Boiling beans.
Yellow beans rolled in a small iron pot, giving off a faint aroma.
The three players found it novel and praised the game's object combustion engine again.
Boiled beans with some salt produced in Salt Well Town took care of the four men's lunch.
Cheng Shaofeng led the three players over to look at the Calamity Base's specialty machines.
"This is the core functional equipment of our Calamity Base, the Loot Generator. It can break down all energy-containing organisms to produce supplies for your use. This will be your primary source of equipment at this stage. Oh, and if you obtain a Skill Imprint, be sure to hand it over to the base. I will reward you with generous Merit Points based on the imprint's rarity."
"This is the Attribute Conversion Tower. It can identify any valuable item and reveal its exact values."
"Lastly, this is the Clone Production Pod. Our Calamity soldiers possess immortal souls. As long as they have clone bodies, they can continue fighting. This machine created your physical bodies. Every time you die, I need to mobilize the base's resources to reshape your bodies.
"Unfortunately! We are currently extremely short on supplies, and every clone body is precious. I will not permit any waste of life! For soldiers who repeatedly waste bodies without cause, I will seal their souls forever in the depths of the base, never to awaken again."
The three were immediately startled!
Thin Dog whispered, "An NPC in this game can issue an account ban? Seriously?"
Lin Tang said, "If you don't believe it, go kick him and see what happens."
Thin Dog's mouth twitched slightly. "I'm not stupid."
Ghost Face Demon Fox said, "Looks like this game's Death Penalty is pretty severe. Should we ask the NPC later if there are any ways to avoid the penalty?"
Cheng Shaofeng ignored the three players whispering right in front of him and continued speaking like an NPC:
"However, if you can prepare the Biological Raw Materials, electronic components, and energy needed for your resurrection body in advance, I can forgive your stupidity."
At that moment, the three men's watches flashed again.
Quest: Collect materials for a clone body Requirement: Biological Raw Materials *1, electronic components *1, Energy Materials: Several Only soldiers prepared for death are qualified to die. Resurrection is a very luxurious thing. Quest Completion Reward: 100 Merit Points
Aside from several dozen pounds of beans, Cheng Shaofeng had nothing on hand and could only reward the players with Merit Points.
Fortunately, these three players seemed to like that sort of thing.
After explaining the quest, Cheng Shaofeng stood on the hillside and looked down.
"Raiders are troublesome enemies. With your current strength, it will be difficult for you to defeat them. If you encounter them, prioritize staying alive. You can first hunt some mutated creatures to gain experience and Biological Raw Materials, while also replenishing our base's food supply."
"If there's anything you don't understand, you can ask Smart Butler Zero, our base's AI steward. It is on the display screens of the three machines. All right, soldiers. Take the weapons I prepared for you and go about your business!"
After Cheng Shaofeng finished speaking, he simply stood there and held his pose.
The other three exchanged glances and left the hillside.
The three machines had been placed by Cheng Shaofeng in the only small cave on the mountain. He had previously slept there whenever he came to take shelter from the rain or evade pursuit.
The cave was tiny. After fitting three machines inside, there was no longer room for anyone to sleep there.
Three weapons lay in front of the machines.
One was a long weapon, and two were short weapons.
The long weapon was the Rusty Mace Thin Dog had snatched from a Raider earlier.
As for the two short weapons, one was a crowbar, and the other... was also a crowbar.
Thin Dog reacted quickly and hugged the mace in both hands.
"This is the one I took from that Raider! I want this one!"
The other two shrugged and each picked up a crowbar.
The next second, Thin Dog froze. "Eh? This weapon has a stat panel now. It didn't last time. It can even trigger Bleed Damage. Pretty nice!"
Lin Tang said, "Eh? Why doesn't my crowbar have stats? Thin Dog, let me see yours. Let me play with it for a bit. I'm not going to steal it. Why are you being like this? Hand it over!"
While Lin Tang and Thin Dog fought over the mace,
the fox walked over to the Attribute Conversion Tower and placed his crowbar on it.
One second later,
a pale blue light flashed before the fox's eyes.
