[Fatui Harbinger, Second Seat: The Doctor]
[Level: 90]
Max level!?
Dai Gan stared at the glaring red Level 90 tag in front of him, his mind snapping wide awake.
His steps ground to a halt right in front of Dottore, drawing a surprised sound from the man.
“Hmm?”
Dai Gan repeatedly double-checked the column displaying the level.
Dottore, the Doctor, who was always tagged as the Second Seat of the Fatui during meeting cutscenes, actually possessed insane power at Level 90.
He had assumed the strongest Harbinger was the massive guy in a crisp military uniform sitting at the highest seat with an overwhelming presence that crushed everyone in the room—the Captain, who looked like he had leaped straight out of Terra next door.
Or at the very least, that arrogant guy staring out of one eye, doing nothing but playing chess, who seemed like the top dog under the Cryo Archon.
Who knew the one truly hiding his strength was this Doctor, who looked like an OB-GYN chief in a white lab coat and mask, not even bothering to look at patients giving birth?
Level 90—the strongest!?
This was the first time he had ever seen a Level 90 tag on a character model.
According to system notes, Level 90 represented god-tier combat power.
Even the Cryo Archon didn’t have a 3D model, yet the second Harbinger he met with an actual model was already Level 90.
Was he going to have to fight this guy next?
A scripted defeat?
Dai Gan quickly looked above Dottore’s head, only to find there wasn’t a massive, screen-stretching health bar.
Thank goodness…
Dottore looked with great interest at Dai Gan, who had stopped right in front of him.
This weirdo never uttered a word during meetings, didn’t give even the Cryo Archon any face, and ended up falling out of favor with her to the point of losing both his salary and his seat.
Even Dottore wouldn’t do something so bizarre and thankless.
This guy was famous for snatching away Dottore’s insignificant title of “most bizarre Harbinger.”
Dottore had assumed Dai Gan would ignore him again.
He was ready to make a move, yet the fellow suddenly stopped.
Was he scared?
He was curious to see what would pop out of the mouth of this Harbinger who usually struggled to utter a single word.
“…”
Dai Gan didn’t act recklessly, still staring curiously at this Doctor whose model had suddenly loaded.
Well…
he isn’t fighting, nor is he talking.
What does he mean by standing in my way?
*System, did I enter a cutscene?* Dai Gan asked in his mind.
[Character is currently inside a Domain.
No cutscene detected.]
“Then what’s going on here?
He’s standing in front of me and blocking me from fighting the Domain boss!” Dai Gan was bewildered.
Did the game glitch out?
[Is he blocking you?]
“What?”
[Detected Harbinger: The Doctor (Level 90).
No health bar displayed.
He is merely an NPC; please pay him no mind.]
“Is…
that so?”
Dai Gan widened his eyes and examined the roughly modeled Doctor in front of him.
Looking closely, he really did look like an NPC, quite different from how he appeared in the cutscenes.
There probably wasn’t even a face rendered inside his beak mask.
Maybe he really was just an NPC?
“Then…
excuse me?”
Dai Gan tried to step forward.
*Clack.*
Dai Gan raised his leg.
“Insisting on doing this?”
Dottore smiled, watching Dai Gan lift his foot mere inches away.
The moment Dai Gan’s foot landed, however, his figure suddenly vanished.
Before Dottore could trace his location, a massive force slammed violently onto his shoulder from behind.
*Thud!*
Only after the immense force landed did a palm rest on his shoulder.
In an instant, every defensive measure across his entire body failed.
Dai Gan’s arm straightened.
Dottore fell sideways.
“Ugh…”
By the time he realized what had happened, Dai Gan was already behind him.
*Bang!*
Dottore propped himself up with one hand, barely keeping from tumbling over.
Under normal perspective, his arm seemed to swell slightly larger.
Underneath his bulky clothes, green veins now bulged and twined like creeping vines.
A smile lingered on his lips, but a fierce gleam flared from the slits of his mask.
The ground crushed beneath his palm cracked.
It was hard to imagine how much effort he exerted just to save face.
“It lagged again, huh?
Turns out I just collided with his model mesh.”
Seeing Dottore stumble from the impact, Dai Gan realized the truth.
As expected of an NPC, he even had hit-reaction animations.
Time to hit Scaramouche; otherwise, his hit-stun will wear off.
Looking at Scaramouche on the ground, who still had plenty of HP remaining, Dai Gan raised his sword, ready to basic-attack his health bar down.
“Are you going to keep hunting our dear colleague Scaramouche, Mr.
Dai Gan?
How cruel.”
A voice sounded from behind.
