Chapter 164 – Your Game Time is Over

The Level B task point he just completed was filled entirely with Mechanical Bodies.

Equipped with fierce firepower, they operated according to pre-set programs.

For Lu Yuan, it was a breeze.

With high intelligence and awakened Mental Power, his extraordinary perception was extremely useful in battles against these Mechanical Bodies.

Lu Yuan could scout through walls and “predict” the timing and direction of their attacks by triggering internal components of the Mechanical Bodies.

Each Mechanical Body had a power rating of C+ or even B-.

Their guns, seemingly menacing, stood there like large metal toys in Lu Yuan’s eyes.

If it weren’t for the Yellow Bear New Blood assessment preventing him from exposing his Death Messenger (Extraordinary) professional panel skills, he would have summoned death energy, activated the Underworld Garment, and brazenly crushed them under a rain of bullets.

“Wow, I’m on the leaderboard.”

Lu Yuan clicked on the new blood ranking and was surprised to see his name at the top.

He had 1580 points.

Almost four times that of the Second Place, someone named Teng Xiangqing.

“Not bad, not bad. Keep it up.”

As a former top student, Lu Yuan still had a lingering obsession with the word “First.”

If there’s a chance to compete, he would definitely go for it.

He opened the public channel, which was flooded with messages like “666” and “Big Shot, please carry me, team up with me.”

Occasionally, there were skeptical voices like “How is this possible?”, “Is this cheating?”, “Who is Lu Yuan? Does anyone know? Quick, dig up some info.”

Lu Yuan glanced at it briefly and lost interest.

He pulled up the task map again and selected the nearest Level A task point to head towards.

On the way, he casually brought up his professional panel.

[You Experienced a Battle, professional experience +64]

[You Experienced a Battle, professional experience +78]

[You Experienced a Battle…]

…

The panel was filled with a bunch of notification messages.

Lu Yuan’s [Martial Artist] profession was just about 100 experience points away from leveling up, and now it finally did.

Currently, he was [Martial Artist lv 8 (722/12800)].

He gained 1 skill point and 1 attribute point.

“Completing a Level B task point netted me almost a thousand experience points. That’s really fast…”

Lu Yuan’s eyes sparkled, and a wave of inexplicable excitement surged in his heart.

For a moment, he felt an overwhelming urge to clear out all the task points on the entire map right now!

He rarely had the chance to fight seriously.

Strong opponents were even harder to come by.

That’s why his [Martial Artist] professional experience had been growing sporadically.

Now, with so many “high-quality” experience points available, Lu Yuan couldn’t hold back his excitement.

“No, I need to speed up.”

Lu Yuan’s expression turned serious, and his gaze became resolute.

His pace quickened, eventually turning into a full sprint.

He dashed through the streets of Smokeless City like a hurricane, charging towards the Level A task point.

“I must… before the other new bloods react…”

“Clear all the Level A and above tasks!”

…

Dreamseeker Bar.

A group of four, including the long-haired youth, remained silent.

The table they had accidentally broken earlier had been replaced with a new one.

All four kept their heads down, quickly browsing through the information on their task wristwatches.

No one knew how much time had passed when someone suddenly spoke up.

“Could it be someone with the same name?”

“There are 179 people in the assessment. The likelihood of a duplicate name is low… but not impossible. After all, Lu Yuan isn’t exactly a rare name.”

“Come on, what’s the point of guessing? Why don’t we just ask him directly!”

The blue-haired boy suddenly became agitated, but the next second, he let out a surprised “Huh?”

“He already left the group.”

Sitting across from the blue-haired boy, Xiang Shenghao’s dark, mature face showed deep regret and disappointment.

“Should’ve added him as a friend back then…”

“Yeah, I didn’t add him.”

“Me neither… damn it!”

The long-haired youth grabbed a bottle from the table and lightly tapped it against the table in frustration.

This time, he didn’t use the exoskeleton on his arm, so the table just wobbled slightly.

At this moment, the punk girl Xu Chengying suddenly spoke up, “Actually… I have his contact information.”

“Swish”

The other three perked up immediately. The blue-haired boy banged on the table and shouted, “I knew it, I knew it! You were interested in him all along. You kept sneaking glances at him on the shuttle… and you added him as a friend, didn’t you!”

“Shut up!”

Xu Chengying’s face turned slightly red, as if her secret had been publicly exposed. She retorted stubbornly, “You don’t know anything. He added me as a friend first. I just accepted it.”

“Still denying it…”

“Enough, enough. This isn’t the time to argue about that.”

The long-haired youth pressed down on the two who were quarreling and hurriedly asked, “Can you ask him if the one who soloed the Level B task was him?”

“I’m already asking!”

Xu Chengying waved her hand impatiently, her eyes fixed on the task wristwatch on her wrist.

The other three also stared intently at her wristwatch, not blinking.

Time ticked by, and everyone felt like they could hear the ticking of a clock.

Finally…

“He replied.”

Xu Chengying suddenly spoke.

“What did he say? Was it him?”

The waiting trio perked up, their faces full of anticipation.

“No…”

Xu Chengying shook her head.

“I knew it!”

The blue-haired boy was the first to jump up, electricity sparking from his hands as he sneered, “With his look… how could he possibly have the strength to solo a Level B task?”

Despite his words, the blue-haired boy couldn’t shake the memory of the unsettling look Lu Yuan had given him on the shuttle.

The long-haired youth looked equally disappointed, “Seems like it really was a duplicate name.”

“Not necessarily.”

The calm and composed Xiang Shenghao spoke up, “Maybe he’s lying to us?”

The blue-haired boy and the long-haired youth were stunned by Xiang Shenghao’s suggestion. Instinctively, they looked up at Xu Chengying again.

“Ask him again… ask what he’s doing now?”

