Li Ang was escorted home, where two agents from the Special Affairs Bureau seated him on the living room sofa. Looking at his listless eyes, they instructed, "After I leave the room and close the door, you will gradually wake up and remember that you had dinner at the Yongyi Court Restaurant and then took a taxi home. Then, you will suddenly feel very tired and want to sleep, and you will go to your bedroom to lie down and rest by yourself. When you rise in the early morning, continue living your life calmly. Do you understand?"
Li Ang nodded blankly, his gaze fixed straight ahead at the large black-and-white TV in front of the sofa.
The two Special Affairs Bureau agents nodded and stepped out, closing the door behind them. Inside, Li Ang, following their instructions, stood up in a daze and went to his bedroom to fall into a deep sleep.
Wrapped in a blanket with his eyes closed, Li Ang feigned sleep and began to review the gains from this mission in his mind.
Reward Calculation in Progress.
Overall Player Performance: S+. Game Coin and Experience Point increase to 160%.
Mission Reward 1: 3 Experience Points * Final Number of Arrivals.
Mission Reward 2: 5 Game Coins * Final Number of Arrivals.
This regular "Fog Escape" mission's final reward was determined by the number of survivors. With 132 arrivals, that amounted to 396 Experience Points and 660 Game Coins. After applying the 1.6 coefficient, this rounded out to 634 Experience Points and 1,056 Game Coins.
Li Ang, who had already leveled up at the Hoshan Road Base of the Special Affairs Bureau, was now Level 11 with his Experience Bar at 233/1100. His total Game Currency was 5,276.
Mission Reward 3: Rare Quality Random Item * 1.
Possessing the Alchemist's Magic Box, Li Ang could already produce his own equipment and items of Excellent quality or below. Even if nothing valuable turned up, he could still toss them into the Forging Furnace as extraordinary materials.
With this positive mindset, Li Ang clicked open the box in his inventory.
A flash of light revealed a large glass box in the inventory. It was three meters long, two meters wide, and one and a half meters high. The glass panel on top could be opened, and the inside of the box was completely empty.
Name: Automated Pet Breeding Box
Type: Tool
Quality: Rare
Special Effect: Automatically creates the most suitable habitat environment according to the species of the live creature placed inside. Can simulate weather, temperature, tidal force, sunrise, and sunset. The flow of time inside the box is the same as outside.
Equipment Requirement: None
Note: No limit to the number of creatures it can contain. Organic and inorganic matter must be input in sufficient quantities to meet the needs of environment creation until a material balance in the ecosystem is reached.
Note: By paying 1,000 Game Coins, the player can reduce the interior space proportion of the Breeding Box by ten times, expanding its carrying capacity.
Note: Protect rare and endangered species of animals and plants, creating a better future.
Li Ang, still feigning sleep, thought to himself, Hmm, the Automated Pet Box might be most wanted by Summoner-type players who keep extraordinary pets. But combined with the Origin of Life... this thing could unexpectedly come in handy.
Li Ang continued to sleep with his eyes closed. In the morning, he went to school and returned home with Wang Congshan, whose memory had been partially erased, not doing anything that strayed from the behavior of ordinary people.
He waited three days, using this time to confirm there were no secret watches from the Special Affairs Bureau nearby, before resuming his activities.
The first step was to research the Origin of Life.
This Apex-quality item required Intelligence Perception Properties each at 10 points to use, and Li Ang, as a Level 11 player, had just barely met the requirement.
As usual, he bought groceries on his way home, then cooked and prepared a meal. Taking advantage of the time while the braised pork was still stewing, he let out Miss Chai, who had been cooped up for several days, to play with her mobile phone by herself. Meanwhile, he took out the Alchemist's Magic Box, opened the Workshop, entered the sterile compartment inside, and scrutinized the Origin of Life.
"The first special effect of the Origin of Life is to slowly absorb inorganic matter, transforming it into random compounds," Li Ang muttered to himself. "This effect activates passively, without consuming Sanity Value. Just by piling inorganic matter on top of the Origin of Life, it can continuously produce compounds. However, in this process, it's possible that some compounds with extreme properties will be produced—Chlorine trifluoride, difluorine dioxide, selenium azide, dimethylmercury... They pose a huge threat to the surrounding environment and the user themself."
