The st One-Star Treasure Chest yielded 30 Enhancement Stones, and after using them, Zhang Yi still had 5 left. Adding the 10 from this chest and the dozen or so dropped by monsters, the Enhancement Stones Zhang Yi currently held were more than enough to enhance a piece of basic equipment to level 25.
Of course, it's all thanks to the "Divine Enhancement" skill. Otherwise, who would dare to aggressively enhance a low-level One-Star piece of junk equipment early in the game? For transitional gear, most pyers would be thrilled to enhance it to level 10. To reach level 25, it would take at least three to four hundred Level 1 Enhancement Stones, unless they had extraordinary luck.
Looking at the level 25 "Man-eating Bug Boots" in his hand, Zhang Yi was a bit excited. The boots provided a 250% attribute boost, increasing the base defense from 8 points to 28 points!
Additionally, the highest-level enhancement unlocked the talent "Infinite Evasion," which increased the wearer's evasion rate by 20%, making it incredibly powerful.
After the "Rough Iron Hammer," Zhang Yi's second artifact was born!
If he wore these boots, even level 5 monsters couldn't break through Zhang Yi's defense!
Unfortunately, the level 4 "Man-eating Bug Boots" couldn't be used by Zhang Yi, who was currently only level 3, so he had to put them in his bag.
Opening the status bar, he saw his EXP was at 456/800. After killing the remaining 45 Man-eating Bugs for the quest, he should reach level 4.
The Man-eating Bug Boots gave Zhang Yi endless motivation, so he continued sughtering the Man-eating Bugs with his rge iron hammer.
At this moment, Zhang Yi wished for another Hellfire Dragon Fme to instantly level up to 4 and complete the quest...
But as, reality was harsh, and the Hellfire Dragon Fme, with its one-in-a-thousand chance of triggering, wasn't likely to appear again.
So, it was back to real combat.
With a level 25 rge iron hammer, Zhang Yi was nearly invincible in the Doomsday Factory. In less than half an hour, he killed the remaining 45 Man-eating Bugs and completed the quest.
Checking the EXP bar, he was still 3 points short of leveling up.
So, with a swing of his hammer, he took down another level 3 Man-eating Bug, and golden light rained down from above—
"Ding~ Congratutions on reaching level 4, earning 5 Free Attribute Points. The next level requires 2000 EXP!"
Finally reaching level 4, Zhang Yi eagerly took the "Man-eating Bug Boots" from his bag and equipped them. Checking the status bar, his defense skyrocketed from 7 points to 33 points!
Suddenly remembering the 5 points he forgot to allocate upon reaching level 3, Zhang Yi now had 10 Free Attribute Points accumuted.
After equipping the "Man-eating Bug Boots," Zhang Yi's defense was maxed out. For now, there was no need to stack more defense, so he allocated all 10 points to Strength!
Forget about speed affecting positioning and needing to add to Agility; with absolute offense and defense, Zhang Yi didn't need positioning.
With a 15-star Strength growth, Zhang Yi's attack power increased by 15 points, reaching a total attack attribute of 41 points!
Plus, with the "Serious Injury" talent, Zhang Yi's effective attack power was actually 71 points!
Looking at his powerful attribute panel, Zhang Yi nodded in satisfaction: "Hmm, looks like I can take on that big guy now."
Saying this, Zhang Yi looked up with a meaningful gaze towards the depths of the factory.
"But first, I need to return and turn in the quest."
With that, Zhang Yi left the Doomsday Factory without hesitation.
On the way back to Hope Town, feeling bored, Zhang Yi used his right hand to casually smash nearby attacking monsters with his hammer while opening the area chat interface with his left hand to see pyer interactions.
To his surprise, Zhang Yi found that he had become a minor celebrity in Hope Town!
[Ruoshui Three Thousand] (Male, Level 2 Pyer): "Has anyone encountered a guy with the ID Yinuo Qingcheng? That guy's damage is insanely high, hitting over 40 damage on a level 5 giant spider with one hammer!"
[Fallen Angel] (Male, Level 1 Pyer): "Yinuo Qingcheng? That ID sounds familiar. Isn't he the first person to trigger the area announcement by entering the Safe Zone?"
[Undefeated East] (Male, Level 2 Pyer): "I don't believe it. It's like he's hacking. Who has such high damage early on?"
[Peppa Pig] (Female, Level 1 Pyer): "It's true, because he killed that level 5 spider to save me. I saw it with my own eyes!"
[Green Tea] (Female, Level 2 Pyer): "Come on, little sister above, don't ftter yourself. I was there too. He wasn't saving you; he was just passing by, killing monsters as usual. Didn't you see him leave without even looking at you after killing the spider?"
[Arrogant Schor] (Male, Level 2 Pyer): "Does Yinuo Qingcheng have a rge iron hammer? I saw him killing monsters too, and he really could deal 40-50 damage. Do you think the System gave him a beginner artifact as a hidden reward for being the first to enter the Safe Zone?"
...
Reading these chat logs from over twenty minutes ago, Zhang Yi couldn't help but shake his head.
These people sure could talk, or was he really showing off too much?
After all, while everyone else was still using Novice Swords to poke at level 1 wild monsters, Zhang Yi was casually dealing 40-50 damage to level 5 monsters with his hammer. Who wouldn't be shocked seeing that?
Closing the chat interface, Zhang Yi continued on his way.
Returning to Hope Town, Zhang Yi found the pce bustling with people compared to an hour ago when he first arrived. It was as crowded as a market, lively and bustling.
A Safe Zone isn't too big or too small, but it gathered over ten thousand pyers here.
All the pyers were between levels 1 and 2, with level 3 pyers being rare. Zhang Yi, at level 4, stood out like a crane among chickens in the Safe Zone.
However, many pyers were busy looking for NPCs with question marks above their heads, scrambling to grab quests, so no one noticed Zhang Yi. Due to the Apocalypse setting, each quest-giving NPC could only distribute a limited number of quests daily, refreshing at midnight.
Zhang Yi remembered that each quest NPC could give out a maximum of 100 quests per day, and there were about fifty quest NPCs in a Safe Zone.
This meant that at least half of the pyers couldn't get a quest!
In his previous life, when Zhang Yi arrived at the Safe Zone on the first day, he couldn't even find a quest. Even the low-level monsters around the Safe Zone were all taken, leaving Zhang Yi with only a few mutated wild chickens and pigs to hunt overnight, resulting in almost zero progress.
These pyers were like bandits, snatching monsters faster than they could respawn!
While these pyers were still desperately grabbing quests, Zhang Yi, having already completed one, had no interest in joining them. He had more important things to do.
