29. In Essence, a Game of Slaughter

Somewhere in the ruined factory.

"Flat-head" Lao Guan picked himself up, rubbing his head, and gazed around, lost and bewildered.

"We entered the factory with the Resistance, encountered some machine lifeforms, and then the entire factory..." He clutched his aching head. "The ground of the entire factory suddenly flipped over... We got separated. I was hunted by several unknown monsters along with two Resistance soldiers; they were torn apart before I could do anything."

"Then I... I fell through a hole and passed out."

Blood seeped from a wound under his scalp, trickling between his fingers and dripping onto the ground as it ran down his arm.

He didn't want to waste a health potion unnecessarily, so he leaned against the wall, stepping onto the stairs leading upward. He reached a narrow corridor; the area was now in a state of utter ruin, as if a paper model had been shoved into a bottle, shaken violently, and then put back.

Lao Guan's stamina was slipping away bit by bit, and the dizziness in his head made his gait unsteady. Under normal circumstances, basic movement consumes negligible stamina, but when one persists in walking while the body is in an irreversible state of decline, the drop in physical energy becomes significant.

This was much like reality. Even though he possessed near-peak human physical attributes within the scenario, he could not escape the fundamental laws of carbon-based life.

This exhaustion was cumulative, becoming more pronounced with time. And with exhaustion came fear. Eroded by terror, Lao Guan could no longer discern what he should be doing. When he saw the flattened corpse of an android on the ground, he didn't calmly choose to inspect it for gear; instead, he chose to quicken his pace...

He was no longer on a mission; he was fleeing.

He had played *NieR: Automata*, and the enemies should have been machine lifeforms. But inside this factory, the machines were being slaughtered in droves by some creature he had never seen before. The ruined factory had transformed into a nightmarish hellscape.

If he didn't do something soon...

Lao Guan opened his personal panel, and upon seeing "Mild Concussion" written next to his name, he resigned himself to taking out a health potion and injecting it.

"There goes another 500 gold coins..."

As Lao Guan recovered his vitality, his body instantly felt lighter, and the scalp wound began to heal rapidly. He scrutinized his surroundings once more.

Nothing.

Not a single soul. Not a single living thing.

The factory had collapsed by half due to a sudden crustal movement. Zhang Wei and Xiaoyou were nowhere to be found.

"I barely scraped through the first two missions by clinging to others, so why is this one so hard?"

"Wasn't this supposed to be a Level 10 mission?"

Puzzled, Lao Guan opened the mission panel.

"This..."

Seeing the main quest update he had missed while unconscious, he first froze. Then, as the realization of fear erupted within him, his eyes were almost entirely consumed by horror.

"How did the mission get harder!?"

He instinctively drew his handgun. Throughout the journey, the three of them hadn't used their guns—or rather, it wasn't that they didn't want to, but that they lacked the psychological fortitude to use them.

Lao Guan couldn't help but recall a theory Li Nuo had mentioned: in a crisis, an ordinary person cannot possess the psychological composure to aim at a target.

But now, he had no choice. This gun was his only insurance for survival.

Failure in an "Endless Corridor" scenario mission wouldn't result in death, but given that one could only participate in two scenario missions per month, a single failure and the subsequent deduction of gold coins would likely make it impossible to pay the 3,000-coin requirement, leading to a situation of waiting for death—a fate more agonizing than death itself.

But he just didn't understand.

He had been through two missions so far; why was this one so difficult?

Lao Guan had a feeling that something was influencing the difficulty curve of this mission.

"Brother?"

Suddenly, a familiar voice pulled Lao Guan from his thoughts.

He looked numbly toward the source of the voice. A cute girl with wheat-colored skin emerged trembling from a nearby corner.

"Xiaoyou...?"

"Yes, it's me, Xiaoyou." Xiaoyou offered a look of relief, then raised the gun in her hand, pointing the muzzle directly at Lao Guan.

...

Emil's shop cart rolled over the barren ruins.

In the outer zones, the crust was riddled with cracks, from which blue crystals seeped, emitting a faint azure glow.

The "corpses" of machine lifeforms lay scattered across the earth, now overgrown with weeds and piled with rubble; only a few machines remained, huddled in corners and trembling.

In the mere tens of minutes since Li Nuo and his group had entered that shop, this place had undergone an absurd, abrupt, and brutal transformation.

[Hidden Worldview Cracked 1/2. World Level Increased. Main Quest Reset.]

