Time seemed neither slow nor fast, but it undeniably slipped away, moment by moment. Recalling the many things stored in his mind, some felt like they belonged to years past, while others seemed as fresh as yesterday.

Fang Senyan's few consigned pieces of equipment had sold successfully, but the resulting flood of Universal Points and Potential Points had been spent just as quickly, vanishing into a hoard of supplies. His Merit Value now stood at 441/400, presenting him with two distinct choices.

The first option was to use it on Chris Redfield's Lucky Bracelet to acquire the [True] Luck skill. Fang Senyan calculated that forty Merit Points were by no means a trivial amount, and pouring it into a Tier Seven skill tree felt like having it mercilessly absorbed by a sponge.

The second choice was to sell the Imperial Golden Moon Medal X1 (exchangeable for 20 Merit Points) and use the resulting sixty Merit Points to activate a new disease category. Given the current critical juncture, returning to the real world to study new diseases wasn't too difficult for Fang Senyan. The crux of the matter was that the ten points of allowable Merit Point overdraft were strictly limited to the purchase of supplies; after squandering the sixty points, where would he find the excess Merit Points needed to learn the new disease abilities?

Yet, looking at it from another angle, since the battles in the Bloody Battlefield were so brutally fierce, the fatality rate must be extremely high. Fang Senyan was the team leader, and if he offered to forgo the equipment draws in exchange for Merit Points, the acquisition of those points would surely be staggering.

A careful analysis revealed that the rewards space gave their personnel for slaughter were split into two components: first, the reward of Merit Points; second, the random draw of equipment from the fallen enemies.

To put it plainly, this reward structure closely resembled real-world salary: base pay plus bonus.

The base pay was the guaranteed Merit Points, while the bonus was the drawn equipment. In low-intensity wars, acquiring Merit Points was clearly more advantageous, as the slain enemies would be of lower rank, meaning less "grease" on their bodies. However, in high-intensity wars, opting for the equipment would undoubtedly be more profitable.

Typically, Awakened individuals had a certain chance to draw Gold-tier equipment, and the probability of acquiring at least one Silver Storyline equipment was at least fifty-fifty. Therefore, if Fang Senyan waived the equipment draw rights, the others would likely be happy to agree. Of course, someone might voice dissent, but Fang Senyan had many ways to ensure their silence.

With this realization, Fang Senyan made up his mind. Since the "fight to sustain the fight" approach was viable, learning the [True] Luck skill could be managed similarly. Conversely, once they entered a Nightmare World, returning to the real world to study diseases would be impossible, meaning any Merit Points gained might not be fully utilized.

Thus, Fang Senyan decisively sold the Imperial Golden Moon Medal and… clicked that option! Finally, with almost no hesitation, he selected Option B: Contact-Transmitted Diseases!!

Contact-Transmitted Diseases had a small radius of spread, usually transmitted through melee attacks on others or when others attacked you in close quarters. Upon activation, they could affect enemies within 1 meter (this effective range was the original data, excluding any bonuses).

Their effect was rapid, primarily focused on damaging the enemy, with weakening them being secondary.

Note: Representative diseases include Cholera, Trachoma, Anthrax, Ebola, AIDS, etc.… You must activate this category option before you can specifically activate related diseases to infect enemies.

Now that Fang Senyan already possessed Air-Transmitted Diseases, the issue of distance for the diseases was moot; what mattered now was the intensity of the sickness. After learning the contact category, he discovered that the sixty Merit Points hadn't been wasted, as his mastery of the ultimate skills for Air-Transmitted Diseases had caused corresponding changes here.

Firstly, Contact-Transmitted Diseases had a learning cap—a maximum of seven types could be learned. To increase the learning slots or reset skills required twenty Merit Points, necessitating careful selection before activation.

Secondly, each enemy could only carry a maximum of two diseases, and these two diseases must belong to different systems; for instance, two contact-transmitted diseases were impossible; only one air-transmitted disease and one contact-transmitted disease could coexist.

Naturally, these restrictions would loosen as further research into the Virus Monarch progressed.

