Trial Quest

[Main Quest Activated: Trial]

[As a mage who travels between dimensional planes, you must possess keen observation and judgment to be worthy of this position. Every world has its core value. Find and obtain what you believe to be the most valuable item in this world. Completing the task grants a random reward (reward varies based on task evaluation). Task failure reduces all attributes by 1 level.]

This task really is a bit tricky.

Looking at the task description floating before him, Fang Zheng couldn't help but frown. On the surface, this task seemed very free—as long as Fang Zheng obtained what he considered the most valuable item in this world, he could complete it. But thinking carefully, he realized things were clearly not that simple.

Because this matter itself had two difficulties.

First, the value had to be high.

Second, he had to be able to obtain it.

If Fang Zheng thought about what was valuable, there were plenty of things in this world—Satellite Nuke Fusion, Mechanical Power Exoskeletons—all very valuable items to Fang Zheng. Unfortunately, even knowing about them, he had no way to obtain them. Of course, if it were Luxury Car Planes, maybe Fang Zheng could find a way to steal one, but using his brain, he could guess that even if he scraped by with those items to complete the task, the evaluation probably wouldn't be very high.

After all, this task had clearly stated it was testing his ability as a Dimension Mage.

And with that, the target was already set.

For Fang Zheng, the most valuable thing in this world was only one thing—the Alien Boss of these aliens. After all, in the movie, the Doctor had said this Alien Boss possessed the ability to manipulate time! And the Male Lead had gained the ability to continuously Save Load precisely because he was infected by the blood of a Boss Clone. Even at the end, when he died together with the Boss, because he was infected by the Boss's blood, he returned to the very beginning of the movie.

This was the ability to manipulate time!

Any ability related to time manipulation was absolutely rare and precious. What made Fang Zheng's heart race even more was that if the movie was correct, then this Boss itself had no combat power at all—it only called its minions and used its time reset ability. If that was truly the case, then Fang Zheng would have a much easier time dealing with this Boss.

The only problem was that the aliens had already occupied all of Europe, and Fang Zheng, alone, clearly had no way to cross the occupied zone and directly capture the Boss.

But for Fang Zheng, this problem wasn't completely unsolvable.

But before that, let himself enjoy some modern cuisine!

Fang Zheng naturally had no money in this world, but fortunately, those three kind-hearted thugs were very willing to sponsor him with some funds. So he unceremoniously took it, then found a fast food restaurant and ate a big meal. Enjoying the familiar flavors, Fang Zheng couldn't help but tear up. Although junk food wasn't healthy... at least it let him reminisce about the taste of home.

Now then, the next step was how to act.

While eating a burger, Fang Zheng watched the TV in the fast food restaurant and thought about the problem.

His memory of the time concept in Edge of Tomorrow was a bit fuzzy. He remembered that the Male Lead hadn't trained for many days before going to the battlefield, but the subsequent timeline was a bit strange. Repeated Save Load was one thing, but in the later part of the movie, when the two went to see the General, the General said to Tom Cruise, "You used to be a deserter, I never thought you'd return here as a war hero." That meant Tom Cruise had won the battle on the Beach against the aliens more than once, and this time point was hard to estimate. After all, a battle wasn't so easy to end, let alone the fact that Tom Cruise had to return to London after the battle—this time was difficult to judge. Since the movie only focused on Tom Cruise's constant Save Load rebirth, there was no clear explanation of time.

Besides that, there was another problem that gave Fang Zheng a headache—would Tom Cruise's Save Load affect him? If it didn't affect him, then after Tom Cruise died, he would face a completely unknown future—but actually, there wasn't much to be unknown about. In fact, if it didn't affect him, that would be even better. After all, Save Load might be enjoyable for the person involved, but for people like Fang Zheng who were dragged into it, it wasn't so wonderful.

But if it could affect him, that would be a big problem.

