18: Chapter 18 Choice

The sudden prompt made Wang Ting's eyes light up, and the information it contained instantly dispelled his only remaining concern.

"The items redeemed can be stored within my body, just like a specific storage slot? That way, it's not just about hiding things anymore, it's my trump card."

In an instant, the image of a zombie jumping in his face and pulling out a crossbow from his arms appeared in his mind. Although insidious, who could think that such things would suddenly pop out during battle? Just thinking about it was exciting.

Whether in exploration or in battle, unexpected means could always gain him more survival opportunities. Servant beasts surrounding him, or using weapons to launch surprise attacks, these means were enough to greatly enhance his combat power.

"Once I gain a foothold, or find some more powerful monsters, redeeming servant beasts can be put on the agenda. But for now, I still need to redeem traits first."

Wang Ting pondered inwardly: "Redeeming Scorpion Skin first, traits that can be activated at any time are the most convenient. sand scorpion armor needs to be worn, and even if it can be stored, it might not be convenient to use. On the other hand, the Sand Scorpion short crossbow can be used as a hidden hand, but it still has to come after traits like Photosynthetic Straw and Vibration Perception."

Learning that the redeemed items could be stored inside his body, Wang Ting also paid more attention to the functions of these items.

Sand Scorpion short crossbow: A long crossbow crafted from Sand Scorpion chitin, equipped with ten tail-hook bolts, powerful enough to pierce a skull, carrying paralyzing venom, and the bolts can recover themselves after consumption.

A special hand crossbow with decent power and toxicity. Just the function of its bolts recovering themselves was enough to demonstrate its value. To a certain extent, this was infinite ammunition.

virus potion: L-virus refined potion, which can enhance physical fitness.

Seeing the effect of the virus potion, Wang Ting's eyes lit up.

"It's actually a potion that acts directly on physical enhancement. I wonder if, after using it, it can directly reach the level of breaking limits a second time."

He pondered in his mind, while listing the virus potion as one of the items he must redeem. Things that could enhance his own strength were all his current top choices.

At this time, he also swept his attention across several other redemption items of the zombie, checking their functions clearly one by one.

Painless Body: Slightly enhances the body's resistance attributes, reduces the pain when injured, and maintains concentration when injured.

Zombie Endurance: Greatly improves physical endurance, consuming lower body energy under long-term operation states.

Virus Immunity: Capable of immunizing against low-level viruses mainly based on the zombie virus, and immunizing against most bacterial invasions.

He looked over all the redemption items once and carefully compared their respective functions in his heart.

Although the abilities of the traits and items were different, and on the surface there were distinctions of high and low, strong and weak, Wang Ting knew that as long as they were used in the right place, these redeemed things would definitely be helpful.

"Virus Immunity can prevent me from being infected by viruses and can also resist diseases. This thing can indeed prevent capsizing in the gutter, but it can only be redeemed later. Painless Body and Zombie Endurance are a bit lacking, and there's no rush for them right now."

Wang Ting sorted it out in his mind. From the perspective of enhancing combat power and life-saving abilities, the things he needed to redeem should prioritize Scorpion Skin and Photosynthetic Straw for traits, and virus potion and sand scorpion armor second for item classes.

"207 Monster Points. After redeeming Scorpion Skin first, I can only redeem Photosynthetic Straw. One enhances defense, the other enhances recovery ability. As for the rest, accumulating Monster Points slowly is also fine. After recording the Sand Scorpion and zombie, the Monster Points settled every day will also increase."

With a decision in his heart, Wang Ting immediately chanted silently in his heart: "Redeem Photosynthetic Straw and Scorpion Skin traits."

As he made his decision, 200 Monster Points instantly disappeared, and the two traits Photosynthetic Straw and Scorpion Skin were instantly redeemed by him.

In the blink of an eye, Wang Ting's expression sitting on the bed suddenly changed, revealing a painful look.

He felt as if two turbulent currents had surged into his body, and severe pain came from inside his body. That feeling was like millions of ants gnawing on his body, itchiness and pain hard to endure, gradually spreading from the inside out to every part of his body.

"It's like this again!"

He clenched his teeth tightly, blue veins bulged on his forehead, a low groan came from his throat, and soybean-sized sweat oozed from his face.

During this excruciating process, the two forces from the traits were rapidly transforming his body. Under his fair skin, special skin resembling a black carapace faintly emerged, appearing and disappearing like a black tattoo. If carefully compared, one could see that it was seven-tenths similar to the carapace of the Sand Scorpion.

The trait of Photosynthetic Straw was also continuously transforming Wang Ting's body. The power of this trait endowed him at the cellular level with a special ability humans had never possessed—obtaining nutrients from light and water, and restoring physical functions.

