Su Luo crouched by the stream, gazing at the clear, flowing water. The sound of the water was soothing, and a few fish, species indistinguishable, swam nimbly within.
"Clear water, no noticeable odor or floating debris..." he murmured to himself, a glint flashing in his eyes.
"Appraisal!"
[Appraisal: Unknown Stream]
[Result: No lethal pathogens or parasite eggs detected... Preliminary judgment: drinkable.]
A Level 5 Appraisal was quite powerful, providing comprehensive information.
Su Luo bent down, cupped the stream water in his hands, and cautiously sipped a few mouthfuls. The sweet, refreshing taste instantly soothed his parched throat.
After drinking a few sips, Su Luo used Appraisal again to find some edible roots and wild fruits. He followed a tutorial from the forum to weave a basket and filled it to the brim with his gathered food.
He also set up a fish trap upstream, then turned and left.
[Remaining time: 45 hours 27 minutes]
At this moment, Su Luo didn't care about taste, mechanically stuffing anything edible into his mouth, frantically replenishing energy in the most primitive way until his stomach protested with fullness.
Once he couldn't eat anymore, Su Luo ran to the stream to drink water, then slowly walked away.
"I'm alive, I'm alive."
Su Luo collapsed onto the grass, greedily breathing in the relatively fresh air, enjoying the long-lost sunlight, and feeling the genuine warmth from the digestion of food in his stomach.
After a moment of bliss, Su Luo stripped off his dusty, sweat-soaked, and worn-out clothes, washed them perfunctorily downstream, and jumped in for a bath.
He wrung out his clothes and hung them on a branch, then lay down naked in a clean spot.
"Time to enhance my attributes... and choose some skills." Su Luo opened the list of skills Qin Lang had sent and began selecting.
The system's power was boundless, allowing skills to directly increase attributes upon leveling up.
So how to exploit this mechanism?
Focus on mastering one skill?
No!
Getting from Level 0 to Level 1 is the easiest! Leveling up is fastest! Attribute enhancement is quickest!
Similarly, if someone has enough skill books, they can rapidly boost their attributes.
So is this actually a pay-to-win game...
Qin Lang had sent 17 skill books, and Su Luo carefully selected 9 that increased attributes.
[Basic Movement Technique] [Ape Staff Technique] [Basic Fist Technique] [Basic Snap Kick] [Front Kick] [Rear Naked Choke]
[Mana Affinity] [Basic Visualization Method]
[Gluttonous Digestion]
The first to be opened was [Gluttonous Digestion], as the speed of digestion determined Su Luo's rate of attribute enhancement.
[Your "Gluttonous Digestion" has leveled up!]
[Gluttonous Digestion Level 1 (0/100)]
[Your digestion rate has increased by 10%]
...
[Gluttonous Digestion Level 3 (0/300)]
[Your digestion rate has increased by 30%]
Feeling that most of the food in his stomach had been digested, Su Luo quickly switched skills.
[Your "Basic Movement Technique" has leveled up!]
[Basic Movement Technique Level 1 (0/100)]
[You can now run faster and move more gracefully]
[Constitution +0.1]
Energy was instantly drawn away, merging into his limbs. Su Luo, without pause, switched back to [Gluttonous Digestion], eating fruits like crazy to fill his stomach.
...
Time flew by in a frenzy of learning and energy replenishment.
[Remaining time: 23 hours 47 minutes]
[Your "Gluttonous Digestion" has leveled up!]
[Gluttonous Digestion Level 9 (0/900)]
[Your digestion efficiency has increased by 90%]
Su Luo finally stopped and looked at his refreshed panel:
[Su Luo: Alive]
[Age: 22]
[Level: 0 (0%)]
[Strength: 4.9 (↑0.3)]
[Spirit: 6.2 (↑0.2)]
[Constitution: 4.7 (↑0.4)]
[Mana: 2 (↑1)]
[Talent:...]
[Skills: Appraisal, Gathering, Ice Arrow, Raise Shield, Meditation, Basic Body Strengthening Technique, Basic Movement Technique, Ape Staff Technique, Basic Fist Technique, Basic Snap Kick, Front Kick, Rear Naked Choke, Mana Affinity, Basic Visualization Method, Gluttonous Digestion]
Su Luo decided to stop learning [Gluttonous Digestion], as its cost-effectiveness had diminished, and instead opened a crucial spell—[Fireball]!
Currently, no one could use this skill because their class didn't match.
What does it matter if the skill book can't be used?
[Your "Fireball" has leveled up!]
[Fireball Level 1 (0/100)]
[You can now conjure a fireball for attack]
But once something is understood, how could it not be used?
A wisp of warm, lively orange flame obediently hovered above Su Luo's fingertip.
Light! And it was light under his control!
Su Luo now had the ability to illuminate the darkness!
In high spirits, Su Luo ran upstream to check the trap he had set earlier.
Sure enough!
Two unknown fat fish were struggling inside, one about three pounds, the other one and a half.
After confirming with Appraisal that they were edible, Su Luo took them out of the forest, gutted them, and skewered them on sharpened branches.
With a flick of his finger, the dry branches ignited, roasting the two fish above.
Su Luo took down his previously dried clothes, put them on, thought for a moment, and took them off again.
After all, no one was watching...
Enjoying the long-lost taste of grilled fish, Su Luo packaged detailed dungeon information, environmental photos, stay duration, and output list, and sent them to Qin Lang.
[Qin Lang: Class Change Certificate?!]
[Su Luo: Yes, there's a chance of it dropping from defeating Subject 003, which is likely the dungeon boss.]
[Qin Lang: Recommended Level 0-5... Class Change Certificate... maybe Level 5 is enough for a class change.]
[Su Luo: Not sure, what's the highest level of your survivors?]
[Qin Lang: Just reached Level 2... It takes about 20 kills of common Level 0 monsters to go from Level 0 to 1, and our Mutual Aid Association member killed nearly two hundred Level 0 monsters to reach Level 2.]
[Qin Lang: We speculate that high-level survivors face severe experience penalties for killing low-level monsters. Normally, you should kill monsters of the same level or higher to gain upgrade experience.]
[Qin Lang: Each level up grants one Free Attribute Point, and our survivor added all to Strength, reaching 11 points with talent effects... I can only tell you it's terrifying! One punch sent a half-mi-heavy monster flying, and the bench press is at least 3000 kilograms!]
[Su Luo: Understood]
Attribute enhancement is not linear but follows a different calculation mechanism.
Here, we need to refer to a legendary forum post:
[Attribute Exploration and Discussion]
The post detailed various manifestations of strength attributes and speculated on subsequent attribute increases.
Take strength as an example.
Top athletes in the world have attributes around 7.
Historically, the forum experts discussed that the legendary Xiang Yu might have been around 7.5.
The human limit attribute is 8, note! This is for humans! Not Homo sapiens!
The post speculated that a natural 8-point strength or constitution attribute wouldn't exist in modern humans, possibly belonging to extinct species like Heidelbergensis or Neanderthals.
For Homo sapiens, the extreme attribute should be Spirit.
But regardless... an 8-point attribute bench press can't exceed 500 kilograms, and the world record before crossing was only 335 kilograms.
And with just three more attribute points, an 11-point strength bench press reaches at least 3000 kilograms, entering the terrifying realm measured in mi!