Struggling to open the cockpit door, Su Jiameng crawled out covered in blood. The cockpit's defenses were breached during the explosion, splitting her left calf in half, now stuck in the mecha wreckage. Without a flinch, she drew the laser particle sword from her waist with her left hand, cut off the calf, then injected a dose of super-speed potion, causing the wound to heal rapidly.
Actually, this wasn't even the worst of it; the worst was that her right arm was blown off completely, leaving her utterly disabled, "If I survive today... not one of these players... will be spared!"
Simulating her missing limbs with telekinesis, she crawled into a nearby ventilation window, searching for an exit along the ducts. But her luck seemed poor, as she ended up trapped in the underground parking at level eleven. With her telekinesis overdrawn, she couldn't even maintain the simulated limbs. Helpless, she could only lean against the wall, waiting for some lucky soul to stumble upon her...
Given the Alliance's current stance, whoever kills her would likely receive unimaginably rich rewards for themselves or their team.
The ground troops were aggressively searching, and the area was slowly being narrowed down. Soon, she would be discovered. Taking a deep breath, Su Jiameng used her intact left hand to pull out a well-wrapped item from the pocket of her flight suit.
It was an old Lieutenant General's shoulder insignia, mottled with aged bloodstains and even a few damages. Ever since Su Jiameng took off her military uniform and began her undercover mission, she hadn't worn it again.
Gently stroking it with her bloodstained fingers, dizziness and coldness assaulted her whole body. However reluctantly she wanted to admit it, she knew that her life was nearing its end. The laughable thing was, if she died, in the eyes of these players, it would just be the death of a chunk of data. They thought she was an NPC, a pile of data, not knowing she was once a living, breathing person just like them!
"Can't survive anymore..." the woman struggled to move her lips, her only remaining hand gripping tightly onto her former honor. She never expected that she wouldn't die on the battlefield against the Insect Race but here, at the hands of some senseless players.
A torrent of strong unwillingness surged within her, as she felt she still had the strength for one last fight; even in death, she refused to die at the hands of players.
In a daze, she recalled the year she first came into contact with mechas, seemingly telling a boy of similar age that her greatest wish was to have the Alliance flag draped over her after death, swearing to defend so that her descendants could live under the most peaceful sky!
But now... she couldn't even talk about being wrapped in the flag, just being lucky if they didn't hack her into pieces, and the footsteps of death drew nearer...
Click-click——a familiar sound called back her consciousness, and she opened her eyes to find a dark gun barrel in her sight...
Taking a casual glance at their clothes, she curled her lips disdainfully, thinking, yet more of those players... the so-called darlings of the gods.
The main ground forces hadn't found this place yet, so how did these few players find it? But she could confirm that this gang wasn't just a blind cat lucking into a dead rat. Perhaps they had in their hands an item to refresh her coordinates every few minutes...
"I need to ask you something..." That player checked the game interface, searched for this NPC's name and information, confirmed she was the target his group was looking for, and felt relieved, with a bit more joy. He had about ten people with him, looking like a squad. Following the system's prompt, he asked Su Jiameng, "Do you regret taking this path?"
Regret? Su Jiameng asked herself, then sneered, from the start, she had no room for regret.
She laughed, wondering if these players had received some task related to her again, guessing it was probably a well-rewarded major task, wasn't it? Otherwise, he would have shot her long ago, where would they have the patience to ask here? Not afraid of her desperate counterattack? And moreover... the one who issued the task to them, maybe she even knew them, an old acquaintance perhaps?
"No..." Su Jiameng shifted her body with difficulty, causing those players to back away in unison.
This NPC, famed for being a "madwoman," left too deep an impression on them; even as she was nearing death, they dared not let their guard down.
"Tell him..." Su Jiameng's eyes suddenly became a little brighter, painfully lifting her hand to pass on that honor, sneering, "There's nothing... to regret... and moreover... he didn't tell you... never to..."
Taking the item, the player realized they had completed a task step, the last step being to deliver this item to the task NPC, which would reward them with an immensely rich prize, an S-Class mecha!
He stood up and pointed a gun at her, aiming to kill her for more rewards but overlooked her lips curving into an eerie smile.
Just as many players anticipated that the big BOSS would be toppled, the whole game began to tremble violently. Soon, a scarlet announcement as eye-catching as menstrual blood rose—The mission to exterminate the Alliance's evil forces had failed!
What the hell! This big BOSS is unbelievably imperious, not even dying like this!
When the players re-emerged from the respawn point, each wore expressions of anger and terror. No one expected that the NPC, during her conversation pause, would exhaust her telekinesis to control the mass self-destruction of mechas across the abandoned planet!
The game's players had toiled for over half a month attacking this world-level BOSS, investing countless human, material, and energy resources, only to have it ruined by this damned NPC in the end! They truly lost everything!
NPCs dying not by player hands meant mission failure!
Players could die and resurrect, NPCs could die and refresh, but Su Jiameng, neither NPC nor player, if she died... was she truly dead? Before her consciousness faded, Su Jiameng's only thought was, dammit, please don't let me traverse again!