Faced with Fang Senyan's inquiry, Jiao Shi took a deep breath, then violently downed a large swig of strong liquor. After a moment of contemplation, he finally spoke:

“The reward for reaching the extreme value is immensely powerful, but the trials are equally formidable. One wrong step leads to a cascade of errors. However, the Space doesn't intend to push people to their absolute limit for death; even if you achieve the extreme value and choose the reward, you will be granted a period of adaptation—one week. During this time, as long as you maintain 50 points in the relevant attribute, you possess the power of the extreme value. If it drops below 50 points, that power vanishes. For the rest of the time, you operate like a normal Contractor, but once the week is up, you will be forcibly thrown into the challenge state required for the extreme value!”

Fang Senyan's eyes moved, about to speak, but Jiao Shi gave a wry smile:

“I know what you’re going to say: save the extreme attribute value for the most critical, urgent moments, and keep your highest attribute at forty-nine points when idle by removing the equipment, right? This way, you can maximize the 144 hours of the one-week adaptation period—a joke! How could the Space leave such a loophole for you to exploit? Every time your base attribute drops from the fifty-point extreme state, it deducts a full thirty-six hours from your adaptation period! At best, you can only utilize this unmastered power four times!”

Fang Senyan couldn't help but sigh, yet he still looked expectantly at Jiao Shi. Jiao Shi shrugged helplessly:

“Don’t look at me. My adaptation period is used up. If I equip it again, I’ll have to enter the challenge immediately.”

Fang Senyan’s brow suddenly furrowed again:

“If that’s the case, then we might as well develop everything comprehensively now, stacking all seven attributes above forty points before even considering breaking through to the extreme value.”

Jiao Shi chuckled wryly, casting a sidelong glance at Fang Senyan:

“If you were the Space, would you allow a Contractor to do that?”

Fang Senyan was stunned, shook his head, and returned a wry smile:

“No.”

Jiao Shi said with deep frustration:

“The Space has a weighing coefficient. I don't know the specific calculation method, but it’s comprehensively determined based on the extra base attribute points you’ve currently gained / the number of Nightmare Worlds you’ve experienced / your current equipment / your own abilities / talents, and so on. In short, once your strength grows to a certain extent, the Space will adjust the difficulty of your main story missions, and you’ll find the missions getting harder while the rewards shrink.”

“More importantly, the margin of improvement between a Contractor who has broken through the extreme value and one who hasn't is immense. If you continue developing evenly like this, by the time the Space assesses that your overall standard should warrant breaking through the extreme value, it will assign you a main story mission of terrifying difficulty—one that is fundamentally impossible to complete without hitting the extreme value—like sending us into a high-tier Lord of the Rings world to kill Saruman, where the penalty for failure is instant erasure!”

Hearing Jiao Shi’s words, Fang Senyan suddenly grasped the cruelty underpinning the Space: it was forcing constant, relentless progress! He fell silent for a moment, then suddenly looked up with a smile, the flame of wild obsession burning once more in his eyes:

“It’s truly interesting… I like it!”

At this moment, Mogensha also entered the Space, urgently inquiring about forming a team. To be fair, Fang Senyan was quite honorable; he directly told Mogensha about the negative consequence of joining the team—having to fight hard in a low-intensity space battlefield.

Mogensha, however, was unconcerned and insisted on joining. After joining, Mogensha grumbled for a moment about why he wasn't called for the team establishment mission, then likely stared blankly at the list of team benefits and team skills for a full ten minutes… Finally, he squeezed out two words through his teeth:

“My God, monstrous…”

Then, under Fang Senyan’s questioning, Mogensha relayed some intelligence he had gathered: the low-intensity space battlefield wasn't just targeting teams; it was aimed at all Contractors.

Mogensha’s account closely matched Jiao Shi’s: the Space periodically assessed all Contractors, and those whose comprehensive strength/teams reached a certain level would be conscripted! Then they would be dragged into the space battlefield. Teams were assessed based on their average strength and actual status—meaning trying to lower the evaluation by filling a team with numerous rookies and few veterans wouldn't work.

The intensity of the space battlefields was divided into Low-Intensity Space Battlefield, Normal Space Battlefield, High-Intensity Space Battlefield. Rumor had it there were even more terrifying Space Wars beyond that. Low-intensity battlefields were generally focused on adaptation, with difficulty fluctuating around a world difficulty of +-level, though they were filled with slaughter.

