A Water Fight is Also a War!
"Don't fight me..." Lin Fuque said in a whisper, "You guys can go outside to fight."
The cat and the dog stared at each other, ignoring her.
Lin Fuque carefully glanced at Little Yellow. The characters floating above its head were a glaring red, making the player inside her itch to launch a sneak attack... But when she patted her left pocket, she only found an access card and a bakery membership card. In her right pocket, there were only two soft pieces of chocolate.
...She couldn't exactly resort to poisoning. That would be too despicable!
The border collie's tail wagged slower, letting out a panting sound that seemed like a prelude to an attack. Little Yellow, however, appeared even more aggressive. Despite facing a dog significantly larger than itself, it didn't look like it wanted to take the opportunity to flee upstairs. Instead, it seemed ready to seize a chance to dash out and give the dog a few slaps.
The White Porridge Butterfly slowly flapped its wings on the back of Lin Fuque's hand. She vaguely heard someone talking outside the door, but in her nervousness, she completely forgot she could check the game map.
It was at this moment that Little Yellow leaped out. The border collie immediately barked:
"Woof! Ruff ruff ruff!"
Lin Fuque quickly took the opportunity to peek out from the stairwell. She saw Little Yellow dash forward, causing the border collie to instinctively step back twice in hesitation. Then, a clear stream of water shot right at Little Yellow's position.
Someone used a water gun!
The person had arrived at some unknown time, tucking a brightly colored water gun under her right armpit. However, her aim was way off, and the water only hit the ground behind the cat.
The cat flinched, turned its head to let out an angry "Meow-ow!" as if swearing, and then picked up the large mechanical butterfly from the ground in its mouth.
Lin Fuque: Huh?
And then Little Yellow got blasted right in the head with water.
But even after taking the hit, it simply turned and fled, carrying away the mechanical butterfly that Lin Fuque hadn't retrieved.
However, because the butterfly was nearly half its size, with wings dragging on the ground, the orange tabby's escape speed was significantly hindered.
"Phew..." The person who bravely took action, or rather, took water, against Little Yellow put her hands on her hips and called out to the dog, "Wuhua, are you okay?"
That blue merle border collie was named Wuhua.
Lin Fuque had seen this border collie in the training space just last night, and had even made King follow it to learn how to be a dog. But she remembered that the person walking Wuhua at the time wasn't the girl standing in front of her...
At that moment, the person with her back turned suddenly looked over and spotted Lin Fuque.
"Ah," the girl, who had Lv.2 [Lu Xiyu] floating above her head, wiped her wet palms on her pants. "You're the one who just moved into Building 5... What was your name again?"
"Um, I'm Lin Fuque."
"Lin Fuque!" Lu Xiyu said her name with inexplicable vigor. In the very next second, she grabbed Lin Fuque's hands. "You're so pretty! Do you want to play water guns with us? No, wait! It's a live-action shooting game! Do you want to play? Do you?"
The ignored Wuhua poked its head out from behind her, its fluffy face looking back and forth between the two.
"Ah... sure?"
Unable to resist Lu Xiyu's enthusiasm, Lin Fuque found herself inexplicably dragged along. Wuhua picked up its own leash in its mouth and followed behind them with an impressive sense of self-management.
Lu Xiyu was a very... resonant speaker. She had a loud voice, was the same age as Lin Fuque, and lived in Building 3 of the residential complex.
Due to school enrollment policies, the similarly aged kids in the neighborhood all attended the nearby First Experimental Elementary School, so they knew each other well. Today, they had been organized by Lu Xiyu to play water guns. She had been passing by when she spotted Little Yellow and Wuhua, so she came over with her water gun to rescue the dog.
Lin Fuque marveled, "You looked like a heroine just now. That was so cool."
Although it took her two tries to hit Little Yellow, she was still much cooler than Lin Fuque, who hadn't dared to make a move against the cat at all!
Lu Xiyu's voice went up a pitch as she laughed, making a quacking sound. Knowing that Lin Fuque didn't have a water gun at home, she offered, "Then I'll take you to borrow one from Xiaoming. We can drop Wuhua off at the same time—oh, Wuhua is Xiaoming's dog. He's not coming out to play, so leaving his water gun at home is just a waste anyway!"
