But since the game's mechanics are like this, there's no other way. Neither of them felt like fighting anymore, so they opted to retreat. They chose not to move this round, and Greed clicked on a square outside the combat zone, which presented two options: one was to spend Action Points to expand the battle area, and the other was to leave. Greed chose to leave.
It seems that this dungeon doesn't force you to fight; you can run if you want. After he chose to leave, a combat resolution screen appeared, displaying specific values and giving a score based on the damage caused by both parties. After the scores were compared, the victor was shown.
The winner was, of course, Lord Superman and Batman, as their output values were too high. Gray mist's side hit the first three-hit combo once, the second combo twice, but the final hit missed entirely, resulting in low damage and not causing much bleeding over time.
While Greed was lamenting that Gray mist's skill set wasn't strong enough and leading him in the opposite direction, he suddenly saw a building appear in the square ahead—a "deserted cabin."
Hearing him, Gray mist immediately followed the lead to take a look. As soon as they opened the door, they were face-to-face with two withered ghouls.
"Oh my god!" Gray mist exclaimed, "Why are there still zombies?!"
"You're the one shouting for mom; the zombies are the ones who'd want to call for mom. You should see which of you looks more like a ghost," Greed couldn't help but quip. Because he was watching from a third-person perspective, those two ghouls were just peacefully eating inside the house, but hearing movement, they came out to check, only to see a strange gray mist hovering at the door, spookier than a ghost movie.
Encountering the two ghouls, the square instantly turned red, entering combat mode directly. Gray mist didn't react quickly enough and got scratched, screaming in pain, only to realize they hadn't lost any health.
Greed also realized—who said this card set was weak? This set is way too strong! Turns out, Gray mist is meant for PVE combat!
Although Gray mist innately covers the entire combat area, he is immune to normal attacks. And these small monsters seem only capable of normal attacks; they have no card set or skills and can't deal any damage to Gray mist at all.
Of Gray mist's three-hit combo, two hits are area damage; he directly punches down, and both ghouls collapse.
"Go check inside the house," Greed suggested, "there must be supplies."
After entering, Gray mist searched around and indeed found some supplies: there were bandages to restore health, hot soup to recover Spirit Value, and he even found a key and an "Explorer's Leather Jacket," which equipped would increase his defense.
"It's actually a search-and-fight game," Gray mist remarked.
"You've certainly played a lot," Greed shook his head, then used the bandages and hot soup on Gray mist, restoring both health and mana.
"I don't know what's more absurd—an Outer God healing with bandages or recovering Sanity Points with hot soup," Greed quipped.
"Obviously, it's me wearing a jacket that's absurd," Gray mist replied, putting on the jacket. But the design program seemed never to account for adapting to such peculiar creatures, so the jacket just floated mid-air, looking even scarier.
Meanwhile, Bruce's exploration wasn't going as smoothly. He heavily slammed a bizarre, crab-like monster to the ground, exhaling, "Lucifer really has nothing better to do, even making facehuggers."
"I suggested you switch forms, but you wouldn't," Selina said, "You're at a disadvantage attacking them with normal attacks. If you actually kiss this thing, don't think about kissing me tonight!"
Bruce sighed, "I got careless. I should've activated Barbados form to smash them directly. Who would've thought that the first thing I'd crush here is a crab."
"And you almost didn't manage that," Selina added.
Bruce glanced towards the cellar entrance in front of him and then said, "There shouldn't be any more inside, right?"
"You can't be sure of that; you should switch forms first," Selina advised, throwing a card. Instantly, Bruce floated into the air, bat wings appearing behind him, his eyes emitting thick black smoke.
He flew up into the air, then slowly descended. Almost to the ground, he realized there were traps. He said with lingering fear, "I really should switch forms. If I fall, fall damage plus trap damage would cost me half my health."
"It's obvious you haven't spent much time in the slums, big shot. Though Gotham's sewers don't always have spike traps, they're all mini chemical pools. Fall in, and you can dye your hair green and start doing stand-up comedy," Selina teased.
Bruce continued forward, arriving at the next square, only for another facehugger to appear. He folded his wings sharply, creating a gust of dark power that blew the facehugger into the air. When the whirlwind subsided, only a pile of dark ash remained.
"This attack skill substitution is pretty handy," Bruce remarked, "Just not sure what the Angel Form's normal attack is."
"Maybe it's with a sword?" Selina guessed, "The card's icon depicts a sword, and it looks like it can fly out, surely very cool."
"That's right," Bruce nodded, "the armor I designed for myself is really stylish and finally comes in handy."
