Wow! The item-dropping rate is really high!

```

Having put on his own gear, Tiger glanced over his teammates, all suited up in their combat equipment, before he began to formally discuss the specifics of the mission—

"Considering the range the sandworms can appear in is vast and their exact location is uncertain, this mission will involve a total of ten squads, each responsible for a different area. We will each set off separately..."

As he spoke, Tiger paused, looking solemnly at his teammates, "The sandworm is a new type of bug, and although there are no strict requirements from above, they only require our five squads together to bring back at least one sandworm corpse, even if it's just broken remains. But we cannot rely on others for anything, we must catch at least one sandworm ourselves, preferably alive. The more we do, the more military merit we earn; you all know this, so I won't waste words."

"The time limit for the mission is three days. Be prepared for prolonged tracking and fierce battles. Everyone got it?"

"Understood!"×4

"Good!" Tiger nodded coldly, took a step forward, "Let's move out!"

Considering the sheer size of sandworms, bringing back their bodies, even dead ones, would require adequate space or carrying capacity.

The massive transport vehicle, with at least a ten-meter-long carriage, lay quietly before everyone's eyes.

The camouflage-painted carriage was enclosed but also easily dismantled to meet different requirements.

This was the first attempt at capturing such new types of sandworms, and no one knew the proper method yet.

"I'll drive," Dashan volunteered as he jumped into the driver's seat, while the two and a half row carriages in front had ample space to accommodate the rest of the teammates.

"Boom!"

The engine roared, and the massive dual tires screeched against the ground.

Numerous tracks left the camp almost simultaneously, with comrades rolling down the windows to exchange blessings before parting ways.

Tiger sat in the middle, took out a map, and pointed to a spot, "Here, including this entire area, is our mission range. Of course, if we track down the exact location of the target, there are no restrictions when pursuing it; completing the mission objectives is our priority."

Bai E scanned over the map and noticed the marked ranges were outrageously vast, far beyond the plains he had passed that day.

On every tunnel dug by the sandworms, there was an important notation on the map.

The entire range practically encompassed all the territories within a radius equal to the distance from the Bug Race hive to Blackwater City.

No wonder ten squads were dispatched at once, and almost from the beginning, they parted ways.

As for the area their squad was responsible for, it lay to the northwest of the Bug Race hive, which Bai E had never before encountered.

The journey was silent and shaky.

The teammates were fully focused, and once they left the protective range of the city, they could be said to have entered the potential activity range of the sandworms.

Facing completely unknown new types of bugs, no one knew their abilities or habits; every patch of yellow sand they passed over seemed like a den in which the sandworms might be hiding.

Bai E, however, was not as tense; with the experience from last time, he knew the advantage his hidden trait "Will of the Bug Nest" had in detecting bugs.

It was as if he had covertly hacked into the Bug Race's internet, a black user unnoticed. Although he currently couldn't use the Will of the Bug Nest to command those lower intelligence bugs to act on his will, as long as there was a Bug Race node network, he could somewhat sense the location of every lower-level individual following the commands from the node network.

Just like the premonition he had before the sandworms appeared last time, this ability stemmed from instinct and would rise to the forefront of his consciousness at the moment of occurrence, alerting him without any need for deliberate effort.

Bai E, with his built-in early-warning system, kept his spirits relaxed, even having the leisure to check last night's efforts from the players—

[Feedback from the assignment: your Insight +0.2, Stamina +0.1, Reflex +0.2, Mastery of Light Weapons Experience +57, Mastery of Light Firearms Experience +18, Mastery of Ranged Weapons Experience +32, Tech - Basic Electrical Manufacturing and Processing Experience +750, Knowledge - Human Body Modification Project 1.0 Experience +44.]

The addition of newcomers along with a brand-new mission resulted in skills improvement feedback from the tasks far exceeding the usual.

