Chapter 174 A Most Tragic Battlefield: The Defense of Minas Tirith

Time, neither slow nor fast, slips away in tiny increments. Memories, once vivid, fade into the distant past, yet can feel as close as yesterday.

Fang Senyan successfully sold several consigned equipment pieces. The resulting torrent of Universal Points and Potential Points flowed out just as quickly, consumed by a vast array of supplies. His current Merit Value stood at 441/400, presenting him with two choices.

First, he could use it on Chris Redfield’s Lucky Bracelet to acquire True Luck. Forty points of Merit Value might seem like a lot, but when applied to a seventh-tier skill tree, it would be devoured like by a sponge.

The second option was to sell the Imperial Gold Moon Medal x1 (exchangeable for 20 Merit Points) and use the resulting sixty points to activate a new disease option. These were extraordinary times, making it relatively easy for Fang Senyan to return to the real world to study new diseases. The crucial point was that the ten points of Merit Value that could be overdrawn were limited to purchasing supplies. After squandering sixty points, where would Fang Senyan find the extra Merit Value to learn new disease abilities?

However, from another perspective, if the Bloody Battlefield was truly as brutal as expected, the casualty rate would undoubtedly be high. As the team leader, Fang Senyan could offer to forgo claiming equipment in exchange for Merit Value, which would then accumulate at an astonishing rate.

Analyzing it carefully, the space’s rewards for killing were divided into two parts: first, the Merit Value reward, and second, the random equipment extraction from the enemy.

Put bluntly, this reward system was similar to real-world compensation: base salary + bonus.

The base salary was the guaranteed Merit Value, while the bonus was the extracted equipment.

In low-intensity warfare, prioritizing Merit Value was clearly more cost-effective, as the enemies killed would be of lower rank and thus possess fewer valuable items. However, in high-intensity warfare, opting for equipment was undoubtedly more advantageous.

Awakened Ones typically had a chance to drop Dark Gold equipment, and the odds of obtaining a Silver Story-level item were at least one in four. Therefore, Fang Senyan should easily convince others to relinquish their equipment extraction rights. Of course, some might object, but Fang Senyan had ways to silence them.

With this in mind, Fang Senyan made his decision. Since the war-profiting-from-war strategy was viable, he could apply the same principle to learning True Luck. Moreover, once he entered the Nightmare World, he would be unable to return to the real world to study diseases. In that case, the Merit Value he obtained would not be fully utilized.

Thus, Fang Senyan decisively sold the Imperial Gold Moon Medal and clicked on the option! After a moment of hesitation, he chose option b: Contact-Transmitted Diseases!!

Contact-transmitted diseases have a small transmission range, usually spreading through melee attacks or when others attack you in melee. Activating this option allows you to affect enemies within a one-meter radius (this range is the base value, without any bonuses).

The effect is rapid, primarily damaging the enemy and secondarily weakening them.

Note: Representative diseases include cholera, trachoma, anthrax, Ebola, AIDS… You must activate this option before you can specifically activate related diseases to infect enemies.

Now that Fang Senyan possessed air-transmitted diseases, he no longer needed to worry about the distance of the diseases. Instead, he needed to ensure the intensity of the diseases was potent. After learning the skill, Fang Senyan discovered that the sixty Merit Value points were well spent, because he had already mastered the ultimate skill of air-transmitted diseases, and there were related changes.

First, contact-transmitted diseases had a learning limit of seven types. To increase the number of learned types or reset skills, it would cost twenty Merit Value points, so it was crucial to choose carefully before learning.

Second, each enemy could only have a maximum of two diseases, and these two diseases must belong to different systems. For example, it was impossible to have two contact-transmitted diseases simultaneously, only one air-transmitted disease and one contact-transmitted disease.

Of course, this restriction would lessen as his research into the Virus Monarch deepened.

Currently, Fang Senyan understood that he had two skill trees:

Triggered by injuring the enemy and drawing blood: Suppurative Infection (symptoms: pus, swelling) – Gas Gangrene (foul odor, rotting flesh) – Suppurative Osteomyelitis (leading to partial disability) – Tetanus (severe convulsions, muscle rigidity).

