I Am in Honkai, But Integrated Strategies Have Activated

Previously, it was mentioned that the system's trials do not have a quantifiable HP system or the concept of "leaking" enemies. Instead, life and shield values are reflected in Xia Ling and her team members.

The result of this feedback is that life and shield values proportionally increase Xia Ling and her team members' self-healing, physical fitness, stamina recovery, and armor strength. However, whenever a member takes damage, Collapse Degree increases by an equal amount based on the severity of the injury.

This rule essentially means Xia Ling can no longer rely on a strategy of trading damage for survival.

Trading damage? What a joke. After one such trade, the Kingdom could be paved with their bodies.

Therefore, Xia Ling's strategy has always been to play it safe and go for a slower pace. It doesn't matter if it takes longer; there's plenty of time. Plus, with her speed and ample mobility, she can slowly wear down enemies.

"Is that so?" Bronya tilted her head. "I don't quite understand what you mean, Xia Ling, but Bronya will do as you say."

"Alright, next I'll outline the combat plan."

Xia Ling opened the map on her scanner and zoomed in on the urgent combat node marked in red. On the right side of the map, the number and types of enemies within the node were listed.

"Within this node, the most troublesome are these crossbowmen and these three veteran butchers wielding large axes."

"The former's surprise attacks greatly increase our chances of getting injured, while the latter's enhanced bodies pose a significant threat."

"So, we need to deal with these crossbowmen first, right?" Bronya looked at Xia Ling.

"That's right. These nodes have a mechanism where they prioritize locking onto the first person to enter their aggro range. I need you to go in first to draw their attention, then I'll quickly take out these crossbowmen, and then we'll pull the remaining enemies away in batches to deal with them."

"Bronya understands. It's like playing a game, right? Except this time Bronya has to be the main tank to hold aggro." As a skilled gamer, Bronya easily understood Xia Ling's plan.

"Yes, all you need to focus on is not getting greedy for damage. Just concentrate on controlling the Heavy Armor Rabbit for defense. The most important thing is to avoid getting hurt as much as possible."

"Bronya understands."

Xia Ling ruffled Bronya's twin-turbo duck-like hair, then with a few swift movements, she appeared at a vantage point she had previously scouted. She gave Bronya a distant hand signal, indicating it was time to "initiate combat."

Bronya nodded. The cannon in her hand fired three fully charged shots simultaneously. At the same time, the exoskeleton on her legs emitted a powerful thrust, propelling Bronya directly into the settlement.

At this moment, the Heavy Armor Rabbit instantly appeared behind Bronya, its massive mechanical arm shielding her. With its other hand, it grabbed a nearby Siracusan thug holding a small knife and tossed him directly into the enemy crowd.

This is where the value of urgent combat became apparent. Despite suffering such a severe blow, the thug slowly got back up a few seconds later. Although he was temporarily incapacitated, his recovery was clearly only a matter of time.

On the other side, upon seeing Bronya's charge, Xia Ling moved at almost the same time.

While the close-quarters combat environment within the settlement limited Bronya's suppression capabilities, it also restricted the enemies' line of sight. In their blind spots, a red blade shadow silently cut through.

Relying on her previous experience entering this node multiple times, Xia Ling easily located the crossbowmen hidden on rooftops and in alley corners.

As the crossbowman fired his first bolt and began reloading the second, Xia Ling's figure suddenly appeared behind him. The Crescent Rose in her hand struck down heavily from behind the crossbowman's head.

However, the crossbowman's vitality far exceeded Xia Ling's expectations. Enduring a massive, bone-deep gash in his back, the crossbowman somehow managed to finish reloading and shakily activated his Originium Arts, aiming his bolt at Xia Ling.

"Tsk, my awesome assassination attempt, and you're not dying makes things difficult for me."

Xia Ling's figure blurred instantly. This time, the scythe's angle was from bottom to top. As she slashed, she flicked the crossbow out of the crossbowman's hand.

