After some light-hearted banter, Jin Gang said, "Now that we all understand each other, let's proceed with the enhancement. Since we're forming a team for missions, our enhancement directions should be discussed and ideally complementary."
Shen Yi said, "Mine is already decided. I have no choice but to increase my strength attribute and upgrade my hand-to-hand combat specialization because of the Thunder Bracers."
"It's okay, we can adapt to you," Jin Gang earnestly replied.
Although Shen Yi was a newcomer, his strength was undoubtedly the greatest among them. Naturally, the rest would need to adapt to him. In such a world, power dictated terms, and without it, even Jin Gang, Hong Lang, and Wen Rou wouldn't have paid much attention to Shen Yi.
Based on Jin Gang's proposal, even though they were forming a team, Shen Yi wouldn't be at a disadvantage; rewards would be distributed based on contribution. In a voluntary team, it's foolish to emphasize collective benefits and opt for equal distribution, even among brothers, especially when it concerns life-and-death matters.
"Why should I share equally with you when I contribute more?" This so-called fairness is actually the most unfair. Friendship without fairness is the most unstable.
History has proven that the communal pot system is merely wishful thinking for some.
The idea that being good to someone ensures they will reciprocate is a naive joke. Those swayed by one or two pieces of equipment are not adventurers but NPCs.
Of course, as the number of times they face dangers together increases, and they get to know each other better, some benefits can become more flexible, depending on the depth of their friendship.
Shen Yi first sold the three Schmeisser submachine guns he got from the gray boxes, leaving him with 5256 bloody points after taxes. He added 6 points to his strength and wore the Heroic Ornament, bringing his strength to 15 points, meeting the first requirement for the Thunder Bracers. He then spent 2000 bloody points to buy a hand-to-hand combat specialization scroll and acquired the basic hand-to-hand combat specialization ability.
With the basic hand-to-hand combat specialization, his physical attacks now had a 5% efficiency increase in damage output, though this wouldn't exceed the maximum possible damage.
The concept of 'damage efficiency' refers to how well an adventurer's attack power is utilized. A strength of 40 doesn't guarantee every punch inflicts 40 points of damage. The strength of a punch varies greatly between a light tap and a full-force strike. Skills offer stable and consistent damage, unaffected by the force of contact. In contrast, regular attacks can be mitigated, blocked, or dodged.
Thus, in combat, victory largely depends on skill damage, with regular attacks playing a supplementary role. Only with an increased hand-to-hand combat specialization do regular attacks become more effective, though even at master level, it's not possible to always hit with maximum damage.
After enhancement, Shen Yi had 2656 bloody points left, which he used to add 10 points to constitution and 6 points to agility. Wearing the Thunder Bracers, his attributes became Strength 10 (30), Constitution 30, Agility 13, Mental Strength 30, Will 10 (13).
With the remaining 1056 bloody points, he set aside 56 for living expenses and reserved the rest for the next mission. He then used his 1 skill point to upgrade the Arc Trajectory Technique to nearly level 3.
As for Hong Lang and the others, they also benefited greatly from their recent official mission, each earning over 6000 bloody points. They began discussing how best to enhance themselves.
Hong Lang planned to continue increasing his strength attribute. "I'm gonna boost my strength over 100, hitting people will feel great then."
To their surprise, the young salesman in the store casually remarked, "That's impossible."
Everyone was puzzled, and Shen Yi asked, "Why is it impossible?"
The young man explained, "Once your base attribute reaches 40 points, each additional point costs 300 bloody points."
Hong Lang was stunned, "You mean there's a price hike for adding attributes?"
"That's the rule of Bloody City. Didn't you know?" the young man replied confidently.
Hong Lang spread his hands, "How would I know? I've never had any attribute over 40 points; even my base strength is only at 30. You know information here is provided for a price; without paying, no one tells you anything useful. I was thinking of breaking 40 points this time, but damn, it's more expensive now."
