Chapter 50: Holy Motherfucking Shit

Su Hao let out a slight sigh. Although he felt somewhat dissatisfied with the reward in his heart, he had no choice but to accept reality.

After pondering for a moment, he decided to exchange 10 cosmic particles first to test the waters. As the operation was completed, one hundred thousand cosmic coins instantly appeared in his account.

He subconsciously checked the remaining number of cosmic particles, and there were still two hundred thousand and eight hundred left. However, at this moment, he felt no joy; he merely furrowed his brows slightly, then lowered his head and walked toward the Attribute Upgrade Hall.

The Attribute Upgrade Hall was located deep within the Cosmic Environmental Protection Agency. Along the way, Su Hao's steps were slightly heavy, and his heart was still depressed over the previously less-than-satisfactory reward.

Before long, he arrived inside the hall. Here, attribute upgrade chambers emitting mysterious auras were placed one by one, resembling unknown mysterious spaces waiting for someone to unlock the power contained within them.

Su Hao walked up to one of the attribute upgrade chamber doors, slowly extended his hand, and gently touched the chamber's wall. The wall felt cold to the touch, yet it seemed to have energy faintly circulating beneath the surface, involuntarily inspiring a sense of awe.

[Entering the attribute upgrade chamber requires a fee of 200 cosmic coins.]

The system's cold prompt suddenly rang out.

"Enter."

Su Hao gritted his teeth and replied. Immediately afterward, 200 cosmic coins were automatically deducted. The chamber door slowly opened, he lifted his foot and stepped inside, and the door quietly closed behind him.

Upon entering the chamber, Su Hao calmed his mind and began to check his current attributes:

[Constitution: 13 points.
Intelligence: 20 + 1 points.
Strength: 13 points.
Agility: 13 points.
Charisma: 9 points.
Luck: 9 points.] Whether to quantify.

"Quantify."

[Constitution: 20 points, Health Points: 2000.
Intelligence: 20 + 1 points, Mana Points: 2100.
Strength: 20 points, Attack Power: 2000.
Agility: 20 points, Reaction Speed: 2000.
Charisma: 9 points, Attractiveness: 900.
Luck: 9 points, Fortune Power: 900.]

Looking at these attribute values, Su Hao mentally calculated in his heart. Since he had finally managed to acquire some attribute points this time, he had to allocate them properly so that his strength could experience a significant boost.

After pondering for a moment, he made up his mind and distributed the twenty-one attribute points as follows:

Seven points to Strength, seven points to Agility, and seven points to Constitution.

In this way, his foundational abilities should be enhanced quite a bit, giving him more confidence to handle future missions.

However, just as he finished allocating the attribute points, the system prompt sounded once again.

[Candidate Cleaner, it is detected that your Intelligence, Strength, Agility, and Constitution have all reached the critical attribute bonus threshold of twenty points. Do you wish to enhance the critical attribute bonuses?
If enhanced, each critical attribute enhancement will consume fifty thousand cosmic particles, totaling twenty thousand cosmic particles for all four attributes.]

Upon hearing this, Su Hao's eyes widened in disbelief, and he couldn't help but complain inwardly:

"Is this robbery? My grandfather worked so hard to accumulate four hundred catties of gold, which barely exchanged for two hundred thousand cosmic particles, and now all of it is going to be poured right in here? This is way too much of a scam!"

His brows were tightly knitted, and his face was full of entanglement. In his heart, he was truly reluctant to part with them, but considering that once these critical attribute bonuses were enhanced, his strength would inevitably undergo a qualitative leap, he hesitated for a long time before finally gritting his teeth and saying with resignation:

"Enhance all of them."

As twenty thousand cosmic particles were deducted and the operation was quickly completed, the data on the attribute panel also changed:

[Constitution: 20 points.
Intelligence: 21 points.
Strength: 20 points.
Agility: 20 points.
Charisma: 9 points.
Luck: 9 points. Whether to quantify attributes?]

"Quantify."

[Constitution: 20 points, Health Points: 3000.
Intelligence: 21 points, Mana Points: 3150.
Strength: 20 points, Attack Power: 3000.
Agility: 20 points, Reaction Speed: 3000.
Charisma: 9 points, Attractiveness: 900.
Luck: 9 points, Fortune Power: 900.]

Only then did Su Hao realize that his Intelligence attribute was no longer the previous 20 + 1 points, but had truly become 21 points.

