Due to my abysmal grasp of mathematics, yesterday's update contained some factual errors. The Merit Points should have been 98, and the Free Attribute Points should have been 20. This has been patched. Feel free to castigate me!

The Agility base attribute bonus draws were as follows: "A, Base Attribute Bonus I (Passive): Nimbleness. When you deal damage to an enemy, you have an 8% chance to gain the Nimbleness effect, attacking one extra time. This attack will perfectly replicate the damage value, special effects, and so on, of your previous attack." "B, Base Attribute Bonus II (Passive): Blur. Your evasion rate against all attacks is increased by 5%. Furthermore, after successfully evading an enemy's attack, your evasion rate increases by another 1% for 15 seconds, stacking up to 5 times."

Fang Senyan had previously inquired with Morgana about the bonus base attribute rewards for Agility. However, Morgana had mentioned that the drawn rewards could vary depending on the circumstances, likely taking into account one's talents during the weighting process. For instance, after discussing it with Reef, Fang Senyan noted that the drawn items for Strength bonuses were largely identical between them.

Morgana had also informed Fang Senyan that his attribute draws would generally lean toward one attribute favoring offense and another favoring defense. For example, when his base Agility surpassed 20 without equipment, the choice he was presented with was either increased movement speed or B, increased critical hit rate.

Since Fang Senyan’s primary goal was survival, he chose option B without hesitation. He then invested 4 Free Attribute Points into Constitution, bringing it to exactly 49. For a Contractor, the number 49 carried a distinct implication of being just shy of the pinnacle of power, yet far above the masses.

At this point, Fang Senyan’s base Perception without equipment had reached 19. This particular base attribute was too crucial to ignore, so he proceeded with the selection. The resulting choice prompt was as follows: "A, Base Attribute Bonus I (Passive): Weakness Perception. Your various judgments against enemies become more precise. Your critical hit rate against enemies increases by 5%, and your hit rate against enemies increases by 5%." "B, Base Attribute Bonus II (Passive): Danger Sense. When an enemy is about to pose a threat or deal damage to you, your keen perception allows you to evade danger. The enemy's hit rate against you decreases by 5%, and the enemy's critical hit rate against you decreases by 5%."

This choice was again B, Danger Sense, without any suspense. Fang Senyan had essentially achieved his current enhancement goals. It was worth noting that the enemy’s critical hit rate against Fang Senyan had been suppressed by a full 15%! Given the current personal stats and equipment of Contractors and Reserve Colonists, landing a critical hit on him would now likely require a temporary ability that drastically boosted crit, such as Wild Heart's temporary power spike.

Fang Senyan then decided not to use the remaining 8 attribute points. He intended to continue saving his Free Attribute Points. His objective at this moment was clear: to accumulate enough points to push a single base attribute to the maximum value of 50 in one go!

As the saying goes, a skyscraper is built from the ground up. Through certain fragmented clues, Fang Senyan had almost definitively concluded that the more solid his foundation, the greater his delayed burst of power would be, and the lower the risk involved in breaking through the extreme value, leading to greater future achievements. He had discussed this issue with Morgana and Reef, though he couldn't be certain of their specific thoughts on the matter.

At this juncture, Reef and Morgana had likely returned to the real world and were completely unreachable. Fang Senyan considered the situation and realized there were a multitude of tasks awaiting him upon returning to the Sanctuary. Just the things he urgently needed to address included: Raising his military rank. Advancing the team level. Improving his personal foundational abilities, because otherwise, using that +7 West Revolver would incur the steep cost of permanently losing 1 specified base attribute point and 3,000 General Currency every time—a truly excessive price.

As for opening the Scarlet Cards for a chance drawing, Fang Senyan was anxious, but it would be better to wait until his teammates entered before using them. Opening them now would feel less than honorable.

For the immediate future, the tasks Fang Senyan could undertake without wasting much time were raising his military rank and advancing the team level. He quickly navigated to the uppermost section of the Sanctuary. This time, he encountered a queue.

However, since Fang Senyan had incidentally overheard secrets concerning the Metal Mentor last time, he was not in a rush now. He stood nearby, pretending to be idle, and managed to catch some bits of intelligence: for instance, equipment prices in the Sanctuary had recently dropped slightly, while Spirit Cores were scarce, or how someone had struck it rich in the last world with a valuable find. This time, however, no earth-shattering news surfaced.

