The Zerg

"Congratulations on defeating an unknown creature, you have gained 20 experience points!"

"You have triggered the unique hidden quest [Shadow of the Zerg], your novice quest has been updated to the unique hidden quest."

[Shadow of the Zerg 1] (Unique Hidden): After you barely defeated the monster in the cave, you were very confused why such a space beast would appear in a low-level star domain. Take the remains of this creature to the mother planet base to find General Huang. He might have the answer for you.

Quest Requirement: Present the monster's remains to General Huang.

Reward: 50 experience points, 2 Silver Crystals, choose one exquisite-grade mecha armor treasure chest*1.

The system prompt sounded, proving that the monster had indeed been killed, and Wang Qianduo's novice quest had also changed drastically.

The normal quest progression in the forum guides should have been him returning to the base with the wreckage of the interstellar pirate's mecha whom he had counter-killed, then receiving 20 experience points and a normal-grade mecha armor.

Then General Huang would send people to investigate the planet, but the pirates on the planet, due to his counter-killing of that pirate, would not return for a long time. Knowing that something might have gone wrong, they would leave the planet in advance, causing the investigators to come up empty.

After that, with his armor installed, he would accept the mission from General Huang to kill the interstellar pirates of the Black Shark Pirate Group who had infiltrated the low-level star domain.

But now, his quest was different from the start. Not only were the rewards much more generous, but he had no idea how the subsequent events would unfold.

The guides were suddenly useless to him. How frustrating is that...

At the same time, his experience was stuck at 99/100, which was really testing his patience.

Helpless, Wang Qianduo could only pick up the blue crystals and items dropped on the ground. After finishing the monster's remains, he left the story instance and headed towards the base.

"System prompt: Obtained 15 Blue Crystals, 1 Purple Crystal."

"System prompt: Obtained material [Exquisite Chitinous Shell]."

These blue crystals dropped by interstellar pirates and monsters were the currency in the mecha world, a type of crystal containing energy.

There were three types of crystals, from highest to lowest: Gold Crystals, Purple Crystals, and Blue Crystals, with a ratio of 1:10:100.

In essence, they were like the traditional gold, silver, and copper currencies in games. Besides being used as materials, they were no different from ordinary currency.

Besides money, the monster also dropped a material for Wang Qianduo.

[Exquisite Chitinous Shell]

Material: Exquisite

Quality: Intermediate

Remarks: A versatile chitinous biological material.

And that was it. The drop rates in the mecha world were notoriously bad. It was already famous, with many ordinary players struggling to assemble a full set of ordinary equipment of the same level even at level 30.

Otherwise, so many people wouldn't have been discouraged right after the game launched.

At the same time, Wang Qianduo did not yet realize what the legendary weapon in his hand represented.

After leaving the story instance, Wang Qianduo headed towards the main city of the base. What impressed him most about this game so far wasn't the mechas, but the sight of everyone lining up everywhere.

However, this grand spectacle wouldn't last long. Once players reached level 3, they would head to different star domains for quests. Only when they reached level 5 for their first dungeon would such a scene be seen again.

Putting away Unit Zero, Wang Qianduo returned to the residential area. Led by a guard, he was brought before General Huang to report the situation.

"General, on my way back from transporting ore, I encountered a group of interstellar pirates... blah blah blah... Then he summoned a monster... blah blah blah...

This is the monster's left pincer, this is its right pincer, this is the upper part of its body..."

To make it clearer for the General, Wang Qianduo laid out the entire enormous body of the monster he had chopped up and tried his best to piece it together.

He didn't notice the floor hissing and corroding from the monster's blood.

General Huang: "..."

My newly replaced memory alloy floor!!!

"Stop assembling it, it's confirmed, it's a Zerg worker bee!"

General Huang, suppressing the urge to curse, stopped Wang Qianduo's actions.

"Uh, General, I apologize, I have some obsessive-compulsive disorder!" Wang Qianduo said, fiddling with the Zerg's corpse one last time.

General Huang: "..."

"System prompt: You have completed the hidden quest [Shadow of the Zerg 1], you have gained 50 experience points, 2 Silver Crystals, and one exquisite-grade mecha armor treasure chest*1."

