The Shield Guards and I Are Wreaking Havoc / I'm Wreaking Havoc While the Shield Guards Go Wild

Ahem, let me explain the system first.

As for why it was themed around Integrated Strategies, that was actually because the system's enhancement modules were determined by your playtime.

There had previously been a case where a host who had never played Warcraft was loaded with a Warcraft system, and it ended in a complete disaster. That was why our enhancement system modules were now customized.

And from my observations, Host, you had spent the most time in Integrated Strategies before transmigrating, so the enhancement system turned out like this. If you had played more Simulated Universe or Elysian Realm before transmigrating, it might have used a different enhancement template.

"Damn it, this is the end of the Integrated Strategies addict." Xia Ling felt a boomerang smack her squarely in the face. "So, is there any good news?"

The good news is that the system preserved your progress. Your cognition enhancements, codex, difficulty levels, squads, and other unlockable progress are all still here.

"So I can just start at Difficulty 15 and immediately die, right?" Xia Ling said expressionlessly.

"Wait, no."

"You said the squads I unlocked are still here?"

That's right, Host. Not only the Sami theme—if you unlock the Mizuki theme and Phantom theme in the future, your progress from those runs will still be preserved as well.

"Whew..." A smile appeared on Xia Ling's face. "One last question, System. If I'm not satisfied with my opening, can I restart?"

Of course. The system's restriction is that you can only clear and settle a theme trial once per week.

However, if you do not clear it and quit midway before settlement, then as long as you do not claim the rewards, you can keep retrying.

"That's wonderful. Never before has there been such a marvelous opening." Xia Ling sprang up from the ground and leapt to her feet. "Good thing it's the Sami theme. If you'd given me the Mizuki theme instead, I'd probably have to feed myself to the fish."

"Then let's get started. Who knows how long I'll have to reroll for the opening I want?"

Th-this quickly, her confidence had already returned? No, as expected of the host I spent two and a half years choosing...

"Stop bringing up Brother Ji. Hurry up and explain what we should do next."

"If I'm not mistaken, we should be at the Research Team Camp in the Sami Snowfield right now, correct?"

Xia Ling had already circled the area twice. In this snowfield camp, it seemed she could only touch the bonfire. The flaps of the two nearby tents were tightly shut and could not be opened.

The process is pretty much the same as the normal Integrated Strategies runs you usually play.

As it spoke, a translucent screen appeared before Xia Ling.

Please select difficulty

"Challenge Nature -1"

Challenge Nature -1 selected. Enemy difficulty +0, Cipher Plate modifier chance 0%, Normal Environment

Cultural Comparison bonus level: 43

"Begin exploration. Choose the Survival First squad."

Survival First Squad: Starts with three random Cipher Plates. Foresight will always reveal Cipher Plates.

Eh? Host, are you planning to gamble on Cipher Plates at the start?

"That's right. If I'm lucky, I can clear the First Floor after only one battle."

"And if I get Silence, I can clear a stage directly with a Shieldguard. If it's Surprise, Doubt, Love, or something like that, even better—I can clear the First Floor without fighting."

I Slaughter While the Shieldguard Goes Wild

"Though I don't know what the reward for clearing only one floor will be, as long as I save up enough, enhancing my own body is still an option. At worst, I'll just stay in the system for two years. There's still plenty of time before the Honkai Impact 3rd main story begins."

That would indeed work. However, the reward for clearing only the First Floor is very small—just one Originium Ingot. But once you save up six, you can enhance your body to Elite Evolution Stage 1.

Although that would be somewhat inefficient, it should grant you physical and energy strength sufficient to rival a B-rank Valkyrie. You would also receive a random Elite 1 skill and talent from the system.

"Now for the squad selection." Xia Ling fell into thought as she looked at the four squads on the panel. "I can guess that there'll probably only be me in my team, but don't you even have temporary recruitment for reserve operators?"

Host, recruitment here differs from the version in your game.

Normal recruitment can only recruit characters you have obtained, but right now, that only includes you.

Support recruitment is for friends you have in real life. You can recruit allied units for battle, but you have not met a single living person yet.

