Wasteland: My items are infinitely upgraded

"High temperature overload…"

"Speed disadvantage…"

Lin Feng muttered to himself, quickly spotting the relevant intelligence listed on the paper in his hand.

He then picked it up and read it carefully.

When the difference in strength wasn't an era-defining disadvantage, intelligence was the most crucial attribute.

Whether it was a small-scale skirmish between a few individuals or a large-scale battlefield of ten thousand, it all boiled down to information warfare.

Whoever possessed more intelligence about each other and had a more comprehensive understanding of the battlefield situation had a better chance of winning.

And to understand his current opponent, Li Hao, it was necessary to start with his background.

These allowed them to digest any vegetation, even breaking down the nutrients in lignin.

It could be said that the Rockhorn Horse was so successful because this species absorbed the excellent genetic traits of most large herbivores, and in the harsh environment of survival of the fittest, they stood out.

In fact, there were over a hundred other evolved wasteland beast species, including small ones like the long-lived naked mole-rat, which originally had a lifespan of up to thirty years, several times that of other small rodents, and they grew and developed rapidly, immune to most diseases and cancers.

After the Great Cataclysm, the naked mole-rat further specialized, abandoning most useless organs, including eyes and energy-consuming brains…

They subsisted on the roots and stems of plants, living deep underground all day long, in groups of a dozen or several dozen, widely distributed.

Because of their excessive degradation, the curse of the Scorching Sun Forbidden Zone had little impact on these lower life forms.

Like the rabbit rats on the prairie, they were also an important food source for wasteland scavengers and carnivores. In addition to their gradual degradation and hairless bodies, they were loved by predators, except for being overly ugly.

As for other large herbivores, there were records of more than ten species, but their populations were relatively small, even less than a million.

And most of them lived in fixed routes and areas, and their specialization was not as high as that of the Rockhorn Horse, unable to adapt to most wasteland environments.

This was also why the Rockhorn Horse path evolvers were the most numerous among the different evolution paths.

Because the genetic characteristics within the Rockhorn Horse were the most adapted to the current harsh wasteland environment.

By injecting Rockhorn Horse life essence and completing their own transformation and evolution, these evolvers possessed outstanding endurance at the first tier.

They were able to travel long distances or endure hunger and thirst.

Although it didn't help much in combat, no one could compare to them in wasteland survival, except for the original Rockhorn Horse.

And by the time they reached the second level of evolution, this characteristic was naturally strengthened again.

Extremely strong endurance gave Rockhorn Horse warriors the ability to fight continuously.

But constantly stacking endurance also meant that their cells focused more on stress resistance and survival during evolution, rather than explosive high-frequency operation.

Therefore, Rockhorn Horse path evolvers mostly lacked explosive power, or rather, the upper limit of their explosion was not high.

This was also the evolutionary defect of the Rockhorn Horse. After all, it only used the harsh wasteland environment, not evolving to perfection.

Exchanging endurance for explosive power was the Rockhorn Horse's evolutionary strategy.

Now inherited by Rockhorn Horse evolvers, it has also become one of their major flaws.

Even if they could control the Rockhorn Horse armor, they couldn't achieve the high-performance combat of power armor in a short time.

The evolution route of the Rockhorn Horse was to ensure a lower limit, but the upper limit was extremely low, which also made it difficult for them to give birth to a true racial king, a third-tier king beast.

After all, there were no evolved wasteland beasts more adapted to wasteland survival than them.

So the same was true for Rockhorn Horse evolvers, the lower limit was very high, but the upper limit was just so-so.

The concretization of this problem was the two major weaknesses of the Rockhorn Horse armor in the combat of Rockhorn Horse warriors.

As a biological armor, the Rockhorn Horse armor came from the dead second-tier chieftain-level Rockhorn Horses, built with their second-tier bodies.

In essence, it was an extension of the Rockhorn Horse warrior's ability.

Because of genetic compatibility, the Rockhorn Horse armor was also the exclusive armor of the Rockhorn Horse warrior. Evolvers of other paths could not activate it when worn, and there would be a strong rejection reaction.

And after wearing it, although the defense was greatly increased, it also inherited the Rockhorn Horse's defects.

Although they could fight continuously, their explosive power was insufficient, just like the chieftain-level Rockhorn Horse Lin Feng encountered at the beginning. Although it chased him all over the street, running nearly a hundred kilometers, it couldn't catch up with Lin Feng.

