It was obvious to anyone with keen eyes that the primary failing of the person ahead was Fang Senyan. Facing the Blood-Gold Vein Tongue Spire's terrifying attack power, which exceeded a hundred points even after damage reduction calculations, the effect of his innate talent, "Tenacity," was reduced to a negligible degree! Jiao Shi, on the other hand, fared much better. His talent ability provided damage reduction based on a percentage, and with the dual reduction, he only sustained over sixty points of damage. Furthermore, his Vitality, equipment, and skills were all significantly superior to Fang Senyan's.

The trio fell into an awkward silence, gazing at each other, time rapidly slipping away. If they factored in the time needed to retreat, they theoretically had less than ten minutes remaining, and this window even had to accommodate finding the weak spot of the Giant Spore Fungus AA Turret and destroying it!

"Perhaps... there is a way."

Jiao Shi took a deep breath.

As he spoke, he began removing the silver plot shield from his person—the processed Xenomorph skull—and the black weapon: the Centaurus Plasma Lightsaber (Training Model). He then proceeded to remove his Vitality-boosting gear and actively traded it all to Fang Senyan.

"Your current hurdle remains insufficient damage mitigation. If we pool everything together, we might lower the attack power of this Blood-Gold Vein Tongue Spire to below 80 points, which would be substantial. Combined with your innate talent, you could truly maximize your effectiveness."

Fang Senyan accepted the equipment Jiao Shi traded, but instead of equipping it, he calculated briefly and shook his head seriously: "It's useless. I haven't learned Shield Mastery, so I can only utilize the shield's ability at 80% maximum. You, however, can utilize its capabilities at 120%! That’s a huge gap, not to mention you still possess the formidable tanking ability of the Faith Armor." "So, even if I took your gear, I would only manage to last as long as you did previously! Most crucially, your base Vitality stat alone, even without gear, is 13 points higher than mine! The disparity there speaks for itself."

Saying this, Fang Senyan took a deep breath. "Therefore, the correct course of action is for me to trade my gear to you, consolidating both our strengths onto your frame, while I focus on offense and support for you! I've calculated that with my gear added, you can reach the absolute maximum value for this difficulty level—50 Vitality! Based on my projections and prior intel, hitting the cap on a single stat often unlocks additional bonuses! Moreover, even without my gear, I can secure ten seconds for you to take medicine and apply bandages." "Coupled with that vial of instant full recovery Merit Potion, we absolutely can complete this damned mission!"

"Of course, if the bonus for hitting the 50 Vitality cap isn't enough to see us through this mission, we still have time to fall back and withdraw. We still have options!"

As Fang Senyan spoke, he decisively traded his silver plot accessory: the +5 Giant's Resolve, and the blue ring, the Ring of Withered Bone (Strength +1, Vitality +1), to Jiao Shi! While the Ring of Withered Bone was one thing, the "Giant's Resolve" made Jiao Shi gasp in shock! He looked at Fang Senyan with disbelief: "This... this is a defensive silver plot accessory?!!! And it even rolled a rare exclusive property for an accessory? You're actually willing to trade this to me? Do you realize its value is comparable to any top-tier Dark Gold or Green Growth equipment?!"

Fang Senyan smiled, very simply: "Since you can trust me, why shouldn't I trust you?"

Jiao Shi said no more; time was critical and brooked no delay. He swiftly equipped the accessory Fang Senyan had traded him—then turned back, gazing deeply at Fang Senyan one last time, and immediately initiated another trade request. Within the trade options lay a necklace shimmering with dark gold light!

