Clearing 1-1
[Not bad, host! You didn't even look at the game guide, and you already know how to kill monsters.] The system clapped and cheered beside her.
"Hehe, it's just muscle memory from killing zombies." Yuqing was embarrassed by the praise. Although she was a healer, she had killed plenty of zombies during the apocalypse.
[I just scanned the area. There are about a hundred mutants here. Once you've killed them all, you'll clear the story for 1-1.]
"All right!" Her first kill had been so easy that Yuqing felt much more confident. She gathered her mental power in her palm and sent several more sharp wind blades flying fiercely at the mutant rabbits pursuing them!
[Points +10] [Points +10]
[Points +10] [Current mission progress: 35/100]
Once the area around them was safe for the moment, the woman looked delighted. She took Yuqing's hand and said, "Heavens, my child, have you received the God of Light's blessing and become an awakened one?"
"Yes, Mother. I just came out to try the power I awakened," Yuqing explained.
"That's wonderful! Now our territory has another awakened one to protect it, and Aili, you can inherit your father's title without any trouble." Mrs. Xiersen was so happy that she wanted to tell her husband the good news at once. "It's a pity your father won't return until the day after tomorrow. I can hardly wait to tell him."
"Mother, there might still be mutant beasts outside the walls. Can I go take a look with the knights?" Yuqing glanced at the mission progress bar. There were still more than seventy mutant beasts left. After a moment's thought, she decided she might need to explore more of the map.
"All right, but you must stay close to the knights. Don't go running off." As a mother, Mrs. Xiersen didn't want her daughter to risk danger, but she was also the viscount's wife and had a duty to protect the people of their town. After a moment's hesitation, she relented. "You must come back before dark. I'll go home and make your favorite cake."
"Okay." Yuqing was momentarily dazed. Mrs. Xiersen's appearance overlapped somewhat with the blurry image of her mother in her memories.
"This way, miss." The knight led the way.
The viscount's territory wasn't very large, and before long, Yuqing followed him to the wall. Many knights were hurrying to repair the damaged sections, while the rest battled the remaining mutant beasts atop it!
[Host, it looks like you'll clear the stage after killing this wave.]
"All right." Yuqing condensed her clear, gentle, pale-blue mental power into sharp points and sent them crashing precisely into the mutants leaping about ahead of her.
[Points +10] [Points +10]
[Points +10] [Current mission progress: 85/100]
"I've overdrawn my mental power a little." After dealing with a particularly tricky mutant monkey that moved with great agility, Yuqing realized that her mental power could no longer keep up with the pace of the fight.
Mutants were different from zombies. They wouldn't stand still and let themselves be hit. They could dodge and run, and fighting them consumed both mental and physical energy. She had underestimated them at first.
A cool breeze brushed her skin, carrying the lingering ferocity of the battlefield. Yuqing panted softly, a trace of belated fear rising in her heart.
Back in the Dark Forest, if she hadn't met Ers and the others, she probably would have had a hard time getting out alive.
[Host, you've found your weakness. Now you just need to find a way to make up for it.] This was why the system had wanted her to play the game in the first place: to understand her own strength and keep improving. Only when she had a certain ability to protect herself could she survive alone in this world.
[Can you keep going?]
"Yes." Yuqing slowly raised a hand and rubbed her swollen temples. She closed her eyes and steadied her breathing for two seconds. When she opened them again, only determination remained.
Only fifteen remained. She didn't want to give up halfway, and she also wanted to use this intense battle to push herself and try to break through her mental power's existing limit.
[All right, host, you've got this!]
Yuqing took several deep breaths, and her ragged breathing steadied again. She concentrated, forcing herself to gather the last of her mental power into blades once more...
The process was deeply uncomfortable. As her remaining mental power was forcibly drawn out, Yuqing felt as though her head was about to split apart.
But several mutant beasts were already poised to attack her. Although it was a game, the models and rendering were so realistic that Yuqing momentarily forgot where she was. The instant danger struck, her body reacted on instinct, and countless wind blades formed from mental power burst out around her!
[Points +10] [Points +10]
[Points +10] [Current mission progress: 100/100] [Congratulations to the player for clearing stage 1-1.]
Thud!
As the announcement sounded in her ears, Yuqing's strength finally gave out, and she dropped to her knees with a thud.
[It worked! Your mental power increased by five points, host.] The system spun around excitedly.
If it had only been a guess before, the increase in mental power had now confirmed the system's suspicion. In this world, where energy was more abundant, training the host's mental power produced a more significant improvement than it had in the zombie apocalypse!
At this rate, after clearing half the game's stages and using some crystal cores to help, its host's mental power would reach the level of a C-rank sentinel. She would then be able to operate some lower-performance mechas.
"All right, System Bro, I can't go on." Yuqing's white empire-waist dress was completely covered in blood and dirt, and her face was especially pale.
[Host, just go lie down in the medical pod.] The system pointed to the expensive medical pod in the corner, the very one the marshal had ordered his adjutant to bring in overnight.
"Okay." Yuqing exited the game, and the room returned to its familiar appearance.
After she lay down in the medical pod, her physical fatigue gradually faded, and her mental power filled up again. At the same time, Yuqing sensed a slight difference in her mental power's limit. She really did seem to have gotten stronger!
"Whoa, I've only cleared one stage, and my mental power, which hasn't improved in over three years, is already starting to budge?" Lying in the medical pod, Yuqing suddenly opened her eyes, disbelief filling them. "Doesn't that mean I'll be able to set out and find Yun Qi soon?!"
At the thought of Yun Qi, Yuqing's voice grew more excited.
[Host, you'll still need to build up your strength for a while. In the interstellar world, even ordinary people who haven't awakened are physically much stronger than ancient humans. If you want to be able to protect yourself here, you'll still need to train for a long time.]
The system wasn't trying to discourage Yuqing. As a guide, she was a "precious resource" that various forces would fight over. That meant that without a certain ability to protect herself, she would be a walking piece of meat once she left the Ninth Military District. If she couldn't even protect herself, how could she hope to find her friend?
"Ah." Deflated, Yuqing lay back down.