Chapter 15

Fang Senyan was almost fainting from happiness facing so many merit points. He had two choices at this moment.

The first choice was to continue upgrading the common cold. Based on Fang Senyan's previous experience in upgrading the Art of Mixing ability, a Tier 1 ability was already at LV7, so it should be quick to upgrade to MAX.

The second choice was to start upgrading the Tier 2 ability, Bronchitis. These merit points could probably upgrade Bronchitis to LV4. In fact, this Tier 2 ability had already begun to show its power and perversion. Although the coughing up blood effect did not occur frequently and the damage value was similarly low, two unlucky children had already coughed to death thus far... Its power didn't need further elaboration.

After careful consideration, Fang Senyan basically felt that the epidemic virus cold should be the foundation of all diseases on this entire skill tree. He gritted his teeth and made the decision to continue upgrading the Tier 1 ability, Common Cold.

His Common Cold was already at LV7. It didn't take much effort to upgrade from LV7 to LV8; a mere few merit points were spent lightly. However, upgrading from LV8 to LV9 required a full 15 merit points! In other words, if there was no reduction from the Solar Ladder, upgrading this Tier 1 ability would cost a full thirty merit points! ! ! !

What terrifying data!

However, the terrifying investment also brought Fang Senyan amazing gains. After upgrading from LV8, it no longer displayed LV9, but LVMAX! ! ! Its attributes also underwent earth-shattering changes.

Tier 1 Ability: Epidemic Virus Common Cold LVMAX.

After activating this ability, you will simultaneously spread the epidemic cold virus to enemies within a one-kilometer radius (calculated with virus monarch-related ability enhancements). At the same time, when an enemy already infected with the epidemic cold virus has a life value below 50%, they will also become a source of infection, spreading the epidemic cold virus to enemies within a two-hundred-meter radius, even if that enemy is not within your range of infection.

The epidemic cold virus has an onset cycle of thirty seconds, causing infected individuals to have a 50% chance every 10 seconds to gain negative effects of sneeze interrupting spellcasting actions, normal attacks, chills (movement speed reduced by 50%, lasting 3 seconds), and headache (mental energy consumption doubled when casting abilities).

Each time an enemy is affected by the epidemic virus cold, you will gain a 5% bonus to movement speed and evasion rate, lasting 15 seconds (this effect can stack up to two times).

You can choose to turn this branch ability on or off at any time. Turning this ability on or off costs 2 potential points and 1000 general points.

After the onset cycle takes effect, you can choose to activate the enemy's onset time, but once the enemy's onset is activated, the process is irreversible.

"This branch ability can coexist with certain virus-type branch abilities."

Fang Senyan shared his attributes within the team (Zi didn't see them). Mogansha and Jiao Shi were also shocked at the same time. Obviously, the power of Epidemic Virus Cold LVMAX was beyond their expectations. The terrifying range of infection, the onset cycle shortened from 10 minutes to half a minute, and the symptom determination rate as high as 50%...

Fang Senyan then calculated the remaining merit points. Feeling that there was no way to upgrade Bronchitis to LV4, which could produce qualitative changes, he divided the remaining merit points equally between Jiao Shi and Mogansha. They were also pleasantly surprised to receive seven merit points each. Fang Senyan was also very clear that eating alone was often the main reason for the collapse of a team.

The Zerg leader's flying speed was quite fast. After only about three hours, the outline of the building where Chadriakos Sissot had his head blown off appeared in front of everyone. The four of them rode the leader to observe the surroundings first. Because the Zerg leader had no eyes, it perceived the world in all directions through methods similar to ultrasound waves and biological temperature, so few lurking creatures could escape the Zerg leader's scan.

"There are people in the building," Fang Senyan suddenly said in a deep voice. He pressed his hand on the Zerg leader's flesh wall, closed his eyes, and could perceive the inside of that abandoned building. Several creatures with body temperature were gathered around the corpse, occasionally moving. Obviously, they were waiting for a rabbit to appear.

After repeated observation, the four of them confirmed that there were no ambushes within ten kilometers. They returned to the bottom of the abandoned building, jumped off the Zerg leader, and Fang Senyan and Jiao Shi led the way, slowly feeling their way up.

To avoid encountering perverted ambushes like traps and illusions, Mogansha also specially used the Golden Pearl of the Caribbean. Although there was a hazy layer of fluorescence on his body, it was better than being tricked unknowingly.

