After killing the Preacher and destroying the Hawthorne Star System, Duanmu Huai's operations here were temporarily complete. Next came the matter of collecting and processing the spoils of war.
Requiem was going to be destroyed and held no value for salvage. But the greatest prize, of course, was the Mantle's Deliverance.
For one thing, the Mantle's Deliverance was practically the single largest warship in Starsea OL. Nothing else even came close in terms of sheer magnificence.
It was 142 kilometers long, 138 kilometers wide, and 371 kilometers high. In terms of cosmic megastructures, there were bigger things out there, sure. But as a warship? Mantle's Deliverance was undeniably the largest ship in the entire game. Even the end-game, pay-to-win or story-acquired ships like the Spear of Aton and the Titan-class ships were nothing but little brothers before it.
The only thing Duanmu Huai regretted was that he couldn't install a Recomposer on the Mantle's Deliverance.
The Recomposer was indeed one of the Forerunners' strongest weapons. It could decompose and restructure an enemy's soul, turning them into loyal Promethean soldiers. On paper, it was terrifyingly powerful—and in the game, any guild that acquired the Mantle's Deliverance early on instantly soared to the top of the entire Starsea server.
Yes… early on.
So where did it all go wrong? The answer: the late-game counterattack against the Warp.
The Forerunners had originally created the Recomposer and the Promethean Knights to combat the Flood, to avoid parasitic infection. And indeed, that setup worked very well against the Flood or against the Plague God's minions.
But… facing the Trickster God?
Heh…
On the battlefield, tens of millions of Promethean Knights were instantly infected by a viral hack. Before the eyes of countless players, the Knights turned on their masters, triggering a full-scale Iron Rebellion 2.0—another AI uprising. Players were tormented endlessly during that fight, and in the end, the Mantle's Deliverance and the Recomposer were destroyed by concentrated player fire, avoiding total catastrophe. Naturally, the guild owning them disbanded soon after.
With such a precedent, Duanmu Huai absolutely wasn't installing a Recomposer on the Mantle's Deliverance. Luckily, the ship currently had no AI, so there was no risk of digital infection.
But Duanmu Huai didn't intend to leave the space empty either. He reconstructed the Recomposer chamber into a colossal BFG particle cannon for blasting planets. With the Wan Yi Dreadnought, Duanmu Huai already had no issues destroying entire star systems. But he still lacked precise planetary destruction. With the Mantle's Deliverance equipped with a super-BFG, he could punch a hole clean through a planet. It was essentially expanding his arsenal of extermination protocols.
Aside from that, what Duanmu Huai valued most was the Mantle's Deliverance's Stasis Tension Drive. It wasn't an offensive weapon, but in some ways was stronger—because it could project a stasis field centered around the ship. Within the field, not only was FTL travel impossible, even FTL communication signals were blocked.
Combined with the Mantle's Deliverance's 1,700 light cannons, 25,000 focused beam cannons, and its massive particle cannon network, it could silently wipe out an entire fleet in the void.
And the stasis field generator was precisely what Duanmu Huai wanted most. His fleet already had enough firepower. The problem was that the enemy could still run. But with a stasis field? They couldn't run even if they wanted to—
Yes, I'm talking about YOU! You Eldar bastards who hit-and-run like cowards!!
Because retrofitting the Mantle's Deliverance was a massive project, Duanmu Huai returned the fleet to the War Planet and bought a huge quantity of materials from Dardaniel before beginning the retrofit. Besides converting the Recomposer chamber into a giant BFG, he also needed to convert all 25,000 beam cannons into BFG particle cannons. While the original beam cannons were powerful, their ranges were short—a common flaw among most beam weapons.
In addition, Duanmu Huai intended to fuse the Queen of Glory-class with the Mantle's Deliverance—essentially embedding the Queen of Glory into the Mantle's Deliverance itself. This way, he could directly pilot the colossal ship as his main body. And honestly, in a space battle, if you suddenly slap a warship this size right into the enemy's face, they'd either die from fear or be scared stupid.
Naturally, Duanmu Huai didn't forget to add the Inquisition's hammer-and-skull emblem to the exterior of the Mantle's Deliverance.
