Mission Settlement

"My God, it's too sudden! This is all just too sudden!"

"Did everyone see that? He's actually a master of combat! Under his control, the robot defeated the lizard monster with such ease!"

"I take back what I said earlier. Perhaps he shouldn't just be called a genius scientist. I think everyone can start picking out a cool title for him now; I think 'Mechanical Expert' is a pretty good suggestion!"

Seeing the sudden turn of events, with Lizard charred black and motionless, the entire scene erupted into a chaotic uproar. Reporters, sensing they had just snagged a sensational scoop, shouted excitedly into their cameras.

Taking advantage of the fact that everyone's eyes were fixed on him, Li Si deactivated Shadow Follow Mode. He then secretly signaled Bumblebee to extend its right index finger, pop out a needle, and inject a full tube of unknown liquid into Lizard's body.

This was a small modification he had made last night; the liquid inside was a makeshift lizard serum antidote he had concocted using the knowledge left behind by Richard Parker.

It was essentially the same thing as what the system called a Restoration Serum, capable of purging the crudely integrated alien genes from Lizard's body. Although some residue would remain, it was definitely much better than the version in the original story.

In truth, injecting the Restoration Serum wasn't strictly necessary. The Lizard Self-Healing Serum created by Lizard was originally a temporary utilization of a lizard's regenerative abilities. Even without the antidote, the cells modified by the lizard genes would gradually be metabolized as the body's metabolism normalized.

Furthermore, this metabolic process wouldn't take long. The enhanced healing factor itself included an accelerated metabolism. With Lizard's terrifying level of regenerative ability, he likely wouldn't even remain in that state for a full day before reverting to human form. As long as he didn't continue injecting the serum, the lingering effects would gradually fade away.

However, since the game system bigwig had already issued a quest, and one of the faction tasks was to inject the Restoration Serum, Li Si had to go through the extra trouble for the sake of the quest rewards.

Fortunately, the judgment mechanism of the Earth OL game system wasn't rigid; otherwise, he really wouldn't have known how to get his hands on a genuine Restoration Serum. Without the chaos caused by Lizard attacking Oscorp Tower, he wouldn't have had the confidence to sneak in and manufacture it.

[Notification: Side quest Spider-Man: Battle of the Reptiles has ended. Winning side: Spider-Man Faction. Calculating contribution points for all participating players...]

[Notification: You have completed Faction Task 1: Assist Spider-Man in defeating Lizard. You defeated Lizard independently. Task contribution: 96%. Task rating: Perfect. You have received 20,000 Faction Points.]

[Notification: You have completed Faction Task 2: Assist Spider-Man in thwarting Lizard's conspiracy. You defeated Lizard before he could execute the Life Leap Project. Task contribution: 98%. Task rating: Perfect. You have received 20,000 Faction Points.]

[Notification: You have completed Faction Task 3: Inject Lizard with the Restoration Serum. You successfully purged the alien genes from Lizard's body. Task contribution: 100%. Task rating: Perfect. You have received 30,000 Faction Points.]

[Notification: The Faction Shop is now open. Please complete your exchanges within 48 hours. The shop will close after 48 hours!]

[Notification: You have completed a hidden achievement [Lizard Hunter]. Received Achievement Point *1. Current Achievement Points: 2]

As the antidote in Lizard's body gradually took effect and the faction tasks began to settle, a dense stream of notifications flooded Li Si's system panel.

"What the hell! What's going on? Why did the faction quest end so suddenly!"

At the same time, all the players in New York were in an uproar after seeing the notification. They first experienced a moment of blank-faced philosophical confusion—"Who am I?", "Where am I?", "What was I planning to do?"—before exploding with rage once they came to their senses.

What kind of garbage quest is this? I was preparing with all my heart for the quest plot to officially begin, and it just ends like this? Are you guys at Astral Gaming Company running a painless abortion clinic?

"Damn it, who the hell was faster than us!"

Compared to the other players, Li Ritian and his friends were even more furious.

They had to realize that before the system notification appeared, they had been under the impression that they were far ahead of everyone else.

Two nights ago, during the battle between Spider-Man and Lizard, they had seized the opportunity to join the Spider-Man faction. Because of the suits they were wearing, they had successfully posed as the superheroes the NPC spoke of and established a connection with him.

Moreover, they had received an invitation from that Spider-Man NPC yesterday to search the sewers for the lizard monster. Although they were defeated and forced to retreat, they had completed a hidden faction side quest and earned a full thousand points.

They had originally agreed to meet up today to go into the sewers and finish off the lizard monster once and for all. To that end, he had even spent money to buy several Thunder King Battle Suits to equip his friends.

But now, not only had they been stood up by the NPC, but the quest had been completed by someone else. It was a total loss.

These suits had cost him a fortune to buy from other players because he couldn't find that hidden merchant. Now that they hadn't even gotten a hair of the quest reward, they had lost everything.

"What do we do now?"

Li Ritian's friends, Ye Lin and Wang Ze, looked at him in unison.

"What else can we do? Let's go find that Spider-Man and ask what the hell is going on. Let's see which bastard sniped our quest!"

Li Ritian was furious, his face flushed red with rage. He led Ye Lin and the others out the door, looking for trouble.

...Break...

"Mr. Lee Stein, Mr. Lee Stein, I'm a reporter from CBS..."

"Mr. Lee Stein, I'm a reporter from ABC. Could we have a brief interview?"

"Mr. Lee Stein, I'm from NBC..."

Having only glanced briefly at the system notifications and not yet having time to check the Faction Shop, Li Si was surrounded by a large crowd of reporters. The microphones thrust toward him were nearly shoved into his nostrils.

"Please, everyone, one at a time. I will select questions to answer collectively!"

Li Si, taking a half-step back, offered a wry smile. At this moment, he finally understood the importance of having a good assistant.

However, since he had put on this show, he had to see it through to the end, even if it meant suffering for it. Li Si, who needed these TV reporters to spread his fame, had no choice but to bite the bullet and accept the interview.