128: Chapter 128: Clearing the Level with Meat Pigeons and... The Card Selection for Culinary Fans

Some time had passed since the launch of the "akashic engine."

During this time, countless newcomers who had joined late were, under the "peaceful" gaze of veteran players, pushing through all the major Singularities.

Lin Lu, the once haughty film critic, was the most dazzling among this batch of newly promoted Masters.

Relying on her unyielding spirit and ten-hour-long daily high-intensity exploration, she pushed through, dark circles under her eyes, clearing Fuyuki, Orléans, Septem, and Okeanos, and had successfully cleared the Fourth Singularity, the City of Demonic Fog, [London], in the last two days.

Now, Lin Lu had long shed the skin of a newbie who couldn't even calculate Cost (deployment cost).

In her Servant inventory, she not only possessed powerful five-star Servants like Zhuge Kongming and Mordred, but had also maxed out low-star war gods of various classes, having grown into an "intermediate" player who had mastered various tactical combinations.

During the gaps between advancing the main storyline, Lin Lu naturally dove headfirst into the most popular permanent game mode currently in the Chaldea lobby—[The The Count of Monte Cristo and the Prison of Grudges].

"Brothers, don't panic! Hold the formation!"

In Lin Lu's livestream room, her command voice, tense and slightly hoarse, was currently ringing out.

After an hour of struggling and sacrificing countless brain cells, Lin Lu finally managed to drag herself to the final boss room on the fifth floor.

Appearing at the front of the battlefield was the boss of Ending 1—[Amalgamation of the Seven Deadly Sins: Riot Jailer].

It was a terrifying monster of massive size, stitched together from countless severed limbs and rusted iron shackles.

With every step it took forward, a large number of Jailer minions would spawn out of thin air around the battlefield, launching a fierce assault on Lin Lu's defense line like a tide.

"The high ground on the left is about to collapse! Andersen, activate your Noble Phantasm for healing immediately! Georgios, use your taunt to hold that elite monster!"

Lin Lu's forehead was covered in fine beads of sweat; she held her breath nervously, afraid that it would affect her observation of the battle, not even daring to breathe.

At this moment, her [sanity] in the top left corner was down to a dangerously low 1 point—if even one more minion leaked through, over an hour of effort would be wasted in an instant.

Her luck in this run wasn't great; she hadn't obtained any decent collections along the way, and she was relying entirely on the tower defense fundamentals she had practiced for the past half-month to hold on.

"No time to dawdle, there are more and more minions, I need to burst down the BOSS immediately!"

Lin Lu seized the opportunity and, without hesitation, poured her Command Spell and all her skills into the blonde knight at the center of the defense line.

That was the five-star Saber she had pulled early in the game—[Mordred].

"Mo-chan! Now!" Lin Lu shouted.

"So noisy! Does this trash dare to block my path?!" On the battlefield, the heavily armored Mordred let out a wild roar, raising the greatsword radiating crimson lightning high in her hand.

"Rebellion Against My Beautiful Father—(Clarent Blood Arthur)!!!"

Boom—!

The crimson royal beam cannon turned into a surging torrent, slamming fiercely into the massive body of the Riot Jailer.

Accompanied by a deafening explosion and bone fragments filling the sky, the huge stitched monster let out a shrill wail and finally dissipated into black smoke.

[Battle Victory!]

Seeing the word "Victory" pop up on the screen, Lin Lu felt as if all her strength had been drained; she slumped down, panting heavily.

"Won... I won! Hahahaha, did you see that, brothers! This film critic has finally cleared it!"

Immediately after, the screen gradually darkened, and a whisper filled with riddler-like flavor rang in her ears.

[You have repelled those false phantoms condensed from fear and exhaustion, and fled in a panic from this Prison of Grudges.]

[But you know very well that you have not truly touched the abyss of the dream.]

[Oh, prisoner who awoke in confusion, will you have such good luck next time?]

[Ending 1 Achieved: Confused Escapee]

"Although it's just a normal ending, being able to scrape through with this set of trash collections, Lu Lu's tower defense skills can indeed be said to have entered the hall."

"Congratulations to Lu Lu for getting the intermediate title!"

"Not easy, watched nearly two hours of high-blood-pressure gameplay, finally got out of prison."

Seeing the recognition from veteran players in the bullet comments, Lin Lu proudly wiped her nose: "That's right, tower defense games are, simply put, a precise math problem! As long as you calculate the Cost accurately and control the timing of the burst, you can clear it even with normal collections!"

She took a sip of water to moisten her throat and was just about to use this momentum to analyze her proud formation strategy for her fans when a few discordant bullet comments suddenly drifted by.

"Lu Lu, the streamer A-Dai from the beauty section next door has also cleared it!"

"And A-Dai didn't fight this stitched monster; she triggered the hidden ending and directly one-shot the The Count of Monte Cristo at the end!"

"What the f*ck? A-Dai's IQ can beat the The Count of Monte Cristo?!"

"Don't even mention it... You guys should go check it out next door. After watching A-Dai's clear recording, I feel like all the tower defense tactics I've studied in my life have gone to the dogs..."

Seeing these bullet comments, Lin Lu was stunned for a moment.

As fellow Top 100 streamers on C-Station, she of course knew A-Dai. That famous "character-preference fan + looks-preference fan."

In A-Dai's eyes, there was no such thing as strength, star rating, or class advantage in the game.

Her only rule for playing "FGO" was: pull for husbandos, pull for waifus!

If they look good, she trains them; if they don't, she won't put them in her team, even if they are T0 gods.

"With that playstyle of hers, ignoring melee or ranged, and brainlessly placing handsome guys on the field as soon as she sees them, she can beat the roguelike's hidden ending?!"

Lin Lu's desire to win as a "technical player" was instantly ignited. Unconvinced, she tabbed out of the game and clicked on the live replay of A-Dai's stream.

At this moment, A-Dai's livestream room was playing a recording of the start from half an hour ago.

In the video, A-Dai's pure and sweet face was beaming with a lovestruck smile, drooling wildly at the few Servants that popped out of the initial recruitment ticket.

"Wow! It's Brother Arthur (Prototype Saber)! This Prince Charming look is totally my type! Must pick him, pick him!"

Accompanied by A-Dai's unhesitating click, her initial 6 points of hope were instantly drained to zero.

Seeing this, Lin Lu was heartbroken, "Everyone look, this is the most typical negative example! Spending all 6 points of hope on a five-star, high-cost Saber with no strength means you can't deploy anyone in the early game."

"Now that her hope is zero, the next two recruitment tickets will force her to choose those one or two-star blank characters that cost no hope and have no strength. If nothing unexpected happens, she's going to be soloed by a Skeleton Soldier in the first stage."