Chapter 75: Seventy-fifth Day of Being a Lazy Fish

“I knew you’d ask that.” Goudan grinned and reached out, pulling out the communicator Lu Yuan had given him earlier. “I brought it along specifically so it would be easier for you to see for yourself.”

“…That works.” Lu Yuan took the communicator. Finding it too much of a hassle to scroll through line by line, he simply used his Mental Power to read the contents directly.

Likely knowing that the details of this meeting were important, Siming had asked very thorough questions, and Zhu Rong had answered with meticulous detail. After reading the logs Siming sent over, it was almost possible to reconstruct the entire encounter between the two of them.

–

Today was the first time Zhu Rong had entered the Safe Zone.

Judging by the amount of time she spent playing the game, she actually should have reached the Safe Zone long ago.

She practically lived in the game every day. Aside from eating and sleeping, the rest of her time was spent playing.

However, she hadn’t headed straight for the destination. Instead, she had done other things that delayed her progress.

She had fought every single wild monster she encountered along the way.

This was no easy feat.

Most of these monsters required a Mecha to defeat, or even a group of people working together in Mecha.

Mecha made of metal and equipped with various weapons possessed attack power and defense that far surpassed flesh and bone. Even if human physical stats were enhanced to a certain extent within the game, they still couldn’t reach the level of a Mecha.

Therefore, trying to hunt wild monsters during the beginner phase was incredibly difficult.

According to the game’s intended progression, a solo player would normally reach the Safe Zone first, obtain a Mecha, and then return to hunt monsters. That was the logical and conventional path.

However, Zhu Rong believed the beginner phase was very useful.

She didn’t mean it was useful for playing the game, but rather, it was useful for her.

During the beginner phase, players would respawn ten minutes after death. Moreover, because they didn’t have Mecha yet, fighting and dying resulted in almost zero losses.

Zhu Rong liked this setting very much.

It meant she could stay near a monster continuously without losing track of it. She could observe, fight, gather data, and accumulate experience. Since death carried almost no penalty, she could focus on spending a long time trying to defeat a single monster to hone her skills.

This was necessary. In fact, it was the most important thing for Zhu Rong at this stage.

She needed to weaken the influence Lu Yuan had on her and perfect her own tactical system, which required more combat and learning.

Zhu Rong’s tactical style leaned toward that of an assassin. She excelled at and preferred completing tasks with the minimum possible cost.

Grasping the right timing and the opponent’s weaknesses was the most vital part of her combat.

Reflecting on her repeated failures and eventually finding a way for the weak to defeat the strong was the best way to train these specific skills.

In truth, her current tactical style had been forged through her persistent efforts to find a way to defeat Lu Yuan.

Lu Yuan was simply too much stronger than her.

Therefore, when the two of them played games together, Lu Yuan could afford to be lazy. He could finish her off as quickly as possible, having many options available to him and simply choosing the easiest and most efficient one.

Zhu Rong, on the other hand, had to be extremely cautious. She had to find ways to concentrate all her strength into a single point to strike at Lu Yuan’s weaknesses, hoping to break through his defense.

However, after leaving the Desolate Planet, most of the opponents Zhu Rong encountered were no longer able to maintain an overwhelming advantage over her or pressure her the way Lu Yuan did.

She was truly excellent at piloting Mecha.

Hundreds or even thousands of games, hundreds or even thousands of failures—this level of indomitable effort had ultimately shaped a twelve-year-old girl who, after only half a year of playing Mecha games, could pilot a Mecha to storm a Star Pirate Syndicate.

Until this game opened the doors to a new world for her.

If it was hard to improve while hunting monsters in a Mecha… she could just do it directly without one.

She wasn’t worried that the difference between hand-to-hand combat and Mecha combat would be too great or that the skills wouldn’t translate.

She wasn’t the type who relied purely on muscle memory; to her, the underlying logic and strategy were far more important.

Furthermore, this direct method of combat was exactly what she needed to learn. The experience of controlling a Mecha with Mental Power was actually much closer to direct physical combat than using a keyboard and joystick.

As for combat abilities and techniques, although Siming had taught her some, and although Siming was already without equal on the Desolate Planet, and although Siming was a decent teacher…

That teacher, in the end, still wasn’t as good as Lu Yuan.

Zhu Rong’s hand-to-hand combat skills were weaker than her mecha piloting abilities. This area still required more training.

