Chapter 49: Chapter 49: Encountering a Mutant Again
Ye Yun carefully looked through his options and quickly selected two green skill cards.
[Skill Card: Observation Enhancement (Green)]
[Description: After installing this skill card, the bionoid will gain the Observation Enhancement skill.]
[Effect: Continuously consumes Durability to increase Observation by 4 and grant greater perception.]
Price: 320 White Components
[Skill Card: Body Repair (Green)]
[Description: After installing this skill card, the bionoid will gain the Body Repair skill.]
[Effect: Restores 30% Durability upon use. Can be used on any bionoid.]
[Cooldown: 24 hours.]
Price: 360 White Components.
The first skill card was a support-type and didn’t have much direct impact on combat.
However, in Ye Yun’s view, this kind of support skill was quite useful.
The Wasteland World was fraught with peril, and danger could strike at any moment. Briefly enhancing their observation skills could help mitigate some of that risk. Spotting threats first and striking preemptively would also significantly boost the team’s chances of survival.
As for why he chose the second skill card, it was to further increase their survivability.
Although a bionoid’s Durability could be repaired in the shelter’s [Maintenance Room],
there was no way to repair it while exploring the outside world.
Fighting outside meant risk, especially knowing that large, Boss-like mutant creatures existed out there.
He had already improved the bionoids’ combat capabilities as much as possible, but damage was inevitable when facing overly powerful enemies.
Moreover, considering the fact that bionoids could be repaired as long as they weren’t completely destroyed,
in later battles, the bionoids might even need to act as meat shields or decoys.
For instance, when dealing with the mutant cockroach attack, Lei Hu had cleverly proposed a strategy of using a bionoid as a meat shield to draw their attention.
Ye Yun had thought it was an excellent strategy at the time.
The Body Repair skill could directly restore 30% Durability, which would undoubtedly have an unexpected effect in the midst of battle.
As for the original Overclock skill card, Ye Yun had no plans to swap it out for now.
Overclock wasn’t an attack skill, nor was it a recovery or defensive skill. In his opinion, it was more of a support-type skill.
It comprehensively raised all seven attributes, which, numerically speaking, made it better than an ordinary green skill card.
Ye Yun also bought a green weapon for No. 3, strengthening the exploration team’s combat power once again.
He didn’t have Lina continue participating in explorations.
Although having more people involved could increase the rewards from exploration and lower the risk,
the shelter still needed personnel to manage its operations. The power station, water purification room, and food workshop all required someone to run them.
Ye Yun couldn’t waste all his time on such matters.
[Assessment Type: External Exploration]
[Assessing mission risk...]
[This is a 12-hour random exploration.]
[Assessment: 46% chance of obtaining White items, 50.88% chance of Green items, 3.1% chance of Blue items, 0.02% chance of Purple items. Risk Factor: 0.001%]
Good. After constantly swapping in stronger weapons, buying skill chips, and improving the bionoids’ attributes, the exploration team’s combat power had seen a qualitative leap.
A 12-hour exploration, which was originally extremely high-risk, now had a risk factor reduced to a mere 0.001%.
Moreover, Ye Yun noticed that the probability of acquiring rare items seemed higher than before.
’Could it be?’
Ye Yun’s gaze shifted to No. 2.
Name: No. 2 [+1]
Strength: 4
Observation: 4
Endurance: 4
Charisma: 4
Intelligence: 4
Agility: 4
Luck: 4
Durability: 100% [Repairable]
Power: 100%
Available Card Slots: 0
Skill: Observation Enhancement (Green) [Removable]
’Does Observation Enhancement not only help discover danger but also find more resources?’
Without hesitation, Ye Yun immediately uninstalled the Observation Enhancement skill card.
The next moment, he issued the same exploration mission again.
[Assessment Type: External Exploration]
[Assessing mission risk...]
[This is a 12-hour random exploration.]
[Assessment: 55% chance of obtaining White items, 42.88% chance of Green items, 2.1% chance of Blue items, 0.02% chance of Purple items. Risk Factor: 0.001%]
Seeing the different item acquisition probabilities from the two assessments, a look of realization dawned on Ye Yun’s face.
’It seems the level of Observation determines the probability of acquiring items. The higher the team’s overall Observation, the higher the chance of finding rare items.’
Although he had discovered this secret, Ye Yun had no intention of acquiring other similar skill cards.
Increasing the probability of finding rare items was a good thing, of course, but Ye Yun wouldn’t neglect the team’s overall capabilities for it.
...
No. 1: Explored for 1 hour. No. 2 used Observation Enhancement, acquired items from an abandoned car.
No. 1: Explored for 2 hours. Acquired items in ruins.
...
No. 1: Explored for 4 hours. Encountered 6 mutant cockroaches, successfully eliminated them.
No. 1: Explored for 8 hours. No. 2 used Observation Enhancement and detected signs of a large mutant creature near a pool. Due to insufficient database information, the specific type of this large mutant creature cannot be determined. Please issue a pursue or retreat command, Administrator.
Seeing this message, Ye Yun immediately frowned.
The mention of a large mutant creature instantly reminded him of the mutant lizard they had encountered a while back.
The battle against the mutant lizard hadn’t been easy, but overall, there hadn’t been any major danger.
However, Ye Yun also understood that the main reason they could kill the mutant lizard with almost no injuries was because of Xisuo and Simon.
’They are powerful superhumans... no, wait...’
Ye Yun immediately realized he had fallen into a mental trap.
According to Bena’s previous description, Xisuo and Simon were indeed superhumans, but because they were artificially created, they couldn’t use their powers at will.
So, during the fight, they hadn’t actually used their abilities at all.
Aside from the power they used at the very end to restrain the mutant lizard, they had only used firearms and blades throughout the battle.
Additionally, during their trade at the end, they had requested a green weapon with attribute requirements of 7 Strength and 5 Agility.
Simon couldn’t use it, but Xisuo could. This indirectly showed that while Simon was stronger than a bionoid, his strength without using his powers was probably on par with Bena’s, or maybe even slightly lower.
Considering that No. 1 and No. 2 had undergone upgrades and equipment changes, their combat power should have increased by at least a third, if not more.
Now, the team had an additional member, No. 3, who had also been upgraded and strengthened.
They weren’t at a disadvantage in numbers, and even in terms of combat power, the comparison should be fairly close.
’Does that mean, if I don’t insist on a flawless victory, we actually have a decent chance of defeating this unknown mutant creature?’
