Upgrade
Bai Ye wandered through the underground level for a full half hour before finding another exit and returning to the surface.
It was nearly three in the morning, the deepest part of the night.
Bai Ye took off his mask and let out a long breath.
He had changed back into his old clothes. From now on, he was a free man with Lungmen identification.
The process had been a little tense and thrilling, but he had accomplished his intended goal.
Not only that, but because he had chosen the most difficult opening, Bai Ye had reaped considerable rewards.
The most obvious gains were experience and skills.
Arknights OL had a unique system for calculating experience gain.
Unlike old-era games, where experience came solely from killing monsters, in Arknights OL, defeating and killing targets could earn experience, but there were also many other sources. Reading Originium Arts theory, studying medical knowledge, learning martial arts, and even the most common high-intensity training could all increase one's experience pool.
Completing missions and commissions, earning achievements, and similar actions were also common ways of gaining experience.
Of course, the higher one's level, the less experience low-level activities would provide, eventually dropping to zero.
Besides raising character levels and granting attribute points, experience could also be assigned to skills to increase their levels. Thus, experience was always the most important resource in the game.
Bai Ye had done quite a few things during this ordeal, so he had gained a large amount of experience—enough to raise his personal level by three.
Furthermore, after passing the checks, he had gained quite a few skills.
Cold Weapon—Swordsmanship (Proficient): Countless rounds of training and battle have allowed you to wield weapons with ease. They are extensions of your body.
Unarmed Combat (Skilled): You can skillfully use your own body in battle. Your body is the finest weapon.
Blind Fighting (Passive): Cruel combat training has enabled you to judge your opponent's movements through perception alone. You can fight more effectively while blind, in darkness, or against invisible opponents.
Crossbow Shooting (Mastered): Aiming and firing are only the beginning.
Basic Originium Arts (Beginner): You are merely a newcomer in this field.
Agile Movement (Passive): After long-term training, you can make full use of your agility to perform all kinds of movements, as nimble and swift as a cat.
In truth, Bai Ye had mastered all these skills in his previous life, and at fairly high levels too. But before crossing over, he had controlled a virtual character in a game to use those skills, while Originium Arts had also relied on the system's intelligent casting assistance. As a result, they had all been weakened when transferred to his real body.
Even so, Bai Ye was satisfied. As long as he trained and fought, he could become familiar with these skills again, improve them, and gradually regain his touch.
"Level up first."
Bai Ye poured the experience from his experience pool into his personal level, raising his character to Level 4.
Then Bai Ye noticed that something was off.
"Why did I get six attribute points for gaining one level? And my Sanity actually increased by two!"
Bai Ye certainly had not remembered wrong. Whenever Players gained a level, their Sanity increased by one, and they received four free attribute points.
In the early stages of the game, Players truly were no match for natives, because on Terra, even the most ordinary races possessed excellent individual attributes. As for those fantastical races, their individual strength and talents were terrifyingly high.
However, the Players' advantage lay in limitless improvement, rapid growth, and the ability to revive endlessly.
By the later stages of the game, Players could already play important roles on the world stage, even influencing the fate of planets and civilizations.
"Maybe I should find a way to improve my template."
Bai Ye looked thoughtfully at the eighteen free attribute points he had.
Whether it was the innate talent he had started with or the extra free attribute points, they were likely changes brought about by this NPC template.
Right now, it was only ordinary.
What benefits would an elite template—or one of even higher rank—bring?
Bai Ye could not help but look forward to finding out.
As for allocating his attribute points, Bai Ye evenly distributed the eighteen free attribute points among Constitution, Strength, and Agility.
Arknights OL did not allow extreme stat builds. Among the four main attributes, the first three could not differ from one another by more than ten points, while the Mental attribute could not exceed Constitution by more than twenty points.
With ten Constitution, Mental could only be raised to thirty at most.
Bai Ye currently had no Originium staff and had not learned much magic, so he had no need to raise his Mental attribute for now.
In truth, Bai Ye had only reached the point of being able to use Originium Arts in his previous life. He had not deliberately studied more advanced Originium Arts, and he did not know many himself. This was one of the few areas he was not particularly good at.
Actually, Players were allowed to have weaknesses—or rather, weaknesses were inevitable. Resources were limited, so Players would selectively focus their development in certain directions, while teamwork could make up for each other's shortcomings.
In his previous life, Bai Ye had also worked with other top Players. Lone wolves did have disadvantages at certain times.
But now, Bai Ye would find a way to make up for those deficiencies.
Because he was alone now.
