The First Evolution

Fang Linyan shook his head and said,

“No, no, I’m not a person who likes to joke, let alone joking about such a big matter.”

Daniel immediately said,

“Wait, I’ll notify the boss right away!”

Soon, Lipper rushed over. Although he had no expression on his face, his eyes gleamed with excitement. Once they met, Fang Linyan didn’t spout any nonsense and just took out the magic core.

This was the magic core of the worst quality that Fang Linyan brought, but it was not worse than the one dropped by the thunderbird previously. This meant that this thing would be worth at least 3,000 reputation points.

Lipper examined it for a while before saying boldly,

“I want it, what do you want in exchange?”

Fang Linyan said,

“I’m short of potential and merit points right now.”

Lipper hesitated and replied,

“For a magic core of this quality, I can make a 1:1 exchange. 1 magic core can be exchanged for 1 potential point or 1 merit point.”

Fang Linyan was stunned for a bit because the price that Lipper gave him was 1/3 higher than what he had imagined. His estimation initially was 2 cores for 1 potential point. He realized that when he left, something must have happened, so he instinctively rejected it.

But a thought kept popping into his mind uncontrollably. If I’m Lipper, what would I do?

After he put himself in the other person’s shoes, he lowered his eyes saying,

“I must be at a loss with this price. But seeing as we’ve fought side by side and we have the trust of having each others’ backs, I’ll take this loss. You add 800 common points for each core.”

Lipper smiled wryly,

“To be honest, Wrench, your request is not too high, but I really can’t agree to it.”

Fang Linyan wondered,

“Why?”

Lipper asked back,

“Your reputation of the royal dragon knight hasn’t reached worship yet, right?”

Fang Linyan replied,

“That’s true.”

Lipper continued while smiling wryly,

“There have been rumors now that even after reaching Dragon Knight’s worship reputation, you will need to pay an additional 16,000 common points to purchase the Glory of the Red Coat.”

“So, everyone is tight on money now. Anyone interested in this gun is also buying up common points when buying magic core. Our team has collected more than 10,000 common points for you before. We really can’t afford it now.”

After hearing the news, Fang Linyan was also a little stunned. He had a second plan in his mind.

That was, once the magic core sells poorly, he should just push his reputation, obtain the Glory of the Red Coat and resell the gun. However, it seemed that the plan was not going to work.

After pondering for a while, Fang Linyan nodded,

“Okay, I don’t need common points, how about you owe me a favor!”

This time it was Lipper’s turn to be a little surprised, but he didn’t say anything, nodded and said,

“Okay! I will owe you a favor.”

After saying that, he initiated the trade with Fang Linyan.

After trading 4 magic cores, Lipper spoke a few words to the rest of the team, then the rest of the members came over. They must have managed to accumulate 3 potential points and some merit points for him.

In the end, Fang Linyan traded 9 magic cores with him, and he gained 6 potential points and 5 merit points.

It should be explained here that there was a reason for the exchange rate of 1:1 to get 11 points (potential/merit points) with 9 magic cores.

The 3 magic cores that Fang Linyan took out afterward were actually of higher quality. As a benchmark, if the thunderbird’s magic core could be exchanged for 3,000 reputation points, then each of the 3 magic cores could be exchanged for 4,000 to 4,500 reputation points.

To be honest, after Lipper made his offer, there was still room for Fang Linyan to bargain. He didn’t expect the other person to immediately agree.

Lipper had a just personality, Otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to form a team. That was why when he thought that he had taken advantage of the situation, he readily made up the difference to Fang Linyan.

Such a profit… was a bumper harvest for Fang Linyan!

If he set up a stall to sell them, he might not even have this level of efficiency. At the same time, his safety wasn’t guaranteed too.

After the trade between them was completed, Lipper’s breathing became faster. He didn’t expect such a good thing to fall into his lap, so he turned around and left. But after taking a few steps away, Lipper returned to Fang Linyan saying,

“By the way, Wrench, I have a piece of advice.”

Fang Linyan said,

“En, I’m listening.”

Lipper said seriously:

“If you want to upgrade your military rank, then it is best to use up the merit points you just got. Use up as many Merit Points as you’ve traded from others and then upgrade your military rank.”

Fang Linyan was a little stunned and asked,

“Why?”

Lipper didn’t explain much as he just waved his hand and left. Fortunately, Daniel was right next to him. He snapped his fingers and replied,

“Hey, I know why, bro.”

“Merit points correspond with military rank promotions. The higher the merit point, the higher the military rank you have after exchanging. Once you reach a certain level in the military rank, you’ll get some privileges and discounts in the Space.”

