My avatar is becoming the final boss

Chapter 205 Playing the Anchor Point, The King's Flash, Hidden Rules (Seeking Monthly Tickets)

"By the way, did the hackers find out where those kids came from?"

"I don't know, ask him yourself."

Night had fallen, and the distant Big Ben chimed the hour. Xia Pingzhou and Ayase Origami walked side by side through the streets of London.

The evening breeze blew from the city, and they moved through the bustling crowds.

Looking at the diverse figures, Origami Ayase walked ahead casually with her hands behind her back.

Xia Pingzhou thought for a moment and then asked, "Aren't you very concerned about those two kids in hospital gowns in the underground bar?"

The girl in the kimono beside him shook her head.

"I care, so I don't want to ask."

"makes sense."

Xia Pingzhou waited silently for a few seconds, then took out his phone from his black coat, and his electronic pet arrived as expected.

[Hacker: I checked the surveillance footage; those five kids in hospital gowns arrived in London from a cargo ship.]

[Xia Pingzhou: Does a little brat even deserve to call others little brats?]

[Hacker: Hmph, they're obviously not as mature as the hacker master.]

Xia Pingzhou: How old are you?

[Hacker: 13 years old.]

"Fine, then we really are younger than you," Xia Pingzhou thought, as the Salvation Society team suffered a crushing defeat.

He typed in the chat box to change the subject.

[Xia Pingzhou: What's next?]

[Hacker: Then, as soon as the cargo ship arrived at the shore, that mythical child used his somersault cloud to carry them into the sky, briefly escaping the surveillance camera's view. The next second, they appeared in that "Eden" underground bar.]

[Xia Pingzhou: It's normal for the Somersault Cloud to be so fast. Can you tell me something useful, like where that cargo ship went afterward? Or how did that cargo ship enter London from?]

[Hacker: Nothing found. The cargo ship is outside London's surveillance range, and there's nothing on board that I could hack into.]

[Hacker: The last time I tracked that cargo ship was on the south bank of London, after which it vanished without a trace.]

Xia Pingzhou's pupils reflected the line of text on his phone, and he thought to himself:

"Aren't the metal collars that Sun Changkong and I wore considered electronic devices? Or is it that hackers couldn't hack into them? After all, they belong to the Salvation Society..."

He had originally hoped that he could use the abilities of this genius prodigy in the Phantom Troupe to find out the Salvation Society's base, so that there would be no need for his older brother to join Rainbow Wing and risk his life.

All we need to do is let a few machines develop peacefully for a while, build up connections, and then just kick down the door of the Salvation Society and take people to investigate.

But now it seems that this idea is indeed not very realistic.

Xia Pingzhou wasn't surprised; it would be truly pathetic if the Salvation Society could be located by a hacker.

However, this means we still have to start with the Rainbow Wing members, led by "Urushihara Ruri"—this is the most certain but also the most difficult clue to find.

By following the clues, we can definitely find the Salvation Society's base of operations.

Thinking of this, Xia Pingzhou typed two words on the screen expressionlessly to vent his dissatisfaction.

Xia Pingzhou: Useless.

"If Unit 1 dies, it's all your fault," he added in his mind.

[Hacker: Where's your manners?]

[Hacker: Do you have some kind of misunderstanding about me? I'm not omnipotent. Do you expect me to hack into a satellite?]

[Xia Pingzhou: No way, no way, you can't hack in?]

[Hacker: If you want me dead, just say so. I don't want to wake up tomorrow to find Rainbow Wing's people checking my water meter.]

[Hacker: As expected of our little cat Casanova, his every word and action when talking to women exudes high emotional intelligence, but when talking to his brothers, his true nature is revealed—it's all about putting them down.]

[Xia Pingzhou: Don't be envious. If you dress as a woman sometime, I can adopt you as my goddaughter.]

[Hacker: Get lost, I'm going to screenshot your messages saying you're gay and send them to the other members.]

[Xia Pingzhou: Have you arranged our tickets to Norway? Didn't the Ripper say the next operation is on August 1st? That's only a few days away.]

[Hacker: Don't change the subject.]

[Xia Pingzhou: Do not disturb during the game (auto-reply).]

【hacker:?】

[Xia Pingzhou: Someone tricked me and then went to play games. Next time the team gathers, if you want to be double-teamed by the old lady and the young lady, just say so.]

[Hacker: All arranged. Flights tomorrow at 3 PM, still from London Heathrow Airport. You'll be traveling in first class with Ripper and the young lady.]

Xia Pingzhou shrugged, thinking to himself that the hacker at this point was as efficient as a real electronic pet, and was becoming more and more skilled at training.

[Hacker: The leader told you to be careful on the road and avoid attracting attention.]

[Xia Pingzhou: I know. I've fought against that organization, so I know better than you how dangerous they are.]

He looked away from the screen and turned off his phone.

Origami Ayase tilted her head, put her hands behind her back, and stared at a Monokuma plush toy in the mall with her dark eyes.

Her pace slowed.

Xia Pingzhou also stopped and turned to look at her, then followed her gaze to the dimly lit shopping mall.

"That bear is really unlucky; it's in that anime called Danganronpa," he said.

"I haven't seen it." "You wouldn't like it if you did."

Despite saying this, Xia Pingzhou walked into the store, picked up a black and white bear plush toy from the shelf, and then expressionlessly scanned the code to pay for it.

He walked back to the street and handed the doll to Origami Ayase.

The girl in the kimono took the palm-sized doll from him and patted his head.

"Buy a toy for your owner, good cat."

After that, just in case, the two did not go directly back to the hotel in Westminster, but instead temporarily moved to a secluded place to stay.

The location of this residence is right next to the underground clinic where Xia Pingzhou woke up.

