Apocalypse: I Can See the HP Bar, Killing Monsters Drops Loot-Chapter 1562 - 655: Berserk

Bang!

The zombies before him were all crushed by the tentacles, which then retracted and transformed back into a bracelet-like shape, silently resting on Wang Tao’s wrist.

"Pretty good!"

Wang Tao gently stroked [Entangling Touch], feeling thoroughly satisfied in his heart.

With both [Sandstorm Hand] and [Entangling Touch], these two powerful biological weapons with exceptional control abilities, encountering a destruction-level creature in the future might just be worth a shot...

After putting away the two biological weapons, Wang Tao turned his gaze to the Loot Pack dropped by the Octopus Monster.

Among the usual Crystal Core, Potion, Secret Key, and Energy Beads, Wang Tao was naturally most drawn to the Equipment Blueprints.

[Acquired: Frenzy Ring Blueprint x1]

[Frenzy Ring Blueprint: Enables the crafting of a ring. Required materials: Mad Eye x1, Sixth-Rank Crystal Core x1]

[Frenzy Ring: Attributes unknown]

This time, only one Equipment Blueprint dropped — a ring.

Since he had all the materials, Wang Tao immediately began crafting. With a flash of dazzling rainbow light, a ring engraved with an eye appeared in Wang Tao’s hand.

[Frenzy Ring]

[Sixth Rank (Epic)]

[Attack power +5%, Mental attack power +5%, Ability: Berserk]

[Berserk: During activation, HP cap is continuously reduced; all basic attributes significantly increase. The more HP lost, the stronger the effect of Berserk (can be terminated at will).]

The attributes of this ring made Wang Tao’s eyes shine.

Equipment aside from weapons rarely boosts attack power. The 5% attack power enhancement was extremely rare, not to mention the additional 5% mental attack boost! For someone like Wang Tao, who also utilizes mental attacks, this ring was practically tailor-made for him.

However, the strongest aspect of the ring was its unique ability: [Berserk]. [Berserk] could dramatically enhance all of one’s basic attributes, akin to the [Madness] ability awakened by the Octopus Monster.

Though [Madness] carried the drawback of pushing one’s consciousness into insanity, making one uncontrollably attack anything in sight, the downside of [Berserk] was the continuous reduction of HP cap. Relatively speaking, Wang Tao felt [Berserk]’s drawback was easier to handle. It didn’t impair his consciousness and could be terminated at any moment, offering far better controllability compared to Madness.

Moreover, [Berserk] shared a similar trait with [Madness] — the lower the HP, the stronger the effect.

Previously, when the Sandstorm Giant Zombie fell into Madness, Wang Tao noticed its combat strength skyrocketing as it fought, growing progressively more powerful. He assumed that [Berserk] would work similarly...

Wang Tao put on the Frenzy Ring and immediately activated the Berserk ability.

Buzz—

A faint layer of red seemed to blanket Wang Tao’s vision, though it didn’t obstruct his sight; it was still somewhat unsettling. However, his body began to strengthen rapidly — the sensation was unmistakable.

Wang Tao glanced at his blood bar; his HP cap was steadily decreasing, dropping at a rate of 5000 HP per second, including the cap!

In other words, his 1 million HP would only last for 200 seconds, just a bit over three minutes.

While this drawback appeared preferable to a loss of sanity, Wang Tao recognized the significant risks posed by the reduction in HP cap.

After all, it wasn’t solely his current HP that diminished but also the upper limit. That meant he couldn’t replenish HP through healing abilities or blood-sucking mechanisms. It significantly increased his vulnerability...

Despite the drawbacks, the boosting effects were undeniable—

After losing 10% of his HP cap, Wang Tao could feel his physical attributes doubling; losing 20% boosted them by twofold; losing 30% tripled them!

Hence, sacrificing 10% of his HP cap equated to doubling his physical attributes! Theoretically, as Wang Tao’s HP dipped lower, his physical attributes approached a tenfold increase!

Wang Tao already benefitted from System Awakening, through which his formidable physical attributes allowed for powerful physical attacks. If his physical attributes could be multiplied tenfold and paired with his other offensive techniques, he couldn’t even fathom the level of damage he could inflict!

Of course, achieving nearly tenfold enhancement came with immense risks.

Since this involved reducing the HP cap, making it impossible to restore HP, any stray hit from an attack could instantly kill him if the cap dipped too low.

Thus, although the prospect of a tenfold boost seemed appealing, Wang Tao didn’t dare push it to the limit. At most, he could tolerate reducing his HP cap by half, which translated into a fivefold boost, dropping from 1 million to 500,000 HP. Any lower, and he would feel unsafe.

After further experiencing the rampaging energy within his body and waiting until his HP cap fell to 500,000, Wang Tao terminated [Berserk].

The red tint in his vision gradually faded, and the energy within his body returned to its normal state. As for his HP, while the cap reverted to 1 million, his current HP remained at the previously reduced 500,000.

Wang Tao glanced at the [Berserk] ability, unsurprisingly seeing it entering cooldown.

[Cooldown time: 9 minutes 59 seconds]

"A 10-minute cooldown, huh... not bad!"

This cooldown time was much shorter than Wang Tao imagined, providing him adequate time to restore HP for another activation.

Wang Tao quickly sought out another group of zombies, wielding the Iron Shatter Spear as he launched his attack. With the spear’s blood-sucking ability combined with the HP regeneration effects of his water attribute attacks, Wang Tao soon restored his HP to full capacity.