Chapter 1 Freezing Foods

It was 12:30 AM at the Jin You Supermarket, in the frozen food section on the first floor.

A row of long display cases for dairy products and chilled beverages stood against the wall, their edges about a meter off the ground. At that moment, Feng Bujue and Wang Tanzhi, as vanguard members, were walking along these edges.

From their perspective, the path in front of them wasn't exactly narrow, roughly equivalent to a log bridge wide enough for two people to walk side by side. To the left of the bridge was a chilling refrigerated display case, with rows of boxed milk neatly arranged like buildings lining a street. To the right was a cliff with a huge drop (nearly a meter, more than ten times their height).

The lights inside the refrigerated display case ensured visibility in the area, but since these weren't lights specifically for illumination, most corners were shrouded in shadow.

Standing on the edge of the display case and looking down, one could see the entire Classic Nintendo assault team.

Except for the larger figures and those that could advance like heavy weapons (such as R.O.B.), all the Nintendo toys were riding on "Eight-Bit Tanks" as they marched.

There were three models of these Eight-Bit Tanks. The first was the NES (which was the American version of the Red and White Machine, full name Nintendo Entertainment System... even though it was just a game console released in the 90s, its name was more high-end than some of today's next-gen consoles). Its overall shape was square, with the base slightly narrower than the upper part, and the colors were white on top and gray on the bottom. The cartridge was designed to be embedded horizontally into the body as a whole.

The second type was the FC (i.e., the Red and White Machine; the full name is Family Computer... a misnomer). It had a red and white exterior, was slightly smaller than the NES, and the cartridge was inserted vertically.

The third was the Subor (a classic case of a knockoff successfully taking over the original, and the nonsensical "Subor, endless fun!" message at startup was a milestone in brainwashing marketing). It had an all-black exterior, a gold logo (two boxing gloves touching each other), a size between the NES and the FC, and a unique circular reset button and a self-closing dust cover, making it domineering.

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

The way these "tanks" were operated... was by the characters sitting on them, using controllers. As for their operating principles and power... all were unknown.

"Your Investigation Specialization is better than mine, so you should be able to see further, right?" Feng Bujue said to Xiao Tan, who was behind him, without turning his head.

"Ah, I'm looking." Xiao Tan replied, but 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 dangerous position right now," Feng Bujue said. "It's understandable for the vanguard to occupy high ground and scout for enemies. But..." He paused. "Being exposed to the light like this, at such a high position, with almost no cover... if the enemy's sniper saw us..."

"That's right!" Xiao Tan reacted quickly this time. "And Bei Ling knows you have [Artemis's Embrace], so it's hard to kill you with one shot. She'll definitely target me first!"

"Also, what I'm more concerned about is... it seems like from the beginning, we've been stuck in a plot with no variables, and we're becoming cannon fodder for the Classic camp step by step," Feng Bujue said. "This 'vanguard' arrangement looks like they're sending us to our deaths."

"What does that mean?" Xiao Tan asked.

"Hmm... if Si Yu and Bei Ling are being treated the same way on the novel side, then I'm just being paranoid," Feng Bujue pondered. "But I seriously suspect... we're being 'specially taken care of' by the system."

Xiao Tan replied, "You mean... the NPCs' attitude towards us is bad because of the system?"

"No, it's not just about the attitude..." Feng Bujue waved his finger. "Looking at it from a broader perspective, the system controls... the so-called 'momentum'." He explained, "It can allow players to easily obtain resources in the script and take advantage of the situation, or it can create some trouble for players, making them put in more effort when acting."

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

"I'm too lazy to respond to such ignorant questions," 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 'Exploring Hidden Rules in Scripts'."

"Is that reliable?" Xiao Tan asked.

"That's just a player's experience summary from playing the game, not an academic paper. Whether it's reliable or not is up to you to judge," Feng Bujue said in a tone like an elder teaching a child a lesson. "Practice and thinking are both indispensable."

