Possible Powerlessness

"Maybe I've just got a soft spot for people," Wang Qianduo thought as he shook his head and left the Instance Dungeon after picking up the loot.

He couldn't figure out where that sudden emotion had come from. He really wasn't usually the kind of person who was so easily swayed by his feelings.

But that crying and the feeling it brought with it had been impossible to suppress.

Still, Wang Qianduo didn't dwell on it. Ever since he'd gotten the Top-Up System, something no one else had, he'd known that this world wasn't simple.

Compared with Normal difficulty, the only things that had gotten harder for Wang Qianduo on Hard difficulty were the traps before the final boss, Dr. Feng, and Dr. Feng's increased health after transforming.

The extra traps forced Wang Qianduo to be more careful, while Dr. Feng's larger health pool meant that one Photon Ray skill could no longer kill him instantly.

Not being able to kill the boss in one hit wasn't a big deal, but the traps had seriously slowed down their clears.

Their group took just under fifteen minutes to clear a Hard dungeon, but they spent nearly ten minutes dealing with the traps alone.

That meant two-thirds of each run was wasted on them—and this was only Hard difficulty.

Wang Qianduo looked at his completely unchanged quest and realized he might have to try a Nightmare Dungeon.

Really, the only reason he thought fifteen minutes per run was too long was because he was spoiled. Lin Qimeng and the others couldn't even be sure they'd survive a thirty-minute Hard run.

"With this kind of efficiency, I think we can try Nightmare," Sister Hua said just as Wang Qianduo was about to suggest it.

"I agree!" Wang Qianduo immediately chimed in.

"Fine. Let's give it a try!" Lin Qimeng decided.

They'd all been thinking the same thing. With someone like Old Wang to carry them, why wouldn't they take advantage of it?

So they charged into the Nightmare Dungeon, full of confidence, and smoothly killed the gatekeeping boss, Mark Bi.

"A level 10 Rare water-element, Intelligence-type mech shield. Old Wang, do you need it?" Lin Qimeng asked after picking up the loot.

Old Wang shook his head. He rarely needed any of the equipment that dropped in dungeons.

That was because even in Nightmare Dungeons, the chance of getting Perfect-grade gear was minuscule.

At the current stage, players had only two ways to obtain gear above Perfect grade: quests and World Bosses.

Nightmare Dungeons could drop it too, but the odds were tiny. So far, the only known example online was a drop Star River had gotten when they made the first kill in the Dark Forest Nightmare Dungeon.

"All right, then. Looks like we can sell it!" Lin Qimeng said.

"Aren't you planning to start your own club? Shouldn't you stock up on this stuff?" Wang Qianduo asked.

"How did you know?"

He didn't remember telling Wang Qianduo about it. Lin Qimeng looked at the other three, and even through their mechs, she could tell they were feeling guilty.

"It's still a long way from happening. There's no rush to deal with that stuff," Lin Qimeng said.

"Keep it. I don't want to have to spend every day buying gear once the club and guild are established," Wang Qianduo said.

"Buying gear...? Do you mean you're planning to join my club?!"

"You don't want me?"

"Of course I do! That's wonderful!"

"Can you two stop for a second? Are we doing this dungeon or not?" Sister Hua finally couldn't take it anymore and interrupted them.

"Haha... Right, let's go!"

Wang Qianduo couldn't see Lin Qimeng's expression, but from her voice, she sounded very happy.

"If only we could video chat right now. How could such an advanced mech not have a video function? It even has a virtual display!" Wang Qianduo muttered to himself.

Zero: "Acknowledged. I've forwarded your feedback to the operator!"

Wang Qianduo: "...Don't scare me. You can do that too?"

Zero: "Don't worry. I used the proper channels."

"Fine!"

Wang Qianduo didn't have time to say anything more to Zero, because their group had already entered the underground laboratory.

Although the monsters still posed no threat to their group, they had to stay focused and take the fight seriously.

Wang Qianduo had no idea how much trouble Zero's feedback would cause.