Temporary recruitment is a little special... It was designed in the system for the Elysian Realm roguelike. It is basically useless in the current theme. Unless you trigger a Concord like Cipher Plate Debate, you will not recruit Operators.

"Fine. So no matter which one I choose, I can only recruit myself, right?"

Xia Ling shrugged and tapped the last squad, "As You Wish." Three Recruitment Vouchers immediately appeared on the panel.

When she opened the first "Advanced Sniper Recruitment Ticket," Xia Ling's own portrait appeared prominently on the screen. The black-haired girl smiled as she looked straight ahead, as though encouraging herself in front of the screen.

"My ID photo actually looks pretty good." Xia Ling opened the other two tickets next. As expected, they were completely empty.

As the squad selection was completed, the two tents in the camp changed as well. Their flaps opened to either side on their own, revealing the spaces within.

The tent on the left stores the items you obtain at the start, such as Cipher Plates, collectibles, and detection equipment. The larger tent on the right houses the members of your expedition. Of course, since you have no teammates this time, Host, it only contains your weapon.

"Weapon?" Xia Ling curiously ducked into the tent on the right. Before long, she emerged with a sniper rifle.

"A sniper rifle? Is it because I recruited myself through a Sniper Ticket?"

More precisely, it is because it was an Advanced Sniper Recruitment Ticket.

If it had been an ordinary Sniper Ticket, it might have been a bow or crossbow instead.

"Your system is strangely logical in the weirdest places."

Xia Ling ducked into the left tent as well, then came out carrying a huge backpack.

"Hard to imagine Cipher Plates were this big." Xia Ling laboriously set the backpack beside the bonfire and took out an intricate-looking black box.

There was a screen on the box, seemingly displaying a map of Xia Ling's current location. A small "3" was marked in the upper-right corner of the screen.

At the same time, another piece of information was displayed on the detector's screen.

After clearing this floor, you will obtain Cipher Plate: Arbor

"So this is what a detector looks like." Xia Ling fiddled with the black box. "I remember the First Floor of Sami's Integrated Strategies is called First Frost Lake. Looks like it's this blue area on the map."

That's right. Since you are personally entering the battle, it naturally cannot be like the game, with only linear stages. The system built the entire map.

However, the routes available to you are still the same. Taking side paths in the vertical direction will also reduce your Interference Resistance Index. After all, this is not an open world. You still have to obey the underlying logic of the enhancement system.

"Let's see which Cipher Plates I got..." Setting the detector aside, Xia Ling took out the three wrapped stone slabs from her backpack.

Each Cipher Plate in reality was about the size of a book. Stacked together, the three slabs were no light burden.

Xia Ling spread the Cipher Plates out before her, and her eyes lit up.

"Silence, Arrival, Love? This good? A god-tier opening on my very first run!"

After all, you had already been unlucky enough when transmigrating. You had to get lucky at least once.

There was a faint trace of pride in the system's voice.

"Then thank you to whoever bestowed this good fortune upon me." Xia Ling smiled and silently gave the system's little bit of help a thumbs-up.

"Now it's time to set off. Let me check the map..."

Xia Ling slung the backpack onto her back, hung the sniper rifle over her shoulder, and turned on the detector in her hand.

"The left path leads to a Deep Pool camp, while the right leads to a village looted by Siracusans..."

"Is this Four is Not Too Much and Moss Hand?"

Xia Ling frowned as she thought for a moment, then spoke uncertainly.

Yes. It seems you are very familiar with Integrated Strategies, Host.

The system quietly put away the comparison chart in its hands and praised her with a guilty conscience.

"But which way should I go?" Xia Ling recalled the enemy compositions of the two stages. "It seems neither stage has few enemies. Right, System—what are my victory conditions for combat nodes like these?"

Since these are real battles, the enhancement system has simplified combat to a certain extent.

You only need to eliminate all enemies within the stronghold. There are no requirements like HP.

As for the HP and shields from collectibles and rewards, they will be directly and equivalently applied to your squad members.

"Perfect. I don't need to worry about the Shieldguard only being able to block three enemies." Xia Ling was brimming with confidence as she set the detector's navigation toward Moss Hand. "The Shieldguard and I are going to slaughter them!"

