72: Chapter 72 Recovery and Review

"After all, between good neighbors, courtesy cannot be lacking."

The day after saying this, Yan Zheng pulled down the rolling shutter of the Antique Shop and hung a handwritten cardboard sign at the door: Sourcing goods on a business trip, returning in two weeks.

Then he lay on the cot in the Underground Room for ten whole days.

The first three days were the hardest.

Forty percent subcutaneous hemorrhage all over his body made him look like a ragdoll that had been thrown from a height and picked back up; three stress fractures in his right hand made him unable to even unscrew a bottle cap.

Yan Zheng: (ꐦ；‸；)

"Mr. Brute, please help me open that bottle of Water."

The petrified fingers of the Brute pinched the mineral Water bottle cap and gave it a twist.

The cap, along with half the bottle neck, was twisted off and flew away, and Water sprayed all over Yan Zheng's face from the broken opening.

"Thank you, be gentler next time."

Yan Zheng wiped the Water off his face with his left hand and brought the broken mineral Water bottle to his mouth to take a sip.

There was a line of small, continuously flickering green text on the system panel.

[Symbiotic repair in progress. Host internal organ micro-tear repair progress: 34%. Capillary reconstruction progress: 28%. Fracture healing progress: 19%. Estimated full recovery: 10 days.]

"Symbiotic repair, passive function."

Yan Zheng stared at that line of text for a while.

"After the system is bound to the host, it will automatically maintain the host's physical integrity."

"The speed isn't fast, but the advantage is that it doesn't require consuming any resources."

"It's equivalent to buying free medical insurance, just with a longer claim processing cycle."

Yan Zheng: (˵ꐦ˘ᴗ˘˵)

Starting on the fourth day, the hemorrhage spots turned from dark red to yellowish-green, like a fading watercolor painting.

On the seventh day, the splint on his right hand could be removed; his fingers could bend, but he still couldn't grip a knife.

On the tenth day.

Yan Zheng sat up from the cot, flexed his wrist, and his knuckles made a crisp clicking sound.

He fished out the gold-rimmed glasses from under his pillow, put them on, walked to the workbench, and opened the system panel.

"Alright, it's time to settle the accounts."

He pulled up the complete list of the material library and examined it item by item from top to bottom.

"Ordinary human skeletal materials, forty-seven in stock, enough to assemble twenty consumable Bone Breaker soldiers—not valuable, but plentiful and satisfying."

"Mutant genetic materials, seven types."

He swiped his finger across the panel, item by item.

"Epidermal Keratin Strengthening, sourced from that low-level Mutant in the alley early on."

"Night vision gene, sourced from one of the goods in that boxing ring batch."

"Psychokinesis gene, same as above."

"High-Temperature Physiology gene, same as above."

"Adaptive Regeneration, one of the core abilities of the Undead Knight, already equipped."

"Photon Absorption and Release, the second core ability of the Undead Knight, already equipped, with one spare."

"There is also one unidentified spare gene, I can't remember the source, I'll look at it another day."

Yan Zheng: (˵ꐦ✧꒳✧˵)

"Ninja enhancement materials, large quantity. Fourteen sets of ordinary ninja skeletons plus two sets of elite-level Dark Energy reinforced skeletons; The Hand's training system pushed the bone density and tendon toughness of these people to the human limit."

"Dark Energy materials, four sets."

His finger paused on this column for two seconds.

"Two sets from the red-armored elite's inscribed skeletons, one from the Black Sky Ritual complete form material of Nogami, and one is that Dark Energy crystal."

"Nogami's is legendary grade."

"The crystal is quasi-artifact grade."

"Putting these two things together is enough for me to transform the entire Underground Room into a small Dark Energy reactor."

He closed the material library and switched to the control panel.

[Mental Power: 11.0 / 11.0 (Max). Control limit: 11 slots. Currently occupied: Undead Knight (4 slots) + Stitched Brute (3 slots) + Reinforced Skeleton Soldier × 4 (1 slot each) = 11 slots.]

"Reached full capacity."