You know, Lin Feng was only in the mid-first tier at that time, with a maximum speed of only forty or fifty meters per second, and an average speed of only about twenty meters, equivalent to a speed of one hundred kilometers per hour.

And the chieftain-level Rockhorn Horse, which had already evolved to the second tier, could only follow closely behind, unable to explode the speed that a second-tier evolved body should have.

If it had been replaced by other second-tier wasteland beasts at that time, Lin Feng estimated that he would have been eaten in one encounter. He wouldn't even have had time to react before he died, such as the Wasteland Wolf.

Therefore, the Rockhorn Horse warrior wearing the Rockhorn Horse armor, even if he had unbreakable defense and the power to split mountains with one punch, could not explode too much of a higher-level state.

The reason was the soaring temperature inside the body.

The chieftain-level Rockhorn Horse could use abdominal blood and several stomachs to cool down, but the Rockhorn Horse warrior driving it inside the Rockhorn Horse armor, in the continuous rise of high temperature, in addition to dehydration, might even be boiled and steamed to death.

After all, according to the material intelligence records, the maximum temperature inside the Rockhorn Horse armor could reach an astonishing seventy or eighty degrees.

In order to stack the defensive armor, the thickness of the ceramic steel could even reach more than half a meter. In addition to providing absolute defense, they could also isolate the internal and external temperatures.

Ceramic itself was a material with very slow thermal conductivity.

Otherwise, they wouldn't be used as bowls and basins to hold dishes.

And after such evolution and development, although it could isolate the heat from the external scorching sunlight, the high temperature from the operation of the Rockhorn Horse's internal organs was also difficult to release.

This was not like the Wasteland Wolf.

The enhanced Wasteland Wolf had alienated steel wolf teeth and claws that radiated heat. By the time it reached the evolution stage, its steel wolf skin and alloy wolf bones could well release the residual heat of high-speed metabolism.

After all, there was no better heat-conducting material than metal.

And the Rockhorn Horse's pursuit of extreme defense made it impossible for them to explode the limit of power like the Wasteland Wolf, to hunt or fight.

Seeing Lin Feng's serious expression, the High Priest continued to introduce:

"In our temple, when the knights deal with second-tier Rockhorn Horse warriors, they often adopt two strategies. One is a surprise attack to kill them with one blow, so that they instantly enter a combat state, thereby exposing their defects."

"Another method is a high-intensity war of attrition, giving the opponent wearing Rock Steed Armor no time to breathe, constantly forcing them to maintain high-intensity combat."

"This will quickly degrade their condition."

"If we can't force them into a desperate situation, we can't defeat and kill them because the Rockhorn Steed's endurance and sustainability are very strong."

"I suggest starting with speed. Purchase multiple sets of powered armor from the guild. Even the most basic ones, combined with your fundamental strength, will be enough to evade the Rock Steed warrior's attacks."

Lin Feng nodded, then turned to another weakness:

"The Rock Steed Armor is too bulky. Not only does it make it difficult to increase the wearer's movement speed, but it even has a dragging effect, resulting in an average running speed of only 100 kilometers per hour for Rock Steed warriors."

"That's equivalent to thirty meters per second."

"But the instantaneous burst speed is very fast, able to instantly recover to one hundred meters per second. At this speed, combined with the weight of several tons of the machine, it's like a cannonball. If you get hit, you'll either die or be crippled."

"This speed can be exploited. Currently, my average movement speed can reach one hundred and fifty meters per second, enough to evade its attacks."

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The High Priest frowned slightly, reminding him:

"Li Hao has been planning this rebellion and power grab for a long time. He must have made corresponding modifications and preparations to his Rock Steed Armor."

"A level 25 armor will double the base speed, reaching sixty meters per second. The instantaneous burst speed will also be above one hundred and fifty meters, only slightly slower than you in powered armor. Don't be too careless."

The High Priest seemed to think of something, and his tone changed:

"But don't worry too much. Li Hao won't waste too many resources on you in order to win the final arena competition."

"The limit burst state will not only cause the internal temperature of the Rock Steed Armor to rise sharply but also consume a large number of the warship's evolutionary cells. High temperatures also damage the armor."

"Therefore, each burst is a consumption of source matter. After a battle, if the Rock Steed Armor wants to recover quickly, in addition to providing corresponding energy, it also needs to absorb a portion of the level 20 Rockhorn Steed's life source matter."

"It's like a battery for biological armor."

