Chapter 282: Skill Boost

“Captain, your blade mastery is incredible!”

“Yeah, you killed 42 in two seconds.” The two female teammates quickly ran over.

In their eyes, all they saw was Yang Bo surrounded by flashes of blades. Every rabbit that lunged at him was decapitated.

The two teammates thought it looked really cool, and they weren’t ignorant either. As descendants of prestigious families, you could say they were immoral or shameless, but you couldn’t say they lacked knowledge.

These two teammates also came from influential families, so they naturally knew what it meant to kill 42 rabbits in two seconds—it meant immense strength.

“I was just in a hurry. After all, if these rabbits had bitten me, I’d have lost out today,” Yang Bo didn’t even know if what he said was true.

The two teammates exchanged a smirk in private, clearly not believing Yang Bo’s words.

“Captain, if your blade skills are this good, why do you use a gun?” The young lady asked a question.

“Because if these monsters’ corpses touch you, it can cause poisoning.”

“My burst strength lasts for a short time, and there were only a few of them. Any more, and I wouldn’t manage.”

“Quick, gather the materials, and then we’ll head to the next farm.” Yang Bo didn’t give them much time to talk. A tool person should know their place.

Upon hearing this, the two teammates immediately started gathering.

After they finished gathering, Xiao Huang came back to buy bullets, and then the young lady and the other lady had no choice but to return.

Since the brain matter they gathered couldn’t be traded, Yang Bo speculated that the brain matter was mostly stored in a special container inside the Bionic Puppet body.

Moreover, this type of mission item not only couldn’t be traded, but it also wouldn’t drop. On the other hand, the rabbit fur would drop.

Yang Bo handed the rabbit leader’s fur and claws over to the young lady and the other lady.

Then, Yang Bo and Xiao Huang set off for the next farm.

The next farm was about one kilometer away. This time, Yang Bo didn’t use a gun to clear the way but wielded a machete instead.

Before long, Xiao Hong arrived too. Every trip to the target location took a lot of time due to the roads being destroyed or overrun with wilderness. Not to mention the presence of zombies.

“The Captain is definitely a hidden master.” The two chatted privately as they followed behind Yang Bo.

“I saw the video they sent earlier. His speed is on par with a top-tier Mecha Pilot.”

“Not necessarily a pilot. Not everyone goes for that license.”

“I think Captain, with his cold demeanor, might just be an assassin.”

“Didn’t they say assassins are plain-looking, like regular people?”

“Have any of them ever seen an assassin? Those who have are probably already dead.”

“If Captain is an assassin, I’d hire him to take out a few of my family’s annoying big shots.”

“Better not say that. After all, family is still family.”

“Those bastards have bullied me enough as it is.”

“We’re born into top families. This kind of thing just comes with the territory.”

“I yearn for the life of regular people.”

“Oh, stop it. Haven’t you heard of the Four Seas Gene Serum Company? They inject residents with experimental gene serums, and a lot of people died from it.”

“It’s tough!”

“Let’s just eat and drink when we can. If, one day, our family asks us to die, then we fight back.”

“Let’s keep watching the Captain. After all, an assassin needs to be paid.”

“We don’t have money, but we can give him insider info. That’ll help him profit from the stock market or other places.”

“We’ll see how it goes.”

Yang Bo’s blade skills were becoming more refined. Suddenly, a zombie chicken leaped out from the side. With lightning reflexes, Yang Bo slashed at it.

The chicken’s head was instantly severed. There wasn’t much brain matter inside, so Xiao Huang and Xiao Hong didn’t bother gathering it.

In the game, the brain gathering pack had limited space. To Yang Bo, it was like the bionic body’s internal brain-sustaining container had limited capacity.

“This blade technique is really handy.” After arriving at their destination, Yang Bo realized how skilled he was with cold weapons in combat.

The biggest risk in cold-weapon combat was getting zombie fluids on you, but Yang Bo was careful about this.

“Maybe long weapons would be better for handling zombies.”

“Listening really does enhance the passive detection of Sonic Control.” During this time, Yang Bo confirmed this conclusion.

This was a long-haired rabbit farm. There were several others in the surrounding area.