Yan Zheng leaned against the edge of the workbench, his fingers habitually reaching for the scalpel in his pocket, spinning it twice on the handle.

"Eleven control slots; the Undead Knight takes four, the Stitched Brute takes three, and the remaining four go to the Reinforced Skeleton Soldiers."

"If I want to add new elite creations, I have to cut the existing Reinforced Skeleton Soldiers to make space."

"Or, keep pushing the Mental Power limit higher."

Yan Zheng: (ꐦ˘͈ꈊ˘͈)

Just as he was about to close the panel, a golden prompt box suddenly popped up in the lower right corner.

A color he had never seen before.

[Congratulations to the host. Based on the storage of the legendary-grade material "Black Sky Ritual Complete Form", the system has unlocked a brand new assembly blueprint.]

[Blueprint Name: Undead General (Epic Grade).]

Yan Zheng's finger paused in mid-air.

"Epic grade?"

He clicked on the blueprint details, and the golden text spread across three full pages on the panel.

[Undead General (Epic Grade). Positioning: Legion core combat power, independent combat unit.]

[Estimated combat power: A-grade. Can confront the vast majority of supervillains and mid-level superheroes head-on.]

[Required materials: Legendary-grade Dark Energy core × 1, high-level Mutant gene × 3 (must contain at least one attack type), elite-grade reinforced skeleton × 8, Dark Energy crystal (catalyst) × 1.]

[Required Mental Power: Minimum control requirement 20. Occupied control slots: 8 slots.]

Yan Zheng read that last line of numbers three times.

Minimum Mental Power requirement, twenty.

He is currently at eleven.

Yan Zheng: (ꐦ˘͈ᗝ˘͈)

"It's nearly double the difference."

He scrolled down and saw the performance preview section.

[Undead General Preview: Possesses complete combat intelligence, can independently execute complex tactics. Dark Energy armor covers the whole body, integrating offense and defense. Retains the combat memories and skills of the core material provider. Can command low-level undead formations in battle, does not occupy additional host control slots.]

"Retains combat memories."

"Nogami's swordsmanship, Nogami's footwork, Nogami's Dark Energy manipulation."

"All packaged into a creation that I can fully control."

Yan Zheng's breathing rate didn't change, but his action of adjusting his glasses was half a beat slower than usual.

"A-grade combat power, independent operation, and can lead troops."

"If I have an Undead General, plus the Undead Knight and the Stitched Brute, three elite creations deployed simultaneously."

"Ninety percent of the forces in New York's underworld could be steamrolled."

Yan Zheng: (˵ꐦ≖ᗜ≖˵)

He saved the blueprint to the home page of the panel and closed the system interface.

He walked to the sink in the corner of the Underground Room, turned on the faucet to wash his face, and the cold Water dripped down his chin onto his gray work uniform.

He looked up at his own face in the mirror.

The hemorrhage spots had completely faded, his skin had returned to its normal color, and his eyes behind the gold-rimmed glasses were calm as usual.

"Mental Power from eleven to twenty."

"Last time, rising from 7.2 to 9 was the result of a high-intensity real combat."

"From nine to eleven was an incidental gain from the system's symbiotic repair during the ten days of recuperation."

"Following this pattern, every real combat that pushes Mental Power to the limit can expand the container."

"I need more combat."

"Higher intensity, more multi-threaded, closer to the limit combat."

He turned off the faucet, dried the Water droplets on his face with a towel, and straightened his gold-rimmed glasses again.

"The ninjas in Hells Kitchen have been cleared out, Kingpin's men aren't worth looking at, and street thugs are just a waste of time."

"I need to find a new hunting ground."

Yan Zheng turned and walked towards the wardrobe, taking out a clean dark gray suit and a neatly ironed white shirt.

"But before that, there is an old account that needs to be settled first."

He fastened his cufflinks and adjusted his collar in the mirror.

"Liu Kun, it's been ten days without contact, I wonder how he is doing now."

Yan Zheng: (˵ꐦ˘͈ω˘͈˵)

"I hope he is still alive."

"Living people are more useful than dead ones, at least at certain times."