NOVEL WEB Ch. 8
Chapter 8
A giant meteorite crashed into Earth, and the planet rapidly cooled, wiping out humanity. Thousands of years later—AI left by humans began mass-producing the female humanoid "Space Girl." The AI's developer hoped for humanity's revival, and the AI that inherited that will—along with Space Girl—advanced space development, working to build a new world where humans could live.
But the cosmos was far too dangerous for humans... Alongside Space Girl, a mysterious lifeform adapted to space known as the "Machine World Beasts." Machine World Beasts can appear on any planet or colony, intent on eradicating humanoid life. Unless these Machine World Beasts are wiped out, humanity can never find a place to rest.
Can Space Girl destroy the Machine World Beasts? Can she create a land where humanity can rest? And can she obtain the two living data samples needed for humanity's revival—the "Key of Adam" and the "Gate of Eve"—that is the story of this world.
In reality, nobody cares about humanity; Space Girls just enjoy GunFights against each other or fight over colonies. The dawn of humanity is still far off.
As for me, I'm too busy hunting to worry about humanity's revival, so I have no right to talk.
"Troublesome. No weapons are dropping at all. Do weapons even drop in the first place?"
I've beaten mechanical dogs (Mecha-Dogs), mechanical bears (Mecha-Bears), and mechanical worms (Mecha-Worms), but all they drop are ammo, ○○ parts, repair kits, and EN bottles (bottles for replenishing EN; they look exactly like bottled beer).
My level rose to 8, yet I still only have two weapons.
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PN: Shiki
LV: 8
ROLE: Sniper
TIP: 17890
Armor: 20
Thruster Output: 40
Thruster Capacity: 80 × 1.5 (120)
Precision: 80 × 1.55 (124)
Radar: 100
Stealth: 60
EN Capacity: 60
Weapons
Slot 1: Army Knife (Knife)
Slot 2: M1911 (Handgun)
Slot 3: null
Slot 4: null
Slot 5: null
Slot 6: null
Slot 7: null
Slot 8: null
Expansion Parts
Slot 1: null
Slot 2: null
Slot 3: null
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Each level-up gives 3 status points.
Allocating a status point to any stat multiplies that stat by "1.05." Putting two points gives "1.1×," and ten points gives "1.5×." What this means is that initial stats are extremely important. For instance, a Sniper's initial armor is 20, but even if you pour 20 points into armor it only becomes 40. Conversely, if you put 20 points into radar it goes from 100 → 200. That's an 80-point difference in gains from the same number of points.
Once you realize this, there's no point investing points in low stats. The correct build is to boost your strengths and ignore your weaknesses.
For now I put my points into thruster capacity and precision. Thruster capacity is personally my number-one priority. Just raising it makes it drastically easier to keep distance from enemy units.
Precision, simply put, is the stat that speeds up signal transmission from brain to body; as it rises your fingertips become more sensitive, improving shooting accuracy and reflex speed. Of course, it has absolutely no relation to attack power, defense, or mobility, so for those who don't need it, it's probably useless. Yet for a sniper, fingertip sensitivity is life, so I'll keep raising it until I reach a neural transmission level I'm satisfied with.
Also, each level-up gives 1 skill point.
These points can raise a skill's experience. There are 16 skills: [Shooting], [Rapid Fire], [Sniping], [Sword], [Axe/Spear], [Hammer/Bow], [Whip/Claw], [Close Combat], [Guard], [Repair], [Upgrade], [Artillery], [Brainwave], [Flight], [Piloting], and [Recon]. That's a lot.
Skills have ranks from S to G, and the initial values seem to vary by role. Snipers have generally high shooting-related skills and generally low melee skills. Skills can also be raised by using the designated weapons; even without spending any skill points, using a knife has given me a little experience in [Sword]. Apparently some weapons cannot be used unless the skill rank is high enough. Neither status points nor skill points need to be assigned right when you level up; you can hoard them and allocate all at once later.
What struck me as unusual is that almost no special moves or magic—common in most RPGs—exist. No "Double Slash" or "Shot Barrage" or "Fireball." I hated the feeling of my body being moved by the system, so I'm glad it's designed this way. In awful games I'd spend half the battle being moved by the system—what's fun about that? Combo attacks were the worst.
The manual guide-girl gave me has just the right amount of info. It lacks the exhaustive detail of strategy guides or sites; it only contains the minimum to keep you from being stuck. There are no "recommended stats" or "recommended walkthrough charts." You can play without spoiling the sense of exploration.
"Ah—"
That's right, the manual only contains basic information.
So there's no way to predict sudden enemy appearances like this.
——"Centipede," the Hundred-Bite Sand Bug.
A Machine World Beast bearing two names burst out of the desert.
A centipede-like Machine World Beast over 20 meters long. It has countless metallic legs tipped with sharp blades and a maw lined with cannon barrels and fangs.
"That's what you'd call a boss monster."
Either you trigger its appearance by defeating a certain number of Machine World Beasts around here, or it was a random encounter. Either way, doesn't matter.
Recommended level: 15, recommended party size: 2. The details are listed.
I'm level 8 and solo, but no problem.
——I'll shoot it dead.
――――――Postscript――――――
As you raise skills you'll gain so-called passive skills like "XX weapon weight −" or "XX weapon stat up." You can raise a skill's rank by using the designated weapon, but there's a cap—you can only earn enough experience to go from G → B. To go any higher you have to pour in skill points.
Raising a skill from F → E gives "Precision +10," and raising one from C → B gives "Specific stat 1.2×," and these are available for every skill. So aiming for all B or higher is good, but it takes an insane amount of time—literally thousands of hours. Players who raise all skills to B or higher are called "Master Class," and treated as a benchmark.