Xu Chengying nodded.

Soon, there was a reply.

“He said…”

Xu Chengying glanced at the information on her wristwatch, her expression slightly peculiar as she spoke, “He’s playing a game.”

…

“Bang!”

Lu Yuan’s powerful right arm, enveloped in a dense yellow inner strength, smashed a mechanical head with glowing red eyes into pieces.

Countless parts exploded in all directions.

The headless combat mechanical body emitted blue smoke and collapsed to the ground with a few creaks.

Lu Yuan was currently in a massive underground arcade.

All around him were active game machines, with the electronic sounds of racing, fishing, basketball, dance, and claw machines filling the air.

It was an environment designed to stimulate dopamine secretion.

Unfortunately, in this vast arcade, apart from Lu Yuan, there were only combat robots wielding machine guns and rocket launchers running amok.

[Task Level: A+]

[Task Objective: Defeat the Electronic Enthusiast and rescue the hostages]

[Task Reward: 10,000 points (base)]

[Task Details——

The evil Electronic Enthusiast has kidnapped all the players in the game city. He is obsessive, cruel, and violent.

He forces every player to play games with him.

Losers are brutally killed, and even the winners cannot escape the same fate.

Rescue the hostages from this dire situation immediately!

Task Point Map: Click to expand

Guard Distribution Map: Click to expand

Guard Information——Ordinary Guards: Level B robots, primary attack methods (ion pulse guns…)

Leader: Electronic Enthusiast, Comprehensive Strength Assessment: A, Half-Cyborg, proficient in martial arts, possesses some long-range attack capabilities…

Note: Death row prisoner, killable]

Lu Yuan’s figure flickered.

After his constitution points broke the limit, the 20 constitution points invisibly boosted the other three attributes.

His agility points remained at 18, but his agility had significantly improved.

With the support of exceptional neural reaction speed and the Lv3 [Absolute Concentration] state, his combat intuition was maximized.

Lu Yuan weaved through the scarlet energy beams like a phantom, his expression calm and his movements graceful.

He moved like a martial arts artist elegantly dancing amidst a hail of bullets.

In a flash, he appeared before a nearly three-meter-tall Mechanical Body.

The enormous cannon on its chest began rapidly gathering red light, as if a scarlet dragon were about to break free…

“Whoosh—”

The yellow inner strength glowed like flickering flames, and his leg sliced through the air.

The three-meter-tall combat Mechanical Body’s big move was interrupted before it could launch, struck by a terrifying force.

With a thunderous crash, it flew backward, shattering into pieces in mid-air before it even hit the ground.

The techniques of Phased Power Exertion and Multi-stage Exertion, combined with Lv4 Ten Thousand Refined Crane Bone Technique, were highly effective against these seemingly tough Mechanical Bodies.

“Boom—”

Several basketball machines against the wall exploded, engulfed in crimson flames, with the constant popping sound of burning basketballs.

After dealing with the last outer guard, Lu Yuan lightly dusted off his clothes and adjusted his black-framed glasses.

He was about to venture deeper into the arcade to find the final boss, the Electronic Enthusiast.

At that moment…

“Ding—”

A notification arrived on his task wristwatch.

As Lu Yuan walked towards the final level of the arcade, he casually glanced at the message.

One Shot Headshot (Xu Chengying): “Be honest, are you the Lu Yuan who’s ranked first on the new blood ranking?”

Lu Yuan: “No.”

This was from his earlier conversation with the punk girl.

After making it onto the ranking, his strength was exposed, and he feared that these novice teammates, forcibly assigned at the start, might bombard him with messages.

So he decisively denied his identity.

Unexpectedly, the punk girl sent another message to “bother” him.

One Shot Headshot (Xu Chengying): “I don’t believe you (pouting). You’re definitely lying to me.”

Lu Yuan: “Don’t believe me then (smiling).”

One Shot Headshot (Xu Chengying): “What are you doing now?”

What am I doing now?

Lu Yuan glanced around.

He had already reached the final level of this Level A+ arcade task instance.

The area was cluttered with all sorts of old two-player fighting game machines.

Some of these machines were broken, with black screens, and even shattered monitors and joysticks.

Others were still on, emitting game sounds like “Hadouken” and “Shoryuken.”

Directly in front of Lu Yuan, someone was sitting with their back to him, intensely focused on playing a game on one of the fighting machines.

Even while seated, this person’s height was nearly over two meters.

Their massive, burly back muscles looked like black granite, interspersed with some blue circuit tubes that pulsed with light.

“I’m playing a game.”

Lu Yuan replied to Xu Chengying, “About to reach the boss.”

He casually snapped a photo of a nearby fighting game machine’s screen and sent it to Xu Chengying, then stopped paying attention to the messages.

After doing this, Lu Yuan gently removed his glasses and placed them on a nearby game machine’s shelf.

He then slowly walked towards the burly man sitting on the floor with his back to him.

As he walked, he gradually unbuttoned the white buttons on the collar of his school uniform shirt.

His well-proportioned, slender body began to swell.

A series of sounds like taut steel cables emanated from his entire body.

“Just a heads-up.”

“Your game time… is over.”

“Beep”

As the character on the game screen died, the burly man sitting in front of the game machine stopped his actions.

He slowly turned around, revealing a face that looked like it had been haphazardly stitched together with needle and thread, with wires and metal tubes exposed everywhere.

The man’s crude electronic eyes, emitting blue light, radiated intense ferocity and cruelty.

But the moment he fully turned around, he was momentarily stunned.

In front of him stood a figure even more imposing and robust, exuding an invisible pressure that crashed down like waves.

Amidst the vast shadows, the young man towering over him grinned, revealing a set of cold, white teeth.

Then, he spoke softly.

“Would you like to continue?”