[Host detected entering a brawling ground for depraved adventurers!]
[Daily Quest updated!]
[New Daily Quest 5: Grinding Teeth and Sucking Blood!]
[Despite repeated reminders for the Host to abandon the illusion that he is human, he still seems unwilling to kill other adventurers. As such, honing his killing techniques in a virtual network is not a bad way to compensate.]
[Quest Requirement: Defeat at least one adventurer in a virtual competitive match each day.]
[Quest Reward: EXP +50, Free Attribute Points +0.5.]
[This quest can be completed repeatedly. Maximum completions: 5 times.]
The fifth daily quest was added by the system.
It even threw in a jab at Lin Ye while it was at it.
But regardless, this daily quest was perfectly aligned with Lin Ye's current goal.
He might as well get it done.
He clicked 'Start Matchmaking', but a series of pop-up boxes appeared before him.
[No pre-registered weapon data detected. Please return to reality and select the corresponding module to register. If registration is not possible, please select a weapon type. The system will provide a standard-issue weapon.]
[Please select the level of pain feedback.]
Weapon registration was, of course, for Martial Artists in the real world who already had their own preferred weapons. Lin Ye had none, so he could only choose from the system's default weapons.
After selecting the staff as his weapon, Lin Ye immediately cranked the pain feedback to the max.
[Warning: 100% pain feedback will perfectly simulate all damage from real combat and may place extreme strain on your Spirit. Not recommended for first-time users!]
Lin Ye looked at the warning prompt before him without any hesitation.
He confirmed.
[Settings saved.]
[Matching you for your first placement match...]
[Match found!]
VMMMM—
The next second, Lin Ye's feet landed on solid ground.
It was a dilapidated city street, flanked by long-abandoned, ruined buildings. The ground was covered in cracks and scattered rubble.
A hundred meters away from him, on the opposite side, a figure materialized.
It was a tall, slender young man dressed in a flowing white martial arts uniform. He held a thin alloy sword and wore a nonchalant, playful smile.
"Yo, a newbie?"
The opponent had clearly seen the gray "Unranked" badge above Lin Ye's head.
"A staff? People still use such a clumsy weapon these days?"
"Kid, you're pretty lucky. Running into me for your first placement match. I'll give you a three-move head start. Try not to make it too ugly."
Lin Ye didn't reply.
He simply held the standard-issue longstaff in one hand, its tip angled toward the ground.
[Battle Start!]
The instant the cold system prompt sounded,
the smile had yet to fade from the young man's face.
Lin Ye was already in motion.
He stomped his foot, and his entire body shot forward like a cannonball, hurtling straight toward his opponent with a ferocious, unstoppable momentum.
The young man's frivolous expression instantly froze, replaced by a look of astonishment.
'So fast!'
'Such ferocious momentum!'
He had no time to think, hastily raising his sword to block.
Lin Ye gripped the staff with both hands, twisting all his strength into a single force, and brought it crashing down from above in the simplest, most brutish way possible!
Heavy Staff Form!
WHOOSH—!
The longstaff tore through the air with a heavy roar!
It didn't look like a staff at all, more like a colossal siege hammer!
The young man's pupils shrank. He wanted to dodge, but found he was completely enveloped by the staff's momentum, with no way to escape!
He could only grit his teeth, pour all the Qi and Blood in his body into his longsword, and raise it horizontally above his head!
"CLANG—!"
A deafening screech of metal on metal erupted!
The next second, the Swordsman who had offered a three-move handicap, sword and all, was smashed head to toe straight into the hard concrete by Lin Ye's earth-shattering strike!
Under the immense impact, his body instantly twisted and deformed, dissolving into motes of light that vanished into the air.
An instant kill!
Lin Ye slowly retracted his staff and stood tall.
[Ding! Daily Quest: Grinding Teeth and Sucking Blood (1/5) completed!]
[Reward: EXP +50, Free Attribute Points +0.5.]
[Ding! You have killed an adventurer in a virtual match and gained EXP +15!]
The system had mentioned before that fighting adventurers could also grant EXP!
It wasn't much, but every little bit counted!
Without any hesitation, Lin Ye immediately clicked to match for the next fight.
His second opponent was an agility-type Martial Artist who used dual blades. But under the ferocious assault of Lin Ye's heavy staff, he was full of openings and was finished off by Lin Ye in three strikes, all in under ten seconds.
His third opponent was a master of fist techniques, incredibly fierce and powerful. After clashing head-on with Lin Ye once, his arm was shattered, and he was taken out by the follow-up combo.
Lin Ye bulldozed his way through, utterly crushing his opposition.
He could clearly feel that starting from the third match, the opponents the system matched him with were rapidly increasing in skill.
When the prompt for the start of the fourth battle sounded, Lin Ye noticed that his opponent this time was different.
It was a burly man over two meters tall, encased in a mechanical exoskeleton with a heavy industrial aesthetic. Jets of pale blue gas occasionally vented from its joints, and in his hands, he held an energy gun with a barrel the size of a cannon.
