Newcomers

Newcomers

Not long after Hip-hop Girl woke up, almost five seconds apart, the other two trainee Reincarnators lying in the corner woke up as well.

Their equipment was quite distinctive. One wore Camouflage, carried a tactical backpack, and held an MP5-like submachine gun. Before Xu Yue's transmigration, he would have looked like a modern special forces soldier.

But in this era after his transmigration, such equipment was fairly advanced. This guy had not been fooled by appearances and had carefully checked the descriptions provided in the space shop, so his abilities were probably not bad.

It seemed that most newcomers really did invest in firearms.

The other man wore a proper tailcoat and carried a briefcase. There was no visible place on him to hide a weapon, so he was probably using a handgun. Since he had already gone through two missions, he should have developed his own particular specialty to some extent.

"Eh? A mixed mission? Looks like this one will be difficult. Are we supposed to bring newcomers along?"

The man in the crisp tailcoat pushed up his glasses and looked around in apparent surprise.

"If there's no separate mission reward, I'm not taking along deadweights."

The man dressed like a special forces soldier, his face completely covered by a tactical mask, spoke in a muffled voice.

Although they had only gone through two missions before this, that was enough to transform ignorant newcomers.

"Should we exchange information? Does anyone know about this mission?"

Hip-hop Girl gradually got into the swing of things and stopped mocking the Railway Guerrillas, who were still unconscious on the ground.

"There's another batch of real newcomers over there. The newbie instructor will definitely find a way to pry points out of them in exchange for information. We can just ask them later."

The man in the tailcoat spoke calmly, then looked at the few who had already awakened and introduced himself.

"You can call me Spy. I'm average in direct combat, but I have some experience in gathering intelligence."

Though he claimed his combat ability was weak, no one would fully believe him. Who knew whether he had some unique weapon hidden on him? Would someone skilled in intelligence really reveal all his cards to others? And he had even called himself Spy so openly.

"My name is Lone Wolf. Since the three of you are awake, I acknowledge you as my teammates. The other trash can forget about it."

The Camouflage-clad special forces soldier spoke coolly. Having gone through two Space missions, he had already deeply understood that while cooperation made it easier to survive Space missions, pig teammates were even more terrifying.

When choosing teammates, quality mattered more than quantity.

"Just call me Blondie."

Hip-hop Girl chewed gum and blew a large bubble, still looking utterly unconcerned. Then the three of them turned their attention to Xu Yue.

Judging by his position, he had likely only gone through one newbie mission and was now on his second. Yet he had already awakened as well. Did that mean his abilities were no weaker than theirs?

That was truly an impressive achievement and talent, enough to make people jealous.

"My name is Doctor. I specifically collected some information on newbie missions. This Mission Space should generally be known as Kabane."

Xu Yue smiled, still wearing his professional smile.

"Kabane?!"

"A newbie killer!"

"What rotten luck."

The other three were all surprised by Xu Yue's words. It seemed this Mission Space had quite a reputation among newcomers.

The expressions on all three faces visibly turned solemn.

Xu Yue did not say anything more, as though that was all the information he had.

"What a pain. Doctor, your last mission still had the newbie bonus, so you may not be used to this yet. In this mission, you'll find that the normal identities assigned by Space generally aren't very good."

"Yeah, in a high-difficulty Mission Space like this, we probably won't have it any easier than those dozen real newcomers."

"Heh, but the unluckiest ones are still those other five."

The three of them complained one after another, allowing Xu Yue to understand what they meant.

During the first mission, newcomers received a bonus to their physical abilities, along with the all-powerful "plausibility" buff. Combined with a clean identity, there was usually no danger at all.

But once those bonuses disappeared in the second mission, even if they had improved themselves with the gains from their first mission, the difficulty did not decrease—it increased instead!

Those with worse luck might not even gain the combat strength from the doubled physical enhancement in their second mission, since some of their points had to be deducted for the newbie instructor.

"Look at those guys on the ground. Maybe the kid with the knife is somewhat useful. That woman is completely deadweight, while the other three are just total idiots."

