Su Yao sat up straight in bed.

She remembered the naked man from her dream, his snow-white muscles, and something else.

Then she woke up.

But her dreams were all similar in this respect.  Whenever things reached a crucial point—like being about to be caught by a monster, about to be hit by a truck, or about to have diarrhea because she couldn’t find a restroom—

she would almost certainly wake up.

Waking up after dreaming of a handsome man and just before something explicit was about to happen was also quite normal.

Su Yao didn’t think much of it.

Next to the bedroom was a dressing room, with smart closets on all four sides, a huge dressing mirror embedded in the center.

She stood in front of the mirror and tapped the surface.

Dozens of style options immediately appeared in the air, each with multiple sub-options, showing various combinations based on the clothes in the closet.

She randomly selected a casual outfit for going out, and a virtual try-on appeared on the mirror.

Su Yao tapped confirm.

A coat, camisole, belt, shorts, sandals, and accessories like sunglasses and earrings popped out from different storage levels.

She got dressed and sat in front of another smart styling mirror.

The mirror captured her face, the system automatically started, and options appeared in the air.

After selecting a hairstyle, several small robotic arms slowly extended and came over to style her hair.

Su Yao touched the gemstone bracelet on her left wrist.

The chain quickly transformed, countless gears spinning, millions of tiny components assembling and recombining, revealing a silver-gray metallic paint layer and a sophisticated control panel.

An optical brain.

This was a miniature computer with all the functions of a smartphone, and it could also project a touch panel into the air, making it very convenient.

She opened the browser.

Perhaps because the previous owner frequently looked up related information, some of the automatically pushed web pages were about awakening and spiritual bodies.

Su Yao paused.

Bloodline awakening is divided into four stages:

Initial, Moderate, Deep, and Full Awakening.

Using feline bloodlines as an example:

Initial:  A person might grow claws and a tail.

Moderate: The body will be covered in fur, and the shape of the limbs and bones will change.

Deep:  The beastly features will exceed the human ones.

In the state of Full Awakening, a person will completely transform into another creature, with almost no human features left.

…Except for those with primate bloodlines.

The benefits of awakening are straightforward, such as a significant increase in physical fitness.

Not only is physical fitness enhanced during the awakening state, but even after the awakening state is deactivated, physical ability will still increase.  This is permanent.

Even with the same bloodline, a person who has never awakened and a person who can achieve Initial Awakening will have significant differences in strength, speed, and reflexes, even when both are in human form.

But it also brings various problems.

Some people cannot deactivate their awakening state, cannot return to a completely human form, and can only maintain partial bloodline characteristics for a long time or permanently.

Others suffer irreversible mental damage during awakening, their intelligence regressing to an animal state, leaving only primal instincts, and they have to be confined.

These are the negative consequences after successfully entering the awakening state.

During the process of attempting to enter the awakening state, there can also be various problems.

For example, people with animal bloodlines may be dominated by their animal instincts, leading to abnormal behaviors.

The higher the bloodline level, the more severe it may be.

Abnormal states may be related to appetite, combat, mating, etc., it could be one of these, or a combination.

Su Yao suddenly understood.

Right.

The original novel described Ruan Jiao’s Initial Awakening, entering a state similar to courtship.

Of course, the male lead helped her resolve it.

Thinking carefully, the female lead was already attracted to the male lead at that time, and was experiencing her first love.

What about her?

First, she had a strange mind-reading superpower.

She had been watching the subtitles, constantly using her ability, so she was exhausted and hungry.

This happened to trigger the subsequent abnormal state, making her imagine various foods and even drool over living people.

“Adults may enter the pre-awakening stage when they are fatigued, stressed, injured, near-death, or emotionally agitated, and be influenced by certain animal instincts.”

She slowly read this sentence.

In addition, everyone’s personality is different, their reactions to external stimuli are different, and their attitudes towards awakening itself are different, these are all influencing factors.

—If the animal instincts are suppressed in time during the pre-awakening stage, the awakening process can be stopped.

In fact, most people choose to do so.

Because once it’s allowed to progress, the consequences can be very serious.

For example, news of people with carnivorous bloodlines attacking or even biting people with herbivorous or omnivorous bloodlines in public has been common for years.

Su Yao searched the keywords.

Looking at the bloody scenes in the videos, listening to the screams and roars of terror, she was grateful that she hadn’t actually bitten the female lead or her classmates.

She then searched for information on superpowers.

—The official name is special abilities. Currently, there are hundreds of thousands of known types of abilities, and most people have a probability of obtaining their first ability before the age of twenty.

The higher the bloodline level, the more types of abilities and the wider the range.

