My career aspirations have come true.

Chapter 48 Methods to Accelerate Training Progress

"Breaking news! Breaking news!"

Zhuang Yi rushed into the office, his face full of barely suppressed excitement, which made Lin Ze, Tang Wangshu and Pei Xuan look up at him.

"What's the matter that you're shouting about so urgently?"

Tang Wangshu put down the documents in her hand, her tone tinged with curiosity.

"I just heard from the investigation team that last night, during the Jingzhe Festival, they shut down an underground boxing ring belonging to Gangquan!"

Zhuang Yi rubbed his hands together, chuckled, and moved closer to the center, his tone revealing undisguised schadenfreude.

"Really?"

Tang Wangshu and Pei Xuan were both taken aback.

Since the weapons factory incident, Tian Shi has been silent for more than half a month. They thought that Tian Shi was wary of the joint search by Blood Eagle and Gang Quan and had kept a low profile.

I never imagined they were holding back a big surprise!

"Of course it's true!" Zhuang Yi slapped his thigh and exclaimed, "I heard that Ma Feng was killed by Jingzhe, and his head was chopped off."

He paused, then dropped an even more explosive bombshell: "Not only Gangquan, but Winter Solstice also raided a warehouse belonging to Bloodhawk that was hiding smuggled goods. Not only were the guards gone, but the warehouse was also completely looted. The losses are even greater than Gangquan's!"

A brief silence fell over the office as the three men looked at each other, their faces filled with astonishment.

Is Tian Shi about to formally declare war on three major guilds at the same time?

"I knew Tian Shi wouldn't be afraid of Gang Quan and Blood Eagle."

Zhuang Yi was beaming with excitement, looking every bit the loyal supporter.

Young soldiers like him had long been disgusted by the guild's rampant bullying in the North District, but the legion had to remain inactive due to the situation, and he had been harboring a lot of resentment for a long time.

The arrival of this opportune moment allowed them to vent their anger, naturally earning them a great deal of goodwill.

Lin Ze asked, "What are Blood Eagle and Steel Fist's reactions right now?"

Zhuang Yi chuckled and said, "What other reaction could there be? They'd be furious."

"I heard that both guilds have issued bounties for the timing of events. As long as you can provide useful information about the timing of events, or capture either the Awakening of Insects or the Winter Solstice, you can get a high reward."

"How many?" Pei Xuan asked curiously.

Zhuang Yi glanced at him, then, without keeping him in suspense, said, "The combined bounty from the two guilds is about five million per person."

"So many!" Pei Xuan gasped.

Five million is roughly equivalent to his annual salary for seven or eight years, which is a huge sum of money.

Blood Eagle and Steel Fist have gone all out; they are clearly enraged.

A hint of surprise also arose in Lin Ze's heart.

Both the Awakening of Insects and the Winter Solstice are his alter egos; rounding up, that's equivalent to him being worth ten million now.

Thinking about it that way, he's actually quite valuable.

"If I pretend to capture the Awakening of Insects and the Winter Solstice, hand them over, and then recall my clone after receiving the bounty, wouldn't I be able to make a fortune for free?"

Lin Ze stroked his chin, suddenly having a whimsical idea.

It seems quite feasible.

With a replica mask, there's no need to worry about revealing your true identity.

But it's just a thought; he doesn't lack that money now, so there's no need to take that risk.

Shaking his head, Lin Ze cleared his mind and began to review last night's battle.

After this period of specialized training, his mastery of steel-cutting techniques has begun to show results.

The most obvious change is that the sword strikes have become more fierce and the power has been significantly increased.

In gaming terms, it means the armor penetration attribute is greatly improved.

Whether it's a rusty iron door or a fighting glove made of wire, it can be cleaved in two with a single sword strike.

Ordinary steel offers virtually no protection against it.

He estimated that with further training and improved strength, he would be able to cut through even fine steel with a single sword strike.

Once he truly masters the talent of steel-cutting, even demonized weapons mixed with extraordinary materials will likely be unable to withstand his strikes.

Only those extraordinary weapons made entirely of extraordinary materials and possessing a certain quality level can withstand this.

