Somewhere in a manor villa.
"Someone named Ming completed the hidden mission in just 45 seconds?" Andrew, with silver-white hair but still a vigorous face, stared at the screen in front of him and asked the young man before him, "How is the progress of the Second Miss' hidden mission?"
"Sir, the Second Miss has cracked the 21st remnant, with 29 more waiting to be solved."
"How long did it take?"
"Sir, exactly three hours."
"Hmm."
Andrew nodded and said, "Take note of the name Ming and pay more attention to him in the future. Finishing the hidden mission in 45 seconds is no small feat."
"Sir, what if he just got lucky, rather than relying on real strength?"
Andrew raised an eyebrow at the man in front of him, "Luck? Isn't that a part of one's strength as well?"
The young man felt unconvinced but nodded in agreement.
Somewhere in an underground base.
Simon tapped his pipe on the edge of the table and said, "The title may sound ridiculous, but the guy did complete the hidden mission in the shortest amount of time. Good luck is one thing, but what if it's based on his real strength?"
The young man sitting across from him seemed to understand something, "General, I know what to do. When the trading event opens next time, I will contact this person."
"Ming~ It's a nickname, right? After all, nobody would use their real name."
"Yes, I will definitely find out his real identity."
Various places around the world.
"Jack, you said it's both short and fast. It's so ridiculous! Maybe this guy is just like that other person."
"Ruth, you're absolutely right. I'm sure I'm stronger than him."
"Of course, Jack, I know that."
———
"The title sounds like trash. I'd rather stay here quietly, just survive until the Long Night is over."
"Yeah, why take risks? As long as we can stay alive, it's fine. Instead of worrying about it, we might as well sleep."
"Besides, that title is so stupid. I'd rather not have it than carry that title around."
"It's just laughable."
———
In the rental house, Ming lay on the sofa, checking the attributes of the 'Short and Fast' title.
[Short and Fast]
[Physique +10]
[Strength +10]
[Agility +10]
[Spirit +10]
[Top-grade Attribute: The next time you accept a hidden mission, the difficulty will automatically be reduced by 30% (Friendly reminder, the title does not occupy an equipment slot, and attributes of different titles can be stacked)]
"Short and Fast is pretty cool too~" Ming's mouth curved into a smile. All attributes increased by 10, and when encountering a hidden mission, the difficulty would automatically decrease. The attributes of the titles could be stacked.
[Your Da Vinci was awakened by your excited exclamation 'F***', and it looked at you in amazement, wondering if a pair of yoga pants excited you this much. Well, it seems that next time it needs to be more bring it back]
[Suddenly, your Da Vinci thought, if it weren't yoga pants, but underwear, would you be even more excited ?]
[Your Da Vinci decided that next time, it will definitely bring you some underwear]
"Suit yourself~" Through this incident, Ming felt that his frog was very mysterious, as both times it went out, it somehow managed to do something right and useful.
It was still an elementary frog with no evolutionary abilities. Ming had no idea what abilities it would evolve when it reached level 10, and of course, the most anticipated moment would be its super evolution at level 50.
Ming cleared his thoughts and took out the bronze blind box, opening it directly.
Buzz~ Four beams of light appeared, one green and three white.
"Four items?"
Ming's heart was filled with excitement. A single apocalypse bronze blind box actually contained four items, including a green one. If it was a piece of equipment, it would have additional attributes.
Ming then took out the items for inspection:
[Elementary Treasure Map]
[Elementary Treasure Map]
[Durability Restoration Scroll]
The first two white cards were treasure maps. Ming stored them in his brain domain warehouse. Including the one he had obtained before, he now had three treasure maps. Three maps could be combined into a higher-level one.
However, Ming didn't plan to search for these treasures at the moment. The timing was not right. At least, he needed to become stronger before venturing into such matters. Guarding against zombies was essential, but guarding against people was even more crucial.
The third item was a Durability Restoration Scroll, which was also a useful item.
The last green card was:
[D*Sturdy*Battle Suit (Durability 3/3)]
[Physique +10]
[Strength +3]
[Agility +3]
[Top-grade Attribute: Wearing this battlesuit increases Constitution by 10%]
"Physique increases by 10%!"
Ming was delighted to see the top-grade attribute. It was based on a percentage increase, so now that he was at level 8, wearing this battle suit would increase his Physique by 10 points. Adding the 10-point all-attribute bonus from the title and the 10% increase in Physique, his Physique was nearly 50.