It was worth noting that the number of people entering the space battlefield often reached several hundred, and since the scenario was free-for-all, multiple teams frequently engaged in chaotic battles. More crucially, unique missions often appeared within the space battlefield—missions known as the Golden Side Quest! Ultimately, only one person or team could complete it! This predetermined that the foundation of this world would be bloody killing to eliminate rivals.

However, it must be noted that the Space sets the mission difficulty assuming all participating Contractors can work together toward a common goal. Therefore... in the vast majority of cases, this Golden Side Quest is practically impossible to complete.

Because the Contractors involved in that world are invariably scattered and disorganized, expecting the majority of people to selflessly sacrifice their own interests to pave the way for others is absolutely impossible!

Saying this, Mogensha sighed regretfully:

“So, so far, it seems no one even knows what the reward for the Golden Side Quest truly is.”

Hearing Mogensha’s narration, Fang Senyan couldn’t help but ponder seriously:

“Truly interesting… In that case, I’ll have to think carefully about this.”

Although the price of recovery drugs in the Space was currently soaring, Fang Senyan and the others had accidentally stumbled into good fortune. Knowing the team establishment mission would inevitably be extremely difficult, they had stocked up on a considerable amount of supplies during that process. Then, shortly after entering the Lord of the Rings world, they triggered a time-related critical point, causing the Nightmare Imprint’s storage space to be sealed, meaning they barely consumed any of those supplies! Strictly speaking, as long as the crucial factor of supply management was handled, the rest of the preparatory work became relatively easy.

After meeting up, the three headed off to handle their respective preparations. Fang Senyan went directly to the appraisal area to check on the status of his silver-grade plot item: the Hydralisk Acid Gland. When he arrived, his greatest hope was that the appraisal would fail again, allowing him to legitimately squeeze a fortune out of those who left applications for appraisal. If that failed, and it was still in progress, he could always cancel it.

But regretfully, Murphy's Law took effect again; things always trended toward the worst possible outcome. The notification Fang Senyan least wanted to receive popped up:

“Your silver-grade plot item: Hydralisk Acid Gland has been successfully appraised. Please retrieve it promptly.”

“If it remains unclaimed within seven working days, the appraised item, along with the storage fee bill, will be sent to your private space.”

Fang Senyan resignedly applied for retrieval and discovered that this thing was indeed an item, not equipment:

Withered Orange Origin: StarCraft World Rarity: Silver Plot Composition: Connective tissue, cortical, medullary, nodules, diffuse tissue, and cortical lymph sinuses. Carry Effect: Strength +2 / Stamina +2 / Intellect +2 Carry Effect: Charisma -2 / Spirit -2 (This thing emits a pungent, sour stench; you can't expect people to feel cheerful after smelling it…) Use Effect: Smear this disgusting lymph gland onto your weapon, converting your next three attacks into corrosive acid damage. Note: Acid damage is a type of elemental damage and can only be mitigated by elemental resistance. Note: When smearing the weapon with the lymph gland, you must concentrate to avoid splashes of acid; this requires three seconds. If the smearing process is interrupted within these three seconds, you will suffer 100 points of backlash acid damage. Note: Because the acid volatilizes continuously in the air, the effect of each application lasts for twelve hours. Note: Due to limited daily secretion of the acid, you can only apply it 5 times every 12 hours. Usage Requirement: Withered Orange is only effective on melee weapons. Equip Slot: Backpack Weight: 0.8 kilograms.

Evaluation: I miss Katina’s charming mandibles, I miss Katina’s sexy tail, I miss Katina’s delicious mucus, I miss Katina’s pleasant chirping…

“Damn it, another one that lowers charisma,” Fang Senyan muttered inwardly.

Clearly, the greatest advantage of this thing was that it occupied a backpack slot and required no active equipment. For such an item, that was quite excellent. Gaining such a useful item that directly boosted strength on the eve of a major battle was, after all, good news.

After all, the buying frenzy currently sweeping the Space was precisely because selected Contractors were scrambling for even a sliver more chance at survival.

At this point, Fang Senyan recalled a previous notification:

“Your team rank is: Silver. You can choose to enter participating worlds by consuming Merit Points!”

Thus, Fang Senyan wanted to check some detailed information, such as how many Merit Points were required and what the differences were between the worlds selectable for entry, but he received a notification stating that querying was impossible…