36: Chapter 36 Viral Agents

Finally reaching 196 points...

Seeing the remaining monster points he currently had, Wang Ting's lips curved up slightly, revealing a happy smile.

Now he had recorded six low-level anomalous monsters such as the Scarecrow, Rot Soil Hound, and Sand Scorpion, allowing him to settle 12 monster points every day. Combined with the 100 monster points obtained from recording the Lizard Hound, after accumulating over the past few days, he finally had nearly two hundred monster points.

Wang Ting wore a thoughtful expression and began to consider the subsequent exploration plan for Vine Town.

Vine Town had only opened up a temporary stronghold, and the main structures inside the town like the Hospital, church, and school had not been explored yet. The subsequent combat intensity would probably not be low, and without a twice limit-breaking warrior like Boss Zhao, the Thorn Vine Beast would have to be dealt with by himself.

'I still need to enhance my strength first, otherwise even just the Thorn Vine Beast will be difficult to deal with.'

With an answer in mind, some traits and creations like the Sand Scorpion crossbow, painless body, and lost stamina that could not directly enhance Wang Ting's strength were eliminated first.

He locked his gaze onto those relatively powerful traits or creations.

Among them, the most eye-catching was the zombie's exchange item — the virus potion. The description of the virus potion showed that it could directly enhance physical fitness.

Similar to it was the exchange trait of the Parasitic Fungus Vine — Vine Muscle.

Vine Muscle could enhance the strength of the physical body, naturally raising his strength as well. Moreover, the exchange price only required 100 monster points. After exchanging with 196 monster points, he could still ponder exchanging for something else.

Taken together, these two directly enhanced physical fitness, and he could afford to exchange for both.

In addition to this was the sand scorpion armor that Wang Ting had considered for a long time.

Although this item had no way to directly enhance physical fitness, the sand scorpion armor could be used in combination with Scorpion Skin, and the combined effect of the two could greatly enhance his defensive capabilities.

Powerful defense would undoubtedly make his exploration process in the floor of Vine Town much safer.

The remaining category was skill-based. The Rot Soil Hound's mud bomb, the Scarecrow's Scarecrow Frenzy, and the Parasitic Fungus Vine's toxin vine... skills could undoubtedly also enhance his combat effectiveness.

However, Wang Ting also understood in his heart that whether a skill was truly strong or suitable would probably only be known through actual combat; exchanging it directly still had an element of gambling.

The final exchange to enhance comprehensive strength was the servant beast.

The servant beast was under his control, capable of coordinated combat and assisting exploration, and could even sacrifice a pawn to save a rook at critical moments. Its role was by no means small, and it was also a way to enhance strength.

"Exchange for the virus potion."

After pondering for just a moment, Wang Ting immediately made his decision.

Right now they had just stationed here, the outpost had not yet been established, and his prestige had not been completely established. Rashly exchanging for a servant beast or using skills might not suppress everyone, and instead might cause people's hearts to flutter.

It wasn't that he didn't trust people like Feng Bo and Ren Chuan who actively followed him, but rather to minimize uncertainty to the greatest extent. After all, no one knew what accidents might happen.

Similarly, in the choice of strength enhancement, the sense of security brought by external object enhancement was far inferior to self-enhancement. Self-enhancement had the highest applicability, the lowest probability of accidents, and was most suitable for the current situation.

'I can settle 12 monster points every day now. When I continue exploring and also record the Thorn Vine Beast, I will get a large sum of monster points. By then, I will have the monster points to exchange for the sand scorpion armor. Self-enhancement combined with the sand scorpion armor can truly be considered standing firm.'

As 150 monster points disappeared, in Wang Ting's perception, a bottle of light blue test tube liquid appeared deep within his consciousness, presenting a state intertwined with reality and illusion, resembling bubbles floating on the ocean of consciousness.

The virus potion gave him a feeling that as long as his mind stirred, he could take it out from the depths of his consciousness.

'Is the state of sealing exchange items like this? It's quite convenient.'

Wang Ting did not take it out and consume it directly, but instead arranged other work for the outpost.

Busy for a whole day, several large tents were finally set up inside the temporary campsite of the outpost. The dilapidated canvas tents were very large, each capable of stuffing many people, and what was placed inside were large kang-beds paved with straw mats, which could only serve as temporary use.

Feng Bo, Ren Chuan, and several others arranged for the residents in the outpost to make fire and boil water, starting to distribute today's energy blocks according to the headcount.

As the night grew deeper, except for the Guard Team members responsible for duty, everyone else entered the tents to rest.

The night of the wasteland was particularly quiet. Cold winds blew across the parched earth, rustling from time to time, making people feel a trace of chill.

Wang Ting lived alone in the tent. In this quiet late night, he did not rest.

He checked that bottle of virus potion deep within his consciousness. The deep blue light was like a butterfly lingering in the depths of his consciousness, so eye-catching.

