Chapter 7

"Jia Hui Huang!"

"Xiao Luo!"

At this moment, a shout came from nearby, startling Luo Yuan and Huang Jia Hui, who quickly separated and hurriedly tidied their clothes before walking out from behind the tree!

"So you two were hiding here, were you up to no good?" Zhao Qiang, with blood on his face, smiled ambiguously.

Huang Jia Hui's face turned red!

Luo Yuan's expression remained unchanged, and he smoothly changed the subject: "I was a bit weak in the legs just now. How is the snake?"

"It's dead. With so many shots, it couldn't survive. But it was really tough. If it hadn't been so full, we would have been sent to our deaths." Zhao Qiang grinned.

Luo Yuan thought of something and quickly opened the attribute panel, only to find that the mission was still incomplete. He was puzzled. Since the snake was dead, why wasn't the mission marked as completed? Could it be that Chen Weiqiang wasn't killed by this snake, or was he still alive?

At this moment, he felt a change in the attribute panel. Upon closer inspection, he was delighted to find that his Willpower had increased by one point, now at twelve. This was already the highest attribute point he had, aside from Intelligence. He hadn't expected his attributes to increase even before the mission was completed, which was a pleasant surprise.

He recalled his poor performance when facing the giant snake and thought to himself, "It seems that Willpower is related to one's mental fortitude. To be honest, he hadn't paid much attention to Willpower before. If not for this experience, he might have continued to overlook it.

A hero is fearless. Perhaps true strength not only requires a powerful body and a wise mind but also a strong heart. An increase in Willpower doesn't enhance any physical attributes, but its importance is no less than that of other attributes.

Especially in battle, his eleven points of Willpower were already much higher than the average person's, but when faced with unimaginable danger, he still froze in fear, unable to perform at his best. If not for his determination, he might have collapsed like Huang Jia Hui. In this aspect, he was far inferior to experienced police officers like Zhao Qiang and Captain Chen."

"Xiao Luo, give me the knife. I need to cut open the snake's belly. I've already called the station, and someone should be here soon to transport it." At this moment, Captain Chen walked over, looking at the snake's belly. He had no doubt that those people had been swallowed by the snake.

Luo Yuan handed him the knife and followed.

The surroundings were in chaos, with trees lying haphazardly on the ground, and the terrain had changed dramatically, as if a hurricane had just swept through.

On the slope ahead, a giant snake lay on the ground, its mouth tightly closed, revealing a foot-long, blood-red tongue. Blood continuously flowed from its mouth, and its body occasionally twitched, clearly not yet fully dead.

Huang Jia Hui stopped from a distance, her face pale, and her body swayed as if she might collapse again.

"Is it still alive?" Luo Yuan asked.

"Almost. In fact, it's dead, just with some nerve reflexes left," Captain Chen said, his voice hoarse.

"I'll shoot it to be sure!" Zhao Qiang raised his gun and fired.

"Bang!"

A blood flower bloomed on the corpse, and the giant snake twitched slightly but remained still.

"It should be safe now. Let's go over," Captain Chen said, seeming to breathe a sigh of relief.

"By the way, where's Wang Fei?" Luo Yuan looked around but didn't see Wang Fei.

"That guy had bad luck. He was lying there when a falling rock hit him, breaking his leg!" Zhao Qiang said with a sneer, clearly disdaining Wang Fei.

Luo Yuan felt a sense of satisfaction. He wasn't a saint and always believed in repaying kindness and enmity. Although it wasn't his doing, the news still lifted his spirits.

The giant snake seemed truly dead, but when they tried to cut it open, it suddenly twitched, scaring everyone. To avoid any accidents, they waited for half an hour until the snake was completely stiff before starting.

They tore off large scales, revealing the giant snake's white, web-like belly. Captain Chen picked up the knife to cut it open.

The snake's skin was extremely tough and slippery, and the knife slid around, making it difficult to cut. The knife was also somewhat dull after so much use. He struggled for a long time, panting heavily, and only managed to make a small, half-foot-wide cut!

"Let me try," Luo Yuan suggested, unable to watch any longer.

"Sure!" Captain Chen handed the knife to Luo Yuan, shaking his sore wrist and smiling wryly. "This skin is so tough, if you layer it, it could almost be bulletproof!"

Luo Yuan had an idea and said, "I'm interested in this snake skin. Can you give me some to keep as a collection?"

"Sure, no problem," Captain Chen said casually. "Since you helped kill the snake, we'll split it."

"Too bad we can't eat all this snake meat. Just thinking about the bodies inside makes me feel sick." Zhao Qiang smacked his lips, looking regretful. He usually ate anything, but this snake meat was a different story.

