Lin Jingjing maneuvered her character to scout the situation. The early game was a development phase, but she would still create a little trouble for her opponent from time to time.
"You should send a few units to harass him," Shi Feng whispered, sitting beside Lin Jingjing.
"No rush." Lin Jingjing shook her head. Instead, she used her limited troops to garrison key positions while she took up her weapon to kill mobs, level up, and collect gear.
She'd play it safe at the start and focus on developing.
Once she reached Grade 4, her troops were upgraded, and the production speed at her barracks accelerated.
"It's time." Looking at her fifty Mechanical Soldiers, Lin Jingjing dispatched ten of them with a single command: destroy the enemy's barracks.
These ten Mechanical Soldiers were upgraded to the maximum level. If they could destroy the enemy's barracks, the game would be over quickly.
Captain Li wasn't sitting idle, either. After reaching Grade 6, he led his own units over to cause trouble.
All they had to do was destroy the enemy's base crystal to win.
Lin Jingjing didn't confront him head-on, instead sending out droids to harass him.
Not for any grand purpose, just to cause him a little trouble.
Captain Li watched a lone droid charge toward him and snorted derisively. "You're sending these little things to deal with me?"
"Are you underestimating me this much?"
As he spoke, Captain Li glanced up at Lin Jingjing. 'What a greenhorn,' he thought.
'Beat me?'
'She's too naive.'
Her droids were all gone. Lin Jingjing glanced at the minimap to check the progress of the ten Mechanical Soldiers she'd dispatched.
The barracks' health bar would trigger a warning below twenty percent; it was currently at forty percent.
Lin Jingjing stopped farming. She glanced at the silver Mecha, but after a moment's thought, decided not to pilot it.
'I don't know how to pilot it anyway. I haven't had a chance to really learn its systems.'
Lin Jingjing spent her gold on a heavy sniper rifle, then made her way to the highest point on the map and went prone.
Sniping was the one ace she had up her sleeve.
The game was incredibly realistic. Lying on the rooftop, Lin Jingjing stroked the pitch-black heavy sniper rifle in her hands.
It felt just like being on a real battlefield.
She adjusted her scope, searching through the chaotic melee until she found Captain Li, who was charging straight for her base.
Fortunately, the Skill Lin Jingjing had chosen at the start of the match accelerated unit production. Otherwise, given Captain Li's aggressive push, she wouldn't have had enough Mechanical Soldiers to hold the line.
Even though it was just a game, Lin Jingjing felt a little nervous.
She was afraid she'd miss. If she missed, they would lose the game.
Shi Feng noticed her tension. He said nothing, simply reaching out to pat her shoulder in a gesture of encouragement.
After lining up the shot and taking a breath, Lin Jingjing squeezed the trigger—fast, decisive, and precise.
The bullet flew with incredible speed. Before Captain Li could even react, the core of his Mecha was blown out by a single shot.
[Mecha Performance Compromised]
As the system alert blared, Captain Li's screen flashed red. At that exact moment, another notification popped up.
[Barracks Integrity Below Twenty Percent]
Captain Li's eyes widened as he read the alert.
'That piece of trash actually had her Mechanical Soldiers sneak-attack the barracks!'
'And she actually pulled it off.'
His Mecha was crippled; he had no way to rush back. Once the barracks was destroyed, he wouldn't be able to produce any more units.
'That was a brilliant move on her part.'
'If your opponent can't produce units, defeat is a certainty.'
[Barracks Destroyed. Production Halted.]
The new notification flashed. Captain Li looked up at Lin Jingjing, then back at his screen.
After a moment of consideration, he opened the Mecha's cockpit hatch and began to climb out.
His head had barely cleared the hatch. Captain Li didn't even have time to survey his surroundings.
And he was shot in the head.
Blood and gore splattered across his entire screen. Captain Li could only watch as his character collapsed onto the Mecha.
The whole screen went dark.
Because the Mecha's chassis was so smooth, his body slid off the top and fell to the ground.
The moment the corpse hit the ground, a Mechanical Soldier stomped on it.
Turning it into a paste of flesh.
Captain Li stared at the pile of gore that had been his character, utterly speechless.
A moment later, a cinematic appeared on his screen. It showed Lin Jingjing standing on the rooftop, a heavy sniper rifle slung over her shoulder.
Her gear was shabby, but a red scarf fluttered heroically in the wind.
She looked valiant and formidable.
'It seems I really underestimated this Grade D piece of trash.'
Lin Jingjing let out a sigh of relief as the large word "Victory" appeared on her screen.
She unplugged the Controller, stood up, and walked over to the desk with a smile. "Captain Li, I won."
Captain Li looked at the smile on her face, and his own cheek seemed to sting from the metaphorical slap.
'You really can't underestimate anyone.'
"Alright. Who do you want to transfer?" Captain Li was a man of his word. He tossed his controller aside and asked.
"Feng He from the medical department. I'll have to trouble you to arrange it with them, Captain Li," Lin Jingjing replied.
"Feng He..." Captain Li repeated the name, then nodded. "Alright."
After agreeing, he couldn't help but feel miserable. 'My perfectly good logistics department is being taken over by Grade D scrubs.'
The thought made him sigh. "It's really turning into a trash heap."
His moment of self-pity over, he immediately barked at the two of them, "When she gets to logistics, the three of you will be sharing all the cooking duties!"
"Anyone who dares to slack off doesn't eat!"
"Sir!" the two of them shouted in unison, snapping to attention.
「The next day」
Lin Jingjing found Feng He standing at her dorm room door with her luggage.
"You're here!" Lin Jingjing said happily, rushing to help her with her bags.
Feng He was overcome with emotion, too, likely from leaving the stifling medical department and finally reuniting with her friend.
Her eyes welled up with tears.
"Sister Lin, thank you..." The moment she saw Lin Jingjing, her voice caught in her throat.
She'd heard from Captain Li that Sister Lin had risked them both being kicked out of the First Corps just to get his help.
Seeing Sister Lin now, she was incredibly moved.
'Sister Lin is still the same as always, always standing in front of us, protecting us.'
"What's there to thank me for? We're best friends," Lin Jingjing said with a smile.
Lin Jingjing had the entire dorm room to herself. Her previous roommate couldn't stand her low rank and the fact that she was always covered in grime.
The roommate had requested a transfer, leaving Lin Jingjing all alone.
Now that Feng He had arrived, she wouldn't be lonely anymore.
After helping her set up the bed, the two of them sat together, their expressions turning serious.
"I wonder if the other two are in the First Corps as well," Lin Jingjing said worriedly, thinking of their two other friends.
If running into Shi Feng was a coincidence, then finding Feng He was definitely not.
There was only one possibility: all five of them had transmigrated here.
Feng He propped her chin on her hand, her brow furrowed and her expression grim.
"I bet they're in some other department right now, getting bullied," Feng He said.