Lu Xiyu asked Lin Fuque to wait downstairs for a moment while she took the dog upstairs, taking on the dual task of returning the dog and borrowing the gun.
Lin Fuque simply crouched off to the side and opened her map interface.
Before her hand was grabbed, Lin Fuque had released the White Porridge Butterfly. It was now fluttering gracefully in the sunlight.
It could fly as high as the third floor, and its front legs could plug into any charging port to recharge. As a finished product that had passed King's quality inspection, it possessed features like camouflage, automatic obstacle avoidance, scanning and 3D modeling, information recognition, and self-charging. However, as a mere surveillance camera, it lacked any offensive capabilities.
But with its deployment, the image on the map had become much clearer than before.
Lin Fuque was watching Little Yellow.
The orange tabby, carrying the mechanical butterfly in its mouth, ran across her map and into a sparse birch grove.
There was hardly anyone around here. It finally set the mechanical butterfly down. Because of Lin Fuque's original command, the mechanical butterfly was actually programmed to keep following Little Yellow.
Lin Fuque remembered, "Yesterday... didn't it hate having the butterfly follow it?"
The mechanical butterfly crawled on the ground.
Little Yellow tilted its head, watching from the side. Suddenly, it reached out a paw and flipped the mechanical butterfly over.
The mechanical butterfly struggled, managed to flip itself back over, and crawled to Little Yellow's side. The tabby cat suddenly executed a massive leap, pinning the mechanical butterfly down like prey. It then grabbed the butterfly with its front paws and rapidly kicked it with its hind legs. It rolled left and right on the ground, keeping the butterfly locked in its embrace the entire time.
After that, Little Yellow rolled over and sprawled on top of the butterfly, its ears twitching in the gentle breeze.
The shadows of the trees swayed slightly, casting dappled light onto the dirt. The cat's tail tapped softly against the ground, causing dust to dance among the fallen leaves.
Lin Fuque only saw up to this point, because someone patted her on the shoulder.
Lu Xiyu leaned in with a beaming face and handed her an object. "Here you go."
"Wow." It was a camouflage-patterned water gun. It was quite long but not heavy to hold. Lin Fuque noticed that the transparent water tank had already been filled. "Thank you, and thanks to Xiaoming, too."
But Wuhua was nowhere to be seen, likely having gone home.
Wuhua... seemed like a very good-tempered border collie, not a bad dog at all. If she had known, she would have secretly pet it a couple of times on the way.
"No big deal!"
Lu Xiyu raised her own gun and drew a smiley face on the wall with the water.
Lin Fuque then helped her by drawing a circle around the smiley face.
The two exchanged a look. Lu Xiyu linked her arm with Lin Fuque's and shouted, "Let's go!"
Twelve butterflies could monitor a one-kilometer radius in real time, so a single White Porridge Butterfly could easily monitor the public areas of the entire residential complex. What's more, the kids' battle didn't include the stairwells; everyone had agreed to only fight in the neighborhood's activity area.
While checking the map, Lin Fuque glanced over and saw that Brother Wence was actually outside as well.
He was holding his phone, pacing in circles just outside the birch grove.
But when he saw someone else, he silently averted his gaze. There was a stranger next to him, looking like a friend. Were they out for a walk?
She didn't think too much about it anymore. Lu Xiyu had already pulled her to the open-air activity area. The community's two public sinks were also there, painted in red and blue. As soon as the two arrived, a boy who had been squatting opposite them immediately shouted, "Lu Xiyu, how could you bring a helper?"
Lu Xiyu couldn't care less about him. "Lin Fuque is also starting the seventh grade at the Experimental Middle School when the semester begins. According to the game rules, she is on our team!"
Ah? What rules?
Lin Fuque was still looking at the game prompt.
Right after she was pulled over, a prompt suddenly popped up on her panel—
[Random Limited-Time Quest 1: Prelude to a Small-Scale War]
[Before the hidden dangers around the camp have been resolved, a sudden small-scale war has begun! Mobilize all the resources you have to win the war and become the ultimate victor!]
