Stark and Steve moved forward in the cold wind and white mist. Stark watched helplessly as his health bar decreased. He was frustrated, but there was nothing he could do. This place where he was born was barren, and the nearest building was more than 10 spaces away, taking three turns to reach it.
By the time Stark staggered to the doorstep of the house in front, his blood had dropped by a third. He pushed the door open and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the stove, muttering, "The administrator is at least somewhat humane."
"I think they specially prepared it for you," Steve said, "After all, maybe only you are most afraid of the cold among us."
"Who says that, I don't believe all the participants this time are superpower users." Although Stark said this, he quickly moved to the stove, rubbing his hands and warming himself. The 'Cold' status on the status bar quickly disappeared, replaced by 'Warm.' As soon as the green icon appeared, his health started to slowly recover.
After sitting by the stove for a while, Stark began searching the cabin. This seemed like a hunter's cabin, maybe an Inuit's house. Stark found two cans, a fur scarf, and some charcoal here.
The cans can be used to restore health, the fur scarf can resist the cold, and the charcoal can be lit during actions to restore temperature value. Also, each drawer or box you search gives you 1-2 parts.
"This is too little," Stark complained, "I need 60 parts to fabricate a basic mecha. It'll take me forever to find that many parts."
"That's why I think we need to rely on the 10 rewards from winning battles. We gather 20-30, then win two battles, and that should be enough."
"The problem is I don't have a mecha, how can I win?"
Steve couldn't answer this question either because Stark's character seemed too weak. The initial attributes were blank, with no resistance, and the passive skill was just obtaining parts.
But without parts, you can't fabricate a mecha; without a mecha, you can't win battles, and without winning battles, you won't get parts. Isn't this a dead cycle?
Steve felt that the administrator wouldn't design such a weak character. Even if he is an intelligence-type character, he should have some combat power. Otherwise, how will the upcoming battles be fought?
While they were worried about the lack of combat power, a wolf's howl suddenly came from outside the cabin. Stark was startled. He looked out the window, and sure enough, three Arctic wolves were approaching the cabin.
Stark took a deep breath, pushed open the door, and said, "Alright, let me see what I'm really capable of."
Upon encountering monsters, a forced battle was triggered. After a burst of exhilarating music, a set of cards appeared in Steve's hand. He glanced at them and was stunned.
"Oh my god!" Steve exclaimed, "Isn't this a bit too strong?!"
Stark couldn't see his own cards, and he was dying of curiosity. He said, "What skills do I have? Hurry up and tell me! I..."
Awoooo—!!! The lead wolf howled and charged forward. Stark dodged awkwardly and shouted to Steve, "You're playing your cards too well! If you were any slower, I'd have already been dragged out by now!"
Steve said, "Don't worry, your card deck is a bit complex and needs to be combined. Let me see…"
Steve first played a card named "Stark Group's Arsenal." As soon as the card was played, a plane flew across the sky, dropping an airdrop box. The airdrop box landed with a thud at Stark's feet.
Stark, seeing it as a lifeline, quickly took cover behind the airdrop box and said, "How do I open this thing?!"
"Use your fingerprint, but don't rush to open it yet. I need to stack the status to the maximum; otherwise, you won't get good weapons!"
"Why is it always this damn system!" Stark cursed, "When playing cards before, it was about drawing weapon boxes, and now it's the same. Can't you give me a more stable skill?"
"I told you not to rush; this isn't a lottery," Steve finished, then played another card named "The World's Richest Man's Infinity Vault."
Stark saw it and realized it was a cash machine, but the machine was spitting out US dollars. Stark was speechless and shouted to Steve, "What the hell is this?! Do you want me to kill the wolves with money?!"
"Move the vault to the equipment box. Quickly!" Steve directed.
Stark gritted his teeth and made a dash from behind the weapon box, carrying the cash machine back. As he neared, he tossed the cash machine onto the weapon box, watching as all the spewing US dollars were absorbed by the weapon box.
"The next step is your operation," Steve said, "Select a weapon you want from there, and my cards will change accordingly."
"I guess I'm fated to be an arms dealer!"
Even as he said this, Stark quickly ran back in front of the weapon box. A small screen on it displayed the available weapons, divided into three levels: blue, purple, and gold. The more US dollars absorbed, the higher the level unlocked.
Although the money accumulated quickly, the wolves were even faster, having bypassed the weapon box and heading towards Stark. Stark couldn't wait for the money to accumulate further, so he chose a purple weapon directly from it.
With a swish, the weapon box opened, and an electromagnetic cannon floated amidst the purple glow. Stark exclaimed, "Wow, the big guy's here!"
