Chapter 1 The Battlefield

While the skirmish in front of the LEGO house raged on, battles unfolded in other areas as well.

In truth, the main camps of Classic and novel were only about five hundred meters apart. Their respective spheres of influence radiated outwards from their camps in a semi-circular area. The distant edges, too far away, were of no strategic importance. The key areas were the oval shape formed by the intersection of the two semi-circular arcs and its two flanks.

This front line was very long and thick, making it difficult to determine whose territory it actually was. Without a doubt, all areas along this front line were zones of intense fighting and frequent skirmishes.

The Nintendo commando raids from before were just ordinary probing advances, only small to medium-scale battles. Their mission was simply to symbolically attack the enemy-occupied area, hoping to catch some stragglers or sentries. Even if they successfully advanced into enemy territory and eliminated some enemies, they would immediately retreat to support other battlefields.

The frozen food section could be said to be the equilibrium point of the two sides' spheres of influence, and also a buffer zone between two semi-neutral areas. Opening fire there every night had almost become a tacit agreement between the two sides.

However, this war between toys was not an ordinary gang fight, but a large-scale war of attrition. The two sides were engaging in organized multi-line operations, attacking at multiple points. Therefore... every night, small-scale battles were countless, and medium to large-scale engagements occurred at least five times or more.

Feng Bujue and Xiao Tan didn't know this information, but Si Yu and Bei Ling were very clear on it. In a sense, Feng Bujue and his friend had an advantage, because they only needed to act as "soldiers." But Si Yu and the other girl were acting as commanders... While the boys were carrying out reconnaissance missions, the two girls were painstakingly commanding a strange, complex, and difficult war.

At this moment, within the supermarket's sporting goods section, Classic's "Second Army" and novel's "Wandering Souls Legion" were engaged in a large-scale offensive and defensive battle.

The main members of the Second Army were Ultraman, along with many other tokusatsu (special effects) characters, such as the combined robots from various seasons of Power Rangers, the B-Series Robots (members of *Metal Heroes*, such as Kabuto, Black Beet, Shark Brother, Dragonfly Captain…), the Kamen Rider army, and even strange characters like Jin Jia Warrior mixed in…

As for the Wandering Souls Legion, in addition to the captains and lieutenants of the Gotei 13, the Visoreds, the Espadas, Kurosaki Ichigo, and his friends had also appeared (all characters from the manga *Bleach*).

Although the members of the Second Army had an advantage in size, the Wandering Souls Legion barely managed to hold their own with their unique combat methods (beam attacks, area attacks, special attacks, transformation abilities, etc.).

"Commander, things aren't looking good..." Staff Officer Sonico said softly to Bei Ling, "Those egghead guys are too strong, if this goes on... it's only a matter of time before we're defeated."

Bei Ling was sitting on the edge of a shelf, propping up her cheeks with her hands, looking worried.

Seeing her thinking, Si Yu said, "Did the surprise attack on the eastern front succeed?"

Sonico manipulated a screen almost as big as herself for a while, and replied, "This is the live feed, see for yourself…"

"That's..." Si Yu saw that the three EVAs, as the surprise attack force, were fighting three smaller black figures, and were actually being suppressed. "What exactly did they send out..." she wondered.

"Arare, Astro Boy, Yawaramaru." Bei Ling replied before Sonico could, stopping her deep thinking and joining the conversation, "They're all super troublesome guys... the EVAs probably won't win." She turned her head and said, "Staff Officer."

"Yes, Commander?" Sonico replied.

"Arrange for them to retreat." Bei Ling said, "Also, try again to contact the four members of the Royal Guard. It's been almost ten minutes since my designated reporting time."

"Yes." Sonico replied, and began to work on the screen.

"Have you thought of how to reverse the current situation?" Si Yu asked.

"It's not difficult... but..." Bei Ling replied thoughtfully, "I think this side quest... probably won't be finished before dawn." She said, "If the strength of the warring parties is vastly different, or if the total number of troops on both sides isn't that large, that would be fine... but as it stands, this isn't a battle that can be finished overnight. I estimate... even if the other side doesn't have Tuanzhang (Guild Leader) and Xiao Tan's help; even if the toys' strategies and intelligence are far below mine, it would still take about two weeks to completely end the war."

"We can't stay in the script that long." Si Yu said.

"Yeah, it's a killing game in non-sleep mode, judging by the game time, it's obvious that we're supposed to decide the outcome before dawn." Bei Ling said, "So there must be something wrong with this side quest... how could we possibly win this war in the next few hours?"

"Maybe..." Si Yu speculated, "There's some kind of item or special event in this script that can restore us to normal human size?"

"I was just considering similar hypotheses." Bei Ling replied, "But there are so many possibilities... maybe we can find a lawnmower in the supermarket and just mow down the enemy; maybe some neutral toy force has already created something like a 'toy atomic bomb' or a 'toy virus'; maybe as long as we destroy the enemy's leader, Classic will collectively surrender..."

