[No.142: Since there still isn’t a clear walkthrough, let me share how I cleared this Copy.
Honestly, it’s pretty simple. In the early stages, just help out as the Store Manager, and from noon onwards, guard outside your own area.
If anyone tries to come over, knock them out right away so they don’t get a chance to cause trouble inside your zone.
If a red-uniformed staff comes, call security—I have a gut feeling you can’t attack him.
Later, during the battle royale phase, move all the knocked-out Polluters near your hiding spot. Other Polluters will think someone’s already searching inside and won’t come over for a while.
Of course, eventually they’ll come check the area, but that’s when it all comes down to hard power. If you can hold out, you win; if not, you’re done.
As for me, I don’t have much else, but I did learn a bit of Taekwondo, hehe.
Oh, and there’s one thing you absolutely must pay attention to: destroy the corridor cameras in advance, or the Store Manager might not let it slide.
Also, don’t let other customers see you knock out a customer, or I’m guessing just one report will send you straight to game over.
Also, only one person can use this method per Copy, otherwise, during the battle royale phase, you can’t fish in troubled waters. Anyway, that’s how I cleared it—others can give it a try.]
[No.143: Wait, this actually works???]
[No.144 reply to No.142:
Wow, your method actually sounds viable! If I run into it, I’ll try it too.]
[No.145 reply to No.142:
That’s a lone wolf’s playstyle.]
[No.146 reply to No.142:
So you’re that player! When I was escaping, I saw your area full of knocked-out customers, and I wondered who could be that strong!]
[No.147: Learned something new, but this method doesn’t really suit me, I’m so weak, I could cry.]
[No.148: I have a hunch—this Copy is definitely about to become a bloodbath.]
***
“This… really is a genius.”
Seeing the only person in the thread who cleared her Copy, Su Shisan couldn’t help but sigh.
Even as the Copy creator, she hadn’t thought of such a method.
Post #142 exploited a bug: acting outside one’s designated area, which is far less restrictive than being inside.
If you attack customers within your area, even if nobody sees, you’ll still accumulate a lot of pollution.
But outside your area, the restrictions are much looser. While the player is still a supermarket employee, since the customer collapses outside the area, there’s no way to determine the culprit by region.
Pollution is halved and also split evenly among all supermarket staff.
In this situation, if there aren’t too many Polluters coming, a player really can hold out until the late stage.
But, as the poster said, only one person per Copy can really use this method. If too many try it, not to mention whether everyone can handle the split pollution, the Store Manager would definitely intervene.
After all, even simulated NPCs have some logical intelligence—if three or four natives come in and disappear, she might not notice, but seven or eight? She’d definitely pick up on it.
As true natives with Copy background memories, they usually come in groups to cause trouble. Even Polluters prefer to stick together.
If people who came together don’t come out at the appointed time, someone will go looking. A few missing isn’t a big deal, but too many missing, and they’re not stupid.
Using knocked-out Polluters to occupy territory in the late game is feasible—it keeps other Polluters from searching that area.
Polluters can sense traces of pollution, and if they feel it’s already polluted, they won’t waste time there.
But again, if too many players do this, it won’t work. Polluters always need something to do, and with so few areas, when other spots are crowded, someone will get diverted over.
So, once this method is public, it’s not so useful anymore. The more people try it, the faster they’ll die.
And, from the poster’s description, you can tell his Power Stat is definitely higher than his intelligence.
Remember, compared to ordinary people, Polluters have enhanced speed and strength—even a sneak attack isn’t easy.
And when the battle royale phase starts, they get even stronger. Lasting an hour without a Full-Charge Stun Baton is impressive.
Speaking of that two-hour battle royale period—when the System first reviewed the Copy, it actually got rejected. The early game was already hard enough, and then to add that on—how would players survive?
But Su Shisan provided official solutions, and none relied solely on brute force; she didn’t even require players to hide for two hours.
If she’d given only those near-impossible methods, the System would never have approved.
So, her first solution: get the security guard’s Full-Charge Stun Baton, hide it early on, and when found, fight and retreat toward the cashier. Stay at the cashier’s counter until the Copy ends.
That’s right—the cashier is actually one of the safe zones in this Copy. It can hold out for half an hour, but the space is small—only two people at most.
But there’s a condition: the cashier can’t leave the counter early on, no one else can touch the register, and you can’t hide at the counter during the battle royale.
The second solution is to find a way into the Store Manager’s office, which is another safe zone.
If the player has no pollution at all, and all other players are polluted, the Store Manager will protect the player and hide them in the safe.
Polluters will only come to the office in the last half hour if they haven’t found anyone. They can’t open the safe, so as long as you last that half hour, you’ll be fine.
Of course, players can also try confronting the Store Manager head-on—defeat her and take her territory. But then, the safe time in the office drops to just half an hour.
And again, the Store Manager is not easy to deal with. In the setting, she not only has a high Power Stat but also extremely high Mental Resistance—ordinary control methods are useless on her.
It’s worth mentioning that the Power Stat comes from [Sensitive Plant] herself. Don’t be fooled by her shy demeanor—she’s actually a Taekwondo Black Belt.
She just didn’t think it was anything worth bragging about, so she never mentioned it during her interview.
Su Shisan originally wanted to buy her a temporary Power Stat boost Prop to bolster her image. It wasn’t expensive—just around 100 Points for a temporary one.
But when she brought it up, [Sensitive Plant] quickly stopped her and demonstrated her own skills.
Whether she’s strong or not, Su Shisan doesn’t know—all she knows is, even teamed up with Zhen Jin, she still couldn’t beat her…
As for [Sensitive Plant]’s Mental Resistance, that was a Prop Su Shisan bought specifically, also a temporary boost, but much more expensive than the Power Stat Prop.
A 300-Point temporary Prop—even Su Shisan, who’s not stingy with Points, found it painful.
But it was necessary. As the investigator fighting against It, how could the Store Manager have low Mental Resistance?
If a player with a related talent or skill managed to control her, the Copy’s difficulty would drop drastically. So, no matter how expensive, Su Shisan still bought it.
And it proved absolutely necessary. Watching the replay, Su Shisan saw more than one player with the ability to control others. If she hadn’t bought that Prop, the Copy’s death rate would have dropped a lot.
In the future, key NPCs in every Copy will probably need to use these kinds of Props. If a key NPC gets controlled by a player, killing anyone in the Copy would be difficult.
Only her very first Copy didn’t have to worry about this. As an initial F-rank Copy, the “Horror Survival Game” kindly gave her a restriction: “Players can’t use any Props.”
If not for that, there probably would have been a full clear already. As long as players used Mental Enhancement Props to resist pollution, the Copy’s damage would have dropped significantly.
Or, if they managed to control the only NPC in the Copy with a Prop, the difficulty would instantly plummet.
When Su Shisan first made the Copy, she didn’t know players could use Props and skills, or that the Copy would be upgraded to E-rank, so there were a lot of oversights.
She sighed, thinking she should buy a permanent Mental Resistance boost Prop, or at least one that could be used repeatedly.
She wasn’t sure what traits she wanted for her next C-Rank NPC, but now Su Shisan was certain: it had to be strong in Mental Resistance. Compared to other abilities, that was most crucial for her Copies.
“Still, though…” The System hesitated, pouring cold water on her thoughts. “Even high Mental Resistance can’t block all mental control skills, especially since future players will be even stronger.”
It had no doubt Su Shisan would become a higher-level builder and face higher-level players.
Many high-level players have extremely powerful talent skills; even if they don’t, they have enough Points to buy useful things from the Player Mall.