The Calamity Base was peaceful and serene.
Ink Dye Sword Xiao was crafting a short bow, looking very busy.
Cheng Shaofeng had just finished chopping wood and was moving stones to build something.
Lin Tang jogged all the way back to the base.
After taking a sip of water, he said, "Lord, I need to borrow the base's cart to bring back some supplies."
Cheng Shaofeng was slightly surprised.
How many supplies did they have to need a cart?
Supplies that the three of them could not carry by hand?
Still, he readily agreed.
"Take it, soldier. Make sure you return safely. This is our only means of transport."
"Don't worry! By the time we get back, we'll have practically completed the mission."
He mysteriously placed a bundle he had been carrying into his shack.
"Xiao Xiao, keep an eye on this for me. Don't let anyone touch it."
"Okay."
Xiao Xiao answered while continuing her work.
"Oh, I used your Radiant Flower. I gave today's weapons dual attributes. Maybe we'll get better rewards when we turn in the mission."
"Use it however you want. I'll gather more when it's gone."
After saying that, Lin Tang hurried off, pushing the cart.
Thinking of the dual-attribute weapons Xiao Xiao had crafted, Cheng Shaofeng's lips curled slightly.
"Post a mission. Doesn't that mean I have good weapons to use now too?"
At the same time, he thought of a very interesting question.
"Zero, weapons made by our base gain attribute panels after being appraised by the Attribute Conversion Tower, and after being socketed, they can even gain skills. If—if I gave such weapons to locals who aren't players, what would happen? Could they use the weapons' power?"
Zero replied, "Master, although they cannot see the weapon data, the weapons function with the same power as they do for players. By adjusting the socketed items, they can also use the skills on them, consuming mental energy to guide Aura Skills for enhancement."
"Actually, all the data displayed by the base is an objective description of an object. For example, health and mana correspond to a person's vitality and energy levels. When no other energy is available in the human body, mental energy substitutes for energy. However, prolonged skill use places strain on the brain, causing dizziness, nausea, and mental disorientation."
"Oh, I roughly understand. So if Thin Dog and the others want to use skills, they need to continuously consume someone's mental energy."
After learning some of the Nano Base's rules, Cheng Shaofeng continued building the house.
He wanted to set up a store specifically for selling things to players.
"My head is spinning. Did I get hit with some Debuff?"
Thin Dog shook his head, feeling uncomfortable.
The Fox Demon hurriedly asked, "check smartwatch. Is there any injury notification?"
"No? There's a blue progress bar on my smartwatch, with around 30% left. It's still slowly dropping. What is this? Fuck! This is my mana bar. I activated the skill and forgot to turn it off."
He hurriedly adjusted the socketed item on his weapon. The pulling force coming from the weapon vanished, and the Armor Piercing Aura on both of them disappeared at the same time.
"Phew... Keeping this skill active drains mana too. Does low mana cause Debuffs?"
The Fox Demon took Thin Dog's weapon and activated the aura again.
A mana bar appeared on his smartwatch as well, immediately dropping by 50% before beginning to decline slowly.
Feeling out his condition, the Fox Demon analyzed, "According to the description, activating this aura lowers the Energy Cap by 50, and it also consumes 1 energy per second. Our mental energy is slowly recovering too, but the recovery speed hasn't reached 1 point per second, so it keeps dropping. If we stack some mana recovery attributes, we can keep this aura active without putting a burden on our minds."
Thin Dog immediately thought of the hand equipment stored at home: the Rune Bone of Destruction!
"That bone increases Energy Recovery Speed by 33%. It probably refers to our mental energy. So if we want to keep the aura active permanently, one of us has to hold a spear in one hand and keep holding that bone in the other."
"Yeah, but that might make us less flexible, and our attacks would be much weaker. Maybe we should find a one-handed sword to socket, then hold the bone in the other hand?"
"Shh! There's a mutated deer ahead. Let's sneak over."
The two surrounded it from both sides. After some tense and exciting maneuvering, they successfully made the deer run away.
"Damn it! This thing is even harder to farm than Raiders!"
"It runs the second it sees people. What a coward! Those antlers are wasted on you. Why don't you fight like a man? Going back to play Mr. Antlers for the does, huh?"
