“Completed matches:”
“Road to Survival: The Resurrection Match You Were Forced to Enter After Getting Stuck by a Sword During Transmigration and Being Unable to Come Back to Life.”
“Difficulty: Easy.”
“Time coordinate: Three hours ago.”
“Requirement: Repel the kidnapper.”
“Match won.”
“You have escaped the kidnapping crisis.”
“From now on, you are the true Xu Yuan!”
“Your shop has officially updated to ‘Apprentice Qi Refiner's Combat Preparation Room.’”
“You have received a novice gift pack, to be distributed shortly!”
Xu Yuan let out a huge sigh of relief.
He finally had a legitimate “household registration,” a formal identity in this world.
And there was a novice gift pack!
—Beautiful youth, here I come!
The delicate body in his arms suddenly moved.
Xu Yuan's thoughts were instantly pulled back. He looked down and asked:
“You're awake?”
“Mm… what just happened?” The girl was somewhat bewildered.
“I happened to see you faint when I arrived, so I helped you up and had you sit here.” Xu Yuan smiled.
He brought the girl back to the gymnasium.
It was currently mealtime, and there weren't many people around, so explaining things wasn't troublesome.
The girl stared blankly for several seconds, as if thinking about what had just happened.
Her skin was fair, her stature tall, with neat bangs and bright eyes as moving as rippling water.
“I fainted…”
The girl repeated softly.
“It was probably low blood sugar that made you faint. You should pay attention to your health lately.” Xu Yuan made something up.
“I'm a Qi Refinement stage cultivator, I wouldn't get low blood sugar.” The girl hit him.
He could only smile.
Reaching the Qi Refinement stage was a prerequisite for university.
But the strength of Qi Refinement stage, first or second layer, was indeed limited.
—Only a little bit stronger than ordinary people, unable to withstand even guns and hand grenades.
What?
It seems I'm not even at Qi Refinement stage?
Trouble…
The girl saw his face changing constantly, and she suddenly seemed to remember something.
“This is returned to you.”
“Huh?” Xu Yuan was somewhat surprised.
The other party stuffed a letter into his hand, then stood up and walked toward the gymnasium exit.
“I can't accept this right now. I hope you study hard, at least awaken your qi sense, become a qi refining cultivator, and get into university first.”
“Good luck.”
The girl said in an encouraging tone, then got up and hurriedly left.
The fragrant wind had already departed with the beauty.
Xu Yuan stood frozen in place.
What?
You won't accept—
This letter?
He looked down, opened the envelope, pulled out the letter inside, and quickly read through it.
This was a love letter written by the original Xu Yuan!
—You were about to be nailed to the Jianghe Bridge with a sword, and you still had the mind to write a girl a love letter!
Not only rejected by the girl, but also increasing my workload!
Wait.
Xu Yuan suddenly furrowed his brows.
According to the original body's memories, he hadn't written any love letter.
So this letter was written by someone else?
Xu Yuan directly crumpled the love letter into a ball and threw it into the trash can.
The next second.
The lights on the gymnasium ceiling suddenly all went out.
In the darkness.
A line of flickering small characters suddenly appeared:
“New match already activated—”
“Road to Survival: The Resurrection Match You Were Forced to Enter After Getting Stuck by a Sword During Transmigration and Being Unable to Come Back to Life (First Half).”
“Difficulty: Hard.”
“Enter match immediately?”
“Once ready, please say ‘Ready.’”
Xu Yuan's face was full of question marks.
Hadn't the match already ended?
Why was it coming again?
Several new lines of small characters appeared:
“Unclear.”
“I am merely a manifestation of your own ability, projected into reality according to your understanding of combat.”
“You must explore unknown matters yourself and turn them into intelligence.”
Xu Yuan fell silent for a moment.
My understanding of combat, huh…
The match difficulty had jumped from “Easy” to “Hard.”
If according to my understanding, that meant—
The matter of the original “Xu Yuan” being nailed to the bridge with a sword hid circumstances behind it that absolutely could not be resolved in a single battle.
Indeed.
He had repelled the enemy once.
But from here on out.
The enemy's counterattack would be even more ferocious.
The battle difficulty would be higher!
Just as Xu Yuan was thinking, he suddenly felt an uncomfortable sensation—
Like being stared at fiercely by female perverts, extremely unpleasant.
This was a common occurrence.
As the global esports champion and most valuable player, he was practically a walking human-shaped vault.
He didn't know how many people wanted to cling to him.
Even just by leeching off his popularity, they could release livestreams and posts, eat up traffic and monetize it.
Those innocent young guys usually didn't know how to handle it.
Fortunately, I, Xu Yuan, have experience.
Xu Yuan subconsciously puffed out his chest and looked up.
Only to see, on the gymnasium ceiling, a long rope hanging down.
A humanoid being with six arms was hanging upside down from the rope, its cold eyes staring right at him.
Their gazes met.
A moment of silence.
“Not taking photos today, no autographs either.”
