Chapter 12:30 AM

Midnight, 12:30 AM, Jin You Supermarket, first floor, frozen food section.

A row of long counters displaying dairy products and refrigerated beverages lined the wall, their edges about one meter off the ground. At this moment, Feng Bujue and Wang Tanzhi, as vanguard members, were walking on this edge.

From their perspective, the path ahead wasn't exactly narrow, roughly equivalent to a single-plank bridge wide enough for two people to walk side by side. To the left of the bridge was a chillingly cold freezer cabinet, with numerous boxed milks neatly arranged like buildings along a street. And to the right of the bridge was a huge drop (close to a meter, more than ten times their height), a veritable cliff.

The lights inside the freezer cabinet ensured visibility in this area, but of course, these weren't dedicated lighting fixtures, so most corners remained shrouded in shadow.

Standing on the edge of the cabinet and looking down, one could see the entire Nintendo Assault Squad from Classic.

Those Nintendo toys, except for the larger ones and those that could advance like heavy weapons (such as R.O.B), were all riding on "Eight-Bit Tanks" for their march.

These Eight-Bit Tanks came in three models. The first was the NES (essentially the American version of the Famicom, full name Nintendo Entertainment System, clearly a game console released in the 90s, yet its name sounds more high-end than some of today's next-gen consoles), its overall shape square, the base slightly narrower than the upper part, colored white on top and gray on the bottom, with the cartridge designed to be inserted horizontally into the body as a whole.

The second was the FC (i.e., Famicom, full name Family Computer... a misnomer), with a red and white exterior, smaller in size than the NES, and the cartridge inserted vertically.

The third was the Subor (a classic case of a knockoff product successfully surpassing the original, with the nonsensical phrase "Subor, so much fun!" during startup being a milestone in brainwashing marketing), with an all-black exterior, gold logo (two boxing gloves touching each other), a size between the NES and FC, and a unique round reset button and automatically closing dust cover, exuding an air of dominance.

At this moment, about thirty or forty Eight-Bit Tanks were lined up in a wedge formation, slowly advancing. Among them, NES and FC accounted for half each, while Subor had only one, located at the rear of the team, controlled by the Mario and Luigi brothers.

And the operating method of these "tanks"... was for the characters sitting on them to use controllers to control them. As for their operating principles and power... all were unknown.

"Your Investigation Specialization is stronger than mine, you should be able to see further, right?" Feng Bujue, walking in front, said to Little Tan without turning his head.

"Ah, I'm looking." Little Tan responded, but unfortunately, even with his best effort, he could only see a very limited range. "No enemy activity detected yet."

"To be honest, we're in a very dangerous situation right now," Feng Bujue said. "It's understandable for the advance team to occupy high ground and scout for enemy activity. But..." he paused. "Being exposed to the light source like this, and at such a high position, with almost no cover around us... if we're spotted by the opponent's snipers..."

"Right!" Little Tan's reaction was quite quick this time. "And Bei Ling knows you have the [Embrace of Artemis], so it's hard to kill you with one shot, she'll definitely target me first!"

"Also, what concerns me more is... it seems that from the beginning, we've been in a fixed plot direction, and then step by step become cannon fodder for the Classic camp," Feng Bujue said. "This 'leading the charge' arrangement looks like it's meant to get us killed."

"What does that mean?" Little Tan asked.

"Hmm... if Si Yu and Bei Ling are also getting this kind of treatment on the Novel side, then I'm overthinking it." Feng Bujue pondered. "But I seriously suspect... we're being 'specially taken care of' by the system."

Little Tan continued, "You mean... those NPCs' bad attitude toward us is all caused by the system?"

"No, it's not just a matter of attitude..." Feng Bujue waved his finger. "Looking at it from a more macro perspective, what the system controls... is the so-called 'momentum'." He explained, "It can make it easy for players to obtain resources in the script, riding the momentum; it can also appropriately create some trouble for players, making them put more effort into their actions."

"Then..." Little Tan asked a very boring question after listening, "Do you have a feud with the system?"

"I'm too lazy to respond to such an ignorant question," Feng Bujue said. "What I want to say is... this reminds me of a post I saw on the forum. The title was something like 'Exploration of Hidden Script Rules'."

"Is that reliable?" Little Tan asked.

"That's just a player's summary of their gaming experience, not an academic paper. Whether it's reliable or not, you have to judge for yourself," Feng Bujue said in a tone like an elder lecturing a child. "Practice and thinking are indispensable."

"Okay... what was the post about?" Little Tan asked.

"The content was quite extensive, but most of it was based on assumptions that players couldn't verify," Feng Bujue replied. "One section mentioned... a slaughter game that starts in the form of a challenge hides a 'beneficiary of challenge' principle." He paused for a second and said in detail, "Let's say... there are two players, A and B, and A is stronger than B.