"The Black Shark Pirate Group can actually summon Zergs? Have they colluded with the Zerg?

Since you discovered them, recruit, this matter will be handed over to you for investigation.

Do you accept?" General Huang asked solemnly.

"I guarantee to complete the mission!" Wang Qianduo replied immediately.

"Good. Go to the Dark Forest on Planet 1 in Star Domain 5. We received intel that a group of Black Shark pirates are hiding there.

Go and investigate what these interstellar trash are up to, and whether they are truly colluding with the Zerg.

If possible, bring me the head of the Black Shark pirate leader [Hyena Minkson] who is hiding in the forest.

That hyena is not weak. I can allow you to find a few companions, but the difference in strength cannot be too great!

Also, you must bring back the rare pure gold ore that they stole."

Wang Qianduo: "..."

How come I feel like your last sentence is the real point?

Old Huang, you're even acting cute? You just want me to help you get your stuff back, right?

"System Prompt: You have received a hidden quest, [Zerg Shadow 1: Hyena Minksen]."

But the quest was already in hand, so Wang Qianduo didn't dwell on it. He glanced at the quest details and left.

[Zerg Shadow 1: Hyena Minksen]: A leader of the Black Shark Pirates, Hyena Minksen is plotting something in the Dark Forest. Please investigate.

Quest Requirements: Defeat Hyena Minksen, the boss of the Dark Forest dungeon in at least Hard mode, and investigate his connection to the Zerg.

Rewards: Varies depending on team completion difficulty.

Wang Qianduo didn't go to complete the quest immediately. Instead, he headed to the city to look around.

While the Dark Forest dungeon was the first dungeon in the game, it was also a level 5 dungeon.

He wanted to see if he could pick up any other regular quests to increase his level.

On a side note, after completing the previous quest, Wang Qianduo's experience was enough to level up to level 2, but he hadn't allocated his skill points yet.

At the same time, he opened his [Choose One Exquisite Grade Mech Armor Chest] and selected an armor he was very satisfied with.

Light Titanium Alloy Mech Armor (Exquisite 97%)

Armor

Level: Usable by Agility-type mechs LV1 and above

Strength +1

Agility +3

Defense +4

Notes: Lightweight mech armor that does not affect mech speed.

The armor's stats were decent. After all, it was only an Exquisite level 1 equipment, and Wang Qianduo didn't expect too much from it.

However, his luck wasn't great. The equipment from this type of chest didn't roll 100% perfect stats.

The probability of getting perfect stats wasn't high, but this was only level 1 equipment. A 3% quality difference didn't significantly impact the stats, so there was no need to spend materials to reroll it to 100%.

The percentage behind the equipment's grade represents how close its stats are to the maximum possible value. The difference between 0% and 100% can be several points, and the difference increases with higher equipment levels and grades.

For low-level equipment, a 3% difference truly didn't affect the stats.

After equipping the [Light Titanium Alloy Mech Armor] using the virtual operation interface, Wang Qianduo strolled through the streets.

Equipment usage in Mech World was very convenient. Simply dragging the virtual image of the equipment onto the virtual image of the mech would automatically equip it.

Players could manually modify their mechs, and this was one of the selling points when the game first launched.

The appearance of Unit Zero did not change after equipping the armor. The armor simply replaced the materials of the entire mech and did not alter its external shape.

Then, Wang Qianduo leveled up his character, gaining five free attribute points.

However, he didn't rush to allocate them because he hadn't decided on his build yet, and he didn't desperately need those few attribute points.

"Well, well! It really takes 1000 points to go from level 2 to level 3. This game makes leveling up so difficult! No wonder after a year, the highest level is only 30."

Wang Qianduo looked at his experience bar with some helplessness. Because the hidden quest had overridden his main questline, his quest progression stopped at level 2. Faced with so much experience, he didn't know what to do for a moment.

"Forget it, I won't think about it for now. I'll go and complete those side quests posted on the forums first!

The strategy guide became useless right from the start, which is really annoying!"

Worker Bee

Race: Zerg

Level: Elite

LV3

HP: 270

MP: 40

Attack: 30

Defense: 5

Skills: Mining, Pounce