Currently, the information Fang Senyan had revealed two skill trees: Conditioned on wounding the enemy to cause bleeding—Suppurative Infection (symptoms: pus, swelling, redness)—Gas Gangrene Infection (stench, necrotic flesh)—Suppurative Osteomyelitis (resulting in semi-permanent disability)—Tetanus Infection (severe convulsions, muscle rigidity).

Conditioned on wounding the enemy to cause bleeding—Low Fever (rising body temperature)—Herpes Zoster (intense pain, severe itching)—Kaposi's Sarcoma (excruciating pain, weakness)—progressing to AIDS. Clearly, other skill trees existed far beyond these two, but only these two were listed. Fang Senyan then spent considerable effort and finally located a truly insidious skill tree: Conditioned on striking the enemy's lower body—Gonorrhea (pus, swelling, redness)—Syphilis (papules)—Lupus Erythematosus (intense itching)—Condylomata Acuminata (growths/pain)—Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever.

It was obvious that with only seven slots for contact-transmitted diseases but five diseases in each skill tree, one could only ever master one ultimate disease from this category, demanding extreme caution.

Undoubtedly, the third skill tree was the most vile and disgusting, not only inflicting intense physical damage but also delivering a significant psychological blow that could not be overlooked.

However!! It was crucial to note that for Fang Senyan to learn these diseases, he himself had to expose his unprotected body to a challenge from pathogens several times more potent. This required immense courage.

As a wise man, as a man, he had to consider the possibility of failure to cure it! After all, for most men, given the choice between their groin and a hand or foot, the vast majority would prefer disability over emasculation!

Under the curious/lewd/questioning/probing gazes of all his team members, Fang Senyan silently returned to the real world. With his current physique, surviving the first one or two tiers of trials shouldn't be an issue. When he returned, nobody knew exactly what choices Fang Senyan had made. He solemnly declared it his trump card, which was absolutely forbidden from being revealed until it was played.

As the entire team was casting suggestive glances at their captain, a notification that brought Fang Senyan immense relief finally appeared. This alert was blood-red and projected directly onto his retina; one would be forced to see it even while sleeping with closed eyes.

"Attention all teams that participated in this Bloody Battlefield!!"

"Attention all teams that participated in this Bloody Battlefield!!"

"The extraction results for this Bloody Battlefield have been determined. You will experience the most brutal battlefield in the Lord of the Rings world: The Siege of Minas Tirith!"

"You will enter the battlefield sequentially after twelve hours. Please make all necessary preparations."

Seeing this notification, Fang Senyan sucked in a sharp breath and immediately applied for consultation using his dual statuses of Military Rank Privilege and Silver Team Leader Privilege, with the Chosen One, San Zai, standing by as a backup to lend weight to the inquiry.

"Which side will we join?" Fang Senyan immediately asked the most crucial question.

In the Siege of Minas Tirith, although the losing side was ultimately Sauron's forces, Sauron's side maintained a massive advantage on the battlefield until Aragorn, the King of Gondor, arrived with the cursed spirit army of the Dead Men of Dunharrow, securing the final victory.

Therefore, if Fang Senyan and his team were going to contend against contractors from multiple spaces this time, the faction choice was vital. If they chose the forces of righteousness from the outset, the already short-handed group would face an extreme disadvantage, leaving them virtually no chance of victory.

The answer provided by the Space finally made Fang Senyan exhale a long sigh of relief: "This time, we will stand with the Dark Lord."

"Then what is our entry time point?" Fang Senyan followed up.

The Space seemed to answer every question: "Twenty-four hours before the decisive battle begins."

"Twenty-four hours before it starts…" Fang Senyan calculated. It was clear that this time point was not chosen arbitrarily; it provided the contractors with sufficient time for strategic maneuvering. Within these twenty-four hours, many decisions that could decide victory or defeat could be made. For example, taking a malicious approach: if Aragorn’s holy sword were broken, he would lose the aid of the ghost army of the Dead Men. Or, the defending side could build a teleportation array to bring the Ent army from Isengard, and nearly every Ent was a powerful catapult, making Minas Tirith virtually impregnable…

Hmm, I'm really torn. Which disease skill tree should Senyan learn? Haha. I'll set up a poll in the book, everyone go vote and let the readers decide.

Also posted a picture of Minas Tirith on Weibo. Those who haven't seen Lord of the Rings can take a look.

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