Notice: The attributes of 'Worn Iron Crowbar' are now visible.
The crowbar in his hand had revealed its attributes.
Worn Iron Crowbar Quality: Common Physical Damage: 5~12 Physical Attack +10%
The fox tapped his watch and shared the crowbar's attributes, allowing Thin Dog and Lin Tang to see them as well.
"Eh? So that's how it is."
Lin Tang stopped fighting over the mace and copied him, heading to the Attribute Conversion Tower to identify his own crowbar.
"Damn it! My weapon's rolls are actually worse than Hu Da's."
He shared its attributes.
Worn Iron Crowbar Quality: Common Physical Damage: 4~12 Physical Attack +9%
Both the lower damage limit and the Physical Attack bonus were one point lower.
The fox glanced at his crowbar.
The two men immediately froze.
Then they looked at Thin Dog's name.
()()
"Cough, cough!" The fox coughed twice, breaking the awkward silence.
"Well... now that we've seen the weapon stats, Thin Dog's weapon has the highest attack power and can inflict Bleed Damage. But his is a two-handed weapon, so it's more cumbersome to use than our crowbars. His Attack Speed and turning speed definitely won't be as fast as ours. So tactically, Thin Dog should be the main attacker, while the two of us assist with attacks and blocking."
Lin Tang did some quick calculations.
"That's right. The Wolf Tooth Club has a 10% chance of inflicting 50 points of Bleed Damage, which is far more useful than our percentage Physical Damage bonuses. Our base attack is too low. My own base attack is around 10 points, and the weapon damage is 5 to 12, so a 10% Physical Damage bonus only adds up to 2.2 at most. It's not very useful."
"Translated from the data into reality, it just means our crowbars are harder and hurt a little more when we hit people."
After understanding things for a while, the three looked around the base to see what else could be used.
They spotted a palm-sized square imprint resting atop the Loot Generator.
"Eh? Is this the Skill Imprint the NPC mentioned? The one that lets you learn skills?"
"That's right."
Zero's voice came from the Loot Generator's color display screen.
"The skill details are as follows."
A blue panel appeared before all three of them at once.
Skill Emblem: Barbarian Skin Radiation kills the weak, while the strong can absorb its power to strengthen themselves and grant their skin superior defense. Passive Skill Level 0/12 Next Level: 1 +3% Health +4% Physical Resistance +5% Radiation Resistance Applicable Class: Barbarian Class Required Barbarian Class Specialization Points: 1
Zero said, "However, unfortunately, you cannot learn it for now. You will need to reach Level 2 to gain Skill Points, then use those Skill Points to learn skills."
Thin Dog said, "Oh, all right. You can gain experience by killing monsters and enemies, right? I know this stuff. When I killed that Raider, I got 12 experience points. I only need 488 more experience points to level up."
Zero said, "A reminder to all soldiers: Please regularly make contact with Lord Cheng Shaofeng to back up your body data. This will allow your physical state at the time of backup to be fully restored when a clone body is produced."
Thin Dog suddenly understood. "Oh, so that's why there wasn't a penalty when I died. It was because I ran with the Lord after killing that Raider. He must have backed me up then. That was close. I almost lost the experience from a Raider."
The fox said, "Got it. It's a special Death Penalty mechanic. We have to return to the base regularly, or if we spend a long time struggling outside and then die, we'll directly start over from zero. The risk is too high."
Lin Tang nodded in understanding. "If I were a designer, I'd definitely set it up this way too! This is an unrestricted open world. If players log in and run around blindly without following the main storyline, then nobody will advance the plot and all the later content will go unused. In the end, the game would become a complete mess, and nobody would get to properly enjoy it. Sentinel really understands games."
The three left the base, preparing to head down the mountain and test the waters on a monster.
Zero's voice came from behind them. "Please do not challenge enemies that are too powerful. If a teammate dies, bringing his corpse back to the base will allow you to recover a large amount of Biological Raw Materials and electronic components."
"Okay, thanks!"
After the three weapon-wielding players descended the mountain,
Thin Dog secretly glanced back. "I have a way to deal with the Raiders!"
Before you continue