I Can Copy the Talents of All Creatures

Old trees grow new rings; new shoots unfurl their leaves.

Time flows by, unnoticed; one wears thin clothes, not realizing the season has changed.

Yu Fei took Yu Wei to the farmer’s market to buy groceries. Their birthday was coming up.

The siblings’ birthdays were only a day apart—or two hours, to be exact. Yu Fei had been born just after eleven p.m. one night, and Yu Wei had arrived at one a.m. the following morning.

Their parents had always celebrated their birthdays together.

It happened to be Sunday, so Mrs. Yu had taken the afternoon off work and sent the pair of them out to buy groceries.

"Bro, it’s so hot!"

The temperature had reached a high of 34°C. While not the peak of summer, the afternoon sun was still scorching.

"Hot?"

Yu Fei just found the sun’s rays rather comfortable and didn’t feel anything out of the ordinary. A fine layer of sweat was already beading on Yu Wei’s forehead.

The path of martial arts was a gradual journey toward the extraordinary. Though only at the first realm, Yu Fei already possessed some resistance to heat and cold.

"So... ice cream?"

Yu Fei asked, turning his head.

"Yeah! But I want a popsicle!"

...

Yu Wei had strong teeth, and she bit into the ice, making it CRUNCH loudly.

"Ahh, so refreshing!"

Then she took out the shopping list their mom had written.

"Bro, you go buy the meat, I’ll get the vegetables. Let’s split up and get this done fast. It’s way too hot out here!"

"Alright. We’ll meet back at the entrance later."

Arriving at the meat section, Yu Fei had a kilogram of pork hind leg weighed out, then headed over to a stall selling live chickens.

Yu Wei wanted big plate chicken, so their mom had instructed him to pick out a live chicken and have the shopkeeper butcher it on the spot.

Out of habit, Yu Fei activated his Reversing Destiny Vision before making the purchase.

When the Reversing Destiny Pearl had first awakened, his first talent had come from a neighborhood tabby cat. This made him realize that animals could possess special talents. Last year, when he wasn’t as busy, he often scoured farmer’s markets, seafood markets, and other similar places, searching for creatures with unique abilities.

Later, as his martial arts training took up more and more of his time, he had stopped searching.

’Let’s see.’

In his Reversing Destiny Vision, vast, overlapping clusters of empty, diamond-shaped frames appeared, with only an occasional one filled in with a grayish-white color.

"Huh?"

’That one’s blue!’

Following the guidance of his Reversing Destiny Vision, Yu Fei hurried over to the third stall on the left.

"Hey there, handsome. Looking for a chicken? Pick one out!"

Yu Fei’s gaze fell on a magnificent rooster in a cage near the entrance. Its feathers were a deep crimson, and its tail was a riot of iridescent colors. It looked incredibly fierce.

This was the one. It possessed a blue talent—a top-tier specimen among chickens, with the air of a true chicken overlord!

"Ah, that one’s a bit pricier," the shopkeeper said, following Yu Fei’s gaze.

Yu Fei hesitated. After copying [Celestial Grace], he only had one use of his copy ability left, and it would be another sixteen days before it recharged. The crucial point was that this extraordinarily talented chicken overlord’s talent was merely blue-quality.

As he was deliberating, the shopkeeper saw him hesitating and, assuming he was put off by the price, continued, "These over here are cheaper. A chicken’s a chicken, really. They’ve all got the same parts, not much difference."

"Which one do you want, young man? These are 15 yuan a jin, those are 18, and I’ve got some for 25..."

After a moment’s thought, Yu Fei decided to go for it. The [Super Speed Reaction] talent he’d gotten from the tabby cat was only blue-quality, but its boost to his combat abilities surpassed that of most ordinary purple-quality talents.

"Boss, I’ll take that one!"

Yu Fei said, pointing at the majestic chicken overlord.

"Handsome, that one’s 60 yuan a jin."

Yu Fei was stunned. "That’s a huge price difference! How much is a jin of beef even?"

The shopkeeper looked pained. "Handsome, you should pick a different one. It’s all for eating anyway. I’ll give you a discount. See that one for 25 a jin? I can give you a better deal, make it 24.5."

