Chapter 41

Finally, the Miracle Badge transmitted the message allowing entry. Ma Le, trembling, opened the portal and eagerly rushed into Miracle City.

The entrance was in the personal space. Looking at the familiar white room, Ma Le, with a trembling voice, ordered, "Quick... heal me!" As soon as he spoke, a beam of white light shone on him. Bathed in the gentle healing light, Ma Le felt warmth for the first time in days! He looked down at his body and saw visible white cold vapor escaping from his acupoints. At the same time, the credit points in his account were continuously decreasing.

After about two minutes, the white light finally disappeared. Ma Le felt an indescribable warmth and comfort all over his body. Checking his account, he found that he had lost over 500 credit points, leaving him with 1622 points.

Ma Le sighed. Old Dog had told him that completing the main quest in the beginner-level world and receiving a passing evaluation only rewarded 500 credit points. If all treatments were this expensive, new players would be out of luck. It seemed that Zhao Renfan's dying attack was indeed powerful, and healing from it was no easy task.

Shaking off his spirits and no longer worrying about the lost credit points, Ma Le focused on the rewards. After absorbing Zhao Renfan, his true strength reached 65 points, breaking the 60-point threshold and meeting the conditions for the hidden reward! Ma Le opened the Miracle Badge's notification bar and chose to claim the reward. The interface changed, listing eight talent rewards, with a prompt to select three:

1. Strong Strike: Increases melee attack power by 15 points, stackable.

2. Brute Force: Increases strength effect by 30%, with the upper limit constrained by the stamina attribute. Enhanced strength effect makes the adventurer stronger, such as increased carrying capacity, the ability to use heavier weapons, and drawing more powerful bows, but does not directly increase melee attack power. (Rare talent, appearance rate 1%~3%)

3. Berserker: When health drops below 50%, for every 5% of maximum health lost, an additional 6% strength is gained. (Rare talent, appearance rate 1%~3%)

4. Power Warrior: When using melee weapons with a strength requirement greater than 5, increases attack power by 15%.

5. Fatal Punch: When attacking bare-handed, adds a critical hit equal to the strength attribute value, which occurs once every 15 seconds. (Unique talent, once an adventurer learns this talent, it will not appear in any form for other adventurers. Choosing this option requires three selection chances.)

6. Good Back: Reduces the strength requirement of equipment by 2.

7. Burst Strength: Active talent, instantly bursts muscles to exert beyond their load, increasing strength by 100% for 5 seconds. After use, muscles enter a fatigued state, reducing strength by 40% for 10 to 20 minutes. (Rare talent, appearance rate 1%~3%)

8. Strong Throw: Increases the damage of thrown weapons by 10%.

...

This time, there were no rare talents that required two selection chances, but the most unique talent was still available. Ma Le chose "Fatal Punch" without hesitation. Golden light for reinforcement shone down, and an unbearable itching sensation returned. It took over ten minutes for the sensation to subside.

Although the reinforcement was painful, the enhancement was astonishing! Ma Le knew all too well the terror of critical hits. While dealing with low-level monsters and adventurers, a few dozen points of critical damage every fifteen seconds might not seem like much, but as the game progressed and enemies had higher defense and health, this critical damage would become a lethal weapon! Even now, against fast and fragile enemies, this talent could ensure a one-hit kill. If he had had this punch earlier, Ma Le was confident he wouldn't have been beaten so badly by Zhao Renfan.

After claiming the system reward, Ma Le took out the silver key that Zhao Renfan had dropped. An electronic voice sounded, and the system prompted, "Detected that adventurer 110405 holds the Slaughter Key. Do you want to start the reward challenge now?"

"Reward challenge?" Ma Le thought that getting the key would allow him to open a chest and claim treasures, but he didn't expect a reward challenge!

The system explained, "In the real world or in specific mission worlds, killing other adventurers will grant a Slaughter Key. Using the Slaughter Key can open a challenge space. The challenge method is random, and rewards are granted based on the challenge performance. The challenge rewards include the credit points, skill points, and items in the personal space of the killed adventurer."

Ma Le understood. It seemed he would have to enter a sub-space of Miracle City and participate in some kind of competitive game, with rewards based on performance. "It's so complicated, but since I've come this far, I have no choice but to use it!" Saying this, Ma Le chose to use the key. The small silver key instantly turned into points of light and disappeared, and a portal appeared before Ma Le's eyes.

Pushing the door to enter the challenge space, it was indeed a white room, but in the center was no longer a tablet or a laser screen, but a large wheel divided into dozens of small sections, each with a different challenge method. Ma Le walked up and pulled the handle on the side, and the wheel started spinning. After several dozen seconds, the needle stopped on a section labeled "Jungle Treasure Hunt."

Just as Ma Le was wondering what this meant, the white room suddenly changed, and the walls turned into trees and vegetation, transforming into a tropical rainforest.

The system prompted, "Adventurer 110405 has drawn the Jungle Treasure Hunt challenge: The reward is divided into 100 treasure chests, hidden within a 10-kilometer radius of the tropical rainforest. The adventurer has one hour to find as many treasure chests as possible. During the search, the adventurer may be harmed. If health reaches zero, the adventurer will be sent back to Miracle City, and all rewards will be forfeited. The adventurer should avoid damaging the environment; if the environment is damaged to a certain extent, the search time will end early. The timer has started!"

