Chapter 775: What a Garbage Game!

Chapter 775: What a Garbage Game!

Compared to the original setting of Xenoblade Chronicles, Chen Xu had no intention of releasing DLC content related to gameplay mechanics in this installment.

For instance, official 'cheat-like' Blades such as KOS-MOS and Sparks—characters that in his previous life were simply obtained via email—weren't handed out so easily here.

Instead, just like Poppiba, they required players to complete an entirely new Blade-unlocking quest before obtaining them.

Other features, such as disabling monster aggro and custom difficulty settings, were directly integrated into the base game itself.

Players could select modes based on their skill level. Even those who couldn't grasp the Combat System could still enjoy the story with options like auto-battle and automatic QTE completion—perfect for a casual experience.

As for Zhang Yi, he didn’t adjust the custom difficulty and instead picked normal difficulty.

As someone who considered himself a veteran player, Zhang Yi naturally wouldn't opt for auto-battle. For traditional RPGs like this, gradually mastering the combat system was a significant part of the core enjoyment—and Zhang Yi understood this perfectly.

So he only enabled the option to make mobs ignore aggro. After all, when he was underleveled and stuck on a quest, or needed to grind mobs for materials, he could choose whether or not to fight them.

But during map exploration or main quest progression, constantly running into random mobs felt quite annoying.

However, the Zhang Yi inside the game had no idea that this feature only worked against regular monsters.

In the world of Xenoblade Chronicles, apart from the regularly spawning mobs, there were also Unique Monsters—essentially field bosses.

These bosses, once defeated, would leave behind a gravestone allowing players to challenge them repeatedly. They had significantly higher health and damage output compared to normal monsters.

In Gormott Province, a lush grassland teeming with life, the biodiversity was astonishing.

There were single-digit level bunnies and Scaled Beefalo, level 10–20 Wolfkin, level 30–40 crabs, one level 90+ Ancient Tyrant, and a level 80+ Gorilla Bro.

With the no-encounter feature enabled, Zhang Yi contentedly strolled across the vast Gormott plains. Unbeknownst to him, a massive gorilla swung down from the giant tree behind him.

Aggro triggered. The intense battle BGM blared. The next second, a red damage number—-8621—floated above Rex’s head, and the screen went black. Zhang Yi respawned at his last save point.

"Damn it! What the hell!? Where did that gorilla even come from!?"

Zhang Yi looked bewildered after respawning, completely unprepared for such a sudden attack while admiring the scenic beauty of Gormott.

He was barely under level 10, with a total health pool under 1,000. How could that Gorilla Bro punch him for thousands of damage!?

In truth, Zhang Yi wasn’t the only one getting one-shot by the gorilla. Nearly every player experiencing Xenoblade Chronicles for the first time and walking across the vast Gormott plains had suffered the same brutal fate.

Unlike regular monsters that just patrolled their tiny zones, this particular chimp acted like a king patrolling his territory—swinging from trees to the plains and back again.

Its aggro range was enormous. Moreover, many players had died from being accidentally pulled into multi-monster aggro chains during fights.

After respawning, Zhang Yi approached Gormott with much more caution this time.

Upon entering Gormott, he quickly advanced into new story segments, none of which particularly surprised him.

Because Nia was a wanted criminal, Rex and Nia were defeated by Brighid, a Blade. Nia was captured and thrown into jail, while Rex and Pyra escaped with the help of Tora, a Nopon.

Clearly, Tora was one of the protagonist's party members. After completing a series of quests, they learned of Nia’s location and also helped Tora create an Artificial Blade—Poppi.

However, what interested Zhang Yi the most wasn’t the story, but rather the game’s meme-filled character designs and hilarious吐槽 points.

Tora, who desperately wanted to become a Driver, struck Zhang Yi as a textbook otaku.

His design for Poppi was clearly maid-themed. Though he tried to act otherwise, the next moment revealed his closet filled with various maid outfits—exposing his true attribute.

"What a garbage game! They’re not wrong at all!" Zhang Yi gritted his teeth as he stared at the arcade machine in Tora’s house.

Compared to the torturous mini-games he’d played before, like The one with the big hammer, this was relatively mild.

But this was a game within a game!

Clunky controls and strict hit detection completely broke his spirit.

Even worse, the mini-game was a top-down scrolling shooter where the player had to guide a tiny character to the bottom to grab a treasure chest, then return the same way.

If you died mid-way, you got nothing—driving Zhang Yi absolutely insane.

Especially infuriating was Tora’s final line, which resonated deeply with Zhang Yi’s sense of frustration.

In reality, Chen Xu had made some adjustments to this arcade game. The drop rate was slightly higher, and the score needed to unlock Poppi’s bond events was reduced.

Additionally, not all upgrade parts came from the arcade. Later on, players could grind Core Crystals in the Challenge Arena and exchange them.

But Zhang Yi, at this moment, knew absolutely nothing about any of this.

Right now, he was gritting his teeth and forcing himself to play this 'garbage game'.

The reason? He discovered that playing it could drop Core Crystals.

And he already knew what Core Crystals were for.

They were used to summon Blades. Earlier, the system had gifted him one Core Crystal, which he used and pulled a dark-skinned female Blade—leaving him deeply disappointed.

Now, completing tasks in Tora’s arcade game actually rewarded him with Core Crystals.

And his luck seemed decent. After a few tries, he’d obtained three Regular Core Crystals and one Rare Crystal.

Adding those to the four Rare Crystals and ten Regular Crystals he’d already collected from ordinary treasure chests—ones that didn’t require scene skills to open—his inventory was filling up nicely.

But should he open them now?

Zhang Yi stared at the crystals in his inventory, torn between using them and saving them.

It wasn’t about saving for a ten-pull—after all, the in-game Blade Bonding System clearly stated that ten-pulls didn’t increase odds.

The main reason for hesitation was what the tutorial mentioned: whoever opened the crystal had to use it. Tora, who had just joined the party, couldn’t open cores—meaning he could only bond with Poppi.

So Zhang Yi wanted to wait until Nia was rescued, then let her open some crystals too.

After all, Nia was a main heroine. She deserved her fair share.

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