Chapter 2687. Sublimation of Potential?

Zero Wing headquarters, premium lounge.

With the hiss of mechanical pneumatics, the sealed capsule slowly opened, and the blood-red warning lights along its edges kept flashing, as if issuing an alert.

"As expected."

Shi Feng stepped out of the virtual reality capsule and looked at the constant stream of system warnings on various prompts, letting out a deep sigh of relief.

Just a bit more and it would have been too late. Although he had long known that the brain's abnormally heightened activity consumed energy at an extraordinary rate, he never expected it to drain resources to this extent.

The capsule should have still had at least thirty percent of its nutrient solution and various energy elixirs remaining, but now they had all been drained to the bottom...

It was worth noting that to guard against any abnormal physical reactions, these virtual reality capsules had been specially modified, loaded with energy elixirs that standard models did not have. Each bottle was equivalent in effect to an A-grade nutrient solution, and a total of twenty bottles had been installed — precisely to handle emergencies.

Yet who would have thought that not only had the nutrient solutions been nearly used up, but the twenty bottles of energy elixirs were almost gone as well.

Shi Feng wasted no time thinking about it. Without a word, he walked out of the capsule, strode straight to the refrigerated cabinet, and pulled out a Life Elixir as a precaution, downing the entire bottle in one gulp.

In the battle at Silverwing Town, relying on Versade, he had slain eight Saint-forged Devourers in a single sweep. Those eight streams of soul light had poured into his soul all at once, leaving his condition better than it had ever been. He even felt a faint, indescribable sense of omniscience, as though his thoughts were moving dozens of times faster than before.

On the surface, this was an enormously good thing for any player, but after ten years of experience in the Divine Realm — plus his numerous prior encounters — he had come to understand that such gifts always came with a prerequisite: sufficient nutrition and energy. Without that foundation, the blessing could easily become fatal.

After drinking the Life Elixir, Shi Feng felt his overheated and throbbing brain gradually beginning to calm down. The stabbing pain steadily weakened, but as time went on, the elixir's effects grew ever weaker...

Clearly, a single Life Elixir was no longer enough to restore his depleted life energy. It had merely addressed the most immediate danger. He looked outwardly similar to before, but his body and brain were still in a state of hunger — or rather, weakness.

"Running short on S-grade nutrient solutions and Life Elixirs really is a troublesome problem." Shi Feng massaged his temples, feeling a headache coming on.

Although the immediate crisis had been averted, if things continued on this trajectory, the burden on his body would only grow heavier.

And setting aside this particular incident, it was likely that many of Zero Wing's members would eventually need S-grade nutrient solutions or even Life Elixirs. Without them, not only would future operations be severely hampered, but the organization's growth potential would be seriously compromised. After all, Zero Wing already had far fewer top-tier talents than the major superpowers.

Now that things were finally starting to look up, running out of supplies could easily undo all their hard work.

Currently, the matter of Credit Points was manageable for Zero Wing, since they had partnered with numerous superpowers and could earn a substantial amount through resource trades or gold coin exchanges. It was precisely because of this that Zero Wing's cash flow had held up without any problems until now.

But S-grade nutrient solutions and Life Elixirs were a different story entirely. According to the intelligence Shi Feng had gathered, the annual sales volume of S-grade potions was extremely limited. Over eighty percent of all S-grade nutrient solutions were purchased by the world's largest financial conglomerates, with only a trickle reaching the open market. As a result, they had been driven to astronomical prices, and even then they were nearly impossible to buy.

Shi Feng was not surprised by this, because S-grade nutrient solutions not only possessed powerful restorative properties but also, with long-term consumption, could maintain a degree of youthfulness. That was something money alone could not guarantee — after all, a thirty-year-old body and a fifty- or sixty-year-old body were worlds apart in terms of vitality.

As for Life Elixirs, they went without saying. As a new type of elixir, their rarity far exceeded that of S-grade nutrient solutions, and their quantity was pitifully small. S-grade nutrient solutions could at least be purchased in small amounts at intervals, but Life Elixirs were virtually impossible to obtain. Having acquired some before had been nothing short of luck.

Just as Shi Feng was feeling a headache over the scarcity of S-grade nutrient solutions and Life Elixirs, a knock sounded at the door.

"Head Coach Shi, they've arrived at the top-floor reception room." Liang Jing knocked and said.

"All right, I'll be right there." Shi Feng quickly tidied up and followed Liang Jing straight to the top-floor reception room of Zero Wing's headquarters tower.

Top-floor reception room.

In this lavishly appointed room with a panoramic view of most of the city skyline, there were two women and one man. Leading the group was none other than Phantom Myth's vice president, Hanguang Shiying — in reality, Fang Shihan, one of the most outstanding members of the younger generation of the Fang family.

However, it did not appear that Fang Shihan was here on behalf of the Fang family, since neither the man nor the woman accompanying her was from the Fang clan. While appearances alone made precise judgment difficult, the woman at her side seemed to be Yubai — the female knight they had encountered in the Ancient Secret Realm before.

Yubai in the real world looked quite different from her Divine Realm counterpart, yet her bearing was unmistakably the same. What was most striking, however, was that in reality, Yubai was even stronger than she appeared in the Divine Realm. Although not quite a Grandmaster, she surpassed many who held that title, and in any top-tier martial arts academy or training center she would be considered an absolute genius — even a prodigy. Yet such a person was completely unknown in the combat sports world.

The man standing nearby was also familiar — Matt, whom they had met at the training center before, a body-tempering expert just half a step away from the Grandmaster realm. But compared to the Matt they had seen a few months ago, the aura he now exuded was far more powerful.

One had to admit — having a world-class financial conglomerate backing you was a tremendous advantage. The sheer abundance of resources was something Zero Wing simply could not compare with. Setting aside Matt's improvement in technical skill for the moment, his body alone had become as massive and robust as a great bear. There was really no need to worry about his advancement anymore.

As Shi Feng walked into the hall, all three pairs of eyes turned toward him simultaneously. Fang Shihan's gaze in particular landed on him like an appraisal of an object — not at all the way one person would look at another.

"Miss Fang, it's been quite a while. May I ask what was so urgent that you needed to see me?" Shi Feng said bluntly, looking straight at Fang Shihan.

After he had demonstrated his Grandmaster-level combat prowess and completely outmatched Matt, the entire Fang family — or rather, Phantom Myth — had suddenly quieted down considerably. But he understood that this calm was merely the prelude to the next storm.

After all, a fighter of Matt's caliber was nothing more than one of Phantom Myth's outstanding trainees — not a guild executive, nor one of the guild's top-ranked experts. Otherwise, he would not have been taking orders from Fang Shihan.

"Master Shi — no, I should address you as Guild Master Black Flame, shouldn't I? Am I correct?" Fang Shihan watched the approaching Shi Feng calmly, a faint glimmer of amusement flickering in her dark, night-like eyes.