Chapter 99: Elite Nether Wolf

As before, under the forging master’s “Metal Recovery” gift, the savage chunk torn from the opposite side of the Destroyer Greatsword quickly knit itself back together, and the cracks around it vanished in quick succession.
“Here, take it.”

In barely thirty minutes, after the smith’s restoration, the Destroyer Greatsword looked as if it had never been damaged at all. He then gested for Zhang Ran to inspect it.
“Mm, I’m very pleased. Thank you, Master!”

After checking the repaired sword, Zhang Ran, fully satisfied, thanked the smith once more and then left the armory.
“A mere thirty minutes of service, priced at two thousand Black Hawk coins. Even though this supportive ability lacks combat power, it certainly lets those support-type evolvers live in complete comfort!”

As he walked away, Zhang Ran could not help but mutter the same thought.
Judging from his chip, the smith was only a level-two evolver, yet this weapon-repair service charged three thousand Black Hawk coins for only thirty minutes—a truly exorbitant rate.

Naturally, this income did not belong entirely to him; Black Hawk Company would take a ninety-percent cut as protection money. Even so, he still made a clean three hundred Black Hawk coins.

A normal level-two evolver in those days had to risk life and limb in the wilderness every day, through death-defying trials. Even so, their monthly income usually hovered around twenty thousand coins, and after counting ammo and supplies, net earnings seldom reached ten thousand.

As for this smith, he only had to repair two weapons a day to earn almost the same amount, and he did so without enduring the omnipresent radiation and dangers of the wilds. It was a profession many evolvers secretly dreamed of.

Of course, Zhang Ran felt no envy.
A support-type evolver may indeed enjoy an easier life, but his fighting power is far below that of a combat-type evolver of the same level, and he cannot defeat same-level mutated beasts.

In general, such evolvers can only be promoted by buying gene-enhancement serums. Though not far from the frontline in combat and evolution potential, they can never become true elites—this is not the path Zhang Ran seeks.

With the Destroyer restored, Zhang Ran returned to his apartment, returned to the simulation space in one thought, summoned the Tyrant again, and fought it to refine his technique.

…

After several hours of training, Zhang Ran had fought simulated duels with the Tyrant more than a hundred times, constantly refining his combat methods using the chip’s reports.

Though he had once been a hardened mercenary before crossing over, his physical attributes had then only reached level two. As he kept leveling up, old habits no longer always applied, and he needed endless adjustment to keep pace with his growing strength.

In time, by simulating for a while, the chip also successfully recalibrated the Four Great Sword Techniques to match Zhang Ran’s present body, and he practiced each form hundreds of times.

With the original Four Great Sword Techniques as a foundation and the chip’s meticulous guidance, he mastered every revised form perfectly, and his combat ability rose to a new level.

After simulation, Zhang Ran spent another hour on the Eight Methods of Body Tempering.

When he had slain the Tyrant, vast reserves of evolution energy still accumulated in his body. Through the guidance of the tempering, those energies were absorbed by his cells, giving him gains of 0.002 Strength, 0.002 Constitution, and 0.001 Agility.

Finishing the Eight Methods of Body Tempering, Zhang Ran returned to bed and fell asleep.

A level-three evolver like him had such formidable physiology and stamina that he could stay awake for days and remain at peak power.

But according to the chip’s analysis, sleep still benefited evolvers; in deep sleep, cells automatically repair and adjust, correcting genetic defects and clearing harmful toxins.

Besides, lacking any night-vision skill made hunting after dark uncomfortable, so each day he returned to Blackshadow City and took about six hours of deep sleep.

…

The next morning, half past five.

At the neural pulse emitted by the chip, Zhang Ran was roused from sleep, swallowed one tube of high-energy food, and headed back into the wild once more.

After roughly two more hours of brisk running, he had reached about one hundred kilometers from Black Hawk City, then began hunting again.

“Ding! A level-three elite umbral wolf has appeared to your left, marked as a suitable target!”

After about half an hour, and after killing two level-two creatures that had attacked him, the chip chimed again.
“An elite level-three umbral wolf? That’s it—chip, detect its attributes.”

Following the marker the chip laid in his vision, Zhang Ran saw, about six hundred meters away, in a hidden thicket of grass, a dark shape lying low. Its color was dull and lifeless; without the chip, he very likely would have overlooked it entirely.

In truth, this was the effect of the elite umbral wolf’s Shadow Lurking ability: it can summon a veil of shadow haze along its body for excellent concealment, then launch a surprise strike when the target relaxes.

For an average level-three evolver, if his team lacks an evolver with the Perception Domain, the chance of falling for such a trick is high. For this reason, umbral wolves are regarded as natural assassins of the wilderness.

Of course, such a trick means nothing to the chip.

An evolver’s eyes are keen, but even an evolver’s brain cannot process unlimited visual detail. It automatically filters and suppresses portions of what is seen to avoid overload.

The chip, however, has computational power no human mind can rival. It can capture and analyze Zhang Ran’s visual input at a pixel level. A wolf’s ability may deceive a human brain, but it cannot deceive the chip—so it revealed the creature at once.