Tower Defense: Public Enemy

"Ding, dear player, this game requires real-name authentication. Your game nickname is Lei Chi, and your authentication number is Q543131241. The new player tutorial will now begin..."

Lei Chi was studying the "intrusion insurance" when the system notification sounded in his ear again.

"Ding! Please select your defense tower type. Currently available types are [Magic Tower], [Mechanical Tower], [Mysterious Tower], [Technology Tower], [Beast Tower], and [Elemental Tower]. Each type of defense tower has its unique features. For your first game, you can also choose [Random], which may grant you a hidden type of defense tower. Please explore on your own."

"Ding! After selecting the type of defense tower, you will receive a free Tier 1 random tower construction blueprint of that type."

"Here we go, let's start choosing the defensive towers. I've done my homework on this!"

Lei Chi will not be researching insurance for the time being.

The game 【Tower World】 has been running for about half a year. According to the information that has been revealed, building towers for defense is the most important part of the game.

Defense can be divided into two situations: one is to prevent wild monsters from invading, and the other is to prevent players from invading.

Monster invasions are a system test that relates to unlocking important game content. For example, defeating the first wave increases gold collection efficiency; defeating the fifth wave unlocks the War Hall; defeating the tenth wave unlocks the Trading Hall, and so on.

The monster invasion requires players to apply to the system. If they defend successfully, they will receive rewards; if they fail, the city will fall, players will perish, the game will end, and they will have to delete their accounts and start over.

There is no penalty mechanism for player invasion, but if you fail to defend and are invaded by players, there will definitely be burning, killing and looting, which will greatly affect your development speed.

Building defensive towers is the primary defensive strategy. The towers attack automatically, and the AI ​​calculates the attacks; the player neither needs to control them nor can control them.

At the beginning of the game, players can choose the type of defense tower. According to the information Lei Chi has, among the six types of defense towers, the [Mechanical Tower] is the strongest in the early game and is good at physical output. For example, the most famous [Machine Gun Tower] is known as the little god tower in the early game. Once you get it, the start of the game will be very easy.

The Magic Towers have the strongest area-of-effect attacks. Some of the more famous ones include the Lightning Tower, Fire Rain Tower, and Hail Tower, among others. As long as the Magic Towers have magic points, their output is considerable. However, once their magic points are exhausted, they become useless.

The Mysterious Tower offers more support abilities, inflicting negative statuses such as imprisonment, slowing, and curses on invading targets, while granting buffs such as increased attack and speed to friendly defensive towers. It is not very effective in the early game, but the more towers you have in the late game, the stronger your defense becomes.

The [Tech Tower] includes [Cannon Tower], [Grenade Tower], [Electromagnetic Tower], [Laser Tower], and so on. It is relatively weak in the early game, but according to experienced gamers, it is invincible in the late game.

The Elemental Tower is the most balanced, with no obvious weaknesses, and many top players today play the Elemental Tower.

The [Beast Tower] is generally considered the worst. This type of defensive tower includes [Porcupine], [Wolf], [Bear], and so on. It is a living defensive tower with a very short range and is mostly a physical attack type. Its shortcomings are very obvious, and the fewest players choose this type of defensive tower to start the game.

First-time players can also choose the random type.

After selecting random, there is a chance to obtain hidden types of defensive towers, such as the [Hero Tower] which can automatically grow, and the [Summoning Tower] which can summon various defensive units. Hidden types of defensive towers are stronger than regular types of defensive towers, but the chance of getting one is extremely low. According to experts, it may be less than one in ten thousand.

Lei Chi originally planned to start with a random type, gambling on luck, like buying a lottery ticket. If he gambled on the hidden type, it would be a huge win. If he didn't, he could play as long as it wasn't the worst [Beast Tower]. If he unfortunately got the [Beast Tower], he would deliberately let wild monsters invade, delete the account and start over, manually choosing the [Element Tower] or [Tech Tower].

You can't lose out no matter what!

Now he dares not delete his account casually, because once he deletes it, all the system compensation will disappear.

"But randomness still has to be random; my luck is unbeatable!"

Lei Chi's mind raced, and he responded to the system: "I choose random!"

"Ding, selection successful, calculation in progress... Congratulations, your defense tower type is [Beast Tower]. Research on Beast Tower related technologies will be available in the City Defense Center, and the Tier 1 Beast Tower construction blueprint will be available."

