Mo Bai, who was already exhausted from the system's manipulations, quickly recovered.

Wasn't it just going from a mere A-rank to a mere S-rank? Moreover, she wasn't the only player in the instance. There were Advanced-level players too. It was totally fine!

Stay strong!

Mo Bai secretly clenched her fist, cheering herself on as she calmly accepted the unchangeable reality with practiced ease.

Her only worry was her teammates.

Gu Tiandong, Ding Xun, and Ye Pingjun had just advanced to intermediate level. In Count's Castle, the addition of just one A-rank monster, the Phantom Butterfly, had already made things extremely difficult. Now that the instance had been upgraded straight to S-rank, who knew how they felt?

After the last instance ended, Gu Tiandong turned into an ice sculpture while Dng Xun and Ye Pingjun were in the middle of leveling up. Before Mo Bai could meet up with any of them, she had already entered a new instance. She hadn't even had time to add Ding Xun and Ye Pingjun as friends. At the moment, she could only contact Gu Tiandong.

Gu Tiandong would remain frozen for three days, then spend another three days upgrading. He needed a total of 6 days before waking up.

Mo Bai had entered Biological Research Institute No. 7 with Sheng Yan two days after the previous instance, then stayed inside for three and a half days. That added up to almost six days as well.

Gu Tiandong had also spent part of that time frozen inside an instance.

By that calculation, he should be about to wake up, or maybe already awake.

Mo Bai opened her phone and, sure enough, saw the unread message that Gu Tiandong sent half an hour earlier.

[I'm near the Seaview Residential Complex. I'm waiting outside. Come find me as soon as you're out of the instance.]

Before entering the instance, Mo Bai was concerned that he would panic if he woke up and couldn’t find her, so she had messaged him about her encounter with Sheng Yan.

Therefore, Gu Tiandong knew where she was. But the Seaview Residential Complex wasn't like the Newbie District. It housed Intermediate players, and entry was impossible without an invitation from a resident.

Mo Bai immediately rushed out.

Sheng Yan had just transferred points to her and was still sorting through his complicated feelings when he saw her leave and followed suit.

He thought he could catch up. After all, before entering the instance, she had been in a wheelchair.

But to his utter shock, Mo Bai was running as if she had wheels of fire beneath her feet. In the blink of an eye, she turned into a blur, and he couldn't keep up at all.

It had been a long time since Mo Bai had felt the joy of running. To savor it, she didn't take the elevator and ran down the stairs instead.

To preserve the sea view, all apartments in the complex were above the 10th floor. Sheng Yan lived on the 27th, but Mo Bai didn't care about the height. She just wanted to run on her own two legs.

She sprinted and leapt down floor after floor, agile and swift, and reached the 10th floor in less than a minute without even breaking a sweat.

"My physique is amazing!" she exclaimed while staring at her legs in disbelief.

Xiao Qi, infected by her excitement, chirped happily, "Of course! The average base Constitution for normal players is 60. At 80, you could compete in the Olympics. Your Constitution is 93, which is already at the level of martial arts novels!"

"Does that make me a martial arts hero?" Mo Bai asked.

"Not quite. More like a second-rate expert. But that's not bad either."

Mo Bai walked to the window on the 10th floor and opened it. "Then can I use qinggong² and jump down?"

Xiao Qi: "..."

The little AI was startled by Mo Bai's idea. Fortunately, it was a dutiful smart assistant. After calculating seriously, it replied, "With the player's Constitution of 93 and Endurance of 68, Xiao Qi thinks that even if you jumped headfirst straight down and hit the ground, you probably wouldn't die. You can immediately recover by consuming an intermediate healing potion.

And your Agility is as high as 96. Xiao Qi thinks you can aim for the window ledges on the 8th and 6th floors. Step on both in succession, and use the 6th-floor ledge for leverage, then jump to a tree five meters away from the building. From there, you can land safely."

Xiao Qi even drew a route map for Mo Bai.

Mo Bai glanced at it and decided to try.

She stood on the 10th-floor ledge, locked onto the 8th-floor window, and jumped.

Her body was incredibly agile, capable of twisting and turning even in mid-air. She landed precisely on the ledges of the eighth and sixth floors in sequence, then pushed off from the sixth floor and leapt to the tree across the way. From a height of four or five meters, she jumped down and landed steadily on the ground.

