Extracting the Trait

First and foremost, Lin Miao had to find out whether William was a servant ruled by another deity.

If he belonged to another deity's faction and had even received their divine protection, things would become extremely complicated.

Unless he resorted to a forced seizure, it would require a complex agreement. Rather than risking the exposure of his identity for this, it would be better to simply give up and find another way.

Lin Miao used the name of William's company to search the Divine Net forum.

During his online search, he discovered that it was merely an ordinary small-to-medium-sized Awakened company.

Fortunately, no other deities were involved with Cerebrum's members, nor was the company affiliated with any other organization.

From the very beginning, most people in the company, including William, were not so much individuals with powerful combat-focused abilities as they were people who used mysterious and unique talents to gain fame through television shows, video platforms, and other media.

Of course, such so-called celebrities were not even worth mentioning in the eyes of deities who believed in the supremacy of raw strength, and none of them would go out of their way to pay attention to someone like him.

“I've discovered quite a few interesting things.”

After gaining a brief understanding of William, Lin Miao chuckled.

All the powers registered in the Awakened system ultimately originated from the numerous deities who had contributed to its creation.

The Energy Conversion ability that William possessed was no exception.

That ability had presumably been extracted and placed into the system by some high-tier deity who ruled a world. It was originally an ability that came with numerous restrictions when possessed by a mortal.

Although one could ingest and digest magic stones containing magic power to convert their energy into one's own strength, the problem lay in the single conversion path and its extremely low efficiency. Most importantly, there was actually very little he could do with the energy absorbed this way.

At most, all William could do was recover his stamina or temporarily enhance his senses—nothing more.

Most fatally, his body could not withstand this power. It was said that he was now addicted to magic stones and had to continuously consume a certain amount of them.

However, Lin Miao believed that if this ability were bestowed upon the ant colony, it would yield a completely different result.

The abilities Elise had displayed were the best proof of this.

It was precisely the Great Devourer colony led by Elise that had already created absurd chimeras for her own purposes and could forcibly control them using magic hearts.

A trait obtained through Trait Extraction could only be bestowed upon a servant once.

He did not know how a colony composed of a hive mind would apply this, but if this was his only chance, Lin Miao was certain he should invest in this ability.

“Bai Zhantang, I have something I want you to arrange.”

With that, Lin Miao called Bai Zhantang, instructing him to find a way to set up a meeting with William.

“Proxy, I have passed on your message exactly as you instructed. He was very wary at first, but his attitude changed completely after hearing what I had to say.”

“It seems his crying in front of the documentary cameras about his ability being cursed wasn't an act.”

Lin Miao and Bai Zhantang waited for William at the agreed-upon location.

Sure enough, when William heard that Lin Miao could rid him of his ability, his attitude shifted, and he agreed to meet.

Lin Miao thought back to Trait Extraction, clicking his tongue in wonder.

Trait Extraction was an auxiliary authority of the Divine Net that allowed deities to control their servants more efficiently and freely. It came with options.

The first option was to fully extract all the abilities of the target that were recognized as traits. In this case, the deity would acquire one hundred percent of the ability.

The second option was to replicate the original ability while preserving its original existence. In this case, the quality of the ability was said to drop by half.

Lin Miao believed that the mere existence of these options gave the deities a massive advantage.

Of course, it was undoubtedly a good thing for the servants as well.

Although Lin Miao did not possess such power, other deities had more than enough strength to vivisect their servants to extract or analyze their abilities.

Rather than suffering horrific torture, it was probably much better to have one's abilities quietly extracted through the authority of the Divine Net.

In fact, the deities Lin Miao had seen also found this method much more convenient, so they all used it freely.

“By the way, Proxy, does your decision to bring William over mean that the great deity is interested in that foreigner?”

As the agreed-upon time drew near, Bai Zhantang cast an anxious glance at Lin Miao and spoke up.

Lin Miao casually replied, “Something like that, but I'm not going to recruit him.”

William, who possessed no recruitment value, had felt uneasy that Lin Miao, recognized as a proxy of a deity, was interested in him.

“I am merely interested in that man's ability.”

Seeing William approaching the secluded area with his hat pulled down low and scanning his surroundings, Lin Miao opened the car door and stepped out of Bai Zhantang's vehicle.

William tried his best to act like an ordinary person, but perhaps due to some instinctive intuition, he recognized Lin Miao and stopped in his tracks.

Lin Miao spoke first, “Don't run. I am here to help you, just as I said.”

William's voice trembled, seemingly in disbelief, “Can you... can you really remove my ability?”

