Chapter 142: Predation (10★)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 142: Predation (10★)
– This is a Hunting-type exclusive mode. When defeating an enemy, there is a 40% chance to prey upon and absorb 1 of the target's positive modes. (Max 3)
– When defeating an enemy, there is a 100% chance that 4 random stats will increase by 4★. (Duration: 600 minutes)
– There is a 50% chance to prey upon and absorb 1 of the target's modes. Upon failure, 1 of the target's random stats will permanently decrease by ★. Failed modes cannot be preyed upon for 3 days.
– Transfer 1 of your owned modes to a target. There is a 20% chance the mode's level will increase by ★.
– Prey upon a target in a near-death state. Restores 50% HP.
– Prey upon zombies. Special modes will be activated based on the number of zombies of each level preyed upon.
– Prey upon an owned mode. There is a 10% chance to acquire 1 point.
– Prey upon an item. There is a low chance to acquire an "Enchantment Stone". There is a very low chance that the "Enchantment Stone" will have a grade.
– The effects of modes acquired through Predation increase by 50%.
As soon as I got the points, the first thing I did was max out Predation to level 10.
Originally, I wanted to max out Hunting Expert to level 10 first rather than Predation, but since I had already leveled up Predation to steal Jeon Jae-jung's mode, I just ended up maxing it out.
Looking at it now that it was leveled up, the options seemed incredibly clean.
A 40% chance upon defeat.
A 50% chance to prey. A 3-day cooldown on failure.
The duration of the predation stats had increased significantly to 10 hours, and the other options were more or less the same.
Preying upon owned modes had also finally risen to a 10% chance.
Along with preying upon items, the final level 10 option was a +50% boost to the effects of modes acquired through Predation.
This was truly massive.
I already had a +100% boost to normal mode effects from my current Cheat Mode effects. Adding the +50% boost to modes acquired through Predation meant a total boost of +150%.
– Acquire stacks every time you kill a zombie. (★: 1+1) (2★: 5+7) (3★: 20+30) (4★: 200+300) (5★: 3,000+4,500)
– Acquire stats through stacks.
– Stats acquired through Late Bloomer increase regardless of existing stat limits. (Max 15★) (+22★)
– Mode levels can be increased using stacks.
– Consume stacks to obtain temporary stat-boosting buffs.
– Acquire 50% (+75%) of stacks when a zombie dies within your faction.
What kind of bullshit description is this?
Does it make any sense that the bonus value is larger than the base option?
It does.
"Hehehe."
At this rate, a tragedy might occur where, in a way, normal modes become stronger than Cheat Modes.
At least, purely in terms of numbers.
Of course, since all of this was a result of the Cheat Mode, such a thing would never actually happen.
"This makes the Base Invincibility skill a bit awkward, though."
Base Invincibility gives a +100% boost to all normal mode effects.
Naturally, compared to the limited +50% effect of Predation, the effect of Base Invincibility could be considered broader and better.
But in the end, to achieve maximum efficiency, preying upon and stealing skills was far more effective than sharing and using a resident's skills.
That didn't mean I was planning to immediately prey upon and steal the shared skills I was currently using.
Just because the success rate and effects of Predation had improved, immediately stripping my faction members of their modes was not a wise choice.
It was no different from choosing to slaughter everyone when you could have triggered an event instead.
If they were useless, or if they betrayed me and tried to leave Paradise, I would naturally prey upon them, suck them dry, and kill them without hesitation.
But right now, I was satisfied with my Paradise.
The residents and the Level 3 Memberships.
Thanks to the Paradise they built, there was never a shortage of content day after day, and honestly, I didn't feel any particular lack even with just shared skills.
Unless it was a skill like Late Bloomer that required extreme efficiency, I would leave the current residents alone for now.
Of course, future resident candidates might be a different story.
[Predation (10★) evolves into Predation (☆).]
[The Cheat Mode-Exclusive Quest has been unlocked.]
[You have reached the first maximum level for 3 Cheat Modes.]
[1 Host-Exclusive Cheat Mode has been unlocked.]
As expected, once Predation reached level 10, it evolved to the next stage.