Triggered by injuring the enemy and drawing blood: Mild Fever (increased body temperature) – Herpes Zoster (severe pain, intense itching) – Kaposi’s Sarcoma (severe pain, weakness) – then advancing to AIDS.

Clearly, there were many other skill trees beyond these two, but only these two were listed. Fang Senyan spent considerable effort and finally found another devious skill tree:

Triggered by hitting the enemy’s lower body: Gonorrhea (pus, swelling) – Syphilis (papules) – Lupus Erythematosus (intense itching) – Condyloma Acuminatum (warts/pain) – Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever.

Obviously, with only seven learning slots for contact-transmitted diseases, but each disease skill tree being five tiers long, it meant that only one ultimate disease could be learned. This demanded extreme caution.

However, without a doubt, the most devious was the third skill tree. This would not only cause severe damage to the enemy, but the mental trauma must also be taken into account.

But!! It must be noted that to learn these diseases, Fang Senyan would first have to expose his unprotected body to the challenge of pathogens that had been enhanced several times. This required immense courage.

As a wise man, as a man, he had to consider what would happen if he couldn't cure himself! After all, if a man had to choose between his little brother and his hands and feet, most would rather be disabled than a eunuch!

Under the curious/perverted/questioning/exploring gazes of all the team members, Fang Senyan silently returned to the real world. With his current physique, he should be able to survive the first one or two stages of the trial. By the time he returned, no one knew exactly what choices Fang Senyan had made. Fang Senyan sternly declared that this was his trump card, and he would absolutely not allow it to be revealed before it was played.

Just as the entire team was giving their captain malicious glances, a prompt that brought Fang Senyan a sense of relief finally appeared. This prompt was blood-red and projected directly onto his retina, so even if he closed his eyes to sleep, he would be forced to see it.

"Attention, all teams participating in this Bloody Battlefield!!"

"Attention, all teams participating in this Bloody Battlefield!!"

"The results of this Bloody Battlefield draw have been determined. You will experience the most tragic battlefield in the Lord of the Rings world: The Defense of Minas Tirith!"

"You will enter the battlefield in sequence in twelve hours. Please make all necessary preparations."

Seeing this prompt, Fang Senyan immediately took a deep breath. He immediately applied for both the military rank privilege and the Silver Team Leader privilege to inquire about the situation. To emphasize the importance, he even had the Chosen One, Sanzai, serve as a backup.

"Which side will we join?" Fang Senyan immediately asked the most crucial question.

In the Defense of Minas Tirith, although Sauron's side ultimately lost, they consistently held a significant advantage on the battlefield until Aragorn, the King of Gondor, brought the cursed Army of the Dead from the mountains, which secured the final victory.

Therefore, if Fang Senyan and his team were to fight against contractors from multiple spaces, the choice of faction would be extremely important. If they were to choose the righteous side, they would face extreme disadvantages with their already limited manpower, making victory practically impossible.

The space's answer finally relieved Fang Senyan:

"This time, you will stand on the side of the Dark Lord."

"What is our insertion point?" Fang Senyan continued to ask.

The space seemed to answer every question:

"Twenty-four hours before the final battle begins."

"Twenty-four hours before it begins…" Fang Senyan calculated the time. Clearly, this timeframe was not given randomly. It provided the contractors with enough time to strategize and make decisions that could determine the outcome. For example, with malicious intent, they could break the Holy Sword that Aragorn carried, preventing him from obtaining the assistance of the Army of the Dead.

Or, the defending side could build teleportation arrays to bring the Ents from Isengard. Each Ent was a powerful trebuchet, which would make Minas Tirith virtually impregnable…

Ugh, I'm really struggling. Which disease skill tree should Senyan learn? Hehe. I'll put up a voting option in the book. Everyone, please vote and let everyone make the decision.

By the way, I posted a picture of Minas Tirith on Weibo. Those who haven't seen the Lord of the Rings can go take a look.