Goddess Development Plan

Her questions, her thoughts, her bitterness—the system would not care, would not pay attention, and would certainly not abandon her mission because of them.

Thus, after she revealed the rough attributes of those powerful beings when they were seriously injured, she didn't hesitate in the slightest and immediately released the new round of task information.

"Task Difficulty: Nightmare. Task Time Limit: Undefined. Task Failure Penalty: Loss of freedom, becoming the key for the Otherside to unseal the Bright World1."

"Task Rewards: Dungeon Space activation, Blood Reward activation, one Ultra-Virtual Gaming Brain, one-level increase in personal strength, stamina, and agility."

"System Warning: You have no direct means of achieving victory. Use every method and ability at your disposal to complete this task. Once the task begins, you may not rely on the power of the Seal Guardian, nor borrow the strength of the Bright World. If you do not wish to lose your freedom, then once the task begins, find any way to get through it."

"Task Activation Countdown: 13 days, 17 hours, 45 minutes, 12 seconds. Once the countdown ends, from that moment forward, the opponent may appear by your side at any time. Protect yourself well."

"During this task, no external forces will return to help you. Accordingly, your family will not be placed in any danger. You will face this threat alone, a danger far beyond your current abilities. It may not bring death, but I guarantee you will prefer death over becoming a puppet stripped of all freedom."

At the end, the system presented the task difficulty, time limit, punishment, rewards, system warning, and a final line that was clearly the system's own admonition to Chu Lian.

She froze for a moment, then shook her head with a bitter smile. How useful were these things to her? The opponent's physical stats were at least four or five times her own. And that kind of multiplier in stats translated to a gap in combat power so vast that even hundreds or thousands of her couldn't inflict the slightest damage.

Her current abilities—LV1 Electromaster, LV4 Teleport, and her SS/A/A/A-level Spiritual Power/Magic Power/Mana/Inner Power—could not be used. Nor could those bizarre abilities or items like Remilia-sama's Dignity, Head-Hug Squat Defense, the equipment-type Reimu's Donation Box, The Gloves Abandoned by the Ladykiller, Misaka Mikoto Outfit, and so on. None of them could present any real obstacle to her enemies.

To be blunt, in their eyes, Chu Lian was nothing more than a mosquito easily squashed. Even if she presented a slight inconvenience, it was impossible for her to escape the net woven by their respective strengths. All her struggles amounted to nothing more than the last mad dance of a clown, offering entertainment but never harm.

Harsh as it sounded, Chu Lian had to admit with sorrow that this was indeed her current reality when facing such overwhelming strength. Unless the Skill Exchange Panel was unlocked immediately or she gathered enough Dream Points, it was impossible for her to obtain powerful abilities or gear.

But the Skill Exchange Panel wouldn't be available until the third phase of the main quest. And lately, she had gained Dream Points only to lose even more—amassing enough to exchange for even non-offensive skills or gear was no easy task.

"Is this what they call helplessness? Like in online games, I'm a newbie who just entered the starting village, but I accidentally picked up an item even the final boss desperately wants. But the item has a bound-owner attribute, so whoever picks it up becomes its owner."

"So the only way for the final boss to get the item is to capture the owner and use them as an external interface for the item." Chu Lian used a rather inappropriate analogy, tinged with bitter humor.

"But due to the restrictions of the game rules, he can't appear in the newbie village himself. Doing so would cost him an enormous amount of mana and even cause severe injury to his body just to enter. In that case, sending capable subordinates and piling on with human lives becomes the best option among bad ones. Simple and brutal, direct and clear." She bit her lip. Unwilling to accept this, was she really supposed to just sit and wait for death?

No, what did I just say? Game rules, game rules, game rules…

That's it! The game rules! According to the system's basic settings, it would never issue a truly hopeless mission. Every task, once issued, has a solution—the only question is whether I can find it. As long as I discover the method, then no matter how difficult or desperate the mission is, there's always a chance to complete it.

"A random train of thought somehow led me to a breakthrough? Then again, this might just be wishful thinking. After all, I haven't tried it yet. But now that I've reached this point, I have nothing to lose by trying. I just hope it's the right path. At the very least, before I make a fatal mistake, let me find out if it's wrong." With her hands pressed to her cheeks, Chu Lian's chaotic thoughts gradually calmed.

"The task gave a hint: 13 days and 17 hours until activation, with no defined time limit. So can I assume that before the task begins, I won't be attacked, giving me ample time to do my own things and prepare for the attacks that may come once it starts?"

Chu Lian compared the system's task description and immediately understood how her home address had been leaked. The attacker had come to her door the day after she uploaded the video.

This showed that these people had numerous eyes on the internet and were incredibly efficient at gathering information. Their timing had been precise. If not for the unexpected existence of the system, which gave her a way to handle the crisis, she would have been captured instantly.

This time, the system was already hinting that those few individuals had no way to communicate with each other in the Bright World, and that even executing the task would involve showing up one by one. Of course, there was still the possibility of them coming on the same day at the same time. But if that really happened, then no amount of planning would help.

So the system must have predicted that the opponents would act separately. Considering the current sensitive period, they definitely wouldn't dare alert the so-called Seal Guardian. If her existence were truly exposed to the Bright World, they probably wouldn't be able to complete their mission at all.

Therefore, eliminating options like coordinated attacks or big commotions, the possible methods they could use could be summarized as follows:

Disguised approach. The classic "delivery man" or "utility check" trick. But considering their pride as strong beings, this is unlikely. Cross this one out.

Hiding in the shadows, waiting for any opportunity to snatch her away without the Bright World noticing. High success rate, high difficulty. If it fails, it would surely cause panic and alert the Seal Guardian. But high risk, high reward has always been the privilege of the strong. Keep this option.

Use various means to make her leave the Seal Guardian's watch. The best method would be to orchestrate a seemingly coincidental arrangement via controlled forces, moving her out of Sucheng, then striking during the journey to take her away. Low risk, high reward, high completion likelihood—beware.

After thinking it through, these were the only three plausible options she could come up with. The system had already hinted at many things through the information provided. By reverse-engineering its message, it wasn't hard to deduce certain conclusions.

However, she wondered, would all her scheming here actually be useful? If the opponents decided to act irrationally and launched their attack the moment their wounds slightly healed, catching everyone off guard—wouldn't that be even easier?

"Forget it, no point in overthinking. That's not the issue I need to deal with right now. I'll figure it out once the system updates and Ayase wakes up. For now, I should focus on other matters." Pinching her own cheek, Chu Lian finally let go of this matter.

After all, this wouldn't happen for another two weeks or so—not that urgent. But some things, if not done now, would lose their impact later.

Think you can bully me and run away? Did you ask for my permission? Hmph, shadowy figures pulling the strings—you'd better brace yourselves for the chaos to come!

Seated once again at her computer desk, Chu Lian wore a devilish little smile as she opened a Word document and began typing rapidly...