The living room was silent, the sea breeze blowing in from outside, carrying with it a damp, salty air.

Ruan Jiao looked at the crown prince with a worried expression, his brow furrowed.

The Duke Su’s death had been an accident, which is why the crown prince had become single again.

Before that, she hadn’t heard of any disagreements between them regarding the broken engagement.

Could it be a butterfly effect caused by her interference?

Or was it simply a unilateral decision by the Duke, one that the crown prince wouldn’t agree to?

Perhaps it had happened the same way in her previous life, but the conflict between them hadn’t become public knowledge?

Now, if she weren’t by the crown prince’s side, she wouldn’t have any way of knowing these things.

An indescribable feeling welled up in Ruan Jiao’s heart.  “Your Highness… what are you worried about?”

Rui An snapped back to attention, giving her a reassuring glance. “I didn’t expect her to bring it up. Do you think she’s sincere?”

Ruan Jiao hesitated. “If she doesn’t want to break off the engagement, then what does she want?”

“You’re too naive.”

Rui An shook his head. “My father… if he knew about this, he might take it out on you. Perhaps that’s Su Yao’s goal, to get revenge on us.”

After all, before that banquet, or rather, before meeting Ruan Jiao, Su Yao had never mentioned breaking off the engagement.

And his relationship with his fiancée, while always lukewarm, had never involved arguments.  Their only dispute had been because of Ruan Jiao.

…

At that very moment, in a certain game.

Su Yao was staring wide-eyed at another player.

She hesitated, “Although… but, this shouldn’t be a rare symptom, right?”

The other player tilted their head back at her. “I really don’t have anyone like that around me.”

Fine.

The NPCs were very efficient at distributing equipment, and the team advanced quickly.  Soon, she reached the window under the eaves and received two heavy metal boxes from a base employee.

A prompt sounded in her ears.

You have obtained 【Initial Test Random Silver Weapon Box】x1

You have obtained 【Initial Test Customizable Equipment Box】x1

Su Yao took the boxes to the side, preparing to examine the item descriptions.

Suddenly, a thunderclap exploded behind her.

Immediately afterward, a sharp alarm echoed through the base.

The turrets on the surrounding watchtowers activated one after another, aiming lines sweeping across the ground, converging on a single point.

She turned around.

Above a vacant training ground behind her, dozens of dark orbs appeared, the surrounding space distorting, swirls of turbulence emanating from them.

Amidst a cacophony of shrill and guttural roars, many grotesque and deformed figures burst from the orbs.

They had thin, withered limbs, their bodies seeming to be sewn together from countless chunks of flesh, with bulging purple veins haphazardly intertwined.

“Infected coming!”

The NPCs in the base shouted seriously.

“Public event initiated—!”

The players in the base roared excitedly.

“There’s an experience bonus for teaming up now! Lady over there, want to team up?”

A player shouted from afar, rushing towards another player closest to them.

The area was large, and most people were preoccupied with their equipment and weapons, maintaining a considerable distance from each other to avoid interference.

At the player’s words, others followed suit, starting to team up with those nearest to them.

Su Yao silently turned back.

Only the indecisive gentleman remained.

Su Yao: “Big brother, shall we team up?”

The game’s team limit was five people, but a team could be formed with just two, and they would receive the experience bonus.

The bonus was the same whether it was two or five people.

The base experience from this public event was also fixed, obtainable by any participant, even those who just slacked off, but experience could not be duplicated from teammates.

Seeing that the other player didn’t object, she summoned the operation interface, selected the player, and sent a team request.

The request was accepted.

She became the team leader.

Before she could examine her teammate’s ID and other information, the tide of monsters surged closer.

The turrets on the watchtowers continuously pulsed with light and fire, and the NPCs fired together behind the force field shields, thousands of dazzling chains of bullets forming a net of light.

The players reacted differently; some charged forward, some cautiously retreated, and others frantically examined their weapons, still unable to use them.

Su Yao hastily opened the random weapon box.  A flash of light, and a huge handheld rocket launcher appeared.

The box disappeared.

You have obtained 【Locust M-1】.

Su Yao hadn’t read any guides and didn’t know if this was good or bad luck, but she had no other weapon to use.

—In most shooting games, once players get their hands on a firearm, they only need to aim and shoot.

The situation wasn’t so simple now.