The Cheat Mode-Exclusive Quest, which hadn't even appeared for Safe Base or Base Invincibility yet, was unlocked, and another new Cheat Mode was unlocked as well.
"Ah. I really gorged myself today."
Just like the skill's name, I felt incredibly full.
I hadn't even planned on wiping out an entire faction, but I ended up doing just that and hunted a ton of today's zombies to boot.
Once this Zombie Rush was over, I would probably be able to completely fill up another freezer warehouse.
I headed back with a light heart.
It was too early to be satisfied with just being full.
There was still a lot left to do.
Mode predation and item predation.
Exploring new features was always a pleasure.
---
The number of modes I had acquired through Predation.
The number of unused modes was 48.
To be honest, acquiring modes required killing humans with the increased success rate. But since it hadn't been long since Predation's level went up, and more than half of what I had was acquired after the level-up, it was clear how rarely zombies carried modes.
I was a bit disappointed, thinking, Is that all?
With a 10% chance to get 1 point, preying upon 48 modes yielded an expected value of only about 5 points.
To increase this, zombies would need to start carrying at least one positive mode, even if it was garbage.
Which meant Level 1 zombies were hopeless, and they'd need to be at least Level 2.
Since this was strictly a side income, it was probably better for my peace of mind not to obsess over it too much.
"First, predation."
Just holding onto unused modes was cluttered.
Time to clean them out.
There was no need to linger on regrets, thinking they might be useful later; if they were, I could just level them up and use them anyway.
[Preying upon mode.]
[Preying upon mode.]
The messages popped up.
[Failed to acquire point.]
[Failed to acquire point.]
A 10% chance was not so generous.
Sometimes I failed ten times in a row, and other times I succeeded twice consecutively.
After preying upon all 48 modes, I had gathered 7 points.
"Wow."
It actually turned out better than the expected value.
And seeing 7 points accumulate all at once like this, my mind changed about treating it as just a minor bonus.
"This is actually bigger than I thought."
Of course, considering these were modes gathered over a little more than a month, it might not seem like much.
But this was only the beginning.
A 40% predation rate.
Even if I just went around killing mindlessly, I had a 40% chance to prey upon a mode, and from there, a 10% chance to get a point. This could be better than most quests.
"Not bad at all."
Having more ways to supply points was always a good thing.
Besides, Cheat Modes didn't just end once they hit level 10; reaching level 10 kept unlocking new Cheat Modes, making points more necessary than ever.
Receiving so many points made me look forward to the next step.
Item predation.
What exactly was an "Enchantment Stone"?
Just from the name, it sounded like something used to enhance items.
I entered the weapon storage and looked at the items that nearly filled the warehouse.
Kim Ji-hee had worked hard to organize them, so the items were neatly sorted by level.
Naturally, Level 1 items were the most numerous, followed by the other levels in order.
There were quite a lot of Level 2 items, and surprisingly, Level 3 items were piled up enough to completely fill about one shelf.
This was partly due to farming, but also because whenever the Visiting Black Market Merchant came, I would buy Level 3 items with coins as long as they didn't have completely garbage options that ruined their value.
I grabbed a random Level 1 item and tried preying upon it.
[Preying upon "Old Dagger (★)".]
[Damage dealt to zombies increases by 1.]
[Duration: 30 minutes]
"Oho."
I had worried about what would happen if I failed since it mentioned giving an Enchantment Stone, but it seemed there was no need to worry.
Basically, the mechanism of item predation was absorbing the item's power to temporarily gain an extra boost, and if I was lucky, there was a low chance of obtaining an "Enchantment Stone."
"This is pretty good."
Whether it was weapons or armor.
In a zombie apocalypse, you couldn't wear multiple layers or use them all at the same time.
Therefore, the limit of the stats you could use ultimately depended on the level of the items you equipped. But with this, you didn't necessarily have to plaster yourself with high-level items to temporarily achieve effects beyond that limit.
Of course, since it was consumable, it was basically like a potion.
Still, it was better than letting them gather dust in the warehouse.
I continued preying upon more items.
I had to keep going until an Enchantment Stone appeared.
After preying upon about ten more, an Enchantment Stone finally dropped.