He grabbed the electromagnetic cannon, and just as he turned around, a wolf had leaped high. He crouched low and raised the barrel of the cannon.
Zzzzz—!!!!
The snow wolf melted in an instant. Stark burst into laughter. Steve said, "You even made card adaptations for every weapon. Hold on, I'm about to use a skill..."
Steve threw out a card, and Stark immediately noticed that the Electromagnetic Cannon automatically targeted the remaining two wolves. Bang bang, two shots from the Electromagnetic Cannon were fired, directly electrocuting the monsters.
"Hahaha! This feels amazing!" Stark said. "I knew the administrator had the right understanding of me!"
"Watch your language!"
"When will this fog clear up, anyway?" Gray mist complained a bit, "I can't see anything."
"Don't rush." Greed was taking stock of the recent spoils. As Gray mist's skill set is very suitable for fighting monsters, they had searched two more locations after leaving the cabin and obtained some items. Greed was contemplating how to set up their equipment.
Since Gray mist naturally covered the entire battlefield, if anyone was attacked, it was as if they were being attacked, so they had to avoid group battles and focus on one-on-one fights, meaning they needed to enhance individual abilities as much as possible.
Meanwhile, since dodging attacks by moving wasn't an option, they had to rely on mechanics. During the fight with Lord Batman, the opponent had a dodge skill, which meant the game had a dodge attribute, so it was best to stack dodge.
But dodge relies on luck. Unlucky people might not dodge even with a 99% rate. Another method is to stack armor and health.
Greed didn't have much faith in his or Gray mist's luck, so he simply set them up with a turtle shell suit, mainly focusing on tanking. Besides the jacket they found earlier, there was also a safety helmet, anti-explosion shield, snow boots, and other protective gear.
With this setup, their blood volume increased, and their armor value wasn't low. But then there was another problem: most of the equipment they found only protected against physical damage and offered virtually no protection against mental damage. What if the opponent dealt mental or mixed damage?
Greed still felt it wasn't safe enough and kept flipping through the equipment list. Suddenly, a piece of equipment caught his attention. Greed smiled and equipped it.
"Why are you changing equipment again?" Gray mist said. "I think you should stop bothering with it and wait for the switch. My skill set is probably beyond saving..."
"No, no, no, take a look at this piece of equipment."
"What is it?" Gray mist looked at the small necklace floating inside his body and said, "What's it for? Increases Spirit Value? Oh, wait... Wouldn't this be too wicked?"
"Trust me, this will help us win the game."
Peter and Pikachu searched two locations in total and also got some supplies and equipment. But the two places they touched weren't very fruitful, so they couldn't form a complete set of equipment and had to mix and match some attributes.
In these three rounds, everyone was mostly searching for stuff, and the battles that broke out were all against monsters. However, fighting monsters wasn't that easy; not everyone was like Gray mist, immune to normal attacks—even when letting the monsters attack, it wouldn't reduce health. Most players had to maneuver around the monsters, and sometimes, to gather more things, they had to risk their state. By the end of this round, everyone had more or less taken some damage.
As soon as everyone had mostly gathered a full set of equipment, the damned mist finally dissipated. This was followed by a new state called "Clear Skies".
"Oh, visibility improved," Selina said. "I can now see up to about 30 grids away... Wait, what's that?"
"What?"
"About 20 grids northwest of you, there's a big thing that looks like a structure. Let's go check it out."
"Alright." Bruce headed in that direction.
Meanwhile, everyone else also saw the enormous structure covering dozens of grids in their respective directions. They all understood that it might be a building filled with good stuff, and simultaneously headed that way.
Among them, Greed and Gray mist were the closest. As soon as the fog cleared, they found themselves under the giant structure.
It was a massive pit, and lying at its center was a spaceship. Gray mist took a glance inside and said, "There's probably nothing valuable in there."
"It's definitely full of valuable things," Greed almost said in unison.
"Looks like we're not talking about the same 'valuable things'," Gray mist said, looking at the spaceship in the center. "In movies, these kinds of spaceships usually have either you or me lying in them."
"Then it's scarier if it's you lying there," Greed said. "I see someone coming; get ready for battle."
"Long time no see, Gray mist. I didn't expect you to team up with Greed." Natasha wagged her Widow Sting and then said, "When I saw you from afar just now, I thought a monster had come out of the building."
"How do you know I'm not one?" Gray mist let out a deliberate screech, and the thick fog surged and turned into an alien form, "Watch out, or I'll bite you!"
"I'd love to see you try, bring it on!"
Gray mist knew that running away was useless—Natasha, at her core, was also a fighting maniac. So, as their grids clashed, the battle was about to kick off.