Chapter Forty-One: System Upgrade! Event Resolution!

"Hahaha! Even God is on my side!"

"James! Let's see how you escape this time!"

Cain laughed like a madman, his expression ferocious and his features twisted in malicious glee.

"Director, the North District happens to be the territory of various gangs. Should we notify them right now and have them take out James and his crew?"

"No! Gather all those people together first!"

Cain raised his hand, cutting off the suggestion immediately.

His previous experiences had left him with deep psychological scars. In terms of sheer overall strength, their forces undoubtedly far surpassed those of James and his group.

Yet it was precisely because their strength had been spread too thin—coupled with an incomplete understanding of James and his team's methods—that they had given their enemies the opportunity to defeat them one by one.

This time, he would pool every single resource together, stake everything on a single decisive battle, and eliminate James and his crew once and for all!

"Go contact the police—no, forget it, leave them out of this for now."

After a moment of thought, Cain ultimately decided against involving the police force.

Although the Umbrella Corporation could use its immense influence to issue orders to the Raccoon City police, having them openly cooperate with street gangs was still a step too far.

This wasn't Gotham City, where practically the entire police department was corrupt.

Even in Gotham, certain basic unwritten rules had to be observed; bringing light and darkness together so blatantly crossed every conceivable bottom line!

Not to mention, the Raccoon City police force still contained quite a few honest and dedicated officers.

Leaving these good cops alone was fine, but if they happened to piece together the truth and decided to side with James, it would spell serious trouble for Umbrella.

"Still, without police involvement, relying solely on those street thugs..."

Cain frowned, well aware of just how unreliable and undisciplined gang members could be.

"Go to the armory, take out every single firearm inside, and hand them all over to the gangs!"

No matter how trashy those gang members were, once you put guns in their hands, every last one of them would transform into a bloodthirsty jackal.

With over a thousand jackals joining forces, even if every member of James's team was a fierce tiger, they would be torn to shreds.

"Also, immediately notify our people in the North District! Have them keep their eyes glued to the targets and report back to me the second they have any news!"

Numerical superiority!

Weurapon superiority!

Intelligence superiority!

Even home-field advantage!

Cain sneered repeatedly.

"I refuse to believe you can survive under conditions like these!"

...

Inside the run-down motel.

Fourth floor.

Inside the room.

"Ding!"

"System upgrade complete!"

Yu Fei opened the system interface.

The upgrade had actually finished some time ago, and he had already made a preliminary review of the changes.

It was precisely because he understood the new capabilities of the Merit System that he had made his current choices.

The system upgrade hadn't altered the fundamental mechanics drastically; rather, it had simply added an "Event Settlement" option.

Previously, the Merit System would grant merits immediately on the spot whenever Yu Fei performed a "good deed."

With the upgraded system, however, multiple "good deeds" could now be bundled together and settled uniformly at a later time.

For instance, regarding the earlier Hive incident, Yu Fei could now package the entire event as a single entity for final settlement.

This type of settlement wouldn't grant him a larger quantity of merit points, but it gave him the opportunity to earn merit rewards of a much higher quality.

Suppose Yu Fei earned one thousand merit points during an incident; under individual settlement, he would receive precisely one thousand merit points.

However, if he chose event settlement, he could instead be awarded a wisp of higher-tier merit.

Under normal circumstances, Yu Fei would need to accumulate ten thousand merit points just to exchange for a single wisp of such merit.

In other words, utilizing the event settlement method allowed him to bypass a massive conversion gap.

It was particularly worth noting that both the initiation and conclusion of an event were entirely up to Yu Fei to decide.

For example, Yu Fei could trigger the start of an event while he was still in the bathroom, or he could choose to initiate it only after entering the Hive; the choice was completely his.

The same applied to its conclusion.

He could choose to settle the event the moment all zombies were cleared out, or he could wait until he had completely departed the Hive—or even after eradicating the Umbrella threat entirely—before initiating the final settlement. All of these options were available to him.

At the same time.

While an event was actively underway, although Yu Fei could not collect or spend the merit points being generated, he was still able to track the exact amount of merit he was accumulating in real-time.

"This feature is fantastic!"

Yu Fei nodded slightly, quite satisfied with the real-time data display function.

The primary purpose of the event settlement feature was to help him acquire higher-quality merit. If he had no way of knowing how much merit he had accumulated and accidentally triggered the settlement at, say, nine hundred and ninety points, wouldn't he be taking a massive loss?

Being able to view specific data in real-time.

Being able to decide the exact moment of settlement at will.

These features ensured that the "Event Settlement" mechanic remained purely convenient for Yu Fei, avoiding any awkward situations where a feature was too cumbersome to use yet too valuable to discard.

Especially for someone like Yu Fei, who had essentially reached the absolute peak of "mortality" and stood right on the precipice of the "transcendent" realm.

While merit points were not entirely useless to him anymore, their utility was largely restricted to enriching his skill roster, providing reliable solutions whenever he encountered various complex problems.

For instance, his previous skills in computer science and projectile mastery had allowed him to resolve difficulties with surgical precision.

However, in terms of overall combat power, these ordinary skills offered virtually zero help anymore.

This was clearly reflected in the growth stagnation of his physical and spiritual attributes.

At this stage, continuing to train those ordinary skills—even if they were pushed to Level 3—would fundamentally fail to increase his physical or mental stats any further.

Going forward, the only things capable of driving a genuine leap in Yu Fei's overall strength were skills of transcendent rank or higher.

And to upgrade skills beyond the mortal tier, higher-quality merit was an absolute prerequisite.

While those superior tiers of merit could technically be obtained by converting ordinary merit points, the tenfold conversion penalty made it a terribly inefficient trade.

"With the event settlement feature, everything changes!"

From now on, whenever Yu Fei wanted a specific quality of merit, he could acquire precisely that quality.

Never mind matching the transcendent-tier "wisps," he might even be able to secure even higher grades of merit—provided he was willing to stretch the event's timeline accordingly.

"Actually, the greatest benefit of the event settlement function is that it prevents those 'small good deeds' from going to waste."

"With event settlement enabled, I can continuously accumulate countless minor good deeds and ultimately convert them into high-quality merit!"

"So..."

Yu Fei took a deep breath.

"Let's initiate the event settlement right now!"