Chapter 16: Another Upgrade!
In the blink of an eye, another week passed. The destruction of the Underground Research Facility in Raccoon City's suburbs left the mayor swamped with problems.
Yet, it attracted no other forces' attention, at least not on the surface. Matthew's intervention had completely altered the original plot.
In the original storyline, Doctor William injected himself with the G-Virus after severe injury. This led to a large-scale leakage and spread of the T-Virus.
Now, that crucial plot point had not occurred. The biohazard crisis meant to sweep through Raccoon City vanished without a trace.
'Well, just another day of preventing the world's destruction.' Because of this successful intervention, the [System] issued a reward for Matthew's "benefit the people" actions.
He received a total of two thousand [System Points].
...New York. Inside a spacious bedroom, Matthew stood with his hands behind his back. Clad in a brown wool overcoat, his handsome face was serene in the moonlight.
He stood before a floor-to-ceiling window. Outside, New York's usual bustling nightscape, with its dazzling lights and nightlife, stretched before him.
In his hand, he held the [G-Virus] sample from his last mission. Matthew should have been pleased to obtain the [G-Virus], yet he felt a strange sense of worry.
[G-Virus: Upon injection, the virus interferes with and affects the organism's own DNA, changing its external form through "staged progression" and undergoing rampant 'mutation and evolution'. Advantages: The host will gain extremely powerful physical strength and terrifying recovery ability. Disadvantages: Evolution is completely uncontrollable, the host's consciousness will be gradually altered by the virus and eventually consumed by the virus's reproductive instincts.] [Optimizable Disadvantages: Uncontrollable evolution, consciousness dissolution, killing the viral carrier.] [Enhanceable Attributes: Evolvability, cell activity, Strength, Neural Reflexes.]
The [G-Virus]'s advantages were as obvious as its disadvantages. Its unique evolvability was unparalleled among all biohazard viruses.
But its drawbacks were equally significant. Evolutionary mutations, disregarding the host's own condition, would ultimately turn the host into an indescribable monstrous creature. It would be unable to even retain its own consciousness.
Although Matthew could eliminate all these side effects, optimizing the [G-Virus] was far more expensive than optimizing the [T-Virus]. Each of the three disadvantages required at least two thousand [System Points] to optimize.
"Sure enough, the more heaven-defying the effect, the more [System Points] it requires," Matthew sighed helplessly. He shifted his gaze from the virus sample.
Compared to simply possessing the [G-Virus], acquiring more [System Points] was the top priority. Gazing at the two thousand [System Points] in his account, he pondered.
He then opened the [System] interface. An azure blue light screen unfolded before his eyes. In the upper right corner of the screen, a chibi avatar resembling himself caught his attention.
"What's this?" He clicked it with a puzzled expression. A [System] prompt appeared: [Do you wish to place 'Matthew Lawrence' into the Experiment Panel for optimization?]
'What the hell?' He rubbed his eyes in disbelief for a moment. 'It wasn't an illusion.'
'So what the [System] had said before, about being able to place himself in an experiment slot for optimization, was actually true.'
"...Yes." After a brief deliberation, Matthew confirmed. As the chibi avatar dropped into the experiment slot, a [System] prompt suddenly appeared: [Matthew Lawrence (Optimizable)].
[Stamina LV1... Cell Regeneration LV1...]
The optimizable items, which should have been displayed for the [T-Virus], were now shown for Matthew himself. Compared to last time, the options available for optimization and upgrade had only changed for [Strength].
[Strength LV2 upgrade to LV3 effect, Instantaneous explosive power can easily shatter concrete structures, tear through 1CM thick steel plates, and full-speed movement reaches sixty meters per second. (Consumes 1500 System Points)]
His gaze swept over the various optimization items. Without much hesitation, Matthew immediately began the enhancements.
'Since optimizing the [G-Virus] was so expensive, why not start with the cheaper options first!'
"Optimize [Cell Regeneration], [Neural Reflexes]." [Optimizing and upgrading Cell Regeneration, Neural Reflexes, total cost 500 System Points.]
"Consume one 'Low-level Optimization Count' to optimize [Stamina]." [Low-level Optimization Count -1, 'Stamina' has been optimized and upgraded to LV2.]
"Continue optimizing and upgrading '[Strength]'." [Optimizing and upgrading 'Strength', total cost 1500 System Points.]
Three optimization commands were issued in quick succession. The moment the optimization was complete, Matthew felt his spirit invigorated.
A deeper sense of power surged through his entire body. A faint red tint also emerged from the depths of his deep black eyes.
His gaze fell upon the city sky. The gloomy and heavy sky seemed smeared with a layer of lard, appearing exceptionally oppressive.
The humidity in the air made it clear to the city's inhabitants, with just a sniff, that rain would soon fall.
Drip... drop... A few scattered raindrops fell on people's shoulders, causing pedestrians to stop and look up.
Soon, the scattered raindrops gathered into a torrential rain, covering the entire city. Those who had stopped to gaze at the sky were now drenched like drowned rats.
Matthew, standing before the floor-to-ceiling window, looked towards the sky. His upgraded [Neural Reflexes] made the dense raindrops outside the window appear like an animation slowed down countless times.
He had only ever seen such a miraculous scene in certain movies.
"What is this? Bullet time?" Matthew muttered to himself. But he quickly shook his head, denying the idea.
'Calling it bullet time was still an exaggeration.' 'This ability of his was more like a weakened version of bullet time.'
'He still couldn't clearly discern the trajectory of things that were too fast.' 'For example, a sniper rifle bullet.'
'When reacting to things exceeding the speed of sound, he was probably just like an ordinary person.' 'Unable to react in time.'
'In short, the path to becoming stronger is a long and arduous journey.' So, "It's still about benefiting the people."
Thinking this, Matthew quickly put away the [G-Virus] in his hand. Ignoring the heavy rain outside, he walked downstairs alone.
He still had a cigarette in one hand, alcohol in the other. He still let his bros keep the neighborhood chaotic.
Of course, distributing more umbrellas on a rainy day would earn him more [System Points].
That night, Matthew transformed into a public welfare ambassador. He continuously handed out umbrellas to residents without them on the street.
He gave cigarettes to bros who had none, and alcohol to bros who had none. He also gave a knife to bros who couldn't earn money.
'Don't misunderstand, the knives were for them to find a job gutting fish, not to just wander the streets.' 'It certainly wasn't for them to hold knives to others and make the young, middle-aged, and old cough up some cash.'
As the saying goes, "give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." But teaching someone to fish is not as good as telling them to go gut fish at the wet market.
So he believed that with this knife, the other party would definitely find a good job that could support themselves!
However, his strange behavior... did attract the attention of the street patrol police. A patrol officer named Walsh, whose uniform was stretched tight by his fat, was currently eating a donut.
He fixed his gaze on Matthew. Watching him disappear around the street corner, Walsh pressed the walkie-talkie on his shoulder.
His voice was serious: "This is Walsh, there's a lunatic handing out kitchen knives everywhere on my street... Based on my observation, he's heading to another street. All units, please be advised."