"Way faster than the elevator," she said in satisfaction. "Next time I'll try from the 27th floor."

"According to gravitational acceleration, you would definitely die from the 27th floor. Please stay calm, player. Let's take one step at a time," Xiao Qi advised.

Mo Bai was in a good mood and didn't bother to argue with Xiao Qi's sarcastic remarks. She quickly ran out of the complex and immediately spotted an extremely eye-catching person.

This person was too beautiful.

His silver-white hair shone in the sunlight, and his androgynous face was breathtakingly beautiful.

Quite a few players stood at a distance in front of the gate, staring at him. His deep blue eyes swept over them impatiently before he closed them in mild annoyance.

He stood casually in front of the gate with his hands in his pockets. But his casual posture and disdainful attitude towards the players made him seem like he didn't belong in this world.

Like an angel who had fallen from heaven.

It was, of course, the leveled-up Gu Tiandong.

He became so beautiful that even Mo Bai, who knew him well, didn't dare approach right away. She hid behind the gate and stared at him.

"Is that really Gu Tiandong?" she asked cautiously.

Xiao Qi replied, "I contacted Gu Tiandong's smart assistant, and it sent over his location. According to the coordinates, the person in front of us matches Gu Tiandong's spatial coordinates exactly. Confirmed: the 170-centimeter player before you is indeed the upgraded Gu Tiandong."

"170 centimeters..." Mo Bai murmured. "How tall am I now?"

"With your stat increase and title change, you are now 172 centimeters. Two centimeters taller than Gu Tiandong."

Mo Bai's title was no longer The Incomplete XXX. She no longer needed to project fragility, so her appearance had begun shifting in a different direction.

As if to match her Indestructible and Diamond identity, she was still beautiful, but her beauty had transformed from sickly and delicate to healthy and resilient.

"I'm taller than Gu Tiandong now..." Mo Bai suddenly became even more reluctant to approach. She knew Gu Tiandong cared about his height, and she was afraid her appearance would upset him.

"Xiao Qi, why did his appearance change so much?" Mo Bai asked. "He didn't have silver hair and blue eyes before. From Beginner-9 to Intermediate-1, he only gained 2 Appearance points and 10 free points, right? Even if he put all 10 into Appearance, he shouldn't look this different."

"When the title changes, the direction of Appearance allocation changes too. Player, you weren't 172 centimeters before either, and you couldn't jump from the 10th floor to the 1st floor before," Xiao Qi said.

Mo Bai hesitated, still unsure how to face him. For Gu Tiandong, it had only been a single sleep. For her, these six days felt like half a year.

She didn't even know what to say.

After all, Gu Tiandong was probably genderless by now, and Mo Bai's own mindset had changed a lot after being infected by the Ultra-Star Rank monster.

As she hesitated, she noticed that the onlookers gradually shifted their gazes toward her.

She had been so focused on the newly beautiful Gu Tiandong that she forgot she was part of the Observation Group, too. Moreover, she possessed the dazzling, eye-catching effect of the Diamond title. She couldn't even hide among trees.

Now, Mo Bai's only way to conceal her identity was probably through the mimicry ability of the Phantom Butterfly.

Thinking about it, it was a pity that she didn't kill the fleeing butterfly before leaving.

Gu Tiandong noticed the shift in the crowd and naturally followed their gazes to Mo Bai, and immediately spotted the impossible-to-miss woman who was taller than him.

Their eyes met, and Gu Tiandong was just as stunned.

For Mo Bai, six days had passed. But for Gu Tiandong, he had simply woken up one morning, and both of them had changed.

He also didn't dare to be the first one to acknowledge her.

They stood separated by the gate, looking at one another from a distance.

The impact of two intermediate-level Observation Group players on other players was already significant, and these two gazing at each other across the distance was simply too beautiful.

Someone couldn't help but take out their phone to take a picture.

But at that moment, Sheng Yan, the flame-haired spectacle with an exceptionally tall figure, casually dressed and possessing an above-average face along with a striking presence, stepped directly between them.

"What's going on? Why did you suddenly run out?" he asked.

Sheng Yan would never in his life learn to read the atmosphere of any scene.