More importantly, the level number above his head was no longer LV5 like Lin Ye's.
It was LV6!
In the end, Lin Ye won the fourth match.
But it was an extremely difficult victory.
The opponent's ranged firepower was fierce and brutal. And with the enhancement of his Mecha, his physical stats were in no way inferior to Lin Ye's.
The moment the match began, Lin Ye was suppressed by a dense barrage of energy beams, unable to even lift his head.
He changed his tactics, no longer charging in recklessly. Instead, he moved stealthily behind the map's cover like the most patient of Hunters.
When he finally got close again, his Staff Skill had also changed, shifting from the wide, powerful swings of the heavy staff to the dense, rain-like strikes of the Flowing Staff.
CLANG CLANG CLANG!
Countless sparks erupted in the narrow alleyway.
He used an impenetrable defense to deflect his opponent's final counterattack, then twisted his longstaff to disarm him. A clean, decisive thrust immediately followed, ending the battle.
In the exchange, the opponent's energy gun had blown off most of his arm.
A pyrrhic victory!
However, when Lin Ye began his final placement match...
He gave up his first blood on this platform.
He lost.
He lost in a daze, not quite sure how it happened.
His opponent's level jumped to LV7. His ID was "Lone Wolf." He didn't exchange any words with Lin Ye and used a plain, unremarkable combat blade.
In terms of pure strength, his opponent was comparable to him; even if he was stronger, it wasn't by much.
But from the very first second of the fight, Lin Ye was forced onto the absolute defensive.
His opponent's blade work, however, was elusive and traceless. He could always find a gap in Lin Ye's defense, leaving one deep, bone-visible wound after another on his body.
The flow of offense and defense reversed in an instant.
This time, he was completely suppressed from start to finish.
Even after his virtual body was decapitated by a single slash, Lin Ye's mind was still stuck in that feeling of frustration and helplessness.
'How did I lose?'
Back in the matchmaking space, Lin Ye didn't immediately start another match. Instead, the first thing he did was open the post-battle review function.
He needed to figure out exactly where he had gone wrong.
A screen of light appeared, and the battle recording began to play.
Lin Ye immediately set the playback speed to 0.25x slow motion.
In the video, every one of his own staff swings was powerful and imposing, unleashing his full body's strength like a shotgun blast, covering a wide area.
However, in slow motion, he could clearly see that most of his Qi and Blood had dissipated uselessly into the air before it even reached the tip of his staff.
In contrast, every one of Lone Wolf's slashes seemed so reserved and precise.
His Qi and Blood was highly condensed, as if his blade was coated in a thin film of energy almost invisible to the naked eye.
Wherever the blade went, its power was focused into a single line, like a precise sniper bullet, easily tearing through his seemingly impenetrable net of staff swings.
"So that's how it is..." Lin Ye muttered to himself.
His own use of Qi and Blood was too simple, too primitive!
His opponent, on the other hand, had clearly mastered a more advanced and efficient method of channeling energy!
And besides using Qi and Blood, there was another power involved that he didn't understand.
That power had been the deciding factor in the fight.
Lin Ye silently opened his match history and sent a friend request to Lone Wolf.
It wasn't that he wanted to provoke him or engage in any friendly post-match chat.
He simply wanted to get his revenge later.
Lone Wolf quickly accepted Lin Ye's friend request.
"?"
"Another match some other day?"
"Sure."
Their exchange was incredibly brief.
But Lin Ye was satisfied. At least he hadn't run off.
Just then, the system's final evaluation results appeared before his eyes.
[Placement Matches Completed!]
[Record: 4 Wins - 1 Loss - 0 Draws]
[Win Rate: 80%]
[Initial Rank: Black Iron II]
[Overall Combat Power Index: 31]
Lin Ye hadn't closed the match history, so he could clearly see that "Lone Wolf's" Overall Combat Power Index was 39.
Lin Ye closed the match history and opened the leaderboards.
Filter: Dongjiang City.
Division: Entry-Level Martial Artist Division.
The next moment, a shimmering leaderboard appeared before him.
Lin Ye's gaze fell directly on the ID at the very top of the list.
[NO.1: Blood Moon]
[Rank: Platinum I]
[Record: 414 Wins - 39 Losses - 6 Draws]
[Win Rate: 90.1%]
[Overall Combat Power Index: 137]
An absurdly high win rate!
And a combat power index more than four times his own!
And when Lin Ye subconsciously clicked on Blood Moon's personal profile,
he saw a small tag next to the ID's rank information.
[Official Martial Artist Division: Bronze III (27 Wins - 2 Losses)]
'Someone my age... is already running riot in the Official Martial Artist division?'
Judging by the win rate, this person must have just started playing in the Official Martial Artist division. Bronze III was nowhere near their true rank.
Chen Meng's words from that afternoon still echoed in his ears.
Lin Ye took a deep breath, a fighting spirit igniting within him.
'I haven't become a genius. I've merely gone from being mediocre to being normal. These geniuses on the leaderboard... I will surpass them, one by one!'