16 Chapter 16 Armed

Li Ang frowned, looking at the newly-unlocked Face-Changing Mask in his inventory.

The mask was oval-shaped, with a smooth, flawless surface and circular notches on the edges, likely for threading to secure it.

Made of wood, its surface was painted a deep, ink-black, capable of covering the entire face, including the chin and forehead.

Li Ang paid and left the intestine noodle fan shop, then returned home to test the Face-Changing Mask.

Unlike the Cat's Eye, this piece of equipment didn't consume spiritual power when worn; as soon as the inside of the mask touched his facial skin, the black paint on the outside rapidly faded, replaced by a bevy of bizarre patterns.

Tiger, Kamen Rider, cute bunny-eared girl, Monkey King Sun Wukong, golden toilet seat, pink fluffy lady slippers...

After playing around for about fifteen minutes, Li Ang finally confirmed that aside from fun and cosplay, the special effect of the Face-Changing Mask really had no practical use.

Although Li Ang quite liked to cosplay.

As for special effect number two, Li Ang specifically went to a comic convention happening in Yin City that afternoon to test it out.

The result was quite pleasing; when he chose to reduce his presence, people around him would naturally ignore him as long as he stood still.

Even if he walked around casually, others found it difficult to remember him—even when he wore an extremely conspicuous mask.

When he chose to enhance his presence, no matter what Li Ang did—even just standing still—he quickly attracted others' attention, with random impressions like "That masked weirdo is creepy" or "There's a weirdo here, should we call the police?" emerging.

As for the applications of the mask, Li Ang quickly figured them out.

Assassination, stabbing, infiltration, concealment, eavesdropping, and... blatantly peeping.

According to Li Ang's speculation, the strength of the Face-Changing Mask likely related to the observer's Perception Attribute; the higher the Perception Attribute, the better they could resist the mask's confusing effects.

In any case, it was good to have a useful piece of equipment, so Li Ang put the mask back into his backpack and continued to look for tasks that could be triggered around Yin City.

In the following days, except for the arrival of a young and beautiful female class head at school, everything was uneventful, and Li Ang waited serenely for a message from a certain treasure delivery.

"Your package has arrived at Yin City's New East Road, delivery person Zhang ** is currently dispatching it for you."

For a novice, acquiring cost-effective equipment is always the best way to quickly improve strength, as long as you find the right channels. With less than ten thousand yuan, you could arm yourself to the teeth.

Li Ang had previously purchased items on a certain treasure website that included laboratory equipment, chemical fertilizers, seamless steel tubes, Bulletproof Vests, Camping Hatchets...

These products didn't seem problematic when viewed separately, but when purchased by the same person, they can easily be flagged by the official internet big data monitoring system.

Therefore, Li Ang used different Taobao accounts, IP addresses, personal information, and phone numbers to buy these items to ensure he couldn't be traced, sending all the products to different addresses in Yin City.

Although he had to rent a tricycle to pick up the packages, it was all worth it.

Li Ang swiftly opened all the packages in his living room and started his own little project.

As an uncertified genius, Li Ang considered his own level of knowledge, initiative, execution, and creativity to be top-notch.

At eleven or twelve, when his peers were obsessed with blowing up poop with firecrackers or zapping fish with water guns, Li Ang had already mastered infantry techniques including shooting, gun maintenance, assassination, landmine deployment, direction finding, distance measuring, and the production, preservation, and transport of flammable and explosive materials through studying Soviet militia manuals.

Blowing up poop with firecrackers was nothing compared to the thrill of detonating a remote-controlled bomb filled with steel balls and iron shards packed into a soda can.

At thirteen or fourteen, while his peers were engrossed in cartoons and TV dramas, Li Ang had already mastered artillery techniques such as artillery maintenance, troop deployment, coordinated actions, tactical command, fire distribution, and fire utilization by poring over Soviet war epic literature.

