Chapter 1 The Beginning

When k3 regained consciousness, he found himself in a completely unfamiliar place, in materialized form. His last memory was fighting two players in the courtyard outside an abandoned shrine.

Now, k3's eyes beheld a metallic, blue-gray world. He couldn't accurately gauge the actual size of the surrounding space, because his sense of distance was blurred. It was hard to tell whether a patch of gray-blue in the distance was a wall or the ground. Several strands of crimson data streams, about a palm's width, floated in the air like ribbons. Their length was unknown, extending all the way to the horizon. They appeared to be non-physical substances that one could pass through. Their shape changed due to refraction when viewed from different angles. In this somewhat monotonous world, these touches of red were a nice embellishment, but they probably wouldn't work as landmarks.

There was air here, and wind, with a temperature of about twenty degrees Celsius. The sky was cyan, without clouds, sun, moon, or stars. The firmament itself was glowing. The reception of auditory signals was normal. Besides his own voice, he could also hear the gentle sound of the wind.

"Is everything normal?" a childish voice sounded behind k3.

k3 turned around, but saw no one. He looked down and realized that it was a child standing behind him. The child was wearing a one-piece black outfit and looked like an eight or nine-year-old girl.

"You are..." k3 observed the other party on a semi-data level, and was shocked to find that the "light" contained in the little girl was dazzling beyond anything he had ever seen.

"x2-Yi," x2 replied, "Do you remember how you got here?"

k3 said, "I don't remember."

"Hmm...the partial short-term memory data wasn't fully converted? It should recover quickly," x2 murmured.

k3 said, "What is this place?"

"They call this the 'Desktop', a part of the Inner World, and also the largest part," x2 replied.

"The Inner World..." k3 said, "No wonder your designation is 2, and that light..."

"Now your designation is 2 too," x2 said, "You're k2-Chitie now."

"Heh...I finally reached level two?" k2 laughed, "But I don't feel like anything has changed qualitatively."

"To be precise, there's been no change at all," x2 said, "Entering the Inner World allows your designation to be upgraded to 2, but that only means you meet the basic requirements for level two. It doesn't mean you already have the abilities of level two."

"Then how can I..." k2 didn't finish his question.

"Don't rush to consider that question yet," x2 interrupted him. "Your damage seems to be more serious than I expected. The memory circuits aren't showing any signs of normal recovery." As she spoke, she tilted her head slightly, and the light of data streams gradually lit up in her eyes, indicating that she was observing k2's specific faults.

"If left unattended...there's a certain chance that it will develop into permanent redundant data. The restored data fragments and the unrestored, unreadable identical content will partially overlap, which may cause some non-fatal errors and affect the normal operation of the memory circuits." As she spoke, x2 extended her right hand and said, "Give me your hand, and I'll help you trace back and correct it."

k2 put his hand in x2's small hand, and x2 continued, "Recall the last memory layer before you came here. Stabilize it, and I'll help you read it."

Soon, the light of data streams also lit up in k2's eyes...

...

"Zen-ge, you're prepared to die too, right?" Feng Bujue said to Meng Jingchan.

"Whatever," Meng Jingchan's mind was clear. "If I quit myself, I'll have to suffer the penalty of not being able to queue up immediately. It's better to die in battle and avoid that problem."

"Then...try your best to keep up with my movements and cooperate with my attacks. Let's have a good fight with this Derivative," Feng Bujue said.

*Meng Jingchan thought:* Keep up with you? Are you kidding me? I could take on two of you without any problem. Just you swinging that folding chair? I can't keep up with your movements?

"I'll do my best..." Meng Jingchan didn't dare to reply with a retort, mainly because he was afraid that Feng Bujue would be unhappy and bring up the plot of the second half of Dragon Ball to bullshit again. From the situation so far, this guy could definitely do it.

Feng Bujue flipped his palms, and the Death Poker spread out in his hands like a fan blade. He instantly shuffled out four flushes, and twenty cards burst out with a burst of firelight like fireworks. As Feng Bujue spread his arms, four shuttle-like shadows flew towards k3 from four different angles. At the same time, Feng Bujue's own figure transformed into a bloody blur, as fast as lightning, and charged towards his opponent from the front.

Meng Jingchan was shocked. Aside from factors such as combat specialization and combat techniques, just looking at the speed, Feng Bujue was actually above him.

"Petty tricks," k3 stood proudly, opening his arms and igniting his Battle Qi again.

His palms coordinated with his Qi Shield to strike continuously, blasting out bursts of energy impact, directly opening a Qi curtain in mid-air to block the advance of the Death Poker. In an instant, palm shadows filled the sky, seemingly thousands upon thousands. The power and might of his moves were such that even two GMs present would have sighed in admiration.

The four flushes, from 10 to Ace, were shattered before they could get close to k3's body, turning into streamers and dissipating. But Feng Bujue himself had already charged to k3's front. There was only one card between his fingers, and he only needed this one card.

He came with explosive speed, slashing diagonally with one arm. The moment he struck, he was as fast as a startled goose. All that could be seen was a flash of the card, leaving a golden, brilliant arc in the air.

After this move, Feng Bujue immediately leaped backward in mid-air, once again distancing himself from his opponent.

In these short seconds, Feng Bujue could be said to have used a series of Spirit Arts, combining long-range and close-range attack methods, and even including the time difference in his calculations. Unfortunately, in the face of k3's absolute power, this attack still failed to produce any obvious effect.

However, it wasn't completely without effect.

A line of red appeared on the side of k3's neck. He moved his gaze down diagonally, touched his neck with his hand, and then saw the blood on his palm. After a second of愣, he laughed, "Ha! Good! Again!" As he said that, he even turned his head to look at Meng Jingchan, "This time, remember to come together."

Feng Bujue also had this intention. He couldn't afford to waste time. Now he didn't even have any survival value supplements. Once his survival value bottomed out a second time, he wouldn't be able to activate Spirit Gathering Body Technique again, and then he would only be able to take a beating.

Survival value was lost from 89% to 1% at a rate of 2% every five seconds. Even without counting combat losses, Feng Bujue only had two hundred and twenty seconds at best. The outcome would be revealed in less than four minutes.