High Energy QR Code

Xing Ye’s face was indecipherable as he quickly drew another QR code in the air.

He started it a few seconds later this time, playing it from when the pocket watch started absorbing the nucleus. This time, Xing Ye focused on the pocket watch’s hands.

When the nucleus was completely absorbed and the hands on the watch stopped swiveling, Xing Ye spoke. “The time on the watch is three minutes earlier than before.”

Time still seemed frozen as Randy took the pocket watch back. No expression could be seen on his puppet face as he let out a tsk, seeming discontent.

Randy completely changed from the leisurely appearance he had moments ago, rushing down the tunnel as fast as he could. Wherever he went, time seemed to stop as the robots froze in place.

After sprinting for one minute, Randy mumbled to himself angrily, “This body runs too slowly.”

As he went deeper, everyone watched as Randy entered a room. Countless machines filled the room, with a single bearded puppet standing in front of a transparent glass tube, where a heart floated in the fluid.

Randy tried smashing through the glass to take the heart, but the glass was too tough. His strength as a wooden puppet wasn’t strong enough to break through it.

Xing Ye noticed that Randy hadn’t used any of his starting abilities and QR codes. He had only used that watch.

He tried using the tools in the room to break through the glass, but all the firearms were attached to the robots. Randy couldn’t control them, and there was no way iron sticks would be able to destroy the thick glass.

The watch showed that two minutes had already passed. He needed the last minute to return back.

“Sh*t, I’ll have to waste a minute to get out! I can’t believe that trash’s life was only worth three minutes!” Randy howled, giving one last glance at the heart before running away.

This time, he was even faster than before. After running out of the encirclement, there were still two seconds before the watch’s original time. Randy pressed the stop button. The watch’s hands stopped as not far away, the robots began to move again.

Randy made a dash for the exit.

The broadcast time was up and the projector faded away. Xing Ye didn’t continue to use Redrawing Pen, instead turning to face the other two: “No matter what happens, even if you’ll be killed by another player or puppet, don’t agree to any of Randy’s requests!”

Guan Ling nodded strongly. It was hard for Cao Qian to move, so she just blinked in agreement.

The three and the mirror pretended nothing had happened as they returned to the spot where they separated from Randy. They stood together, nobody saying anything.

The mine was very deep. It took Randy 30 minutes to get to the fight location, so it’d take some time for him to escape. They waited and ten minutes later, Randy came running out of the mines.

“Hurry up and run!” He shouted at Xing Ye’s group, “There’s mechanical puppets, robots far stronger than we expected inside. They’ve already killed the city lord’s son and then started chasing after me. I managed to escape somehow, but I’m not sure if they’re still on my tail.”

That part was true. In the last few scenes of the broadcast, the robots never stopped chasing Randy, but he had never used any special QR codes. Xing Ye didn’t know if it was because he was just too confident in his own abilities, or because his special QR codes were limited and he wanted to save them.

“They probably won’t chase you out here,” Xing Ye said calmly, “Amongst the group sent in by the city lord earlier, none of the puppets guarding outside died and were even able to go back to report to the city lord, meaning robots won’t harm those outside the mine. Furthermore, our speed is very slow, so even if they did pursue you out here, it’s not likely we’d be able to escape. Compared to making a hasty escape, it’d be better to make preparations and observe calmly.”

“But none of the soldiers inside escaped! What if they’re chasing to kill? Let’s just make a run for it!” Randy said urgently.

Xing Ye’s group, who had all personally seen him snare the city lord’s son, didn’t move.

Cao Qian’s hands were behind her back, so Randy couldn’t see the set of boxers gloves encasing her little matchstick fists.

Glorious Boxing Gloves was the special QR code Cao Qian drew after successfully completing the campus search world. After Xing Ye tested it, they found it was a prop-type QR code, boxing gloves that can, for one hour, multiply the wearer’s attack power three-fold. Right now, Cao Qian was using one of Xing Ye’s knock off boxing gloves with an attack multiplier of 1.5x after being copied by Redrawing Pen.

This was just in case Randy tried to do anything and if they really were attacked, it could also be used on the mechanical puppets. Xing Ye saw how strong the robots were on the projector. If they fought against Cao Qian, with the level of strength she showed in the campus search world, they still had a strong chance. So, at the very least, they didn’t have to flee in a panic.

