Chapter 126: The Second War of the Gods
Since entering the game, this was the first time Zhou Ning had ever fought such a rewarding battle. The 620,000 experience points were enough to completely revamp his attribute panel.
Without a moment's hesitation, he poured the majority of the experience into leveling up, spending 490,000 experience points to gain 10 levels in one go.
[Your class Wandering Gunslinger has leveled up to lv8. Agility +3 (Extra +0.5 from Extraordinary Physique), Stamina +1, Spirit +1. You have gained 2 free attribute points.]
…
[Your class Wandering Gunslinger has leveled up to lv17. Agility +3 (Extra +0.5 from Extraordinary Physique), Stamina +1, Spirit +1. You have gained 2 free attribute points.]
[Your Wandering Gunslinger has reached level 10. You've earned a class specialization reward. Please choose one of the following three specializations. Note: This specialization will directly affect all players with the Wandering Gunslinger class. Choose carefully.]
[Leather Armor Specialization: Slightly increases armor, agility, spirit, and movement speed when wearing a full leather armor set.]
[Revolver Mastery: Increases firing speed by 10% and piercing power by 12% when using revolver-type firearms.]
[Quick Reload: Reduces reload time when attacking enemies with revolver-type firearms.]
Zhou Ning was slightly taken aback. In the Apocalypse game, all main combat classes received a specialization every 10 levels, but he hadn't expected that his self-created class would still allow free selection.
The three specializations were fairly standard. The first to be ruled out was Leather Armor Specialization. While the agility and movement speed bonuses were decent, the unpredictability of battles meant he couldn't wear leather armor around the clock.
Quick Reload wasn't all that useful either. This world had something called a speedloader, and his current agility was already high enough to support fast reloads on his own.
By comparison, Revolver Mastery was clearly the best choice. His primary weapon was a revolver, and this talent could boost his attack efficiency by around 10%.
Zhou Ning quickly made his choice. "Revolver Mastery."
[You have gained the specialization Revolver Mastery!]
Zhou Ning checked his panel. Thanks to the bonus from Extraordinary Physique, leveling up 10 times granted him 35 points of Agility, 10 points of Stamina, and 10 points of Spirit. His Agility attribute surpassed 100 for the first time, reaching 119.
His body instantly became more agile. His control over firearms and precision tasks felt far more effortless. This attribute affected ranged attack accuracy, crit rate, and attack speed—an upgrade with terrifying benefits for him.
As for the 20 free attribute points earned from leveling up, Zhou Ning didn't continue investing in Agility. Instead, he split them evenly between Stamina and Willpower.
With nearly 130,000 experience points remaining, Zhou Ning chose not to save them. Instead, he upgraded Observation Haki to Advanced and Armament Haki to Intermediate.
Once all his experience was spent, his panel underwent a dramatic transformation.
---
Name: Zhou Ning / Wayne Sturwell
Race: Human
Template: Elite NPC
Level: 34
Experience: 12,750
Class: Wandering Gunslinger Lv17 [17/30]
Sub-Classes: Linguist Lv5 [5/10] / Expert Alchemist Lv12 [12/20]
Natural Force Affinity: 0
Arcane Affinity: 0
Talents:
Tony Stark (Purple), Gun Fu: Deadly Rythm (Blue), Athletic Prodigy (Blue), Long-Range Vision (Blue), Grandpa-in-a-Ring (Purple), Explosive Genius (Purple)
Life Skills:
Alchemy (Expert), Occultism (Intermediate), Precision Machinery Crafting (Expert), Gambling (Intermediate), Puppet Alchemy (Advanced), (new!) Archaeology (Beginner), Life Alchemy (Intermediate)...
(new!) Divine Favor: Blessing from the fallen god of Alchemy and Craftsmanship, Edgeworth. Still carries faint divine power. Greatly increases learning ability, +10% experience gain, +5 Spirit, +5 Willpower.
(new!) Deception: Skilled at hiding the truth. Success rate of lying and bluffing increased by 30%.
(new!) Revolver Mastery: Increases firing speed by 10% and piercing power by 12% when using revolvers.
Clan Motto: (new!) Knowledge is Power
Legend Rank: 1
Combat Power Rating: 5142
[Note: Your strength has grown significantly, but your good looks are still your defining trait.]
Zhou Ning: "…"
After finally breaking through a combat power rating of 5000, this was the first time he saw a slightly more positive comment on the game panel. It hadn't been easy.
After allocating his points, Zhou Ning stretched with satisfaction and checked the time. It wasn't even 10 PM yet. The battle outside was still raging on. Although the old lady companion "Granny Molly" kept nagging about going out to play cards, Zhou Ning decisively refused.
Because newbies have no human rights!
Since he finally had both money and free time tonight, why not grind the game a little harder and see if he could break through on the [War of the Gods] map?
Opening the game simulation interface, he only had the two Traversal Coins from the daily welfare. As a newly rich player, Zhou Ning didn't hesitate to spend 580 Vectas to buy 58 Traversal Coins and selected the [War of the Gods] for traversal.
[Preparing to Traverse… Traversal Coins -60]
[Please choose your traversal mode…]
[1. Direct Traversal]
[2. Traverse using a Parallel World Template]
No question—per usual, he selected the second option first to check the templates.
He still had close to 6,000 Vectas on hand. If anything good appeared, he'd buy it immediately!
After the shuffle, three cards scattered into glimmering stardust and laid themselves out with a swish.
This time, all three templates were unfamiliar.
The first template showed a rather grim-looking Zhou Ning, wearing a black mage robe and wielding a scythe.
Talents: Affinity with the Dead (Purple), Ambition of the Undead (Purple)
Personality: Cruel, Ruthless, Indifferent to Life
Skills: Skeleton Summoning (Grandmaster), Plague Spread (Master), Death Pulse (Master)
Title: Necromancer Zhou Ning — Price: 100 Traversal Coins
It honestly felt a bit underwhelming. Still under consideration.
The second template showed a visibly aged Zhou Ning in a plain T-shirt.
Talent: Benjamin Button (Purple)
Personality: Tenacious, Devoted
Skills: Cooking (Intermediate), Accounting (Beginner), Shooting Mastery (Beginner)
Title: Curious Case Zhou Ning — Price: 2 Traversal Coins
The third template was where things got interesting: Zhou Ning wore a dark red coat and stared forward coldly, a colossal ship looming behind him.
Personality: Wise, Calm, Ambitious
Talents: Tony Stark (Purple), Merman (Blue), Grandpa-in-a-Ring (Purple)
Skills: Devil Fruit Creation (Beginner), Armament Haki (Grandmaster), Observation Haki (Master), Conqueror's Haki (Master), Iron Suit Fabrication (Advanced), Scientific Research (Elite), plus a long list of other seafaring skills.
Title: Pirate King Zhou Ning — Price: 0
Zhou Ning instantly understood. His luck was on point again. After Vampire Zhou Ning, he had drawn another one of those legendary hidden templates.
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