Zhao Yao"s kept his eyes shut as he prayed earnestly when he tapped on the upgrade b.u.t.ton.

"Please, give me a useful ability! You must give me a good one!"

While Zhao Yao was still immersed in his prayers, two ability branches had already appeared before his eyes.

Boiling Part (Upgraded): This is the upgraded version of the power, Boiling Part, that you are familiar with. During the period of timefreeze, the speed of time would multiply by the current level of Matcha, making it 6X.

Hardening of Time: This will allow the user to absorb the power of time, by improving the user"s sensitivity to it.

Hardening of Time was like the previous powers offered. Its description was somewhat vague, making it impossible for one to truly understand its effects.

On the other hand, Boiling Part (Upgraded) was easily understood. Evidently, this was the same power that Zhao Yao had chosen previously, just that it got stronger. Also …

"This power is an upgrade of my current power." Beams of excitement shot out of Zhao Yao"s eyes as he exclaimed, "Six times the current speed! Based on my experience, this would affect the destructive power, the reaction time during timefreeze and my thought process! I"m gonna grow stronger holistically! Since my power was limited to 12 seconds, this effect would allow me to do 72 seconds worth of things within 12 seconds!"

"Currently, this power"s effect is tied to my current level. If I continue upgrading, the effects will grow increasingly more p.r.o.nounced! Furthermore, there is no cooldown attached to it at all!"

Zhao Yao was overwhelmed with excitement with the possibilities awaiting him. He did not hesitate and immediately chose the power, Boiling Point (Upgraded).

"Matcha, I have increased your power once again. This time around, everything you do during timefreeze will be accelerated. Let"s try it out." Zhao Yao glanced at the irritating superphone in his hand and decided to just switch it off and throw it inside the extradimensional belly.

At the next moment, he had already channeled Matcha"s ability and activated timefreeze.

When the entire world was a standstill, two figures swept across the pavement like a hurricane. All that was left were their shadows. In the blink of an eye, they had gone from the heart of the district to the entrance before making a dash out of the place.

"Haha, it"s too fast, Zhao Yao! I"m too fast!" Matcha screamed excitedly as his tiny frame whizzed past. To him, all his weight had evaporated into thin air and he felt weightless. By taking a tiny step forward, the scene surrounding him had already fallen behind.

In his eyes, everything, be it the pedestrians, cars, barriers, rubbish and the remaining obstacles remained crystal clear. Regardless of how fast he went, he still managed to evade them effortlessly.

When time resumed, Zhao Yao and Matcha"s body reacted by giving a soft shudder. They found themselves one kilometer from where they first started.

"Invincible, I"m invincible!" Matcha burst out laughing, "At this rate, no one can even hold a candle to me! Haha! My power has elevated me to the pinnacle of supercats!"

However, Zhao Yao remained silent. After waiting for a short while to ensure that the cooldown had already worn off, he began to swing his palm in the air.

Just 0.3 seconds worth of timefreeze allowed Zhao Yao to complete a series of actions which actually required 1.8 seconds. This was all completed when his actions were accelerated six times.

"I am the most vulnerable during my cooldown. The shorter the cooldown, the better it is."

"During the normal battles, I must maintain the cooldown time to below one second. This will prevent anyone from exposing my weakness and should be more than sufficient to take down the majority of my opponents."

"Now, I need to get some weapons that I can easily carry around."

Zhao Yao was extremely satisfied with Matcha"s upgrade. This power fitted his needs seamlessly. After slightly more than half an hour of experimenting in the garden, Zhao Yao finally returned home.

His phone started vibrating the moment he took one step out of the shower.

Zhao Yao picked up his phone from his bed and took a look at the display, "Inspector Ho?" He immediately picked up the call and was greeted by a somewhat hoa.r.s.e voice.

"h.e.l.lo, is this Zhao Yao? Are you asleep? It"s time for your toilet break. It"s bad for your body if you wake up at 4 or 5 am to settle your business."

Zhao Yao stared wide-eyed and could not believe his ears, "I never expected this guy to be so petty." Hence, he just responded with whatever that came to his head, "It"s okay. I"m as healthy as ever. During my previous health check-up, the doctor said that I was as fit as a bull. I enjoy perfect sleep every night and I"m br.i.m.m.i.n.g with energy throughout the entire day."

Zhao Yao let out a sigh before wiping off the sweat acc.u.mulated on his forehead, "Alright, other than reminding me to go for my toilet break, what do you want from me? You stupid petty man."

Inspector Ho responded with a cackle and said, "Do you know about the cat king compet.i.tion?"

A glint flashed across Zhao Yao"s head as all sorts of possibilities zoomed past his head. Finally, he responded with the simplest answer, "What the h.e.l.l is that? I don"t know."

"It doesn"t matter. Anyway, it"s just a city-wide compet.i.tion involving all supercats and their apostles. Are you interested in partic.i.p.ating?" Inspector Ho asked.

"Not interested." Zhao Yao replied adamantly, "I spend all my time in the café. I even have to prepare the food for Old Man Zhuang and take care of all the cats. This has already taken a toll on me. Where do I find time to partic.i.p.ate in this silly compet.i.tion?"

Zhao Yao had never planned to partic.i.p.ate in this compet.i.tion using his true ident.i.ty. Naturally, he was not about to divulge the truth.

"Hmph, in this case," Inspector Ho propped his chin on his hand and hesitated for a while before continuing, "To tell you the truth, we are also involved in the organization of this compet.i.tion and have sent some of our apostles to represent us. If you"re interested in partic.i.p.ating, I can supply you with some insider information."

A hint of hesitation flashed across Zhao Yao"s eyes. However, he managed to compose himself the next moment and reminded himself that this was just a test. He then replied nonchalantly, "I"m not interested. If there"s nothing else, bye."

Huddled inside the meeting room, Inspector Ho stared furiously at his phone and retorted, "How dare he hang up on me?"

Yue Shan, who sat right next to him answered, "How is it? Is that guy partic.i.p.ating?"

"No. It"s just one less troublesome guy on my side." Inspector Ho breathed a sigh of relief.

With the compet.i.tion about to begin, Inspector Ho decided to contact some of the powerful players in the region in the capacity of an organizer. He did not want any of them to disrupt the flow of this event.

Inspector Ho continued, "Zhao Yao is already one of the more reasonable apostles. The remaining ones are far worse."

A frown crept up Yue Shan"s face as he responded, "There are more and more strong apostles by the day. There"s the golden man who tried to take down Sphynx Cat and the headless horseman who annihilated Muscle Society. Also, there"s the supercat that had managed to subdue tens of cat kings. All of them are thornier than Zhao Yao."

Inspector Ho nodded his head and replied, "That"s why we have to improve our management. This compet.i.tion offers us the perfect opportunity. With the superphones, we can collect a ma.s.sive amount of information regarding the supercats and their apostles. We can even use the compet.i.tion to gauge their abilities and characters.

Since the awakening of supercats, we have adopted the safer approach - collecting intel secretly while strengthening our powers. Now, it"s finally time for us to act. Anyway, we have already decided on the top three winners, hence we don"t have to worry about the rewards."

At the same time, Inspector Ho"s phone started buzzing on the table. His forehead furrowed slightly when he took a glance at it. He let out a long sigh before commenting, "A pesky fellow is partic.i.p.ating."