Despite the short distance from the last farm, it took over an hour to reach, mainly due to the poor condition of the road. The paths in this area had never been paved and were covered in bushes and weeds.

Not only did they have to cut through the road, but they also had to watch out for zombies. Yang Bo knew that the Bionic Puppet’s outer layer was a protective coating. Once damaged, the energy here would erode the metal skeleton inside.

As for the machete he was holding, Yang Bo suspected it might be high-strength ceramic. Whether there was metal inside, he couldn’t say.

Then Yang Bo began cleaning up. The usual routine.

First, clear the area around the combat site. This way, spotting the zombies was easier.

If you didn’t clear the surroundings first, it was impossible to accurately track zombie movement.

After luring one wave and breaking their heads, Yang Bo lured a second wave while Xiao Huang and Xiao Hong began gathering the mission items.

In less than ten minutes, they’d nearly used up all their bullets. After carefully checking, there weren’t many zombie rabbits left in this farm.

Yang Bo had 50 bullets left, so he switched to wielding a machete and charged forward.

This time, Yang Bo decided to try a new tactic—single-handedly storming the farm.

Judging by the size of the farm and his observations, there should still be over 200 zombie rabbits left.

“Listening really boosts Sonic Detection.” Yang Bo felt his Sonic Detection skill had improved by at least one level.

That’s the auxiliary boost granted by Listening. Now Yang Bo didn’t even need to actively use Sonic Detection. As long as something made a sound, he could pinpoint its location by its frequency.

Of course, for stationary objects, this wouldn’t work. Yang Bo had planned to silently ambush the zombie rabbits.

But unexpectedly, a twig snapped underfoot, alerting a zombie rabbit. In an instant, over a hundred of them charged towards Yang Bo.

Yang Bo fought while retreating, facing the zombie rabbits head-on, all while swinging the machete.

The two teammates could only watch in awe as, with each flash of the blade, a zombie rabbit’s head hit the ground, still snapping its teeth.

The blade in Yang Bo’s hand traced strange arcs, shifting angles with every stroke. Every change in motion resulted in another rabbit’s head falling.

Every now and then, they heard a gunshot or two and saw clouds of smoke.

Not even five seconds had passed before Yang Bo had taken five steps back, leaving over 200 rabbit heads on the ground.

Yang Bo still seemed relaxed, but his two teammates were dumbfounded.

“It looks like the Captain’s blade broke the sound barrier twice.”

“Breaking the sound barrier isn’t that impressive. What’s impressive is that his range of movement didn’t exceed 1.5 meters.”

“Insane.”

“I once saw a master swordsman. The tip of his long sword could break the sound barrier. It’s said his sword was worth a fortune.”

“The Captain’s speed is just insane.”

Yang Bo, on the other hand, looked at the cold weapon in his hand, now reduced to zero durability. Using his superpower to inspect it, he found there was indeed a thin piece of flat metal acting as the core, but the ceramic shell had been damaged by high-speed motion.

Even the Bionic Puppet’s wrist joints had been damaged, though the game didn’t show it on his character.

“I’m going to get noticed again.” Yang Bo felt a bit helpless. The series of slashes he just performed had made him feel a bit obsessed, like someone hooked on a fruit-slicing game.

“That state just now was a bit strange.” Even Yang Bo didn’t know why he had entered that state.

In that state, the zombie rabbits’ movements slowed down significantly, and the blade in his hand seemed even faster.

“Captain, I’ve got another blade here.” Xiao Huang quickly handed over his knife.

Yang Bo took it, thanked him, and rushed back into the battle. This time, his pace slowed down quite a bit.

This farm had a total of over 1,100 zombie rabbits, and eventually, there was a small boss too, which gave him +8 Mind Control!

In the end, Yang Bo killed over 300 rabbits. He had initially thought there were fewer than 200, but it turned out a lot were hiding in the corners.

“The Captain’s knife speed is definitely that of an assassin!”

“If not, he must be from a top-tier combat squad.”

“I’ve heard people from our Alliance sometimes take on missions in the Federation or Empire. They have Bounty Hunter Guilds and Free Mercenary Guilds over there. He might’ve made enough money there and come back here to retire.”

