Chapter 115 Gene Liberation

After enjoying the moment, Han Xiao quickly calmed down. After failing more than ten times, he finally got the required props, making him feel much more relaxed. Settlement Cards weren't rare items, but it took him more than ten tries to get one, which was frustrating. But he finally got one.

Now that he had the Settlement Card, he didn't have to risk dealing with an A-level super. Sticking to a safe strategy was the right choice.

For ordinary players, the level ranges roughly corresponded to these tiers: lv1~lv20 was F-tier, lv20~lv40 was E-tier, lv41~lv60 was D-tier, lv61~lv90 was C-tier, lv91~lv100 was C+, and only lv100 and above reached B-tier. Of course, this was just a rough range, as there would be slight differences due to variations in skills, stat distribution, specializations, and equipment. For example, professional players could reliably reach C-tier at level 60.

Ordinary players only reached B-tier after completing the second racial sublimation at level 100. Han Xiao was also level 100, but because he possessed various template specializations, he was much stronger than the players and consistently at B-tier. With the advantages of the Mechanic class and his own powerful stats, he wasn't weak among B-tiers, and his actual combat power far exceeded the standard for that level. But regardless, level 100 was the entry edge of B-tier, tens of levels away from the next tier.

Therefore, Han Xiao was unwilling to take risks. Even if he advanced to level 120, he would still be in B-tier, which showed the gap between him and A-tier. He wouldn't panic when dealing with enemies a few levels higher, but facing strong enemies tens of levels higher? Unless he used special means, there was a 90% chance he would die.

Just looking at that probability, he lost interest in being reckless; his head wasn't made of iron.

Challenging above his level still had to follow the basic laws!

The indirect route to obtain the Settlement Card was a great help, allowing him to avoid unnecessary danger. Han Xiao had experienced many crises before and wasn't afraid of adventure, but now that he had more room to maneuver, he felt that accumulating silently was more worthwhile and economically efficient than risking fighting strong enemies.

To put it another way, if he really went to deal with an A-level super, he didn't know how much time he would spend on preparation, and how many resources would be wasted. Now, using the method of farming missions, he wouldn't just break even, but even make a profit. Why not do it?

Worried about making mistakes, Han Xiao focused his attention and carefully selected the Mission Settlement Card.

"I never see them normally, but now I get two at once. I only need one, so I'll keep the other one for now. Maybe it will come in handy if I encounter a similar extremely difficult mission in the future."

Han Xiao stored the two Mission Settlement Cards without using them for now. He was still stuck on the class advancement mission and planned to buy two high-end Mechanic knowledges that he had been eyeing for a long time, completing the advancement and class transfer together, and he would be able to level up quickly. He now had 1.36 million Enas in his account, which was relatively wealthy and enough to buy two high-end knowledges.

"Four draws, besides the Settlement Card, there's also a Skill Enhancement Card. I'll use it first."

Han Xiao pondered.

"The Enhancement Card will increase the basic attributes of the skill, so even max-level skills can be enhanced. It would be best if I get a skill mutation, but I don't think that's likely... What should I enhance? Combat skills or Mechanic Affinity skills?"

Opening his skill panel, the dense list of items unfolded. Han Xiao skipped the blueprints and looked at the other skills. Mechanic skills were the core, and enhancing them would basically improve his hard power. The effect would be decent, but there would be more Mechanic Affinity skills as he leveled up in the future, so this improvement would have limited enhancement to him.

It seemed that enhancing a skill with a special purpose would be better.

A flash of inspiration struck Han Xiao, and he had a target.

"Why not enhance [Will Burning]? I lack output methods, and strengthening my burst damage would be useful to me. If it can reduce the cooldown time, this enhancement would be worth it." Han Xiao's eyes lit up. Will Burning had two effects, active and passive. The former had a ten-minute cooldown, and the latter had a thirty-minute cooldown. Although the damage bonus was high, the cooldown was also high, causing the skill to only trigger once or twice in each battle. If the cooldown was reduced, the output rate would be greatly increased.

He got this skill from Bennett, and it could still play a key role to this day, showing how much value there was in protagonist-type characters. He immediately used the Skill Enhancement Card.

