Western Los Angeles, Foundation Paradise Island Base.
Inside the senior officers’ quarters, Ethan could finally settle down and claim the various system rewards he had accumulated.
The first was naturally the E-Class Foundation Agent Training.
If the combat ability granted by F-Class training had to be compared with the outside world, it was roughly equivalent to the standard level of an elite special forces operator.
Put simply, it was around the level of an ordinary Navy SEAL.
The reason Ethan had previously demonstrated such formidable combat power was largely because of the support provided by equipment such as the Foundation Agent Service Pistol and his Foundation tactical gear.
Without that equipment, Ethan certainly wouldn’t have been able to defeat Natasha or Skye in a one-on-one fight.
As for quasi-MTF units such as the Foundation Air Assault Company, the average soldier possessed training and combat ability comparable to a second-tier special forces operator.
However, unlike conventional special forces units trained primarily to fight humans, Foundation personnel also underwent extensive specialized training for combat against anomalies.
That was precisely why the Foundation Air Assault Company had performed so much better against SCP-939 than ordinary human troops would have.
Even so, this level of combat capability was nowhere near enough to deal with the increasingly powerful nonhuman threats Ethan expected to encounter in the future.
For that reason, improving both his own combat ability and the combat strength of the Foundation’s armed forces had become one of his highest priorities.
After all, an F-Class Foundation agent was essentially someone who had undergone several years of Foundation training and participated in one or two containment operations before finally becoming a qualified field agent.
[Would you like to claim E-Class Foundation Agent Training?] “Claim it.” The moment Ethan accepted the reward, he immediately felt the difference.
Compared with F-Class training, the improvement was enormous.
It was practically a qualitative leap.
If F-Class represented a qualified elite operator, then E-Class Agent Training represented the proficiency of a battle-hardened veteran from among the world’s most elite special forces.
The gap between E-Class and F-Class was immense.
A single E-Class agent could easily eliminate an entire combat team composed of F-Class agents.
The reason was simple.
E-Class agents possessed far richer combat experience.
They had undergone more extensive training and mastered a much broader range of combat techniques.
One could say that an E-Class Foundation agent had already reached the limit of what an ordinary human could achieve.
After absorbing the E-Class training, Ethan noticed that his body had also been strengthened somewhat.
However, the physical improvement wasn’t nearly as dramatic as when he’d first received F-Class training.
That made sense.
Strictly speaking, an E-Class agent’s physical condition had merely reached the upper limits of an ordinary human body.
It still hadn’t broken through the constraints of human physiology and entered the realm of the superhuman.
Ethan wasn’t particularly concerned about the limited increase in raw physical ability anyway.
The greatest improvements came from combat awareness, techniques, instincts, and practical experience.
At his current level, even without the Service Pistol, Ethan estimated that he could probably fight a human-level hero like the Punisher on roughly equal terms.
Of course, that comparison only referred to direct combat ability.
The Punisher’s greatest strengths went far beyond simply knowing how to fight.
But Ethan still wasn’t finished.
He next claimed the abilities granted by containing SCP-939— Enhanced Sense of Smell and Enhanced Hearing.
The moment he accepted them, his nose and ears were immediately elevated beyond normal human limits.
His sense of smell became extraordinarily sensitive.
He could now track a scent through smell alone, provided the source remained within roughly a twenty-kilometer radius.
His enhanced hearing was equally astonishing.
Ethan could perceive frequencies normal humans couldn’t hear and distinguish extraordinarily subtle sounds.
Even footsteps one or two kilometers away could potentially be detected.
After receiving both abilities, Ethan suddenly felt dizzy.
His head swelled with discomfort for several moments.
At the same time, he had the distinct feeling that his brain had undergone a minor enhancement as well.
That was probably necessary.
If an ordinary human brain suddenly received superhuman sensory input without gaining the ability to filter and process the resulting flood of information, the person would probably suffer a mental breakdown.
Mutants were a good example.
Many mutants awakened extraordinary abilities, but when their minds and bodies failed to adapt immediately, serious problems could occur.
Someone who suddenly obtained tremendous strength but couldn’t properly control it might simply try to open a door and accidentally rip the handle off.
Likewise, if someone developed superhuman hearing and smell without the brain adapting accordingly, they would be overwhelmed by countless overlapping sounds and an unbearable flood of odors.
From this, Ethan reached a conclusion.
Abilities granted by the system seemed to be automatically adjusted to eliminate harmful side effects.
He could use them safely.
Even so, his body would still need some time to adapt before he could use his new abilities with complete proficiency.
With his physical enhancements settled, Ethan turned his attention toward the Extra Item Draws.
The system had previously rewarded him with three Extra Draws.
Ethan then spent another 17,000 Rumor Points in one go, bringing the total up to ten draws.
Perhaps he’d played too many mobile games in his previous life, but Ethan remained firmly convinced of one principle— Only a ten-pull guaranteed something good.
[You have performed a ten-pull Extra Item Capsule Draw.] [F-Class Item obtained: RadAway.] [F-Class Item obtained: Competition-Grade HK416 Assault Rifle ×1.] [C-Class Item obtained: Resident Evil World — T-virus.] [D-Class Item obtained: Metal Gear World — Stealth Mech.] [C-Class Item obtained: Resident Evil World — T-103 Tyrant Research Data.] [A-Class Research Character Card obtained: Resident Evil World — Dr.
William Birkin.] [F-Class Item obtained: Competition-Grade AWM Sniper Rifle ×1.] The ten-pull quickly came to an end.
Most of the F-Class rewards were merely firearms or ordinary equipment that could already be obtained in the real world.
They were practically useless to Ethan.
The only genuinely valuable F-Class item was RadAway from the Fallout world.
But the real prize was obvious.
An A-Class Research Character Card— Dr.
William Birkin from the Resident Evil world.
This was the genius who had independently developed the G-virus.
Ethan had been worrying about who could serve as the head of the Research Institute.
And now the answer had practically fallen into his lap.
It seemed ten-pulls really did come with a guaranteed premium reward.
This time, he definitely hadn’t lost out.
As for the T-103 Tyrant research data and the T-virus, both were products of the Resident Evil world.
The Stealth Mech from the Metal Gear world was also worth researching and reproducing.
It was a compact bipedal machine specifically designed for individual infiltration and special operations.
For Foundation containment missions, something like that could be extremely useful.