A Combat Weakling?

Watching the woman who had suddenly walked past, Xiahou had a persistent feeling that he had seen her before, but he couldn't remember where.

"She looks so familiar. Where have I seen her? Forget it, what girl could compare to equipment? But this game seems pretty realistic. I'd better find somewhere private to look at it!" With that, he began searching for a secluded alley.

"But which way did I come from? I don't remember being bad with directions. Whatever, I'll just pick a place."

After wandering around some more, he finally found an empty alley and hurried inside.

Just as he was about to take out the Red Queen, a notification popped up on the panel: special item. Bind before taking it out?

Seeing the notification, Xiahou was speechless again. "I can bind it? Why didn't I need to do that with the steamed bun?"

Another message appeared before him: consumables and ordinary items are excluded. Only special or high-grade items can be bound.

The game panel had actually responded to him. Xiahou was instantly excited.

"It answered me! Is it connected to the internet? Send me back, I want to quit the game! Hey! Are you there? Stop playing dead! Damn it! Did it crash or lose connection again? Send me back! (╯‵□′)╯︵┻━┻"

Staring at the unresponsive panel, Xiahou was utterly speechless, his throat choked up. Why was he ignored when it actually mattered?

After a moment of silence, he quietly opened his inventory and chose to bind both pieces of equipment. Another notification popped up: special equipment bound. Equipment will automatically return to the inventory when it is more than 100 meters away from the player.

Seeing the new notification, Xiahou no longer felt like trying to communicate. He probably wouldn't get an answer anyway.

With a thought, his hand suddenly grew heavy. The Red Queen hit the ground with a resounding bang.

Staring at his empty palm and the greatsword on the ground, he felt as though ten thousand horses were galloping through his heart.

"I can't even lift a weapon. I've brought shame on all my fellow players. _(:3 "∠)_"

He squatted down and strained with both hands to lift the hilt a tiny bit, only to lower it back to the ground, unable to hold it up.

"This thing must weigh at least 100 kilograms! I can't even pick it up, so how the hell am I supposed to use it? (╯‵□′)╯︵┻━┻"

Looking at the glaring strength of 3 on his player panel, followed by the ordinary person's 5, Xiahou finally recognized the reality that he was a weakling.

Even if he were given a divine weapon, he wouldn't be able to use it, like those things made of Adamantium or Vibranium, or some hammer fused with a star.

Even if they were placed in his hands, he wouldn't be able to lift them! He found himself missing the Lockjaw Blade. It had been a little shabby, but it came with a special effect! More importantly, he could use it!

After moping for a while, he looked at the Red Queen on the ground and silently thought, Retrieve. The Red Queen vanished from the ground in an instant, and he turned his attention to the Blue Rose.

"This one shouldn't be too heavy, right? It's just a handgun. No way..." Even as he spoke, he had already squatted down. That way, at least it wouldn't break if he couldn't hold it...

With another thought, a handgun appeared in his hand, but his hand still sank a little.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! This handgun must weigh at least ten jin! It really is different from an ordinary toy gun. The heft, the feel, and these patterns-so damn cool! (☆▽☆)"

Looking at the Blue Rose in his hand, radiating a faint blue light, Xiahou felt he could do it again.

As the saying went, a sharp weapon in hand awakened the urge to kill. With such a cool gun, how could he do himself justice if he didn't try it out?

He started looking around the alley for something to use as a target and found a metal paint bucket. After moving it into a corner, he stood a few meters away and took aim with the gun in both hands.

"With over ten years of experience playing all kinds of shooting games, hitting a stationary target is so easy!"

A shot rang out with a bang, and the recoil knocked Xiahou straight to the ground. He lay there questioning his life.

"Did I just get hit by a car? My hands hurt so much, and this is only thirty percent pain sensitivity! They aren't broken, are they?"

He struggled to his feet and walked over to where he had placed the paint bucket. Only its base remained, wobbling there, while the upper half had vanished.

A huge hole had also appeared in the wall. Beams of light shone through it, accompanied by cries of surprise and the sound of people talking on the other side.

Xiahou didn't stop to think about anything else. He turned and slipped out of the alley.

Back on the street, Xiahou was still astonished by the Blue Rose's power. That was without loading it with special bullets or infusing it with energy. He couldn't imagine how powerful it would be with those bullets and an infusion of energy.

The energy infusion had three stages, too. Just thinking about it was exciting!

But his trembling hands and the waves of pain kept reminding him of one fact: he could barely use it as he was now. He was still a long way from wielding it as casually as Nero!

"Come to think of it, how am I supposed to level up? There aren't any mobs for me to fight. It isn't going to make me kill people, is it? No way, right? No way, right? These people all seem so real. I feel like I'd be guilty!"

The sky was gradually growing dark, but Xiahou was still wandering around the streets.

"Oh, right, I almost forgot. If I can't go back, where am I supposed to stay? I don't think I have any ID or anything! And is twenty bucks enough for a hotel?"

"Also, I can understand English, but I can't speak it. I can't even communicate with people. The future looks bleak! I wonder if there's anything in the system shop that can solve that. I'd better take a look."

He searched through the system shop again, and after adding language-related items to his search, he finally found something particularly useful to him.

Basic Language Module: upon use, the user can immediately become familiar with the major languages on Earth in the current world. Price: 135 energy points.

"This would be useful, but if I buy it, I'll be down to single digits. Oh, well. Being able to communicate will make it easier to earn energy points. I'll buy it."

A chip appeared in his inventory. He had intended to take it out and examine it, but it was used immediately when he selected it, as though it wasn't supposed to appear in reality.

A mass of knowledge suddenly appeared in Xiahou's head, including all sorts of pronunciations. The flood of information made him dizzy.

It took him several minutes to recover. "I've said this many times already, but I still have to ask: did this game need to be so realistic? I feel like I really can speak a whole lot of languages now! I wonder if I'll still have these memories when I get out?"

"If I do, could I just go work as a translator? Or watch study materials without subtitles?"

The corners of Xiahou's mouth began to rise, and his expression turned lecherous.

"But now that communication is taken care of, where am I supposed to stay tonight?" He began looking for somewhere nearby to spend the night, but as the night grew later, there were hardly any people out and about.

After another search, he couldn't find so much as a chair by the street, nor did he see a single homeless person.

"Is America so orderly now? Why isn't there even a sign of them? Or is it because Trump hasn't taken office yet?"

Just then, the entrance to a subway station beside him caught his eye. "I remember people in America like to sleep on the floor in subway stations. I'm already here, so should I give it a try?"