"Ding! You have been awarded a random Tier 1 Beast Tower construction blueprint. Calculating... Congratulations! You have obtained one [Little Tiger Construction Blueprint]!"

Lei Chi's vision went black.

Holy crap!

Is it really necessary to be this unlucky?

Not only did they not release the hidden tower, but they also gave us the universally acknowledged worst tower, the [Beast Tower]!

Is this because you don't want to turn things around?

Despite his extreme displeasure, Lei Chi still looked at the [Little Tiger's Construction Blueprints] that appeared in front of him.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Tiger Cub Construction Blueprint: After use, construct a tiger cub at the designated location on either side of the War Corridor.

Area: 1m x 1m

Type: Beast Tower

Level: Level 1

Attack: 5

Attack type: Physical

Attack range: Melee (1 meters)

Attack speed: 1.0 (once per second)

Note: The little tiger has growth potential; after killing 1000 targets, it will automatically grow into a level 2 defense tower tiger.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

"Damn it, a melee physical damage dealer like this, a disastrous start! What's the point of playing?"

Lei Chi thought to himself, "This is just too unlucky."

Once the monster invasion begins, the monsters emerge from the time-space wormhole and generally walk in the very center of the war corridor. Unless there are a huge number of monsters, it's impossible for them to slip along the edges.

The war corridor is ten meters wide, and the defensive towers are placed along its edge. What can the little tiger, with its melee physical attacks, do? It can't even hit the monsters.

Lei Chi didn't even need to think about it; this little tiger simply couldn't defend against even the first wave of monster invasions.

The system notification sounded again: "Successfully defeating the monster invasion will earn you generous rewards. Please build defensive towers and begin your own tower defense legend!"

"Mythical nonsense, it's become a joke!"

Lei Chi was very unhappy. According to the normal game strategy, Little Tiger was unreliable. He should hurry up and go to the gold mine to dig for gold coins. Once he had enough gold coins, he should go to the city defense center to buy random defense tower construction blueprints, and then build more defense towers. When his defensive firepower was sufficient and he had confidence, he could then launch the first wave of monster invasion.

Gold coins are hard to find. New players with a gold mine at level 1 can only get one copper coin per dig. It would take 10,000 digs to accumulate one gold coin. Even a normal person might not be able to dig up a single gold coin in three or four hours.

Even the cheapest Tier 1 defensive tower blueprint costs 10 gold coins to buy.

In other words, to follow the normal game flow, Lei Chi would first have to mine for thirty or forty hours, then try his luck to buy random blueprints. If he got another little tiger blueprint, or another melee beast tower blueprint, well, then he could go mine again.

That's why nobody wants to play Beast Tower.

Too cruel!

The game started with nothing but mining!

Even with bad luck, it might take more than a month of digging to break through the first wave of monster invasion.

Instead of wasting this time, wouldn't it be better to die sooner and be reborn sooner, and instead play with machine gun turrets or cannon turrets?

"Oh right, I have hacking insurance! Playing it honestly is a sure way to die, so I have to try insurance fraud!"

Lei Chi quickly brought up the information panel for the intrusion insurance to check.

After a moment, he had a slight understanding.

He arrived at the very front of the War Corridor, right next to the spacetime wormhole, and built the little tiger on the right side of the War Corridor.

As soon as the blueprint was unfolded, a flash of light appeared, and with a meow, a small tiger, about the size of a pug with yellow and black striped fur, appeared. The little tiger had a big head, was chubby, and had an adorable, clumsy appearance. It rolled around on the ground, scratching itself, and was quite cute.

"Ding! The tiger cub has been successfully built. Your secret camp's defense index has increased by 1!"

"Now that we have a defense rating, we can dig up another gold coin and buy insurance!"

Lei Chi rushed into the mine, grabbed a pickaxe, and started digging. With each dig, he earned a copper coin. He dug for four hours, sweating profusely, before finally accumulating enough gold coins.

Wiping the sweat from his face, Lei Chi quickly bought insurance.

A moment later, an insurance policy appeared in his hand.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

[Intrusion Insurance Purchase Certificate]

Insurance: 1 Gold

Insured Camp: The Secret Camp of the Thunder Pool

Secret Camp Defense Index: 1

Note 1: When the secret camp of Thunder Pool is maliciously invaded by other players, the insurance will take effect. After the battle, the losses will be tallied, and the system will calculate and generate a compensation chest.

Note 2: This insurance policy can only be claimed once, and the policy will be void after the claim is made.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.