When A challenges B to a 1v1 slaughter game, after entering the script, the system will give B a certain 'momentum', or increase the difficulty of A gaining momentum.

And when B challenges A, the script will maintain its default development."

"In other words... the side that accepts the challenge is always at an advantage," Little Tan followed up on Jue-ge's idea. "If the challenger is stronger, the challenged will receive preferential treatment; if the challenger is relatively weaker, the challenged won't suffer."

"Right," Feng Bujue said. "So... if this hidden rule really exists, then it makes sense that we're having such a passive start as the inviting party in this 2v2 battle."

"Wait... doesn't that mean..." Little Tan looked surprised. "The system judges that our side is stronger than the combination of Little Ling and Sister Yu?"

"Hmph... I can handle them myself." Unexpectedly, Feng Bujue actually replied with an extremely calm tone.

"Hey, hey... Although reaching second place on the combat power rankings is amazing, isn't your attitude a bit too arrogant?" Little Tan complained.

"Are you two done chatting?" Suddenly, another voice sounded.

Looking in the direction of the voice, they saw a small black figure appearing on the outer packaging of a milk carton, it was Code-Man. As a unique 2D character, one of his abilities was to move freely on various flat surfaces. "Is there anything you can report to me?"

"Uh... no." Little Tan answered, pointing with his finger in the direction outside the cabinet. "Look, there are no other toy figures, and the back of the row of cabinets in front is a black void."

"Strange... we already crossed the 'danger line' three minutes ago..." Code-Man muttered, then raised his voice slightly and said, "Okay... continue to move forward vigilantly, signal us if there's anything." After giving the order, he swam down the surface of the cabinet again...

"Understood, sir!" Feng Bujue replied in a pretentious manner, watching the other party move away on the flat surface.

"That sentence of his just now was an obvious hint..." Little Tan said a few seconds later.

"Yeah, I'm afraid there will soon be..." Feng Bujue's words were not finished when they heard a loud roar from below the cabinet, "Enemy attack!"

Little Tan's fear value rose slightly, and he immediately looked around nervously. Jue-ge was more composed, he first turned his head to look at the toy that was shouting - Diddy Kong (a monkey wearing a red hat, unlike Donkey Kong, he can talk...), found that Diddy was jumping on the NES, and stretching his arm to point at... the sky!

Da da da—At this moment, a strange sound rhythmically rang out.

From behind a higher shelf in the southwest direction, several Lego helicopters flashed out, each helicopter carrying a mini-figure in the cockpit.

"Eight-Bit machines being used as transportation is one thing... Lego planes being able to fly, what's up with that..." Feng Bujue said, it seemed he needed some time to accept this setting... but the battle wouldn't stop because of this.

"Slow down the advance, maintain formation! Large toys protect the flanks, ranged combat units prepare to counterattack!" Mario, as the supreme commander of the Nintendo Assault Squad, was not flustered in the face of the encounter, and quickly issued a series of combat instructions.

"Roar—" Donkey Kong roared with his head held high, rushing forward and standing at the forefront of the team. He pounded his muscular chest with his fists, as if showing strength to the enemies. From the perspective of a toy, this gorilla was indeed very powerful, full of strength, and not slow in its movements.

Poof poof poof...

The helicopters opened fire mercilessly, and pieces of "Lego brick bullets" flew over from the sky.

Samus and Mega Man on the tanks reacted the fastest, they both raised their impact cannons at the front of their arms to counterattack, and the ammunition they fired was actually beam shots...

"Hey... this has already exceeded the capabilities of the toys themselves at the physical level!" Feng Bujue originally thought that toy fights were basically just melee smashes, at most throwing things like R.O.B. For him and Little Tan, the main ranged threat was still from Bei Ling and Si Yu.

Unexpectedly, in actual combat, that was not the case at all. Both Classic and Novel had sustained and reliable ranged firepower output, and even air forces...

"Jue-ge... how about we go down from here first? Before the other side notices us..." Little Tan put forward a very good constructive suggestion.

"Yeah, that's what I was thinking... retreat!" Before the words were finished, Feng Bujue jumped down along the outside of the cabinet edge. He had [Moonwalk], as long as the accumulated kinetic energy during the fall did not exceed the skill's load limit, there was no possibility of falling to his death.

Seeing this, Little Tan followed suit. Relying on his title skill, he could run directly down the wall of the cabinet, even easier than Feng Bujue.

Unexpectedly, just as they approached the ground, Novel's high-speed ground troops also happened to arrive, rushing out from the side of a large freezer in front.

That dark mass, at a glance, was all Gundam...