Chapter 3

Despite the old, green wall showing signs of age, the green wall in front of him might very well be the best-preserved building in the city ruins.

Linke stood in front of the six or seven-meter-high green wall, and his past memories gradually surfaced.

He's back, everything is back!

This place was not just a simple wall; inside was actually a concrete maze that had existed since the city's prosperous days.

After the Wasteland Era, the Mechanized God Cult occupied this place and stripped all the metal from the city. This maze, being purely concrete, escaped destruction and was preserved.

When the game officially entered beta testing, the Mechanized God Cult discovered the "Death Dungeon" and sent troops to garrison here.

The soldiers of the Mechanized God Cult wore exoskeleton battle armor, and killing them would drop blueprints, parts, and even armor chips needed for mechanical systems. Back then, Linke made his first fortune here, thanks to the maze's complex terrain.

Linke waited a few seconds in front of the green wall maze, and a jeep burst out from the half-obscured smoke and dust.

The Wasteland Gang mercenaries immediately saw Linke standing on the street, clutching his arm.

"Got him?" The machine gunner, seeing the slave clutching his arm, had an expression as if he had won the lottery.

"Damn, you even guessed that right. What kind of luck is this?" The driver couldn't help but comment.

The machine gunner's nose was almost in the air: "Maybe this time we can escape thanks to me. Remember to treat us when we get back!"

"Cut the crap, that guy's already gone."

"Tch, where can a slave run to?"

The jeep accelerated, sliding forward by inertia.

One with a pistol, the other with a submachine gun, they jumped off the car and ran in the direction Linke had disappeared.

When the two reached the entrance of the green wall, they peeked inside.

"This looks like a maze, that kid ran in!"

They exchanged glances and almost instantly decided on a strategy.

"You chase from this side, I'll block the exit. We'll intercept him from both ends!"

"Alright! Let's finish this quickly. We don't want to attract the Mechanized God Cult. I don't want to be a human battery!"

With guns in hand, they didn't take a defenseless and injured slave seriously.

What they feared was the Mechanized God Cult.

...

Linke entered the concrete maze and immediately felt the thrill of grinding monsters.

Back then, he found the fun of grinding monsters here, using the maze's complex terrain and limited visibility to lead a dozen or so Mechanized God Cult soldiers in circles, gradually wiping them out one by one!

It was here that Linke laid the foundation for his "gold farmer" career.

"Destiny," a game created to resolve the contradiction between the growing material and cultural needs of the people and the backward productive forces, was developed by the United Government in collaboration with many companies. It utilized the latest generation of optical brain technology and virtual game pods. Apart from the basic parameter settings, everything else in the game was generated by the optical brain, with no human intervention.

With the game's release, "Destiny" instantly became a global sensation, with a peak of 400 million players online simultaneously. It almost became everyone's go-to entertainment after work. Real-world companies naturally wouldn't miss such a promotional opportunity, forming guilds and teams to bring their influence into the game.

As for our protagonist, Linke, he entered the game from the beta testing stage. With average luck and no special encounters, it was this concrete maze that opened a new door for him—grinding monsters for gold!

Linke gradually became a gold farmer, earning a decent income each month by selling in-game currency.

Lacking luck, he made up for it with skill. His long-term experience in grinding monsters honed his operational skills and efficient monster-killing techniques. His willingness to work hard and timely service allowed him to carve out a niche among many gold farmers and studios, earning him a small reputation. He had many stable clients, including some wealthy members of large guilds.

This place was "where it all began" for Linke.

Linke walked calmly through the maze, the entire layout etched in his mind.

His plan was to use his familiarity with the maze to toy with the two mercenaries, then take advantage of their isolation to ambush and kill them with his dagger.

However, Linke didn't notice that the blood from his gunshot wound on his right arm was flowing down his thin forearm.

Surprisingly, the blood didn't drip from his fingers but was intercepted by the gold bracelet.

This gold bracelet was greedily absorbing the fresh blood.

The bracelet was made entirely of gold, with a design of a death worm. The body resembled a worm, the head was indistinct, and the mouth had a ring of sharp teeth. At the point where the death worm's head and tail met, a lifelike scarab beetle was carved.

At first, Linke didn't notice, but when he reached the ambush point and raised his dagger to hide, he saw a shocking sight on his arm.

The gold death worm on the bracelet was moving!

The death worm slowly wriggled, the gold bracelet began to contract, fitting perfectly with Linke's skin, leaving no gaps.

The blood was absorbed by the death worm, and the gold surface began to peel off, revealing a blood-red body.

Linke watched as the bracelet tightened, trying to pull it off, but found it had adhered to his arm, becoming one with it.

"What the hell is this thing!"

Linke had taken the bracelet to sell for some starting capital after a successful escape.

He didn't expect this "detail" to become a curse!

Just then, a series of prompts appeared before Linke's eyes...