As the High Priest introduced this, Lin Feng also saw the corresponding explanation in the report in his hand.

So the cost of using the Rock Steed Armor is so high. Lin Feng narrowed his eyes slightly, nodded, and thanked him:

"Thank you, Priest. This information is very important."

After explaining the matters related to the sparring one by one, the High Priest finally left a sentence:

"Bishop wants Chief Lin to consume the opponent's condition as much as possible, while ensuring your own safety, and it would be best to test out one or two of their trump cards."

"But the premise is that you are not affected. As long as your condition remains, the rebels will not dare to act rashly."

Lin Feng nodded and then saw the High Priest off.

Watching him leave the convoy and enter Holy Spring Village in the blink of an eye, Lin Feng looked up at the Oasis warship on the left, thinking about countermeasures.

The Church sent these materials and reminders, in addition to protecting himself, they also hoped to use this sparring to test Li Hao's true strength in advance.

And the latter is more important.

After all, Lin Feng had readily agreed to Li Hao's invitation at the Oasis's highest meeting. In everyone's opinion, he should be very confident in the sparring competition.

Adding this information will make him more composed.

But after reading these materials, Lin Feng did not feel relaxed. Instead, he had a clearer and more direct understanding of the enemy's strength.

A level 20 Rock Steed Armor has a defensive effect of about 300 points. Then a level 25 armor has a defense value of at least 800 points, equivalent to a late-stage Tier 2 defense effect.

The two level 22 cannons in his hand, the high-explosive rapid-fire cannon, are useless and won't cause any damage. Only the armor-piercing cannon is worth considering.

But the base damage of the lv22 armor-piercing cannon is only 300. Adding the extra effect of the Wolf Fang armor-piercing shell, which increases damage by 100 points, it's only 400 points in total.

It can cause damage to late-stage Tier 2 evolutionaries.

But facing the Rock Steed Armor, whose defense ability is comparable to late-stage Tier 2, it can only be said that it is far from enough.

He can only hope for another effect of the Wolf Fang armor-piercing shell, which is a 100% increase in armor-piercing ability.

Lin Feng doesn't expect to directly penetrate the Rock Steed Armor. He only hopes to break through a layer, even if it's just a few centimeters.

This way, he can use the dripping water wears away the stone tactic to slowly grind away the opponent's defensive armor.

Otherwise, he can only rely on his speed advantage and the high-performance movement mode of the armor to distance himself from the opponent and passively evade.

Although this can also consume the opponent's condition, Lin Feng wants to counterattack more.

After all, with his current strength, even without using the assembled ultimate move, he can easily suppress early-stage evolutionaries of the same tier and rival late-stage Tier 2.

Facing a powerful enemy like Li Hao, even slightly injuring the opponent is enough to establish his reputation and strength and deter others.

After the High Priest left, Lin Feng immediately called in the main members of his team to ask for their opinions.

Ma Chenfeng had also seen Tier 2 evolutionaries fight before and could provide some reference.

Among the others, only Ding Yi could help with some data analysis and, together with A Ming, develop combat strategies for Lin Feng.

These were all entered into the powered armor's system. Although they weren't very useful, they could at least provide some basis in actual combat.

However, what Lin Feng didn't expect was that when Xu Wanshuang, the vice president of the Fifth Village Guild, came to notify him of the location and time of the arena sparring during lunch...

...she brought Lin Feng something extremely valuable.

Xu Wanshuang said apologetically:

"My sister was indeed unaware of Patriarch Li's sparring proposal before the meeting. She has made the best preparations for this competition and will definitely not allow Chief Lin to encounter any accidents."

"I hope Chief Lin will forgive us."

"This is a compensation that my sister specifically instructed me to bring to you, sir..."

As she spoke, Xu Wanshuang handed over a palm-sized black metal body with the words 'Combat Data' written on it.

"This is a Tier 2 combat auxiliary module that can be installed on general-purpose powered armor. It contains a large amount of Tier 2 evolutionary combat mode data. It is valuable data obtained by the guild after scanning tens of thousands of battles between Tier 2 powerhouses and summarizing them."

"With it, after you put on the powered armor and use the auxiliary combat mode, you can directly transform into an experienced Tier 2 warrior."

"Even if there is a big difference in evolutionary level and strength between you and Patriarch Li, the opponent is a Rock Steed warrior, and his speed is slightly inferior to yours."

"With the help of the Tier 2 combat data module, it is enough to evade his three attacks."