In short, while fighting wild monsters barehanded might seem a bit unhinged, it was actually quite useful for her. Given the circumstances, she was in no hurry to reach the safe zone.

Of course, reaching the safe zone wasn’t unnecessary. It would allow her to train other skills, such as actual mecha combat, cooperation with teammates, and even tactical command.

Furthermore, mecha combat was faster, which would allow her to fight a large number of monsters with simple but diverse combat styles in a short amount of time. This would help her identify commonalities between different enemies, allowing her to trace them back to their source, organize her fundamental logic, and break free from Lu Yuan’s influence.

Under these conditions, Zhu Rong chose to go with the flow. She didn’t rush her journey, but she didn’t intentionally delay either. If she encountered a monster, she fought it; if not, she focused on walking. It wasn’t until this evening that she finally encountered a safe zone for the first time.

The safe zone wasn’t particularly large, nor was it well-constructed. In fact, it didn’t even have walls or any buildings inside.

A red line drawn on the ground marked its boundaries. From a distance, one could see the scene within.

Many people were standing around, and there were a few stalls.

The scene bore a resemblance to the Desolate Planet. Ever since Goudan started managing that area, he had organized a marketplace. It happened once every time the Garbage Ship arrived, with an additional session held once a month.

The people of the Desolate Planet didn’t have much, and they had even less to trade. Occasionally, if they had a need, they could usually make do and wait another month without much trouble. This frequency was more than enough.

Whenever the market was held, everyone would gather within the area Goudan had designated to trade. Zhu Rong had attended a few times.

That market was very primitive. Those who had items to trade would bring them from home, set them down in front of themselves, and wait for someone in need to take them. Those with nothing to trade would just wander around the area to see if they could find something they wanted.

Usually, there were very few stallholders and crowds of people just wandering about.

The scene before her was quite similar to that market.

Most people were standing, walking around, and talking to each other, while a few sat on the ground.

As Zhu Rong stepped over the red line, she heard a notification chime.

[Welcome to the 80% Mecha Combat Game. Congratulations on completing the novice quest – Find the Safe Zone.]

[Please proceed to the Novice Service Center to claim your novice quest rewards!]

[You will receive: Novice Basic Mecha x1; Novice Toolbox x1; Novice Medical Kit x1.]

“…”

That was it?

Zhu Rong was stunned for a second. She recalled the words of the players she had met when she first entered the game.

“You can claim a basic mecha and a small amount of supplies.”

…It really was a small amount of supplies.

There didn’t even seem to be a map included.

Nor was there any indication of where the Novice Service Center was located.

She looked up and glanced around. However, before she could decide which direction to take, she was suddenly called out to.

“Hello?”

It was a very soft female voice, sounding gentle, intellectual, and completely non-threatening.

Zhu Rong turned her head and saw a woman standing very close to her. She looked quite young, but the way she looked at Zhu Rong gave her the impression that the woman was older than she appeared – it was the gaze of an elder.

Meeting Zhu Rong’s eyes, the woman’s eyes crinkled into a smile, her expression gentle and bright. “Hello, is this your first time in the safe zone?”

“It is,” Zhu Rong nodded.

“Are you from the Galactic Empire too?” The woman’s eyes lit up. “It’s rare to run into someone from the Empire here!”

She then pointed in a direction and said, “The Novice Service Center is over there. I can take you.”

Zhu Rong tilted her head slightly. “Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it!” The woman acted very friendly – perhaps a bit too friendly. She moved closer to Zhu Rong and began leading her in that direction, saying, “You can call me Xiao Lu. What’s your name? Where are you from?”

She spoke with the light, airy tone of a young girl, which matched the name “Xiao Lu” quite well.

“Zhu Rong,” Zhu Rong replied. She didn’t mention where she was from.

Xiao Lu understood her meaning and didn’t press further, smiling instead. “That’s a lovely name!”

Then she looked at Zhu Rong, appearing somewhat hesitant.

“Is something the matter?” Zhu Rong asked.

“Do you know Chen Xingfan? She’s a friend of mine. You look a bit like her.” Xiao Lu’s eyes curved as she gestured toward her own eyes. “Especially around the eyes. I haven’t seen her in a long time, and seeing you reminded me of her.”

She hesitated for a moment, then smiled. “To be honest, I almost suspected the two of you were mother and daughter. Her husband’s surname also happens to be Zhu – the same character as in ‘blessing.’ That’s your surname as well, isn’t it?”