The long-silent Wen Jie seemed to have also opened up a new field of research, and the experience feedback also allowed Bai E to master a complete set of technological capabilities—

"Current 'Tech - Basic Electrical Manufacturing and Processing' experience 1250/1000, continue to pay 'Tech Points*1' to unlock 'Level 1 Tech - Basic Electrical Manufacturing and Processing'."

Free technology should not be wasted, and with his accumulated dozen or so tech points looking for a use, Bai E directly paid up, following the principle that if there's an alert, it must be clicked.

"Payment: Tech Points*1."

"Tech – Basic Electrical Manufacturing and Processing (Level 1): You have mastered the basic manufacturing and processing flow of electrical appliances and are thoroughly familiar with most details of manufacturing and assembling basic electrical components. From now on, you can supervise the construction and management of basic electrical assembly-line production, improving production efficiency to some extent. Production speed +10%"

Not bad... The accumulated technological skills would always find their place when building one's own territory. Bai E felt a profound sense of fulfillment as he gradually amassed various capabilities.

He also reviewed the rewards from the last main mission he had completed, taking the opportunity to sort through what he had gained.

The main mission's reward was not just experience and potential repair points but also 3 points that could be used to increase a specialization up to level 6.

The higher the specialization level, the more experience needed to upgrade, so the proficiency points that could directly raise a specialization by one level were undoubtedly most cost-effective when used from level 5 to 6.

At the moment, Bai E's only specialization that had reached level 5 was Combat Prowess, and he had learned quite a few special attribute bonuses under this specialization. Bai E didn't know if there was a limit to the special attribute bonuses for each specialization, but he had no interest in pursuing a perfect limit. After reaching a decent foundation, he preferred to leave the rest to chance.

Go ahead and add it up!

"Learned 'Level 6 Combat Prowess,' and concurrently received Potential Repair Point*1."

"Combat Prowess (Level 6): Punching power +12%, Evasion +6%, Blocking +6%, Combo (Special) +6, Reinforced Defense (Special) +250%, Opportunity (Special) +10%, Joint Techniques (Special) +100%, Intercepting (Special) +20%, Pressure Points (Special) +4%, Whip Tail (Special) +4."

"Current Combat Mastery experience 0 (137)/5500, at 5500 points 'Level 7 Combat Prowess' can be mastered. (Note: Specialization level 7 can unlock the secondary skill tree.)"

"Alert: Your specialization level has reached the limit of a normal human body. It will be difficult to make further progress until your abilities exceed the physical limits. To continue improving your specialization level, you need to enhance your strength and reflex attributes to beyond 15 points."

The promotion to level 6 specialization provided Bai E with plenty of new information—

The abilities provided by level 6 specializations have become impressively powerful with the accumulation of levels, but unfortunately, level 6 is a threshold—this level represents the limit of skills that a normal human body can attain.

Higher specialization levels require stronger foundational attributes for support, and it's not just the limits improved by the Gene Optimization Solution that matter, but one's actual attributes need to be exercised to that level in order to support the training of higher-level specializations.

The core foundational attributes required for Combat Prowess are strength and reflexes.

Bai E's strength has already reached 14.9, just a step away from surpassing 15, but his reflexes are still far behind.

Improvement in attributes definitely can't rely solely on oneself; motivating players more is also necessary...

Reaching the attribute standards sooner and upgrading specialization levels will enable one to experience the glory of the secondary skill tree.

...

"This is the first remote signal collection of our newly established signal base, a trial to test the stability of our base signal. Everyone must be vigilant and not miss any detail of the feedback information," said Minister Likok, his figure slightly emaciated and his eyes dark and sunken, but his expression was vibrant.

Ever since the internet Root Server was restarted, he had been working tirelessly on the reboot and innovative research of new informational technologies, never stopping.

The sensors provided to the military were both the agreed "reward" from the previous deal with Marshal Weslin of the military district and their first experiment.

"Yes, Minister!"

His subordinates responded energetically, but one researcher, without a word, looked a bit oddly at a row of red lights that had flickered a few times right in front of his eyes.

That was... the life feedback light of one of the ten squads out on missions...