With a thought in his mind, the virus potion was materialized by him and landed in the palm of his hand.

'I hope this thing is a bit more powerful than the Scarecrow Physique.'

Wang Ting showed a look of anticipation. His physique had already undergone the enhancement of the Scarecrow Physique, and now that it was enhanced once again, he was very curious about what level it could reach.

He opened the reagent bottle, poured the blue liquid inside into his mouth, and drank it down in one gulp.

The liquid medicine was ice-cold, as if it had been iced, and once it entered his mouth, it slid down his throat into his stomach.

He only felt a trace of chill from his throat to his stomach, like swallowing ice cubes.

Soon this trace of chill unexpectedly became stinging, instantly turning into a burning sensation.

The liquid medicine began to seep into various parts of his body from his stomach, and a severe pain instantly swept across his entire body.

Wang Ting was in so much pain that his veins bulged, and he slammed his teeth together tightly, his teeth creaking, and a muffled grunt emitted from deep in his throat.

The pain grew increasingly intense, as if every inch of muscle in his body was being torn into fragments. The pain made his blood pressure and heartbeat skyrocket frantically. The thumping heartbeat sounded like dense drumbeats, and his heart rate had already reached 200 in this instant.

He gritted his teeth and persisted, cold sweat constantly flowing from his body, soaking all his clothes.

5 minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes...

As time slowly passed, the intense pain transformed into an unbearable itch, as if countless ants were gnawing at his body.

Finally, another half hour passed, and all the pain and itching had disappeared. Wang Ting's entire body was soaked in sweat as if he had just been fished out of the water.

At this moment, he finally felt a trace of comfort, just like clear spring water dripping onto parched land, and then strength, like seeds deeply buried in the soil, began to take root and sprout, a sense of power slowly spreading throughout his entire body.

He instinctively clenched his fists, and the powerful strength squeezed his bones, making a cracking sound.

What strong strength!

Wang Ting opened his eyes abruptly, a look of pleasant surprise appearing on his face. After the pain passed, this physique was filled with unimaginable strength.

If he had previously been like just a gray wolf in the wilderness, then in this current physique, it contained strength no less than that of a fierce tiger.

'No less than twice limit-breaking, or even stronger.'

Early the next morning, the entire campsite began to operate according to Wang Ting's arrangement yesterday.

Dong Hu had dug a large pit about two meters deep in the center of the Vine Oasis yesterday, finding relatively suitable clay inside.

Although there was still no water source temporarily, under the influence of the Infinite Building projection, the deep soil of this Vine Oasis had undergone a change in properties, with higher humidity than the surrounding soil, making it clay that could be used for rammed earth walls.

Therefore, early this morning, the number of people working on Dong Hu's side changed from 10 yesterday to 40 people, operating at almost full firepower.

Only the remaining 10 residents were responsible for campsite logistics and simple surrounding material search work.

Wang Ting called over Feng Bo and the others, and then said to them: "We only have 20 combatants, so we'll directly split into two groups to conduct exploration. Starting today, I will lead a team, moving along both sides of the Vine Town stair passage to clear out the community's location little by little. After exploring a house, dismantle it, and use the wood as material for the real world campsite construction, at least building the campsite's walls first."

Feng Bo nodded: "That makes sense. After the outer walls are done, we should repair the walls of the stronghold inside the Floor World."

"Then get ready, and go in taking advantage of daytime. Qu Ling, you are responsible for guarding the campsite, and you must reserve 10 laborers at any time to meet up with and retrieve any supplies we might find."

"Understood. After Dong Hu finishes digging the clay pit over there, I'll pull out a portion of the people."

Having given brief instructions, Wang Ting designated Xiang Nan as his deputy, and then took Fu Xing along with several Guard Team members given to him by Boss Zhao, forming a ten-person squad.

Everyone was fully armed, holding rifles in their hands, tactical machetes slung at their waists, and backpacks on their backs, following Wang Ting back into the stair passage.

The ten-person squad crossed the stair passage and arrived in the floor of Vine Town.

The Vine Town floor was forever gray and hazy, no different from when Wang Ting came over the previous two days. Although the light was still sufficient to illuminate the entire floor, the oppressive layers of dark clouds in the sky made people feel unable to breathe easily in their hearts.

The temporary stronghold basically maintained the appearance from yesterday's handover, with the doors, windows, and fences of the three houses locked down even more tightly.

The extended streets were covered with roadblocks, trenches, and bonfires, all used to block vine monsters that might attack.

"Ren Chuan, you take 3 people to stay here as backup."

"Understood."

As the retreat route, the stair passage had to have people left behind to guard it. Wang Ting activated his trait — Vibration Perception.

Within the range of his perception, the remaining Parasitic Fungus Vines in the houses and streets near the floor passage were not very many.

"The rest of you, follow me. We will first clear out towards the direction of the suburbs."