“Wow! Lu Xiaoyao, you’ve been hiding your skills!”

Lu Xiaoyao and her group of players successfully escaped the starship just before it exploded.

Just as Li Yuan had guessed, those veteran players were indeed lying in ambush at the starting point!

The starfire insect body fluid rained down, corroding the outermost defense shield in less than ten seconds.

The entire starship was corroded and destroyed in just five minutes.

A dozen mechs huddled together for protection, cursing inwardly as they stared at the swarm of insects who had been lying in wait at the game’s starting point.

They had entered the game at the same time, so how were these guys one step ahead?!

It made them look like noobs!

Were they going to get wiped out right at the beginning?

Everyone who escaped was piloting a mech, and among these system-issued mechs, Lu Xiaoyao’s, with its built-in data, stood out conspicuously.

Even Hu Yue was piloting a basic, default model.

Although she had enough money, owning an exclusive, high-end mech was a matter of chance; you needed to find a mech designer to custom-build one.

Li Yuan admitted that his current skill level wasn’t high enough to design an S-class mech exclusively for Hu Yue.

Therefore, everyone present was envious of Lu Xiaoyao's mech.

That included the insects on the other side, who were now unusually excited at the sight of Lu Xiaoyao.

“Holy crap! There’s a big fat sheep among these newbies!”

The veterans’ eyes lit up when they saw Lu Xiaoyao's S-class mech.

Lu Xiaoyao, however, who was piloting her mech for the first time, hadn't had time to get excited before she felt a sudden, inexplicable chill!

Giao!

Some troublemakers always want to harm this queen!

Lu Xiaoyao nimbly switched her mech to defensive mode.

She remembered her brother telling her that although this "Pink Delight" mech had mediocre combat power, it was the black beetle of mechs.

After all, her little sister’s skills... well, those in the know knew.

Lu Xiaoyao looked at the swarm of insects—familiar starfire insects, false queens, and other formidable group fighters. There were also some exceptionally strong individual combatants, which made her heart sink.

“Who here is the best fighter?” Lu Xiaoyao asked, but subconsciously added, "Um, Yueyue, can you beat a starfire insect?"

Hu Yue: ??

You think too highly of me!

"Why are we thinking about fighting instead of running?" Dong Lei suggested practically. "We're clearly outnumbered. It's not too late to fight after we meet up with other people."

"Yeah, that's right!"

"We should run first."

Once the idea of running was brought up, everyone wanted to escape. But Lu Xiaoyao, who usually valued her life, offered a different opinion this time.

“Why did we run when we were insects, and why are we still running now that we're human?"

Her words stunned everyone.

That's right.

No matter how they switched roles, they always seemed to be the ones running.

It was one thing to be chased and beaten when you were an insect, but to be chased and beaten by insects when you were human? What was that about?

“But if we don’t run now, we won’t have the chance to chase the insects later! A green hill is more important than no wood.” Li Yuan felt that his survival instincts were screaming at him to leave this place as soon as possible. They really couldn't withstand such a swarm of insects.

Just now, such a large starship had been instantly destroyed by the corrosive liquid of the starfire insects!

While they were discussing how to escape, the veteran players weren't just standing around. Strike while the iron is hot!

Rui An had drawn the starfire insect role card this time. After destroying the starship, they had only admired the escaping mechs for a short while before launching another attack!

Before Lu Xiaoyao and the others could come to a conclusion, their group of mechs was suddenly attacked by the swarm of insects, who wanted to scatter them again and defeat them one by one.

"Careful!"

Lu Xiaoyao was the first to react, grabbing Dong Lei’s mech, which was about to be knocked away, and swinging it around before kicking an insect away.

Her movements were smooth and fluid.

Lu Xiaoyao shouted, and everyone subconsciously gathered around her. Suddenly, a protective shield, similar to those on starships, sprang up around Lu Xiaoyao's mech, blocking all the insects' ranged attacks.

"Hold on tight!"

After Lu Xiaoyao shouted, Dong Lei was the first to control her mech to hug Lu Xiaoyao’s mech tightly around the waist.

Rui An and the other insects realized that the mechs, which had initially been disorganized and panicking under their encirclement and attacks, were gradually recovering.

The mechs were all gathering around the only S-class mech, and the protective shield it was generating was exceptionally wide.

Thanks to this one mech, they hadn't managed to kill anyone.

…

Mingmei and the others weren't the only ones taking a detour. As they continued forward, they encountered other players who had entered the game from other starships.

"Oh my god, you're piloting mechs so early? Aren't you afraid of attracting insects?"

At that moment, a silver-white mech was following a giant starship at a steady pace. This starship was much larger than the one Mingmei and the others had entered the game on. It contained about 100 players.

Earlier, Mu Chen had learned that they were originally heading in the same direction as Lu Xiaoyao and the others, but they felt that they were too big of a target, so they had switched routes at the beginning.

They had invited Mingmei and the others to put away their mechs and enter the starship.

But Mingmei and the others had politely declined.

"It's okay, aren't you here? It's very safe."

Mu Chen said with a smile as he piloted his mech and looked at the starship beside him. "My girlfriend is a bit of a social phobe~"

"Oh~~~"

A chorus of teasing erupted in the shared communication channel.

"But I think you can come in and rest for a bit."

"Ah, not for now. If a fight breaks out later, we can support each other from the outside." Mu Chen once again refused to enter the starship.

Mingmei had been looking a little unnatural since earlier, and when she heard what Mu Chen said, she glared at him.

Mu Chen chuckled, the atmosphere in the mech cockpit between the two of them was quite good.

But the others in the communication channel were relentless, urging them to come aboard the starship and gather together, and when they consistently refused, some discordant voices began to emerge.

"You're really ungrateful. We're inviting you onto the starship, why would we harm you? We're all players."

"Yeah, you two are such big targets out there. What if you attract insects?"

"Please, in terms of volume, in terms of size, aren't we two smaller targets than your starship?"

This time, Mu Chen didn't speak; it was Mingmei who spoke.

Mingmei watched Mu Chen busily pressing a bunch of operating buttons out of the corner of her eye. She heard someone in the communication channel ask loudly what Mingmei meant.

"I didn't mean anything. I just meant that some targets that are so big lack self-awareness, yet they say we're obvious targets~" As Mingmei spoke, she kept an eye on Mu Chen's hands... and the interface he was operating.

"Why are you talking like that? Where's your boyfriend? Why isn't he talking?"

"What do you want me to say?"

After Mu Chen had finished processing everything and pressed the final button, he looked up, noticed that Subo had quietly changed direction, chuckled, and said, "Sure enough, those who have been human before are so similar when they pretend to be human."