Powerless and furious, the two could only curse it out.
Finally, the Fox Demon concluded, "We need a ranged weapon! If we can't get a gun, we'll get a bow. Next time, we'll shoot that deer with an arrow first. Then it won't be able to run so fast."
As they spoke, a creature covered in colorful fur was wandering through the hollow ahead. It seemed to be searching for bugs in the soft ground.
It was about one meter tall and looked very sturdy.
Thin Dog said, "Uh... judging by its shape, this seems to be... a chicken?"
The Fox Demon nodded. "Looks like one to me too, but who cares what it is? Look at all those feathers. If we catch this chicken and bring it back, Xiao Xiao can make hundreds of arrow fletchings from it."
Their gazes hardened. "We have to catch it!"
They sneaked closer again. This time, Thin Dog had learned his lesson and directly hurled his stone spear as a ranged weapon.
Pfft!
One of the hairy chicken's feet was pierced. The stone spear's astonishing penetration drove through its toes and into the ground.
"Cluck-cluck-cluck!"
The hairy chicken let out a miserable squawk, as though it had encountered three single Indian men.
"Go!"
The two pounced. Thin Dog pinned the chicken down with his body while the Fox Demon struck its head with the butt of his Wolf Tooth Club, knocking it unconscious.
They gathered some willow branches from nearby and tied the hairy chicken up securely.
When Lin Tang arrived and saw the two men catching a chicken, he laughed.
"Well, well... you two are playing pretty wild. That reminds me of that story about an old man and a camel in the desert. Heh heh... Remember to skin its back first."
Thin Dog said, "Fuck off! Hurry up and tie this thing to the cart. Let's get home already. We've struck it rich this time!"
The Calamity Base.
Cheng Shaofeng stared at a cart full of Raider corpses and a hairy chicken that had already awakened, falling into deep thought.
"So... you borrowed the cart because you killed too many Raiders and couldn't drag them back, right?"
Lin Tang said, "That's right!"
Looking at the Raiders' massive bodies even after death, Cheng Shaofeng's lips twitched slightly.
Then he calmly nodded. "Soldiers, you have done fairly well. You are close to reaching my expected standards. Keep working hard. You still need to find more energy sources before you can—"
"Here!"
Lin Tang took out a black box the size of a vibrating egg, successfully cutting off the rest of Cheng Shaofeng's words.
Zero said, "Detected intense nuclear energy fluctuations inside the item before you. It can replenish the base's energy. Absorb it?"
Cheng Shaofeng took it and asked, "Where did you find this?"
Lin Tang said, "Oh, didn't you say Raider Camps all have this kind of radiation source? So we casually slaughtered one, and sure enough, we found it."
Cheng Shaofeng said, "..."
The other two teammates: (￣▽￣")
"Ahem... Lin Tang, don't show off too much. What if the NPC thinks we're too capable and sends us on some dangerous mission? We'll be dead for sure."
"Ah, right! Then should I say we picked it up on the road?"
Cheng Shaofeng looked at the three whispering among themselves, his heart deeply shaken.
What kind of godly players are these? Those huge Raiders—they just went after them and killed six in one go! Then they even looted the Raider Camp... and came back without getting hurt?
Yesterday, they could barely handle one Raider. Today, they're mowing them down?
Hiss... with this many Raiders, plus some electronic components, doesn't that mean I can summon new players?
Despite the turmoil in his heart, Cheng Shaofeng remained as calm as ever on the surface.
"Soldiers, I admit that you have given me a small surprise. The mission for you three is complete. I will use this Radiated Material to charge the Clone Production Pod. All materials for your Clones have been prepared. Upon death, you may immediately resurrect. Of course, avoiding death whenever possible is what soldiers of the Calamity Base should do. Do not become arrogant."
After Cheng Shaofeng finished speaking, all three of their smartwatches lit up.
Mission Complete: Collect materials for one Clone for yourself Merit Reward: 100
While the other two were still stunned, the Fox Demon stepped forward first and thumped his chest in salute. "For the Calamity Base! For the Lord! For glory!"
Cheng Shaofeng nodded, and nano robots surged from his hand.
The black box was pierced through, and its energy was drawn by the nano robots into the Calamity Base within Cheng Shaofeng's body.
Charging
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