Affix: Insurance
Type: Trait
Quality: Gray Basic (Cannot be upgraded)
Effect: An item bestowed with this affix will not be lost due to a failed extraction. A single character may only possess one item with this affix.
Remark: Treating a complete set of cybernetics as one whole won’t work!
……
Affix: Grease on the Soles
Type: Skill
Quality: White Common
Effect: Can only be bestowed upon lower-limb cybernetics. Upon activation, dispels locks/binds affecting the user. Cooldown: 24 hours. Identical skills share cooldowns.
Remark: I refuse to believe you can catch me twice in one day!
……
“Oh, these two affixes aren’t bad this time!” Feng Xue looked at the two affixes rewarded by the achievements and nodded in satisfaction. Although he had lost a character that cost six hundred yuan to make, getting the 【Insurance】 affix meant it wasn’t a loss.
Compared to 【Grease on the Soles】, which he would eventually obtain as long as he kept playing, 【Insurance】 required a successful extraction while the character died. Without knowing the exact requirements, achieving that was still somewhat difficult.
Although it would take up a precious trait slot, the trait affixes Feng Xue had on hand were only Lightweight, Battle Continuation, and Insurance, so there wasn’t yet any issue of competing for space. With this affix, Feng Xue could completely disregard the cost and craft a four-star cybernetic or weapon, thereby gaining an advantage in character creation.
“Right, now that I think about it, I think I got two other affixes before…”
Thinking this, Feng Xue immediately dragged open the affix library, and sure enough, he saw a new affix—
Affix: Subdermal Armor
Type: Manufacturing
Quality: White Common
Effect: Add this affix when manufacturing cybernetics to consume additional materials and generate subdermal armor. This armor will not affect the cybernetic’s performance. Its strength is positively correlated with the materials/cybernetic’s star rating. Effects of the same type cannot stack.
Remark: Subdermal armor, kid!
……
“Another manufacturing-type affix. I wonder if it can be used together with 【Cheap Goods】.” Feng Xue was quite satisfied with 【Subdermal Armor】. With this affix, he no longer needed to consider how to modify the blueprint to make room for armor plates inside the cybernetic. If it could also synergize with 【Cheap Goods】, then he could really pile on the materials!
“Mm, there should be one more. I remember it was when I crafted the head cybernetic…” Feng Xue thought to himself, and the last new affix entered his vision—
Affix: Rocket Headbutt
Type: Skill
Quality: White Common
Effect: Can only be bestowed upon head cybernetics. Upon activation, causes the head to displace forward at the speed of sound, lasting up to 3 seconds. During the skill’s duration, the user will not suffer damage due to the skill’s effects. Cooldown: 1 hour. Identical skills share cooldowns.
Remark: Squirtle, use Rocket Headbutt!
……
“Who the hell is Squirtle?!” Feng Xue rolled his eyes, but complaints aside, this skill’s strength was still very much up to standard. Three seconds of sonic-speed displacement was already enough to charge out over a kilometer. If he had this skill in the junkyard, he wouldn’t have had to consider the problem of the “final circle” at all. He could just find a tall trash mountain a kilometer away and launch himself straight into the extraction point, right?
This thing would likewise have miraculous effects in combat. At least in a low-rank place like the junkyard, facing a sonic-speed attack at close range left almost no ability to resist. And the fact that he wouldn’t be injured during the skill’s duration also had a lot to it. Although it was limited by the wording “due to the skill’s effects,” the collision itself was also part of the skill’s effects. If used well, it could even serve as a bit of super armor.
“But in the end, that’s just the description. I’ll have to test the actual effect to know.”
Feng Xue muttered inwardly, but his gaze suddenly focused on the affix upgrade option. At this point, he already had nine affixes, and he couldn’t help feeling a little curious.
Opening the option, he looked at the red dot at the top of the tree diagram—one above and three below—and immediately tapped it. Aside from the two gray affixes, 【Insurance】 and 【Cheap Goods】, the other seven affixes were all listed there.
