Yang Yuan looked at the palm-sized flag on the ground; this was the flag that had transported those people here.
He was about to pick it up when he discovered it had shattered into powder.
"A one-time use?"
He felt a bit disappointed.
"By the way, spirit monsters have cores, do superpower users have cores too?"
With a thought, he took out his handgun and shot at the headless corpse.
"Boom!" "Boom!" "Boom..."
It's undeniable that a superpower user who has broken through once is immensely strong.
Yang Yuan fired six shots in a row before completely destroying it.
But unfortunately, he found nothing inside the corpse.
This means that human corpses do not contain something like a spirit monster core.
"Well, otherwise, if humans also had such things inside, being coveted by others would be troublesome."
Yang Yuan wasn't disappointed but instead sighed in relief, then turned back.
As for the card thrown by the female superpower user, he didn't pick it up.
One reason is that you shouldn't take things freely given by strangers.
The other reason is simple: with his current abilities, it shouldn't be hard to join some demon-extermination team.
Even joining the safe zone, while he might not be its core, at least he has hope of becoming a higher-up.
"Yang Yuan, look, what's this?"
As soon as he returned to the safe house location, Zhao Jiayan approached with a sheet of A4 paper.
Yang Yuan took it with curiosity and saw some red text on it:
[Dear Superpower User, this is the 13th Alliance Team. We welcome all superpower users to join us with excellent conditions. Your ability to enlarge firearms is extremely useful. As long as you join us, any of your requests can be negotiated. (This paper is produced by 'Celestial Marvel·Receipt.' Write on it with blood, and we will receive your message.)]
"Celestial Marvel·Receipt?"
Yang Yuan was surprised: "Are there various types of Marvels?"
He looked at Zhao Jiayan: "Where was this paper found?"
"Found it among those coolers," Zhao Jiayan replied.
Yang Yuan snapped out of it; it seemed the military personnel slipped it in during the big team's transaction.
Isn't this the official channel to join the safe zone?
So there's no need for the card from that woman.
But he's not planning on it right now.
"Just keep it for now, no need to pay attention to it." He handed the receipt and the freshly retrieved spirit monster core to Zhao Jiayan for safekeeping: "Give me your gun; I'll enhance it."
"Sure, but not too much. I can't handle the recoil," Zhao Jiayan handed her handgun to Yang Yuan.
"I understand."
Yang Yuan took the handgun, grabbed a few boxes of bullets, and went to farm a bit for handgun experience at a distance.
He decided to quickly level up the handguns, just in case he encounters another overly powerful superpower user who can't be killed with one shot.
He first leveled up Zhao Jiayan's gun to level four, then stopped.
Since it's the same type of handgun, once Zhao Jiayan's gun reached level four, it too became a handgun king, with a maximum range of one hundred meters and an explosive effect upon hitting the target.
Now, Zhao Jiayan can only withstand the recoil of a level four handgun; stronger than that, and she'd risk injuring herself.
In no time, Yang Yuan's own handgun experience was also maxed out.
[Handgun LV.6: 0/160 (Handgun King, effective range four hundred meters, causes explosions upon hitting the target.)]
A level six handgun has doubled the range, and the explosive power has also increased; one shot is enough to completely blow apart a cubic meter-sized boulder or create a one-meter diameter, one-meter-deep crater in a larger stone.
Even a two-meter cubed boulder can be shattered, albeit with many large fragments.
Even so, this power is stronger than an ordinary grenade.
Yang Yuan didn't stop and continued firing to gain experience.
Each shot netted one experience point, and at this pace, it was quite fast.
Of course, gaining handgun experience comes at a cost, requiring a sufficient supply of bullets.
Previously, there weren't that many bullets to spare.
Now that he had procured ten thousand bullets from the military, he could farm freely.
Roughly five minutes later, his experience was maxed out again.
Yang Yuan immediately chose to upgrade.
[Handgun LV.7: 0/320 (Handgun Emperor, effective range four hundred meters, causes explosions upon hitting the target.)]