Li Ang didn't want to be killed, injured, or poisoned by the compounds. The best method was to expose the Origin of Life to inorganic substances slowly in a safe laboratory setting, collecting extremely small amounts of the compounds each time and analyzing their composition.
"The second special effect of the Origin of Life is the gradual modification of the physical structure of a living organic body. I've used this special effect at the Special Affairs Bureau before. If I deployed it without regard to the cost, I could completely remodel the body structure of a living being within minutes," Li Ang muttered to himself as he pressed his finger onto the Origin of Life, activating the special effect.
He felt his will being swiftly extracted, as if in a soul shape, looking down at his own body from a high vantage point. He could sense his heartbeat, feel the blood rushing through his veins, feel every unconscious twitch of his muscles. His hair lifted by a breeze, toenails scratching against his socks, the intrinsic terrifying odor in his nostrils. Li Ang could feel every detail of his body, every corner, as if he'd sliced himself into countless pieces for observation under a microscope. The sensation... it was so horrifying, yet wonderful.
Like manipulating a marionette, Li Ang let his consciousness "flow" into the Origin of Life, using it to adjust his own body. He increased bone density, enhanced muscle bundles, accelerated blood supply, and added more rod cells inside his eyes.
Enhancing the body was much more arduous than weakening it. Li Ang only lasted less than a minute before he had to stow the Origin of Life in his backpack slot, sitting on the ground panting and letting his splitting brain rest for a while.
Half an hour later, he barely got up from the ground, ran to the kitchen, and had several bowls of rice with a big pot of braised pork. He also drank two bottles of ice-cold cola, ate a box of fried chicken legs, two boxes of chocolates, and a bucket of pork cracklings before he felt barely full.
After resting for a moment, Li Ang returned to the Alchemist's Workshop, took out the Origin of Life again, and continued to enhance and remodel his body, finally upgrading his physical constitution to the standard befitting a Level 11 player.
Whenever a player raised their attributes, the System would intervene, directly remodeling the player's body by increasing muscle strength and other means to strengthen it. At the same time, the Killing Field Game System's assessment of player attributes was dynamic; players could use a variety of external methods to increase their attributes.
For example, a normal adult male who had just become a Level 1 player, with a Strength Attribute of 5, could improve his strength to 6 points through physical training.
Featured posts on the forum also specifically mentioned this. Ordinary people who became players should endeavor to improve their Strength, Constitution, and Agility Attributes to 6 points through their own training (which isn't difficult). They should save precious attribute points in the early stages to add to "untrainable" attributes like Perception, Intelligence, or Charm. Only when their Strength, Constitution, and Agility Attributes reached 6 points, or the human limit of 7 points, and could no longer be improved by training, should they consider adding free attribute points to these three. This approach would maximize the System's free gift of body structure remodeling.
As the Killing Field Game continued to unfold, a multitude of martial arts, equipment, and items emerged endlessly. This allowed many High-level Players to freely choose and utilize their skills and equipment, exerting destructive power far beyond what their attribute panels indicated. For instance, Li Ang's regular Strength Attribute was only 10 points, the level of a world-class weightlifter, but he could enhance his output level to the destructive power of "flipping a palanquin with a Triangular Bone Tipped Spear" by using Ripple Qigong, adrenaline, and other methods.
Nonetheless, individual attributes were still crucial; they formed the foundation upon which players could exert extraordinary force. For High-level Players, attribute points served more as a fixed standard to judge their current physical constitution.
And the greatest use of the Origin of Life was to allow Li Ang to remodel his body as he wished.
The human body has many irrational points: soft and fragile skin, a simple and easily damaged digestive system, a poor sense of smell... This irrationality limits human capabilities.
Unless one transcends humanity, transforming oneself into a non-human "monster" clad in human skin.
Li Ang, no longer human.