After sorting out these things, he checked his attributes:
[Ming]
[Travel Frog owner]
[Title: Short and Fast]
[LV8 Experience Points]
[Physique: 48]
[Strength: 44]
[Agility: 50]
[Spirit: 51]
[Weapon: Strong Crossbow (Durability 282/300)]
[Off-hand: Universal Crossbow Bolt Quiver (Durability 282/300)]
[Head: Novice Combat Cap]
[Face: C*Eternal Day*Sunglasses (Durability 10/10)]
[Chest: D*Sturdy*Battle Suit]
[Hands: Novice Combat Gloves (Durability 1/1)]
[Legs: Novice Combat Pants]
[Feet: Novice Combat Boots]
[Warehouse: 100 slots]
[Gold coins: 306.5]
Ming stood up and stretched his muscles, then looked at himself in the mirror. His muscular outline was visible all over his body. He crouched down and easily lifted a 1.5-meter bed with one hand. He tried it with four fingers, then finally lifted one corner of the bed with a single finger.
With his physical strength drastically increased, Ming sat back down on the sofa and counted his 300+ doomsday gold coins.
"This amount of money is still not enough."
Ming thought about how to spend his doomsday gold coins, considering equipment and skills, as well as the virus-blocking drugs. No one could guarantee that they wouldn't make a mistake, and there might be even more powerful zombies or other mutated creatures in the future.
Being prepared for self-rescue in case of injury was always a good idea.
A dose of virus-blocking drug costs 10,000 doomsday gold coins, which is not a small amount. Thinking about this, Ming decided to split his spending into two parts: one for equipment and skills, and the other for saving money to buy virus-blocking drugs.
He then thought of another issue. Relying solely on killing zombies to make money would be slow and risky. To make money, he needed to find the right business opportunity. After thinking for a while, he remembered that he hadn't upgraded Da Vinci yet.
He wondered if the experience from its latest trip could get it to level 10. If so, it could evolve.
Ming checked Da Vinci's travel experience point. After the last upgrade, it had 31 points left, and it gained 321 points on this trip, for a total of 352 travel experience points.
Based on the past experience of upgrading with each level requiring an additional 10 points, it seemed possible to reach level 10.
[Consume 50 travel experience points, your Travel Frog Da Vinci is upgraded to LV6, and travel bag space is increased by +1 slot]
[Consume 60 travel experience points, your Travel Frog Da Vinci is upgraded to LV7, travel range is increased by 25 meters]
[Consume 70 travel experience points, your Travel Frog Da Vinci is upgraded to LV8, travel range is increased by 30 meters]
[Consume 80 travel experience points, your Travel Frog Da Vinci is upgraded to LV9, and travel bag space is increased by +1 slot]
When upgrading to LV9, Ming saw that there were 92 travel experience points left, just enough to reach level 10.
[Consume 90 travel experience points, your Travel Frog Da Vinci is upgraded to LV10, and travel bag space is increased by +25 meters]
[Ding~ Your Travel Frog Da Vinci has reached LV10, triggering advanced evolution]
At this moment, the sleeping Da Vinci suddenly opened his eyes and looked at Ming, who was staring at it, and felt that he was being inexplicable.
[Your Da Vinci is wondering are you have a habit of watching others sleep?]
[Your Da Vinci starts to tease you, but suddenly its head feels a buzzing sensation. It closes its eyes to feel the sensation, and then its brain feels like it's being infused with something. It wonders if you've done something unspeakable to it]
[Your Da Vinci has a sudden insight, feeling that it may have learned something.]
[Congratulations, your Da Vinci has successfully completed advanced evolution, gaining the talent - of Strip Helper. This talent contains special abilities, which you can understand as it likes to strip other people's clothes from now on]
"..."
Ming stared at Da Vinci, who had fallen asleep again. The evolution and the new talent were worth celebrating, but for some reason, this talent didn't seem very serious. However, it seemed that Da Vinci wasn't very serious.
Evolutionary talents are indeed intriguing.
Ming checked the first chapter's achievement tasks again. The first one was to survive 72 hours of the night, which was now a piece of cake for him.