“If you exchange the military rank with the merit points that you earn yourself, then the rank you exchanged will be the formal military rank.”

“If part of your merit points is obtained from trading, then the rank you exchange will be the reserve military rank.”

Fang Linyan wondered,

“There… there is such a thing?”

Daniel said,

“Of course.”

Fang Linyan pondered more,

“So what’s the difference between a reserve rank and a regular rank?”

Daniel pouted,

“As far as I know so far, there’s little difference. As you know, if you start on promoting the regular military rank at the beginning, your promotion speed will be much slower than that of a reserve because there are only a few ways to gain merit points.”

“For example, 2 people at the same starting line. 1 with the formal military rank can only be promoted to the second lieutenant, but the other person with reserve military rank will be promoted to lieutenant…”

“In this case, for a long period, the benefits that the reserve rank is more than what the lieutenant of the formal military rank would get. “

Fang Linyan said thoughtfully,

“I understand, the reserve military rank looks at the present while the formal military rank looks into the future. Since the contractors that are affiliated with Noah Space are in a precarious state and urgently need to convert their resources into combat power, there is no way they would look into the future. That is… if you’re not careful, there’s no future at all.”

“So, I’m guessing that most people have chosen to promote the reserve military rank right?”

Daniel said,

“Of course, your analysis is very accurate. That’s what I did.”

Fang Linyan didn’t put too much thought into this issue because he was still a mercenary and a temporary worker. Even if he had enough merit points, he would not have had the chance to promote his military rank.

Even if he had the chance, he would do his best to buy medicines for the treatment of lung cancer. So, the question of which military rank to choose would probably be on the back burner for a long while and he chose to put it aside.

Looking at Daniel, Fang Linyan couldn’t help but walk up and pat him on the shoulder and said,

“Thanks, brother.”

Although there were something wrongs with Daniel, he treated people sincerely and with loyalty and enthusiasm. If it wasn’t for him, this trade wouldn’t happen. So, Fang Linyan simply stuffed a magic core to him, which was also of the thunderbird level.

Daniel whistled and grinned at Fang Linyan’s gift,

“Wrench, you’re so interesting. I’m really tight on capital right now. I won’t lollygag with you anymore… boss is calling for me. I have to go, see you later.”

Fang Linyan nodded, then he leaned against the empty munition box beside him and began to plan.

At this time, he had both common points and potential points. Of course, what he had to do is to strengthen himself.

The abilities he had at this time were as follows: (from low to high)

Basic Endurance LV3

Basic Shooting LV4

Basic Melee LV2

Advanced Ability: Joint Lock LV2

Tier C Class Ability: {Combat Technology Support LV3} (enhanceable/high mutation)

Branch Ability: [Drone LV1]

Branch ability: [Machine Gun Turret LV3]

[Ancient God’s Blessing]: (generating)

Fang Linyan had 7 potential points, 8+5 merit points and 13,428 common points. The main expenditure before came from combining the Ironwood Branch into the Teldrassil’s New Shoot (Tier 2)… This deducted away 3,000 common points.

After Fang Linyan pondered for a while, he first raised the Basic Melee from LV2 to LV3, then he raised the Joint Lock from LV2 to LV3. In this way, only 2 potential points and 2,500 common points were spent— The cost of Joint Lock was more expensive than Basic Melee.

Next, Fang Linyan upgraded the [Drone] from LV1 to LV3, which cost 2 potential points and 3,000 common points. This kind of enhancement only strengthened in numerically instead of quality. It just improved the [Drone]’s cruising radius and durability. Of course, it was also harder to detect.

By now, he realized that he only had 3 potential points and 7,928 common points left… He sighed deeply at this.

Then, without further thinking, Fang Linyan spent another 2 potential points and 3,000 common points to directly upgrade Tier C Class Ability: {Combat Technology Support LV3} (enhanceable/high mutation) from LV3 to LV4!

There was a qualitative change when upgrading from LV3 to LV4, so Fang Linyan immediately received a prompt,

“Your Tier C Class Ability: {Combat Technology Support LV3} (enhanceable/high mutation) has been upgraded to LV4! The effectiveness of your combat technology has increased by 40%!”

Prompt: You have upgraded the {Combat Technology Support LV3} to LV4, and the relevant conditions are triggered. Please extract the extra special effects brought by the battle {Combat Technology Support LV4}. You have 10 seconds. If no action is taken, the Space will assign 1 attribute to you.

TL: Can he use [Bullet Time] in this 10 seconds? Hope he won’t fuck up this time again…