Faster than his high-quality pistol's upgrade was Chen Yanyan's second level-up.
After she lopped off the heads of two Red-Armored Beetles, a familiar, warm current flowed through her entire body. Chen Yanyan's skin flushed red and grew hot as sweat poured from her.
A few dozen seconds later, the evolution was complete.
Lin Feng took a look:
"Human, Lv. 2/9"
"Life Value: 15, Physique: 11, Spirit: 10"
'Her Attributes aren't bad. Better than mine were at Lv. 2,' he thought. 'It's mainly because she killed several Red-Armored Beetles in a row, letting her accumulate experience quickly.'
Seeing the two of them complete their second evolution and no longer be as weak as before, Lin Feng breathed a sigh of relief. 'Now it's just me left.'
One last Red-Armored Beetle was left with critical health. Acting on the principle of not letting anything go to waste, Lin Feng let Zhang Yurou finish it off.
Chen Yanyan stood to the side, feeling the changes in her body.
She felt incredibly fortunate and grateful that Lin Feng had been willing to let her kill two of the beetles to complete her second level-up.
'I know my place,' Chen Yanyan thought clearly. 'I'm just an outsider here. We only met today, so I'm not close with Lin Feng at all—certainly not as close as he is with his sister-in-law.'
'I'm already content that Lin Feng is willing to bring me along to grind levels. That's why I've been trying to help in any way I can, to show that I'm valuable.'
'Of course, I hope this new relationship can go a step further.'
'I need to get closer to Lin Feng as soon as possible, and not just as friends.'
'Lin Feng was willing to risk his life to save his sister-in-law, but he wouldn't do the same for me.'
Now, all the Red-Armored Beetles around Building Six had been dealt with. There were only about a dozen bugs left in the residential complex, and they were quite far away...
Lin Feng stood on the balcony, observing for a while, before deciding to call it a day and head home. He didn't want to waste any more bullets.
His marksmanship was reliable within ten meters. At around thirty meters, he could only hit the Red-Armored Beetles' shells. Any farther than that, and even landing a hit was difficult.
Even so, this was far beyond the capabilities of an ordinary person.
So Lin Feng wasn't going to waste his ammunition. Besides, it was already almost four in the afternoon. Although they'd had a great haul, everyone was exhausted.
After the intense period of nervousness and excitement, a wave of physical and mental fatigue washed over them.
All three of them were in a declining State and needed to rest.
Lin Feng took out his dagger and skillfully carved the Crimson Back Armor off seven Red-Armored Beetles. Chen Yanyan proactively followed behind him to help.
Standing to the side, Zhang Yurou smelled the strange, unidentifiable odor wafting from the Red-Armored Beetle corpses and frowned slightly.
"These corpses will attract other giant insects, won't they?"
"It seems like they eat their own kind. Didn't we just test that outside the door?"
Lin Feng stood up slowly, holding a piece of Back Armor.
'I made a mistake,' he realized. 'I shouldn't have killed that last beetle so easily. It would have been perfect for farming more Upgrade Points.'
Although the initial Damage was dealt by the pistol, the final killing blows came from the two women's Long Sabers. As a result, the strange organs inside the beetle corpses' torsos were still perfectly preserved.
Some even twitched with reflexive nerve spasms.
This meant they were still biologically active and could be reused.
But to catch another Red-Armored Beetle now, they would have to wait on the balcony like a farmer waiting for a hare, hoping one of the giant insects in the complex would get hungry after finishing its meal and wander over.
However, the group's State wasn't good. They were all tired, and with the sky growing darker, their vision was also affected. It wasn't a suitable time to continue fighting.
Since things had come to this, Lin Feng didn't plan to waste time waiting around. Even if a Red-Armored Beetle was drawn over by the smell, it wouldn't be able to finish all these corpses in a short time.
They could just come back one more time before leaving for good.
"That's right. So let's just leave them here," Lin Feng replied. "Maybe we'll get a pleasant surprise after dinner. Think of it as baiting a fishing spot."
He spoke as he cut the Back Armor from the last Red-Armored Beetle. In total, they collected seven pieces. Two were from Lv. 4 Red-Armored Beetles, yielding large shields, while the remaining five were small shields.
He handed them to Chen Yanyan to carry. Stacked and tied with a rope, the pile looked large and heavy, but it only weighed about fifty or sixty pounds. For Chen Yanyan, with her 11 points in Physique, it was exceptionally light.
The three of them left Room 201. Before closing the door, Lin Feng left the key in the lock to make it easier to come back and check later, and to avoid losing it.
They climbed up to the third floor and entered the cozy Room 302. Outside, the Sun was gradually setting, its last rays casting a glow across the land and onto their faces.
The sudden changes that had occurred in a single day made it feel like a lifetime had passed. Life had turned into a struggle for survival. If it weren't for Lin Feng, the two women would never have been able to adapt in time.
The three of them put away their weapons, gear, and spoils of battle, then collapsed onto the sofa, too exhausted to move.