The Tencent operations department currently in charge of running the game went into an uproar as soon as they received the message.

"Boss, we've received another message that looks like developer feedback!" one employee reported to the person in charge of the game.

"Really? What instructions did they give us this time?"

"Uh... This time, the message came from someone different than the person who told us the game's abilities could be brought into the real world. The number they used to send it was different.

"This person asked us to add a video function, saying it was inconvenient to talk with teammates while piloting mechs in the wilderness."

The person in charge: "..."

"Go ahead and develop it. I'll inform the higher-ups!"

"Understood!"

Human Alliance Headquarters

Because of Wang Qianduo's message, everyone had to come in for a meeting on the weekend.

"Based on this new message, it seems there's more than one so-called developer. They're probably a species.

"The person from last time was likely a higher-ranking member of their species. He directly informed us that mechs could be brought into the real world, giving us time to prepare.

"This person seems to be under that one, something like a game tester, telling us to improve the game."

"Have we figured out what kind of beings they are?"

"No, but we suspect they're either higher-dimensional beings or members of a civilization far more advanced than ours."

"Be careful not to overstep during the investigation. We can't afford to offend them yet."

Zero's message had caused countless people to lose a lot of hair, but Wang Qianduo knew nothing about it.

By then, they'd already killed the Modified Human and were heading toward the War Mecha's room.

"The War Mecha in the Nightmare Dungeon is different from the ones in Normal and Hard. The moment we go in, it'll attack.

"Its first strike is a highly penetrating laser beam, and its firepower can cover multiple directions. We'll use the corpse of Modified Human No. 19 to draw its first attack. Then you two go in and immediately run in opposite directions, forcing it to spread out its fire.

"Remember, don't stand still and try to tank its attacks. The Nightmare Dungeon boss can keep firing for much longer than you'd expect."

Outside the boss room, Sister Hua gave Wang Qianduo and Old Ma a long list of instructions. In truth, most of them were aimed at Wang Qianduo.

After all, he was the only one there who liked to tank boss attacks.

The bosses in Normal and Hard hadn't been able to break through his shield, but the Nightmare Dungeon wasn't even in the same league.

Wang Qianduo wanted to say that he didn't tank attacks because he wanted to; he'd just gotten used to not being able to dodge them.

Once they'd settled on a plan, Sister Hua used her skills to buff everyone.

Then they threw open the boss room door, and Old Ma piloted the War Rhino mech and tossed the corpse of Modified Human No. 19 inside.

As for why he had to do it, well, that was the miserable lot of a Warrior. The Strength of the typical Intelligence- and Agility-type classes wasn't enough to throw the body as far as he could.

Just as they'd planned, the moment the corpse was thrown inside, a laser beam struck it and blasted it to pieces.

But there was no disgusting spray of blood and gore. The instant the laser touched the corpse, it was already cooked through.

After seeing that, Wang Qianduo and Old Ma hurried into the room and ran in opposite directions.

The War Mecha split its 237 cannons between them and swept them with fire. Wang Qianduo waved his hand, summoning all the photon spheres from his Photon Ray skill, and fired them back.

The Photon Ray skill's attacks were scattered, but the War Mecha was huge, so many of them still hit.

But Wang Qianduo's move backfired. He drew all of the War Mecha's aggro, and it stopped attacking Old Ma's War Rhino altogether, focusing every weapon on Wang Qianduo.

It didn't even pay any attention to Lin Qimeng and the other two as they entered the room.

"This is bad. While he can still hold it off, we need to attack!" Sister Hua said when she saw what was happening.

But Lin Qimeng had already charged forward with her Dragonflame Blade. Sister Hua's body flashed red, and flame-wreathed vines wrapped around the boss.

A magic circle made of fire appeared beneath the boss's feet, and red light enveloped it completely.

Then the red light from the orb in her hand flared, and a jet of flame shot out, setting the entire War Mecha ablaze.

Her attacks looked spectacular, but the whole sequence barely dealt a thousand damage.

But she wasn't a damage dealer to begin with. She was a support focused on control and buffs.