After allocating his points, Bai Ye's personal panel was as follows:
Name: Bai Ye Identification: Lungmen Template: NPC (Ordinary) Race: ██ (Warning, this entry has been corrupted) Level: 4 Sanity: 21/21 Constitution: 16 (Related to physical strength, endurance, immunity, and self-healing) Strength: 16 (Related to muscle strength and physical power) Agility: 16 (Related to hand-eye coordination, bodily flexibility, reaction speed, and balance) Mental: 10 (Related to mental power, willpower, Originium Arts, perception, and intuition) Charm: 96 (Fixed attribute) Inventory: 0/10 Talent: Thought Acceleration: Accelerates thinking, judgment, reflexes, and the brain's information-processing speed for a certain period of time Skills: Cold Weapon—Swordsmanship (Proficient) Unarmed Combat (Skilled) Blind Fighting (Passive) Crossbow Shooting (Mastered) Basic Originium Arts (Beginner) Agile Movement (Passive) Items: R.G. Industries M30 Standard Single-Edged Straight Sword R.G. Industries T20 Portable Folding Crossbow "Petrel" Lungmen Guard Department Standard Armor Penguin Logistics Special Light Protective Suit Overall Evaluation: "Newbie"
Bai Ye closed the panel and could not help laughing.
That evaluation was pretty spot-on.
To be fair, his level was indeed low, but his loadout was exceptionally luxurious. This equipment was absolutely not something someone at his level should have been able to acquire.
The increased attributes brought comprehensive improvements. Bai Ye bounced lightly on the spot, and the boost in strength felt wonderful. The increased Constitution also caused the minor injuries he had suffered when clashing with Officer Chen earlier to slowly recover.
Another advantage Bai Ye gained from being a veteran Player in his previous life was his ability to quickly adapt to his increased strength.
After all, he had once been powerful—even if it had only been virtual.
Why the Hell Are You Blushing?
Bai Ye stretched.
Although he had not rested since crossing over, he had just gained three levels in a row. He was currently in peak condition, full of energy.
He wanted to find a place to settle down, then make a proper plan.
Bai Ye knew that his opportunity would come after the Players logged in. As an "NPC" who understood Players better than anyone else, he knew exactly how to deal with those people.
Issuing quests and opening an "NPC shop" to fleece Players were merely the simplest methods. Based on his gaming experience from his previous life, Bai Ye believed Players could serve far more important purposes.
While thinking, Bai Ye suddenly raised his head. His sharp senses instinctively detected that something was wrong.
In a flash, his hand gripped the cold sword hilt, and Bai Ye directly activated Thought Acceleration.
This was the first time he had used his talent ability.
The moment the skill activated, the world slowed before his eyes.
At the same time, Bai Ye felt as though he had become some kind of machine. His thoughts turned cold, and he became like an observer.
This was the first time he had observed the world from another perspective. Light, airflow, sound... the feeling was strange and wonderful. When everything around him slowed down, he felt invincible.
It was not that the world had slowed down. He was simply too fast.
Then he saw a bullet shooting toward him.
It was not an Etched Bullet, but a peculiar rubber bullet aimed at his thigh. It was not lethal.
The bullet traveled "slowly" through the air, spinning like a beautiful oil painting.
The required force and angle were instantly clear to him. Bai Ye lightly raised his right wrist and used the sword in his hand to bat the bullet away.
Then Bai Ye exited the Thought Acceleration state.
A cold intuition told him that if he continued, he would suffer damage. His mental power was insufficient to maintain this state for long.
Bai Ye believed this was not actually intuition, but a conclusion reached after accelerated thought.
After taking a slight breath, Bai Ye turned and looked across the road not far away.
A car was slowing to a stop there. From the rear window, a short-haired girl with a radiant halo above her head leaned out, pretentiously blowing on the muzzle of the gun in her hand.
Clearly, the girl had fired that bullet.
The car had been moving at the time, and Bai Ye himself had also been walking, yet the bullet had been frighteningly accurate.
As expected of a Laterano.
Those haloed angels were born experts with firearms. Ordinary people needed long periods of study and training just to handle a handgun, but Laterano could casually operate multiple large firearms at once. It was absurd.
If translated into templates, they probably started with at least Firearm Mastery.
"Oh my, Texas, our target's got some skill. He actually knocked the bullet away."
Exusiai, with her short red hair, smiled as she opened the car door.
"What you had was not the real thing either." Texas's voice was calm, without the slightest hint of surprise.
Exusiai jumped out of the car and muttered, "It was still a bullet fired by yours truly, Exusiai. Even if it was a toy gun..."
"Enough. End this quickly. Parking illegally by the roadside gets fined." Texas interrupted Miss Exusiai's rambling.
Texas had tracked Bai Ye here from the safehouse he had previously hit with a Zero Yuan Purchase. This was the first time a Penguin Logistics stronghold had suffered a "home invasion burglary," so the Emperor seemed to take it rather seriously.
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