CHAPTER 629: CHAPTER 628 SS-GRADE TALENT "OCEAN RHYTHM

Because the Emperor Crocodile Belt Zhang Yanhang was currently wearing was in its initial state and hadn’t gone through any fusion, Zhang Yanhang guessed that even a single fusion could easily reduce the time to clear the magazine to under three seconds.

However, compared to three seconds, his real goal was to reduce the magazine clearing time to under two seconds.

In that case, paired with the Six Roots Pure Soul Gun that could double the shooting speed using the Six Roots Pure Skill, he would be able to clear the entire magazine in one second. Shooting five hundred cannon bullets into the enemy within one second, Zhang Yanhang felt that there should be very few monsters that could withstand such a level of firepower coverage.

Besides the increase in the firing speed of the cannon bullets, their flight speed had also increased by 10% after receiving the attack speed bonus.

The flight speed of the cannon bullets from the Six Roots Pure Soul Gun had increased from the original 4.8 Mach to 5.1 Mach, a further increase of 0.3 Mach, which translated to an increased movement speed of 102 meters per second.

Compared to Zhang Yanhang’s own moving speed, which was merely about one hundred sixty meters per second and likely declined to about one hundred fifty meters per second due to the inefficacy of the Green Ten-piece Set, the flight speed of the Six Roots Pure Soul Gun’s cannon bullets was indeed much easier to enhance, often increasing by hundreds of meters.

"After the cannon bullet’s flight speed increased to 5.1 Mach, I am only 0.9 Mach away from reaching my small goal of 6 Mach. Finally, I have managed to reduce the gap to within one Mach.

In terms of progress, I have increased about 10% of the completion, raising the completion of the small goal from the original 60% to 70%, with only the last 30% left to achieve the 6 Mach goal."

Although a 30% progress may seem quite extensive, given that the Emperor Crocodile Belt had not undergone any fusion yet, Zhang Yanhang felt that the belt should still be able to help him improve further in progression, although it certainly wouldn’t complete the entire small goal immediately, but continuing to elevate the completion percentage should still be feasible.

"Speaking of which, I wonder if it’s still possible to find other equipment in the Demonized Swamp that could enhance attack speed. If possible, I might even be able to complete the long-term goal of reaching 6 Mach with cannon bullet speed before advancing to Third Tier."

Zhang Yanhang thought for a moment and felt it was probably slightly unrealistic, as although the Emperor Crocodile Belt indeed dropped from the Demonized Emperor Crocodile’s treasure box was an anomaly enhancing Agility related abilities, that doesn’t mean all other equipment would also be anomalies.

He felt that other equipment was likely still like the Grey Maned Arm Guard and the Demon Ape Leg Armor, all enhancing Constitution related abilities. Therefore, he thought that the likelihood of obtaining more attack speed enhancing equipment in the Demonized Swamp to directly complete the 6 Mach small goal with cannon bullet flight speed was not great.

Moreover, Zhang Yanhang felt that rather than hoping for attack speed enhancements from equipment, it was more reliable to anticipate the attack speed enhancements that achievements could provide.

However, exchanging achievements at the Achievement Vending Machine couldn’t be done until tomorrow, and for now, Zhang Yanhang still needed to continue tallying his gains.

But while it was termed tallying gains, Zhang Yanhang had already finished checking the artifacts, weapons, and equipment sides of things. He only had the talent-related gains left to review.

So, Zhang Yanhang immediately continued to check his gains related to talents, starting with four E-rank Slow Corrosion talents from the Lucky Slot Machine in Raccoon City.

Previously, Zhang Yanhang had a total of 130 Slow Corrosion talents left over. Including the four new ones he just obtained, he now had a total of 134, which still wasn’t even enough to cover the fraction needed to elevate the SS-rank Longevity Mountain and Fortune Sea talent to SSS-rank.

"Upgrading the SS-rank talent Longevity Mountain and Fortune Sea to SSS-rank requires 2187 Slow Corrosion talents, yet I currently only have 134. I still need 2053 more Slow Corrosion talents to improve the talent quality of Longevity Mountain and Fortune Sea."

Speaking of Slow Corrosion, Zhang Yanhang had already scanned the repair progress of the abandoned transmission channel in the sewer before cleaning the Lucky Slot Machine in Raccoon City. All he could say was that it was still quite stable without any unexpected incidents.