Smith's Matrix Chip Equipment Rarity: Dark Gold Source World: The Matrix Material: Unknown Attachable Devices: None Equipment Slot: Neck Equipment Type: Necklace Weight: 11.6 grams. Equipment Usage Requirements: All base attributes no lower than 25 points, OR Military Rank of Senior Private or higher (including Senior Private). Equipment: Strength, Agility +6 points. Equipment: Critical Hit Rate, Hit Rate +10%. Passive Ability: Update Database (DIR_UP)? (Condition Not Met) Passive Ability: Invoke (DIRIP) - Every time you successfully deal damage to an enemy, a DIRIP command judgment will be executed. Upon successful judgment, you will gain insight into the enemy's weakness, increasing your critical hit chance against that enemy by 10%! This effect can stack up to three times. The DIR command judgment's single-instance effect against Contractors is reduced to 5%, stacking up to 5 times. Active Ability: Format (Format_Self) - You execute a formatting command on yourself, temporarily converting 5 Vitality into 5 Strength. Once executed, this cannot be canceled for at least 20 minutes. During this period, the increase to maximum health provided by the converted Vitality remains, but any health lost cannot be recovered after being depleted. (Example: If Fang Senyan, with 10 Vitality, casts Format_Self on himself, his maximum health remains 100 points, but his Defense drops to 2.5 points. If, while formatted, his health is reduced to 30 points by an enemy attack, upon returning to normal state, his maximum health will only be 50 points.) Description: This is an ordinary chip dropped by a Smith Agent in The Matrix. Smith Agents existed as antivirus programs, thus they were granted superhuman abilities by the Matrix. Within the Matrix, they possess the ability to rewrite human character programs, allowing them to continuously borrow other bodies. This chip has absorbed the belligerence and madness of the Smith Agent clone, possessing immense power! Once possessed, it can lead to utter transformation! "What is this?" Fang Senyan asked, stunned.

Jiao Shi said calmly, "This is insurance money in case I die in battle, so you won't suffer a total loss!"

After saying this, Jiao Shi immediately activated Faith Armor on himself. A transparent, ice-hard glow enveloped his body, and he resolutely gripped the black lightsaber and charged forward silently. The feeling was one of reckless abandon, as if facing ten thousand foes alone!

This was a moment where touching one string moved the entire setup. As Jiao Shi moved, the others immediately charged forward too! Because the Tongue Spire's position was built in a highly obscure manner, from their current angle, it was completely obscured by the obese and bulky Giant Spore Fungus AA Turret. Therefore, to gain a firing angle, they absolutely had to advance about twenty meters and circle around to the flank to shoot.

Jiao Shi's charge was so abrupt and decisive that Fang Senyan didn't even have time to remind him to "pre-heat" the Giant's Resolve! Two sharp, terrifying golden spikes instantly pierced the ground and struck Jiao Shi’s body. The semi-transparent Faith Armor visibly rippled, and bright red blood sprayed outward! At that instant, Fang Senyan unhesitatingly equipped the Dark Gold necklace and immediately activated its "Format" ability!

Immediately, Fang Senyan felt a surge of heat throughout his body, and his Strength stat skyrocketed to 27 points (after consuming the Blood-Flesh Bear Potion)! Even so, Fang Senyan's remaining health was 330 points, with 18 Vitality remaining! These stats, combined with the Tenacity talent, still provided formidable survivability! It was estimated to be no less than the previous Crowbar of the Symbiotic Society, and the root of Fang Senyan’s confidence in doing this lay in the bottle of Merit-Grade High-Protein Injector Jiao Shi had gifted him! That item ensured that unless Fang Senyan was instantly obliterated, he essentially had two lives. For the previous Fang Senyan, the reason he hadn't bought this item wasn't reluctance to spend Merit Points, but a lack of Universal Points.

Because Jiao Shi had only worn one accessory previously, the "Giant's Resolve" granted him purely additive stat boosts, adding a full 6 Perception, 2 Strength, and 5 Agility, excluding Vitality! This meant Jiao Shi’s Agility had now reached an astonishing 32 points! This was a value even many ranged Agility attackers couldn't achieve! Consequently, the mere fifty-meter distance was covered by Jiao Shi like a whirlwind! He then raised the lightsaber in his hand and brought it down with all his might!

This Tongue Spire looked blood-red on the outside, etched with golden patterns, appearing exceptionally ferocious. Although the interval between its attacks was slow, the moment of impact was extremely fast; tactical maneuvers like rolling or jumping were completely impossible to evade.

Where the black lightsaber struck, a scorch mark instantly appeared, accompanied by a foul smell of burning flesh. As one of the Zerg’s most crucial combat organs, it immediately converted the pain into combat capability, mercilessly thrusting its sharp tentacle toward Jiao Shi again!

Although the Tongue Spire attacked with two tentacles each time, the insidious part was that these two strikes registered as a single instance of damage, meaning only one instance of damage reduction was applied, resulting in extremely high damage—so high that even Fang Senyan couldn't withstand more than a few hits. Jiao Shi had already been struck once during his sprint, and this was now the second hit! This implied one thing: the "Giant's Resolve" accessory had reached its peak state, providing a direct boost of 10 Vitality! This, in turn, meant Jiao Shi's Vitality had now surged to the maximum limit for the current difficulty... the 50 Vitality cap!