The quantified Health Points, Mana Points, Attack Power, and Reaction Speed had all increased by fifty percent. This was the benefit of threshold conversion.

At that moment, he suddenly felt as if a powerful aura was surging within his body. That aura grew increasingly intense, filling his limbs and bones to the extent that it felt as if it were going to burst his body apart.

He could clearly sense that the aura emanating from his body at this moment was on par with that of the Supreme Elder of the Biluo Sect on the Alpha-Beta Planet. This left him both startled and delighted, while also instilling a bit more caution.

Recalling the last time he underwent an attribute upgrade, when he failed to control the suddenly enhanced power and accidentally damaged the facilities of the Cosmic Environmental Protection Agency, causing quite a bit of trouble—even having cosmic coins deducted as compensation for the agency's losses.

Therefore, this time, he did not dare to stand up rashly. He obediently sat inside the attribute upgrade chamber, deciding to first adapt to this suddenly enhanced physical fitness to avoid stirring up any more trouble.

After his body gradually grew accustomed to that powerful aura, Su Hao suddenly remembered a passive skill scroll he had previously obtained from opening a treasure chest, titled "Mental Reflection Speed". Perhaps this skill could provide him with significant assistance.

Thinking of this, he reached into his storage space, took out the scroll, looked at it, and then gritted his teeth and tore the scroll open.

In an instant, Su Hao felt an invisible energy surge through his entire body like a tidal wave. That energy was cool and refreshing, and wherever it passed, every single cell seemed to cheer and leap with joy, while his body became increasingly light and agile. He knew that this skill had been successfully activated.

Subsequently, he opened the skill panel. What greeted his eyes was a series of familiar yet somewhat rudimentary skill icons, with the corresponding level marked beneath each icon:

Free Combat Initial Level 20, Swordsmanship Initial Level 20, Saber Technique Initial Level 5, Marksmanship Initial Level 5, Firearms Initial Level 5. Mental Reflection (Passive) Initial Level 1.

Su Hao knew very well in his heart that if a skill wanted to continue leveling up, he had to head to the Skill Upgrade Chamber.

He took a deep breath and slowly stood up from the attribute upgrade chamber. He felt as though his body, which had suddenly grown much stronger, was somewhat unresponsive; it was as if every muscle and every tendon and bone were still adapting to that surging power and had not yet fully coordinated with his consciousness.

He cautiously moved his steps, wobbling with every move. He looked like a toddler just learning to walk, swaying from side to side and walking with extreme difficulty.

Despite this, he gritted his teeth, desperately controlling his body and inching toward the chamber door. With a tremendous amount of effort, he finally managed to step out of the attribute upgrade chamber.

After stepping out of the chamber, Su Hao steadied himself and hurried toward the direction of the Skill Upgrade Hall.

Along the way, contractors within the Cosmic Environmental Protection Agency were coming and going. Originally, everyone was busy with their own affairs, but Su Hao's bizarre way of walking was far too conspicuous; like a magnet, it instantly attracted the gazes of everyone present.

Those contractors stopped in their tracks, standing in place as if under a binding spell, with their gazes locked squarely on Su Hao, their eyes filled with curiosity and confusion.

Some contractors even couldn't help but whisper to one another, discussing in low voices:

"Hey, look at that guy. Why is he walking so strangely? Could something have gone wrong during his attribute upgrade?"

"Who knows? Maybe he upgraded too much and hasn't adapted to it yet for the moment, haha."

Hearing these whispered conversations, Su Hao felt utterly awkward. However, at this moment, he couldn't afford to care about such things; he could only bite the bullet and continue staggering step by step toward the Skill Upgrade Hall, secretly hoping that he could adapt to this body quickly and stop making a fool of himself.

Entering the Skill Upgrade Chamber, 200 cosmic coins were deducted as usual—this was the admission fee.

Su Hao first curiously clicked on the "Mental Reflection (Passive)" skill option, and saw it displayed:

[Mental Reflection (Passive) Initial Level 1, upgrading by one level costs ten cosmic particles. Do you wish to upgrade?]

Looking at this prompt, a bitter smile immediately appeared on Su Hao's face, and he silently muttered to himself that this upgrade cost was not low either. However, this skill was indeed quite important to him, so he gritted his teeth and ultimately chose to upgrade it by nine levels all at once.