At the age of fifteen or sixteen, when most of his peers were experiencing the faint blush of first love and adolescent fantasies, Li Ang had already read through the complete series of U.S. Army regulation publications ADP, U.S. Army Doctrine Reference Publications ADRP, U.S. Field Manuals, U.S. Army Technical Manuals, a CIA operative's handbook, and interrogation manuals, all accessible through open-source internet.

He could conduct jungle guerrilla warfare, master urban CQB, interrogate prisoners at Guantanamo, battle drug lords in Mexico. He was capable of polishing atomic bombs, maintaining nuclear submarines, disassembling missile engines, cleaning satellite surfaces at high altitudes, and repairing airplane rearview mirrors...

With the surname Li and given name Ang, he was a talent to be reckoned with.

The internet is the most advanced and powerful invention in human history, carrying most of humanity's accumulated wisdom from ancient times to present, akin to the mythical "One Piece", cherished and precious.

Philosophy, economics, law, education, literature, art, history, mathematics, physics, chemistry, engineering, agronomy, medicine...

All of human wisdom resides within this invisible, intangible network.

What's more amazing is that it is open-source, accessible, and un-gated.

Anyone can access it without being excluded due to differences in lineage, ancestry, ethnicity, culture, and so on.

Acquiring knowledge has never been as simple as it is today; with just the willpower and initiative, anyone can become an expert in their field using the knowledge available on the internet.

It's just that most people don't do so.

Li Ang stood in a living room filled with objects, using various machines including a small stamping press, steel balls, steel wires, steel pipes, and other small steel materials purchased from "some treasure",

After spending tens of hours, he manufactured parts like the trigger mechanism, single-shot and automatic sears, hammer, frame, gas piston, and barrel, and assembled them into a Kalashnikov assault rifle.

The metal magazine was home-made, and the copper bullets were crafted by himself, totaling over seventy rounds.

Li Ang lifted the renowned stable and reliable Kalashnikov assault rifle, inhaled the strong scent of metal, and sneered, "Still a bit rusty..."

In a village on the Barbayang Border, a family workshop run by a family of three can produce over twenty Kalashnikovs a month while still tending to farm work, and their equipment isn't even as good as the stuff from "some treasure".

After finishing the Kalashnikov, Li Ang worked overtime, using simple materials such as steel needles, steel balls, light bulbs, pig intestines, pull-tab cans, and chemical fertilizers to make over a dozen flammable and explosive devices.

These devices, the size of soda cans, were wrapped in layers of clear tape, with savage and terrifying steel spikes protruding from the tape,

and they looked ugly and unstable, seemingly ready to explode at any moment.

"It doesn't matter how primitive it looks, the uglier the weapon, the more powerful it is," he reassured himself.

Li Ang dressed himself in armor, donning a steel helmet, a mask, and Cat's Eye goggles. He wore a CQB Tactical Bulletproof Vest and Anti-Stabbing Tactical Pants, stepped into rubber tactical boots with a sharp folding knife tucked inside.

On his back was a camouflaged backpack crammed with flammable and explosive materials, a powerful flashlight and Camping Hatchet were hung on his waist, and with hands clad in tactical gloves, he held a Kalashnikov assault rifle.

At this moment, Li Ang was fully armed. Taking into account his psychological quality, physical fitness, and combat training, his overall combat effectiveness was roughly equivalent to ten Mexican gang members of the same equipment level, or twenty African child soldiers.

Just as Li Ang was admiring his peculiar outfit in the mirror, a system prompt sounded in his ear.

[Conditions met: A player for a total of 240 hours]

[Scripted Mission Module now activated]

[Mission Type: Scripted Mission]

[Mission Name: Hungry Limit]

[Mission Objective: Eliminate 0/1 zombies in Hidden Mountain Village]

[Time Limit for the Mission: 3 hours]

[Reward 1: In addition to eliminating the target, extra Experience Points awarded]

[Reward 2: 200 Game Coins]

[Reward 3: One rare quality random Skill Scroll]