A Core Ship From The Start-Chapter 378 - 293 Duel City_1

Chapter 378 -293 Duel City_1

After taking out the Missionary and destroying the Hawthorn Star System, Duanmu Huai temporarily concluded his operations here. What came next was the recovery and processing of spoils of war.

The destruction of the Soul Calming Star was inevitable, with no value for collection. However, the greatest gain was undoubtedly the Inheritance Ship.

On one hand, the Inheritance Ship, as one of the largest warships in Star Ocean Online, was impressively grand, regardless of anything else.

It measured 142 kilometers long, 138 kilometers wide, and 371 kilometers high. Although, in terms of gigantic structures in the universe, there were those bigger than it. But if we’re only talking about warships, the Inheritance Ship was indeed the largest warship in the Star Ocean game. Even the Spear of Ayton and Titan-class Warships that players obtained later in the game through heavy investment or plot progression were tiny compared to the Inheritance Ship.

However, the only regrettable thing for Duanmu Huai was that he couldn’t install a reorganizer on the Inheritance Ship.

Although the reorganizer was indeed one of the most potent weapons created by the Forerunners—given its ability to disassemble and reorganize the souls of enemies, turning them into loyal guardians—it did appear powerful. Indeed, in the early stages of the game, the guild that obtained the Inheritance Ship quickly became the top guild across all Star Ocean servers.

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Well, in the early stages.

Where did the problem lie? The problem erupted during the later stages, in the counter-attack on the Subspace.

The Forerunners initially created the reorganizer and the Prometheus Knight to counter the Flood Demon, preventing its parasitism. It was proven effective against the Flood Demon or the God of Plague and the Plague Apostles.

However… against Cunning Deception… ha, ha…

Thus, on the battlefield, millions of Prometheus Knights were instantly overcome by a virus. They revolted openly under the eyes of all players, staging a mechanized crisis à la the 2.0 version of Iron Man’s rebellion. The battle gave players a tough time, and in the end, the Inheritance Ship and its reorganizer were collectively annihilated by other players, narrowly avoiding a disaster. After that, the guild naturally disbanded.

With this precedent, Duanmu Huai did not dare install a reorganizer on the Inheritance Ship again. Luckily, the Inheritance Ship currently lacked artificial intelligence, making it immune to the invasion of virtual viruses.

However, Duanmu Huai was no idler. He instantly converted the space designated for the reorganizer into a giant BFG Particle Cannon to attack planets. With the Wan Yi Battleship at his disposal, demolishing a star system was no issue for Duanmu Huai. Yet, when it came to annihilating a planet, he was still a bit off. But with the giant BFG Particle Cannon installed on the Inheritance Ship, a single shot could pierce a planet, so it did add a bit more to Duanmu Huai’s Extinction Order options.

Apart from that, what Duanmu Huai valued the most was the Stasis Tension Driver of the Inheritance Ship. It wasn’t a destructive weapon, but it was even more formidable than destructive weapons—it could generate a stasis force field centered around the Inheritance Ship. Within this area, not only was faster-than-light travel for warships impossible, but even faster-than-light communication signals would be blocked.

When combined with the Inheritance Ship’s 1700 light-shaping cannons, 25000 Focusing Beam Cannons, and the large-scale particle cannon network, it could quietly annihilate an entire fleet in space without any issues.

And the Stasis Force Field Generator was what Duanmu Huai wanted most. After all, his fleet’s firepower was already sufficient for now. But even if the enemies couldn’t defeat him, they could still run away. With the Stasis Tension Driver, they wouldn’t even be able to escape—he was definitely talking about you, Spirit Race jerks who always run away after attacking!!

As the refurbishment of the Inheritance Ship was a major task, Duanmu Huai took his fleet back to the War Planet. After purchasing a large quantity of materials from Dardaniel, he began refurbishing the Inheritance Ship. He wanted to convert the original space left for the reorganizer into a huge BFG. He also wanted to convert all 25000 Focusing Beam Cannons into BFG Particle Cannons because, although these beam cannons were powerful, they generally had a short range, which was a common issue with most beam weapons anyway.

Apart from this, Duanmu Huai also planned to combine the Queen Glory Class with the Inheritance Ship. Simply put, he wanted to attach the Queen Glory Class onto the Inheritance Ship. That way, Duanmu Huai could directly control the Inheritance Ship on a regular basis. Plus, besides everything else, during a space battle, it would scare the living daylights out of the enemy if, without a second’s hesitation, you smash a battleship over 300 meters high right onto their face.

Of course, Duanmu Huai did not forget to add the skull and hammer Tribunal label to the Inheritance Ship.

A warship without a skull is soulless!

Only a skull represents purity and loyalty!

After assigning the renovation work of the Inheritance Ship to Kukulu and her team, Duanmu Huai reopened the Dream Crystal and began seeking his target.