As 90 cosmic particles were automatically deducted, a cool sensation once again flooded his entire body. It felt as though countless tiny ice needles were slowly piercing into his flesh; although somewhat uncomfortable, it was still within a tolerable range.

Five minutes later, the system prompt sounded:

[Upgrade successful, Mental Reflection (Passive) Initial Level 10. Upgrading to the next level requires ten cosmic particles. Do you wish to upgrade?]

"Upgrade ten levels continuously."

Su Hao hardened his heart, thinking that since he had already advanced by so many levels, he might as well push it a bit further.

As 100 cosmic particles were deducted, that cool sensation appeared once more. However, this time he was mentally prepared, forcing himself to endure it while waiting for the upgrade to complete.

[Upgrade successful, Mental Reflection (Passive) Initial Level 20. Upgrading to the next level requires twenty cosmic particles. Do you wish to upgrade?]

Seeing this prompt, Su Hao couldn't help but widen his eyes, crying out in his heart that this was too much of a scam. The upgrade cost had suddenly doubled; if he kept upgrading like this, his meager stash of cosmic particles would soon hit rock bottom.

After hesitating over and over, he ultimately chose not to upgrade any further, shook his head helplessly, and cast his gaze toward the other skill options.

He clicked on the Free Combat option, and saw it displayed:

[Free Combat Initial Level 20, upgrading by one level costs 10,000 cosmic coins, while upgrading continuously by five levels requires four cosmic particles. Do you wish to upgrade?]

Seeing this prompt, Su Hao was stunned at first, and then Teacher Iris's past reminder flashed through his mind—she had told him not to easily exchange cosmic particles for cosmic coins. He hadn't understood the profound meaning behind her words back then, but now it seemed there were quite a few tricks hidden here.

It turned out that skill upgrades offered discounted settlements for continuous enhancements! Had he known earlier, he could have saved quite a few cosmic particles when upgrading the Mental Reflection skill earlier.

However, there was no time for regret now. Su Hao thought for a moment and felt that the Free Combat skill was extremely practical in combat, so he immediately chose to upgrade it continuously by five levels.

As four cosmic particles were automatically deducted, that indescribable and wondrous sensation appeared once more. His body felt as though it were enveloped by a mysterious force, continuously strengthening every muscle and meridian. Five minutes later, the system prompt came through:

[Upgrade successful, Free Combat Intermediate Level 25, upgrading by one level costs 10,000 cosmic coins, while upgrading continuously by five levels requires four cosmic particles. Do you wish to upgrade?]

"Upgrade continuously by five levels."

Su Hao chose to upgrade again without hesitation. Four cosmic particles were automatically deducted, and the same sensation struck him once more. He silently endured it, waiting for the upgrade to finish.

Five minutes later, the system prompted again:

[Upgrade successful, Free Combat Intermediate Level 30, upgrading by one level costs 50,000 cosmic coins, while upgrading continuously by 5 levels requires 20 cosmic particles. Do you wish to upgrade?]

Seeing this exorbitant upgrade cost, Su Hao couldn't help but curse out loud:

"What the absolute hell! Upgrade five levels continuously."

20 cosmic particles were automatically deducted. With the same sensation and after the same five minutes passed:

[Upgrade successful, Free Combat Intermediate Level 35, upgrading by one level costs 50,000 cosmic coins, while upgrading continuously by 5 levels requires 20 cosmic particles. Do you wish to upgrade?]

"Upgrade five levels continuously."

That sensation struck once more. After five minutes:

[Upgrade successful, Free Combat Advanced Level 40, upgrading by one level costs 250,000 cosmic coins, while upgrading continuously by 5 levels requires 200 cosmic particles. Do you wish to upgrade?]

This cost was rising far too quickly, and he could not bear to invest any further. He immediately chose not to upgrade, and then shifted his attention to the Swordsmanship skill. After a series of operations, he ultimately raised Swordsmanship to Advanced Level 40 as well. Only then did he stop his actions with a sense of satisfaction, preparing to inspect the overall effects of his enhanced strength.

Su Hao checked his assets. The number of cosmic particles had dropped from two hundred thousand and eight hundred down to 494.

His heart immediately sank uncomfortably, leaving him with the distinct feeling of having been robbed.

It was only the just-over-two-hundred-thousand cosmic coins that made him feel somewhat better.