Luo Yuan smiled, took the machete, and carefully examined it from top to bottom. Then he stood with his legs slightly apart, focused, and gripped the knife with both hands.

In the next moment, the knife slid down swiftly, a white flash like lightning, yet it felt slow and steady. In slow motion, you would see the tip of the machete lightly touching the snake's skin without applying any force. But with the rapid cutting, there was a soft "swoosh."

A two-foot-long, smooth but only one-millimeter-deep cut appeared on the tough snake skin, without any blood flowing out.

Everyone looked at the wound in amazement. The knife work was like art, full of strange beauty!

Luo Yuan exhaled. This looked magical, but it was actually just precise control of force and rapid cutting. An ordinary person could achieve this with one or two years of practice.

Control of force was just the basics of knife skills. Even so, with his five points in knife skills, he needed some time to focus and gather strength, and not every cut could be so precise.

Luo Yuan paused and made several cuts, and the snake's skin was finally fully opened. A pile of internal organs slowly slid out, and the air was filled with a pungent smell. Luo Yuan looked at the swollen, balloon-like stomach and then at Captain Chen.

Captain Chen nodded solemnly.

Luo Yuan took a deep breath and slowly cut open the stomach.

Four bodies mixed with stomach acid spilled out, and the acid splashed everywhere. Luo Yuan quickly jumped back.

Due to the corrosion of the stomach acid, the bodies were unrecognizable, with some parts, like the heads, completely reduced to bones. It was impossible to determine their identities. Luo Yuan glanced at them and turned away, feeling his stomach churn.

The other two also looked pale.

At this moment, a mechanical voice sounded in Luo Yuan's mind: "Drip! F+ level mission, investigate the reason for Chen Weiqiang's disappearance, completed. Mission completion time: 19 hours and 35 minutes. Mission evaluation: Good!"

"Base experience reward: 400!"

"Good evaluation, experience +200!"

"You have leveled up! Reward: one attribute point, five skill points. Your level is now 4!"

"Your energy and injuries have been partially restored!"

"Finally leveled up." Luo Yuan was delighted but also felt a bit heavy-hearted. Although he and Chen Weiqiang weren't very close, they were at least friends. The completion of the mission clearly indicated that one of these bodies was him.

He opened his attribute panel.

Character: Luo Yuan

Occupation: Foreign Trade Officer, Qimei Foreign Trade Co., Ltd.

Level: 4

Experience: 300/2400

Attributes:

Strength: 10 (10)

Agility: 11 (10)

Constitution: 11 (10)

Intelligence: 13 (10)

Perception: 10 (10)

Willpower: 12 (10)

Skills:

Science: 16, Math: 14, Chinese: 19, English: 16, Finance: 17, Computer: 9, Dance: 1, Painting: 3, Gaming: 6, Negotiation: 9, Socializing: 7, Cooking: 3, Driving: 1, Unarmed Combat: 4, Knife Skills: 5

Special Skills: Appraisal

Unassigned Attribute Points: 1

Unassigned Skill Points: 5

Incomplete Missions: None

Luo Yuan had previously analyzed his physical attributes roughly, categorizing them into three types. The first type, such as Intelligence and Agility, had little room for improvement, no matter how much he trained. The second type, such as Strength and Constitution, could be significantly improved with effort, but would eventually reach a plateau. The third type, such as Willpower and Perception, had the most potential for improvement, though he wasn't sure how to enhance Perception, he believed that finding the right method would lead to rapid progress.

Each attribute point was precious, and Luo Yuan wouldn't allocate them without careful planning. He would prioritize the first type, add points to the second type only when self-training couldn't improve them, and let the third type improve naturally.

Previously, Luo Yuan would have undoubtedly added the attribute point to Intelligence. In a peaceful era, Intelligence was the most important attribute, serving as a ladder from the bottom of society to the elite.

However, today's events changed his thinking. The world was changing, and it would become increasingly dangerous. Compared to Intelligence, physical strength gave him a greater sense of security.

After some thought, Luo Yuan added the single attribute point to Agility.

As soon as he added the point, his body suddenly felt warm, and the sensation quickly faded.

He immediately felt a difference in the world. The sounds of insects and birds in the jungle seemed to slow down, becoming long and melodious, with a sense of tranquility. The world seemed to slow down. However, he had experienced this before when he added Agility points, so he wasn't too surprised. He knew it was due to faster neural reactions and that he would adapt over time.

He looked at his skill points and decided to hold off on allocating them for now, in case of unexpected situations.

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