"Exactly. Their whole set of gear, combined with a beginner-level firearms skill book, uses up exactly one thousand points. It's a 'newbie three-piece set' put together by unscrupulous merchants specifically to scam newcomers."

"But the value for money is really poor."

Although these three had only experienced one more mission than Xu Yue, they had clearly already learned quite a lot from their time in Space.

They seemed to have deliberately looked into the pitfalls newcomers needed to avoid.

Xu Yue chatted with them on and off. Most of the time, he quietly listened, but time still passed quickly.

One after another, the second batch woke up as well. However, because Lone Wolf had taken such a firm stance, giving off the impression that strangers should stay away and that he had no intention of playing with them, the five who awakened later could only awkwardly form their own group.

The woman who looked like an internet celebrity streamer chirped around the four men. In the end, she seemed to latch onto the scimitar-wielding man, sitting to one side while holding his arm like a delicate little bird.

Xu Yue clearly heard Lone Wolf, who had been cold and cool the whole time, swallow hard. He seemed to regret his decision somewhat, but could not bring himself to lose face.

No matter what, Lone Wolf believed he was stronger than that scimitar-wielding man. Still, he had to hold back. Pig teammates were one of the leading causes of death.

Not long afterward, the barrier that had blocked out sound slowly disappeared, along with the newbie instructor.

The dozen or so complete newcomers who had entered Space for the first time were looking around in confusion, and several were studying Xu Yue's group.

The one attracting the most attention was undoubtedly the woman who looked like an internet celebrity streamer. Xu Yue vaguely heard her introduce herself as Jiong Jiong.

"S-Seniors, please look after us during the mission."

The newcomers seemed to have heard the instructor's explanation and had gained some understanding of Xu Yue's group.

After the initial panic, the quickest to react was a man dressed like a servant, who immediately forced a smile and spoke.

"Tell us the information you received from the instructor. So long as it does not threaten us, I can lend you a hand once."

Spy, carrying his briefcase, nodded with an icy expression.

Having completed two missions already, he deeply understood the importance of intelligence. Otherwise, he would not have focused his enhancements in that direction.

"No problem, no problem. Senior, according to the instructor, we should be in a Mission Space called Kabane. This world has been overrun by monsters called Kabane. As long as they bite someone, that person will become infected and turn into one of them. Their only weakness is the vital point on their chests, but their defenses are extremely high. We should currently be inside a steel fortress similar to a train called a Hayajiro, so we're safe for the time being..."

Xu Yue listened quietly from the side, wanting to know how much they had learned.

Unfortunately, perhaps because none of them had chosen to pay extra, they had only received the most basic information.

Still, even that basic information was undoubtedly extremely important. Otherwise, even veterans could stumble if they did not understand the Kabane's traits.

At that moment, the frozen Space that had isolated them began to loosen, shifting from stillness into slow movement.

Space Mission: Kill 10 Kabane. Progress: 0/10.

This is the newcomers' second mission. Failure will not result in negative point deductions, but no basic evaluation can be obtained.

Kill as many Kabane as possible, or complete other side missions.

This is a peaceful mission. Reincarnators who attack one another will receive corresponding score penalties.

Mission duration: Three months.

Mission begins.

After hearing the mission prompt, Xu Yue understood what those trainee Reincarnators on their third mission had meant. Compared to the complete freedom and leniency of the first mission, the second mission already required them to kill ten Kabane before they could receive the basic points.

For newcomers on their second mission, that difficulty was truly quite high.

It seemed the three different groups of "newcomers" present had three different levels of missions.

Moreover, judging from the peaceful mission setting, this mission's difficulty indeed encouraged cooperation.

Rumble—rumble—whooo!

Space completely unfroze.

The vibrations of the tracks, the roar of the steel beast, the train whistle, and the pungent smell of engine oil flooded everyone's nostrils.

Even while sitting inside the carriage, they could feel the iron-blooded aura of this steel beast.

The mission had officially begun!