"You have obtained the C-level Talent 'Longevity'."
After the Talent upgrade was completed, Zhang Yanhang immediately checked its effects.
[Ability One: Unwearied — Constitution +2 (+1).]
[Ability Two: Energetic — Physical Strength +70% (+30%).]
[Ability Three: Longevity — Life Span +40 years (+20 years).]
"27 Slow Corroption? This upgrade requirement has increased too fast, hasn't it? Tripling each time..." After condensing nine Slow Corroptions earlier, Zhang Yanhang now only had 13 left in his hand. He needed 14 more to upgrade the C-level Talent 'Longevity' to B-level, which would probably require killing another hundred or so Zombies.
"But fortunately, there might not be much else in Raccoon City, but there's an ample supply of Zombies. Fourteen Slow Corroptions—I could gather those in at most an hour."
After clearing the path from the gun store to his apartment, Zhang Yanhang next planned to head towards the slot machine. The distance from the gun store was several kilometers, and he would surely have to kill many Zombies along the way. He even thought it wasn't entirely impossible to collect a hundred and forty Slow Corroptions.
"This upgrade increased my Constitution slightly and Physical Strength by 30%. I feel like it will be quite helpful in hunting Zombies."
Every outing to hunt Zombies was a high-intensity exercise, consuming a lot of physical strength. Therefore, Zhang Yanhang felt that the effect of increasing Physical Strength was indeed very good, allowing him to minimize rest time and better carry out a 24/7 working system.
"Moreover, this upgrade added another twenty years to my lifespan. Before the Spiritual Energy recovery, I thought I'd live to my seventies or eighties at most, but now, could I easily live into the twenty-second century?" As someone born after the year 2000, striving to live to a hundred would be Zhang Yanhang's only chance to transcend a century.
After upgrading his Talent, Zhang Yanhang took thirteen Green herbs and thirteen Red herbs out of the basket. He planned to concoct thirteen more red and green pills, which, together with the original seven, would make twenty pills in total. He felt that this amount should be sufficient for now since the area he planned to clear—from the gun store to the slot machine—was still in the outskirts and not where he would encounter a Tyrant.
After spending some time making red and green pills, Zhang Yanhang then turned his attention to the Waist Bags on his belt, all four of them—they were just too many.
"These Waist Bags seem to take up too much space. Now with four, I can just manage to hang them on my waist, but what if I get seven or eight, or even more than ten in the future? Where should I hang them? Do I need to wear another belt?"
Zhang Yanhang felt he might need to find a way to fuse these Waist Bags; otherwise, he might end up with Waist Bags hanging all over his body in the future, possibly evolving into a Waist Bag person.
As for how to fuse the Waist Bags? Once again, the answer lay in the ever-useful Alchemy.
"I remember the second Additional Attribute of Alchemy is fusion, which should help resolve this issue of the Waist Bags being too cumbersome."
Zhang Yanhang took all four Waist Bags off his belt and cleared out their contents. He wasn't sure if fusion would affect the internal space of the Waist Bags, and it would be troublesome if the items inside disappeared. So, it was better to be cautious and clear them out beforehand.
In fact, when he got the third Waist Bag, Zhang Yanhang had already wanted to try fusing them, but he was afraid of destroying the bags in a failed fusion, leaving him with only two slots for use. But now with four Waist Bags, even if two were spoiled, he would still have four slots left for his items.
In short, he now had the opportunity for error, not facing the risk of going back to square one after a failure.
Zhang Yanhang picked up two Waist Bags and skillfully used the Alchemy Array to gradually fuse them.
After about a minute, a brand new Waist Bag appeared before Zhang Yanhang's eyes. Although it looked exactly the same on the outside, the attribute list had definitely changed; it couldn't have just swallowed up one of his Waist Bags without any change—that would be neither scientific nor magical, as matter cannot simply disappear.
[Raccoon City Police Department Special Tactical Rescue Team Standard Police Waist Bag (Unnamed) +1]
[Type: Equipment] New ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄhapters are published on nοvelfire.net
[Origin: Ashen World, Raccoon City, gunstore, lounge counter, Zhang Yanhang.]
[Defensive Power: 32]
[Special Attribute: Storage.]
[Storage: You can store any 4 items with a total volume of up to 1 cubic meter in the Waist Bag's internal space.]
[Usage Requirements: None.]
[Score: 22 (Green items' scores range from 11 to 30).]
[Description: The Raccoon City Police Department Special Tactical Rescue Team Standard Police Waist Bag has only four storage slots of one cubic meter each, so it cannot store single items with a total volume greater than four cubic meters, and it cannot store life forms in the conventional sense.]
Zhang Yanhang had in fact used this fusion feature when he first acquired Alchemy; he had infused a kitchen knife into an old broadsword, creating a 'Chopper +1'. Although that Chopper was truly worthless, the fusion had been a success.
When he first got Alchemy, Zhang Yanhang automatically gained a wealth of Alchemy knowledge, including the principles of fusion. The specifics were somewhat complicated to explain, so he could make it clearer by giving a few simple examples.
First, the properties of the items to be fused should preferably be the same. If completely identical, the success rate for fusion is basically 100%, but a large difference in properties could lead to failure.
It's easy to understand this principle: for instance, pouring two cups of water together wouldn't cause any odd changes except for an increase in quantity.
And what about the changes brought by increased quantity? One cup of water you might drink in two sips, but for two cups, you'd need at least three or four sips. It's the same with equipment—with increased quantity, values such as Attack Power or Defensive Power are bound to change accordingly, just not drastically.
But what happens if you mix a cup of water with a cup of oil? Since they have different densities, they won't mix and will just result in oil floating on the water—akin to fusion failure.