Following the detector's guidance, Xia Ling left the camp. After walking along the main road for roughly five or six minutes, the detector indicated that she had reached the outskirts of the village.

"There's something I really want to complain about." Looking at the village billowing black smoke from the fires, Xia Ling's mouth twitched. "With snow this deep, even traveling is hard for me. Why did the Siracusans come all the way here?"

Good question. Unfortunately, those enemies cannot speak, or I'd quite like to hear their answer.

The system joined her in complaining about the stage designer.

"Uh, so if I go any farther, I'll enter the stage area. How do I activate the Cipher Plates now?"

Host, you only need to stack the Cipher Plates corresponding to "Arrangement" and "Cause" together.

"Got it." Xia Ling put the slab representing "Love" back into her backpack, then unwrapped the other two slabs.

One was Silence, a red slab engraved with a fortress, while the other was Arrival, a tricolored slab bearing mountains.

Xia Ling took a deep breath and pressed Arrival onto Silence.

Declaration begins

Kowald's Tribal Concord triggered

Across mountains and rivers, we finally arrive; fate cannot be avoided. Pointing to a tree for directions brings no reply; the mountain stands alone.

The two Cipher Plates burst with dazzling light, making Xia Ling squint.

When the light finally faded, a warrior stood silently before Xia Ling, holding an enormous shield that gleamed with an intimidating blue radiance and wearing heavy black armor.

I Go Wild, the Shieldguard Slaughters

"Holy crap, that armor is cool!"

Xia Ling's eyes shone as she poked and prodded the Shieldguard's massive shield.

"By the way, System, does a Shieldguard temporarily recruited like this have self-awareness?"

Of course not. Units summoned by Cipher Plates only possess combat awareness and experience. They have no self-awareness.

However, they still possess basic intelligence. At the very least, they can understand your orders.

If you really want strong intelligence, I can take control of the Shieldguard's body and fill in for it. It would not have much impact, anyway.

"Is that so? Let me try."

Xia Ling stopped what she was doing and asked the Shieldguard, "Shieldguard, there is a group of over twenty Siracusan gangsters ahead. How great do you think the threat is, and how should we deploy for battle?"

The Shieldguard fell silent. A moment later, a deep male voice came from beneath the heavy armor. "No need to concern yourself with them. Crush them."

"Wow, that confident?"

Host, even setting aside the game's data, those Siracusan gangsters are one shieldbash each for a battle-hardened Shieldguard.

If we use game data, then even without considering blocking, enemies at Difficulty 1 might not even be able to break the Shieldguard's defense.

"Then I guess there really is nothing to worry about." Xia Ling took the sniper rifle off her back. "So, we just go in?"

My assessment is that it will count as a success if you manage to figure out how to use the sniper rifle during this battle.

"Hmph, don't underestimate me, System. It's not like I lack common sense." Xia Ling dismissed it with disdain. "Of course I know how much recoil this thing has. Don't worry, I'll be careful."

Brimming with confidence, Xia Ling led the Shieldguard to the side of the settlement—or rather, the side of the settlement's ruins.

Then, as though she had triggered some sort of switch, the instant Xia Ling crossed a certain boundary, more than a dozen pairs of eyes turned toward her at once as she lurked suspiciously behind a wall.

"What? That's allowed? I was planning to launch a sneak attack."

Stared at by so many hostile gazes, Xia Ling felt a chill crawl down her spine.

"Help me, Mr. Shieldguard!"

Should I make him say, "Stay away from Xia Lingling"?

The system's snarky voice followed.

Along with Xia Ling's shout came several sharp bolts fired by Siracusan crossbowmen.

The Shieldguard said nothing. He merely shifted half a step to the left, completely shielding Xia Ling's petite figure behind him.

With several loud clangs, the crossbow bolts struck the Shieldguard's metal tower shield, producing crisp impacts before ricocheting far away.

After blocking the volley, the Shieldguard raised his massive shield and viciously sent the nearest Siracusan thug, who wielded a small knife, flying. The unfortunate thug was already unconscious in midair. He crashed into several others before finally coming to a stop, then dissolved into a cloud of black ash.