashed through the minds of all four.

Only Mu Bai didn’t fully process this information, as she was still waiting for her own personal system prompt.

The next moment, however, Mu Bai’s expression turned strange.

A new Talent had awakened.

Logically, this should have been a good thing.

It was just that the effect of this Talent seemed a bit too… weird at first glance.

[Influenced by the Luck from the gift, the awakened Talent’s quality has been increased by +2.]

[You have awakened the Talent — Angel’s Protection (Purple).]

[Talent Effect: Whenever a Player sincerely believes from the bottom of their heart that you are an angel and trusts you unreservedly, as if you were their mother, you gain one layer of “Protection.” You can consume “Protection” to choose a Player acknowledged by the Talent and apply a permanent buff of +10% to all basic attributes.]

After reading it carefully, Mu Bai sucked in a sharp breath.

This Talent was much stronger than [Cooking Expert].

[Cooking Expert] might provide a considerable short-term attribute boost, but the later it gets, the higher the Players’ base attributes become, making this new Talent’s effect even more potent.

Both could amplify attributes, but this one was truly worthy of being a purple quality.

But what the hell was that prerequisite condition for activating the Talent?

It was even more embarrassing than the “Power Bank” thing, and achieving it seemed incredibly difficult…

While inwardly conflicted, Mu Bai suddenly had a thought and called up her Personal Panel.

The Talent name was flashing.

Beneath the description, a prompt clearly appeared: “Protection +1.”

Huh?

How did she already have one layer of “Protection”?

Mu Bai thought for a moment and immediately knew who it was.

She glanced at the Talent description on her Personal Panel again and barely managed to keep a straight face.

‘We’ll have a good heart-to-heart talk tonight.’

“We can take baths now… And there’s a Medical Room. The blueprint says it will be equipped with basic medical equipment and will regularly update medicines, though it’s not very useful for us,” Mo Cha said, flipping through the information on the touchscreen.

“Chacha, give me the Talent Upgrade Scroll to use now,” Mu Bai said with a blank expression.

The description of this new Talent’s effect absolutely could not be seen by anyone.

She had to wash it away quickly.

Once it reached gold quality, the prerequisite condition definitely wouldn’t be this harsh.

The first two lines of the effect description would most likely change.

If it failed… well, she’d just pretend nothing happened.

“Huh? You want it now?”

Mo Cha asked, puzzled.

She didn’t really mind, but Mu Bai’s statement was a bit abrupt, clearly pretending to be nonchalant while actually being anxious about something.

Among the four present, apart from Mu Bai who had several Talents of different qualities, the other three all had single golden Talents and couldn’t upgrade them even if they wanted to.

If there really was a scroll that could upgrade a gold-quality Talent to colorful, it would probably only come from a Gold Treasure Chest in a very high-difficulty station.

“Yes, give it to me now,” Mu Bai said.

After thinking for a moment, she felt her statement alone wasn’t very convincing, so she added, “I just got a very powerful purple Talent. It feels like it has much higher potential than [Cooking Expert]. Having one more golden Talent is even better, right?”

“Here you go.”

Mo Cha nodded and handed over the scroll.

Seeing that Mo Cha didn’t press further, Mu Bai sighed in relief and took the scroll.

“Talent Upgrade…”

Mu Bai whispered.

[Detected that the Player has two Talents that can be upgraded. Please make a selection.]

“Angel’s Protection.”

Although the name itself sounded fine, Mu Bai still chose it silently.

[Talent Upgrade Scroll (Gold) has been used. Angel’s Protection (Purple) quality has been raised to Gold!]

[Upgraded Talent Effect: Whenever a Player’s affection for you reaches “Close Friend” or above, you gain one layer of “Protection.” You can consume “Protection” to choose a Player acknowledged by the Talent and apply a permanent buff of +10% to all basic attributes, and grant immunity to one lethal attack. This effect can be stacked and can be retrieved.]

Divine!

Mu Bai immediately flipped her Personal Panel around to show her teammates.

Now, the weird stuff about “angel” and “mommy” had disappeared.

It was finally in the realm of something she could show people.

It was a pity it was still an auxiliary-type Talent.

‘I wonder when I’ll be able to shake off this mascot identity and truly stand on my own…’

“Wow, it can grant immunity to a lethal attack, that’s amazing~ And you already have two layers of Protection,” Mo Cha exclaimed in admiration.

Two layers?

The standard had just been lowered to “Close Friend,” and another person had already met it?

Could it be that Mo Cha or Tang Shifu already considered her a lifelong teammate?

Although she didn’t quite understand how it happened, it was a good thing.

Mu Bai thought that since it could be retrieved, there was no risk of waste.

She might as well try applying one layer of the buff to herself first.

She checked her base stats.

In the status bar, which she previously didn’t know the use of, the words “Protection – 1” now appeared, followed by a description of the buff and the immunity to one lethal attack.

What disappointed Mu Bai a bit was that this buff wasn’t directly added to the base value.

Instead, like the Beef Jerky, a parenthesis appeared after the base value, showing the actual total.

Otherwise, if she could stack them all on Tang Shifu and gather more attribute-boosting items, she might be able to directly consume the Bloodline Potion.

“This buff only has two layers. How should we distribute it?”

Mu Bai asked for the opinions of the others.

It would be a waste for her, an auxiliary, to use it.

As for giving it to two among Ye Yin, Mo Cha, and Tang Shifu, or stacking it on the same person, both options made sense.

Although she could retrieve it and give it to someone else at any time, they still needed to discuss who should have it under normal circumstances.

“I’m fine with just my firearms. I don’t really need the attribute points,” Ye Yin said.

Perhaps because Mu Bai had “charged” her, Ye Yin’s condition had improved considerably, and her voice had regained some of its strength.

“Then let’s have it on you two normally…”

Mu Bai tried to apply the buff to the other two, then suddenly frowned.

“Fufu, why can’t I apply it to you?”

“Haha… I don’t really need it either,” Tang Shifu laughed awkwardly.

Mu Bai was silent for a moment, understanding something.

So, the Talent description had another layer of meaning.

Besides herself, only Players who had successfully passed the affection judgment—meaning those who had given her “Protection”—could receive the buff from “Protection.”

So that meant…

‘One of these two layers of “Protection”… is from Mo Cha.’

‘Hah.’