Chapter 55 A New Aura of Fortune

Chen Ye smiled faintly, not feeling overly anxious.

Currently, apart from his professional identity as a [Wandering Musician], he also possessed two distinct traits: [Chef Apprentice] and [Painted Skin].

This was already a remarkably good starting hand!

Moreover, [Wandering Musician] was a profession fused from two traits through [Wanderer].

However, [Wandering Musician] still belonged to the first-tier professions, merely stronger than conventional first-tier professions.

It had not yet reached the realm of the second tier.

After all, the suona corresponded only to the musical instrument trait, possessing a single [Apprentice] trait, which was incomplete.

A true second-tier profession required possessing the traits of two complete professions and achieving a perfect fit between them.

Next,

Chen Ye prepared to test his newly acquired trait—[Painted Skin].

Suddenly, he felt as though an extra layer had appeared over his face.

Although it fit snugly against his facial features without causing any discomfort, it felt as though it could be peeled off.

Chen Ye carefully placed his hands on both sides of his face, gently peeling downwards from beneath his earlobes.

An eerie and chilling sensation accompanied the separation from his face...

That human-skin-like face slowly detached itself from Chen Ye's actual face!

Yet, this face had no eyes, no nose, and no mouth; it was completely flat.

Chen Ye instinctively touched his original face and found that his nose, eyes, and mouth were still there; his facial features remained his own.

It was just that this extra face was a trait-based ability bestowed by [Painted Skin].

"In other words..."

"I can change my current appearance by drawing on this extra human face?"

"No wonder it's called [Painted Skin]."

Compared to a true [Faceless Man], [Painted Skin] was like a castrated version of that trait.

After absorbing this trait...

A wealth of painting knowledge surged into Chen Ye's mind.

He gained an instant, more concrete understanding of facial features, automatically sub-categorizing and classifying the facial traits of different age groups, genders, and demographics.

This provided tremendous assistance for his drawing.

With a thought, he opened the bag of complimentary items gifted by Lin Shu.

Inside were a writing brush, a bottle of ink, and an eraser...

Chen Ye understood the purpose of these items given by Lin Shu:

"These must be the tools used for Painted Skin."

"One simply needs to draw the desired human face upon it."

"Then, place it over one's own face to complete the face swap."

Soon, Chen Ye tried putting brush to paper, sketching the face of a stern young man upon the human-skin mask.

At first...

Chen Ye felt that the ink brush in his hand was difficult to control, making it hard to replicate the image in his mind onto the mask with absolute precision.

Yet, as he calmed his mind and practiced for a while, his progress was remarkably evident.

"Could it be that the [Apprentice] trait is also exerting its effects in other domains?" Chen Ye felt a quiet astonishment within as he perceived his improving skill in "drawing human faces."

At this moment, the facial features presented on the human skin were lifelike.

At a glance, it truly looked as though the face of a living person had been peeled off. As a gentle breeze blew, the paper-thin "human face" swayed softly.

During this slight sway, it was as if thousands of different expressions flashed across this face simultaneously.

He tried wearing the human-skin mask.

The chilling touch fitted closely against his face, feeling somewhat like applying a facial mask...

A moment later, Chen Ye felt his facial features grow slightly warm, and the bones of his entire face seemed to undergo a strange transformation.

He touched his face again with his hand.

The tactile sensation was completely different from before!

His nasal bridge was higher and straighter, his lips fuller, his forehead flatter, and his cheekbones narrower, with sharp, well-defined contours.

Even though he tried his best to open his eyes wide, touching them revealed that they still felt like narrow slits.

Chen Ye activated the camera function of the bloody smartphone, pointed the rear lens at himself, and took a picture.

The photo displayed an unfamiliar face, which matched the appearance drawn on the human-skin mask almost identically.

Naturally, Chen Ye's current build was a bit too small, so this slightly mature-looking face appeared somewhat incongruous on a youth's body.

"I've finally learned how to use [Painted Skin]."

"This is practically equivalent to acquiring face-swapping technology!"

"In the future, this trait will be quite useful for concealing my identity or interacting with other players."

Chen Ye nodded in satisfaction, giving a favorable evaluation to this new trait.

He removed the human-skin mask.

Shortly after,

his facial features reverted to his original appearance.

At this point, Chen Ye directed his gaze toward the eraser beside the ink bottle, picked it up, and wiped the surface of the human-skin mask.

With just a gentle sweep, all the facial expressions vanished, and it quickly reverted to its original flat face.

Donning it on his face once more.

A flat face without any portraits drawn upon it brought no changes to Chen Ye, nor did it cause any discomfort.

It felt merely as though he possessed an extra human face that he could take off, paint, and put back on at any time.

My face, my decision!

"This trait is quite convenient after all."

Chen Ye pondered for a moment, then drew a completely ordinary, featureless, generic face upon it.

Lately, while surfing the internet, he discovered that he had unexpectedly become the rumored "Dark Music Ghost" of Xijiang?

That would surely attract the attention of many players.

His original face was too delicate, the kind of protagonist face that stood out instantly in a crowd.

He could not be too conspicuous...

To maintain a low profile, Chen Ye decided to change his face before heading to Xijiang, preventing other players from recognizing his identity too quickly.

Having changed his face anew,

Chen Ye checked the time and found it was still midday, leaving him with a good window of time to head to Xijiang and practice the suona.

And by the way, rack up more steps.

Although the weekly task of walking 100,000 meters was already completed,

the monthly task had only reached one-tenth of its progress; he needed to walk a million meters in total!

Three days had already passed.

This meant Chen Ye had to maintain the pace of the past three days just to barely manage to complete the task by the last day of the month.

Subsequent increases in the span of strange energy required would likely demand reaching over 10,000 points before the [Wanderer's Boots] could upgrade again.

As for the upgrade after next, the accumulated strange energy required would certainly be even higher!

Chen Ye understood that to complete the monthly staged task, the progress was still somewhat tightly squeezed; he had to seize every single minute and second, leaving enough margin to ensure the task's completion.

At this moment,

observing the aura halo above his head...

That trace of purple qi had already vanished.

Ever since he exchanged for this [Painted Skin] from the Faceless Man family, the clues of the purple qi had been thoroughly explored.

Now, the aura halo lingering around his body was imbued with a mysterious yellow hue.

However...

The mysterious yellow qi, swirling like a thin mist, was tinged with black ink at its center, interweaving with the sky-blue outer ring to present a unique tri-colored halo.