The soreness and fatigue brought by the long trek during patrol were slowly disappearing, and the sprains and scrapes caused by practicing fighting techniques earlier were also slowly healing at this time.

The entire transformation process lasted for a full half an hour before the itchy and painful sensation gradually disappeared.

Wang Ting almost collapsed onto his bed, panting heavily at the moment, with his forehead covered in sweat.

"Next time I must redeem Painless Body first."

Regaining his strength, he cursed in a low voice. Trait transformation was strong indeed, but he hadn't expected it to be so painful this time as well.

"However, my strength has increased again."

A ball of flame seemed to flash in his two eyes, and a sense of eagerness arose in his heart. Clenching his fists tightly, a look of joy appeared on his face: "The amplification is not as obvious as Scarecrow Physique, but based on the physical trait enhancement, it will also enhance physical fitness!"

...

[Successfully survived for one day, starting to settle today's Monster Points]

[Low-level anomaly Scarecrow +3 Monster Points]

[Low-level anomaly Rot Soil Hound +1 Monster Point]

[Low-level anomaly zombie +1 Monster Point]

[Low-level anomaly Sand Scorpion +2 Monster Points]

[Settled Monster Points: 7]

The settlement at nighttime floated before Wang Ting's eyes. Counting the newly recorded zombie and Sand Scorpion monsters, the Monster Points he could accumulate in a day at this time were 7 points.

"7 points a day, accumulating 150 Monster Points only takes more than 20 days. I can afford to wait for this time, and if I can record a Lizard Hound or Carrion Spider during patrol, that couldn't be more appropriate."

The settled Monster Points gave Wang Ting great peace of mind. Although the zombie's Monster Points weren't much, the Sand Scorpion's were quite decent.

He suppressed the joy in his heart, neither revealing it nor leaking the news of his becoming stronger.

As usual, he patrolled together with Zhao Hu and the others, trained together, and then put more energy into the Giant Wood Fighting Technique, and the training time was even longer.

Wang Ting sweated profusely on the training ground. In the past, he constantly fought and hit stakes. If he practiced with all his might, he would reach his limit in an hour or two.

But under the blessing of Photosynthetic Straw, while training under the scorching sun, his physical strength recovered while training, which greatly enhanced his stamina. Under such strenuous training, every move and style of the Giant Wood Fighting Technique began to gradually turn into his combat instinct.

Within the entire team, he was already able to fight three at once by this time. What he fought were not newcomers like Fu Xing, but old hands like Dong Hu, Xiang Nan, and Qu Ling.

Flesh-and-blood heavy blows—even if he held back somewhat, every punch had an impact of four to five hundred kilograms, which converted into pounds was over a thousand pounds. This was the punching force of a top boxer before the doomsday.

Wang Ting had tested it himself. At this time, he could carry and drag a weight of around five hundred kilograms, having reached the level of breaking a bodily limit once, and could even go a bit higher.

"Monster, if this goes on, really only the captain will be able to hold you down."

Xiang Nan bared his teeth and grinned. After a few punches, his blocking forearm felt as if it had been knocked on wood, aching terribly.

"It's just luck, my fighting skills are still far behind the captain's."

Wang Ting showed a modest smile, and Dong Hu on the side couldn't bear to watch: "Far behind? Your Giant Wood Fighting Technique can even fight with Scarecrow, you're just lacking practical combat experience."

Qu Ling said angrily from the side: "He should be assigned to Boss Fan, directly fighting with the Scarecrow in the farm world."

Wang Ting was a newcomer and in the same team as them, so naturally they were his sparring partners for training fighting techniques.

But previously sparring with newcomers was always bullying newbies, only now it was they who were being beaten.

The few of them could originally contain Wang Ting one or two percent, but for the past few days, for some reason, attacks hitting Wang Ting were as hard as hitting stone, completely unable to budge him.

"We won't be able to stay peaceful for many days."

Feng Bo narrowed his eyes and suddenly chimed in.

Wang Ting's brows moved: "Brother Feng, is the patrol route going to change?"

The patrols in the past few days were basically safe and sound. Apart from sporadic zombies, what they encountered were some wanderers.

Other monsters were barely seen at all, not even skeletons, which was completely different from the situation in the previous two days.

The eerie situation not only failed to reassure everyone, but instead made them even more worried.

"All the grains have been threshed, and the trading items have also been prepared. The situation outside the Shelter cannot be delayed any longer; we need to scout the way for the outbound motorcade."

This was the situation deduced by Feng Bo. Dong Hu and the others thought about it carefully, and their faces also showed solemnity. Calculating the time, it was indeed so.

No one expected that on the third day, Feng Bo's words would actually come true.

On the wasteland 30 kilometers east of Scarecrow Town, three anomaly points were discovered, and they needed to go and investigate.