With critical injuries on both his front and back, the crossbowman finally fell silent.

Xia Ling flicked the liquid from her scythe backward and, before the other thugs could surround her, retreated from the scene, heading towards the next crossbowman's location.

"Clang—"

The butcher's massive axe struck the Heavy Armor Rabbit's arm armor with a heavy thud, producing a metallic clang.

The immense force transmitted through her arm made Bronya stumble back. The Heavy Armor Rabbit swept its arm, forcing the axe back, but the next attack was already upon them.

Initially, Bronya could handle being surrounded by multiple enemies with relative ease. However, as the other two veteran butchers joined the fray, Bronya's situation became precarious.

Fortunately, Xia Ling had already dealt with the crossbowmen by this point.

With a muffled gunshot, a veteran butcher's raised axe faltered. He then knelt on one knee, a bloody hole blasted into his left leg by the bullet.

Bronya immediately felt a sense of relief and, with renewed vigor, controlled the Heavy Armor Rabbit's defense to be impenetrable.

After firing a few shots from a distance, Xia Ling did not continue with ranged harassment. Instead, she leaped forward, firing several shots backward with the Crescent Rose. Using the recoil, she accelerated several times and rushed towards Bronya's position.

Just moments ago, while killing a crossbowman, Xia Ling was inspired by a certain phenomenon on the crossbowman and thought of a new way to materialize Honkai Energy. She was now planning to test it out on these enemies.

Under Bronya's puzzled gaze, Xia Ling rapidly approached. However, instead of using her high output advantage to first eliminate the weaker Siracusan thugs around them, she headed straight for a completely healthy veteran butcher.

Of the three veteran butchers currently on the field, one was entangled with Bronya, another was temporarily incapacitated with a shot to the knee, and facing two veteran butchers at once was not too dangerous for Bronya.

Therefore, Xia Ling's objective was clear: she had a way to directly eliminate a veteran butcher!

Chapter Twenty-Five: Messing with Xia Ling is like kicking a cotton ball.

As she closed in, Xia Ling activated her acceleration before the veteran butcher could raise his axe to defend.

Compared to her Honkai Energy materialization abilities, her acceleration talent consumed relatively little Honkai Energy, but it demanded high physical fitness. As such, Xia Ling couldn't maintain acceleration for extended periods. Therefore, the common use of acceleration was to employ explosive changes in speed to gain the initiative.

However, the skill Xia Ling intended to use here was not acceleration.

A faint red glow now enveloped Xia Ling's Crescent Rose, indicating the presence of Honkai Energy attached to it.

Enhancing weapons with Honkai Energy was a common practice.

With a surge of red light, Xia Ling arrived in front of the veteran butcher before he could even raise his axe to defend. Her scythe swept upward, its sharp blade deeply embedding itself into the butcher's body.

This damage alone was certainly not enough to kill the enemy in one blow. But at this moment, the Honkai Energy attached to the scythe's surface began to materialize, then spread wildly into the surrounding soft tissue.

Pulling out the scythe, the Honkai Energy attached to it had completely vanished. Wiping the blood from the blade and returning it to her waist, Xia Ling, adhering to her principle of never looking back at explosions, activated her talent and disappeared from the battlefield once more.

Behind her, a blood-red flower composed of sharp, materialized Honkai Energy spikes erupted from the veteran butcher's chest wound. Simultaneously, the splashing Honkai Energy crystals exploded, sending the surrounding thugs flying.

"Host, when did you learn that move? I don't recall it at all."

"It's a bit hellish to explain," Xia Ling said, touching her nose. "The inspiration for this move actually came from the Originium crystals on the crossbowmen I saw earlier, and then I thought about how the Originium spreads and explodes from patients with Originium Infection before they die."

"Considering the visual effect of this thing is quite evocative, I decided to call this move Heart's Delight."