"If the Steel-Cutting Technique is already this powerful, how terrifying must the Blade of Limit Break be?"

Lin Ze was filled with anticipation.

In addition, there are some signs of getting started with vulnerability analysis.

Especially with the upcoming hunts, training can be conducted while fighting, which should accelerate the progress even further.

However, there is still a long way to go before one can fully master these two excellent-level talents.

Based on the current progress, it will take at least several more months.

After all, it's an excellent-level talent, and mastering it through training is not easy.

In fact, Lin Ze's progress is already considered fast.

On the one hand, as the designer, he has a far greater understanding of talent than others and knows how to train more efficiently.

On the other hand, there are also clones to help with training.

This alone makes them two or three times more efficient than others.

For other professionals, it might take one or two years of practice to even get a basic understanding.

Even so, Lin Ze was not satisfied with the speed and felt there was still room for improvement.

"If there's a corresponding lower-level talent, one can directly advance from there, which would greatly shorten training time, wouldn't it?"

An idea suddenly popped into Lin Ze's mind.

Taking Steel-Cutting Technique as an example, he remembered that there were several common-level talents with similar effects to Steel-Cutting Technique, such as Armor-Piercing Stance, Sharp Charge, and Precision Slash, etc.

These lower-level talents can theoretically be upgraded to Steel-Cutting Technique.

If we master these lower-level talents first, and then carry out specialized training, we might be able to achieve twice the result with half the effort.

The same principle applies to vulnerability identification.

Lin Ze thought about it more and more and it seemed feasible.

Although he designed this system of professional power, it was impossible to be comprehensive and detailed in every aspect when he designed it.

Therefore, even after it materialized into a real supernatural power system, he was not very clear about many details and could only explore and experiment step by step.

Thinking of this, Lin Ze immediately opened the exchange section and started searching.

He quickly found the armor-piercing technique.

The exchange rate isn't high either, only 1 small merit.

"After all, it's not a particularly precious talent."

The Armor-Piercing Strike can only cut through ordinary steel, and only if the strength attribute is high enough. Its practicality is far from high, so the price is naturally not very high either.

After that, Lin Ze successfully found the next lower-level talent for weakness perception – quick eyes and quick hands.

The effect is to enhance dynamic vision and hand movements.

This talent is much more practical than Armor Break.

It is also an essential talent for many professions—such as the Gunslinger, Sharpshooter, and so on.

The price was naturally double that of the Armor-Piercing Force, plus 2 small merits.

"It takes a total of 3 small tasks."

Lin Ze earned a total of 5 minor merits for killing Jiang Lei.

Three of them are intended to be used to exchange for dungeon challenge attempts, and the remaining two minor merits can only be exchanged for quick reflexes at most.

Fortunately, there are other options.

Within the Legion, soldiers can sell their unused cards to the Logistics Department at market price in exchange for money.

However, this is not cost-effective for most people.

After all, there are many ways to make money, but acquiring cards is not easy.

If it could earn me military merits, I might consider it.

Compared to exchanging cards for money, most people prefer to exchange cards for other cards.

This led to the emergence of a trading system based on cards within the legion.

Many sergeants would post trade threads on the intranet's discussion forum, specifying the cards they wanted to sell and the cards they wanted. Anyone who liked the cards could contact the poster to trade.

There were even those who used cards to earn military merits.

Although military merits cannot be transferred, you can designate a seller to exchange military merits for specific items—including cards, rare items, and equipment, etc. However, non-physical, named items such as dungeon challenge attempts cannot be transferred or traded.

Moreover, within the legion, there's no need to worry about being scammed; it's far safer than outside.

Over time, this trading method became popular among many soldiers, and its scale continued to expand. Today, it has developed into a very mature trading process.

Lin Ze still needs to clear at least 14 more dungeons to be guaranteed to get at least 10 cards.

The trade should be able to reach the point of breaking through the armor barrier without any problems.

If the price is set a little higher, it's not impossible to make a quick and decisive trade.

"Team leader, should we go to the dungeon lobby?"

Zhuang Yi's voice interrupted Lin Ze's thoughts.

He closed the intranet page and stood up.

"Walk."

(Happy New Year everyone! And please vote for me next month! (●'◡'●))