At level seven, the handgun's appearance was more refined, but there were no other changes.
However, the information now referred to the handgun as an Emperor instead of a King.
The range remained unchanged at four hundred meters.
Yang Yuan aimed at a three-meter high boulder fifty meters away.
"Boom——"
With a loud noise, the boulder was blown apart, and the immense piercing power left a small crater in the stone pillar behind it.
Compared to level six, the explosive power had increased, and the piercing power greatly enhanced.
If he encountered the previous "Old Five" now, perhaps one shot would be enough to shatter his head without needing a second.
Unwavering, Yang Yuan continued upgrading; he had plenty of bullets.
Even if he ran out of bullets here, he could go back for more. Ten thousand rounds were plenty to significantly raise his handgun's level.
Ten minutes later, it was level eight.
Half an hour later, level nine.
An hour later, level ten.
[Handgun LV.10: 0/2560 (Handgun Supreme, effective range one thousand meters, causes explosions upon hitting the target.)]
Originally, a level nine handgun had an effective range of sixteen hundred meters.
But upon reaching level ten, the range decreased to only one thousand meters, and the title changed from Emperor to Supreme.
The difference between these titles was unknown.
Yang Yuan tried firing a shot.
"Boom——"
The muzzle jerked upward, and a ten-meter high boulder several hundred meters away was blown apart, with debris flying and dust filling the air.
The deafening noise caught the attention of Zhao Jiayan and Jiang Yiyi, who were dismantling a cooler, and they looked over in astonishment.
"That's from a handgun?" Zhao Jiayan was shocked into disbelief.
Although she had repeatedly overestimated Yang Yuan's abilities, the fact that a handgun could produce such effects was hard to believe for her.
Such a massive stone might not even be shattered by a medium-sized missile.
Dozens of meters away.
Yang Yuan clicked his tongue in admiration: "The power is immense, but the recoil... is also huge. "
His current physique wasn't weak, and he was even wearing Power Armor, which could offset some recoil.
Yet he still felt a tingling in his hands.
If a regular person were to use it, they might break their arm from the shock.
Soon, however, a grin spread across his face, a glint of humor in his eyes: "But it's just right!"
He didn't stop and decided to continue gaining experience and upgrading.
From level ten to eleven in superpower users marks a massive transformation; would objects also undergo such a change?
He was looking forward to it.
Anyway, his personal level would soon rise again, and he could handle more substantial recoil.
...
"What's that noise?"
Resting on the ground near the freshly killed small Drought Fiend corpse, Wu Chengxin and the other seven looked in the direction with confusion.
"That direction, isn't that where we went to earlier?"
"It's that guy; what's he up to?"
"With such a loud noise, isn't he afraid of attracting monsters or powerful beasts?"
They were puzzling over it, secretly sneering.
However, when they looked up and saw the giant Firepower Flying Disc a thousand meters high in the sky, they fell silent.
They felt that without being exceptionally strong beasts, even those couldn't withstand the flying disc's firepower.
The small Drought Fiend's corpse was still there; they hadn't rushed to dissect it.
After some time, they'd noticed that if they dismantled the Drought Fiend corpse and collected it, the huge Firepower Flying Disc above would take them on to continue fighting monsters.
And they dared not refuse.
So, if they wanted to rest, they wouldn't dissect the Drought Fiend's corpse right away.
Having figured this out, they had grievances, but couldn't express them.
...
In a rock forest lay many stone monsters scattered all around.
Most of these stone monsters were about the size of an average human.
But one among them was ten meters tall, lazily lying on the ground sunbathing just like the other ordinary stone monsters.
"Boom!"
"Boom..."
Loud explosions came from afar, making it impatient, but being lazy and with the sound being far away, it didn't want to move.
"Boom!"
"Boom..."
The relentless explosions kept it from falling asleep.
Eventually, this elite stone monster could bear it no longer. It shot up, smashed the nearby boulder with a punch, and strode towards the source of the explosions.
A group of small stone monsters saw this and quickly got up to follow.