Ashen God
Chapter 97 Passive Skill

Chapter 97: Chapter 97 Passive Skill

Benefiting from the lesson learned last time, Zhang Yanhang didn’t bother setting an alarm this time because he felt that his self-control in this area wasn’t very strong; he would definitely turn off the alarm after being woken up by it. So, it might be better to just turn off the alarm from the start and let himself wake up naturally.

However, he didn’t expect to sleep for a full twelve hours, although his physical strength had indeed recovered nicely.

Lying in bed, Zhang Yanhang thought for a while and concluded that it must be the "Seeking Fortune and Avoiding Evil" Skill’s doing, as its consumption seemed to have increased after leveling up to LV.6. Though the skill description hadn’t changed, he had a tangible feeling that its use was costing more.

He figured this situation should be quite normal; after all, if the intensity of Perception increased, then the consumption should logically rise too. It would be neither scientific nor magic if the skill became stronger without an increase in its energy consumption, clearly defying the law of conservation of energy.

Well, maybe "Technique Immunity" is a Skill of that type—he thought—with mighty strength but no consumption as a passive skill. And likewise, Zhang Yanhang’s "Multiple Choice" belonged to this category, triggering choices without expending any energy.

"Since there are such examples, why can’t ’Seeking Fortune and Avoiding Evil’ become a no-consumption passive skill, too? The Heavenly Destiny Master is not at all user-friendly. I hope that after promotion, more no-consumption passive skills will be unlocked."

Although Zhang Yanhang knew he was daydreaming, if he lacked even that level of ’ambition,’ was he still human?

Only non-biological entities are without desires; as long as one is alive, there must be desires—at the very least, the fundamentals of survival and reproduction are necessary, or one’s name would certainly appear on the extinction list.

"Alright, the idea of making ’Seeking Fortune and Avoiding Evil’ a passive skill might indeed be unrealistic. So, the logical course of action would be to continue enhancing my Stamina limit and Physical Recovery Speed."

Zhang Yanhang felt that he might need to find a Talent that could improve his Physical Recovery Speed, which would allow him to better exploit his own potential.

He couldn’t help thinking that the idea was so down-to-earth that capitalists would cry upon hearing it—the endeavor to become stronger was for further self-exploitation.

"Speaking of which, the description of ’Seeking Fortune and Avoiding Evil’ has been quite vague from the start, stating only that it consumes a ’trivial amount’ of physical strength without any quantitative standard."

Zhang Yanhang suspected that while the skill consumption had indeed increased, it still fell within the ’trivial’ range, hence why the skill description remained unchanged. After all, the description was still precise since he had used the skill continuously for twelve hours before needing to rest.

"If that’s the case, if I were to level up ’Seeking Fortune and Avoiding Evil’ to LV.MAX, would the consumption increase further?"

He felt there was a high probability of this happening, but he had no way to prevent it, as not leveling up the skill for fear of increased consumption would be like throwing the baby out with the bathwater—something even a fool wouldn’t do.

"Forget it, let’s not think about that for now. I still have more than two days to hunt monsters, so let’s formulate a plan for clearing the Middle Layer first."

The current date was October 6th, 2 p.m. Based on previous patterns, the latest the Transmission Channel would open would be at 9:30 p.m. on October 8th, likely staying open until 6 a.m. on October 9th. So, Zhang Yanhang had at most 64 hours left, which was relatively ample time.

"Last time, I set four stages for the 29 square kilometers of the Outer Zone. This time, with six targets, let’s set six stages. It’s a bit more complicated, but it’s manageable."

The six targets Zhang Yanhang referred to were actually Storage Boxes. During his time in Raccoon City, he discovered eight Storage Boxes concentrated in the Middle Layer, typically guarded by Beta-type Hunters and Lickers. Previously, he had taken two located on the outskirts.

But for the next six Storage Boxes hidden deep within the Middle Layer, an incremental and steady clearing approach was better than a rushed assault, in terms of cost-effectiveness.

"I set four stages for the 29 square kilometers of the Outer Zone, but now I’ve set six stages for the 13 square kilometers of the Middle Layer—which is less than half the size of the Outer Zone. An average of two kilometers per stage; it is indeed more complicated when compared, but this shows how seriously I take it."

The reason Zhang Yanhang set six stages, apart from having six Storage Boxes, was his grave view of the Middle Layer. Starting with the Middle Layer, Tyrants appeared.

In the Core Area, which spanned only one square kilometer, there were roughly half as many Tyrants and Beta-type Hunters, with the majority spread throughout the more extensive Middle Layer. On average, there would be one to two Tyrants per square kilometer.

Although Zhang Yanhang had never fought a Tyrant, their strength as Second Order One Star was undoubtedly much greater than that of a Beta-type Hunter, and since even Beta-type Hunters broke his defense, it would be unreasonable for Tyrants not to.

More critically, the attribute limit for the First Tier was 25 points. Therefore, a Second Tier Tyrant must have exceeded this limit in at least one attribute; otherwise, they wouldn’t be Second Tier, while all four of Zhang Yanhang’s Main Attributes were stuck at 25 points due to the Attribute limit.

Thus, when the time came, Zhang Yanhang would experience Attribute Suppression for the first time. His ease in fighting Zombies, Lickers, and Beta-type Hunters stemmed from his higher attributes in every category.

Fighting Tyrants, he would undergo the painful experience of being inversely suppressed by their attributes. This meant that the battle with Tyrants was likely to be difficult, even with a rocket launcher at his disposal. But after all, it was only a gun store and not a regular arsenal, so even after clearing out the entire gun store, Zhang Yanhang found only about a dozen disposable rocket launchers.

With a total of fifty Tyrants, not enough rocket launchers were available for him to take them all down—one for each. The remaining Tyrants would still require his direct confrontation.

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