"Okay... what's the content of the post?" Xiao Tan asked.

"The content is quite extensive, but most of it is unverifiable assumptions from a player's perspective," Feng Bujue replied. "One section mentioned... a killing game that starts in the form of a challenge hides a 'challenger benefits' principle." He paused for a second and said in detail, "For example, suppose... there are two players, A and B, and A's combat strength is stronger than B's.

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

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

"In other words... the side that accepts the challenge is always more advantageous," Xiao Tan followed Jue Ge's meaning and replied. "If the challenger is stronger, the challenged party will be given preferential treatment; if the challenger is relatively weaker, the challenged party will not suffer any losses."

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

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

"Hmph... I can deal with them myself." Unexpectedly, Feng Bujue said this in an extremely calm tone.

"Hey, hey... even though rising to second place on the combat power ranking is amazing, your attitude is too arrogant," Xiao Tan retorted.

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

Looking in the direction of the voice, they saw a black stick figure appear on the packaging of a milk carton next to them. It was the Coder. As a unique 2D character, one of his abilities was to move freely on various flat surfaces. "Do you have any situations to report to me?"

"Uh... no," Xiao Tan replied, pointing to the outside of the display case. "Look, there are no other toy figures, and the back of the front row of cabinets is a black void."

"Strange... we already crossed the 'danger line' three minutes ago..." The Coder muttered, then raised his voice slightly. "Okay... continue to advance cautiously. Signal us if there's anything." After giving the order, he went down the wall along the surface of the display case...

"Understood, sir!" Feng Bujue responded pretentiously, watching the other party move away along the plane.

"What he just said was a clear hint, right..." Xiao Tan said a few seconds later.

"Yes, I'm afraid there will soon be..." Feng Bujue hadn't finished speaking when he heard a loud shout from below the display case. "Enemy attack!"

Xiao Tan's scare value rose slightly, and he immediately looked around nervously. Jue Ge was relatively calm. 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...). He found Diddy Kong jumping on the NES, pointing up into the air!

Rat-tat-tat—At this moment, a strange, rhythmic sound rang out.

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

"Eight-Bit machines can be used as vehicles, fine... but Lego planes can fly? What's going on..." 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 speed, maintain formation! Large toys protect the flanks, ranged combat units prepare to counterattack!" Mario was worthy of being the supreme commander of the Nintendo assault team. He didn't panic in the face of the battle and quickly gave a series of combat instructions.

"Roar—" Donkey Kong roared, striding forward and standing at the front of the formation. He beat his two muscular chest muscles with his fists, as if showing his strength to the enemies. From the perspective of a toy, this ape was indeed very impressive, full of power, and not slow in movement.

Poof, poof, poof...

The helicopters opened fire mercilessly, and "Lego brick bullets" flew from the air.

Samus and Mega Man riding on the tanks reacted the fastest. They both raised the impact cannons at the front of their arms to return fire, and the ammunition they fired was actually beam bullets...

"Hey... this has already exceeded the capabilities of the toys themselves on a physical level!" Feng Bujue thought that toy fights were basically just close combat smashing, at most throwing things like R.O.B. For him and Xiao Tan, the main threat from a distance was still Bei Ling and Si Yu.

Unexpectedly, in actual combat, this was not the case at all. Both Classic and novel had continuous and reliable ranged firepower output, and even an air force...

"Jue Ge... how about we go down from here first? While they haven't noticed us..." Xiao Tan put forward a very good constructive suggestion.

"Yes, that's what I was thinking... retreat!" Before he finished speaking, Feng Bujue jumped down along the outer side of the display case edge. He had [Moonwalk], so as long as the accumulated kinetic energy during the fall did not exceed the skill's carrying limit, there was no possibility of falling to his death.

Seeing this, Xiao 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, the novel's ground high-speed unit also happened to arrive, rushing out from the side of a large freezer in front.

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