The days of being a spiritual mentor in Meiman.

Chapter 4272 Heroes Strike! (Part 4)
Stark and Steve advanced through the cold wind and white fog. Stark watched helplessly as his health bar dwindled. He was frustrated, but there was nothing he could do. He spawned in the middle of nowhere, more than ten blocks away from the nearest building, a journey that would take three turns to reach.

By the time Stark staggered to the front of the house, he had lost a third of his blood. He pushed open the door, saw the fireplace, breathed a sigh of relief, and muttered, "The caretaker still has some humanity."

“I think they prepared this especially for you,” Steve said. “After all, you’re probably the only one among us who’s sensitive to the cold.”

"Who says so? I don't believe everyone here has superpowers." Stark said this, but he still quickly moved closer to the fireplace, rubbing his hands together to warm them. The "Cold" status on the status bar quickly disappeared, replaced by "Warm." And as soon as this green icon appeared, his health began to slowly recover.

After sitting by the fireplace for a while, Stark began searching the hut. It seemed to be a hunter's hut, possibly an Inuit dwelling. Stark found two cans of food, a fur scarf, and some charcoal.

Canned food can be used to restore health, fur scarves can ward off the cold, and charcoal can be lit during gameplay to restore body temperature. Additionally, you can find 1-2 parts by searching each drawer or chest.

“That’s far too few,” Stark complained. “I need 60 parts to build a basic mech. It’ll take me forever to find that many parts.”

"So I think we still need to rely on the 10 rewards from winning battles. If we search for 20 to 30, and then win two more battles, that should be about right."

"The problem is, I don't have a mecha, how can I win?"

Steve couldn't answer the question either, because Stark seemed too weak. His initial stats were nonexistent, with no resistances, and his passive skill was simply acquiring parts.

But without parts, you can't build a mech; without a mech, you can't win a battle; and if you can't win a battle, you can't get parts. Isn't that a vicious cycle?

Steve felt that the developers wouldn't have designed such a weak character. Even if he was an intelligence-based character, he should at least have some combat ability. Otherwise, how would they fight the upcoming battles?
Just as they were worrying about their fighting strength, wolf howls suddenly erupted outside the cabin. Stark jumped in fright. He looked out the window and, sure enough, three dire wolves were approaching the cabin.

Stark took a deep breath, pushed open the door, and said, "Okay, let me see what I'm capable of."

Encountering a monster forces a battle. After a burst of rousing music, a deck of cards appears in Steve's hand. He glances at it and is stunned.

"My God!" Steve exclaimed, "Isn't this a bit too powerful?!"

Stark couldn't see his cards and was incredibly anxious. He said, "What skills do I have? Tell me! I..."

"Awooo—!!!" The lead wolf howled and pounced. Stark dodged awkwardly, yelling at Steve, "You played your cards brilliantly! If you'd been any slower, I would have been pulled out by now!"

Steve said, "Don't rush, your deck is a bit complicated and needs to be combined. Let me take a look..."

Steve was the first to play "Stark Industries' Armory." The moment the card was played, a plane flew overhead and dropped an airdrop. The airdrop crate landed with a thud at Stark's feet.

Stark, as if seeing a lifeline, quickly hid behind the airdrop crate and said, "How do you open this thing?!"

"Use your fingerprint, but don't open it yet. I need to stack up my stats first, otherwise I won't get a good weapon!"

"Why is it this piece of crap system again!" Stark cursed. "When I was playing card games, I would draw weapon boxes, and now I have to draw them again. Can't you give me a more reliable skill?"

“I told you not to rush, this isn’t a lottery.” After saying that, Steve threw down another ticket that read “The World’s Richest Man’s Unlimited Treasury.”

Stark looked down and saw it was a money counting machine, but it was spewing out US dollars. Stark was speechless. He yelled at Steve, "What the hell is this?! Are you trying to make me smash a wolf with money?!"

"Move the vault onto the equipment crate. Quick!" Steve commanded.

Stark gritted his teeth, stamped his foot, rushed out from behind the weapons crate, grabbed the money counter, and ran back. When he was almost there, he threw the money counter onto the weapons crate, and then saw all the dollars that had appeared be absorbed by the crate.

“Now it’s your turn to do it,” Steve said. “Choose one of the weapons you want, and then my cards will change.”

"I guess I can't shake off the identity of an arms dealer!"

Even as he said this, Stark quickly ran back to the weapon crate, which had a small screen displaying the weapons that could be retrieved, divided into three tiers: blue, purple, and gold. The more dollars he collected, the higher the tier he unlocked.

The money was accumulating at a decent rate, but the wolf was faster, already bypassing the weapon crate and running towards Stark. Stark couldn't wait for the money to accumulate any further, so he directly selected a purple weapon from it.