[(Always be prepared! Soldier!)]
[Quest Reward: Ice Bullet Converter x1, Random EXP Reward]
Because she was carefully reading the quest description, by the time Lin Fuque snapped back to reality, the others had actually already started fighting.
As soon as she looked up, a stream of water shot right at her face. She shielded her face, recalling the few words about the rules: she, Lu Xiyu, and Yuan You, who were about to enter the seventh grade, were on one team. Of the other three, two were going into eighth grade, and one would only be in sixth grade when school started, so they naturally formed the other team.
"Ah!"
Lin Fuque raised her hand to cover her face while raising her water gun to attempt a counterattack. However, she couldn't see clearly, and the gun was a bit heavy; holding it with one hand made it completely impossible to aim.
Her mother was actually right. Lin Fuque was a bona fide idiot when it came to playing any competitive game. The game she had the highest score in was a match-three puzzle game, which she had played up to over six thousand levels for her grandfather.
"Come here, come here," a girl next to her rushed over and grabbed her. This was Yuan You. She stuffed Lin Fuque under a ping-pong table. "We'll play defense and counterattack—hey! Tang Zhe, you've charged too far! We agreed not to cross the center line of the badminton court!"
She raised her hand to help wipe Lin Fuque's face, then aggressively climbed on top of the ping-pong table. Lin Fuque had no choice but to poke her head out from behind her. She found that although her peers claimed there were rules, no one was actually following them. By this time, Lu Xiyu had already charged to the very front of the battle line and was running in circles shooting at another person.
They would run out of water very quickly like this...
As a theoretical master of combat games, Lin Fuque poked her head out a few times but couldn't find the right angle and even got shot once. But suddenly, she thought of something and quietly opened her panel:
On the interface of the 3D map, everyone's movements were clearly visible. She immediately patted Yuan You's calf. "Tang Zhe has shot all his water, and he went to the sink to secretly refill it! He also took Qu Qinyang's water bottle. Qu Qinyang is covering it with his hands, pretending it's still there, but his water gun actually can't shoot any water at all!"
The sinks on both sides were around the corner, separated by the open-air badminton court. Amidst the splashing water, it was impossible to see the details clearly. But Yuan You's eyes lit up. She jumped off the ping-pong table and ran stomping towards the "other person," Qu Qinyang. Soon, it turned into Qu Qinyang running with his head down in front, and Yuan You chasing after him—
"Excellent, how could you smash me with the butt of the gun! That's against the rules!"
"Bullshit, I was clearly shooting you with my water gun, you saw wrong!"
"I'm not using my eyes," Qu Qinyang dared to be angry and dared to speak up, "Wouldn't I know if I got smashed myself?"
"Pfft—"
Lin Fuque finally found a chance to strike. Her water bottle was full, and she was very close to the two of them. The water gun shot a stream of water more than three meters away, finally hitting Qu Qinyang, who was running in front... and, unable to stop in time, she also hit Yuan You, who was chasing and attacking from behind.
But Yuan You didn't care at all.
Or rather, none of the people participating in the water gun fight could possibly care about getting shot by water. Anyway, even if it was friendly fire from a teammate, they just had to blame it on the opponent.
Lin Fuque held her borrowed gun, leaning against the ping-pong table and laughing out loud. Her laughter wasn't actually that loud, but she was still discovered by the "enemy." Tang Zhe was a chubby boy, but very agile. He came sprinting over with the water bottles, intending to install one for Qu Qinyang.
But at this time, Qu Qinyang, with anger rising in his heart, had already started hitting Yuan You with his gun, making "smack, smack, smack" sounds as they brawled.
Tang Zhe: "Hey, hey..."
He felt a bit lonely. Holding the water bottles made it inconvenient for him to shoot with one hand. Moving too fast, he shot the ground instead. At this moment, a hand reached over from the side and took away the extra bottle. He was very grateful: "Thanks."
Lin Fuque felt a bit embarrassed: "No need, no need."
She attached it to her own gun and conveniently put the empty bottle she had removed into her pocket.
Tang Zhe: "?"
