Chapter 8: The Professionals' Battleground, Zheng Mu's Hunting Ground

[You killed a Venomous Nekomancer (Lv16), gained 197 experience points]

[You killed a Bonewolf (Lv12), gained 89 experience points]

[You killed...]

[You leveled up, current level Lv8]

The night was murky, and the wilderness in the darkness exuded an aura of terror and danger even through the thick fog.

Zheng Mu sat atop Optimus Prime's shoulder.

Unbeknownst to him, he had arrived here around noon and had already been fighting for more than ten hours.

After ten hours of combat, even Optimus Prime's durability had dwindled to around 800, caught between slowly healing and battling injuries.

The 20-round ammunition capacity of the cannon on his right arm had been depleted by half.

Zheng Mu had requested to save the last ten rounds, which was why they had stopped using the weapon.

Under the illumination of the two massive floodlights on his shoulders, the swarming monsters seemed never-ending, much like the horde of zombies in post-apocalyptic movies from his previous world.

During their evasive maneuvers, they had switched battlefields several times.

They had left mountains of corpses in their wake in this desolate wasteland.

As Zheng Mu's level rose, the experience points he gained from killing these monsters gradually decreased.

[You have new skills available to learn!]

As Zheng Mu furrowed his brow, contemplating whether to retreat for a while, a voice echoed in his mind.

He opened his skill tree.

Two shimmering skills had been unlocked.

[Firepower Reset Lv1: Resets the ammunition count of all mechanical creations under your command. Cooldown: 24h. Calculation Power Occupation: 30]

[Calculation Power Enhancement Lv1: Reduces the calculation power consumed when learning skills to a certain extent. Current Reduction: 10%. Calculation Power Occupation: 50]

Zheng Mu's pupils constricted.

Without any hesitation, he chose to learn both skills.

Each time he leveled up, he would gain an additional 20 points of calculation power.

Having reached level 8, his maximum calculation power had risen to 240 points.

Even after learning these two skills, the total consumption was only 160 points.

However, these two skills would greatly improve his current situation.

Optimus Prime's cannon was powerful and a ranged weapon, capable of annihilating a group of monsters in one shot.

In the current situation with monsters swarming, it was a superweapon.

As for Calculation Power Enhancement, it was a must-have skill for a Mechanic. Even if other skills could be ignored, this one could not be overlooked.

"Optimus Prime, speed up! As long as I reach level 10, we'll cut through these monsters like a knife through butter!"

Optimus Prime acknowledged the command, increasing the amplitude of his movements.

With Zheng Mu's permission, the previously disabled cannon roared back to life.

"Boom!"

A single shot sent ten or twenty monsters wailing in agony.

Some were blown to pieces on the spot, while others were left with only half a body, entering a state of "massive blood loss."

In no time, they would be converted into experience points for Zheng Mu.

At this moment, he stared intently at his display panel.

The yellow bar representing his experience points was gradually growing longer, a sight that would make any professional drool with envy.

Amidst the monster-killing notifications, there were occasional messages about dropped items.

Colorful items were scattered all over the ground.

However, Zheng Mu had no interest in those things at the moment.

If he jumped down to pick them up without reaching level 10, his insufficient attributes would result in him being devoured by the monster horde instantly.

Moreover, once he reached level 10, he could start to focus on allocating his experience points towards upgrading his skills.

While upgrading his skills, he would occasionally make quick jumps down to pick up some spoils of war.

That was the monster farming strategy Zheng Mu had in mind.

The slaughter continued into the latter half of the night.

During the period when Zheng Mu felt a bit drowsy, he suddenly leveled up from level 8 to level 9. As his attributes increased, his energy was instantly restored.

It was when the faint sunlight once again shone on the toxic ruins' mist that a massive Bone-Faced Wolf was cleaved in half by Optimus Prime.

Finally, Zheng Mu reached his goal of level 10.

It took him a day.

[You have killed an Elite Bone-Faced Wolf (lv17), gained 100 experience points, and a blue lv10 Wolf Venom Crossbow]

[You have leveled up, current level: lv10]

[You have new skills available to learn!]

"Finally, level 10!"

Feeling the power in his body, at least four or five times stronger than when he first left the city, Zheng Mu's eyes were filled with excitement.

The most apparent change brought by the increase in his various attributes was that he could now easily stand on Optimus Prime's shoulder, without worrying about being thrown off even when Optimus Prime made large attack movements.

Moreover, he could finally focus on upgrading his skills with peace of mind.

With one hand gripping a foothold on Optimus Prime's shoulder and below him the still swarming Cat Demons, Bone-Faced Wolves, and Toxic Tumor Slimes, he opened the skill tree again.

After reaching level 10, another skill was highlighted in the skill tree.

[Military Arsenal Modification lv1: Allows the mechanical modification of two weapons of the same type, retaining the weapon's characteristics while independently designing its appearance, creating a new weapon. Cooldown: 24h. Calculation Power Occupied: 30]

"Learn!"

This skill made Zheng Mu's eyes exceptionally bright.

Although he had a training longsword in his hand, how could he be satisfied with such a weapon?

Having mastered [Weapon Mastery max], using weapons was no longer a limitation for him.

And now that [Military Arsenal Modification] had appeared, it immediately brought to Zheng Mu's mind images of various weapons.

Sunlight penetrated the mist and shone on the central area of the toxic ruins that ordinary people would never dare to enter. Around seven or eight mountains of coagulated blood.

White, green, and even a few scattered blue light orbs were shimmering.

Picking up any item here, even if it was a white-quality one, could fetch a price of one or two thousand credits in the market.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. What a battlefield for professionals; this is clearly my hunting ground, Zheng Mu."

"It's a treasure trove!"

(to be continued)