[Skill Enhancement Card activated, target: [Will Burning lv10], enhancing...]

[You triggered a skill mutation]

[You have comprehended a new technique, you have obtained the skill [Gene Liberation lv1]]

Han Xiao was pleasantly surprised, "Oh my god, I'm really lucky, I actually hit the twenty percent chance!"

In the panel, [Will Burning] had been replaced by the new skill. Knowledge of new skill usage emerged in his mind, and he looked at the skill introduction.

[[Gene Liberation lv1]: Active effect - Consumes 1000 Health Points. For the next 1.5 seconds, gain an attack bonus with a 50% chance to deal 200%~220% damage, a 30% chance to deal 300%~330% damage, and a 20% chance to deal 400%~440% damage. Cooldown: 8 minutes 30 seconds]

[Passive effect - When Health Points are below 20%, this skill will automatically activate once at no cost. Passive effect cooldown: 18 minutes]

[Note: You have mastered a way to break through your own limits. By squeezing the vitality of your cells, you can briefly unleash power beyond your limits, but this will damage your body.]

After browsing through it, Han Xiao felt that the enhancement was worth it. Not only was the cooldown reduced, but the original randomness was also lowered.

The original [Will Burning] had four random ranges, with the highest being more than five times the damage, but the probability was too small. To this day, Han Xiao had only triggered it less than five times. The current [Gene Liberation] reduced the highest bonus, but also changed from four random ranges to three. The reduced randomness meant more stable output.

Most importantly, this bonus wasn't just for one attack, but became a bonus within a certain amount of time! With his speed, it was definitely more than one hit!

He was a turret-style Mechanic, with an extremely high attack frequency per second. As a result, the role played by this skill was simply explosive!

Moreover, this was just the lv1 effect. Without saying a word, Han Xiao threw in tens of millions of experience and directly leveled it to level ten. The bonus effect changed from 1.5 seconds to 2 seconds, and the cooldown was reduced to 7 minutes. The damage bonus of the three ranges increased by ten percent each, that is, a minimum of 220% and a maximum of 480%. The consumption was reduced to 800 Health Points. Now that Master Han had nearly 20,000 Health Points, this consumption was completely insignificant, not to mention that he had obtained the [Self-Healing] ability two months ago, which could recover in seven seconds.

"This skill is a bit fierce!" Han Xiao marveled.

After tidying up, Han Xiao cheerfully opened the door. In the spaceship hall, Melos was playing cards with the Volga brothers again, looking smug, while the Volga brothers looked dejected.

"I'm not playing anymore, how come you always draw the cards you want?" The Volga brothers said indignantly.

Melos shrugged and chuckled, "Because I'm awesome. Don't just stand there, pay up, losers."

The three brothers transferred the money gloomily. No matter how Melos tempted them, they wouldn't play anymore. They had lost four times in a row. The three of them often played cards with Melos, and they always lost more than they won. Melos seemed to have divine help and could always draw the most suitable cards, making the three brothers' game experience extremely poor.

Seeing that the three were determined, Melos had no choice but to turn his head and saw Han Xiao, calling out, "Black Star, come play cards."

Han Xiao said unhappily, "Do I look like I have a lot of free time?"

At this time, Fording walked out of the room and was about to go to the simulation training room. Melos's eyes suddenly lit up, and he hurriedly shouted, "Fording, let's play a game."

Fording stopped and turned to look, shrugging, "I don't know how to play."

"Hey, it's very simple, I'll teach you. What's the difference between you and a native if you don't even know how to play cards?" Melos stood up, dragging the reluctant Fording to sit opposite him.

"Okay, how do you play this kind of card?" Fording shook his head and picked up a stack of cards to look at.

"The official name of this card is 'Star Sea War', but we usually call it Veen cards. This is the common language of the Glorious Federation, which means 'Shining Cards'. Look, there's our mercenary group in it. Isn't it interesting? Let me tell you the rules..." Melos enthusiastically popularized the rules.

"...Okay, that's how the rules are. You're a Esper, so I don't need to repeat it again. Let's play a game. You'll know how to play after we start. You can use the three brothers' cards. They also use the Shattered Star Ring set."