“Our Alliance is perfect for retirement. Even if you break the law, there’s no death penalty.”

“I heard in the Federation, if you commit a capital crime, they’ll tie you to the street and have people whip you to death.”

“Don’t mention the Federation. Only two planets there don’t have the death penalty, and if you don’t work, you’ll starve.”

“In the Empire, I’ve heard they burn people to death.”

“Captain probably made his money outside and came back to retire. Our Alliance’s security is excellent. People used to fighting and killing outside come here to vent their frustration in games.”

“Actually, our Alliance has a Bounty Hunter Guild too, but it’s an illegal organization.”

“When the time is right, we’ll ask him.” Xiao Huang and Xiao Hong continued to chat privately.

Yang Bo’s Bionic Puppet had detected data anomalies, and the officials had noticed it.

“This guy is really strong. He could be a candidate for a more advanced bionic model.” A game department staff member from the military looked over Yang Bo’s data and calmly made a record.

Yang Bo knew he’d attract attention—that much was expected. But in a world full of powerful individuals, it was unavoidable.

Getting selected for this so-called beta test partly relied on random selection and partly on how well one’s data performed in the Mecha Game.

These people were being compared to see who was better suited for remote control of bionic humans.

Some people had talent for operating Mechas, while others had talent for controlling bionic humans.

Their combat styles and mindsets were completely different. The Bionic Puppet game focused more on intelligence.

Meanwhile, the Mecha Game was all about combat style, where they often fought head-on, relying on speed.

That’s why the game had so few players—only around several tens of thousands. The military was just testing to see if the project could work. If the project failed, they wouldn’t have lost too many resources. But imagine opening the game to 100,000 or 200,000 players! What if the project flopped? “Well, everyone did great today. Here’s your cut.” The team returned to the respawn point and turned in the mission.

Yang Bo killed two mini-bosses today. The total mission income was 420,000 Game Currency. The four teammates took a 20% cut, earning 84,000 Game Currency between them. Yang Bo kept 336,000 for himself.

He spent 140,000 on bullets. Each teammate carried two loads. Since they also brought bombs and clothes, they each carried 350 bullets.

On top of that, every piece of gear lost durability, and Yang Bo also broke a machete. His character was in a negative state, and his gun broke as well—its durability hit zero. After all the miscellaneous costs, Yang Bo still netted 150,000 Game Currency.

After logging out, the dog-loving young lady and the cat-loving lady were still in disbelief: “The Captain earned 150,000 in a single day?”

“That’s like 5 million in a year!”

“You can’t calculate like that. The two mini-bosses this time paid out a lot. The other bosses we’ve fought paid out only a few thousand, maybe ten thousand.”

“And some farm clearings? Captain didn’t make a single coin, not even a small Boss appeared.” Xiao Huang and Xiao Hong quickly explained.

“We actually earned 40,000 today. We used to blow ten grand on a single bottle of wine.” The cat-loving lady looked at her earnings with a sigh.

Xiao Hong grumbled: “You can’t buy ten-grand wine every day. I’ve only had five bottles that expensive in my entire life.”

“Logging off to shop.” The dog-loving young lady, seeing her earnings, prepared to log off.

“Are you guys dumb? At this rate, shouldn’t we start saving some cash?” Xiao Huang scolded.

“Yeah, have you looked at the news? We’ve made headlines for beating people up! That idiot media called us heartless second-generation elites, while that moron we fought was praised as a man of the people!”

“That guy joined the Anti-Satellite Association just for the fame. We were idiots for giving him more exposure!”

The cat-loving lady, still confused, asked, “What does this have to do with Game Currency?”

“Are you dumb? If our family makes us scapegoats, don’t we need some cash to escape?” Xiao Huang said hastily.

“Where would we run to? If anyone’s running, it should be you two! You two started the fight!”

“You’re so unreasonable. How was I supposed to know that moron came from a family? He was out protesting that satellites cause radiation. If there were radiation, shouldn’t he have been nuked in the womb?” Xiao Hong responded angrily.

“We thought only brainwashed idiots believed that nonsense. Who knew a family’s elite would buy into it?” Xiao Huang sounded frustrated too.

“Second chapter should be out this afternoon—if I get lazy, that is.”