As a result, when the four of them came to about twenty meters away from that room, they immediately looked at each other and smiled bitterly because they had clearly heard the various sounds coming from the room, including swallowing sounds, tearing sounds, low roars, and a burst of pungent stench.

It turned out that what the Zerg leader detected was not some so-called ambush at all, but a group of scavengers who smelled the blood and rotten aura here and were eating dinner... After Fang Senyan and the others rushed in, they quickly slaughtered this group of hyena-like guys.

In this place full of blood and stench, Zi calmly dissected the stomachs of the four hyenas and finally found the important prop needed to continue the main mission: the ruby ring worn on Chadriakos Sissot's finger... This ring was a special emblem of the Chadriakos family.

After Zi shook off the blood with that ring, she obviously received a series of prompts. In the end, her face slowly darkened. Fang Senyan frowned and said,

"Could it be that you have to send this ring back to the Chadriakos family? Damn it, I heard that place is like a copper wall and iron fortress, a dragon's pool and a tiger's den. It's easy to get in but difficult to get out."

Zi slowly shook her head and said,

"It's not that serious, but it's not easy either. This ring can make the Chadriakos family believe that their outstanding paleontologist and zoologist, Mr. Sissot, is in my hands, so we can arrange a location to trade with them instead of fighting on the Chadriakos family's home turf."

"The key question is, what do we use to trade for that piece of amber?" Fang Senyan shrugged. "Just like we saw, Mr. Sissot has been aboard the *Heavenly Kingdom* for at least forty-eight hours, and those organic materials that originally belonged to him have become dinner for the hyenas. But I can provide you with a clue. Perhaps we can consider the direction of the plot from the cause of Mr. Sissot's death?"

Zi frowned, brushing her disheveled temples. This action added three points of charm to her face.

"But, there are no clues!"

"There are." Fang Senyan smiled and said, "I happened to put a little more thought into it here. We should go find a guy named Wan Siter now. There may be many Mr. Wan Siters (this name is relatively common in the West), but I guess there may only be one or two Lieutenant Colonels Wan Siter."

Obviously, Zi's familiarity with this world was almost no less than Fang Senyan's familiarity with the Caribbean world. Under her guidance, the four quickly came to another important town outside the dinosaur disaster area, twenty kilometers outside Base Thirteen...

Why twenty kilometers outside the important town? Of course, it wasn't that Zi had gone the wrong way, but because that Zerg leader had died.

This Zerg leader faithfully carried out its mission until the last moment of its life. It slowly landed on the Gobi Desert, then began to rot, bubble, and evaporate into the air at an alarming rate. Within two or three minutes, it became a two- or three-square-meter brown stain on the ground.

Faced with this situation, Fang Senyan could only smile bitterly. He also forgot one thing: the Zerg leader was also a living body and had to eat to replenish nutrients, but where could Fang Senyan find a Zerg base and mucus carpet for it to eat? Speaking of which, Fang Senyan only had one remaining Zerg leader egg at this time, so it had to be used at the most critical moment.

In the West, "thirteen" is a very unlucky number, similar to the number 7 in China, such as the saying that ghosts appear in mid-July. This Base Thirteen was originally a large-scale military base, but all kinds of accidents often occurred from the beginning of its construction. Things like fires were commonplace.

When dinosaurs breed to a certain number and the local food cannot support the already saturated creatures, all the dinosaurs will strangely unite and attack outwards. So far, three dinosaur migration *shou chao* (animal tides) have occurred. Of course, each time they were forcibly attacked back by the human government, and the severely injured and dead dinosaur groups also got rid of the vicious cycle of food shortages.

And Base Thirteen fell in the second *shou chao*. Given that this base had never been quiet since it was built, the matter of rebuilding this base was never mentioned again. And dinosaurs usually are only interested in things that can be eaten, so the main buildings of Base Thirteen have been preserved and slowly formed another gathering point.

This gathering point is quite prosperous. It is estimated that the permanent population will exceed 100,000. Another characteristic is that people usually live in those abandoned military base buildings, but there are also an amazing number of RVs and trailers parked in the base. As long as the people inside are willing, they can disperse at any time by modern means of transportation. There are even several subway passages underground that can be connected to the main line, which can be said to be accessible in all directions and convenient for transportation...