[Former Prime Minister of a Far Eastern Nation: I have no objections.]

With Xia Ling clearing out a large area of enemies in one strike, the pressure on Bronya's side was completely relieved. After a short rest, Xia Ling, having recovered some energy, repeated her tactic and gave another seasoned butcher a taste of Heart's Delight.

At this point, Xia Ling and Bronya were completely out of danger. In less than five minutes, they had finished mopping up and cleaning up the battlefield.

"Whew... it's finally over," Xia Ling said, sitting on a broken wall, rubbing her sore arm and dangling her legs as she exhaled.

"Thank you for your hard work, Xia Ling. I didn't expect you to be so strong, Xia Ling. Bronya is impressed," Bronya said, hovering nearby as she handed the collected spoils of war to Xia Ling and gave her a thumbs-up.

"I only dared to use acceleration so intensely because of the trial's bonus..." Xia Ling muttered softly. "The me in the trial, no matter how strong, is still fake."

"Let's see how the spoils from this emergency are," Xia Ling said, taking the spoils from Bronya and opening the system interface.

"Vanguard Recruitment Voucher, good, useless, next."

"Collectible: Termination Agreement. Hope +4, Restore 2 HP. It's a good item, but unfortunately, it's not very useful to me."

"Cipher Plate, choose one of two... Hmm?"

At this moment, both Cipher Plates displayed on the screen were good items.

[Silence: Maximum HP +50% while fighting in this area.]

[Surprise: Become Uncanny Merchant.]

If Xia Ling hadn't obtained the Shaman Cipher Plate before, she might have hesitated between the two. However, since she already had Shaman, the synergy between Shaman and Silence could cause Guardians to appear in the three combat nodes on the third floor.

For Xia Ling, who was currently short-handed, Guardians were an irresistible temptation.

She decisively chose the Silence Cipher Plate, and her bad mood from the useless collectible instantly vanished. Happily, she jumped off the wall and continued to open her scanner, starting to identify the next path.

The "duck's" head, which didn't understand why Xia Ling's mood fluctuated so much, seemed to sprout a few question marks. She quickly followed up with her exoskeleton.

The next stretch of road was quite long. According to the scanner's map, whether going up or down, the next node was an Unexpected Encounter. And since it was an Unexpected Encounter, it was highly possible for an event to trigger either when they first entered the node's range or when they were about to leave it.

However, the good news was that this node didn't keep Xia Ling on edge for too long.

The bad news was that Xia Ling felt the current situation might have been better if she had been on edge.

Because as Xia Ling advanced, she suddenly heard a strange crying sound, as if something odd was sobbing by her ear.

Xia Ling couldn't help but shiver.

Even the usually expressionless Bronya moved slightly closer to Xia Ling.

"Xia Ling... what is that sound..."

"How should I know where that noise is coming from?" Xia Ling said fiercely. "If I catch whoever it is, I'll show them a thing or two!"

If one ignored the slight tremor in Xia Ling's voice as she said this, it would have been quite convincing.

As Xia Ling continued to advance, the sobbing not only didn't stop but seemed to be getting louder.

Finally, Xia Ling saw the source of the crying.

A Perro, sobbing uncontrollably.

Damn it, it's the Crying Kid. Xia Ling felt her blood pressure rising.

She really wanted to rush up and punch this crying guy a couple of times.

But unfortunately, she didn't dare, because she had too few people with her and couldn't defeat it. This wasn't a game where getting stunned just meant letting a few monsters slip by or missing out on a collectible.

If a fight broke out, the Crying Kid would one-punch Xia Ling and the "duck," starting an eternal control lock, and then Xia Ling would truly have no tears left to cry.

Damn it, you messed with Xia Ling, and you've finally kicked a cotton ball. Not only can I not beat you, but I also have to come over and comfort you.

Taking a deep breath and suppressing the urge to punch him, Xia Ling asked with a smile, "Excuse me, are you lost?"

