CHAPTER 13: FIFTEEN PASSIVES
Hanks stared at his remaining 4 attribute points, his focus locking onto Fortitude first.
"If I boost my body's capacity and recovery first, maybe that'll ease the energy drain."
Made sense. A strong foundation meant he could handle more stress. Everyone knew that basic truth.
Decision made. He polished off the last scraps of food from his backpack.
"Seven Days to Die—add point!"
Searing pain erupted deep in his bones, hitting hard and fast.
It felt like red-hot needles were punching through his marrow, flooding his bloodstream, racing through every vein.
"Shit!"
Cold sweat drenched his back instantly. His teeth ground together, veins bulging across his forehead.
He could feel it—fire spreading from his heart to every extremity. His cells were being torn apart and fused back together. Every muscle fiber spasmed, clenched tight, then went slack, like steel being hammered over and over.
His skin grew tougher. Subcutaneous fat and muscle tissue restructured themselves, optimizing.
Muscle endurance improved. Cardiovascular function upgraded. Blood circulation and oxygen efficiency surged.
Most noticeable—the brutal weakness and dizziness from leveling Agility while starving got forcibly shoved back. His body's recovery capacity and tolerance threshold had just increased significantly.
[Fortitude: 2/10]
[Passive Talents Activated]
[Iron Gut: 1/5]
(Your digestive system functions like a furnace, extracting life energy from food with far greater efficiency, partially mitigating the energy depletion caused by attribute increases)
[Healing: 1/5]
(Your cellular activity is enhanced; wounds close and stamina recovers far faster than normal)
[Vitality: 1/5]
(Your muscles and bones are robust, your baseline life force vigorous; resistance to disease, toxins, and fatigue slightly improved)
"Iron Gut! Healing! Vitality!" Hanks's heart soared. These were exactly the foundation skills he desperately needed!
Especially Iron Gut—it was tailor-made for his situation. More efficient energy extraction from food.
His spirits lifted. With Iron Gut as a buffer, he felt far more confident about the points still to come.
"Strength—add point!"
WHAM!
A completely different force—wild, violent—exploded inside him!
His muscle fibers felt like they were being torn apart by invisible hands, restructured, expanded!
His bones emitted a faint but teeth-grinding hum as they grew denser, harder.
But this time was different. With Iron Gut and Vitality passives supporting him, even as he endured this surge of power, even as the energy drain and hunger hit him hard, he didn't black out like he'd feared. His body's tolerance had clearly improved!
[Strength: 2/10]
[Passive Talents Activated]
[Load Bearing: 1/5]
(Your muscle and skeletal structure has been optimized; you can carry heavy loads far more easily)
[Burst: 1/5]
(You can instantly channel your strength into a single point, unleashing your body's full power in one explosive moment)
[Toughness: 1/5]
(Your muscle density has increased; you can better absorb and distribute impact force)
"It works!" Euphoria flooded through him. The Fortitude-first strategy was paying off!
"Guess the old saying was right—your body really is your most important asset!"
Feeling the power surging through him and his newly toughened physique, hunger burning like fire, an unprecedented sense of strength flooded his entire being.
He could still hold on. Two attribute points left!
"Perception—add point!"
In an instant, the world changed before his eyes. Hearing, vision, smell—all sharpened dramatically!
[Perception: 2/10]
[Passive Talents Activated]
[Instinct: 1/5]
(Your awareness of potential threats exceeds normal humans; you instinctively sense and avoid danger)
[Awareness: 1/5]
(You excel at catching subtle environmental anomalies—hidden supply caches, unnatural traces)
[Enhanced Senses: 1/5]
(Under extreme focus, your hearing, vision, or smell may temporarily spike to far greater levels)
One point left!
Hanks lay on the ground twitching. Anyone watching would've thought he was high.
Hunger slammed into him again with brutal force. Iron Gut was working overtime—practically digesting his own stomach acid at this point!
This continuous point allocation was agonizing, but better to rip the bandage off all at once than drag it out!
"Add... add point!"
A cool yet incredibly efficient current seemed to pour directly into his cerebral cortex. His thinking speed suddenly accelerated. Analytical ability, comprehension, learning capacity—all skyrocketed!
[Intelligence: 2/10]
[Passive Talents Activated]
[Mechanics: 1/5]
(You've grasped fundamental mechanical principles and physics knowledge; you can systematically analyze equipment malfunctions rather than just relying on trial and error)
[Energy Systems: 1/5]
(You understand basic power generation, energy conversion, storage, and utilization principles)
[Information Science: 1/5]
(You've mastered information theory, cryptography, and signal processing fundamentals; you can filter radio static more effectively, decode complex signals, and crack simple ciphers)
"Wait—what just got shoved in there?!"
"Slow down! Too much! Too big!"
"Ahhh—shit! Ahhh!"
Hanks was already near collapse when his brain sent a sharp stab of pain through his skull. He rolled on the ground.
Massive amounts of mechanical knowledge, energy systems, information science—all flooding his mind, imprinting themselves permanently!
Gear ratios. Circuit flows. Data structures. Countless foreign concepts being understood, absorbed, integrated at unprecedented speed and clarity.
Through the pain, a strange sense of enlightenment rose within him. His perspective on the world around him had been fundamentally altered at a physical level.
Take the P226 pistol in his holster.
He no longer just knew how to disassemble and maintain it—he understood the firing mechanism's principles, the efficiency of converting primer chemical energy into kinetic energy, even the fatigue limits of its metal components and potential optimization points.
Even looking at the broken fence on the east side, his mind automatically constructed several load-bearing structures for quick reinforcement using available materials.
"This... this is the power of knowledge!"
Hanks gasped for air, sweat soaking through his shirt, finally struggling free from that torrent of information.
His body was nearly spent, but his mind was extraordinarily clear. Confidence and a sense of control welled up inside him.
He wasn't just some muscle-bound brute anymore!
Behind closed doors, call him an engineering scientist!
[Name: Hanks Adolf]
[Level: 4]
[Experience: 15/30]
[Attribute Points: 0]
[Perception: 2/10] (Instinct LV1, Awareness LV1, Enhanced Senses LV1)
[Strength: 2/10] (Load Bearing LV1, Burst LV1, Toughness LV1)
[Fortitude: 2/10] (Iron Gut LV1, Healing LV1, Vitality LV1)
[Agility: 4/10] (Speed LV1, Parkour LV1, Stealth LV1)
[Intelligence: 2/10] (Mechanics LV1, Energy Systems LV1, Information Science LV1)
His average physical stats had doubled, and those fifteen passives had pushed his combat effectiveness to an entirely new level!
"Just takes a lot out of you."
"Never doing this again. Not all at once."
Hanks was already muttering to himself, struggling to get up and find something to eat.
"Hey, you... you need help? You look really hungry!"
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