118: Chapter 118 The Great Hero Exploded Again—

After experiencing the "high blood pressure" baptism of the prologue's first level, Lin Lu, this arrogant film critic, finally put away her contempt for video games and began to seriously study the underlying mechanics of FGO.

However, it turned out that even a top influencer who held sway in the film and television sector would inevitably see their brain crash when facing a hardcore tower defense game with such deep underlying mechanics as the VR version of FGO.

"EXP cards? QP? Skill gems? What on earth are all these?!"

Lin Lu looked at the dense resource categories on the holographic panel, and her head began to ache. "How on earth do you level up in this game?"

Fortunately, the veteran players in the livestream, who knew the game mechanics like the back of their hands, had transformed into the strictest yet most protective cyber mentors, starting a crazy "spoon-feeding" tutorial.

"Lu Lu, don't just click randomly! Whatever you do, don't feed EXP to those high-star cards! You can't afford to raise them in the early game!"

"Exactly! This game is very short on EXP cards and QP in the early stages. If you spread your resources thin or force yourself to level up high-star characters, your entire team's performance will tank, and you'll get stuck until you die!"

"Listen to the veterans, concentrate all your limited resources on those low-star commoner gods! They have high cost-effectiveness and won't drain your budget!"

Watching the barrage pointing out the way, Lin Lu nodded as if she understood. "Oh... I think I get it. It means I should act like a miser now, don't bother training those cool-looking high-star cards, and just feed all the EXP cards to the cheap and useful low-star characters, right?"

"That's right! Exactly! Lu Lu is so smart! (Even though we were the ones who taught you.)"

Under the nanny-level guidance of the barrage, with comments like "Click a bit to the left," "Click that red button," and "Strengthen that bald uncle," Lin Lu began to allocate resources in a daze.

Although she had been forcibly wrapped in the skin of a "miser" by the veteran players, meticulously calculating every single EXP card, her eyes still held a clear, foolish look, trapped in a state of "I don't really understand, but since the experts say so, I'll just follow along."

"That Musashibou Benkei with the big naginata looks pretty fierce. Can I train him?" Lin Lu blinked, pointing at a bronze card to ask the barrage.

"Absolutely not! His entire skill set is terrible; he's incredibly weak in the early stages!"

The barrage chimed in to stop her in unison. "Be a good girl and listen, train the gods we mentioned first! As for these flashy support and control units, study them later!"

With the veteran players intervening forcefully, Lin Lu obediently pulled back her hand and dumped all her resources into a few low-star legends obtained from the system or the friend point gacha:

The three-star Lancer [Cu Chulainn], known as "the dog," who could survive on his own in most situations thanks to his outrageous "Protection from Arrows";

The two-star Rider [Georgios], respectfully called "Georgios," whose single taunt skill drew all the aggro, taking tons of damage to protect the backline damage dealers;

The two-star Caster [Andersen], a fairy tale author with a young boy's face and an uncle's voice, who only needed to stand on a high platform and release his Noble Phantasm to make the team's HP and attack power soar;

And the one-star Berserker [Spartacus], a muscular man constantly shouting about "oppressors," who possessed self-charge and an AOE Noble Phantasm, making him the ultimate bulldozer for clearing out mobs.

"This is so satisfying! The numerical balance of this game is absolutely perfect!"

Relying on this hodgepodge "low-star beggar version national team," Lin Lu swept through the ruins of Fuyuki City, clearing most of the prologue stages like cutting through melons and vegetables.

The strategic satisfaction of "squeezing every bit of combat power out of every resource" made her completely addicted.

Finally, when facing an elite monster in Fuyuki City, Georgios in the front line fell heroically, leaving a gap in the defense line as groups of skeletons and a giant wyvern came roaring over.

"Lu Lu! No time to hesitate! Hurry up and deploy your invincible Arash!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah! The Great Hero is already hungry and thirsty! Let him take the field and turn the tide!"

Seeing the sudden, uniform call in the barrage, Lin Lu smiled confidently and reached out to deploy the bronze-colored card she regarded as her "second-in-command."

"No problem! Arash, I leave it to you!"