In that excessively long underground corridor, there wasn't just a small clinic; several empty rooms were also available for use. It was said to have been a hideout used by "Dragon Sparrow," a London organization of supernatural criminals.

Now that they have moved their base, this place is empty, with only a few logistics personnel remaining there. It was one of the doctors who helped Xia Pingzhou alleviate his injuries.

Because Ripper knew the organization's manager, she told Xia Pingzhou and Ayase Origami, "You can use these rooms as you please, just don't do anything inappropriate."

Xia Pingzhou told the young lady that he wanted to sleep alone that night, so he and Ayase Origami each got a room. She slept in the next room, so that they could easily look after each other if anything happened.

He breathed a sigh of relief after closing the door, thinking that he could finally be alone.

To prevent being harassed by hackers, he handed his phone over to Origami Ayase for safekeeping. At this moment, there were no electronic devices in the cramped basement, so the hackers lost any opportunity to exploit the situation.

"Finally, I'm free from being watched 24/7."

With these thoughts in mind, Xia Pingzhou leaned against the bedside, shrugged, and then opened the character panel of the second mech with peace of mind, allocating the few attributes he had.

[Your second unit, "Chess Player," has had its "Speed" attribute changed: B++ to A (Your "Chess Type" speed will also increase accordingly)]

[Attribute points have been allocated. You currently have 3 skill points. Do you wish to proceed to the "Skill Tree Panel" to begin development?]

He raised his hand and tapped the notification box.

Then a skill tree panel with a black and white chessboard came into view.

Branch 1 (Group): Recruit Soldiers (Learned) → Soldier Training (Learned) → Artillery Construction (Learned) → Cavalry Training (Learned) → Puppet King (Learned) → King's Flash (Requires 3 skill points)...

[Branch 2 (Courage): Chess Type Evolution (Already Learned) → Secondary Evolution of Chess Type (Condition: You need to accumulate "10" skill points on other branches before you can learn this skill) (Learning this skill requires "2" skill points)...]

Branch 3 (Soul): Demon Hunter (already learned) → Bridge Between Human and Demon (requires 2 skill points) → Unknown...

[King's Flash ("Group" Branch): After learning this, unlocks the King's ultimate power.]

[Bridge between Human and Demon ("Soul" branch): Briefly fuses one of your chess pieces with a demon piece (fusion time depends on your "Spirit" attribute).]

"No matter how you look at it, we should unlock the king's second power first, even though we don't know what the effect will be yet."

"The learning conditions for the second chess type evolution are a bit harsh... After learning 'King's Flash', I still need to consume a skill point to learn 'Chess Type Evolution'."

Xia Pingzhou had one skill point left unused while he was in Venice.

In addition to the 2 skill points obtained from the last quest in the "Red Light" main storyline, there are now a total of 3 skill points available for allocation, which is just enough to meet the requirements for learning [King's Flash].

So he raised his hand and tapped the "King's Flash" skill icon, watching the text on the panel go from dark to light, finally illuminating his dark pupils.

[Consuming 3 skill points, successfully learned the "Group" branch skill - "King's Flash". (This ability requires sacrificing three pieces on the field to be used.)]

"That's really demanding. You have to sacrifice three pieces to use it?" Xia Pingzhou suddenly thought, "Speaking of which, if I use the Copy Demon to copy the King, wouldn't I be able to use 'King's Flash' twice?"

[Hint: The next skill for the "Group" branch is now available – "Final Recruitment" (2 skill points) (grants one Knight chess piece and three Soldier chess pieces)]

He glanced at the effects of the new skill, then silently closed a series of panels.

The whole world suddenly became quiet, with only the buzzing of the ceiling fan turning.

"In that case, the second unit should be very close to, or even have reached, the strength of 'quasi-catastrophic level', right?"

Xia Pingzhou rested the back of his head on the edge of the bed, tilted his head back, stared blankly at the ceiling for a while, his mind filled with thoughts.

"That seems to make sense... Unit 2's setup doesn't allow it to forgive the Ripper, so if it doesn't kill Enma Rin, Unit 2 will break through the limits of 'playing the anchor point,' go out of control, and then self-destruct."

He glanced at the anchor point.

[Current anchor point offset of Unit 2: 40% (When the offset exceeds 70%, there is a certain probability that the character will enter a berserk state)]

"Is this considered the original setting of the mecha? Then other mecha should also have similar hidden rules. For example... if I used Unit 1 to kill my entire family, would the Black Chrysalis also go out of control and self-destruct?"

Xia Pingzhou suddenly felt a chill run down his spine.

At the same time, a huge notification panel suddenly appeared in front of us.

His pupils contracted, and he slowly raised his eyes to look at the screen, only to find that it did not display anything strange.

[The player has been detected to have stayed in the same city (London, UK) for three days, unlocking the city's "Event Card": Every so often, a "Card Event" may occur somewhere in the city; completing the event will reward you with an "Event Card".]

Staring at the words on the panel, Xia Pingzhou was stunned for a while, then lowered his head and secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

"London is still very dangerous. We don't know if the Salvationists are still nearby. Shall we go out for a walk?"

Then he thought, "But I'm going to Norway tomorrow, it would be a shame to miss the card event. Anyway, my superpower system won't mess with me. If it knows there are risks nearby that it can't handle, it won't give me an event notification."

With his thoughts lingering on this point, Xia Pingzhou slowly got up from the ground.

He gently turned the doorknob and pushed the door open without waking the kimono-clad girl in the next room.

"Perfect opportunity to try out this new skill."

Xia Pingzhou walked along the dark corridor, step by step, toward the end.

　Asking for a monthly ticket.

　　There will be another update later.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)