Physical Strength Increase

Killian rubbed his chin.

"It was definitely a better story than what I was expecting."

Adonis furrowed his brows.

"Um, are you sure that's a children's story?"

Damien shrugged his shoulders.

"At the very least, it was in the format of one."

Zenos' eyebrow twitched.

"And what exactly was the moral of the story supposed to be?"

Killian let out a chuckle.

"I guess it could mean that some people just want to see the world get fucked."

Damien didn't respond for a good few seconds.

"I suppose it could also just say that certain people just like to kill. And there isn't much more to it."

Adonis sighed.

"Ah, whatever. I think I'm done with listening to these weird stories, I'm going to try to sleep."

He then laid down on the ground and closed his eyes. As for everyone else, though there was no verbal communication, it seemed that they were quite tired of it as well, and nobody planned on sharing more stories.

And so, time passed by slowly.

They tried to get some sleep where they could, but the hard ground made them wake up several times in a row. It was an overall unpleasant experience that seemed to wear them down gradually.

Though, it seemed as though two people were taking much better compared to the other two. Killian and Damien. Although all they were doing was looking down at the ground with a small frown, they didn't look bored at all.

It was almost like they were used to doing that kind of thing.

As for Adonis, even if he woke up, he would ask for the time before trying to go back to sleep again. Zenos on the other hand was just opening the shop and looking through the various items over and over again. From the way he was mumbling to himself, it seemed like he was devising some sort of strategy, but there was not much to strategize around due to the inherent uncertainty of their situation.

But as long as it felt, those twenty-four hours eventually passed, leaving Emmett to call out to them all happily in his robotic voice.

"The Physical Strength Increase is now available for purchase! If you want to be stronger, then look no further!"

Adonis cracked his neck.

"Finally... that took a damn long time."

Zenos sucked in a cold breath.

"Alright let's start planning what we are going to spend our points on."

Killian felt the side of his head and raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"Huh... part of my ear grew back."

He then felt his stomach.

"And my stomach wound is basically gone now."

Damien unraveled the bandage around his hand to see that while the middle of his hand was bright red, it had actually ended up healing for the most part.

"Hm. That is convenient."

Zenos ignored what the two of them were saying and opened up the shop. Seeing this, Damien and the others did as well, causing a screen to appear a few millimeters away from their eyes.

---

Team Shop

Level 1 -

Full Suit Repair For Team Alpha - 1 Team credit

New! Full Team Physical Strength Increase (One Time Purchase) - 1 Team credit]

---

Personal Shop

Level 1 -

Basic Ration - 1 Personal credit

Bars (3) - 2 Personal credits

Waters (3) - 2 personal credits

Medical Kit - 2 Personal credits

Full Suit Repair - 3 Personal credits

New! Physical Strength Increase - 5 Personal credits

Assault Rifle magazine (30) - 2 Personal credits

Pistol magazine (15) - 1 Personal credit]

---

Damien tapped his chin as he read it all.

"It appears that we won't be able to buy the physical strength increase with our personal credits as it's way too expensive. However, if we decide to do so with team credits, then it would only take one. From what it looks like, using our team credits seems to be the only rational choice right now."

Killian tilted his head to the side.

"We could also do a suit repair. Mine's pretty busted by now."

Damien let out a soft sigh.

"We already went over this."

Killian shrugged his shoulders.

"...I know."

Adonis narrowed his eyes slightly.

"So we should use our personal credits to buy bullets? The bars should be enough before we come back here, right?"

Zenos tapped his chin.

"It does feel a little wasteful to eat the bars purely for the sake of filling our stomach..."

Damien sucked in a cold breath.

"Well, perhaps we can finish a lab, eat the bars to recover quickly before going back to clear another one."

Killian gave a small nod.

"That sounds fine to me."

Adonis scratched the side of his head.

"Well, since I don't have any more bullets left, I'm going to buy some then."

Zenos rubbed his chin.

"Before you do that, we should first check what the effects of this physical strength increase truly are."

Damien gave a small nod.

"That's true. Let's buy it then."

A few moments after he said that, Emmett's voice suddenly rang out in everyone's head.

"Four out of four members of Team Alpha have decided to purchase the physical strength increase! Please step into your respective chambers to activate it!"

As he was saying that, the walls suddenly moved inwards, to reveal an opening that fit each person. Adonis didn't hesitate to walk in when he saw this.

"Let's see what this does then."

Once he stepped in place, his entire body was covered up by the metal wall almost like that opening never existed in the first place. Everyone else looked for a few seconds before going into their own respective chambers.

Once Damien got into place, he found that everything suddenly became pitch-black as the opening closed up. The fit was quite tight, wrapping around his entire body so that he could hardly move an inch. The only thing that he could really do was breathe and blink, but other than that his actions were restricted.

After a few moments, Emmett's voice rang out once more.

"Beginning injection! Do not panic!"

Without any more warning, Damien felt something prick the skin right above his heart. It made him feel a little on edge considering he kinda needed his heart to stay alive. However, he also knew that worrying over it was pointless, so he just let whatever was happening happen.

He felt a fairly intense pain as he felt a needle penetrate through his heart. From there, some cold liquid was gradually poured in. It did not feel viscous at all and almost seemed like water. However, the moment it was injected within him, Damien's body began heating up tremendously. He could feel his muscles warm up the most, while his bones began to strain.

His body gradually became bigger because of the injection, and he could very easily tell that this physical strength increase was by no means small.

As the changes began to settle, he couldn't help but feel an urge to test out his new strength, though he wasn't really able to do so while held hostage in the chamber that he was in.

Then, after a few minutes, it opened, and everyone stumbled outwards. The chambers behind them rapidly closed to become walls, like they were never there in the first place. But the changes that happened were definitely real.

Damien opened his status panel in curiosity.

---

Name: Damien

Affiliation: Team Alpha

Team Credits: 1

Personal Credits: 2

Health: 4/4

Suit: 2/3

Physical Strength: 1.0

Willpower: 3

Skills: N/A

---

Considering that his old Physical Strength was 0.5, the fact it was now 1.0 meant that it had doubled. Though Damien was honestly a little surprised, as he felt that he felt as though his strength had more than doubled, and by a significant amount too. Though even if it was just an illusion, he didn't mind it much.

"...My strength is now 1.0"

Adonis was swinging around his katana, causing the wind to whip in the air. Then, he checked his status panel.

"What? That means yours increased by 0.5, but mine only increased by 0.3 to become 1.8!"

Zenos let out a soft hum.

"Mine only increased by 0.3 as well to be a total of 1.3"

Killian chuckled.

"Ha, mine is 1.4 now, so I got 0.4 instead."

Adonis furrowed his brows.

"Huh? How is this fair? All of the values are different!"

Damien narrowed his eyes slightly.

"It appears that the strength number is actually a logarithmic scale."

Adonis raised an eyebrow.

"What does that mean?"

Zenos rolled his eyes.

"It means that we got the same amount of strength, but the way it's displayed is different because of how the scale appears."

Adonis still seemed confused, causing Killian to speak up.

"It means that it was the same for all of us, ogre."

Damien shrugged his shoulders.

"Anyway, let's buy some bullets and go to the next lab. We've waited long enough."

With a twenty-four hour break, although nobody liked going to the lab, all of them got ready. Damien bought an assault rifle magazine, Zenos bought a sniper rifle magazine, Adonis got a light machine gun magazine, while Killian got some shotgun shells.

Once all of them got into the shuttle and sat down, Emmett's voice rang out.

"Alright, now pick another lab to go to!"