Feng Xue first tapped the highest-quality one, 【Spinosaurus Form】. It was selected, but the three option slots below were empty.
However, when he placed 【Great Strength】 into it, all the other white affixes could be placed into the three option slots.
“So that’s how it is. Upgrading requires three affixes of the same quality?” Relying on many years of gaming experience, Feng Xue instantly understood the meaning behind it. And given the nature of online games, those three fodder affixes would most likely be consumed.
And the question Feng Xue now had to face was…
Could identical affixes be farmed repeatedly?
After all, the affixes in his hands—Rocket Headbutt, Lightweight, Subdermal Armor, and the like—had all been obtained by hand-crafting cybernetics himself. If they could be obtained repeatedly, then they would undoubtedly be the best white fodder.
But if every affix was unique…
“No way, no way. Even if a game company went insane, they wouldn’t make such an absurd setting.”
Although he said that, Feng Xue couldn’t be certain that his golden finger would truly conform to the logic of a game system. However, the affixes he had crafted by hand could all be replicated through technique. Although they lacked the special effects bestowed by the golden finger, mere white affixes would eventually be eliminated given the limited affix slots on cybernetics. And with something like a golden finger’s mechanics, the earlier he figured them out, the greater the advantage. He couldn’t possibly wait until he was at the end of his rope before gambling on an unknown function, could he?
With that thought in mind, all that remained was deciding which affix to upgrade. The options were Great Strength, Battle Continuation, and Grease on the Soles. Great Strength was currently his main means of output, so it was best not to touch it before confirming the upgrade effect. Battle Continuation’s mechanism of staying alive even when fatally wounded was also in a class of its own, and was extremely useful for battlefield mode. At the very least, Feng Xue couldn’t think of any technical means that could replace it.
By comparison, although Grease on the Soles could break control effects, it had no displacement or super armor effects. If he truly reached a situation where he had been locked onto or bound by an enemy, even breaking free wouldn’t mean much. Moreover, it occupied a lower-limb cybernetic slot, which meant he couldn’t achieve the linkage of Great Strength on both legs.
Having made this calculation, Feng Xue no longer hesitated. Gritting his teeth, he placed the four affixes into the upgrade menu.
【Consume 【Subdermal Armor】, 【Lightweight】, and 【Rocket Headbutt】 to upgrade 【Grease on the Soles】?】
The golden finger’s pop-up appeared before his eyes. Feng Xue stiffened slightly, but still chose “Yes”!
On the screen, a special effect somewhat like a Digimon evolution unfolded. The three material affixes broke down into masses of data composed of 0s and 1s, drilling into the position where 【Grease on the Soles】 was located. Only, the radiance that should originally have transformed into blue was suddenly dyed with a touch of gold!
【A mutation has occurred during this upgrade (Holy shit! A mutation on the very first upgrade?), and you have obtained the affix 【Nigerundayo】.】
“Holy shit, what the hell is a mutation? It can mutate? Is that good or bad?”
Feng Xue’s expression instantly changed. He hurriedly opened the affix library, and what entered his eyes was a line of text flashing with dazzling golden light—
Affix: Nigerundayo
Type: Skill
Quality: Gold Legendary
Effect: The cybernetic to which this affix is added gains a skill. When this skill is activated, immediately dispels any locks/control/binds affecting the user. Movement speed increases by 200%, mental power increases by 50%, and during the skill’s duration, the user cannot be knocked down, obstructed, or controlled. Duration: 30 seconds. Cooldown: 24 hours. Identical skills share cooldowns.
Remark: Your next line is…
An affix upgrade has to roll a great success for a mutation to occur. Although it’s a house rule of 1–5, that’s still only a one-in-twenty chance, so how did it mutate just like that? I was originally planning to introduce the mechanics with a normal upgrade first… Damn!