Chapter 4
Chapter 4 – Extremely High Burst Rate_1
Jiang Chen plummeted from the top of the high-rise but, wearing exoskeletal armor, he only felt a slight impact.
He quickly steadied himself and began to read the text that appeared before him.
“A trial scene in the style of an apocalyptic monster, huh…”
According to the Abyss Rune’s description, the mysterious biovirus had destroyed the entire civilization in just three days, an undoubtedly terrifying thing.
But, as Xie Minglei had said,
trial scenes, including the future abyss explorations, are essentially Shadows of the Age-Old, half-real and half-illusory creations of the abyss.
Even if the biovirus within the Shadows of the Age-Old was terrifying, it would not affect mecha pilots who possessed Abyss Runes.
Therefore, Jiang Chen was not worried.
He scanned his surroundings, quickly made his way to the helipad next to the crashed helicopter, and grabbed a long metal rod, twisting forcefully.
With a snapping sound, the weapon [Broken Metal Rod] was successfully acquired.
In the instance, [modules] that could enhance the mecha’s combat power could be obtained only by killing enemies and absorbing the abyss atmosphere.
Therefore, Senior Xie had taught everyone to make full use of the surroundings and to find handy weapons.
Even though the model Zero Mecha only possessed a bit of strength at the beginning, it was enough to turn a person into a strongman, and even just a metal rod could unleash tremendous destructive power.
Just as now, with the power provided by the exoskeletal armor, Jiang Chen only needed to swing the metal rod casually to produce whooshing sounds in the air.
If it struck a wild beast, it would have been enough to shatter its bones and sever its tendons in an instant.
This was the power of armor!
Perhaps it was due to the noise of Jiang Chen’s fall, or maybe the commotion of dismantling the metal rod.
A grotesque creature, using all four limbs, scuttled out quickly from the passage on the left side of the helipad.
It was generally humanoid in shape, but its gaunt gray body was covered in purple veins, and a piece of metal was even embedded in the flesh on its back.
This ugly creature, upon seeing Jiang Chen, opened its ghastly maw to emit a piercing scream and charged violently!
It resembled a wild dog in full sprint, agile and nearly a blur of gray.
Luckily, Jiang Chen had long been prepared for battle, and wasn’t much panicked.
He kept his gaze fixed on the charging blur, timing his move perfectly, and his metal rod, racing through the air with a whoosh, smashed down.
It struck right on the head!
Although the creature’s body was inlaid with metal, seeming not weak in defense,
its skull was just as fragile.
The creature’s head caved in upon impact, purple fluid splattered everywhere, and after thrashing on the ground for a few moments, it lay still.
“Huff…”
Perhaps it was because the creature looked so bizarre, or because of the purple blood,
Jiang Chen didn’t feel too nauseated but rather let out a sigh of relief.
First kill completed!
At that moment, a faint breath of air rose from the top of the creature’s head and flowed through the mecha glove into the Abyss Rune on the palm of his hand.
A piece of information flashed before his eyes.
[Killed an early stage Mutant, gained material: Blood Fusion Metal Alloy.]
He had only killed the first monster and already material dropped?
He knew the burst rate for basic trials was high, but this was unbelievably high!
Jiang Chen clenched his fist in surprise, touching the Abyss Rune on the palm of his hand through the glove.
Lines of information appeared before his eyes.
[Blood Fusion Metal Alloy]
[Quality: Ordinary]
[Type: Material]
[Effect: When used to enhance mecha, it can slightly improve resistance to viruses, corrosion, and energy regeneration speed.]
[Description: Metal born from flesh, its soul seems to still be wailing.]
Strange material.
Jiang Chen appraised it, but did not take it out from the storage space of the Abyss Rune.
[Mecha Module] can be used as plug-and-play, but these enhancement materials require a specialized enhancement engineer.
Only they could maximize the effect of the materials and upgrade the Mecha.
However, although the enhancement materials dropped by the early stage Mutant could not be used immediately,
it indirectly proved Jiang Chen’s idea.
What kind of trial scene is this, where you can just kill a small monster and it drops the corresponding materials?
It’s clearly a newbie’s benefit!
As long as safety was ensured, it was obviously better to kill as many monsters as possible.
“I possess the talent: Undying Barehand, even if I want to survive, I could wait until the Mecha is shattered and my body gets the attribute boost before finding somewhere to hide.”
“Starting out by playing it safe is a bit too cowardly.”
After killing the early stage Mutant, no new monsters appeared for a long time at the rooftop passage.
This seemed to have become a relatively safe place.
Jiang Chen did not leave immediately.
He first disassembled the carcass of the early stage Mutant, removing the metal plate from its back.
Even though touching the metal plate with the Abyss Rune in the palm did not display any information, indicating it was only a relic of the Age-Old Shadow and not a usable material,
it could still be tied to his body with wires to serve as crude armor.
The model Zero Mecha couldn’t even be considered semi-covered; it was just a set of exoskeletal armor that could provide impressive strength, but its defense was quite limited.
Therefore, Jiang Chen broke off several metal sheets from the crashed helicopter and, like the metal plate, tied them to his body as makeshift armor.
He also broke off a few small metal rods to use as throwing weapons.
No matter how accurate they were, at least with the enhancement of the exoskeletal armor, their power wouldn’t be too weak.
If one was going to hunt monsters, they had to make full preparations, just as Senior Xie had said.
Otherwise, it was not hunting; it was suicide.
After making all the necessary preparations, Jiang Chen finally took a step and walked towards the passage.
“The elevator can’t be used, and shouldn’t be used.”
“Looking down from the rooftop, this building is at least nearly a kilometer high, and each floor is not small in area; who knows how many Mutants there are inside…”
“With twenty-four hours at my disposal, relying on this model Zero-Type Exoskeleton, I estimate I won’t make it out of this building.”
“Let’s clear out the monsters here, the more the better.”
Jiang Chen tiptoed down through the passage.
However, as he moved down several floors, all he saw were sealed metal doors, marked with storage prohibition signs on their surface.
One of the passage entrances was open, but the inner area was also sealed by a metal door; only the dry purple traces on the floor were visible.
Clearly, this was where the previous Mutant had been.
Jiang Chen didn’t linger, and continued downwards.
When he reached the fifth floor, a change finally appeared.
The passage entrance was not closed, and looking inside from the entrance, the view was unobstructed; one could see the faint clouds out the window through the luxurious household items.
At the same time, lying next to the huge floor-to-ceiling window was a large Mutant.
Not only was it four to five times the size of an early stage Mutant, but it also had several metal plates on its body, and its arms had ballooned up like balloons, forming a comical inverted triangle shape compared to its skinny lower body.
However, no one would doubt its strength.
An elite monster? Or a boss?
Jiang Chen held his breath and, while the Mutant was looking out the window, continued to go down.
All set, let’s go find some smaller monsters, grind for some Mecha Modules to boost my attributes, then come back and try to take down this big fellow!