Xu Yuan stubbornly finished reciting his anti-female-pervert line.
The air seemed to grow cold.
That six-armed freak held it in for a moment, finally speaking:
“A neurotic high schooler… To think I would actually need to make a move against you.”
“You want a man-to-man contest?” Xu Yuan probed.
“Why not.” The six-armed freak said.
Xu Yuan suddenly relaxed.
This guy was a bit strange—
Having six arms—if he used “Six Arms” as a nickname it would be way too cool, because it basically sounded like “badass”—
—but at least this guy didn't have the kind of ill intentions female fans had.
We're all bros here.
How about I debut you?
Xu Yuan's hand reached behind his back, immediately preparing to grab his heavy sniper and take a shot.
But the camouflage bag was already gone.
Only then did he remember—
There were no guns left in his shop!
The shop had officially updated to “Apprentice Qi Refiner's Combat Preparation Room!”
—Was there any item that could be put to use?
His gaze flashed as he looked toward the shop appearing in the void.
“Please wait.”
“Goods will begin stocking after the novice gift pack is distributed.”
What the hell!
You should give me the gift pack then!
You want me to face this monster empty-handed?
In his panic, Xu Yuan shouted:
“Who are you? What do you want?”
“Don't mind who I am, in any case, I came here to kill you.” The six-armed monster said.
“How mean!” Xu Yuan said somewhat aggrievedly.
The six-armed monster's mouth twitched.
—Damn, I've killed so many people, and this is the first time I've heard someone say “how mean” before dying.
“Enough. You're just an extremely ordinary student, you don't deserve everything you've obtained.”
The six-armed monster said.
“Nonsense, I haven't gotten anything!” Xu Yuan was even more aggrieved.
I worked hard to finish one match—
And in the end I don't even have a weapon, I'm going to die here?
Then what was the point of everything I did!
Yet he saw that freak lightly leap down from the ceiling, landing silently opposite Xu Yuan.
“Why know so much, anyway you're going to die.”
He said lightly.
On his six hands appeared respectively a knife, sword, spear, axe, shield, and hammer.
—Six kinds of weapons in total!
Each weapon was wreathed in powerful energy fluctuations, even emitting faint spiritual light.
“Take out your weapon. I'll give you a clean death.” The six-armed monster said indifferently.
Weapon—
Xu Yuan looked down at himself.
Two hands.
One dick.
—What a ripoff!
The next instant.
He saw flickering small characters rapidly appear:
“A new match is about to begin. Its name is:”
“Funeral Dirge (Cage Match).”
“Difficulty: Nightmare.”
“Please choose—”
“Begin this Nightmare-level fighting match, or begin the Hard-difficulty exploration match ‘Road to Survival: The Resurrection Match You Were Forced to Enter After Getting Stuck by a Sword During Transmigration and Being Unable to Come Back to Life (First Half).’”
Was there even a choice!
I have no weapons, not even a moveset, and my health bar is several times shorter than yours—
Who wants to play cage fighting with you!
“Really? I can't even know why I have to die?”
Xu Yuan asked.
The freak said: “The fate of the weak has always been like this. I advise you to hurry up and say your last words.”
Xu Yuan fell silent.
Seeing this, the freak nodded slightly and said: “It seems you've accepted your fate. Then let's end this quickly.”
“Too interesting.” Xu Yuan suddenly said.
“What?” The freak thought he had heard wrong.
He looked across and saw Xu Yuan staring deeply at him, as if appreciating a work of art.
The freak froze, and couldn't help asking:
“What's so interesting?”
“You.” Xu Yuan said.
A world where one can “refine qi,” and such strange lifeforms exist.
This place was ten thousand times vaster than the esports stage.
If he could cultivate—
If there was time to let him obtain weapons and skills, raise his strength, and throw himself into this kind of wonderful battle, that would truly be too fun!
As for victory or defeat, life or death—
I was Earth's champion representative in esports, I'm not scared at all!
If I die, I blame no one. Screw it!
“Die.”
The freak shouted angrily, leaping high, all kinds of weapons in his hands slashing down toward Xu Yuan.
In this instant.
Xu Yuan's face recovered its calm, and he spat out three words:
“Ready.”
Before he even finished speaking.
A long progress bar appeared!
Flickering small characters crazily surfaced, turning into rows of prompts on his retina:
“Ability activation successful.”
“Currently entering match:”
“Road to Survival: The Resurrection Match You Were Forced to Enter After Getting Stuck by a Sword During Transmigration and Being Unable to Come Back to Life (First Half).”
“Difficulty: Hard.”
“Time coordinate: Three days ago.”
“Requirement: Investigate the reason Xu Yuan was killed.”
“Explanation: Something must have happened during these three days that the original Xu Yuan overlooked, and it determined Xu Yuan's fate.”
“Failure will result in being struck by a flying sword and nailed to death.”
“Success will grant rewards and qualification to enter the second half of the match.”
“Begin!”