The young man just shrugged.
The four adventurers had a laugh before Jin Gang got back to business. "Now that we know each other better, let's start enhancing. We're forming a team for missions, so our enhancement directions should be complementary."
Shen Yi replied, "I've already decided on mine. I bought the Thunder Bracers, so this time I need to increase my strength and upgrade my hand-to-hand combat specialization."
"We can adapt to you," Jin Gang said seriously.
Despite being a newcomer, Shen Yi's strength was unquestionably the greatest, so they naturally needed to adapt to him. Power dictates terms in such a world, and without it, they wouldn't have paid much attention to Shen Yi.
Jin Gang proposed that even though they were forming a team, Shen Yi wouldn't be at a disadvantage; rewards would be distributed based on contribution. Friendship without fairness is unstable, and history has proven that the communal pot system is wishful thinking for some.
Shen Yi sold the three Schmeisser submachine guns he had from the grey boxes, leaving him with 5256 bloody points. He added 6 points to his strength, wore the Heroic Ornament, thus meeting the first requirement of the Thunder Bracers. He then spent 2000 bloody points to buy a hand-to-hand combat specialization scroll, acquiring the basic specialization ability.
After the enhancement, Shen Yi had 2656 bloody points left. He added 10 points to constitution and 6 points to agility. Wearing the Thunder Bracers, his attributes became Strength 10 (30), Constitution 30, Agility 13, Mental Strength 30, Will 10 (13).
With the remaining 1056 bloody points, he saved 56 for living expenses and reserved the rest for the next mission. He then used his 1 skill point to upgrade the Arc Trajectory Technique to nearly level 3.
Hong Lang, following Shen Yi's advice, used his skill points on Powerful Impact, managing to upgrade it to level 5 through hard training.
Skill: Powerful Impact Level 5 - Inflicts 2 times strength attack damage to a single target, 10% chance of double attack effect, D-grade skill. Uses 3 points of mental power, cooldown 1 minute.
Jin Gang upgraded his Heavy Strike skill to level 3.
Skill: Heavy Strike Level 3 - Executes a full-force attack on the enemy, inflicting 5 times the skill level in damage, 100% chance of 1-5 seconds stun effect, depending on skill level, target's level, and will. Skill effect priority 36!
Wen Rou, due to her lower attributes, did not purchase a new skill but instead upgraded her attributes significantly and used her skill point to enhance her Enhanced Hearing passive skill to level 3. Level 3 Enhanced Hearing not only improved her auditory range and sensitivity but also allowed her to lock onto familiar sound sources and filter out meaningless noise.
After the collective enhancement, they all headed to the training ground to practice their skills and spent their free time together in the bar, the only source of entertainment in the slum area.
Hong Lang sold information about the Market Garden mission a few more times, using the proceeds to buy mission experiences from other adventurers. Fortunately, they had saved some bloody points from the first sale, allowing them to enjoy drinks and meat for a month.
A month flew by, and Shen Yi managed to upgrade all his three skills to level 3. His Arc Trajectory Technique could now lock onto three targets simultaneously, and his Healing Technique's effectiveness increased significantly.
Finally, the day came when Hong Lang, Wen Rou, Jin Gang, and others came to find Shen Yi for a new mission.
"I hope it's still a team cooperation scenario," Hong Lang said.
"Even if it's not, as long as it's not a direct enemy mission, we can still help each other," Jin Gang added.
"If there ever comes a day when we must be enemies, we can choose to pay bloody points to suffer the failure. In any case, we will not turn our guns on each other," Shen Yi responded.
Ding! A clear notification sound came from the bloody badge:
Notification: Proceed immediately to the transmission area, ready to enter the mission world. Mission Scenario: X-Men. Preparation Time: One hour. This mission is a regional competition mode, killing adventurers allows you to randomly inherit one of their legacies. Attack damage between adventurers is reduced by 25%.