“I remember it’s right… ah, yes, found it, right here.”

After opening the Dream Crystal, Duanmu Huai located what he was looking for in no time.

“[Battle Instance — Duel City]”

“As expected, it’s here too.”

Gazing at the [Battle Instance] before his eyes, Duanmu Huai’s lips slightly lifted, revealing a hint of a smile.

The reason why he was searching for this [Battle Instance] was to fulfill Ann’s “wish”. After all, Duanmu Huai played a female character in the game, so he knew very well about missions that rewarded good-looking female outfits. Thus, the moment he confirmed Ann’s request, Duanmu Huai immediately thought of Duel City.

Duel City, as it’s called, was essentially the player arena in Star Ocean Online, primarily used for PK. After all, the universe in Star Ocean Online was huge, with players scattered all over. No one could spare hours to travel to a certain star system specifically to enter the arena. Therefore, the official team dedicated a permanent virtual competitive instance—the Duel City—where players could directly challenge others by participating in duels, without having to travel across multiple star systems. Running such risks for competition didn’t feel worth it, did it?

Duel City is an overhead city that also includes a large continent and some small towns. Once players enter Duel City, they can practice by dueling with NPCs first, then progress to Fair Arena after familiarizing themselves with the controls. They can also participate in tournaments where the points they win from defeating opponents can be exchanged for equipment and weapons. Some items can only be used in Duel City, others can also be used outside of it.

Female equipment in Duel City is naturally one of the largest highlights that players look forward to.

First and foremost, most of these items for female characters are very revealing, and secondly, the most fascinating thing is that even if the female equipment appears to only consist of as much fabric as a bikini, it can still perfectly protect the wearer’s entire body. This means that even if a player is wearing a bikini and gets sprayed with a machine gun, as long as their defense isn’t breached, there would be no damage wherever you hit them.

Moreover, all the attire obtained from Duel City comes with an ‘explosive clothing’ setting. This means once the clothing’s defense is broken, it shall burst into pieces – um, of course, recognizing review issues within the game, it definitely would not reveal the mosaic covered areas.

Since Ann looks down on power armor, Duanmu Huai doesn’t mind giving her a sobering lesson…

Calling my can of armor ugly, does that mean you think I’m ugly?!

I won’t put up with this, I’m telling you!

So… let’s begin!

While pondering over how to duly handle Ann, Duanmu Huai activated the Duel City instance. The next moment, a spark of light flashed before his eyes, and then Duanmu Huai found himself in a bustling city street.

“Phew…”

Duanmu Huai flexed his body and glanced around.

It’s no different from what he remembered, but…

“I can’t play dumb to fool my opponents this time, huh.”

Gazing at the familiar street, Duanmu Huai whispered to himself.

The reason for Duanmu Huai’s sentiment is straightforward. In Duel City, all the player’s stats are locked. When players first enter Duel City, their data derives from the physical scan of their real selves.

Simply put, when players first enter Duel City, they are essentially their real selves. Next, they must go to places like dojos and learn skills from NPC masters, gain points to enhance physical stats, and then participate in various martial arts tournaments.

This setting is a bit cumbersome, but players are drawn to it for a very simple reason: Duel City often organizes cross-over duels, solidarity with other popular characters from fighting games or anime. If you can defeat them in Duel City, you can obtain their soul card to use in real life.

A lot of players are here specifically for that.

Due to this mechanism, strictly speaking, it would amount to cheating when Duanmu Huai first arrived in Duel City.

After all, he created a 1.4 meter tall little loli character, others might suspect he’s a man, but they could never fathom that this 1.4 meter tall loli was hiding a 2.5 meter tall, 400 kg, muscle-bound hulk of a man behind her…

It’s the real thing – one punch from this little loli would make you kneel down and beg her to stop.

So when the gamers in the game fought against Duanmu Huai, they were like kicking a concrete pillar – they didn’t move him a bit but got knocked flat by a single punch of Duanmu Huai’s little loli.

At that time, many gamers reported Duanmu Huai’s character for cheating, but after official investigation, it turned out that those were indeed the actual physical data of Duanmu Huai. Subsequently, the gamers began to wonder who this grand person behind the little loli really was…of course, they would never guess what Duanmu Huai really looks like.

Unfortunately, Duanmu Huai could have used the loli appearance to play possum back then, it’s impossible now because anyone who sees him in this form wouldn’t consider him as a noob.

If it were a 2D horizontal fighting game, Duanmu Huai’s head would almost reach the health bar.

However, better than Resident Evil, this time Duanmu Huai doesn’t have to fight lonely because the rules say that gameplay is group-oriented, each group consisting of three, so players can call up two soul cards on the field.

Luckily, Duanmu Huai does possess two fighting-friendly cards.

Why not summon them and see how they perform?