A single-player post-apocalyptic game, but with an all-female teammate mod.

Aono raised his chin, gesturing for them to touch the virtual keyboard.

The three women each went to the virtual keyboard and placed their hands on it.

The next moment, a prompt appeared again on the blank stone tablet in front of Aono.

[The programmers are in place, the challenge has officially begun]

The prompt disappeared quickly, and then a progress bar appeared.

[0%]

What does that mean? Where's the boss?

Aono was still wondering when a piercing sonic boom came from the sky above.

He looked up and his eyes widened suddenly.

"Holy crap, a missile?!"

After the initial shock, he instinctively wanted to let go, but immediately realized something was wrong.

The missile was much smaller and slower than he remembered.

Moreover, according to the logic of the game, it is absolutely impossible to create a situation where players are destined to die.

"There's a high probability we can stop this missile."

As soon as Aono finished speaking, Asagi Aiba, who was standing next to him, started typing rapidly on the virtual keyboard and said, "We must stop it."

"This blank stone tablet is the core program of this mechanical city. We need to hack into it and take it over."

Aono looked at Uiharu Kazari and Aiba Asagi, who were typing rapidly in front of the virtual keyboard, and finally understood.

Nymph was on the back of the monument, out of his sight, but she was certainly doing the same thing.

As they tapped, the progress bar displayed on the wordless stone tablet began to slowly move.

[0.01%]

[0.06%]

"Damn, so after all this time, the hardest thing, Plants vs. Zombies, was waiting here?!"

Aono cursed under his breath.

But no matter how difficult it is, we have to go through with it.

Putting aside whether we can get the three girls, Lan Yu and Asagi, to the stone tablet now, the system has already said that it's a BOSS level and we'll have to go through this sooner or later.

The missile was now right in front of us, its piercing whistling sound painfully loud.

He let out a low shout, his leg muscles tensed, and with a powerful push off the ground, he leaped up like a cannonball, landing steadily on top of the wordless stone tablet after a few bounds.

The streamlined, white missile, about the size of an adult's arm, was hurtling rapidly down from the sky.

Aono's eyes sharpened, and with a flick of his wrist, he took out a standard-issue rifle that had been gathering dust in his backpack.

"middle!"

He exerted force with his arm, using the spear as a javelin, and hurled it fiercely at the missile with all his might.

To avoid missing, he immediately threw three or four more long spears out of his backpack.

"Bang! Boom—!"

The first spear accurately hit the bullet, followed by the others, which detonated the missile.

An orange-red fireball exploded high in the sky, its shockwave sweeping in all directions.

The shockwave from the explosion made Aoya's clothes flutter wildly and his hair dance wildly.

The shockwave swept down, but was almost entirely blocked by the huge stone tablet, having no effect on the three women who were focused on conquering the core program.

"call……"

Aono breathed a sigh of relief and glanced at the sky.

This is just the first wave; it will only get harder and harder from here on out.

62. BOSS: Icarus

The shrieking sound suddenly increased exponentially.

The next instant, it was as if the sky had been torn open with countless lacerations.

Dozens of missiles, trailing orange-red flames, blotted out the sky like a swarm of bees, raining down in a deluge.

The missile vibrated rapidly, and the streaks of light left by its exhaust flames intertwined to form a massive net of destruction, turning the azure sky fiery red.

"coming."

Aono gave a low shout and began to continuously draw and fire standard-issue rifles.

Kage, Tsunade, Koko, and Dudu also stood on the four sides below the stone tablet, blocking the incoming missiles one by one.

The Kage and Tsunade were relatively relaxed; their elemental power and strong chakra meant that even when they were in close proximity to the missile explosion, they would not be seriously injured.

Coco, with her superb marksmanship, accurately detonated all the missiles a hundred meters away.

Only the young cook looked somewhat disheveled.

With the help of his Three Body Technique and projectile spear, he managed to block most of them, but the remaining few still came right in front of him.

She parried with her spear, but the missile explosion still left her slightly injured.

In other words, the combat power increase from leveling up is comprehensive, just like in Dragon Ball, rather than the classic glass cannon.

Otherwise, it wouldn't be a minor injury.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The explosions spread out in one area, and the shockwaves crashed against everyone like a raging tide.

Aono was jolted back half a step, bent down to lower his center of gravity, and grabbed the stone tablet to steady himself.

Due to the unique nature of the mechanical world, the impact was quickly absorbed by the mirror-like ground.

After the flames from the explosion disappeared, the smoke and dust quickly dissipated, and the view returned to its previous openness.

Aono looked down at the stone tablet and saw that all the women were unharmed.

However, he was in a truly sorry state.