The second achievement goal was to kill 50 mutated creatures, including animals and plants. The words "animals and plants" were quite interesting. It wasn't hard to understand that animals had mutated, but plants too. For example, a tree, even if it mutated, could walk using its roots. This setting seemed a bit far-fetched.
Ming glanced at the third achievement task, killing five elite mutated creatures. This didn't seem very difficult either.
The final and most challenging one was to kill a boss-level mutated creature.
Killing elite mutated creatures required caution, and he hadn't seen any boss-level creatures yet, but they should be even more brutal.
Looking at the countdown for the first chapter, the remaining time was 49:34:23.
To be honest, Ming was very interested in the title rewarded for completing all the achievement tasks: Nighttime Time Management Master.
The rules of the first chapter stated that as long as all personal achievements were completed, someone would receive the title of Nighttime Time Management Master.
The interesting part was that after the first chapter ended, this title would no longer be obtainable. This meant that whoever got the title would always be slightly stronger than those who didn't, so it was necessary to strive for it.
With a plan in mind, Ming opened a can of luncheon meat and a bag of sandwiches, beginning to replenish his energy. In this environment, having such a combination of food was already quite good. After eating, he took the time to lie down and rest.
Half an hour later, Ming got up to check his equipment and rubbed Da Vinci's head after putting it on neatly. Then, he left the house. His primary goal for this trip was the 21st floor, where the elite female zombie that Da Vinci had stripped was located.
According to the information observed by Da Vinci during his travels, there was now a young man holding a kitchen knife and forgetting himself in the presence of the female zombie on the 21st floor, in addition to the elite female zombie. It shouldn't be a big problem to deal with both of them.
As Ming walked out of the fire escape, he heard roaring and wailing from the floors below. Zombies indeed became more aggressive at night. Fortunately, he had dealt with the nearby zombies before nightfall; otherwise, his situation would have been like the floors below.
Ignoring the wailing and roaring downstairs, Ming pushed his sunglasses up and went straight to the 21st floor. Surprisingly, after putting on the Eternal Day sunglasses that had a very online game-like name, he could really see in the dark as if it was daylight.
Taking off the sunglasses, everything around me was dark. Putting them back on, it was as bright as daylight.
Upon arriving on the 21st floor, Ming stood in the hallway with his loaded heavy crossbow, deliberately kicking the elevator door with his left foot.
Clang clang~
Hehe~
As expected, the zombie in room 2102 reacted after hearing the noise. In the next moment, a young male zombie holding a kitchen knife appeared around the corner of the elevator door. However, his appearance was quite different from what Ming had imagined.
Ming initially thought that the young man must have been bitten so badly that his intestines were exposed and his body was covered in torn flesh. But now, this guy looked quite intact, except for his lower body, which was torn to shreds, with blood still flowing from the uncoagulated wounds.
Goodness! Did the elite female zombie not eat brains? Only ate...
At this point, the female zombie moved horizontally from behind the male zombie with the kitchen knife. Her mouth was full of blood as if she had just finished replenishing herself. Her teeth clashed together, making a creepy clicking sound.
Ming glanced at the lower body of the male zombie with the kitchen knife and then looked at the elite female zombie's mouth.
So, that's the kind of zombie you are!
Roar! The male zombie with the kitchen knife charged forward, blood flowing even more as his legs run. The female zombie followed closely behind, opening her blood-filled mouth and clashing her teeth.
Click click click click click~
Ding! The crossbow bolt shot out, hitting the male zombie with the kitchen knife in the forehead and triggering the knockback effect.
Boom! The knocked-back male zombie was thrown back, hitting the female zombie behind him and making her stagger. However, she didn't fall. The female zombie steadied herself, her blood-filled face turned towards Ming again, and her mouth clicked as she charged once more.
Ming's second bolt was already loaded and ready to fire after the first one was shot, and he activated the charged bolt skill.
In fact, the elevator hallway was only about 1.2 meters wide, so hitting the female zombie was extremely easy. He had already planned that after the charged bolt hit the female zombie and triggered the immobilization effect, his third to eighth bolts would shoot at her face, ensuring a clean kill.
Charge:
3
2
1
Boom! The charged bolt shot out, accompanied by a faint blue light.
Roar! As the female zombie charged forward, she crouched down and lunged toward Ming's lower body. The crossbow bolt emitting the blue light perfectly grazed past the smooth back of the female zombie.
"Damn!"