"Speaking of which..." Si Yu suddenly thought of something, "Could the key to solving this secret be related to 'that answer'?"

Bei Ling immediately understood what Si Yu was referring to. From the moment they entered the script, they had been smooth sailing, easily gaining the trust of all the toys on the novel side, and obtaining a lot of information about the plot. But there was only one thing that no matter who they asked, they couldn't get a definite answer. Arthas, the leader of novel, had made it clear that this was a question that should not be raised.

That question was—what was the cause of this war?

This should be a well-known question, and every participant and those caught up in the war should have some idea about it. Perhaps due to different positions, the two sides would have different views and opinions, but it was impossible for not a single person from top to bottom to be able to state the cause of the war.

As players, they really couldn't understand why these toys couldn't say what they were fighting for, yet they were still so firmly engaged in this war.

"Could it be that we were wrong from the beginning?" Bei Ling pondered, "What we're doing now... is as meaningless as the fighting between these toys..."

"You're thinking too much." Si Yu stroked the top of Bei Ling's head, a habit they had since childhood, "Actually... we can just ignore this side quest." She looked down at the constantly chattering battlefield beneath her feet with her cold eyes, "For us, the ultimate goal is very clear, which is to kill Feng Bujue and Xiao Tan."

"Hmm..." Bei Ling seemed a little unwilling to give up the side quest, she puffed up her cheeks and hesitated for a few seconds, "If we really give up the side quest, then things will indeed be much simpler... we just need to use the resources at hand, at all costs, to find the location of Tuanzhang and Xiao Tan, and then launch an attack on them regardless of the consequences... maybe we two don't even need to lift a finger, and we can win this killing game."

"There's no need for that..." Si Yu shook her head with a smile, "Just use the army to find their location." A hint of eagerness flashed in her eyes, "Feng Bujue, I'll take care of him myself…"

…………

"Achoo!" Feng Bujue sneezed, he rubbed his nose and muttered, "What's going on... I suddenly feel a chill down my spine, are there readers using black magic to curse me again..."

"Hey... don't say that as if it's commonplace!" Xiao Tan replied.

At this time, the two of them were standing aside as if they were bystanders, watching the battle between six Classic NPCs and the Three Swordsmen.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were much more powerful than they had imagined. These four guys were astonishing in terms of attack, defense, speed, skill, and physique. Thinking about it, those heavy turtle shells on their backs, if a human were to carry them, they probably wouldn't even be able to stand up straight. But the Turtles were nonchalant, able to run and jump, moving extremely quickly and with powerful movements. If there were humans who could reach their level, it would have to be Master Roshi, whose combat power was at least thirty times stronger than that of a normal person.

After a minute or two of fighting, Classic had already gained the upper hand, with only the duel between Kenshin and Leonardo remaining evenly matched. Kenshin excelled in speed, and his swordsmanship was already superb; Leonardo's martial arts skills were also not bad, and with his impenetrable turtle shell, he had a natural advantage in defense. The two sides exchanged blows, fighting in a thrilling manner. To onlookers, all sorts of phantoms arose around them, illusions manifested, and the sounds of clashing metal echoed endlessly...

Even Feng Bujue couldn't fully see through the movements of this battle. Compared to his fight with Shiva and Qisha, the fight between these two NPCs was clearly on a higher level.

"Speaking of... why did you withdraw?" Feng Bujue said, "Going up and joining the fun would definitely help improve your Fighting specialization."

"It's easy for you to say..." Xiao Tan replied, "Do you know how much Stamina I just spent?"

"That shows you're too nervous. When you're nervous, your Stamina consumption also increases." Feng Bujue explained, "Actually, it's also related to your Horror value... Most people, when encountering terrifying or dangerous things, not only don't get a power-up, but also lose their due resistance. For example... even on roads they often walk, they might fall, easily feel tired, their limbs become weak, and in severe cases, they might even lose control of their bowels." He paused, "I once impersonated a police officer to interview some women who were robbed while walking at night, some of whom had even learned self-defense or had pepper spray in their pockets. But when the robber held a knife to their back, they couldn't do anything to resist, their minds went blank, their whole bodies trembled, and they didn't even dare to shout for help."

"Sorry, after hearing the words 'impersonated a police officer', I couldn't concentrate on listening to your theory..." Xiao Tan replied with a twitching mouth.

"Alright! Gentlemen, that's enough!" Suddenly, a loud voice rang out.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh—

A round shield flew from afar, bouncing off the weapons of Sougo, Raphael, and Donatello, pushing the three apart.

Then, the round shield ricocheted and flew back.

A LEGO Q version figurine wearing a blue, red, and white suit caught the shield, and continued from where he left off, "If you don't stop, you'll be enemies of the LEGO Avengers!"

Behind him, a dense crowd of figures appeared, including LEGO Wolverine, LEGO Thor, LEGO Ant-Man, LEGO Hawkeye, LEGO Wasp, and LEGO Iron Man floating in mid-air. Of course, the one holding the shield was LEGO Captain America.