Melos knocked on the table, and the cards automatically shuffled. This kind of card has industrialized simple enchantments, and many special effects can be completed automatically. He raised his hand and motioned Fording to play a card, and smiled, "This time we won't play those regular modes, we'll play the free battle mode. The way to win is to reduce the opponent's Health Points to zero. It's your first time playing, so I'll let you go first."

Fording nodded.

"Okay, you have to let me win a little."

Three minutes later...

Melos stared blankly at the field.

"Did I win?" Fording blinked, "It seems quite simple."

"Hehe..." Melos wiped his sweat, "You were just lucky this time, my cards were stuck. Let's do it again..."

Not long after...

Melos slumped on the sofa, looking lifeless and weak.

"Are you lying to me? You actually knew how to play?"

Fording smiled wryly, "It's really my first time playing, you just have bad luck."

In such a short period of time, Melos had lost five games in a row, and his confidence was shattered. He didn't know why his always successful luck suddenly turned bad. He could never draw the cards he wanted, while Fording was smooth sailing all the way, drawing whatever he could play.

The three Volga brothers watched the whole process, feeling elated and laughing wildly, "That's the feeling!"

Han Xiao shook his head. This was why he didn't like playing cards with these people.

As long as the battle mode they played had any element of luck, Fording could basically draw the best cards every time, or have a godlike start. He was too much. Melos's luck could crush the Volga brothers, but when he encountered Fording's high-level aura, he could only be beaten.

How could people beat dogs?

"Stop playing, we have a new mission. Ames wants us to go to Norios to find someone, so we will not accept external hires for the time being."

Han Xiao interrupted everyone and said, "She's not in the Shattered Star Ring at this time. Before she comes back, I need to go to other star systems to purchase some things. I have already set the course."

Everyone nodded, indicating they understood.

Han Xiao naturally wanted to buy high-end knowledge. The Dragon Emperor hadn't arrived yet, and he planned to put everything aside for the time being and advance first. This was a long-awaited opportunity that would take his power to the next level.

The stronger the power, the more freedom of action. If he wanted to complete his plan, powerful power was necessary, and even his plan was for better acquiring power.

...

In the previous few months, Han Xiao had already scouted the area, traveling through several star systems, and successfully bought the two high-end knowledges he had been eyeing for a long time. Because he didn't take the route of farming faction favorability, and the high-end knowledge sold privately was very expensive, his savings plummeted to 500,000 Enas in one fell swoop. The two high-end knowledges cost a total of more than 800,000 Enas.

But the cost was worth it. Money could be earned again, but the improvement of oneself was permanent.

The two high-end knowledges were [High Energy Mastery] in the energy branch and [Advanced Virtual Intelligence Technology] in the control branch.

[High Energy Mastery] was very important and could control higher-level energy. It belonged to the core level of knowledge. With it, he could combine more stable shields and stable energy weapons. Energy weapons were more powerful conventional weapons than electromagnetic kinetic energy weapons.

Because only a part of the knowledge was sold, Han Xiao could only choose the relatively more useful knowledge from it, so the second one he chose was [Advanced Virtual Intelligence Technology], which was used to create artificial intelligence.

The use of Mechanic's high-end knowledge was more significant, and each one could play a role that could not be ignored. There was no useless knowledge. Ordinary players could only make trade-offs, because the potential points consumed by high-end knowledge increased by one point, and learning required 3 points, and each upgrade required 3 points.

Just calculate it and you'll know that the three branches have a total of fifteen high-end knowledges. Learning all of them to level five would consume a total of 225 potential points. If you also want to learn the advanced knowledge and basic knowledge to the maximum level, then it would require a total of 450 potential points!

And above high-end knowledge there was even higher-level knowledge. The Mechanic was completely a deep pit that consumed potential points. It was basically impossible for players to gather so many potential points, so Han Xiao was saving potential points from the beginning. This thing would only become more and more expensive.

After completing all these preparations, he was just located in the Gadon Star System, so Han Xiao sailed back to Joberly Hub.

He was going to complete the level 100 advancement here.