Apocalypse: I Can See the HP Bar, Killing Monsters Drops Loot-Chapter 995 - 396: Base Mayor

In Wang Tao's memory, the mayor of Changhe City Base was a mysterious figure, as he had never seen the mayor since his arrival at the base.

All Wang Tao knew was that the man's name was Yao Guodong; other details eluded him.

Today, upon seeing the mayor, Wang Tao was somewhat surprised—because Yao Guodong turned out to be an ordinary person with only 1000 HP and a negative status Wang Tao had never seen before.

[HP: 1000/1000]

[Curse: Fusion Crystal Core success rate reduced, recovers if no Fusion Crystal Core is merged within 30 days]

[Internal Impurity: 70%]

There are many ordinary people within the base, but Yao Guodong was the mayor—a mere ordinary person as a mayor could be questionable in maintaining authority?

But after seeing his negative status, Wang Tao understood why he was an ordinary person—the status actually lowered the success rate of merging Crystal Cores!

Isn't that absurd?

Wang Tao had actually seen many negative statuses, like the most common [Corrosive Acid Rain], which anyone caught in the rain could easily get. There are also statuses like [Weakness], [Bleed], [Electrocution], [Combustion] related to combat. Some of these statuses are severe and could be life-threatening.

However, these negative statuses usually last only briefly, such as Weakness, which at most lasts just one day.

But the "Curse" over Yao Guodong's head required 30 days to expire, and it would persist indefinitely if he attempted to merge a Crystal Core within those 30 days!

Thirty days is neither long nor short, but time isn't the point. What matters is that other than Wang Tao, it seemed no one else could detect this issue.

Given that Yao Guodong still was not an Ability User, Wang Tao speculated that this "Curse" must have been contracted earlier. If it were recent, Yao Guodong should have become an Ability User by now…

And if he contracted it earlier and had not discovered how to lift the curse, then it's likely Yao Guodong kept attempting to merge with Crystal Cores, failing each time, thus creating a vicious cycle—as evidenced by the high level of internal impurities, clearly from numerous fusion attempts. Wang Tao's speculation was probably correct.

Thus, in Wang Tao's eyes, Yao Guodong was not just any ordinary person; he was an extraordinarily unlucky one.

"Mayor Yao, good to meet you!"

Wang Tao greeted Yao Guodong politely with a handshake.

"I've heard much about Mr. Wang from long ago, and seeing you today, you truly are as talented as they say,"

praised Yao Guodong.

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"Oh, not at all, Mayor Yao appears older than I had thought, but you seem quite robust..."

Unable to find anything else to compliment, Wang Tao could only praise his good health.

"Old now! Not as fit as before..."

After exchanging a few more polite remarks, Wang Tao said candidly:

"I'm quite surprised to learn that Mayor Yao is not an Ability User..."

Yao Guodong was the mayor, the highest administrative official in Changhe Base. Although Wang Tao was not familiar with him and unaware of his character, being a mayor and supported by many council members, he definitely had remarkable qualities.

So if there was a way for Wang Tao to help solve his problems and make him an Ability User, Wang Tao would not mind helping, as it would be beneficial both publicly and privately.

After hearing Wang Tao's words, Yao Guodong gave a bitter smile.

"Ah, it's not something unspeakable. It's just my bad luck..."

…

In a post-apocalyptic world, one encounters various unexpected events, both good and bad, with most being unfortunate, like in the case of Yao Guodong.

He contracted this curse a long time ago—of course, he wasn't aware of it as a curse. He only knew that after visiting a certain place, he fell seriously ill upon his return. Once he recovered, he didn't feel there were any issues.

But when it came time to merge Crystal Cores, he realized something was amiss—he failed every single attempt to merge!

Although the likelihood of merging low-quality Crystal Cores was indeed low, he wasn't trying to merge low-quality cores—by that time, Changhe Base had already been established, and although he was not young, he had proven quite capable. Thus, he had exerted much effort in establishing the base and naturally enjoyed better benefits, including access to Crystal Cores of blue quality and above.

Yet he failed to merge with all the blue, purple, and red Crystal Cores—it was outrageous!

At that point, Yao Guodong could still comfort himself by attributing it to bad luck, believing persistence would yield success eventually.

But when he still failed after attempting to merge an Orange Crystal Core, he was utterly baffled.

By then, the research institute had conducted numerous tests and determined the success rate for merging Orange Crystal Cores to be 100%, theoretically impossible to fail! Yet he failed...

It was then that Yao Guodong realized this was not about bad luck, but a fundamental inability to merge Crystal Cores!

He didn't understand what was going on, and the research institute couldn't diagnose the issue either. Remembering his severe illness and the lingering discomfort, he suspected that his continuous failures to merge Crystal Cores might be related to that event.

But even if his guess was correct, what could he do? He couldn't even begin to understand the underlying principle, let alone find a solution. He suspected that his constitution might have changed, preventing him from merging with any Crystal Cores. Even though it seemed far-fetched, it wasn't impossible—after all, in a post-apocalyptic world, nothing was unexpected.