4 Attack Settings
'Did something change in me?' Faced with the mirror inside the small bathroom in his apartment, Aldrin scrutinized his facial features as well as his upper body that was visible in it.
Nothing has changed. That's what he concluded.
Apart from feeling refreshed, the Dimensional Energy injected into him wasn't enough to thoroughly change his body and awaken himself as an Energy Refiner. Based on what he's feeling, it's only enough to refresh and reinforce his meager strength
Before the IDLE Database stopped its operation when he chose the 'Leave the Lower Dimension' option, the IDLE points that he got were converted to Dimensional Energy and were directly absorbed by him.
As for how his computer screen could bask him in pure Dimensional Energy, he had no idea.
It's one of the wonders of that bogus program that was promised to change his worthless life.
Nonetheless, when he felt that refreshing feeling of being basked with Dimensional Energy and absorbing it in his body as if he's a natural-born Energy Refiner, he finally believed that this sudden windfall in his life was true.
Those who wanted to become an Artificial Energy Refiner needed to be injected directly by a condensed Dimensional Energy and it was too painful according to the public information regarding it. It was as if they were forcing the normal body to adapt to the Dimensional Energy and refine it instinctively.
Moreover, it was too expensive for a normal citizen of any human planet.
Compared to that, this IDLE Database was too refreshing for him as if he was submerged in a medicinal bath that was fairly accessible during the olden times. Nowadays, a medicinal bath was something only a rich Refiner could afford. Moreover, the herbs they are using for those baths are something that also possessed Dimensional Energy properties.
Either way, Aldrin concluded that he probably needed to earn more IDLE points to truly become an Energy Refiner.
'What am I expecting? That I will finally become a superman that my parents will be proud of? Wake up, Aldrin! It isn't as easy as that.'
Slapping both of his cheeks to try and wake himself up to reality, he then shook his head to clear his mind before stepping inside his small bathroom to take a shower.
It was still dead in the night but because of the Dimensional Energy his body received, his previous sleepiness was now gone. Moreover, he clearly remembered the statistics shown before the IDLE Database closed. There were four more chances for him to send a Dimensional Clone to Lower Dimensions.
'Time waits for no one. I better use all those chances and see where it will take me!' With a new optimistic outlook welling up inside him, Aldrin swiftly finished his shower and went back in front of his computer.
Running the program again and ignoring the itch on his scalp when the little shadowy figure of the Dimensional Clone was formed once more, Aldrin then chose not to control it manually for the second time.
It's an idle game. He thought. Perhaps in the future, he would try it. However, for now… he'd have the Dimensional Clone work hard for him while he figures out the intricacies of this mystical game.
-
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When the program started, the Dimensional Clone was dropped in the same Small Insect Colony where all around it was grassland with grass as tall as buildings. It was like everything around it was gigantified.
While Aldrin was lost in his thoughts as he took in the scenery, he remembered that the shadowy figure forming from his hair was small.
'Is the Lower Dimension where it was originally sent to a small world? Is the Dimensional Clone in its original size? Is it not enlarged but the camera only zoomed in enough to see everything that's happening?'
A series of questions instantly filled his mind.
However, he instantly shook his head as he believed that he wouldn't be able to answer that suspicion of his.
Instead of mulling over it, he focused his eyes on his Dimensional Clone that already landed on the ground.
During the first 20 minutes, his Dimensional Clones still only targeted the Worker Ants it saw because they're the only ones that were tagged with the Normal difficulty. It never tried attacking any insect higher than it.
Because of that, it's having a hard time to rack up points like he intended to.
Within those 20 minutes, it attacked at least three Worker Ants but it only succeeded on one.
Fortunately, it hadn't gotten injured nor detected by the Ant Colony.
As he continued observing it, Aldrin concluded that even if it could fight a higher difficulty opponent, the Dimensional Clone would be left in tatters, even worse than when it was stabbed the first time or worse, it would just die.
It's still too weak that it could only prey on ants.
As time continued to pass, Aldrin continued watching the Dimensional Clone move about in his monitor. When he grew tired of it because of how slow his Dimensional Clone was in killing and gathering more IDLE Points for him, he then decided to check the whole game interface.
Apart from those four locked tabs, Aldrin found another feature that he hadn't explored yet.
The 'Options' menu.
After checking that there's no important thing happening on the screen with the Dimensional Clone, he moved his cursor and clicked on it.
'CLICK'
In the aftermath of that clicking sound, a rectangular interface appeared in the middle of his screen, fully covering the centered view on his monitor. Upon seeing it, the 'Options' menu was ultimately similar to most games. There, he could adjust the display, audio, and language. But there were also those he thought were unique for this game; the Target settings and the Attack settings.
He hovered his cursor towards each of those options and as he expected, a descriptive pop-up showed up.
'Target settings' was about what was the maximum difficulty the Dimensional Clone would attack.
'Attack settings' was about what kind of strategy the Dimensional Clone would use when attacking.
Since there was either Normal or Hard difficulty among the insects the Dimensional Clone encountered, he left the first setting alone.
After clicking onto the 'Attack Settings', another pop-up overlayed the middle of the screen. The default setting written on it was 'Attack on Sight'.
Clicking on the drop-down menu, two more Attack settings appeared.
'Observe First.'
'Set up an ambush.'
Upon reading that, Aldrin understandably shook his head as he thought about the earlier events during the first run of the Idle Adventure Mode.
No wonder the Dimensional Clone got stabbed during the first attempt. Mindlessly attacking as soon as it saw a suitable target because of that setting. It recklessly attacked as soon as it recognized the Worker Ant as one with a Normal difficulty.
After thinking about it, Aldrin noticed that it was also what his Dimensional Clone did during this current run.
'Fortunately, it won at first and it also retreated when it appeared impossible to beat the ant.' Aldrin muttered.
Perhaps that Dimensional Clone would most likely still charge through the whole Ant Colony if it saw a Normal Difficulty Worker Ant inside.
It's a great setting if the Dimensional Clone was already overpowered against these enemies. However, that's still far from the truth.
The Dimensional Clone who's probably a copy of him had surely improved a bit because Aldrin ingested Dimensional Energy from the converted experience points but it was far from enough for it to attack blindly and win spectacularly.
If Aldrin wanted to maximize his earnings through this shady program then he needed to think about the years of experience he lost from playing games instead of excelling at his academics.
He was aware of the possibility that the IDLE Database could be taken away from him by whoever was behind this that enticed him to change his life.
With that thought in mind, Aldrin focused back on his monitor to check on the Dimensional Clone.
And as he expected, the Dimensional Clone was about to attack another Worker Ant again that somehow appeared from the taller-than-human grass from the northwest direction.
With his hands swiftly moving the cursor to the Options Menu, Aldrin changed the Attack setting to 'Observe First'.
As soon as he hit 'Save', the charging Dimensional Clone halted on its steps and took a step back to maintain a distance from the Worker Ant who's carrying something like a gigantic grain of rice on top of its head.
The Dimensional Clone's head then began to scan its surroundings and when it deemed that there was no other insect around, it picked up a sharp stone from its feet and hid it behind him.
Following that, it calmly walked towards the unsuspecting Worker Ant and when it reached his arm's reach, the Dimensional Clone abruptly raised its arm and…
BAM!
Shrieek!
… Bashed the Worker Ant's head which resulted in it shrieking loudly.
Reading the status log below, Aldrin couldn't help but flash a satisfied smile.
"This is great."
