novelraw Chapter 174: The Wasteland Trial Begins, Freedom Tower 4F
Chapter 174: The Wasteland Trial Begins, Freedom Tower 4F
7:55.
Yu Yuan was already fully equipped, waiting for the "Wasteland Trial" to begin.
His appearance had completely changed at this moment.
With the Commander Set and all firearms prohibited from being brought into the scenario,
Yu Yuan's main armor had become the inner armor, gloves, and boots made from Flame Wolf hide.
His facial protection was the Combat Detector.
His weapons were the folding hand crossbow, the Kukri, and the Molotov cocktails he had prepared in advance.
These Molotov cocktails were originally prepared for the Giant Mutant Rat, but he hadn't used them until now.
Coincidentally, since explosives couldn't be brought into this "Wasteland Trial," the Molotov cocktails came in handy.
Yu Yuan had also considered putting the firearms and armor into the Rabbit Ring to try and sneak them through.After all, the Rabbit Ring was a Fate's Gift item; what if it could be brought in?
But he had clearly overestimated the Rabbit Ring's capabilities.
A red warning message directly appeared on the Virtual Light Screen:
—【Does not meet event requirements. Please reconfigure equipment!】
Yu Yuan had no choice but to take out all those weapons and equipment from the Rabbit Ring.
Only then did the Virtual Light Screen light up with a message confirming compliance with the requirements.
Fortunately, the Rare Artifacts and Fate's Gift items on his person could be brought in normally.
Mie Mie, after being equipped, also wouldn't be detected.
This finally allowed Yu Yuan to breathe a sigh of relief.
He also streamlined and minimized the items in the Rabbit Ring.
Apart from essential items, he managed to free up a considerable amount of space.
Yu Yuan's thinking was simple: he was going in with a mindset of stocking up.
The time reached exactly 8:00.
A message directly appeared on the Virtual Light Screen.
【Detected that player ID: Yu Yuan Shelter meets entry requirements. Officially initiating "Wasteland Trial." Ten-second teleportation countdown 10....9....2....1.....0】
As the countdown reached zero, Yu Yuan only felt his vision go black. When he opened his eyes again, he was already in a cramped, dark room.
A headlamp was inexplicably strapped to his head, its bright light illuminating a door in front of him stained with some blood.
A prompt message popped up in the Virtual Light Screen.
【Note: All players entering the Wasteland Trial are newcomers. Map challenge difficulty is Simple. Be wary of other players.】
【Note: Please locate the escape pod within the time limit and escape from Freedom Tower. Players who fail to escape within the time limit will die directly.】
【Note: In the final three hours of the countdown, nerve gas will be randomly released on floors. A full-floor alert will be issued 1 minute before gas release.】
【Note: The location of escape pods can be found based on prompts from the escape indicator. The number of escape pods appearing will increase over time. Please search carefully.】
Four consecutive prompts immediately made Yu Yuan understand the current situation.
In the top-left corner of the Virtual Light Screen, a countdown also appeared: 【4:59:46】
The numbers were constantly changing, clearly indicating this was the trial countdown.
"Five hours. That should be enough time."
Yu Yuan directly turned off the headlamp. Darkness completely enveloped him, and the effect of the Rare title 【Neighborhood Shadow】 activated.
The pitch-black environment seemed to have a gray filter loaded in his eyes.
He could see his surroundings clearly.
On his Combat Detector, twenty to thirty red dots were already flashing constantly, distributed across different floors.
Among them, five red dots were significantly larger than the others.
Yu Yuan immediately understood that these red dots represented all the high-energy creatures within this scenario.
Those five large red dots were the Leader Infected, the BOSSes.
The other smaller red dots should be the Elite Infected.
But this number was really quite substantial!
"I wonder if the map I entered is B1~7F, or 8~15F?" Yu Yuan glanced at the virtual map, but it showed nothing.
Clearly, he needed to go out, explore the current floor's layout, for the Positioning Watch to determine his current location.
"Extremely high-value resource evaluation... Well then, let's begin!" Excitement gleamed in Yu Yuan's eyes as he carefully opened the door in front of him. Fortunately, the door was decent and didn't make much noise.
"Ugh......"
Stepping out of the room, Yu Yuan saw a hunched figure standing quietly about five meters away, head bowed low, emitting some low, guttural sounds.
A faint smell of decay emanated from the figure, confirming it was undoubtedly an Infected.
"This should be an ordinary Infected. In Dormant Mode, they are sensitive to sound and blood. Their weakness is the Cervical Spine. Just snapping the cervical spine will kill an ordinary Infected instantly."
Recalling the intel on ordinary Infected, Yu Yuan lowered his center of gravity and moved silently towards the Infected.
He was currently to the left of the Infected, so Yu Yuan carefully moved to the right, quietly arriving behind it.
He brought both hands to either side of the Infected's lowered head.
Suddenly, Yu Yuan's eyes widened. His arms clamped onto the Infected's head from left and right, and his muscles tensed with force.
"Crunch"
A faint, crisp sound of a snapping cervical spine rang out. The Infected's head had spun 180 degrees, now facing Yu Yuan.
Just as recorded in the Notebook, the Infected's body instantly went limp the moment its cervical spine broke.
Only Yu Yuan's support prevented it from collapsing to the ground.
A prompt for spirit collection also appeared on the Positioning Watch, the progress increasing by 0.8%. Yu Yuan's eyes lit up.
He placed the Infected corpse on the ground and began to check.
That's right!
The progress for collecting dispersed spirituality had indeed increased by 0.8%.
Yu Yuan was genuinely excited now.
Although Infected couldn't be considered Spiritual Creatures, a 0.8% increase was quite significant for Yu Yuan.
After all, right now, this Freedom Tower had nothing in abundance except Infected!
If an ordinary Infected provided 0.8% progress, what about Elite Infected or Leader Infected?
A thought flashed through Yu Yuan's mind: could he possibly fill the Spirit Collector's progress bar tonight?
His gaze turned towards the depths of the corridor.
If that's the case, then let's kill!
Just as he was about to take action, he suddenly remembered the Notebook mentioned that Infected could also sometimes carry supplies.
He immediately searched the corpse, but only found two alkaline batteries and two nuts.
Better than nothing. He stored the items in the Rabbit Ring and went to find the next Infected.
Turning the corner of the corridor, as the surrounding area expanded, the virtual map lit up, displaying his current location.
—The bottom-right corner of Freedom Tower, 4F.
"4F? The Broadcasting Station? Then doesn't that mean the floor below is 3F, Maria Hospital?"
"The Spirituality Zone discovered in the notes seemed to be there."
Yu Yuan immediately checked the virtual map. The stairway passage to the 3rd floor was in the top-left corner. To reach the 3rd floor, he needed to fight his way across a diagonal route.
"Perfect. I'll just fight my way through this path."