A warship without skulls has no soul!
Only skulls represent purity and loyalty!
After assigning Kukuru and the others to handle the retrofit, Duanmu Huai opened the Dream Crystal again to search for his target.
"I remember it was… Ah, there. Found it."
He didn't need much time before he located what he wanted.
[Versus Instance — Duel City]
"As expected. It's here too."
Seeing the instance window, Duanmu Huai's lips curled into a faint smile.
The reason he sought out this [Versus Instance] was to fulfill Anne's little "wish." After all, Duanmu Huai's in-game account was female, and he knew every quest that rewarded good-looking female outfits. So once he heard Anne's requirements, the first thing he remembered was Duel City.
Duel City was essentially Starsea OL's player arena. It functioned as a PvP hub. Because the Starsea universe was absurdly massive and players were scattered everywhere, nobody wanted to spend hours traveling across star systems just to PvP. They could get ambushed by hostile fleets or pirates along the way—far too risky.
So the developers created a permanent virtual arena instance—Duel City. Players could enter it directly and PvP instantly, without sailing starship after starship across half the galaxy.
Duel City was a suspended megacity containing a continent and several small towns. After entering, players could battle NPCs first, familiarize themselves with combat, and then enter fair-mode arenas. They could also participate in tournaments—defeating opponents earned points, which were exchangeable for gear. Some gear could only be used in Duel City; others could be taken back to the real universe.
And the female outfits in Duel City… were one of the game's biggest attractions.
First, most of the female outfits were extremely revealing. Second—and most incredibly—even if the outfit looked like it was made of bikini-sized cloth, it still provided full protection. So even if someone wore a bikini and got sprayed by a machine gun, as long as their armor didn't break, they took zero damage.
Another feature: all Duel City outfits had a "clothes-break" mechanic. If the armor broke, it would explode off the character. Of course, for rating reasons, the game censored anything explicit with mosaics.
Since Anne looked down on powered armor, Duanmu Huai was more than happy to teach her a proper lesson…
What iron can is too ugly? Are you saying I look ugly?!
Oh no, I'm not letting that slide!
Alright then… let's begin!
Thinking about how to "educate" Anne later, Duanmu Huai activated the Duel City instance. Light flashed before his eyes—and the next moment, he appeared on a lively, bustling city street.
"Hu…"
He stretched his body and glanced around.
Exactly as he remembered. Except…
"This time I can't pretend to be a hidden expert…"
He muttered to himself, staring at the familiar streets.
The reason was simple: in Duel City, all player attributes were locked. And when a player first entered Duel City, their stats were scanned from their real physical body.
Meaning: the moment they entered, they were essentially there as themselves. They then had to go to dojos and learn techniques, earn points, enhance their physical stats, and participate in tournaments.
The system was troublesome, but players loved it—because Duel City frequently held crossover battles with characters from other fighting games and anime. Defeating them earned you their soul cards, usable in the real universe.
Many players came specifically for that.
And that was why, strictly speaking, Duanmu Huai had been cheating the first time he came here.
He had been using a 1.4-meter-tall loli avatar. Even if people suspected he was male, no one could imagine that behind the 1.4-meter loli was a 2.5-meter-tall, 400-pound, fully muscular giant…
A true case of: one punch from the loli, and you'd be begging her not to kill you.
Back then, when players fought him, they might kick him—and it was like kicking a concrete pillar. He didn't even budge. Meanwhile, his tiny loli avatar could one-punch KO them.
Many players reported him, accusing him of cheating. But the devs investigated and confirmed that the data was indeed his real physical stats, so players began speculating what monstrous human was behind that loli avatar. Of course, none of them imagined what Duanmu Huai actually looked like.
But unfortunately, he couldn't use the loli disguise now. Anyone with eyes could tell he was no weakling.
If this were a 2D fighting game, his head would pierce right through the top of the HP bar.
Fortunately, unlike Resident Evil, he didn't have to fight alone this time. Duel City matches were 3-on-3, so players could bring two soul cards with them.
Luckily, Duanmu Huai actually had two good fighting-type soul cards.
Might as well summon them and try things out.
(End of Chapter)