"Why is this one so expensive?"

The shopkeeper threw up his hands in resignation. "It’s the breed, plus it’s free-range. It’s actually on consignment here. The owner says it has a bit of a mutated beast bloodline, that it’s super nourishing. But I think, it’s just a chicken, right? How nourishing can it be? Besides, that chicken... it looks impressive, but it’s dumber than a bag of hammers!"

"But he’s an acquaintance, so I couldn’t say no. So I just keep it here. It’s no big deal, I just lose out on a little chicken feed..."

"I’ll take it."

"Right? So which one will it be, young man? I can give you a discount on the 25-yuan one. The others..."

Yu Fei pointed. "That big red rooster."

The shopkeeper said in surprise, "You’re not kidding, right? That one’s 60 yuan a jin, and not a penny less."

"Yep, that one. But I have one condition!"

The shopkeeper looked helpless. "I’m telling you, it’s on consignment. No haggling, no special conditions..."

The shopkeeper started rambling on before Yu Fei could even speak.

"I want to kill the chicken myself. But I’ll only kill it. You’ll still have to pluck it and chop it up afterward."

"That’s no problem, but you have to pay first!" The shopkeeper pursed his lips, staring at Yu Fei with a look that screamed, ’I’m a shrewd old fox, don’t even think about pulling a fast one on me.’

"Deal!"

The shopkeeper expertly grabbed the chicken by its wings and tossed it onto the scale.

"Alright, handsome, take a look. 5.82 kilograms. Uh... let me calculate!"

"Zeroing out..."

"That’s 698.4 in total. Just pay 698. You can trust my scale. There’s an official market scale over at the entrance if you want to double-check—the QR code is right there. If it’s even a little bit off, you can come right back and find me."

"Payment received: 698 yuan!"

"Alright, so you want to kill it yourself, handsome! That’s a pretty strange request. Do you even know how? I can teach you. First, you have to pluck the feathers from the neck..."

"I had another one of those edgy kids run over here before, wanting to help me kill chickens for free. Said he’d awakened some kind of damn ’system’ and could level up by killing them. Ha! I nearly died laughing. I was worried he was a psycho, so I called the cops. They ended up taking him away."

"Reading too many of those novels rots your brain, I tell ya. And I read novels, too!"

Following the talkative shopkeeper’s instructions, Yu Fei slit the chicken’s throat, bled it out, and watched it die. At the same moment, he copied its talent.

The shopkeeper was still rambling on. So, Yu Fei put on a serious expression and said, "How do you know he was lying? How can you tell if someone has a system or not?"

The shopkeeper froze. Yu Fei continued, "I know I’m overpaying for this chicken. But do you know why I had to buy it, and why I had to kill it myself? Because it’s my system quest. I get attribute points for completing it, you see." 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

The shopkeeper instantly fell silent. He quickly finished processing the chicken, handed the chopped pieces to Yu Fei, and gave him a look that said, ’If you don’t leave right now, I’m calling the police.’

Yu Fei took the chicken with a grin, leaned in, and whispered, "Ever heard of Blue Star Online? Just a friendly tip: at the stroke of midnight, stand in front of a mirror and say ’System’ three times. You’ll get a surprise~"

With a mysterious smile, he turned, activated [Light Swallow Shadow], and vanished in a blur of motion.

The shopkeeper’s heart leaped when he heard Yu Fei’s words. He was about to ask something, but in the blink of an eye, Yu Fei was gone. Panicked, he frantically looked around but saw no sign of him.

"Blue Star Online?"

The shopkeeper muttered to himself, his heart filled with unease. The entire afternoon was torture. He finally made it to closing time, grabbed a quick bite to eat, found a large mirror, and waited until twelve o’clock at night.

His reflection in the mirror looked gaunt and exhausted, his clothes still dotted with chicken feathers.

"System!

System!

System!"

The shopkeeper blinked. Nothing happened.

"System, come on, get out here for me!"

...

"Am I not qualified?"

The shopkeeper stood there dumbfounded for a moment, then threw the mirror aside. "Screw it... I’m going to bed!"