Indeed, an accident was unlikely unless the group leader had sold him a counterfeit product; otherwise, given the enclosed environment of the sewer, it’s difficult for any mishap to occur, even if a zombie were to spawn right inside, it wouldn’t have the space to turn around, let alone damage the repair talisman paper that Zhang Yanhang embedded inside the wall.

Against the specially reinforced walls that Zhang Yanhang had installed, any attempt by an Ordinary zombie to scratch it would only result in bloody hands. Unless a Tyrant came, creatures like those First Tier monsters in Raccoon City, including Lickers and Hunters, definitely couldn’t break through several meters of thick wall.

If they really could manage to do so, they wouldn’t be First Tier monsters anymore; they certainly would have been promoted to Second Tier by then, so there was indeed no need to worry.

Apart from the Slow Corrosion Talent from Raccoon City, this time, Zhang Yanhang also harvested nine E-rank Thin Dragon Vein (Mixed) talents from the Lucky Slot Machine in Goblin Plain.

Previously, Zhang Yanhang had a total of 290 Thin Dragon Veins in his waist bag. Adding the nine new ones, he now had a total of 299 Thin Dragon Veins, just one short of rounding up to an exact three hundred, even though even three hundred Thin Dragon Veins wouldn’t be nearly enough.

"Although there’s still a significant shortfall of Thin Dragon Veins, at least the shortfall this time is auspicious. Upgrading Scroll Dragon Bloodline to SSS-rank also requires 2187 Thin Dragon Veins, and after deducting the 299 I have saved up, there are still precisely 1888 Thin Dragon Veins missing."

As for this auspicious shortfall, Zhang Yanhang could only say it was purely coincidental.

Compared to the Slow Corrosion from Raccoon City and Thin Dragon Veins from Goblin Plain, Zhang Yanhang placed even more importance on the Prehistoric Giant Beast Talent from the Demonized Swamp.

After all, aside from the pending upgrade of the Rhythm Talent, the talent quality of the Prehistoric Giant Beast alone was enough for him to prioritize it. Both the Slow Corrosion and Thin Dragon Veins were E-rank talents, while Prehistoric Giant Beast started as a D-rank talent.

Therefore, after counting the amount of Slow Corrosion and Thin Dragon Vein, Zhang Yanhang immediately began to count the quantity of Prehistoric Giant Beast Talent, ultimately obtaining three hundred and forty-seven D-grade Prehistoric Giant Beast Talents.

The last time Zhang Yanhang upgraded his S-grade Earth Rhythm Talent, he had a hundred and eighty Prehistoric Giant Beast Talents left in his Waist Bag, so, adding the one hundred eighty Prehistoric Giant Beast Talents in the Waist Bag, Zhang Yanhang now had a total of five hundred and twenty-seven Prehistoric Giant Beast Talents in his possession.

"Although the Rhythm Talent now needs to start upgrading to SS grade, since the Prehistoric Giant Beast Talent initially is D-grade, upgrading the Rhythm Talent to SS grade requires three times fewer Prehistoric Giant Beast Talents than the other three E-grade Talents, Slow Corrosion, Ant Power, and Thin Dragon Vein. It only takes two hundred forty-three Prehistoric Giant Beast Talents."

Since the pile of Prehistoric Giant Beast Talents that had just been counted was enough for the upgrade, Zhang Yanhang did not take any additional Prehistoric Giant Beast Talents from his Waist Bag. Instead, he counted out two hundred forty-three from that small pile and burst them in batches—after all, with so many, it was indeed difficult to burst them all in one breath as he did at the beginning.

After continuously bursting several handfuls of dark green small light balls, Zhang Yanhang finally heard that familiar Talent prompt sound ringing in his ears.

[A Subordinate Talent of S-grade Talent ’Earth Rhythm’ detected in your Talent list. Do you want to merge the Talents?]

"Yes, merge." Previously, Zhang Yanhang usually only had two wishes he hoped to realize, but this time, because it was upgrading to SS grade, some new changes were bound to occur, so he was more greedy and had three wishes he wanted to realize.