After resting for a moment, Zhang Yurou got up to prepare a meal.
The power was out, but the food in the fridge, especially the meat, hadn't thawed yet, so making one meal wouldn't be a problem.
The natural gas was also off, but his sister-in-law had one of those small portable stoves for hot pot. The small gas canisters could burn for a long time, so aside from the limited lighting, everything was business as usual.
On the sofa, Lin Feng slowly opened his eyes, emerging from his zoned-out state. A completion notification in his mind prompted him to draw the pistol from his waist.
"Legendary Pistol Lv. 4/9, White Quality"
"Upgrade Points: 9/10, Damage: 10, Effective Range: 200 meters, Remaining Bullets: 12/600"
"Extra Attributes: Bullet Recovery, 1/1 min. New: Spatial Magazine, 600 reserve rounds."
"Evaluation: This is a pistol with the power of a rifle. It is a legend among pistols, and you are its creator and owner. Hit targets to gain Upgrade Points."
Lin Feng was jolted from his daze. He shot up from the sofa, startling Chen Yanyan, who had been trying to sneakily edge closer. She stammered in alarm:
"Wh-What's wrong? Did a bug get in!?"
As Chen Yanyan spoke, she stealthily pulled back the hand she'd been extending, feigning panic.
Lin Feng shook his head, an uncontrollable smile spreading across his lips.
"It's nothing. You won't have to reload for me anymore."
Chen Yanyan looked even more confused.
"Huh? You're going to do it yourself? But... there won't be time, right?"
Lin Feng brandished the new, gleaming black gun in his hand.
"It's a mature pistol now, it needs to learn to reload itself..."
The Spatial Magazine as an Extra Attribute directly solved Lin Feng's most pressing problem. Now that his ammunition and reloading issues were resolved, he could grind for points freely.
Lin Feng realized that the leap from Lv. 3 to Lv. 4 was huge. It not only surpassed the pistol's own limitations but also granted it the power of a rifle.
He then thought about the Lv. 4 Red-Armored Beetles. The difference between them and the Lv. 3 ones was also massive—they were a whole size larger.
'It seems that below level nine, every three levels marks a small tier. The boost after breaking through is huge, which makes the gap so obvious.'
This made Lin Feng look forward even more to the improvements that would come when he leveled up and reached Lv. 4 himself!
After a moment of reflection, Lin Feng initiated the synchronized upgrade. He then holstered his pistol, walked over to the balcony, and picked up a power drill, preparing to process the seven pieces of Back Armor material.
Now, he just had to wait a moment to go from Lv. 3 to Lv. 4...
A warmth was released from the high-quality pistol and flowed into Lin Feng's body.
The sensation this time was noticeably stronger than the previous three.
Lin Feng stopped the power drill in his hand to savor the feeling.
He discovered that the warm current released by the Legendary Pistol was much more intense than when he'd advanced to Lv. 3. Moreover, after the excess energy gradually cooled in other parts of his body, a large portion of it continued to wander within him.
This power seemed to be lost.
On a sudden whim, Lin Feng subconsciously guided this power into his eyes.
The next moment, Lin Feng's eyeballs were gradually enveloped and permeated by this extra power.
The temperature of his eyeballs shot up by several degrees.
It felt like wearing a heated steam eye mask. Amidst the searing, stinging pain, Lin Feng absorbed the power into his eyes.
As two streams of tears stained with dark blood trickled from the corners of his eyes, Lin Feng slowly opened them. Suddenly, the entire world seemed to upgrade from a blurry 480p standard definition to a 1080p high-definition mode.
The world before his eyes was brand new.
When Lin Feng held his breath and concentrated his vision on a single point, he could even see dust motes floating in the air two meters away. When he stood up and looked out at the residential building over thirty meters away, he could clearly see the layout of each apartment, even the details of the shoes on their balconies.
An excited heart, trembling hands.
Lin Feng took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. He wiped away the grimy tear tracks and returned to the balcony.
He needed to find out the limits of his eyes' new specialized functions.
After repeated experiments, Lin Feng finally determined that his eyes were not only cured of their previous mild myopia and the nighttime astigmatism caused by too much gaming, but they also now possessed an incredibly powerful area-scan and dynamic tracking ability.
He could now lock onto a ping-pong-ball-sized object from over fifty meters away, a soccer-ball-sized target from over a hundred meters away, and could even faintly make out human figures beyond five hundred meters.
It was like having a built-in 4x scope.
Paired with the Legendary Pistol, Lin Feng's attack range was greatly expanded. He could even stand on his balcony and pick off the dozen or so remaining Red-Armored Beetles in the complex.
After getting a general understanding of the changes to his eyes, his own upgraded Attributes appeared before him:
"Lin Feng, Lv. 4/9"
"Life Value: 25, Physique: 20, Spirit: 21"
"New Over-level Ability: Hawkeye Lv. 10/19"