Wow! The item-dropping rate is really high!

Aryan stood at the entrance of the base, watching as the two started off-road vehicles slowly moved away, disappearing into the jungle foliage and vines. Only then did the iron gates slowly close, and as the vertical seam shrank, a delicate small face turned around silently.

The base's interior lights were a gentle white, softly flickering.

This steel base, silent for hundreds of years, showed technological glimmers for the first time.

The unattended main control screen flowed with strange characters and then fell completely silent—

"..."

"Is it... dawn yet?"

...

The same route was taken for both departure and return, with Bai E, who had already demonstrated his abilities, taking the lead in Vehicle No. 1.

In the rearview mirror, the silver-grey walls of the base gradually faded from sight.

"Plans always fail..." A phrase by Doyle Kevin suddenly flashed through his mind.

But wasn't our trip quite successful? Bai E pressed his lips together and stepped on the gas pedal.

Upon leaving the Beastified Jungle, they saw quite a few obvious pits all over the distant brown hilly terrain.

The experienced old soldier felt some relief and patted his chest, "Fuck! I didn't think we were so close to those green-skins! Lucky we didn't run into them..."

There were also soldiers who, until now, had not encountered any beastmen. They looked curiously at the distant potholes, one by one... unplanned, some close together, others a dozen meters apart, with a casual scattering.

"Are those the holes dug by those beastmen?"

"Yeah... just randomly?" The experienced old soldier felt somewhat sentimental, "A beastman sprouting from the ground is less demanding than us planting a vegetable..."

"Lucky we didn't run into them..."

"Yeah... lucky we didn't."

Although those green-skins didn't have the same insane aggressiveness as the insects, these more chaotic creatures were sometimes even more troublesome than the insects.

Beings with only "fighting" on their minds, if they're not in a fight, they're on their way to one.

They don't care about the consequences after the fight; either you knock me down, or I knock you down.

Even when facing organized human military groups, they dare to charge in; small-scale human squads are just their entertainment.

Primitive and savage, the vitality of these things, grown from the ground, is even more outrageous than that of insects...

To avoid them as much as possible is humanity's greatest strategic principle towards beastmen. After all, as long as it's not a face-to-face encounter, even their own kind can have a jolly good fight among themselves...

They're like a wave of lunatics who rove around looking for trouble just for fun!

In some ways... they seem quite similar to gamers.

Bai E pursed his lips, suddenly realizing there were quite a few similarities between the two.

Hope there won't be large-scale gamers joining the green-skin ranks for fun in the future?

With this thought flickering through his mind, Bai E didn't dwell on it but stepped on the gas to speed up, leaving the jungle far behind.

One must always look ahead...

The veil of the world was gradually lifting before his eyes, there were players, various natural disasters, and even things like Spiritual Energy.

Reality and illusion, individual and society... the opposing impacts and the mysteries of the world all came in quick succession. Humans of the Golden Age, hundreds of years ago, faced the onslaught of bugs and electronic demons and inevitably declined to what they are today.

As an inconspicuous part of the Dark Age, the only thing Bai E could do was to strengthen his personal abilities as much as possible—

Power and influence were both pursuits he needed to chase.

Sitting on the shaky seat of the off-road vehicle, Bai E found himself more able to calm down and clarify his greatest harvest from this trip—

Even the so-called "ancient strongest warrior," rated at a mere 2500 combat experience on the drop rate panel, was perhaps because he had no weapons, or perhaps because he was outnumbered, but this in itself could be considered a comprehensive assessment of combat power.

Just by experience alone, in the system's eyes, the combat power rating of the ancient strongest warrior was not even as high as a half-weak mantis bug that led some lower bugs to attack a military camp in the recruit trial.

But the fact is that even without the Digital Domain, the ancient warrior controlled by the electronic demon could probably defeat the Blood God, who was the peak existence among ordinary soldiers, in a 1V1 unarmed close combat, merely through his bodily instincts.

The drop rate panel didn't show all of his abilities, just as the Ability Extraction Card and the archery skills Yue Ying taught him hadn't been displayed on her initial drop rate panel.

The "ancient strongest warrior's" drop rate panel was certainly not the full extent of his strength, but even so, the two limited abilities he managed to drop fortunately—Specialization: Weapon Master and Trait: Death Resistance—were unimaginably powerful.

[Specialization—Weapon Master: The ancient warrior's combat experience makes you familiar with all understandable weapon types. Any "Weapon Class" specialization ability you possess is displayed with a +1 level in proficiency when actually used (actual display level cannot exceed level 10).

(Current applicable specializations: Agile Weapon Specialization, Heavy Weapon Specialization, Ranged Weapon Specialization, Light Firearms Specialization.)]

[Trait—Death Resistance: Biochemically modified, your body is imbued with an inexhaustible bloodline and substances that can deceive death. When you sustain fatal injury, your body can maintain the last spark of life until help arrives.

When you take damage exceeding your health limit, you can maintain 1 point of health and ensure certain mobility until "safe from peril and recovery begins"; or "the intact part of the body suffers a crushing blow"; or "a certain period of time (dependent on the survival status of the main body)".]

When Bai E killed the opponent and obtained the dropped items, he could feel his body starting to change imperceptibly, and it was not until the 24 hours of transformation had passed that he could truly perceive the definite changes within his body.

His surging blood felt as though it had taken on an unimaginably intense heat, and somewhere inside him an organ so minute it was as if it had grown out of nowhere, secreting hormones normally imperceptible. Bai E figured these were probably the so-called "death-defying substances" that would only come into play when sustaining fatal injuries...

Two abilities, one for combat, the other for survival.

Death Resistance let that ancient strongest warrior hold onto a breath of life even after being riddled with bullets, dragging his body outward with the remnants of his right hand. With this ability, Bai E felt he could avoid death quite certainly as long as he wasn't too reckless.

An indescribable sense of security wrapped around Bai E's heart; for the first time, he felt he could live safely in this world, and this was his greatest capital.

Not to mention he also had the highest authority of the global network base...

So, exploring "ruins" had so many advantages; no wonder it was put out as one of the three major development routes in the game content by the official website back then.

And since exploring "ruins" brought enough surprises to him, what about the other two?

One-third of the main mission was completed, but the Gene Optimization Solution and the reputation level of the factions were not yet done.

Sniper God Carlos probably didn't have much need to overpromise himself; his words were likely credible, so judging by Bai E's performance in this mission, his military achievements should be more than enough when he returned.

He should be able to formally proceed with the request for Gene Optimization Solution, and without any surprises, one shot of Gene Optimization Solution was guaranteed.

The only thing still uncertain was the faction reputation level.

Was it necessary for him as the leader to personally make a name for himself?

Players, what are you doing? Step it up!

[Tip: Your faction (Li Ming) has just eradicated a small Black Street force, reputation slightly increased.]

"..."

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