Actually, there was one thing about this movie that Fang Zheng had never understood. The protagonists believed that the Alien Boss used this time manipulation ability to achieve victory by constantly resetting time. But Fang Zheng was skeptical about this, because on the surface, the Alien Creatures were much stronger than humans, and the battle between the two sides didn't really involve much strategy. The Alien Boss's intelligence seemed quite limited. At least in the movie, the only time it showed any preparation was the ambush on the Beach against the humans. But in Fang Zheng's view, this was just "Oh crap, this enemy is planning to attack from the beach, let me load a save and place troops here"—basically the kind of reaction any player with normal intelligence would have.

There was another problem—how to capture the Alien Boss.

Fang Zheng didn't plan to follow the protagonist's actions, because Tom Cruise relied on his Save Load ability to do all kinds of suicidal things. For him, dying meant he could revive, but for Fang Zheng, it was a bit dangerous. The best method was to have his own army. That way, most problems could be solved.

As for the source of the army... thinking this, Fang Zheng glanced at his Soul Stone again.

Since there were already aliens, adding a wave of Zerg shouldn't be a problem, right?

Fang Zheng hadn't teleported to London, but to a small city on the border. Since all of Europe had been occupied by those aliens, Fang Zheng naturally couldn't go to London to find the Male Lead, but he wasn't too concerned about it. To be honest, these aliens showed strong combat power, but they seemed to have no air force—this was another thing Fang Zheng couldn't figure out. Although in the movie, the aliens did have anti-air attack methods, having no air force... was that really okay?

But these problems weren't something Fang Zheng needed to worry about. The dumber the enemy, the easier it was for him. So after eating and drinking his fill, he found an opportunity to sneak out of this small town. This town was located behind the front lines of the battle against the aliens, so security wasn't very tight. For Fang Zheng, leaving the town wasn't a very difficult task.

"Now then, let me see what this Soul Stone can do."

Standing in the dense forest, Fang Zheng took a deep breath. He had already switched from his previously equipped [Arthas] to [Kerrigan].

The moment he switched to [Kerrigan]'s Soul Stone, Fang Zheng felt that the world before his eyes seemed to change. Some strange knowledge appeared in his mind—mysterious power he had never encountered or used before. The scenery before him also began to look different. Although at first glance it seemed no different, when Fang Zheng concentrated, he found that the entire world appeared to be covered in a dark red hue, with blurry edges. Not only that, he could also see several moving lights and shadows at varying distances.

Fang Zheng closed his eyes, then opened them again. The world before him returned to normal.

"Seems a bit different from the game..."

Fang Zheng frowned as he flexed his fingers. Then he reached out his hand and made a grasping motion toward a distant bush.

"---!!"

With a low cry, a deer floated up from the bush. It struggled desperately, but the Psionic power firmly captured its body, leaving the deer no way to break free. Then Fang Zheng made a gesture, and the deer flew before him. He extended his right hand, and a mass of green substance formed in his palm, which he then placed on the deer's body.

"---!!---!!!"

Soon, the deer began to wildly shake its head and thrash its limbs. As it did, where Fang Zheng's palm had been placed, blood vessels burst out from under the skin, gradually spreading across the deer's entire body. When the blood vessels reached the deer's head, with a "bang," the deer suddenly exploded, and its body twitched a few times before turning into a motionless corpse.

"What the hell!"

This sudden explosion startled Fang Zheng. He quickly let go and stepped back a few times, and the Psionic power dissipated at that moment. The deer's exploded body fell to the ground with a "thud." Then, inside the corpse, something seemed to be squirming. Soon, after a moment, a Parasite bit through the deer's belly and crawled out.

Seeing this larva happily crawling around at his feet, Fang Zheng was completely speechless. He had been curious earlier about how Kerrigan would create a Zerg army without any Zerg around, but he never expected there was such a method?

This works too?

Looking at this little Parasite hopping on the ground, Fang Zheng didn't know what to say. This little bug wasn't as terrifying as he had imagined; instead, it looked kind of cute. Just as Fang Zheng was trying to communicate with the Parasite, suddenly, a gunshot rang out behind him.

"Bang!"