“Whoa, what cool armor!”
Selia’s eyes lit up as she poked and prodded the Shield Guard’s giant shield.
“By the way, System, does this kind of temporarily recruited Shield Guard have self-awareness?”
“Of course not.
Units summoned by Foldartals only possess combat awareness and experience; they have no self-awareness.”
“However, they do have basic intelligence; at least they can understand your commands.”
“If you really want someone with strong intelligence, I can also control the Shield Guard’s body and guest star for you.
After all, it won’t have much impact.”
“Is that so?
Let me try.”
Selia stopped what she was doing and asked the Shield Guard: “Shield Guard, there is a group of over twenty Syracusan gangsters ahead.
How much of a threat do you think they are, and how should we deploy for battle?”
The Shield Guard was silent for a moment.
A moment later, a deep male voice came from under the heavy armor: “No need to worry, just crush them.”
“Good heavens, so confident?”
“Host, even setting aside the game data, these Syracusan gangsters are one-shield-smash kills when facing a battle-hardened Shield Guard.”
“If we count by game data, not counting blocking, monsters at difficulty 1 might not even be able to break the Shield Guard’s defense.”
“Then it seems there’s really nothing to worry about.” Selia unslung the sniper rifle from her back.
“So, just go in directly?”
“My assessment is that if you can use the sniper rifle correctly in this battle, you’ve succeeded.”
“Hmph, System, don’t you underestimate me.
It’s not like I lack common sense.” Selia was dismissive of this.
“Of course I know how much recoil this thing has.
Don’t worry, I’ll be careful.”
The confident Selia brought the Shield Guard to the side of this settlement—or rather, the ruins of the settlement.
Then, as if a switch had been triggered, the moment Selia crossed a certain boundary, a dozen gazes simultaneously turned toward the sneaky Selia behind the wall.
“No way, that’s how it works?
I was hoping for a sneak attack.”
Being stared at by so many malicious gazes, Selia felt a chill.
“Help me, Mr.
Shield Guard!”
“Should I control him to say ‘Get away from Selia’?”
The system’s sarcastic remark followed.
Accompanying Selia’s voice were several sharp arrows shot by Syracusan Crossbowmen.
The Shield Guard said nothing, only stepping slightly to the left, completely shielding Selia’s petite figure behind him.
With a few “clang-clang” collision sounds, the crossbow bolts hit the Shield Guard’s metal giant shield, making crisp striking sounds, and were then deflected far away.
Blocking a round of arrows, the Shield Guard raised his giant shield and smashed the nearest Syracusan thug holding a knife, sending him flying.
The poor thug fainted in mid-air, hit several others before stopping, and then turned into black ash.
“Huh?
There are no corpses?”
[Of course not.
On one hand, these enemies are simulated by the system and don’t have real bodies.
On the other hand, this is for the Host’s sake, to prevent the Host from being sickened by the stench of corpses when encountering maps with hordes of monsters.]
“I see.
Then I’m not afraid anymore.” Selia excitedly knelt on one knee, disengaged the safety on her sniper rifle, and struck a rather unpolished kneeling pose.
“I remember the video teaching it like this…” Holding her breath and focusing, she aimed the crosshairs at the largest target in front of her—the Veteran Butcher wielding a giant axe.
Then—fire!
With the roar from the muzzle, Selia’s body swayed violently.
Although she had been prepared, the powerful recoil almost knocked her to the ground.
As for the bullet?
Look at the confused expression on the Veteran Butcher; perhaps that bullet hit a ghost in the air.
“Ouch, ow, ow…” Selia practically dropped the sniper rifle and clutched her right shoulder, right where the buttstock had been pressed, asking with teary eyes: “Why is the recoil so huge?
QWQ.”
[Host, because that is a weapon meant for people of Terra.
Think about the physical fitness of the Rainbow Team, and then think about your own physical fitness.]
The system’s helpless voice echoed in her mind.
[If it weren’t for the fact that your cognition level is maxed out, which strengthened your physical fitness quite a bit, the best-case scenario for that shot just now would have been your right arm getting shattered.]
“Damn it, doesn’t that mean I basically have no combat power for this trial?”
[Um, Host, is there a possibility that even if I gave you a melee weapon, you’d still struggle to beat the small fry?]
The system reminded her “kindly.”
[According to my assessment of your physical fitness, your combat power is roughly equivalent to one originium shard.]
“Ah, this…” Watching the Shield Guard fighting with ease ahead, Selia felt a bit down: “I want to get stronger too, otherwise, if I transmigrate to Honkai Impact 3rd but can only watch those tragedies happen helplessly, wouldn’t I have come for nothing…”
[Don’t worry, Host.
Strengthening your physical fitness can be achieved through promotion and changing bodies.
But battle experience can only be gained through life-and-death struggles time and time again.]
[But it’s okay.
Anyway, dying in the trial just means restarting the run.
I believe the Host will soon get used to the feeling of death.
Who knows, maybe in the future you could become an existence like Yang the Sit-up King or Fu the Push-up Queen.]
“Wait…
wait a minute?” Selia was no longer calm: “What do you mean by that?
Isn’t a roguelike something you can exit at any time?”
[As long as you haven’t entered a node, of course you can.]
A hint of mischief leaked into the system’s energetic voice.
[But you can’t do that inside a node, including combat nodes and encounters you face during an unexpected encounter.]
[So, Host, if you want to take shortcuts to clear the level, you will inevitably have to go through many non-combat nodes.
In other words, if you fail to clear the level, it’s highly likely you encountered a skirmish within nodes like unexpected encounters.]
“But didn’t you say that my body here isn’t real?” Selia still held onto a glimmer of hope.
[That applies to the monsters, but you, Host, are real.
You were almost crying from the pain of the recoil just now, remember?]
“I’m doomed…
I feel like my corpses are going to line up and circle around Schicksal.” Selia pulled a long face: “I haven’t even become a master of the integrated strategy mode yet, and I’ve already become Yakumo Yukari.
Can you give me a peach?
At least let me not die so painfully.”
[Then the Host will have to change your gambling-addict personality.
Don’t blame me for not warning you.
I remember in one of the Duke of Ducks’ stages, the monsters were like dozens of berserk hunting dogs.
Host, you wouldn’t want to…]
Selia imagined the scene of being surrounded by dozens of hunting dogs and shuddered violently: “Don’t worry, now that you’ve said that, I will never touch that stage even if it kills me!”