I'm Really Not an Assassin

Yosef looked at the bag in front of him, paused for just a moment, and then took it again.

"Alright."

As he injected Wish Power into it, numerous thoughts flashed through Yosef's mind.

It was Li Le who had explained the interest rates before, not him!

So whether the "nine out, thirteen back" was for a year, a month, or a week, it was all up to him to decide!

Two thousand Wish Power in loans, plus 'Joy', should be enough.

Yosef had no intention of letting Tao Yu repay the two thousand Wish Power. He planned to let him remain indebted, considering the interest as his reward for serving him. Combined with 'Joy', he should be able to manage!

Thinking this, a smile crept onto Yosef's lips.

An Outer City peasant with a B-rank Talent was actually quite good. His [Dynamic Vision] was also a Talent that could quickly form combat power, as best exemplified by the Giant Python he'd solo-killed.

With a little investment, he could quickly get a lackey who was a human cannonball. Why wouldn't he?

This time, they had encountered a Space-Time Anomaly, and finding a valuable lackey was proving quite difficult!

Seeing Tao Yu finish absorbing again, Yosef even asked, "Need more?"

"Yes!"

Upon seeing such a good opportunity, Tao Yu didn't hesitate.

"However much you can lend, I'll take."

After speaking, he looked expectantly at Winuo, saying, "Lord Winuo, you too."

Winuo sneered upon hearing this.

"You're Yosef's person. I won't break the rules and interfere."

"I, I want to borrow too!"

Chen Guan said, raising his hand tremblingly.

His gun had been taken, and he had no ranged weapons now. He felt he was in great danger.

Actually, Chen Guan didn't want to borrow Wish Power at such an interest rate. But the problem was, after borrowing the Lord's Wish Power, the Lords wouldn't let him die so easily, right?

The interest was just the price for his life!

But as soon as he finished speaking, Yosef, who had been amiable to Tao Yu and lent him three thousand units of Wish Power, slapped Chen Guan across the face.

He sent Chen Guan's feet off the ground, and his teeth, mixed with blood, sprayed out.

"Brother Tao has a B-rank Talent, what are you? A piece of trash who doesn't recognize his own value dares to speak?"

Teeth don't grow back. Yosef's slap had almost crippled Chen Guan!

If he got an oral infection or something, he could very well die on the road.

With his head spinning and swaying, Chen Guan struggled to stand. His vision was blurred with double images, but after such a blow, he didn't dare to utter a single word of retort.

Instead, he kept apologizing, his mouth full of gaps, repeatedly saying, "I was wrong, I was wrong..."

"Aren't you going to take your things and get to the front? Are you really going to let Brother Winuo go first?"

It was Winuo, who usually had a short temper, who now yelled, "Alright, if this guy really dies, we'll have to find someone else to fill in. Just leave it at that. Don't get in my way."

He then glanced at Tao Yu playfully and said, "Since you have Wish Power, practice well on the way. That guy with the [Stamina] Talent doesn't have much shooting ability, does he? Give him the bullets, and don't just shoot randomly."

With Chen Guan having lost a mouthful of teeth, Zhang Wei didn't dare to say anything else. He nodded repeatedly and gave all the spare bullets to Tao Yu.

Li Le, who had been watching coldly, chuckled inwardly.

Did you really think borrowing Wish Power was a good thing? Heh, ignorant!

Only Tao Yu gratefully thanked Yosef with a smile. He then took the bullets handed over by Zhang Wei and began to divide his attention among his various skills.

Three thousand Wish Power had arrived!

His parents might have had to save for several years, scrimping and saving, to accumulate this much Wish Power, yet an Inner City disciple could casually borrow it!

Although Tao Yu knew the other party's intentions and purpose through the 'free' gift of 'Joy', the fact that he could produce it so readily showed the absolute gap in wealth accumulation.

If it weren't for the Facehugger incident, Tao Yu really wouldn't have considered borrowing Wish Power.

Now that the two Inner City disciples had joined forces, and without any major changes, his room for maneuver was limited.

The gap in absolute strength was too vast.