As soon as the voice finished, Ma Le sprinted out. Finding 100 treasure chests in a 10-kilometer radius of the tropical rainforest was like looking for a needle in a haystack, and he had to act quickly.

As the system had warned, the forest was full of dangers. Besides wild beasts and venomous insects, there was even a native tribe causing trouble for Ma Le! In a fit of anger, Ma Le killed two of them, only to receive a warning about environmental damage. It turned out that the natives were part of the environment, and killing one person caused significant damage! Even more frustratingly, during the conflict, Ma Le clearly saw a treasure chest next to the heavily guarded altar of the natives! The system was trying to kill him, not allowing him to kill but placing the treasure chest where it was guarded. Who could get it without invisibility?

Wait, Ma Le seemed to understand. Invisibility was Zhao Renfan's specialty, along with high perception and agility. If Zhao Renfan had done this challenge, he would have been like a fish in water!

It seemed that the reward challenge was related to the adventurer who dropped the key, likely the skills of the killed adventurer! Of course, it didn't mean that adventurers of the same type could easily pass, but they would have an advantage!

Ma Le, a typical high-attack, high-defense adventurer, was not well-suited for this situation. Searching bit by bit, even a day might not be enough to find all the chests. Using brute force was out of the question; the trees and natives couldn't be harmed, and severe damage would result in being kicked out. It was a frustrating situation. An hour passed quickly, and Ma Le only found three treasure chests.

Exiting the challenge space, Ma Le opened the three treasure chests one by one. The first contained 500 credit points, which helped offset his medical expenses. The second contained three vials of adrenaline, which doubled attack speed and reduced pain by 50% for 15 seconds, a powerful tool for desperate situations. The third made Ma Le's eyes light up; it was a real treasure! It was a bundle of silk rope as thick as fishing line, cold to the touch, strong and light. Scanning it with the Miracle Badge, he received the following information:

Name: Coiled Dragon Silk

Quality: Silver

Category: Item, Material

Origin: Martial arts, fantasy worlds

Material: Ice Silk

Length: 200 meters

Strength: 9

Weight: 400 grams

Description: This item is made from the silk of a thousand-year-old ice worm, incredibly strong and impervious to ordinary blades. Due to its cold and hard nature, it is mistakenly believed to be made from the mane of a snow dragon, hence the name Coiled Dragon Silk. It is light and durable, with a wide range of uses, both for binding in combat and as a material for equipment.

...

This was a great item. Not only was it a rare silver-quality item, but its strength of 9 was superior to most weapons. Moreover, it was light and easy to carry. While storage spaces were convenient, they still required opening the portal and reaching in, making it more practical to carry frequently used equipment on one's person.

With these three rewards, Ma Le now had 2122 credit points, 6 skill points, a black famous-quality weapon, Isaac's Harpoon Gun, 25 marking guns, 200 meters of silver Coiled Dragon Silk, three vials of adrenaline, and various food and medicines.

Prepared, Ma Le left his personal space, exited the slums, and headed towards the main city. All mission world entrances were in the main city, but the entrance to the real world was in the personal space. This was why adventurers aspired to buy homes in the main city, not only for the convenience of executing tasks and saving time but also for the availability of various facilities.

Arriving at Miracle Square, he checked the time. There was still over an hour before the scheduled entry time into the mission world. Ma Le decided to browse the square, which was always bustling with vendors. After a round, he found someone selling white-board hand grenades. These items typically dealt 200-300 points of damage, enough to instantly kill beginner-level adventurers. While common in mission worlds, they were hard to bring out. Thus, despite being white-board one-time-use items, they were priced at 200 credit points each.

This price was steep for most low-level adventurers, so they usually consoled themselves by thinking they could find them easily in mission worlds, avoiding the need to spend money here! In reality, low-level adventurers, who were only slightly stronger than ordinary people, were often busy fleeing for their lives in mission worlds, with little time or ability to loot weapons. When they needed powerful weapons, they often found themselves empty-handed and at a loss. Ma Le didn't think too much about it; he just had some extra money and negotiated with the seller, eventually buying six hand grenades for 1000 credit points, each dealing 250 points of explosive damage.

Calculating the time, he saw that many vendors were starting to pack up, likely heading to the teleportation square.

Ma Le followed them to another square in Miracle City, the "Teleportation Square." It was not as spacious or lively as Miracle Square, but those who came here needed to enter the mission world today. Miracle City's mission worlds were only open for a fixed hour each day, with a collective teleportation at the end of the hour. Adventurers had to wait in advance; missing the time meant they couldn't enter the mission world for the day. For Ma Le, who could only enter Miracle City once a week, missing it meant losing a week's worth of tasks. Miracle City would not tolerate such behavior; if an adventurer refused to enter the mission world, the difficulty of the next mission would increase, and the rewards would decrease. If this happened three times, Miracle City would issue a bounty on the adventurer, revealing their real-world information and offering a substantial reward, ensuring their death.

Finally, the time was almost up. A large countdown appeared in the sky over the Teleportation Square. When the countdown reached zero, nearly a thousand beams of white light descended, instantly teleporting all the adventurers present into the mission world.

And Ma Le was about to experience his first official mission world!