Mo Bai shoved him aside and casually explained, "I'm meeting a friend."

Since Gu Tiandong seemed uncertain too, she would be the one to break the ice. After all, she was the culprit who had turned Smiling Circus into an S-rank instance.

She walked firmly to Gu Tiandong, her gaze almost level with his as she examined his face closely.

She suddenly realized that Lin Xiafei, the Phantom Butterfly's disguise, had subtly resembled Gu Tiandong in certain features.

No wonder the Phantom Butterfly, having only seen her once in Count's Castle, could craft a form so precisely aligned with her aesthetic.

The Phantom Butterfly was very sensitive to emotions. It must have noticed how much she liked Gu Tiandong's face. Every time she saw him, her mood lifted a little; after all, his face was truly a pleasure to look at.

Though she also felt a pang of heartache every time she saw his height.

The Phantom Butterfly had blended all those emotional cues to create Lin Xiafei's appearance.

But looking at Gu Tiandong now, she realized what a pale imitation that had been.

True beauty transcends personal preference. A face shaped with the desire to please ultimately lacks a soul.

"You can walk now? Is anything bothering you?" Gu Tiandong smiled brightly with concern filling his eyes.

Besides concern for Mo Bai's health, there was also worry from a fellow Observation Group member.

He knew that once Mo Bai could walk, her title must have changed, and he wondered which extreme her appearance would shift toward next.

"I'm perfectly fine," Mo Bai said. "What about you? Your body..."

"Mm." Gu Tiandong nodded, confirming Mo Bai's unspoken guess.

After reaching the intermediate level, he truly became genderless.

Though she had suspected it, Mo Bai still felt heartache for him.

No one understood him better than she did.

Sometimes it wasn't anger at the changes in their bodies, but the helplessness against fate.

Mo Bai stepped forward and took his hand, wanting to give him strength.

"It's okay. I already came to terms with it. You helped me figure it out, remember?" Gu Tiandong said gently, comforting Mo Bai in return. "And don't think you can trick me into transferring my points to you."

To lighten the mood, he even teased her on purpose.

Mo Bai also laughed as the mention of points cheered her up. "I might actually be richer than you now."

"How rich could you be?" Gu Tiandong said smugly. "I have over 400,000 points! Now that I'm an intermediate player, I can finally move. I like this Seaview Complex, so I'm planning to move here, but I'll have to pay 300,000 in rent upfront. When I do, you'll be alone in the Newbie District. But you can stay at my place, it's big enough."

Mo Bai grinned even more smugly. "Sorry. I have over a million points, and I'm moving here too."

Gu Tiandong's voice cracked. "How do you have over a million?! How can you move out of the Newbie District? You're already an intermediate player too? But you only cleared one instance!"

"Yeah, I..."

Before she could finish bragging, Sheng Yan, the atmosphere destroyer, coughed loudly and said even more smugly, "Ahem! I have over two million points. I bought the apartment outright. I don't have to pay rent."

Both Mo Bai and Gu Tiandong looked at him as if they genuinely wanted to punch him.

"He's the idiot whose ability got sealed by the system and got announced across the Peach Blossom Land, right?" Gu Tiandong asked loudly, speaking right next to Mo Bai's ear in a voice that Sheng Yan could clearly hear.

"That's him," Mo Bai confirmed without hesitation. After all, Sheng Yan was really a bit foolish. If he weren't, he wouldn't have been oblivious enough to barge into her reunion with Gu Tiandong.

"I'll beat you up!" Sheng Yan threatened, raising his fist.

"Go ahead," Gu Tiandong said calmly. "I'll give you another three months of punishment."

Seeing that Sheng Yan was about to argue with Gu Tiandong, and with people still watching around them, Mo Bai quickly interrupted. "Sheng Yan, check your system messages. Did you receive any mail about the Disease Town instance?"

Since Sheng Yan had participated in Biological Research Institute No. 7, he might also be involved in its sequel.

After all, every instance Mo Bai touched seemed to have follow-ups.

Sheng Yan obediently checked his watch, and his face instantly turned green. "S-rank mutated instance? Another S-rank?"

"Alright," Mo Bai said. "Let's stop arguing. We should go somewhere to discuss what to do next."

They were all unfortunate people, so why hurt each other?