[You have obtained a Zerg Hive (Incomplete)]

[The Zerg Hive (Incomplete) has been successfully bound]

[The Synthesis Interface is activating, please wait...]

"It's a Zerg Hive!"

Linke's heart was filled with a tidal wave of emotions.

Traversing into the game and returning to six years ago didn't shock him much, but obtaining the Zerg Hive made his face a storm of emotions!

"The legendary artifact from the 6.0 Heart of the Swarm version, why is it in my hands?"

Alone in the dark corner, no one could answer his doubts.

Linke recovered from his shock, listened for the enemy's position, and, confirming his safety, refocused on the system interface.

A new option, [Synthesis], had appeared after [Attributes] and [Quests].

Entering the [Synthesis] interface, the first thing he saw was a complex explanation, akin to a drug instruction manual.

After a quick read, Linke summarized the following points:

...

In simple terms, it could be used for biological synthesis and modification.

In the 6.0 version before Linke's traversal, Emperor Paul, who obtained the complete Heart of the Swarm, dominated the players.

Leading an army of modified creatures, he single-handedly crushed major companies and guilds.

Just the information Linke knew, the top 100 guilds' combined forces lost Titan ships, Dragon ships, Bio-Alloy Leviathans, Legendary Mobile Suits, Super Fortresses, and Death Star Gravity Command Centers...

Billions in value!

After the battle, Emperor Paul emerged unscathed!

One-sided slaughter!

The Zerg Hive Linke now activated was just a part of the complete Heart of the Swarm, with significantly reduced functionality.

But even this "castrated version" was enough for Linke to rise.

Currently, Linke's [Synthesis] interface had only one formula.

[Biological] + [Material] = [Biological]

Just provide the required components, and a new creature could be synthesized.

The biological requirement could not exceed Linke's level, and there were no restrictions on the material.

"I'm only level 1, and where can I find a creature in the city ruins?"

Obtaining the Zerg Hive was a pleasant surprise, but with no suitable creatures, Linke's immediate priority was to deal with the two Wasteland Gang mercenaries.

Just as Linke exited the interface, he noticed the bracelet on his wrist had disappeared, leaving behind a few pieces of broken gold. On his arm, a tattoo of the death worm and scarab beetle appeared, indicating the artifact's bound state.

[You have obtained 400 grams of gold]

Linke picked up the gold, just as he heard the mercenaries' voices.

"I'm in position!"

"Me too!"

Their voices, one after the other, were completely unmasked.

"They want to surround me from both sides!" Linke immediately saw through their plan, pinpointing their positions by their voices.

If they both approached, he wouldn't be able to ambush them and would be caught between them. His movement range would be halved, making it easy to be cornered.

"I can't stay here!"

Linke stood up, his current position in the middle of the maze.

The only way to break their plan was to target one side first and eliminate them one by one!

Linke walked to the front door, taking a few steps when he heard rustling in the corner. Looking closely, he saw a rat.

Linke's eyes lit up: "Ah! A creature, that's it!"

The rat was only level 1, meeting the conditions.

The dagger returned to his waist, Linke quietly approached and caught the rat, re-entering the [Synthesis] interface.

Rat (Adult) + Gold (100 grams) = ? (90% success rate)

[Synthesis will consume 10 HP, proceed? Yes/No]

As for the 10 HP cost...

Linke glanced at his 30 HP, it wouldn't kill him!

90% success rate, no need to hesitate!

Synthesize!

Linke noticed the 100 grams of gold in his left hand gradually being absorbed, disappearing from his palm.

The rat in his right hand was enveloped by a blood-red filament, eventually forming a palm-sized blood cocoon.

[Blood cocoon incubation countdown: 30 seconds.]

According to the synthesis instructions, the incubation time was proportional to the creature and material levels.

The rat was a common creature, and gold was a rare metal, green quality.

Fortunately, Linke used only a small amount of gold, so the incubation time was very short.

Linke held the blood cocoon, hiding in an inconspicuous corner of the maze.

The anxious and expectant half-minute finally passed.

With a line of elegant system text, a rat emerged from the cocoon, poking its furry head to look at Linke.

[Monster synthesis complete, obtained green quality—Treasure Rat!]

[Monster Attributes]

Name: Treasure Rat (Juvenile)

Quality: Green

Race: Rodent

Attribute: Metal Affinity

Level: 1

Initial Skill: Scent Search lv1 (The Treasure Rat has a keen sense of smell, able to distinguish various odors in the air, especially sensitive to metal. Search range: 500 meters, metal range doubled.)

Evaluation: An ordinary rat with precious metal fused into its blood, highly sensitive to metal. In short, you've found a treasure trove.

Linke's eyes lit up. Searching for treasures was secondary; the ability to sense metal was truly impressive!

Linke gently patted the Treasure Rat, which was sniffing his palm, and whispered, "Now, lead me to the nearest metal source."

It was time to test the Treasure Rat's abilities!

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