He continued deeper, identifying a door on the left after entering the next square, revealing a building named "Researcher's Cabin." Bruce found an item on the table called "Researcher's Notes."
The text was all blurry and unclear, giving no information, but item description offered a hint: "Collecting all the Researcher's Notes seems to have some effect."
"Looks like there's no plot here," Bruce concluded.
"I think there isn't a specific plot, but there should be a storyline outline. The clothes you're wearing look like standard gear for a research station. I'm currently in a room at the research station too, so it seems we're members of this research station."
"I get it, 'The Thing.' This explains the face-hugger, but I don't know who let the ancient glacier monsters out..."
Just as he finished speaking, the dense fog covered all the grids. All the commanders saw on their screens an abnormal status appear above: "Dense Fog."
Originally, the commanders could see about 16 squares, but once the dense fog appeared, their vision range reduced to just eight squares. The fighters' vision range was even smaller, left with only one square, meaning visibility was less than 10 meters.
"This is a real headache." Pikachu ran forward on its four little legs, and halfway there, it realized the glacier crack it saw earlier disappeared into the dense fog. He said to Peter, "Can you still see it?"
"I can only see half the distance I could before, but just keep running forward. As soon as I see a corner of the crack, I'll tell you to stop. You shouldn't fall in."
But things couldn't be that simple. As Pikachu moved forward, it suddenly saw a few figures in the dense fog ahead, thinking they were other players. Just as he was about to greet them, he realized they didn't seem human.
"Damn! More monsters!" Pikachu said in shock, "Do we have to fight monsters as well as players?!"
"That's not surprising since there was a warning earlier that monsters might appear. Just hit them with 100,000 volts and take them out. I think there might be supplies replenishing Action Points in that glacier crack. Don't worry about wasting, act fast and finish this."
"Okay, 100,000 volts—!!!"
A flash of electricity lit up, and all the monsters were down. Pikachu frowned and said, "I feel like we're making a big fuss; smaller skills could have worked too."
"It's not that simple. Your Attack Power is high, but you're really fragile. There are three monsters here, and even if two touch you, you'd be left with a sliver of health. In these games, status is crucial. Let's move on, see what's ahead."
Moving forward again, they saw another figure. Black Widow Natasha appeared in their view, wearing sunglasses.
"I saw you guys earlier," Natasha said, crossing her arms. "Taking out three monsters with one big move; you're pretty good, you yellow-furred rat."
Pikachu's hair stood on end, and he said, "How the hell did you see? Isn't it foggy?"
"High-tech gear," Natasha pointed to her goggles, then said, "You just unleashed a big move; you must be out of energy, right?"
"Don't come any closer! Watch out, or I'll zap you!"
"Bang!"
"Damn, it's poisonous!" Pikachu yelled, having taken a direct hit from the "Widow Sting."
"Of course, she's the Black Widow," Peter said somewhat helplessly, "She's a poison expert. What do you say? Fight or retreat?"
"If we run, she might chase us; that woman is a madman!" Pikachu couldn't help but curse, "She comes to the South Pole like she's returning home! Oh no, the South Pole isn't even as cold as her home!!!"
"Then let's just run," Peter agreed reluctantly, "We can't face a Russian female agent in an environment resembling the Siberian Snowfield. If she drinks a bit more, we might end up screwed here today!"
Peter decisively chose to leave the battle. As expected, the battle concluded, and they were deemed to have failed, but with no time to care, they quickly dashed into the glacier crack.
"This is boring," Natasha said. "Wandering around for so long, and this is the only opponent I encounter, who ends up running off. Should we chase?"
Bucky, in the research station, also sighed. He noticed Natasha was like a bear, the colder it got, the more lively she became, or more accurately, excited, eager for action.
"Don't chase them," Bucky said, "If you really corner Pikachu, he can zap us. That electricity might have a paralyzing effect, and if it reduces our Action Points, we won't be able to move afterward."
"Besides, only we can see clearly in the dense fog now. We should take this opportunity to explore more and gather some supplies before starting any more fights."
"Makes sense," Natasha said, "Let's go."
"Why is this damned place so cold!" Stark said, shivering in the cold wind.
"No choice, as soon as you enter the game, your base resistance is reduced by 30%. Until we craft the Mecha, you'll have to bear it," Steve said, "If I had gone down first, I could have helped you collect parts."
"Is that a house up ahead? Let's go check it out," Stark said, "My passive skill lets me find parts from anything, right? Let's quickly get a basic Mecha together, or else I'm going to freeze to death!"