Chapter 199
Chapter 199 Brain Not Quite Right
This girl might look like a careless slacker, but she actually has a sharp intuition and is quite clever. In reality, she prefers to hide in the background and make a fortune quietly. Xia Xinyan had been fooled by her appearance in her past life, but not this time.
Upon hearing her question, Murong Yue was taken aback for a moment and turned to look at Gao Tian and the others, who were hiding behind a cover in the back: “Now that I think about it, didn’t you notice how calm they were during the fight we just witnessed? Even the fat guy was more surprised than them.”
Xia Xinyan glanced back.
The group was currently cheering “Go!” and “Be careful!” while watching from a distance, and from a gaming perspective, they did resemble those idle AI teammates that seemed to be trying hard but were actually slacking off. But… in the context of this game, it felt off.
Moreover, Xia Xinyan no longer considered these dungeons to be just mere dungeons—they could very well be a real world!
If Xia Xinyan had previously harbored doubts due to the lack of concrete evidence, all doubts vanished after encountering Monica.
So when a group of ordinary people suddenly witnessed these supernatural abilities that couldn’t be explained by scientific reasoning, was that really how they would react?
And those high-tech silver combat robots, Xia Xinyan hadn’t seen such robots in the city before, yet Gao Tian and the others didn’t seem surprised and appeared to know a lot about them.
This caught not only Murong Yue’s attention, but Xia Xinyan had also been observing them, and recalling Gao Tian’s earlier strange term made her suddenly guess—
Could it be that this group had seen similar scenes before?
Or perhaps their knowledge of technology had progressed to a point where they could comprehend such scenes, hence their lack of surprise?
The most concerning aspect for Xia Xinyan was the stark contrast between the low-tech exterior of the outer city and the high-tech nature of the Spire—what exactly was going on?
What was this city really hiding?
As Xia Xinyan pondered, the group ahead finished the battle. The robots were tough, but they weren’t a threat to them.
This was the first time Xia Jincang witnessed Ling Mo’s real strength.
Honestly, he found it somewhat surprising.
He knew Xia Xinyan had managed to acquire the first batch of Game Pods through connections, and he could guess that Xia Xinyan and Ling Mo must have been playing this game since its launch. But his ingrained impression of his sister made it hard for him to believe that she would voluntarily engage with the Battle Zone—after all, they never intended to let her know about the game’s special nature; they didn’t want the only girl in the Summer Family to endure the hardships of growing stronger; the Summer Family had the power to protect her.
So given his lack of understanding of the game’s uniqueness and her disinterest in gaming, the possibility of his sister engaging with the Battle Zone was slim, which also led him to overlook Ling Mo’s potential.
After all, the Safe Zone also had a rating system, and the effects were applicable across both the Safe Zone and Battle Zone. This was the greatest benefit for players in the Safe Zone; however, achieving a high rating in the Safe Zone was comparatively tougher, but due to the power boosts and lower pain settings, the dungeons in the Safe Zone were often more engaging than those in the Battle Zone—because players dared to fight, and dared to die.
So who knows how many players pretended to play the Battle Zone online but were actually just slacking off in the Safe Zone after the game’s popularity soared? Anyway, most viewers didn’t care about this as long as it looked cool.
When Xia Jincang was investigating the fat guy, he hadn’t yet made it to the rankings, but later on, he learned about the fat guy’s rise, although during that time, the videos rarely featured Ling Mo and Xia Xinyan, so Xia Jincang assumed the games they played together were probably all in the Safe Zone—and indeed, the performance in those videos showed the fat guy was stronger than Ling Mo…
Well, in reality, it was that the fat guy didn’t give much screen time to the others, while for himself… he managed to capture every frame where he looked cool.
These little tricks flew way over Xia Jincang’s head; after all, he had never made videos, didn’t care to, nor had he ever considered using such tactics to boost his own reputation.
As a result, Xia Jincang had largely overlooked Ling Mo’s true strength.
This was also something that had annoyed Xia Xinyan in her past life—habitually underestimating opponents… no, rather, he seemed to habitually underestimate everyone except when it came to combat.
And this deep-rooted underestimation while emphasizing tactics made it an excellent taunt skill against any opponent.
However, now, Xia Jincang couldn’t afford to look down on Ling Mo any longer.
“Not bad, you have some skill.” He looked at Ling Mo and smiled in compliment.
Ling Mo smiled back, “Big Brother Jincang is strong too.”
Xia Jincang ignored him and turned towards Xia Xinyan, with Ling Mo following behind.
Then, Xia Jincang, somewhat displeased, quickened his pace.
Ling Mo hastened along too.
Watching the two resembling a competitive walking duo, Tian Yi couldn’t help but stroke his chin: “I’m quite curious… what’s their relationship? Weren’t they supposed to be brothers? Why does it feel like they’re rivals?”
The fat guy shot him a sideways glance: “Bro, think about their last name.”
Tian Yi paused and suddenly realized: “Oh, I get it, Xia Jincang even changed his surname to express his feelings, and now the brothers have turned into enemies?”
The fat guy: “…”
Zhu Di: “… Don’t take him seriously, this guy is a bit slow on the uptake.”
The fat guy chuckled twice: “I get it, I get it, must be performance art or something, they all do that.”
He has high emotional intelligence.
When they regrouped, Gao Tian and the others followed closely from behind: “I was scared to death! They actually deployed combat robots against us! Thank goodness you guys are so strong! This time we absolutely must destroy them and save this city; we will definitely not be their slaves!”
Murong Yue surveyed them: “I’m curious, don’t you guys have any weapons or anything?”
“Ah? Weapons?” Gao Tian paused, then quickly nodded, “We have some, they’re coming right now.”
Just as his words finished, a thunderous cheer erupted from the breach in the high wall, and they saw countless people surge through that entrance, rushing in all directions.
Gao Tian instantly became excited: “Our reinforcements are here! Look! These are all from our Resistance Army! This time, we will surely blow up the Control Hub!”
“Wow… quite a spectacle.” The fat guy smacked his lips, “Are there other players in there?”
“Maybe, but with such chaos, it’ll probably be hard to find them,” Tian Yi replied.
While they were talking, a squad of Resistance fighters ran over, delivering firearms to Gao Tian and the others—Xia Xinyan noticed that all these weapons belonged to the guards on the outer walls earlier.
“Alright, friends, our group still has some tasks to finish.” Gao Tian chambered the weapons and led the way forward, “We need to blow a path inside; follow me, let’s save this city!”