[Main Quest Updated: Restore the World to its Original State]

[Time Remaining: 1 hour, 55 minutes, 38 seconds]

[Mission Level: Lv20–Lv30]

[Location: Proceed to the Ruined Factory]

[Hint 1: This mission level exceeds 15. Killing other players will grant you half of the victim's gold coin balance.]

[Hint 2: Mission scenario difficulty has advanced; all sleeping monsters have been awakened.]

Li Nuo sat on the back of the cart, scanning the updated main quest once more.

Because the arrival of *Final Fantasy* had been discovered, the prompt indicated that half of the worldview had been cracked. What was the other half?

A strange feeling spread through his heart.

The situation might develop into something even more outrageous than the current information suggested.

His gaze shifted to another task: [Special Mission for Hidden Worldview: Proceed to the Ruined Factory with the Shards of the Flower of Extinction.]

The Flower of Extinction, a crossover with *Final Fantasy*, descending into the story of *NieR*...

Just then, the cart jolted, snapping Li Nuo out of his thoughts.

Chen Shou was driving the tricycle now, for the simple reason that he was too fat and took up too much space.

The cart was currently occupied by Li Nuo, Marje, 2B, and the injured Resistance soldier.

Li Nuo had been intently pondering the mission, while Marje, realizing that symptoms like [Bleeding] or [Dizziness] might occur, deliberately used a rag to cover his eyes, ensuring he wouldn't catch a glimpse of 2B's gleaming thighs.

Seeing Marje switch from his blue raccoon mask to a rag-tag blindfold, 2B felt it was strange and asked, "What happened to your eyes?"

Marje snorted coldly, "Do I look cool?"

For some reason, the injured Resistance soldier suddenly wanted to kill this cheeky guy.

...

[Remaining Number of Players: 5]

Suddenly, the system's voice intruded upon their ears.

Had a player failed the mission!?

Marje lowered his head and asked, "Did those three players start killing each other?"

"It's possible," Li Nuo said.

A cold bead of sweat trickled down Chen Shou's forehead. With a mission level over 15, killing other players allowed one to inherit half of their gold... This temptation was clearly designed to encourage player conflict.

It was foreseeable that in future scenarios above level 15, player malice would be amplified infinitely.

Speaking of the most malicious person, Chen Shou felt a chill in his gut—that guy was right behind him.

Li Nuo read the worry on Chen Shou's trembling shoulders and patted him on the back, smiling: "Don't worry, Brother Shou. This mission is impossible to complete without teamwork. Even if we were to turn on each other, it would have to be driven by profit, wouldn't it?"

"Right, right." Chen Shou felt slightly reassured. Upon reflection, he realized Li Nuo had never actually acted with malice toward him.

Just as he felt ashamed for his rashness, Li Nuo added, "Backstabbing each other only after the main quest is complete is the optimal strategy."

"You're doing this just to scare me, right?"

"This is called lightening the mood."

"Is that how you lighten the mood...!?" Chen Shou didn't finish his sentence before slamming on the brakes!

Li Nuo, carried by inertia, slammed into Chen Shou's thick back. He rubbed his face and complained, "Brother Shou, this emergency brake-and-body-slam trick isn't going to kill me."

"Look, are those a bunch of strange things behind the crystals?"

Following the direction Chen Shou pointed, they saw a group of basin-sized red spheres "rolling out" from behind the crystals and rocks.

They had facial features and wore expressions of malice.

A short tentacle stood upright on top of their heads, much like an onion.

The injured Resistance soldier stared at them blankly, muttering, "These little things look quite unique, don't they?"

"What are those?" Chen Shou turned back, noticing that Marje and Li Nuo's faces had gone slightly pale.

"Bombs—creatures from *Final Fantasy*. They explode upon encountering an enemy," Li Nuo shouted. "Run!"

"Chen Shou, get off, let me!" Marje and Chen Shou quickly swapped positions, with Marje taking the handlebars.

The vehicle gained speed instantly.

In an instant, one of the bombs approached. As it leapt into the air toward them, 2B raised her head.

She drew the long blade floating on her back.

Slowly, she stood up.

With a single horizontal slash, the bomb instantly turned into sparks and exploded in mid-air!

The tricycle accelerated suddenly, boosted by the blast of the explosion. Amidst the firelight and wind pressure, only 2B remained standing steady.

She looked back and asked, "Do you want me to kill them all?"