Of course, Xia Ling knew she wouldn't get an answer, because this guy would only keep crying.

However, if no fighting occurred in this node, it could be passed with just one dialogue. So, Xia Ling decisively led the "duck" and bypassed this annoying guy.

After passing this node, with a relaxed mood, Xia Ling rushed to the last node of the first floor, the Uncanny Merchant.

"A hefty sum of 45 Originium Ingots, I hope I get some useful items..."

Arriving at Karnot's familiar little shop, Xia Ling didn't bother with greetings and quickly looked at the goods in the display case.

[Support Mine Set], [Medical Recruitment Voucher], [Swift Hand], [Scratching Hand], [Broken Crossbow - Classic Training], [Spectrum Analyzer], [Cold Seaweed Salad], [Game Room Administrator Permission Card]

"Huh? Swift Hand?" Xia Ling's eyes lit up.

According to the system's description and previous trial tests, Xia Ling could directly be considered any of the Vanguard, Sniper, or Specialist classes, so she could naturally enjoy the attack speed bonus effect of Swift Hand.

Moreover, when she fought with Bronya, they were acting separately, so the restriction that Swift Hand couldn't take effect around teammates was practically non-existent for Xia Ling.

"Karnot, I'll take these two!" Xia Ling took out Swift Hand and the Support Mine Set from the counter and waved her hand generously. "Refresh the goods."

Chapter Twenty-Six: The Value of Swift Hand

Karnot nodded, waved his sleeve, and the goods in the display case were immediately replaced with another batch.

[Support Supply Station], [Vanguard Recruitment Voucher], [Support Recruitment Voucher], [Vision Invitation], [Medic-Master Hand], [Broken Halberd - Classic Training], [Broken Staff - Classic Training], [Living Rose]

"Tsk, none of the items this time are any use."

Xia Ling sighed, but she didn't choose to save the remaining Originium Ingots. After all, her goal was the third floor, and the possibility of encountering a shop again on the way wasn't small.

After bidding farewell to the Uncanny Merchant, Xia Ling successfully entered the second floor's area.

In her backpack, the Cipher Plate - Doubt had automatically appeared, and the detector had also refreshed with the Foresight prompt for the second floor.

[Upon clearing this floor, you will obtain the Cipher Plate: Arbor]

Compared to the first floor, the node distribution on the second floor was neither good nor bad. Since there were no urgent operations, Xia Ling ultimately chose the middle fork, which would allow her to pass through two combat nodes and one non-combat node.

Judging from the map, the first combat node seemed to be a training ground. As she got closer, Xia Ling realized that this node might be easier than expected.

Because this node was named Low Altitude Maneuver, the node where flying enemies automatically fell into pits.

And in the description of this node, the people within held no ill will towards her. The combat was merely due to the enthusiastic invitation from the person in charge to participate in an exercise.

Upon entering the node, it was exactly as described in the game. The person in charge warmly welcomed Xia Ling and Bronya and invited them to participate in an exercise.

To be precise, they might have been a bit too enthusiastic.

Xia Ling irresponsibly guessed that it was likely because Duck-Duck's suspended exoskeleton and the Heavy Armor Rabbit were simply too eye-catching.

In the subsequent exercise, Duck-Duck successfully proved the superior performance of the Heavy Armor Rabbit.

While Xia Ling was still chipping away at the big shield guy with the boost from Swift Hand, Bronya had already easily dealt with all the flying enemies on the lower path.

Some were blown to bits by Bronya's heavy cannon before they could even take off. A few lucky ones who managed to take flight were directly dragged down from the air by the Heavy Armor Rabbit and thrown into the pit.

After successfully completing the exercise, Xia Ling also received the rewards from this node, though not from looting bodies, but as proper compensation.

Two Originium Ingots, one Medical Recruitment Voucher, and a small increase in anti-interference index from the person in charge for friendly equipment maintenance.