Just as Mu Bei opened the last treasure chest, A Ling's figure happened to appear at the door.
It held a heavy cloth bag in its hand, filled with crystal-clear virus crystals, each containing energy that could be exchanged for world source.
"A Ling, put these collected virus crystals in that corner over there." Mu Bei's voice carried a hint of unquestionable command, as he lay on the grand armchair, his finger pointing lightly towards the dark corner of the room.
"Understood." A Ling responded concisely, then immediately placed the crystals from the cloth bag in the corner. The crystals in the bag emitted a crisp sound as they collided with each other, like crashing crystal.
A Ling's movements were swift and accurate, without the slightest hesitation. After placing them down, it turned around, preparing to leave and continue carrying out Mu Bei's orders.
Mu Bei looked at A Ling's retreating figure and stopped it: "Don't be in a hurry to leave. With so many Zombies helping You, the mission will definitely be completed on time. Come, tell me, how much do You know about Jinzhou City?"
A Ling stopped, turned around, and Mu Bei could not see any extra emotion in its eyes, only absolute obedience to him: "Yes, Master."
A Ling did not say anything irrelevant, nor did it ask what Mu Bei was planning to do. It seemed completely uninterested in what Mu Bei would do next, appearing to possess the self-awareness of a subordinate.
According to A Ling's description, Jinzhou City is the last super-large Human survivor gathering place in this apocalypse.
The population is over 500,000, the city wall height exceeds 50m, the thickness exceeds 10m, and it is equipped with a large number of heavy firepower weapons.
It had once joined forces with another Strength-type Lord-level Zombie to attack Jinzhou City. A Ling was responsible for launching a large-scale Zombie tide to impact Jinzhou City, providing cover for the other Lord-level Zombie when it climbed over the city wall.
As a result, the Strength-type Lord-level Zombie had not even caused much of a stir within Jinzhou City before being surrounded and killed by the Human ability users who rushed over.
The elite Zombies that A Ling had painstakingly cultivated also suffered heavy losses under the counterattack of a large amount of heavy firepower and ability users, and it itself almost lost its life outside the city.
"How does the Strength-type Lord-level Zombie that attacked Jinzhou City with You compare to me in strength? Also, do You think I and You can break through Jinzhou City together?" Mu Bei asked A Ling.
A Human wanting to join forces with a Zombie to attack the Human's own fortress city?
A Ling felt extremely confused at this moment. Had it encountered a Human traitor?
However, Humans seem to be such creatures that are very good at infighting. As a Zombie, it was quite happy to see infighting among Humans.
"Its strength is far inferior to Yours, Master. If it were You, Master, who attacked the city with me back then, instead of that useless fellow, then Jinzhou City would definitely have been broken!"
A Ling's tone was a bit agitated when it said this, giving Mu Bei the feeling that it was instigating him to attack Jinzhou City.
Although Mu Bei's academic level was quite good, his life experience was insufficient. He could not tell how much of A Ling's words were true and how much were false.
There is a famous saying: Loyalty that is not absolute is absolute disloyalty.
Mu Bei knew with his toes that A Ling was not absolutely loyal to him now.
Although A Ling's virus crystals were in Mu Bei's hands, Mu Bei could decide its life and death at any time.
However, he could not guarantee whether A Ling would tell small lies on some difficult-to-verify issues, and whether it would do small, undetectable actions in the dark.
Mu Bei was very disgusted by this kind of scheming, considering it a behavior that wasted an extreme amount of time and attention.
He sighed slightly in his heart, 'If my AI were by my side, I could judge whether A Ling was lying when describing Jinzhou City based on its lie detection module.'
It's really troublesome without AI. If he could return to the real World, Mu Bei swore he would definitely get his computer back!
...
three hours later, Mu Bei, whose wounds had completely healed, stood before a large bag full of virus crystal cores, and then placed his hand on it.
He silently thought in his heart, 'Paradise, exchange all into world source.'
Subsequently, the entire bag of crystal cores instantly disappeared.
【Contractor has submitted a total of 8621 level 1 crystal cores, 1213 level 2 crystal cores, 231 level three crystal cores, and 11 level 4 crystal cores.】
【Exchanging world source...】
【Contractor has obtained 139.07 ounces of world source (Stage 1).】
"Exchange all into Stage 2 World Power, I'm going to add points to myself fiercely!"
A Ling, who was standing nearby, witnessed the scene of the entire bag of crystal cores instantly disappearing with its own eyes, and its heart was immediately filled with shock.
Where did this entire bag of crystal cores go?
Could it be that Mu Bei is not only a very powerful Strength-type ability user, but also a very rare Space-type ability user?
It had never heard of someone who could possess two abilities at the same time!
Subsequently, something even more shocking to A Ling appeared. It felt a very powerful energy fluctuation coming from Mu Bei.
In A Ling's perception, Mu Bei's biological energy level actually increased rapidly by a section within this power fluctuation.
The increase was not small, but it was not particularly large either.
But what truly shocked A Ling was that, in its perception, this increase was not superficial, it did not feel like a temporary buff, but rather very condensed, feeling like a permanent improvement!
Is this the reason why the Master is so strong?
If it were to absorb this bag of Zombie crystal cores itself, firstly, it would not be able to do it in less than three to five days, and secondly, the increase would be far less than the Master's.
Could it be that the Master's ability is neither Strength-type nor Space-type, but a Devouring-type ability?
It had never seen a Devouring-type ability that was so outrageous that its mother opened the door for it, utterly ridiculous.
