Right now, Li Zixuan was moving with his teammates through the desolate buffer zone outside the base, heading to the frontlines to provide support.

This mission counted as their first real-combat newbie mission. Back in the training camp, they’d been issued a personal information terminal—an eyeball implant type—that directly projected data into their vision.

Through the mission list inside it, they could see the detailed report and rewards for this mission. Aside from basic Merit, they would also be granted one enhancement to their personal physical Skill.

The objective for this battle was very simple. They didn’t need to kill any set number of Insects on the battlefield; they just had to enter the rear of the line and rescue the wounded lying there. Each person only needed to successfully bring back one injured soldier for the mission to be counted as complete.

Li Zixuan was excited. This would be his first time coming into close contact with a Desert Worm. Even though it was just inside a game, it was enough to satisfy the intense longing he’d always had—to do the things he wanted to do in reality but never dared to.

From his perspective, the intelligent System assistant built into the battle armor helped him handle most of the complex operations. All he had to do was move his hands and feet like in real life to complete the most basic movements.

"Bro, how did you pull out that machine gun? Why can’t I find mine?"

A player jogged up to Li Zixuan’s side while speaking over the squad’s voice channel.

Li Zixuan turned his head and glanced at him, finding that it was a young man with the ID "Flying Pot Hero." In-game, players could see each other’s IDs in their own line of sight. This was also an important way to distinguish players from NPCs, and game from reality.

The "draw weapon" step had been covered by the instructor during the first few days of newbie training. It wasn’t exactly hard, but it sure wasn’t that easy either.

Even with the intelligent System’s assistance, if players wanted to successfully draw their gun and fire, they still had to toggle three safeties in succession.

This guy called Flying Pot Hero clearly hadn’t paid attention during the tutorial, to the point that he couldn’t even handle this most basic operation.

Li Zixuan didn’t hold back at all and straightforwardly taught him the method for drawing the weapon. The man started carefully following his steps, trying it out.

Only, before the man could finish the last step, they suddenly ran into trouble.

"Swish swish swish swish!"

Dozens of earthen spikes shot up from underground. The dozen or so NPC comrades walking in front were instantly skewered through their bodies and collapsed with screams.

The players were dumbstruck at the sight. Most of their first reaction was to freeze in place, their minds going completely blank.

"Ugh!"

Someone saw the ground covered in severed limbs and couldn’t help but start vomiting. That instantly triggered a chain reaction, and quite a few people nearby also bent over retching.

"It’s Lurkers! Everyone, spread out the formation, activate Spiritual Power scan mode, and smash them!!"

The Bearded man bellowed, and the surrounding NPC soldiers immediately changed formation, raising their machine guns to strafe toward the ground below.

A prompt appeared in Li Zixuan’s eyes as well. It was the intelligent System inside the battle armor providing a method for spreading out and reforming. His line of sight showed the position he should move to, and it automatically helped him activate the scan function.

If this were reality, none of this assistance would exist at all. The Anti-Demon Army warriors had to rely entirely on their own judgment to make the right choices.

However, in the game, if they wanted, they could also shut off the intelligent assistant and switch to manual mode, even selecting different Levels of manual control according to need: first gear, second, third, fourth, all the way up to full manual. Only in full manual mode would it be the same as a real Anti-Demon Army Soldier.

"Move it! Get up and fight back! What the hell are you idiots standing around for!?"

The Bearded man kept firing at the Lurkers underground while turning around to roar at the people behind him.

At the same time, the other NPC soldiers were also pouring out firepower like mad. They were like prearranged shock absorbers for this newbie stage, temporarily holding back the Insects and buying the players time to adapt.

Only at this point did these players finally understand something: a virtual reality game might be cool as hell, and when they read webnovels they always fantasized about jumping in to play, but once they were truly immersed, they realized that even knowing full well it was just a game, their hearts still couldn’t stop trembling and being afraid. Everything felt way too real—so real that they simply couldn’t treat it as "just a game."

"Rat-a-tat-tat-tat! Rat-a-tat-tat-tat!"

At last, as the first bullet was fired, the players gradually adjusted. It wasn’t that their adaptability was especially strong—the intelligent assistant in the battle armor had simply activated aim mode, locking onto targets using first-person aim visuals to indicate where they should shoot.

With this level of hand-holding, even an ordinary person knew what to do next: line up the muzzle on the highlighted spot, then pull the trigger.

This was a kind of subconscious guidance, prompting players on what to do at their most panicked moment, giving them something to anchor themselves to and letting them temporarily forget their fear and other emotions, so they could follow the System’s lead and complete the counterattack.

The process looked strange, but in fact it was indispensable. Players weren’t soldiers, after all. Only after they experienced that first act of resistance would they be able to lower their fear the next time they faced something similar and actually respond.

As a string of gunshots rang out, all the Lurkers that had attacked were wiped out. This sudden incident had killed quite a few NPCs, but since the players had been standing in the back, there were no player casualties.

However, several people lost the courage to keep playing and directly logged off and ran. Their in-game bodies were handed over to NPC control and reassigned to the front ranks of the squad.

Li Zixuan could feel his heart pounding wildly. This was his first time killing Insects. Even if it was in a game, it was enough to make him excited.

"Damn! How do you open this safety!? Bro! How do you open this safety!? You haven’t taught me yet!"

Flying Pot Hero was so anxious he was about to cry, clutching his gun and pulling the trigger nonstop, but there was no response at the muzzle whatsoever—only because he still hadn’t turned off his gun’s safety. Just now, Li Zixuan hadn’t had time to teach him before the ambush hit.

Seeing him like this, Li Zixuan had just opened his mouth to speak when the squad was ambushed by an insect swarm again. A pack of black Scythe Insects, moving at high speed, charged over from the distance, their speed so insane it nearly made the players leap out of their skins.

"Holy shit! What the hell is that!?"

"Careful! Scythe Insects!"

"What! Scythe Insects!? Those things are that fast!?"

The players hurriedly raised their guns to try and aim, but they simply couldn’t track the Insects’ movement speed.

They’d seen Scythe Insects in their school textbooks before. They were the most basic combat unit of the Insect Race. A fully grown Scythe Insect was about the size of a water buffalo, with thick hide and high attack. Its twin scythes were innately imbued with Dark Spiritual Power damage and could cleave through a tank’s Armor with a single swing.

Only, the Scythe Insects in the textbooks didn’t move, while the ones before their eyes now were moving so fast it was ridiculous—leaving behind almost nothing but afterimages.

"Quick, quick, quick! Turn on combat view mode!"

Li Zixuan suddenly shouted, then was the first to activate combat view. In an instant, the world around him seemed to slow down. It was like he’d entered the legendary bullet time, and with the battle armor’s assistance he could finally see the Scythe Insects’ speed clearly.

"You can’t track them with the muzzle! Lead your shots! You have to lead your shots!"

He yelled as he squeezed the trigger. After several bursts of fire, he managed to score a bit of a result.

The other players followed suit one after another. With their firepower fully unleashed, they finally managed to wipe out those Scythe Insects.

This time, only a third of the NPC soldiers were left alive. If there was one more such attack, the players would probably have to face those monsters on their own.