At this moment, a mechanical puppet suddenly came running out of the mines. It completely ignored Xing Ye’s group, going straight to attack Randy.

It seemed like the robots would only attack the people who entered the mines. There had to be a secret inside that Benedict didn’t want others to discover. Xing Ye thought back to the heart floating in the fluid chamber and silently pondered.

Two more mechanical puppets rushed out of the mines and together, they surrounded Randy. Randy saw Xing Ye’s group had no intention of helping and finally gritted his teeth, unwillingly pressing on his wristband and using a special QR code.

A huge broadsword appeared in his hands. It seemed very heavy, yet the little puppet wielded it like it weighed nothing. With three chops in the air, the three mechanical puppets were sent flying and the sword also disappeared.

It was an offensive prop-type QR code. It should have a one-hit kill effect, and probably doesn’t have any burden on the user. Otherwise, its use time wouldn’t be so limited.

Xing Ye quickly analyzed the broadsword’s uses. It was too bad he didn’t get to see the QR code and couldn’t copy it.

After the three mechanical puppets were smashed, no more puppets came out of the mine to continue the pursuit. Randy looked at Xing Ye’s group angrily, “First, you guys don’t dare to enter the mine, and now that I’ve run into danger, you refuse to save me. I took the risk of going into the mine and found an important clue, but don’t bother asking me what it is.”

Xing Ye saw through him. Randy was just pretending to be angry, taking the opportunity to tell them he had an important clue and if they wanted to know, they had to pay a price.

But sorry, they already knew it.

“We have no choice,” Xing Ye spread his hands, “My starting abilities are all support-type abilities with no combat power. Besides, you saw how poor Cao Qian and I are. It’s obvious we’re unlucky opposing fate players without any QR codes.”

Guan Ling also spread his hands, “Although I’m a following fate players, my starting abilities are also support-type abilities and I only have a few QR codes that I need to save to protect myself with.”

The mirror… the mirror still remembered he was a npc to Guan Ling and Xao Qian, but a following fate player to Randy. He could only learn from the other two and also spread his hands helplessly.

If Randy was just pretending to be angry earlier, now he couldn’t help but truly get a little angry seeing the four’s “I’m shameless, what can you do about it?” appearances.

However, he didn’t attack and could only choke down his anger. “If you want to know about the clues inside the mine, come find me. Of course, if you have the guts, you can also go in yourselves!”

Of course they would go in. After all, it’s filled with primary ore inside.

“The plan won’t change, we’ll go in after the sky brightens up.” Xing Ye said.

Randy wasn’t sure whether they had some way to deal with the mechanical puppets. Furthermore, he still wanted to take another trip inside in case there could be even more important clues. Earlier, he didn’t have enough time to search through the entire room carefully.

Thinking up to there, Randy endured his anger and found a spot away from Xing Ye’s group to sit, secretly observing them.

Xing Ye’s group exchanged a glance. They were filled with misgivings, but nobody spoke.

They were silent until daybreak. Xing Ye’s group then entered the mines, filling their sack with primary ore around the entrance. They didn’t go any further inside and happily walked back out of the mine.

Since they just stayed around the entrance of mine and didn’t try going deep inside, the mechanical puppets weren’t alerted.

“You guys… aren’t going to explore?” This time, Randy was truly shocked. He had never seen such a lackadaisical opposing fate player.

Xing Ye spoke slowly, “I think we’ve already made a profit here with all this primary ore we picked up. You also know that we might run out of energy at any time here, so we can’t advance recklessly. Besides, we have plenty of time. It’s best to return to the city with this primary ore, replenish our energy, settle our debts, repair our bodies, top up on oil, cleanse off the rust, and get some good clothes first. When that’s all done, it wouldn’t be too late to come back.”

“There’s also two other following fate players. Aren’t you afraid that if you go so slowly, the other two following fate players would finish the mission before you even finish preparing?” Randy asked.

Xing Ye shrugged, “Sure, but going in without preparing anything would be the same. In fact, it’d probably kill us even faster. It’s better to just do things steadily.”

In short: we’re chill players, we don’t care.

Randy seemed to really want to go deep inside the mines, but didn’t want to go alone. When he saw Xing Ye’s group really were leaving, he took one last loop around the vicinity of the mines before angrily shaking his head and following them.