Dottore’s arm twisted and extended at an unnatural angle, his enlarged palm squirming like a fleshy worm toward Dai Gan’s wrist mid-swing.
*Thud!*
Dai Gan finished his sword swing.
Dottore’s figure was caught in the arc, swept into the air, spun 180 degrees, and dropped right in front of Dai Gan.
Dottore looked at Dai Gan in astonishment.
He had actually been dragged along and launched into the air?
Under the blade, Scaramouche’s other arm was severed, spilling a vast amount of white energy, though it was noticeably less than before.
“Truly…
incredible.”
Dottore raised his eyes to Dai Gan, who stood holding his sword.
The playful smile on his face tightened slightly, and his previous anger vanished into thin air.
A rare look of gravity flickered through his crimson pupils.
Earlier, after being bumped into, he had wanted to use his physical strength—something he hadn’t used in a long time—to gain the upper hand.
He hadn’t expected that his bodily modifications, which had taken countless experiments to reach the absolute limits of human potential, would hit a bottleneck once again.
“That force…
feels impossible to resist.”
His crimson eyes were soon filled once more with intense intrigue.
“Fascinating…
absolutely fascinating.
No modifications, no Vision boost, yet possessing such power purely with a mortal body.
“Your muscle fiber density, your bone load threshold, your explosive force output pattern…
what secrets are hiding within you?”
“Looking closely, your skin is no different from an ordinary person’s.
Do me a favor and let me examine your muscle texture.”
The instant Dottore pulled out a scalpel, his arm whipped out like a lash, slicing with precise accuracy toward Dai Gan’s arm.
Yet when physical contact occurred, metallic clanging resonated.
*Snap…*
After a crisp sound, Dottore held his broken wrist before his eyes, marveling in disbelief.
“Just as I expected.
Possessing such power, even the skin you cannot train is far sturdier than steel.
Look, mere physical contact broke my wrist.
“Yet why…
is the scalpel completely undamaged?”
Dottore’s model flickered.
Dai Gan suddenly lost 1 HP—the amount was so small that no damage number even appeared.
[Domain Challenge Cleared]
Scaramouche’s model on the ground suddenly vanished.
Before Dai Gan could process it, the option to leave the domain popped up on his UI.
“What’s going on here?”
[Scaramouche’s model glitched out.]
Dai Gan pondered for a moment whether to leave.
“Might as well claim the rewards first.”
Dai Gan’s figure vanished from the spot, running toward Shouki no Kami.
“Hmm, in such a hurry, Mr.
Dai Gan?”
Dottore looked at Dai Gan, but made no move to stop him.
“No need to rush, because you won’t be leaving here anyway.
After witnessing how extraordinary you are, I intend to treasure our time together.”
He crouched, pressed his hand against Scaramouche’s body, and reattached his two severed arms.
“Rejoice, Scaramouche.
I am not one to abandon old interests lightly.
After preparing for so long, my interest in you won’t wane just because of a new surprise.”
After completely patching up the gaps in Scaramouche’s shoulders, Dottore stood up, unhurriedly tapped the terminal at his ear, and shut down the data stream flickering with the Akasha Core.
Amid a series of heavy thuds from doors closing all around…
Dottore turned with a broad smile toward Dai Gan, who was poking around on the god-creation platform.
“Now nobody will interrupt us.
Let us have a delightful time progressing together, my dear Mr.
Dai Gan.”
On the platform, looking at the giant mecha, Dai Gan appreciated it briefly before immediately clicking the option to claim his rewards.
[Rewards Obtained]
[EXP: 1000]
[Item: Gnosis (Electro)]
[Achievement: Gnosis Collection: 1/7]
[Unlocked: Options]
*Snap.*
Behind the platform, Dottore stepped forward, only to find that the indestructible containment vessel powered by Gnosis energy had been pierced straight through in an instant.
*Crackle.*
The Electro Gnosis, crackling with arcs of lightning, had just stopped functioning and was now held in Dai Gan’s hand.
“Oh~ Another surprise, Mr.
Dai Gan!
An elemental immunity stronger than even the branches of Irminsul…
You really, really have made me fall deeply in love with your potential!”
Dai Gan nodded in relief as he looked at the newly added Gnosis in his inventory.
“Good thing I cleared out some garbage from my inventory earlier, or it would’ve glitch-despawned again.”
The next instant, light and shadows flashed, and his vision returned to outside the domain.
“Sigh, back to running across the map again.
When are they gonna give me a teleport feature?”
[Quest: Hand over the Gnosis to the Cryo Archon.
The Cryo Archon will grant you your favorite × Model Not Loaded ×]