Lin Lu deployed Arash on the safest high platform with the widest view, and casually applied all available attack buffs to the one-star Archer.

"Let me show you the unbreakable bond between me and the Great Hero!"

Lin Lu took a deep breath and swung her hand down sharply. "Release Noble Phantasm!"

On the battlefield, Arash, standing on the high platform, slowly drew the great bow in his hands.

In an instant, the surrounding wind seemed to stop.

A vast, pure magical energy, enough to shock even Lin Lu, gathered crazily on that arrow.

Arash's hearty and firm chant echoed through the entire ruins:

"Oh, my Lord of the Sun—my Lord of radiance who bestows all wisdom, dignity, and power!"

"To create the stars is the ultimate, to destroy the stars is the ultimate!"

"—Stella!!!"

Accompanied by a roar that shook the heavens and earth, a light so brilliant that it was impossible to look at directly burst from the great bow!

The scene was shocking and beautiful, like a true meteor streaking across the dark red night sky of Fuyuki City, carrying the power to destroy the world, and smashing fiercely into the monster pile!

"Boom—!!!"

A blinding white light swallowed the entire battlefield.

When the light dissipated, the once majestic wyvern and the skeleton army vanished in an instant, leaving not even a scrap behind, while extremely exaggerated red damage numbers floated across the screen!

"Wow—!!!"

Lin Lu jumped up in the VR pod, her scalp tingling, her eyes shining:

"This damage! These special effects! The satisfaction of clearing the screen! My god, is this really the output a one-star character can deal?! Arash, you are simply my god—"

Lin Lu's excited words suddenly stuck in her throat.

Because she discovered that Arash, on the high platform, after firing that stunning arrow, suddenly began to fall apart like burning ashes, turning into specks of golden light and dissipating in the wind.

[System Prompt: Servant Arash has retreated.]

The smile on Lin Lu's face froze instantly.

"Wait... wait? Where is he? Where is my big, handsome Great Hero?!"

Lin Lu scanned the battlefield in a panic, thinking she had missed something. "Aren't there no monsters left? Who snuck up on him? How did he suddenly vanish?!"

The barrage in the livestream, after three seconds of eerie silence, erupted into crazy, manic laughter like a volcanic eruption!

"Hahahahahahahahahahaha!"

"He didn't get snuck up on, he just exploded himself, hahahahaha!"

"That's the Noble Phantasm mechanic of the Great Hero! 'Deals super powerful damage to all enemies, and [Self-Instant Death]'!"

"Lu Lu: I swear I won't let the enemy hurt him at all! Arash: Master, you're so kind, then I'll just blow myself up! Stella—"

"The most magnificent fireworks in the world, this is the romance of the ninth art, Lu Lu, hahahaha!"

Looking at the screen filled with "Stella" and crazy mockery, Lin Lu hurriedly clicked on Arash's skill description panel, and then... saw that glaring line: "[Self-Instant Death]."

A rush of hot blood surged to her head.

The arrogant film critic, Lin Lu, was completely broken.

"Gu! Yi!"

Lin Lu's face instantly turned bright red, like a ripe red apple. She was so angry in the VR pod that her teeth itched, and she cursed at the camera without any image:

"What kind of shitty game design is this?! You have to sacrifice yourself to use an ultimate move?! You guys in the barrage too! Liars! All of you are liars! Saying he's a must-have for every match, talking about bonds! You just wanted to trick me into setting off fireworks, right?! Unsubscribe! Everyone, unsubscribe for this young lady!"

Seeing Lin Lu's flushed, broken state, the veteran players laughed even louder, and the gifts in the livestream even spiked due to this incredibly entertaining program effect.

After finally finishing the level with the backup Servants, Lin Lu sat on the sofa in her personal space, fuming.

Suddenly, her professional instincts and keen intuition as a film critic made her brain race.

"Wait."

Lin Lu suddenly raised her head, her eyes sharp: "You bunch of old foxes, you even teamed up to trick me about the Noble Phantasm effect of a one-star Servant... Then what about Roman, whom you were crazy about recommending to me earlier?"

"You said he provides healing the whole time, there's absolutely no tragedy, and he'll definitely live to the happy ending... Don't tell me this was also a lie to trick me?!"