Improving Attributes

As he drove back toward the original location, Link spotted figures in the woods, along with cars parked at the edge of the forest.

Link drove closer. To his delight, the people beside the cars seemed unaware of his approach. His heart leaped. Once he was close enough, he followed his usual routine and picked them off, killing all six people there.

However, the gunshots alerted the people in the woods. Someone shouted, "What's going on? Why are there gunshots?"

Link did not answer. Through the night vision goggles, he quickly spotted six people in the woods. Two of them were lying on the ground, though he could not tell who they were.

Link changed magazines and hid beneath a car. The others seemed to sense that something was wrong and cautiously approached. When they reached the edge of the woods to investigate, Link heard someone shout, "Billy and the others have all been killed."

"Who did this?!"

"What the hell is going on?"

From their voices, Link recognized the host. Watching the group split up from beneath the car, he did not hesitate. He crawled out, using the vehicle and the darkness for cover, and immediately took down the person nearest him.

"Who's there?!" Someone heard the movement and instantly looked over, but Link had already circled around to the other side and pulled the trigger.

Bang! Bang! Two more gunshots rang out, killing another two people, including the host from earlier.

Only one person remained. After hearing the screams, he was perhaps too terrified and made a foolish decision: he opened the car door and prepared to drive away.

Link rushed over and punched him into the driver's seat.

"Help! Please, spare me! I'm begging you!"

Only then did Link leisurely ask him, "Tell me! How many players are participating in this game?"

"Please, just let me go!"

Fundamentally, these people were just ordinary people. It was only natural that they were terrified at a time like this, but Link felt no emotion at all. He punched the man in the stomach again, dragged him out of the car, then kicked him before continuing, "Answer my question!"

"Thirty-four people. There are thirty-four of us in total. Please, let me go!"

"Thirty-four. Fewer than I expected." Link did the math. Including these ten people, they had all been killed by him. The entire process had gone unexpectedly smoothly.

After thinking for a moment, he entered the woods and found Bob and his daughter. Bob was covered in wounds, and his face was filled with despair.

Clearly, he had been the first to be tortured to death. His daughter still had a faint breath left in her, but she too bore many wounds and probably would not live much longer.

After some thought, Link dragged both bodies beside the cars and used gasoline to destroy the evidence, just as before. Once the cars and bodies had been set ablaze, he headed to several locations farther ahead and set them on fire one by one.

In such open countryside, in the middle of the night, there was no one for dozens of kilometers. Even with flames soaring into the sky, nobody paid attention. Link drove the only remaining car, checked his bearings, and headed back. Before long, he reached the motel.

After searching the place, he found his backpack and clothes. Apparently, they had not had time to deal with them yet. No one had even touched them.

Link searched the place again and used the electrical wiring and gasoline there to rig a simple timed ignition device. Only then did he drive back to where his car had gotten a flat tire.

All of their cars had spare tires. Link replaced his tire, then threw everything, including the tactical vest and various pieces of equipment he had used before, into the car he had driven over.

He drove the car to the roadside, doused it with gasoline, and used the same trick to set it on fire. Only then did he return to his secondhand Ford and drive away quickly.

When Link passed the motel, its timed ignition device had already activated, and the entire building was burning. Link then checked the map.

The nearest town was still fifty kilometers away, though there was a highway entrance a little over thirty kilometers from here.

Link did not take the highway, which had surveillance cameras. Instead, he passed through the town ahead.

At that moment, Link had to be grateful that towns did not yet have the dense network of cameras they would have more than twenty years later. Since it was already late at night when he passed through, and he had chosen a relatively remote route, he encountered very few cars along the way.

After driving through the night and the following morning, he entered California. He had put several hundred kilometers between himself and the previous location before stopping at a motel for a fast-food meal and a room.

However, Link did not rest immediately. He turned on the television and switched to the local news channel for the area he had just left. After waiting for more than half an hour, he finally saw a report about the roadside motel fire. The cause had not yet been determined.

Other than that, no further news had emerged. Link thought for a long while before lying down to rest.

Perhaps because of the earlier lesson, or perhaps because the aftermath of the incident still left him uneasy, he did not fall asleep until quite some time later. When he woke again, it was already past ten at night.

Rather than continue resting, Link checked out and left. He drove through the night until he reached Pasadena, home to the California Institute of Technology, the next day. Only then did he find another motel to rest in and open his system.

Aside from the notification that his experience points had increased, there was also a notice that the mission had been completed, granting Link an additional 100 Evolution Points.

After reading those notifications, Link opened the Stats Panel.

Link Bennett

Biological Level: 1 Star

Attributes: The average attribute value for a normal adult man is 10 points.

Strength: 12.7 (Muscles 13.1, Physical Strength 12.3)

Agility: 13.75 (Hand-Eye Coordination 13, Flexibility 15, Reactions 15, Balance 12)

Constitution: 14.2 (Health 14.8, Endurance 13.6)

Intelligence: 14.8 (Learning Ability 15.2, Cognitive Activity 14.5)

Perception: 11.5 (Willpower 12.5, Common Sense Judgment 11.5, Perceptiveness 11.5, Intuition 10.5)

Charisma: 12.7 (Courage 13, Persuasiveness 11, Personal Appeal 15, Leadership 12, Physical Attractiveness 12.5)

Skills: Baseball (Some Accomplishment), Mixed Martial Arts (Some Accomplishment), Basic Science (Some Accomplishment), Basic Firearms Proficiency (Some Accomplishment), Violin Performance (Beginner).

Special Abilities: None

Evolution Points: 800

Possessions: None

Space-Time Mission Function: Requirements not met. Unable to activate.

Nothing else had changed from before. He simply had 800 more Evolution Points, and every sub-attribute listed in parentheses after the basic attributes now had a plus sign beside it.

Link first tapped the plus sign next to Muscles under Strength. His Evolution Points immediately dropped to 790, while Muscles increased to 13.2.

After considering it, Link first raised Strength and Constitution to 15. Then, seeing that his remaining Evolution Points were not enough to raise Agility to 15 as well, he simply invested all of them into Intelligence.

However, at that point, the cost of raising a sub-attribute by 0.1 had increased from 10 Evolution Points to 30 Evolution Points, so he could only raise Intelligence to 15.2.

Soon afterward, Link felt a numb, itchy sensation spreading through his body. It was neither pain nor itch, but more like a mixture of soreness, numbness, and swelling, as though the muscles throughout his body were constantly moving.

Before long, the numb, itchy feeling inside him grew stronger and stronger, becoming almost unbearable. He could no longer concentrate enough to think and could only grit his teeth and endure it.

At the same time, his head felt swollen, as though he had a fever. All these changes kept Link from fully focusing his mind, leaving him with no choice but to grit his teeth and endure in silence.