Unlike how he acted in front of the cameras, William shared his story in a low, strained voice. “It happened six years ago. At first, I thought it was quite an interesting ability, and people were interested in me too, so I believed it was a good ability that could make me money.”

Just as Lin Miao had seen in William's documentary, his addiction to magic stones was growing increasingly severe, and he had been constantly struggling to rid himself of this ability.

“But nobody knows. There has never been a case of an Awakened losing their ability. The only way is death.”

William was one of those who firmly believed that the Awakened system was an absolute law, a part of nature, and the destiny of the world.

To him, his own ability was a punishment and a curse.

“You don't have to die. You just... haven't been noticed, that's all.”

However, Lin Miao, who knew the truth, could only sigh and shake his head.

No matter how agonizingly William wailed, to the deities in the universe, he was merely one of the billions of people on Earth.

Just like how Lin Miao watched the residents of Terra being swept away by the ant colony.

“What do I have to do to be rid of all this?”

“...Faith. That is all it takes.”

Although it was so cheesy that it made Lin Miao's skin crawl, he had to make William his servant in order to extract his ability.

This was not difficult. Even without bestowing divine protection or power upon him, as long as his affiliation was changed, he would be regarded as a servant.

But transferring him from a foreign company to his own was too troublesome to do right now.

In times like this, personal faith was ultimately the most direct and effective way. As long as William truly believed in him, he would become his servant.

Of course, it wasn't that simple.

“F-faith? What on earth am I supposed to believe in? No, what do I have to see before I can believe?”

William sized Lin Miao up and down, responding in astonishment.

Lin Miao remained silent, quietly gazing into his eyes. “There is no harm in believing.”

Recently—to be precise, ever since he eliminated the servant of Abhoth who had attacked him—Lin Miao had been gradually figuring out how to utilize his Divine Status.

This power could be used without the need for skills like magic.

An existence with a higher Divine Status was power itself.

Just like Lin Miao; though he couldn't use magic or manufacture weapons, surely he could still swing a fist?

“...Hiss!”

Hearing Lin Miao's words, William's face suddenly changed dramatically.

Filled with sheer terror and shock, as if he had run into the most horrifying thing in the world, his legs buckled, and he collapsed heavily onto the ground. He was completely paralyzed and speechless, his body trembling violently as if bound tightly by an invisible, majestic pressure, unable to move even an inch.

【Trait Extraction successful.】

【Energy Conversion Lv. 2: Converts absorbed energy into other types of energy.】

At the same time, a prompt popped up before his eyes.

...

Returning home, Lin Miao looked at William's appearance on the screen, the corners of his mouth curling up unconsciously.

The moment William realized his ability had vanished, his semi-forcibly engraved faith became even more solid.

He had completely become a servant under Lin Miao's command. Therefore, when Lin Miao ordered him to strictly keep everything he experienced today a secret, he did not dare to disobey in the slightest.

“Here... If it's you, you will definitely make good use of it.”

Standing before the terrarium, Lin Miao looked at Elise on the screen and murmured to himself.

So far, Elise had never disappointed him.

Just as she preyed on targets and absorbed their abilities to continuously evolve into a more perfect organism, Lin Miao believed she would also find her own way to make this incomplete power he directly injected bear fruit.

【Trait Injection.】

The system began to operate.

At the same time, Lin Miao's body felt a strange sensation, while Elise, who was sitting quietly and receiving nutrient solution fed by the worker ants, gently twitched her antennae.

【Elise is alarmed by this first-time phenomenon.】

Elise's body twitched and her head swayed, seemingly flustered by the changes occurring in her body.

But she quickly realized that this was not the first time.

There was only one existence who could cause such a change in her.

Fortunately, Elise quickly adapted and began to ponder her newly acquired ability.

Elise seemed to issue an order, and a worker ant approached, carrying a fragment of a magic stone that the heart-fusing worms had not had time to eat.

That worker ant, still possessing its digestive organs, crushed the magic stone fragment in one bite and began to consume it.

Elise simply watched in silence.

In any case, Elise was connected to the worker ant through the hive mind; she could share everything it felt.

【Elise begins to design new soldiers.】

Immediately after, just as Lin Miao had anticipated, Elise seemed to have gotten the hang of it and instantly took action.

Just how would the ant colony utilize that power, and in what manner?

Even if it was power given by someone else, how it was ultimately utilized depended on one's own capability.

To be honest, it would be a lie to say he wasn't looking forward to it.

【The efficiency of absorbing nutrients converted from magic stones is more than twice the original, but Elise believes this can still be vastly improved.】

The moment Elise grasped the knack of it and her eyes gleamed, Lin Miao realized he had to get busy and provide even more magic stones for her future needs.