Incidentally, and he didn’t know why, whenever he thought of this ’three wishes’, he would always associate it with ’three wishes, one satisfaction,’ even though the ’three wishes’ from Aladdin’s lamp were more impressive. For this, he felt it was probably because he had a deeper impression of the Kinder Surprise lately, although every time he went to the supermarket, he wouldn’t even take a glance at them.

Compared to before, besides wanting the movement speed bonus provided by Ability Two Aerobic Exercise under Rhythm Talent to increase, Zhang Yanhang also hoped that the movement speed bonus provided by Ability Three Outdoor Sports could increase as much as possible.

The last wish was that he hoped Ability Three Outdoor Sports, in addition to the unmarked ’As Flat As A Pancake,’ would continue to develop some other new abilities that could also enhance hunting efficiency, since it was an upgrade to SS-grade Talent, and Zhang Yanhang felt that his three wishes might indeed be ’once satisfied’ this time.

[Merge completed.]

[You have acquired SS-grade Talent ’Ocean Rhythm’.]

"Ocean Rhythm... compared to the previous S-grade Earth Rhythm, the name of the Talent has changed significantly, or rather, it has completely become something else. However, although the changes are indeed significant, compared to the Earth, the part covered by the Ocean is actually much larger.

Since it is well-known that land area and ocean area on Earth are approximately a ratio of three to seven, so, after evolving from Earth Rhythm to Ocean Rhythm, the range of Rhythm that Rhythm Talent could cover once again experienced a considerable expansion, or rather, the range responding to Rhythm increased again."

Since there was always a Rhythm following each upgrade of Rhythm Series Talents, Zhang Yanhang had reasons to suspect that the unmarked ’As Flat As A Pancake’ ability was essentially a manifestation of Rhythm. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be possible for a new ability to suddenly emerge without any reason?

Zhang Yanhang believed the reason he could walk freely on solid materials was because his Talent had formed a special Rhythm relationship with these solid materials, and only this reason could explain the extremely idealistic ability of ’As Flat As A Pancake’.

"If my guess is correct, then this Ocean Rhythm might be able to further increase the range of Rhythm. From the name, it seems very likely that it can allow me to establish a certain Rhythm relationship with the ocean."

After briefly contemplating, Zhang Yanhang quickly opened the Talent Effect of SS-grade Talent [Ocean Rhythm] to start checking.

[Ocean Rhythm]

[Quality: SS (0/729)]

[Ability One: Bodybuilding—Charm +6 (+2).]

[Ability Two: Aerobic Exercise—When exercising in an environment with oxygen (no limit on oxygen molecule concentration), movement speed +105% (+30%).]

[Ability Three: Outdoor Sports—When exercising in solid outdoor environments (including but not limited to deserts, snowfields, swamps...), negative impact (movement) is reduced by 130% (+20%), and when exercising in liquid outdoor environments (including but not limited to oceans, oil, magma...), negative impact (movement) is reduced by 100%.]

"As expected of an SS-grade Talent, after upgrading to Ocean Rhythm, Ability One Bodybuilding’s Charm attribute bonus this time directly increased by two points, from the original addition of four points to a total addition of six points, this is quite nice.

With these two points of Charm attribute bonus, I can compensate for the two points of Charm attribute gap that appeared due to the Green Ten-piece Set becoming ineffective, and re-raise the Charm attribute from forty-eight points back to the Second Tier Limit of fifty points. Although Charm attribute is a Sub-attribute, it is indeed better to increase it to fifty points.

But speaking of this Bodybuilding, before, the other two Talents, Scroll Dragon Bloodline and Longevity Mountain and Fortune Sea, would provide seven points of attribute bonus when upgraded to SS grade, but Ocean Rhythm, even though it is an SS-grade Talent, Bodybuilding only increased six points of Charm attribute.

It seems then, as expected, it’s because it was initially D-grade. Because it was initially D-grade, compared to the other two E-grade Talents Slow Corrosion and Thin Dragon Vein, there was one less upgrade in Quality, hence, a lesser part of the bonus."

Besides Ability One Bodybuilding, Zhang Yanhang actually felt that the movement speed bonus provided by Ability Two Aerobic Exercise was slightly less than other E-grade Talents.

But fortunately, the problem was not significant, compared to the three-fold quantity of Talents saved, the benefits obtained from upgrading faster were indeed greater, especially since the increase in Talent effects increased as the upgrades progressed.