Her clothes were torn in many places, and her fair skin was covered with blackened marks.

There seemed to be some bloodstains at the corner of Dudu's mouth.

Aono looked up at the sky and, seeing that there was no next wave of attacks for the time being, jumped down from the stone tablet and came to the little cook's side.

"Dudu, are you alright?"

"It's alright." The red-haired girl shook her head, her eyes resolute. "Brother Qingye, you left me some extra spears."

After carefully examining her and confirming that Dudu wasn't just putting on a brave face, Qingye didn't say anything more.

After taking out a whole compartment of 99 standard-issue rifles and piling them at her feet, he also took out a pistol and some bullets.

"You can try using a pistol. Your marksmanship is pretty good, so it should be easier for you."

"it is good."

Aono nodded and quickly came to Coco's side without delay.

Before he could speak, the silver-haired woman said, "Mr. Aono, could you please take out the bullets and the submachine gun for me as well?"

Qingye didn't waste any words; this was exactly what he intended to do when he approached Koko.

Since we have a talent for firearms, we naturally cannot give up this strength.

These days, the store has produced a lot of gun blueprints, grenades, bullets and other items.

Coco carries two handguns with her at all times: a Desert Eagle, which he had given her before, and a Glock, which she chose herself.

More firearms and ammunition are stored in Qingye's system backpack.

Less than a minute had passed after taking out the gun bullets that Coco needed.

While remaining vigilant against the possibility of missiles striking at any moment, Aono asked the three girls, Aiba and Asagi, "How long do you estimate it will take to complete?"

The three women's fingers flew across the keyboard as they took a moment to announce a time, their focus intense.

"Fourteen minutes."

"Fifteen minutes."

"Fourteen minutes."

They are almost all the same.

Aono immediately understood.

It seems that you have fifteen minutes to protect the carrot in this level.

In other words, the five of them had to protect the stone tablet and withstand another fifteen minutes of bombing.

The intensity just now wasn't a big problem.

But if we continue to strengthen it...

Just as Aono frowned in thought, the world suddenly fell into an eerie silence, even the sound of the wind stopped.

In an instant, as if sensing something, he suddenly looked up at the azure sky.

A beam of light appeared at the edge of the sky.

To be precise, it should be described as a slender human figure.

The figure hurtled through the sky towards the wordless stone tablet at a speed faster than a missile.

With a mere flick of its wings, it sliced ​​through the air currents, leaving no trail of flame or sonic boom, yet its speed was unbelievably fast.

In just over ten seconds, it gracefully ascended above the crowd.

Aono was stunned for a moment when he saw the beautiful girl hovering less than ten meters above his head.

Her long, uneven pink hair swayed gently in the air, with two long braids wrapped with red ribbons hanging down her back.

Her emerald green eyes hung vacantly, reflecting nothing. Metal devices were embedded in her ears, and a silver collar, unique to angels, was fastened around her neck.

The wings that spread out on its back are a tender pink, each one as soft as a real feather, yet they subtly reveal the sharpness that could transform into sky-blue wings of light in the next second.

Above her head, a faint, ethereal halo of angels was slowly rotating.

The combat suit he wore was mainly silver-white, with a modified chest-binding cut on the upper body and wing-shaped ornaments hanging from the hem.

Her lower body was clad in a pleated mini skirt, revealing a section of light blue over-the-knee socks. Her shoulders, arms, and legs were covered in form-fitting armor.

She stood there, so slender that she looked like she could be blown away by a gust of wind, yet the hairs on the back of Aono's neck stood up one by one.

Icarus lv25 (BOSS)

"So the BOSS's tag is red..."

Looking at the bright red tag above Icarus's head, Aono realized that the omnipotent angel known as the Queen of the Sky was the real challenge of this level.

At this moment, Nymph, who was equally astonished, also came to her senses, quickly shook her head to clear her mind, and focused on hacking into the program in front of her again.

With the bonus from the talent [Winged Lord], her progress is the fastest among the three women.

Icarus's appearance delayed her a little, but it wasn't a big problem.

At this moment, Icarus lowered his eyes and swept them over the group of Qingye people in front of the stone tablet. A golden glint flashed quickly in the depths of his emerald pupils.

"...for strategic use, the omnipotent angel, Type α."

Her voice was completely devoid of emotion.

However, this made things much easier for Aono.

It seems that even the boss, the Queen of the Sky, has been weakened.

Against a fully-formed Sky Queen, it's better to just lie down and wait to die.

That way, you can suffer less.

"Begin the mission."

The moment the calm announcement was made, the halo above Icarus's head suddenly lit up, turning from ethereal to real, radiating a cold glow.