Side Mission Complete

When Xiao Ran opened his eyes, he was awakened by violent shaking. He slammed heavily into a steel wall, and the moment he opened his eyes, his head felt like it was splitting apart. Dazed and groggy, he could not react for a moment to where he was. His mind was completely blank.

Only after the shaking weakened did he Astonishedly realize that he seemed to be floating in midair. Focusing his eyes on the unfamiliar ceiling, he finally woke up and instantly recalled everything that had happened before he lost consciousness. He rubbed his head. "What happened? Ow... that hurts."

The moment his hand touched his head, he felt a thick layer of something. Xiao Ran had thought his head merely felt heavy because he was groggy, but when he touched it, he found a thick layer of bandages wrapped around his head.

"Got hurt again..." Xiao Ran gave a bitter smile and raised his left hand, checking his current condition:

Accuracy 1 (4): Affects shooting ability and precision

Agility 1 (1): Affects melee ability and strength

Reaction 2 (8): Affects reaction speed and dexterity

Mentality 3 (9): Affects skill consumption and perception

Physique 1 (3): Affects physical fitness and endurance

(The values in parentheses represent normal values. The values outside represent current physical values.)

Endurance 7 (30): Weakened

Not Unlocked? (?)

Skills: None.

Overall Evaluation: Unranked.

Main Mission One: Safely escape Heliopolis Satellite Colony within eight hours (Completed). Evaluation: S-rank. Reward not claimed. Claim early: Yes/No.

Main Mission Two: Choose to join a faction in this world within ten days, then learn mecha operating skills within one month and reach D-Class (Incomplete).

Side Mission One: Completed.

Side Mission Two: Ensure that the Earth Force warship successfully escapes the pursuit of ZAFT forces warships within Heliopolis. Mission success reward: D-Class General Mecha Piloting Skill (Completed). Mission reward: D-Class General Mecha Piloting Skill. Extract: Yes/No."

Xiao Ran carefully read through the display on his wristwatch two or three times. Only after quite a while did the bewilderment on his face turn into delight. Although his Endurance had dropped to an unprecedented low of only seven points, leaving him weakened, limp, and groggy, everything else was a pleasant surprise.

Perhaps because he had participated in Archangel's battle, his Accuracy attribute, which had originally been only two points, had increased astonishingly. It had doubled from 2 to 4.

It was not just Accuracy. Reaction and Mentality had also risen by two and one point respectively. The increases might not have seemed like much, but for Xiao Ran, whose attributes had been innately low, every point meant narrowing the gap between himself and the other alien participants. Every point represented his growth. To Xiao Ran, that was immensely precious.

Main Mission One had also been completed, and he had received an S-rank evaluation. He could even enjoy the Special Treatment of claiming his evaluation reward early in the Newbie Mission world. Whatever the S-rank reward was, it would surely increase Xiao Ran's strength and give him another safeguard for survival.

Even more surprising was Side Mission Two. Xiao Ran had no idea how he had completed it, but its completion meant that Archangel had already escaped the range of Heliopolis. As for how far the plot had progressed, Xiao Ran was completely clueless. However, judging from the earlier shaking, they had probably just escaped the battle.

Although Main Mission Two was still incomplete, it was not a problem for Xiao Ran at all. As long as he claimed the reward from the completed Side Mission Two, he would immediately obtain the D-Class General Mecha Piloting Skill. Then, once he found Mwu and expressed his willingness to temporarily join Archangel's faction, this Main Mission could be completed in no time.

From the information he had seen before and now, Xiao Ran had also figured out some things about Main God mission rewards. A mission might grant a hidden evaluation based on the degree of completion. Once a certain level was reached, all rewards would be amplified after the mission ended, and different evaluations would grant different rewards, such as the two Golden Treasure Chests awarded for an S-rank evaluation. Treasure chest rewards like these could not be extracted immediately in worlds other than the Newbie Mission world. They could only be claimed after returning to Prometheus Fortress.

Rewards gained through evaluations could be considered hidden rewards. Since there were hidden rewards, there were naturally direct rewards that could be claimed openly and clearly, such as the D-Class General Mecha Piloting Skill from Side Mission Two. Anything plainly listed in the reward description could be obtained once the mission was completed.

Still, Xiao Ran found something strange. Main Missions received evaluations, so why did Side Missions not? Had he failed to meet the standard, or did such evaluations simply not exist?

Xiao Ran thought about it but could not figure it out, so he gave up and excitedly began claiming his mission rewards.

"Extract the reward for Side Mission Two."

The instant that thought appeared in Xiao Ran's mind, a pillar of light that no one but him could see descended from the void. It shone over his body, covering him in a faint, flickering white glow. The light rushed into his body, making him relax completely. His whole body felt warm and comfortable, and he could not help letting out a soft moan.

