Chapter 105: A Compromised Solution
The cries of frustration from the live broadcast audience didn't concern Ye Cheng in the slightest. After shutting down the Q&A stream, he immediately turned his attention to reviewing the rewards he had gained from fabricating the latest "future" video.
[Roleplaying System Create a persona. The more people believe in it and feel emotions such as awe, admiration, or fear toward it, the more this fictional persona will become real!
Current Persona: Sea God Neptune (24%)
Previously Played: Twin Martial Souls Ye Cheng.
External Plugin: Live Stream Spoiler System 58.4% (Absorption progress insufficient. Currently limited to low level permissions: can pose any question, fabricate and alter videos, set Q&A rewards and penalties. However, cannot personally receive Q&A rewards. Only by reaching 100% final control can the entire system be mastered.)]
"Only 24% completion? Not even halfway there?"
Ye Cheng frowned slightly when he saw that the completion rate for the Sea God Neptune persona hadn't skyrocketed to 100% as he had hoped. It was unexpected but, upon further thought, not entirely surprising.
First, the Sea God Neptune persona he had created was at a divine level. Moreover, it possessed the absurdly powerful ability to control the entire ocean an ability that could be considered God King level. Given that this persona was divine in nature, it was inherently of a much higher tier than his previous Twin Martial Souls persona. As such, the amount of belief required to manifest it was exponentially greater.
"...This is going to be tricky."
Ye Cheng furrowed his brows, deep in thought. At this stage, the emotions and recognition generated by the public had already reached their peak. In the short term, it was impossible to gather more belief to further increase the persona's completion rate.
After all, belief wasn't something that could be infinitely farmed in a short period. When people experience something shocking, they become desensitized if they encounter similar events again too soon. There had to be a period of emotional recovery before they could be shocked again.
Ye Cheng still didn't fully understand the system's underlying principles. He even suspected that what the persona required wasn't just emotions but possibly the power of people's "thoughts" or even their very souls.
If that were the case, then after harvesting a portion of people's soul power through their emotions, he would have to wait for them to recover before taking more. Otherwise, their self preservation instincts would kick in, instinctively locking down their soul energy to prevent further leakage.
Of course, this was all just Ye Cheng's speculation. He had no way of verifying if this was the actual mechanism behind the system.
"So what now?"
"With the Sea God Neptune persona at only 24%, I can't manifest it yet…"
"Do I just wait until the next video to increase the progress?"
"But at this rate, wouldn't it take at least three or four more videos to reach full completion? That could take an unknown amount of time."
Ye Cheng was unwilling to accept this. He stared intently at the 24% completion rate, feeling conflicted. If he could fully obtain this persona, he would gain complete control over the ocean. Even if a God King descended to the mortal realm, he wouldn't be afraid.
He could even follow the example of the Water God Gonggong and flood the world summoning an apocalyptic tidal wave to submerge the entire Douluo Star, turning it into an ocean planet.
This innate divine authority was something far beyond what the Sea God of Sea God Island could ever dream of possessing.
Of course, such immense power came at an equally immense cost.
The problem was, it was simply too expensive. In the short term, there was no way for him to push the persona's completion to 100%.
Additionally, there was another issue the meteorite from the video's final scene. If he wanted to manifest that event as well, the belief power required would be astronomical.
Fortunately, Ye Cheng had been careful not to reveal when exactly the meteorite would arrive. That meant he controlled the timeline. He could take his time setting everything up.
"Wait a second!"
"If I can't manifest the full version of Sea God Neptune…"
"Could I create a weaker, partial version instead?"
A sudden idea struck Ye Cheng, making him realize that he had been thinking about this the wrong way.
Immediately, he began adjusting the settings in his roleplaying system.
[Roleplaying System Create a persona…
Current Persona: Master of Water Neptune (100%)
Previously Played: Twin Martial Souls Ye Cheng.
External Plugin: Live Stream Spoiler System 58.4%...]
"Haha! It worked!"
Seeing the updated completion status, Ye Cheng burst into laughter.
There was a huge difference between a "Master of Water" and the "Sea God." By downgrading the persona's strength from first class god to Titled Douluo, the belief requirement had been drastically reduced allowing him to hit 100% instantly!
At this stage, the "Master of Water" persona was only at Rank 95 Titled Douluo level, but that didn't matter. The most crucial thing was that the innate ability to control water remained.
Now, all he had to do was follow the script from the video travel to Sea God Island, inherit the Sea God's position, and gain the full power from the persona!
After all, what truly mattered wasn't the cultivation realm it was the unique water controlling talent. Combined with the Sea God's divine authority, this ability would become unimaginably powerful.
"Come forth!"
With a single thought, Ye Cheng activated his torso soul bone ability External Incarnation.
A bright light separated from his body, condensing into another version of himself.
Completely naked.
This was the power of his torso soul bone a soul skill that allowed him to create independent clones.
As the name implied, External Incarnation enabled him to manifest separate bodies, essentially allowing him to multitask. The number of clones he could create depended on his control ability. In theory, there was no limit.
However, there were drawbacks. Each clone required mental effort to control, akin to multitasking at an extreme level something beyond the capability of an ordinary person.
Additionally, these clones had no inherent strength. If he wanted them to have power, he would need to transfer some of his own. But the more power he shared, the weaker his main body would become. When a clone was destroyed, the transferred power would return to him.
These clones would persist indefinitely unless they were killed or he actively dismissed them.
They would exist as long as he did.
Ye Cheng didn't understand the exact principles behind this ability. Like many soul skills in the Douluo world, it defied logic and seemed to operate on fundamental laws beyond human comprehension.
Now, as he gazed at the identical copy of himself standing before him, he willed the clone's appearance to shift.
Slowly, the elegant and refined visage of Ye Cheng morphed into a muscular, imposing figure a tall, burly man over two meters in height, radiating masculine strength!
His hair turned a striking shade of blue, his eyes deep and oceanic.
It was the spitting image of Sea God Neptune.
"Not bad."
Ye Cheng nodded in satisfaction.
With another thought, he accessed his system panel and fused the Master of Water Neptune persona into the clone.
In that instant, the once powerless duplicate surged with overwhelming presence!
One soul ring after another materialized beneath him.
Until finally nine rings appeared!
Exactly like in the video.
(End of Chapter)
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