In other words, if an F-level person has three choices for their first ability, an S-level person might have three thousand choices.

Therefore, there is greater uncertainty.

And which specific ability one obtains seems to depend more on personality.

In addition, special abilities consume a lot of physical energy. For most people, being able to use their ability once a day is good, and using it might leave them very tired.

And most people can’t recover after just a few minutes of sleep.

Su Yao checked again, but didn’t find any abilities similar to “mind-reading subtitles.”

Some people could sense other people’s emotions.

But when these people described their abilities, they referred to it as a “feeling,” not a clear form of expression like text.

Su Yao touched the back of her neck. “Saturday.”

A gentle, melodious androgynous voice sounded in her ear, “At your service, Duke.”

As the Su family’s super-brain that had been passed down for hundreds of years, Saturday had served seven generations of Dukes.

It possessed evolvable source code similar to human initial genes, and over time, it had generated multiple behavioral patterns to meet the needs of various users.

In other words, users could set its personality and language style, making it anything they wanted.

After officially obtaining the title of Duke and inheriting the legacy of the previous Duke, the previous owner underwent an implantation surgery, adding a virtual photon neural connector to her body.

Therefore, even though the main body of the brain matrix was in the Duke’s main residence, Su Yao could communicate with it at any time.

This connection could also be cut off at any time.

The previous owner didn’t like the brain much, and rarely interacted with it; most of the time, the connection was closed.

Su Yao was willing to make some changes.

For the same thing, if the previous owner chose A, she would choose B; if the previous owner was low-key, she would be high-profile; if the previous owner liked staying home, she would go out and have fun.

Perhaps this could also help her avoid triggering events that led to her death.

Moreover, her personality was vastly different from the previous owner’s, so she didn’t have to try; simply following her own heart would lead to completely different choices.

If it was truly an unavoidable plot kill?

Then so be it.

She was prepared for the worst.

“Saturday, what was my original schedule?  Don’t tell me, just cancel it all. I want to go shopping.”

“Yes, my lady. Should I have your bodyguard team follow you?”

“Yes, but keep a distance. Tell them, if I go crazy in public, they should stop me immediately.”

“Understood,” the brain responded, “You have messages from several guests—”

Every day, people tried to visit or contact her for various reasons.

Su Yao showed little interest. “What?”

The next second, several high-definition holographic projections appeared in front of her, all proportionally reduced human figures.

One after another, young men in skimpy or even shirtless attire.

In those projections, they struck various poses, their beautiful muscle lines clearly visible.

Some had even entered a beast-like awakening state, their furry ears twitching, their soft tails swaying in the air.

They had different hair colors, were all tall, some muscular, some slender, with different looks, temperaments, and styles, a diverse and attractive group.

The one who called himself her cousin and tried to seduce her with his tail was also among them.

There were QR codes below the projections.

Su Yao: “…”

Her discord with the Crown Prince, their argument in public, seemed to be a signal, reminding everyone who wanted to take advantage of the situation.

For these people, the worse her relationship with the Crown Prince, the more opportunities they had.

If they were a loving couple, they might not consider having lovers.

Su Yao: “Wait, let me save these.”

After selecting a few that looked acceptable, she headed to the back garden.

Under the dustproof membrane, several spaceships were parked.

The smallest was only a dozen meters long, the largest over a hundred meters from bow to stern.

They were of different sizes and brands, with different color schemes, each spotless, the paint gleaming brilliantly.

All the spaceships had exquisite golden lion head carvings on their bows, surrounded by closely arranged feather-like patterns forming embracing wings.

On the other side of the parking area, dozens of smaller vehicles were parked.

Land vehicles, wing vehicles, flying vehicles, and even amphibious vehicles were available.

Su Yao casually chose a small flying vehicle, opened the door lock via biometric detection, sat inside, opened the 3D map, and randomly selected the city center of the nearest city.

The vehicle started, the control panel lights lit up.

With the roar of the engine, it suddenly climbed to a high altitude, then shot out like an arrow, disappearing into the clouds.

Redien-XIII was a small artificial satellite, and because of its many unique artificial landscapes and pleasant climate, it had become a tourist and resort planet.

This was one of Su Duke’s most valuable properties.

She herself owned several resort castles here: one where the banquet had just been held, another under the sea, and another in the air.

Su Yao selected autopilot, completed the destination parking space reservation, leaned back in her seat, and watched the approaching city.

On the skyscrapers, magnificent screens were like paintings spanning the sky, stretching across several intersecting streets.

The commercial streets were filled with various entertainment, dining, and service facilities, and beyond them were residential areas, with a much lower density than the central area.

Small forests and lakes and rivers were interspersed, like blue and green gems scattered among the buildings.

