Chapter 160: Life Cannot Be Restarted, But Main and Side Quests Can Be Reroll.
If one were to describe the mental state of these players in a single sentence, it would be "I am uneasy."
It wasn't just Cheng Tian and his group's unexpected intrusion that made them uneasy; the massive changes within the instance itself were gradually exceeding their imagination. They felt that the information and strategies they had prepared beforehand were becoming meaningless, and the quest's progression was beyond their control and understanding.
In fact, the Cadillacs and Dinosaurs Main Quest that Cheng Tian and his team entered was a designated Main Quest that players could activate by using a special item.
The item used was a special coin, with "Retry" and "One More Game" inscribed on its obverse and reverse sides, respectively.
"One More Game: Special item, limited item. Only when a player fails the monthly trial three consecutive times or more, they may obtain a 'One More Game' coin in the settlement of a subsequent bounty mission.
This item cannot be traded, and the hold player cannot reveal the conditions for obtaining this item to others by any means.
After use, the player's next monthly trial will be replaced with a previously failed Main Quest instance. The player can choose from the three most recent failed Main Quests.
Using "One More Game" will reset your save file in the corresponding failed Main Quest. Your interpersonal relationships within the instance will return to their initial state, and you will restart with essentially the same progression.
While the progression of this instance remains largely unchanged, its difficulty will be increased to a certain extent. In principle, Main Quests with increased difficulty will only maintain the original basic rewards. However, the increased difficulty may lead to expansions in completion rate, exploration rate, etc., which will affect the final settlement's rank evaluation to some extent.
"One More Game" is only valid for the current month. If it is still not used, the opportunity to obtain "One More Game" will be permanently lost in the future.
If the player still fails to clear the Main Quest after using "One More Game," they will be permanently blocked from that blueprint instance upon successful extraction. At the same time, the instance reset by "One More Game" will be released into the mission center as a bounty quest. Only players who have passed the current month's Main Quest trial and meet the entry conditions may refresh and accept this quest."
"Additional Comment: Boss! One more coin, please!"
Although the Chosen Space does indeed claim lives, and not a few at that, it is far from the dark forest system one might imagine. While it empowers the strong, it hasn't completely abandoned the weak, still offering them opportunities to turn their fortunes around.
This "One More Game" coin is one of the more reliable opportunities for such a turnaround.
Even though a player fails and withdraws, their experiences within the instance are real. More importantly, players can prepare in advance for the Main Quest they are restarting, and even try to purchase walkthroughs from other players. The advantage this offers, compared to a random Main Quest where one is completely clueless, is self-evident.
Even Cheng Tian only knew what it was after entering the instance, whereas players using "One More Game" could, if they dared, have complete spoilers.
Of course, the Chosen Space would also introduce some reasonable difficulty increases based on the original, which was the price for having spoilers.
Relying on his "prophet" advantage, the player who used the reroll coin was naturally embraced by his randomly matched teammates during the previous city area mission, successfully integrating into the protagonist's four-person team. They ultimately defeated the elite poacher boss, "Wester Huen," with almost no casualties.
This elite boss was the first boss in the game, who, right from the start, punched velociraptors and could summon minions with his revolver.
Everything proceeded so smoothly that while this reroll player's confidence soared, he couldn't help but feel some confusion. He hadn't figured out exactly how the difficulty increase for the rerolled Main Quest manifested.
Now he knew. The increase in instance difficulty was waiting for him right here.
Now he and his randomly matched teammates stood at a crossroads of decision, and the main factor influencing their choice was whether to "kill" or "not kill."
Every game has its underlying tone.
Makaimura is humanity's desperate counterattack against demonic invasion—humans and demons kill each other, but there is generally no internal conflict.
Batman is about trying to be the least insane while avoiding the strongest psychopaths in Gotham City—you can kill people here, but it's best to do it while avoiding Batman, otherwise, the most likely outcome is a prime seat at Arkham.
Metal Slug is an armed conflict that spans the globe and even other planets—different factions are all killing each other like mad, and you can't even immediately determine whether what you're killing is human.
If players paid attention to the cutscenes between levels, they would notice that these dinosaur enthusiasts didn't actually kill many enemies.
Even though players on the other side of the screen might have enjoyed killing enemies with Uzis, shotguns, and grenades in the game, the protagonist's four-person team, in their basic setting, are "dinosaur enthusiasts." This means that while they choose to protect dinosaurs, they do not easily kill humans—
Although the poacher grunts were beaten by the agile protagonist team, resulting in broken limbs, exposed necks, bullet holes all over their bodies, and joints twisted in the opposite direction, it still wasn't considered killing.
It was very Batman-like.
For example, the first boss, Wester Huen, didn't die; he was just beaten black and blue and then let go by the protagonist team.
When breaking through the grunts' resistance earlier, players could explain their actions of taking down poacher grunts with reasons like "it was an accident," but this obviously couldn't be applied to the organization leader, Wes.
Since the protagonist's four-person team decided to spare his life, players could only reluctantly accept this outcome. Instead, they could seize a certain item from Wes, but its actual rarity and item effects were still random.
If one wished to kill Wes to obtain a treasure chest, they would have to bear the cost of breaking ties with the protagonist's four-person team.
Unless, like Big Chengzi, he decisively abandoned his original plan to interact with the protagonist team after confirming his egg-stealing mission, he naturally wouldn't have to follow the dinosaur enthusiasts' no-kill principle.
This player group, centered around the reroll player, also had corresponding reconnaissance methods. A Pidgeotto constantly followed Cheng Tian and his group from the sky, and through the shared vision of "Hawk's Eye," saw the scene of dinosaurs charging the human camp earlier.
However, the protagonist team's stance still seemed to firmly side with the dinosaurs, maintaining their identity as dinosaur protectors.
If they continued to side with the protagonist team, they would face the heavy firepower threat from the tanks. If they played it safe, they would essentially break ties with the protagonist team, causing problems for the Main Quest.
However, while they struggled to decide, Cheng Tian could decide for them.
Just as the protagonist team was still trying to use the argument "dinosaur lives matter too" to persuade them, the eight Gatling guns of the tank matrix had already simultaneously turned their barrels, aiming squarely at the old Cadillac driven by Jack of the protagonist team.
In the eyes of Jack and the others, which rapidly shifted from anger to terror, they opened fire directly.
The Cadillac received the same treatment as an Allosaurus.
And in the second before the car was riddled with bullets and exploded, the protagonist team, who had all completed their extreme jump-and-roll escapes, looked at Cheng Tian with disbelief.
"Get out, or die."
Cheng Tian, whose face was already covered by a mysterious, ancient, and terrifying blazing sun mask, spoke these words towards the angry, terrified, and disbelieving Cadillacs and Dinosaurs protagonist team.