With a whoosh, the weapon crate opened, revealing an electromagnetic cannon hovering in a purple glow. Stark yelled, "Whoa, the big guy's here!"

He picked up the electromagnetic cannon, and in the instant he turned around, the wolf had already leaped high into the air. He lowered his body and raised the cannon barrel high.

Sizzle—!!!!

The snow wolf melted instantly. Stark burst into laughter. Steve said, "They even made every weapon card-compatible. Wait a minute, I'm going to use a skill..."

Steve threw out a card, and Stark immediately noticed that the electromagnetic cannon was automatically targeting the remaining two wolves. Two electromagnetic cannonballs fired, instantly electrocuting the monsters.

"Hahahaha! This is awesome!" Stark said. "It's fucking awesome! I knew the administrators still had a good understanding of me!"

"Watch your language!"

"When will this fog finally clear up?" the gray fog complained. "I can't see anything."

"Don't rush," Greed said, taking stock of their recent gains. Since Gray Mist's skill set was perfect for fighting monsters, they searched two more locations after leaving the hut and obtained some more items. Greed was now considering how to best equip himself.

Since the gray fog covers the entire battlefield by default, whoever attacks is attacking them, so they must avoid group battles and try to fight one-on-one as much as possible, which means they must strengthen their individual abilities as much as possible.

Since you can't dodge attacks by moving around, you'll have to rely on the game mechanics. When fighting Lord Batman, he had an evasion skill, which means there's an evasion attribute in the game, so stacking evasion is the best strategy.

However, dodging is also based on luck; some people with bad luck might not be able to dodge even if they stack up to 99%. So another method is to stack armor and health relentlessly.

Greed had little hope for his and Gray Mist's luck, so he simply equipped himself with a turtle shell suit, designed for maximum durability. Besides the jacket he'd found earlier, he also acquired a safety helmet, riot shield, snow boots, and other protective gear.

This setup provides a significant increase in health and armor. However, a new problem arises: most of the equipment they've found only protects against physical damage, offering virtually no protection against mental damage. What if the opponent targets them with mental or mixed damage?

Greed still felt uneasy, so he kept flipping through the equipment list. Suddenly, one piece of equipment caught his attention. Greed smiled and equipped it.

"Why did you change your equipment again?" Gray Mist said. "I think you shouldn't bother. Just wait until you change characters. My skill set is probably beyond saving..."

"No, no, no, look at this equipment."

"What's this?" Gray Mist looked at the small necklace floating inside her body and said, "What's this for? To increase mental points? Oh, wait... isn't that a bit too unethical?"

"Trust me, this will help us win the game."

Peter and Pikachu searched two locations and obtained some supplies and equipment. However, the two locations they explored weren't very lucrative, and they couldn't assemble a complete set of equipment, so they could only use whatever they could find to add some random attributes.

In these three rounds, everyone was basically searching for items, and the battles that broke out were all against monsters. However, fighting monsters wasn't easy; not everyone was completely immune to basic attacks like Gray Mist, and even if you stood there and let the monsters hit you, you wouldn't lose any health. Most players had to maneuver around the monsters, and sometimes they even had to sacrifice their buffs to get more items. After this round, everyone had suffered some losses.

Just after they had basically collected all the equipment, the damned fog finally dissipated. A new status appeared: "Sunny."

“Oh, the visibility has improved,” Selena said. “I can probably see about 30 squares ahead now…wait, what’s that?”

"what?"

"About 20 blocks to your northwest, there's a big thing that looks like a building. Let's go check it out."

“Okay.” Bruce headed in that direction.

The others also spotted the massive building, which covered dozens of blocks, from their respective directions. They all understood that it might be a place where they could find valuable loot, and simultaneously headed in that direction.

Greed and the gray fog were the closest to it. As soon as the fog dissipated, they found themselves at the feet of this enormous creature.

It was a huge, deep pit, and in the center lay a spaceship. Gray Mist glanced inside and said, "There's definitely nothing good in there."

"There must be a lot of good stuff in here," Greed exclaimed almost in unison.

“It seems the good stuff we’re referring to isn’t the same thing.” Gray Mist said, looking at the spaceship in the center. “In movies, you’re usually the one lying in this kind of spaceship, or I am.”

“You’re more terrifying lying down,” Greed said. “I see someone coming. Let’s prepare for battle.”

“Long time no see, Gray Mist. I didn’t expect it would be you teaming up with Greed.” Natasha waved the Widow’s Sting in her hand and said, “When I saw you from afar just now, I thought the monsters in this building had escaped.”

"How do you know I'm not!" Gray Mist deliberately let out a strange cry, and the thick fog churned, transforming into an alien shape. "Watch out, or I'll bite you!"

"I couldn't be happier! Let's exchange a few blows!"

Gray Mist knew that running away was useless; Natasha was a battle maniac at heart. So, their squares collided, and a battle was imminent.