But since there was the Facehugger, and he knew what kind of monsters were on the plains, he didn't hesitate. Safety first. He had to do everything he could to improve himself now!

[Basic Combat], [Basic Weapons], [Stealth: Python], [Burst: Python].

Tao Yu deified four combat-related skills with his eyes closed.

Three thousand units of Wish Power were credited to his account. He had never been this rich!

The first deification of skills was the most cost-effective choice!

[Basic Combat: Enhanced] Lv2: Consumes a small amount of mental energy to gain the ability to discern enemy weaknesses. Concentrating can imbue combat attacks with this ability, dealing mental shock to enemies.

[Basic Weaponry Refinement] Lv2: Consumes a small amount of mental energy to gain the ability to discern enemy weaknesses (stackable). Concentrating can imbue weapons with this ability, dealing mental shock to enemies.

[Explosion - Modified] Lv1: Can compress muscles to suddenly enhance explosive power. Concentrating and consuming a significant amount of stamina can stack compression states, causing damage to the body when exceeding physical limits.

These three skills each cost around eighty to one hundred units of Wish Power, leaving Tao Yu extremely satisfied with the deification efficiency he had come to expect.

However, the one that truly caught Tao Yu's attention was [Stealth: Python], which cost more than the other three skills combined!

"As expected, it costs more than double the reinforcement cost of [Basic Breathing Technique]."

As the skill information flowed into him, Tao Yu couldn't help but exclaim in admiration.

[Stealth - Modified] Lv1: Passively reduces one's presence. Actively increasing mental energy consumption allows one to meld into shadows. Actively increasing stamina consumption allows for rapid movement within shadows, with a certain probability of being detected by perception abilities.

It was originally just ordinary stealth, a camouflage and ambush technique, similar to how a python ambushes its prey. But after this reinforcement, it instantly took on a magical quality!

Meld into shadows!

This was essentially an invisibility skill now?

Furthermore, the rapid movement within shadows by increasing stamina consumption, based on the information received, wasn't like some stealth abilities that involved slow movement. Instead, it allowed him to achieve speeds within shadows that surpassed his full running speed!

Theoretically, this speed could even be stacked with attacks!

Combined with [Explosion - Modified] and the Blood Essence enhancement from [Basic Breathing Technique: Enhanced], plus [Bullet Time], and the mental attack added by [Basic Weaponry Refinement], Tao Yu realized that with multiple stacks and a suitable weapon, his close-combat burst damage seemed to have skyrocketed.

"I've really become an assassin..."

Tao Yu felt a touch of melancholy, yet it was also a choice born of necessity and high cost-effectiveness.

Beasts like Yosef and Winuo could casually lend out three thousand units of Wish Power. In their previous chats, their starting capital was at least a hundred thousand!

Coupled with mechanical modifications, heteromorphic implants, and advanced related skills from eighteen years of training, the Wish Power acceleration reinforcement they received put them far beyond the finish line of most Outer City residents right from the start!

When Tao Yu was gifted 'Joy' for free, he had used [Bullet Time] to observe Yosef. Even seemingly weak areas like his head were covered in metal, making a one-hit kill difficult.

With shoulder-mounted cannons, mechanical arms, and related abilities, his overall stats were a complete crushing defeat over Tao Yu.

Even using all three thousand units of Wish Power wouldn't change that!

But...

Even powerhouses like them would likely die if ambushed by a Giant Python or an Alien. Now, with Tao Yu's set of assassination and burst skills, he had a high probability of reaching the kill threshold!

However, without actually trying it, he couldn't be entirely certain.

With troublesome external enemies like Aliens around, Tao Yu had no intention of doing anything else for the time being. He just wanted to improve himself.

Seeing that he still had over two thousand units of Wish Power left, Tao Yu hesitated for only a moment before shifting his attention to auxiliary and miscellaneous skills like [Basic Herbal Identification].

Although they seemed to offer no direct combat support, their reinforcement costs were lower, around fifty units. Reinforcing them all wouldn't prevent him from saving most of his Wish Power for acceleration