But suddenly, Xiao Ran, who had been comfortably closing his eyes, snapped them wide open. An indescribable pain erupted throughout his body, as if his bones and soul had shattered at the same time. If anyone had been in the room with him, they would have clearly seen his bloodshot eyes and twisted expression, yet he could not make a sound. Even more bizarrely, his body was swelling and contracting.

Just as Xiao Ran felt that the pain was about to kill him, the pillar of light from the void suddenly shrank, leaving behind only its final sparks. Those sparks forcefully poured directly into Xiao Ran's body. His entire body stiffened, then relaxed. With his eyes closed, a continuous stream of images flashed through his mind. As those images imprinted themselves one by one into his mind, they ultimately became his deepest memories, both mental and physical.

This meant that the enhancement of the D-Class General Mecha Piloting Skill was complete. Xiao Ran had truly gained the ability to pilot mecha.

"Whew." After letting out a deep breath, Xiao Ran opened his eyes and muttered with a strange expression, "Is this good luck or bad luck?"

Xiao Ran checked his attributes again. The moment he saw the data, he burst into loud laughter, laughing so hard that tears nearly flowed from his eyes. "I never expected this. I really never expected it. Hahaha, something like this actually happened to me. This is... this is... hahaha."

Accuracy 1 (10): Affects shooting ability and precision

Agility 1 (5): Affects melee ability and strength

Reaction 5 (10): Affects reaction speed and dexterity

Mentality 3 (9): Affects skill consumption and perception

Physique 1 (5): Affects physical fitness and endurance

(The values in parentheses represent normal values. The values outside represent current physical values.)

Endurance 15 (50)

Not Unlocked? (?)

Less than three minutes had passed between the two times he checked his attributes, yet the values shown on his wristwatch had changed drastically. That was why Xiao Ran laughed so wildly. Perhaps even the system had not expected that a newcomer capable of consecutively completing two Side Missions in a Newbie Mission and receiving an S-rank evaluation would be such a weakling that he did not even meet the enhancement requirements for the D-Class General Mecha Piloting Skill. More importantly, in a Newbie Mission world, as long as a Side Mission was triggered and fifty percent of the mission chain was completed, this reward was likely to appear.

Enhancing the D-Class General Mecha Piloting Skill required certain conditions. The most direct requirement was a person's physical fitness—their digitized values. At minimum, two of the five attributes had to reach 10 points, while every other attribute had to be no lower than 5. Among those Alien Races, such attributes could only be considered the bare minimum.

For Xiao Ran, however, that was impossible. Ninety-nine percent of Earth's humans could not possess such values. Aside from Reaction and Mentality exceeding 5, the rest of Xiao Ran's attributes were utterly embarrassing. But since the reward had already been issued, the system randomly raised two of Xiao Ran's attributes to 10, while any that were below 5 were raised to 5. That was why Xiao Ran's data had increased by several times.

Enhancement was originally painless. The reason Xiao Ran had shown such agony just now was that the system had given a tiny punishment for his passive exploitation of a loophole. Of course, this only applied to Xiao Ran's special circumstances. First, this was an accident. Second, Xiao Ran's physical fitness could be said to be the worst in the history of Prometheus Fortress. His appearance in Prometheus Fortress was itself an accident that even the system found puzzling. Third, Side Mission Two had indeed been completed after Xiao Ran made a contribution, even though he himself had no idea when he had completed it.

Considering all of this, Xiao Ran himself had done nothing wrong and naturally would not receive any further punishment. The system had merely given him a small reprimand. Since it had also discovered a system loophole because of this, strengthening his body could be considered a reward for helping the system find it.

However, this reward did not come without a price. Once Xiao Ran returned to Prometheus Fortress, he would have to pay the system 50 Merit Points for each attribute point. After being enhanced, he had gained a full 15 additional attribute points, for a total of 750 Merit Points.

Completing three Main Missions would grant 1,000 points. An S-rank evaluation would increase the final reward by 50%, which currently meant another 500 points. As soon as Xiao Ran returned, he would have to repay the 750-point fee. Although that was already half of all his reward points, Xiao Ran still felt it was worth it.

Because he had learned from the system that increasing a stat from 1 to 9 cost 50 points each time, while raising it from 9 to 10 required 100 points. Xiao Ran had effectively profited by 100 points. Moreover, he could be enhanced during the mission itself, once again narrowing the gap between himself and the other participants. How could he possibly be dissatisfied with the system over such a good thing? He was far too happy.

Besides, there were still two Golden Treasure Chests waiting to be claimed. No matter how he looked at it, Xiao Ran had made a huge profit this time.

"Extract the S-rank evaluation reward!"