Zheng Zha's Astonishing Wisdom

At that moment, Zheng Zha, who had been listening in, suddenly understood. "No wonder your Genjutsu worked on the mercenary Captain back in the Hive, A-Gen. At first, I thought it was some special rule of the Main God Space that allowed your Genjutsu to work across different worlds."

In the Naruto manga, it was explicitly stated that Genjutsu worked by disrupting the enemy's Chakra flow, creating illusions and achieving the effect desired by the caster.

By that logic, a ninja's Genjutsu should have been ineffective against creatures without Chakra.

But after Uchiha Gen's explanation, Zheng Zha finally realized that stamina was Chakra, and Chakra was stamina. They were two sides of the same coin.

As long as a living creature possessed mental energy and physical energy and relied on stamina to move, it had Chakra and could be affected by Genjutsu.

"Your understanding is correct, Zheng Zha. Now let's discuss your Exchanges."

Uchiha Gen then turned his attention to Zheng Zha and began the next round of Exchanges.

"I want a cool enhancement to serve as the team's main close-combat fighter!"

Zheng Zha stated his request.

Then, with an excited look on his face, he displayed his "astonishing wisdom." "While Zhan Lan was resting just now, I checked the Main God too. How about I Exchange for a Vampire Bloodline to improve my survivability, then get some Inner Force?"

"A Vampire Bloodline can provide excellent recovery abilities, while Inner Force can give me extremely powerful close-combat capabilities."

"A vampire who knows martial arts—just thinking about it is awesome!"

Hearing that, Uchiha Gen decisively rejected Zheng Zha's proposal. "I don't think that's a good idea!"

Then he spoke helplessly. "According to my research, Inner Force is positive energy, while a Vampire Bloodline is negative energy. If you enhance yourself like that, the positive and negative energies will clash, and yin and yang will be incompatible."

"The worst-case outcome is that your body explodes. At best, the two enhancements will drain each other internally, leaving you unable to display even one percent of their power and wasting precious Side Missions and Reward Points."

Although preventing Zheng Zha from enhancing himself with these clashing positive and negative energies seemed as though it would affect his later comprehension of the immensely powerful super S-Rank technique, Explosion: Creation of Heaven and Earth.

In truth, according to Zhang Heng's later settings, Zheng Zha was destined to comprehend either Explosion: Creation of Heaven and Earth or Destruction: End of the Universe.

The Explosion and Destruction skills Zheng Zha comprehended early on did not really matter. They merely turned him from the disgrace of his rank into a normal fighter of the same rank; they did not make him powerful enough to sweep through everything uncontested.

Since that was the case, they definitely could not let Zheng Zha enhance himself recklessly for the sake of the team's overall early combat strength.

Hearing this, Zheng Zha's face fell.

But he had not completely given up. He asked weakly, "Doesn't the Main God have any method to reconcile yin and yang and resolve the conflict?"

Uchiha Gen gave an affirmative answer. "Yes. The A-Rank technique Xian Gua Method and the Rank AA technique Wuji Chaos Art should be the most suitable for you."

At that, Zheng Zha's last lingering hope died completely.

Where was he supposed to get that many Side Missions to Exchange for those techniques?

At that moment, Uchiha Gen offered his own suggestion. "Even if you want to enhance two different power systems, you should choose ones that complement each other rather than ones that clash."

"I think Werewolf plus Dou Qi would be pretty good. A powerful body combined with explosive Dou Qi—I can teach you taijutsu too. Your close-combat abilities would be maxed out, and your survivability would also be quite good."

"Or you could enhance yourself with a Rank B Troll. I can teach you Chakra refinement and taijutsu. With the Troll Bloodline's powerful regeneration, you could refine a huge amount of Chakra and become a powerful taijutsu ninja."

"If you think those are too ugly, you can choose either the Vampire Bloodline or the Inner Force system alone, then Exchange for skills and equipment from the corresponding system to improve your combat power."

Here was a rather counterintuitive piece of trivia: Zhang Jie was actually a very responsible guide.

In the Central Continent Team without Uchiha Gen's involvement, Zheng Zha had also obtained one Rank B Side-Story Mission and 6,500 Reward Points in Resident Evil.

After Resident Evil, the Central Continent Team's second Horror movie world was Xenomorph.

At first, Zhang Jie advised Zheng Zha to enhance a bloodline, buy a weapon, and spend the remaining Reward Points on Physical basic attributes.

The unspoken meaning was that this setup could slaughter Xenomorphs with ease. Even if he was there and the Main God increased the difficulty, they would still safely clear the next world, and the following few worlds would be very safe as well.

After all, Zhang Jie did not want to actively harm anyone. He only wanted everyone to coast along.

But Zheng Zha refused to listen. Even after the Main God said that conflicting enhancements had a seventy percent chance of causing inhuman mutation, he split apart his Rank B Side-Story Mission and chose the clashing Vampire Bloodline and Inner Force. He could not even bring out ten percent of their power, directly becoming the disgrace of his rank.

Even then, Zhang Jie did not give up on him.

He offered a second suggestion, telling Zheng Zha to use the remaining Rank D Sub-plot from his enhancement to Exchange for a powerful technological weapon.

The unspoken meaning was that while this would not guarantee survival in the next few Horror movies, at least he would not need to worry about the upcoming Xenomorph world.

If Zheng Zha had Exchanged for a Gauss Automatic Rifle, a Fusion Gun, or a Pulse King, he really could have slaughtered Xenomorphs with ease.

Instead, Zheng Zha chose a Storage Ring, which was practically useless in Xenomorph.

At that point, Zhang Jie was completely speechless.

He could tell that Zheng Zha was deeply unconvinced by him, this veteran, and ignored every one of his suggestions out of a strong contrarian streak.

Even then, Zhang Jie did not give up on him and made a third attempt.

Since speaking directly would only provoke Zheng Zha's rebelliousness, Zhang Jie chose to instill his ideas through actions instead. He led everyone through training and taught them how to use Firearms, hinting that they should bring some Firearms into the next Horror movie world.

In the end, Zheng Zha used his remaining Reward Points to Exchange for mostly useless support items, and the Central Continent Team entered Xenomorph almost empty-handed.

What else could Zhang Jie say?

He could only let go of his urge to help others and respect their fate.

Because Zheng Zha enhanced himself recklessly and became the disgrace of his rank, a whole pile of people died in Xenomorph. The team nearly wiped, and the survivors returned to the Main God Space battered and broken.

If he had not been the protagonist with such a powerful ability to erupt at critical moments, he would have died along with them.

Whenever Uchiha Gen reread Infinite Horror in the past, he found it hard not to lose it whenever he reached this part.

But the Central Continent Team now was quite different.

Zheng Zha ignored Zhang Jie because he thought Zhang Jie was a useless veteran who had gone through four worlds yet was still inferior to him.

But Zheng Zha could take Uchiha Gen's advice to heart.

It was not only because Uchiha Gen was stronger than him, but also because he appeared far more professional.

Thus, after hesitating for a while, Zheng Zha chose one of Uchiha Gen's suggestions.