[DEATH.]
Accompanied by the bloody red text and a black screen, Simon was booted back to the System Space.
Alright. No matter how bloodthirsty or stubborn he was, he couldn't ignore physical feedback. While injured, he ultimately failed to clutch the win and was one-shotted by the Zombie Sister again.
But hey, at least I wasn't total trash this time!
He had made huge progress. Simon was satisfied. Besides, if he couldn't kill a single Deadwalker with all these buffs, he wouldn't be able to show his face around here anymore.
Let's see how much experience I got. Simon rubbed his hands together and opened the panel.
[Experience: 20/100]
[Hokushin Itto-ryu Lv.1 (Apprentice): Proficiency 134/200]
Killing one Deadwalker gave 20 XP. His Hokushin Itto-ryu proficiency went up by 25 (plus the 3 points gained from getting killed the first time).
However, his Spirit stat told a different story.
[Spirit: 12.5 / 15]
Wait, you deducted 0.5 points for Spirit damage?
[Enduring pain also decreases the Player's Spirit. Please choose your combat style carefully.]
Fair enough. Whether getting his head chopped off or fighting with a waist wound, it hurt like hell. Simon had to admit that right before he died this time, he was grimacing in agony.
This meant if he played conservatively, he might have 5 attempts left. If he played recklessly or died in a particularly gruesome way, that might drop to 3 attempts.
However, Simon planned to play it safe. One or two more runs, and he would call it a night. He didn't know how Spirit loss would affect his real life, and he didn't want to wake up the next morning looking like a dried husk, worrying Mei.
"System, dungeon run again!"
Back in the familiar starting point, Simon expertly located the Zombie Sister he had killed once before. This time, she wasn't facing away from him. It seemed the dungeon reset introduced slight variations. But having killed her once in a fair fight, doing it again was no pressure.
—This time, no scythe caught him off guard. Simon remembered the exact reach of that weapon through the pain of his previous injury. His subconscious reactions allowed him to dodge perfectly.
Safely securing another 20 XP and 15 Proficiency, Simon was brimming with confidence. He felt he could now farm the Zombie Sister like a minion for gold.
Walking out of the employee lounge, Simon observed the environment, recalling the structure of the ME Corp campus.
ME Corp wasn't just a single building; it was an industrial park. Surrounding the main campus were support factories. The headquarters, located closer to the city center, was a three-body structure: a central main tower flanked by two slightly shorter side towers, connected by skybridges.
Based on his knowledge of his own company, he should be on the second floor of the Right Tower. Below him, the first floor should be an assembly workshop.
Should I go down and check for loot?
Simon stood at the stairwell leading to the first floor, deep in thought.
Screw it!
Having died twice already, Simon was fearless. Worst case scenario, he just wastes another life!
He trotted down the fire escape stairs to the first floor, only to find the environment drastically different from his memory.
This... What the hell is this Mecha Assembly Workshop doing here? Where is my electronic components factory?!
Realizing the situation was bad, Simon stepped back, preparing to slip back into the fire escape. But to his horror, the door had an electronic lock—and it had already auto-locked behind him!
"Intruder with weapons detected. Executing security protocol. Kill on sight."
The cold, mechanical broadcast echoed through the first-floor workshop like a death warrant. several standby Titan Mechs powered up, standing tall as their mechanical eyes lit up with eerie blue light.
I **** your daughter! Cocolia!
Simon cursed loudly, suddenly remembering that this wasn't the ME Corp where he worked every day. This was the ME Corp controlled by Cocolia in the original timeline.
He sprinted toward where the main exit should be. While interior layouts might change, structural exits like the main gate shouldn't move.
However.
[Titan Mech]
[Attributes:]
Strength: 50
Constitution: 50
Stamina: ∞ (Until energy depletion)
Intelligence: 3 (Onboard Logic Control System)
Spirit: 0 (Non-AI Mechanical Construct)
Agility: 20
[Description: Even without Flash, a Titan can smash you into pieces with one punch.]
This was the pure, unadulterated power of a Titan Mech. Even its lowest stat, Agility, far surpassed Simon thanks to its powerful drive engine.
Almost there! The exit!
Simon's burst speed wasn't bad. In a few moments, he would cross the workshop floor and reach the main gate.
But one Titan, after a brief charge-up, launched a charge attack straight at Simon with unstoppable momentum.
Fuck!
Feeling the ground shake behind him, Simon glanced back and his face went pale.
In the game, the Titan's charge attack had a long wind-up and slow speed—it looked stupidly clumsy. But that was from the perspective of a Valkyrie with super-performance, evasion skills, and i-frames. Facing it in person as Simon, this oppressive charge was not only hard to dodge but guaranteed instant death on impact.
In a split second, the Titan was in his face, carried by a gale of wind. Having experienced life and death battles a few times now, Simon didn't freeze. He gritted his teeth and dove into the gap between some assembly equipment.
CLANG-CRASH-BANG—
The heavy Titan plowed through a row of equipment before coming to a halt. Simon didn't even have time to rub his bruised shoulder before the other activated Titans arrived. With lightning speed, they swung their Titan Iron Fists.
Known Fact: The limit of normal human strength is 500kg.
Given: A Titan has 50 Strength.
Therefore: It possesses at least 2.5 tons of force.
This punch... contains 2.5 tons of Kung Fu!
...
In the real world, a sleeping Simon suddenly shuddered, his eyes snapping open as he sucked in a sharp breath of cold air.
After a few seconds, he came back to his senses. He looked down at his arms. Seeing that Mei hadn't been woken by his spasm, he finally let out a sigh of relief.
Recalling the ending of [Simon Sauce] (Simon Puree), he decided not to run the dungeon again tonight, even though he still had some Spirit left.
After all, he had been pummeled by three punches before turning into sauce. It was agonizingly painful. He suspected he now had temporary psychological trauma.