What the Hell Is This Monster!

Zhao Heng tried repeatedly more than ten times, but it was still the same; it was too difficult to control.

no way.

He could only turn on the assist mode again—this time it was much smoother.

"Fine, I'll have some fun first, then practice as I play through the rest of the game!"

Zhao Heng got back into his wheelchair, reluctant to get off, and enthusiastically followed the instructions, sliding down the wall...

Sliding tackles and shooting—the training course began.

They were having a blast.

He felt as if he had transformed into a legendary Pilot who traversed the stars!

Finally, the training phase came to an end.

Zhao Heng rushed out of the passage and into the open area. He looked up, full of anticipation, ready to welcome the Vanguard-class Titan that was about to fall from the sky.

The colossal steel behemoth pierced through the clouds, crashing to the ground with terrifying kinetic energy, just as Titan was about to hit the ground.

The video suddenly froze, accompanied by a piercing electromagnetic interference sound, and then it was instantly stuck.

"Huh? It's stuck?" Zhao Heng was taken aback.

Then, the magnificent virtual scene before my eyes crumbled like shattered glass, and I was instantly plunged into a cramped darkness.

He was forced to leave the training program.

At the same time, the voice of the captain who had been instructing him rang out.

"Alright, riflemen, that's enough for now."

"It seems something big has happened—"

It's obvious.

That concludes the tutorial; we're now moving on to the story section.

"Is it time for a fight?"

Although experiencing the Pilot gear in the training missions was also quite enjoyable.

But after a while it did get a bit tedious, and Zhao Heng just wanted to get into the action, so the dungeon progression began.

Just as he wanted!

The dungeon crawling has indeed begun.

Zhao Heng caught the rifle thrown to him by his teammate and, somewhat confused, followed them onto the interstellar warship.

When I came to my senses...

We have arrived in space.

As the anti-orbital defense attack struck, his interstellar warship was shot down.

They were forced to board the Outlast pod and land on the ground.

The planet's outline slowly glides into the frame from the edge of the image, its atmosphere shimmering with a pale blue glow under the starlight, while clouds churn below.

Zhao Heng sat in the Outlast pod, watching this scene, somewhat lost in thought.

But soon...

He couldn't even appreciate the magnificent scenery.

Because he is falling rapidly!

Not long after.

Bang.

The Outlast pod landed.

Zhao Heng was dazed and confused after the fall. After a while, the hatch opened automatically, revealing a primeval alien jungle.

The IMC is currently engaged in a major battle with the Militia.

Gunshots and explosions echoed through the jungle, with occasional rockets whistling past, creating a scene of utter carnage.

It was the level that Lu Xiu had played on the system projection not long ago.

"So you can only be a rifleman at the beginning, right?"

Zhao Heng opened his backpack, took out the standard-issue rifle with a heavy industrial feel, stepped out of the Outlast pod, and looked at the real battlefield ahead, with its continuous artillery fire and billowing smoke. His blood boiled.

The shocking image of Lu Xiu, who had previously appeared on the system projection, charging in and out of the enemy ranks seven times like a god of war, instantly flashed through his mind.

"The legendary rifleman is here."

He immediately shouted along, then picked up his rifle and, with an extremely unrestrained and resolute attitude, charged directly towards the enemy's most intense line of fire, just like Lu Xiu had done!

"Kill--"

He roared inwardly as he sprinted, suddenly bending his knees and attempting to slide smoothly forward down the muddy slope, replicating the move before firing with style.

However.

The gap between imagination and reality is enormous.

He had just bent his knees; his body hadn't even fully slid out yet.

The enemy IMC infantry ahead had already keenly spotted this idiot.

Bang! Bang!

Two extremely crisp gunshots pierced the smoke.

Zhao Heng didn't even get a clear look at the enemy's face before he felt a sudden jolt in his chest and shoulders, followed by an extremely real, sharp pain.

A blinding red light, signifying severe injury and impending death, also appeared before his eyes.

"?"

Zhao Heng was completely bewildered.

When Lu Xiu was shooting, these enemies looked like sitting ducks lined up to be killed! Were their marksmanship really that accurate? That sharp?!

His response was an even more intense barrage of gunfire.

"Holy crap?!"

Just moments ago, Zhao Heng was full of confidence and thought, "I can do it too!" But he instantly snapped back to reality.

What about sliding headshots, what about silky smooth movement, what about legendary riflemen?

I've forgotten everything.

He didn't even care how awkward his posture was; what was originally an attempt to slide tackle turned into an extremely embarrassing, dark crawl.

He lay face down in the mud, using his hands and feet to scramble and crawl toward a huge piece of wreckage nearby.

Da da da da!

He had just ducked into cover when a hail of bullets rained down on the metal plate he was hiding on, sending sparks flying.

Zhao Heng was still somewhat bewildered.

Wrong!

What's going on!?

The thought had just crossed his mind.

The crisp clang of metal clashing sounded particularly jarring and deadly amidst the thunderous roar of gunfire.

Zhao Heng lowered his head instinctively.

A fragmentation grenade, flashing a rapid red light, traced a cruel parabola through the muddy water, rolling erratically down the slope to his feet, where it landed squarely in the blind spot between him and the cover.

Zhao Heng's pupils suddenly dilated.

What the hell?!

Suppressive firepower is one thing, but they also use tactical mine-laying?! And they're so accurate!

Before the question in his mind could be transformed into a complete swear word, he was just about to roll to the side.

The red light on the grenade flashed to its maximum.

The deafening explosion instantly overwhelmed Zhao Heng's hearing, and the violent orange-red flames, mixed with deadly metal fragments, mercilessly tore his fragile flesh and blood apart.