After finding a spot, Fang Senyan pulled up the menu as per custom: "Nightmare Imprint No. 1018... Reading in progress." "Identity verification underway...." "Your current Nightmare Imprint rank is Second Lieutenant." "Your current Merit Points total 98." "You have met the requirements to be promoted to the next military rank. Do you wish to advance? Promotion from Second Lieutenant to Captain requires 70 Merit Points. Promotion will grant additional privileges."

Fang Senyan had come here specifically for this purpose, so he naturally selected 'Yes'. After a flash of light, he became a Captain. The newly added privileges were as follows: A: Two types of Merit-based Honor Drugs have been added to the Rank Store. These drugs still offer instantaneous full recovery, but their cooldown period has been reduced from the previous lengthy 48 hours to 12 hours. Additionally, a new drug has been introduced. This drug, called the "Alpha Human Active Cell Repair Capsule," can actually be taken into the real world! Its effect is to significantly and long-term alleviate symptoms of low-intensity but difficult-to-cure chronic diseases in the real world. It has a 100% chance to offer significant relief and a 50% chance of complete cure.

Fang Senyan examined it closely. Its effective scope covered chronic ailments that were not immediately fatal but were persistent, such as rheumatoid arthritis, chronic bronchitis, stubborn migraines (trigeminal neuralgia), and vitiligo. However, the price of this drug remained astonishing: 10 Merit Points (unobtainable through trade)!

B: Access to more extensive and richer documentation becomes available. C: The upper limit for the team level can be raised to Lv4. D: A new Military Subsidy is added (grants an additional 10% discount on various Sanctuary services, stackable with discounts from Charm value).

Fang Senyan currently possessed two Bloody Keys. However, the mission stipulated a maximum submission of four Bloody Keys across two worlds. Fang Senyan was no longer a novice in the Sanctuary, and considering the next world's difficulty might be lower, he began prioritizing maximum profit. He intended to gather two more Bloody Keys in the next world before completing this mission, hoping to secure the perfect mission reward!

Upon seeing the drug that could be taken out of the Sanctuary for use by people in the real world, Fang Senyan was naturally very excited. Although this drug could not yet treat Fourth Uncle's severed finger, its very existence represented a glimmer of hope, signifying that the Sanctuary hadn't deceived them, and there was a real chance for Fourth Uncle’s health to be restored.

Based on Fang Senyan's estimation, after returning from his next world, he would likely advance from an Officer to a Field Officer. A two-rank jump might be enough to completely restore Fourth Uncle to full health.

Team experience points had also overflowed significantly, primarily because Fang Senyan's single Gold Side Quest had directly contributed 30 Team Experience Points, and that was with a "Very Poor" evaluation! He could only imagine how much experience would have been added—likely over a hundred—if the completion had been an 'M'. But that was just speculation.

Fang Senyan's team was currently Lv1. Raising it to Lv2 required 15 experience points, and his current display showed 60/15, so upgrading was not an issue. The requirement to advance from Lv2 to Lv3 was 30 Team Experience Points. Fang Senyan unhesitatingly selected to upgrade, pushing the team level up two consecutive tiers.

However, the jump from Lv3 to Lv4 was staggering, requiring a full 50 Team Experience Points. Fang Senyan couldn't help but click his tongue at the display reading 15/50. After all, completing a Gold Side Quest was not guaranteed in every world!

Nonetheless, under normal circumstances, Lv4 was a critical threshold. Passing it should yield an additional reward, which was certainly something to look forward to.

Team level increases would correspondingly improve the team's probability and efficiency in suppressing enemies during combat, with an additional 5% bonus for every level gained. Furthermore, he had obtained a full 4 Team Skill Points! Given how difficult it was to raise the team level, Team Skill Points were inherently scarce! This advantage undoubtedly set the Ace Team far ahead of others and was the greatest asset of a Silver-grade team!

Among the three available team abilities, Fang Senyan was already highly satisfied with the hidden team skill, Life Link, so there was no immediate need to invest in it. His consideration naturally turned to the other two skills. After raising his military rank, Fang Senyan had spent some General Currency to look up some crucial information: If Team Skill Points were invested in Radiant Heal, at least for the initial few levels, the skill would not increase the 50% health recovery amount but would instead continuously shorten its cooldown. Radiant Heal’s current cooldown was 12 hours; investing one point would shorten it to 8 hours.