The further out, the more artificial landscapes there were, all being mountainside or lakeside vacation villas.

After a few minutes, the flying vehicle entered the city, began to slow down, merged into the air traffic flow, and soon landed at a parking space.

People nearby cast astonished glances.

“…What kind of vehicle is that?!”

“Is it a custom-made Yunyi?! It must cost tens of millions!”

Su Yao walked through the chattering crowd and entered the city center streets.

On both sides were highly-rated restaurants and bars, bustling residents and tourists walking along the sidewalks, land vehicles flowing continuously, and the aroma of various foods mixing in the air.

Within a ten-meter radius centered on her, almost everyone passing by had subtitles above their heads.

At a glance, the subtitles were messy and blurry.

But if she focused on one person’s head, the characters became clear.

Su Yao only wanted to understand this ability, she wasn’t interested in invading privacy, so she didn’t read them carefully, basically glancing at them and forgetting.

Her energy began to drain.

She tried to turn off the ability again.

All the characters disappeared instantly.

Perhaps because there were too many people, and she had only looked for a short while, she felt tired again.

Su Yao sat down in front of a coffee shop.

In the outdoor seating area, green plant dividers stood between the tables and chairs, and cartoon drawings of food were painted on the glass wall near the shop.

She pressed her hand on the table corner, watching the menu window project into the air.

This time, the fatigue came quickly and went quickly, and she felt much better after half a minute, but she subconsciously started to sense the aura of passers-by again.

Su Yao quickly ordered several high-calorie dishes.

The food arrived quickly.

A robot placed the high-temperature sterilized tableware on the table, and she devoured the food.

A young waiter came over, explaining that the shop was newly opened, and asked about her dining experience and if she had any comments.

The current Duke Su’s photo hadn’t yet spread online.

The public only knew that she was the Crown Prince’s fiancée and had recently become the new Duke, but her specific appearance and name were unknown.

Olai law strongly protected privacy, and nobles and citizens had similar rights in this regard.  Anyone who arbitrarily spread portraits without permission would be prosecuted.

—Of course, when her wedding with the Crown Prince took place, she would definitely appear on camera.

But from any perspective, this was impossible.

“…No, it’s very good.”

While they were talking, a group of people at the next table were also chatting, discussing a holographic game.

“Legend is already in limited-access testing. It seems that only 500,000 people got the first batch of access, otherwise only Platinum members can play.”

“Oh, that’s too few! How many Platinum members are there in the entire universe?”

Su Yao: “!”

This world had holographic games!

Using a helmet or game pod as a medium, using brain-computer interface technology to allow people to have an immersive gaming experience—

This kind of game only existed in novels before her time travel.

“Saturday,” Su Yao left her seat and walked away, “What’s the most popular holographic game now?”

“In the holographic game topic, the game with the highest search index this month is Legend, which started its first limited-access test five standard days ago.  The next most popular is Hellstar, which started open testing last month.  Both are developed by Huafeng Company of the Seleia Empire…”

Su Yao opened the webpage and searched.

Because the previous owner wasn’t interested, she never browsed related content, so the optical brain didn’t receive any related news pushes.

She randomly clicked on several promotional videos. “Help me book a game pod?”

“Your three shuttles all have S-99 luxury general-purpose game pods in their entertainment areas. In your main residence, there’s also the Huafeng Company 60th Anniversary flagship version. My lady, that was a New Year’s gift from the Huafeng Company branch in the Kingdom’s capital star.”

Saturday paused, seemingly giving her time to react.

“Officially titled nobles of the Kingdom will automatically be upgraded to their Platinum users, allowing unlimited login to all their launched games. This is in your pending confirmation list, but you haven’t had time to read it.”

Su Yao: “?”

It seemed she had underestimated her status.

…

Seleia Empire star system.

In the capital star’s palace, the Royal Minister of General Affairs passed through the front courtyard garden and arrived at a crystal glass pavilion, bowing respectfully at the foot of the steps.

“Your Majesty, thank you for taking the time to see me…”

“This is the list of gifts received by the Royal Family in the first half of the year, which requires your signature.”

The black-haired man in the pavilion leaned against the railing, without any response, not even giving him a glance.

After a while.

“Sir.”

The black-haired man said in a low voice, “You faint from being startled by things you like…would waking up from that dream in reality be equivalent to fainting? Or twice?”

The Minister of General Affairs looked up blankly, “I-I’m sorry, Your Majesty, I’ve never had a similar experience.”

The black-haired man mused, “…It’s really incomprehensible.”

In a moment of silence, he raised his head to look into the distance, his gaze seeming to penetrate time and space, gazing at a certain point in the void.

“Let’s meet in person.”