The excruciating pain lasted only a fleeting moment.

By the time he realized what was happening...

I'm back at the apartment.

"----ah?"

Zhao Heng stared at the familiar scene, remaining silent for a long while before finally snapping out of his daze, feeling utterly awful!

It's the first level, too.

In the projection, Lu Xiu smoothly knelt down while running, precisely locking onto the enemy amidst a hail of bullets, hitting the target every time, headshot after headshot—reloading, throwing grenades, firing—all in one smooth motion. Facing heavy firepower suppression, she always seemed to have eyes in the back of her head, cutting into blind spots in advance, handling the situation with absolute ease.

But he didn't even get close to the enemy! He was just about to show off his skills when he was almost killed in two shots by the highly intelligent IMC infantry.

"How did she do that?!"

Recalling Lu Xiu's effortless and graceful demeanor, her deadly presence without a single superfluous movement, Zhao Heng was plunged into deep self-doubt.

This is Roleplay Instance! Those IMC infantry are really strong! They were locked down as soon as they showed their faces!

Before I could react, the bullet hit me.

But even under such hellish difficulty, Lu Xiu was still able to charge forward and headshot enemies with ease?!

What kind of monster is this?

Zhao Heng wasn't the only one who died and came back.

There are still many people.

Because of the system's promotion, there's no need to crowd into the offline entrance, making the Titanfall Instance incredibly popular.

But many people went in, and many died and came back.

However, the people who returned from the dead this time didn't criticize the dungeon itself anymore.

Because I can't bring myself to say those insults.

In the images previously projected, Lu Xiu hadn't looked as disheveled as they did.

forum.

[Brothers, just got back from dying—I have a very serious question: are we really playing the same instance as Lu Xiu?!]

I admit I'm a noob, but Jump Kit really that hard to control? How come Lu Xiu is so skilled at it?

[----You've been tricked! Don't run around on the battlefield! Don't run around! I'll say it twice! And don't imitate Lu Xiu! Never imitate her! Those enemy soldiers are all fucking war gods!]

[This is outrageous! That kind of battlefield environment could be wiped out in an instant. I had only been out of the Outlast pod for two minutes when I wanted to go back to it! There were enemies everywhere! I don't even know who killed me.]

[I feel like this is even harder than Sekiro? A chaotic battlefield, stray bullets everywhere, you don't even know how you died.]

[A word of advice to everyone: crawl through the shadows! Forget all of Lu Xiu's actions! All of them! This dungeon is nothing like the one she cleared!!!]

Changfeng Road, entrance to an abandoned residential community.

--

Yan Fushou was ejected from the instance. Just as he was about to utter a few vulgar words, he saw Li Shengkai and the others looking at him.

"You're dead too, so what?"

Li Shengkai threw down his cigarette butt, stubbed it out with the sole of his shoe, and asked quietly, "Was it fun?"

Yan Fushou gave a wry smile and then said, "It's completely different from what I imagined—that Jump Kit is difficult to control, and that's not all. The battlefield is also completely different from what I imagined. The enemy soldiers are very intelligent, basically like real people, and their marksmanship is accurate. It's chaotic. I barely managed to survive to become a temporary Pilot."

Thinking he'd finally learned from Lu Xiu, he discovered that his fighting style was nowhere near as smooth as hers. Using the Jump Kit was not only cumbersome to control, but also made it impossible to hit anyone.

"..--."

These words were spoken.

The others behind Li Shengkai all nodded silently.

Clearly, these are all victims.

"Right?"

Upon hearing this, Li Shengkai couldn't help but light another cigarette. "The system's advertising is really misleading—if I hadn't seen Lu Xiu's gameplay of clearing the dungeon, I would have been careful advancing on the battlefield. But after watching it, I kept thinking about how she fought, and then subconsciously thought it was easy. I really can't learn from Lu Xiu."

SS-rank dungeons can't possibly be as easy as they look. The people on the front lines haven't even come out yet; maybe things will be a little better for them."

"After all, he's a genius."

Yan Fushou gently shook his head. "I should have thought of that long ago. How could her talent be limited to Architect?"

Li Shengkai looked back at the neighborhood shrouded in darkness. "Actually, you can't blame us. Seeing the images projected on the system, seeing Lu Xiu's test just now, how could we not be excited, how could we not imitate it?"

The others behind him nodded silently again.

Yan Fushou remained silent, his brows slightly furrowed, lost in thought.

Li Shengkai noticed his unusual behavior. "What's wrong?"

"I'm thinking."

Upon hearing this, Yan Fushou asked, "As a reward from the dungeon, will the Jump Kit have an auxiliary mode in real-world use?"

"Probably not. Reality isn't a fabricated scenario."

"That means that when Lu Xiu was tested not long ago, she received absolutely no assistance or guidance."

"----"

Li Shengkai stopped smoking, his expression becoming subtle: "You're worried—"

Yan Fushou didn't answer, but instead asked, "How many times did you fall in the dungeon? Back in the Training Ground at the beginning?"

That's impolite of you to ask that.

Ten times? Twenty times?

"----More than thirty times."

"I fell more than thirty times, and I had no other choice but to activate the system assistance."

Yan Fushou rubbed his forehead and then said, "It seems the situation is about the same. Now the question is, even if the frontline soldiers do manage to clear the dungeon and obtain the Jump Kit, will they be able to use it effectively?"

Li Shengkai:

Others: "----"

Will this Jump Kit turn out to be a case of "the seller's picture is not as good as the buyer's picture"?