The two stared at each other for a moment. Lin Fuque raised the muzzle of her gun, aimed it at him, and provided her own sound effects:
"Pew pew~"
Tang Zhe: "Ah—"
As the chubby boy ran out of water, he let out an exclamation, turned around, and ran. The battle map instantly expanded.
Lin Fuque chased after him for a while, quickly running until she was panting heavily. She glanced at the corner of her panel, where messages kept refreshing—
[You were hit by xx, you received 0 damage.]
[You were hit by xx, you received 0 damage.]
[You hit xx, dealing 0 effective damage.]
...
There were no casualties in this war.
Later, when everyone accidentally scattered, Lin Fuque could still rely on her map to launch sneak attacks. However, today's amount of exercise was a bit excessive for her. She just quietly found Lu Xiyu, who was nearby, and pulled her along to find the others, while she herself was responsible for refilling water and secretly firing cheap shots.
But this still made Lu Xiyu very happy. She said, "Lin Fuque, you're amazing! You're dead on every time you look for someone!"
Both of their hair was completely soaked. Lin Fuque had short hair, so it was fine, but Lu Xiyu's ponytail was dripping water. The sun had risen higher, but the scorching sunlight felt just right for the kids at this moment. They found a place to sit down, and soon, the others joined them, sitting in a row on the steps of the small pavilion in the community.
Sunbathing! Drying themselves off!
The wind blew in the heat. On a chair in the pavilion, a white cat was lying there enjoying the shade. The humans and the cat didn't disturb each other, but the sunlight was suddenly blocked for a moment, and then Lu Xiyu started crying out, "Ouch, ouch!"
The other kids who were lying down hastily sat up and greeted the woman who had suddenly appeared: "Hello, Big Sister Lu."
Lu Xiyu's older sister, Lu Wenjue, pinched her younger sister's ear hard. "It's time for lunch—and you lot, aren't you going home to eat?"
Making an adult come looking for them!
The others immediately scattered like birds and beasts, like a flock of little sheep, bleating as they were driven away. But Lin Fuque was a step slower because her panel popped up... she had forgotten there was still a quest.
[The war has ended, calculating results...]
[You killed/injured 0 enemies, 0 of your teammates were injured/killed, you dealt 0 effective damage.]
[At the very least, this war did not affect the peace of the camp.]
[Quest Reward: Ice Bullet Converter x1, Personal EXP +2]
The panel also notified her that the [Ice Bullet Converter] was originally supposed to appear in her storage space, but because the space was damaged (Lin Fuque suspected this was a game mechanic, and that players would definitely be given blueprints to craft storage buttons later on), it could only appear directly in her pocket.
But the main point was...
Personal EXP +2! Her overall threat level was now Lv.1 (2/100)!
Didn't that mean she just had to play fifty more times, no, 49 times, and she would be able to reach Level 2?
She felt that her reaction time when facing attacks earlier had been a bit slow, but with these 2 extra EXP points, she seemed to have become much more agile! It shouldn't be an illusion, right?
She loved water fights!
Deep within the woodlands of the Zhangshan Nature Reserve.
A Pomeranian dog was resting, lying high up in the branches of a towering ancient tree.
It had originally wanted to go look for Lin Fuque. However, on one hand, its permissions were locked, leaving it with absolutely no information about her. On the other hand, since it couldn't unlock those permissions anytime soon, it figured it might as well continue recharging the training space... More complex movements yielded more energy, and this place was perfectly suited for that.
A loud beastly roar echoed from the distance.
Suddenly, a stream of data flowed across its unblinking eyes.
[The soldier has completed their first practical combat training!]
[As the auxiliary instructor, calculating results for 4577K21D...]
[Your soldier's practical combat evaluation is: "Soft-hearted," "Zero Casualties," "Consolation Prize," and "Scraping By."]
The white Pomeranian: "?"
[Your overall evaluation is: D-]
[Overall evaluation failed. Please arrange a brand-new training mission for your soldier!]
[Warning: You currently lack the permission to arrange training missions.]
[Would you like to use your current state to complete a practical combat training mission yourself, and invite the soldier to observe and learn?]
The white Pomeranian: "..."
Is this really how it's supposed to work?