She picked up the complex small rocket launcher, fumbled around, found no safety catch, and awkwardly shouldered it.

The weapon was quite heavy and oddly shaped.

She tried tilting her head to align her right eye with the built-in high-magnification holographic sight, but this caused the barrel to constantly slip from her shoulder.

“…Don’t move.”

A deep, pleasant male voice suddenly came from above.

A large hand reached over her right shoulder, grabbed the extension shoulder rest under the barrel, twisted and pulled it, extending a section of support that could fit snugly on her shoulder.

The person behind her placed the support on her shoulder, then took her trigger finger and placed it on the cross-bolt safety under the weapon.

Su Yao took a breath, her fingertip pressing it. “It’s hidden here, too hard to find.”

The person behind her agreed, “…Yeah, I only knew because I’ve seen similar things.”

Su Yao looked at the sight again, but the height seemed off.

“Here.”

The person took a slight step forward, their broad chest almost touching her shoulder blades, then leaned slightly, their other hand across her left shoulder.

Their large hand reached from behind, pinching her jaw, pushing her face toward a heat shield on the side, precisely fitting into a curved recess.

Su Yao heard a click above the barrel.

The sight slowly descended, moving into position before her eyes.

Perfectly focused.

The hand on her chin released.

The infected in the sight were getting closer, only forty to fifty meters away.

Dozens of flashing targeting boxes appeared in the sight, automatically locking onto the monsters.

She pulled the trigger.  A vibration ran through her shoulder, the cluster warheads roared out, splitting in the air into countless cyan rings.

Then they continued to disintegrate, becoming thousands of dazzling sparks, like a swarm of hunting insects, shrieking as they rushed towards their targets.

When the electric light hit the monster pile, the infected were instantly burned to charcoal.

A pungent smell of burning filled the air.

Chains of electricity continued to jump between the corpses, leaping towards the remaining monsters until there were no living creatures within a twenty-meter radius.

“Wow!”

Su Yao lowered the barrel slightly. “It’s pretty useful.”

She looked at the sight again, noticing a cooldown timer, half a minute until the next shot, during which the weapon needed to recharge.

Su Yao: “…”

Never mind.

That shot had taken out about twenty or thirty, and the next wave was approaching quickly.

The nearest infected had already leaped from the ground, clawing and snapping at her.

With no other choice, she swung the rocket launcher, smashing it into the face covered in tumors and veins.

With the sound of shattering bones, the infected’s head was smashed, its skeleton collapsing, brains and blood spraying everywhere.

Su Yao was splattered with blood.

However, she had no time to clean herself; the next one was already close.

She raised the barrel again.

She had hastily checked the weapon and found no durability setting, meaning it shouldn’t break.

So Su Yao confidently continued to smash several infected, waiting for the half-minute cooldown, and fired another shot without hesitation.

However, this time, the distance was too close. When the cyan rings exploded in the air, some infected had already crashed into her, crackling with electricity.

Su Yao’s vision went black.

Five seconds later, she opened her eyes ten meters away, realizing she had just died.

Electrocuted by her own weapon’s area-of-effect attack.

Until one of them dropped a weapon.

It was a white-level piece of equipment, a simple iron-gray dagger. Judging from its stats, its damage should be far lower than the Locust.

—But it was a melee weapon!

No cooldown.

Su Yao immediately picked it up and started hacking at the monsters.

…It was indeed not very useful.

It took several swings to kill one monster.  Before she could rejoice, she was tackled by two infected.

She died again.

Fortunately, this was the newbie base, and the respawn point was right in front of her.

The surrounding players were also constantly dying.

Newbies had no death penalty, and they could be back at full health in a few seconds to continue fighting.

This chaotic battle lasted about ten minutes, after which the final wave of infected was eliminated, and the event concluded.

A golden light shone on everyone present, signifying a level-up.

Su Yao got up, wiped the blood from her face, and shook the rocket launcher. “If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t know how to use it.”

“Thank you.”

She looked at her teammate, then at the team interface, reading their nickname.

“Kyle.”

Her teammate, also covered in blood, stood beside her, tilted their head at her words, then looked to the side.

“You’re welcome.”

The teammate said calmly, glancing at the team interface and reading her nickname.

“Daily Nibble of His Majesty’s Pecs.”

Su Yao: “…”

Teammate: “…………”

The teammate slowly looked at her.