‘Roadside bramble: evergreen shrub, roots, stems, and leaves can all be used medicinally. Soothes the liver and relieves depression, clears heat and dispels dampness, can treat acute hepatitis, rheumatic lower back and leg pain, rabies, etc.’

‘Language of flowers: Mirror of longing.’

‘Petal scale collection rate: 3%. Evolvable times: insufficient information.’

‘Fill in?’

Can’t I get a more practical flower language ability?

William Thompson was starting to get anxious.

This so-called Mirror of Longing obviously isn’t suitable for survival or saving lives—it's not even as good as the previous Steadfast Heart.

He quickly stood up and scanned his surroundings.

Around him, rows of gray-white residential buildings stood quietly, like silent white giants.

In the distance, a black car slowly drove out from the underground garage exit, its headlights drawing two white streaks of light in the dusk.

The car’s tires rolled over the gray-black ground, stirring up a scattering of tiny yellow-green leaves.

William Thompson straightened up, his gaze quickly sweeping over everything around him. He could feel that time was running out.

It was an indescribable feeling—he didn’t know why, but he just knew that a dead end was approaching.

‘I have to hurry! As fast as possible!’

Suddenly, his eyes swept over and he immediately spotted, in the middle of the complex, beside an old gray pavilion, a wooden frame someone had built.

On the square wooden frame hung clusters of small purple flowers, drooping down like grapes.

The flowers were somewhat dark in color, as if they had been blooming for a while. Many had already fallen to the ground, and some flower branches had been broken off and played with by children.

At that moment, there were two children about seven or eight years old in the pavilion, each holding a stick and whacking at the purple flowers.

William Thompson took a deep breath and hurried toward the purple flowers.

Within a dozen seconds, he rushed under the wooden frame, panting, and grabbed a cluster of the hanging purple flowers.

The flowers were beautiful—most of them long and tubular, with purple petals fading from the outer edge inward, gradually turning to pure white.

A single cluster hung down like grapes, with at least dozens of flowers on it.

And all the open flowers, from top to bottom, gradually decreased in size.

The fragrance was faint and subtle—if you didn’t get close, you couldn’t smell it at all.

As soon as William Thompson reached out, information immediately appeared.

‘Wisteria: Legume family, genus Wisteria. Strong resistance to harmful gases such as sulfur dioxide and hydrogen peroxide, can absorb airborne dust, has diuretic and anti-swelling effects, insecticidal, pain-relieving, etc. Medicinal property: warm, mildly toxic, not for long-term use.’

‘Language of flowers: Hand of Intoxication.’

‘Petal scale collection rate: 3%. Evolvable times: 2.’

‘Fill in?’

‘There’s enough of them. If the flower language ability is literal, it might be useful. And then there’s that evolvable times...’

William Thompson was quickly weighing his options in his mind.

Compared to the previous two, the wisteria’s flower language ability seemed more practical.

If it could distract that faceless monster...

He stood there, clutching the wisteria, muttering to himself, which made the two kids playing nearby shrink back a little, not knowing what was wrong with him.

Soon, the two kids ran off elsewhere and stopped messing with the wisteria.

‘This is it!!’

Finally, William Thompson looked at the seven or eight clusters of wisteria hanging from the wooden frame and made up his mind.

As soon as he decided, the prompt asking whether to fill in immediately disappeared.

A cool sensation continuously flowed from the wisteria into his fingertips, into the back of his right hand, and into one of the slots on the purple ring.

‘Filled moon phase flower spirit: Wisteria.’

‘Petal scale collection rate: 5%. When collection rate reaches 100, the petal scale armor will materialize. Please collect more wisteria.’

------------

010 Hope Four (Thanks to the Alliance Leader for the Night of Cramps)

William Thompson’s eyes held a trace of hope, a trace of frenzy.

He quickly let go of the flowers in his hand and grabbed another cluster.

With each grasp and switch, cool energy kept flowing into the back of his hand.

And the petal scale collection rate for wisteria was rapidly increasing.

From the initial 5%, it quickly rose to 28%.

But after reaching 28%, all the wisteria here had been absorbed.

‘Is that it!??’ He looked around but couldn’t find any more wisteria.

There had been at least a hundred wisteria flowers here, yet it still wasn’t enough to fill the petal scale collection rate.

This made William Thompson regret not choosing the wild chrysanthemum earlier.

After all, wild chrysanthemums grew everywhere by the walls—maybe he could have filled the collection rate and activated this mysterious armor.

But now that the choice was made, it was too late.

After confirming there was no more wisteria around, William Thompson quickly ran toward home.

He needed to grab the various food and utensils he’d bought earlier.

Running all the way, it took him only three minutes to get home and grab his packed plastic bag.

Picking up the bag, he didn’t hesitate—he closed the door and rushed out again. While there was still time, he planned to check the complex across the street. Maybe there would be wisteria there too!

He didn’t take the elevator. Carrying the bag, William Thompson ran down the stairs, dashed out the building entrance, and sprinted along the complex driveway.

At the exit, he suddenly stopped, remembering something, and quickly looked left and right.