The Master's current strength is already powerful enough to make it feel almost despair. If combined with such ridiculous growth, then the word "almost" can be removed.
A Ling certainly did not want Mu Bei to become its Master, but was forced to obey him due to Mu Bei's extremely powerful strength.
Now it seems that the gap between itself and the Master will only become larger and larger as time goes by, so it is better to put away some of its "little thoughts".
Mu Bei deliberately added points to himself in front of A Ling, and the result did not exceed Mu Bei's expectations, giving A Ling sufficient shock.
In A Ling's shocked eyes, Mu Bei said something that took the shock to the next level:
"Your mana should have recovered quite a bit, right? Call all the nearby Zombies over for me, I want to continue getting stronger!"
Does this person's Devouring-type ability not even have a cooldown?
Swallowing so many crystals in one go without even needing a rest?
If it were to eat so many virus crystals in one go, there would be no other outcome than being burst to death by the massive energy.
"What are You What are you standing there for? doing? Do You want me to kick You again? Just a reminder, my Strength has just increased quite a bit, and my control over the force won't be too good."
"I'm sorry, I will do as the Master says immediately."
...
Two days later, in the early morning, Mu Bei took off the bulletproof vest, helmet, and other protective gear that had been torn apart, and stopped slaughtering Zombies.
These protective gears were found in an abandoned police station. For the current Mu Bei, the defensive effect they could provide was only slightly better than nothing, but it was better than nothing, so Mu Bei still wore them.
As for why he stopped slaughtering Zombies, it was certainly not because he couldn't kill anymore, but because his physical attributes had swelled to the extreme value of the current stage.
Yesterday morning, when Mu Bei's Agility actual value reached 100 points, Paradise sent a prompt:
【Detected that the Contractor's Agility attribute has reached 100 points, reaching the Stage 2 attribute limit of the semi-dataized body, and the Contractor has not yet completed the Stage 1 and Stage 2 attribute barrier breakthrough assessments of the semi-dataized body.】
【Prioritization judgment is in progress...】
【Judgment complete, the Contractor cannot continue to increase attributes without breaking through both the Stage 1 and Stage 2 attribute barriers.】
...
Strength: 64.50【100】
Constitution: 64.50【100】
Agility: 64.50【100】
Intelligence: 64.50【100】
Charm: 5
...
Now, except for the Charm attribute, all other attributes that could be increased have been raised by Mu Bei to the limit of the current stage, from single digits at the beginning to three digits now.
Only Mu Bei's Charm attribute did not increase but decreased, from 5 points at the beginning to 5 points now.
Let me clarify beforehand, it's not that Mu Bei didn't add points to his Charm attribute.
Of course, he also added points to the Charm attribute, a total of 5 points, increasing it from 5 points to 10 points.
A mere 0.5 ounces of Stage 1 quality World Power was nothing to Mu Bei, just to see the actual effect after increasing the Charm attribute.
So, Mu Bei's Charm attribute actually increased from 5 points to 10 points, and then dropped from 10 points to 5 points.
So the question is, why did Mu Bei's Charm attribute decrease?
Mu Bei also wanted to know, so, during the halftime break after a large amount of killing, he reviewed the historical records of the Paradise prompts through the Contractor's mark.
Mu Bei would not be distracted during combat to pay attention to these prompts. There were many prompts transmitted during combat that he did not notice, so he had to re-read them during the break.
After browsing nearly 30,000 prompts, Mu Bei finally found the reason for the decrease in his Charm attribute:
【Detected that the Contractor has engaged in a massive amount of killing behavior in a short period of time.】
【Prompt: This type of behavior has a probability of permanently reducing the Contractor's Charm attribute. If the Contractor continues to kill in close combat, the probability of the Charm attribute decreasing will gradually increase, up to 100%.】
...
【Your Charm attribute is about to decrease.】
...
【Your Charm attribute has decreased by 1 point.】
...
【Your Charm attribute has decreased by 1 point.】
...
Mu Bei counted slightly, and the prompt for a permanent decrease in the Charm attribute has appeared a total of 6 times so far.
Before the 1st appearance of the prompt for a permanent decrease in the Charm attribute, the number of kill prompts was around 10,000;
Between the 1st appearance and the 2nd appearance, there were approximately 9,000 kill prompts;
Between the 2nd and 3rd appearances, there were approximately 8,000 kill prompts;
Between the 5th and 6th appearances, there were only approximately 5,000 kill prompts.
The number of kills required for each 1-point decrease in Charm attribute is continuously decreasing.
From this, it seems that the more killing there is, the faster the Charm attribute decreases.
Mu Bei can spend World Power to raise his Charm attribute, but as he continues to cause kills, the Charm attribute will eventually drop.
Therefore, Mu Bei believes that increasing the Charm attribute is purely a waste of his World Power.
During a rest after a killing spree, Mu Bei had looked in the mirror once.
At that time, he found that the person in the mirror was already very different from when he first entered the trial World.
His appearance, of course, had not changed. The person in the mirror was still that handsome young man with delicate features and sharp contours.
What truly changed drastically was his temperament and eyes.
Before, due to physical problems, Mu Bei's eyes were dull, and his temperament was at most a bit world-weary;
Now, the Mu Bei in the mirror had eyes as sharp as knives, and a bloodthirsty, cold killing intent;
To be honest, if his face hadn't changed, Mu Bei himself wouldn't believe that the person in the mirror was him!
"Unconsciously, has the 'flavor' changed so much?"
Mu Bei sighed.
"This is really, too great!"
...