Is this something that a game should even have?
Are you sure no one’s gonna come after you because of this?
"What a coincidence, we’re fighting the little ’Neons too, but those little ’Neons have some skills. They’re not easy to deal with, you better be careful."
The Big Guy didn’t dare mention they had been rubbed against the ground 17 times by the Tiger Claw Gang thugs.
Instead, Brother Ni kindly suggested,
"Definitely don’t go for a frontal assault. It absolutely won’t work, at least not for us now. Maybe we can try a different approach, like stealth and stuff."
Brother Dao nodded and then dragged Red Barrel and the Crappy Warrior to open a room.
Open a room for a dungeon, not the other thing.
Another hour passed, both sides finished exchanging experiences.
The Wildman snapped back to reality, feeling dazed, and instinctively touched his face and body.
Seeing this, Brother Ni, who emerged from [Stealth] training, asked curiously, "What’s up? You look like you lost your soul."
Wildman shook his head, "I chose [Fighting], and damn, the coach beat me terribly, plus you can’t turn off the pain in there, just slightly lower it. It’s freaking awful."
The Neon coach didn’t teach what Wildman expected, like Kyokushin Karate, Ninja Art, or Taekwondo.
Damn it, they taught Free Fighting, and it was unrestricted Free Fighting, no limits on elbows, joint techniques, wrestling, and all kinds of moves, with only one goal—to beat the enemy to death.
The fastest way to improve was sparring, so Brother Ni turned into a punching bag. The coach would teach you a move or two, then spar. If you didn’t learn well, you’d keep getting hit until you got it.
In that environment, your stamina constantly recovered, and injuries healed instantly, leaving you no time to catch a breath.
After an hour of beating, he gained [Basic Fighting LV1].
Brother Ni clicked his tongue. His stealth training wasn’t as bad. It was all about recognizing sounds and positions, identifying obstacles and cover, spotting potential hidden paths, and judging camera ranges and blind spots. At worst, you just started over if caught, not beaten.
The Big Guy looked at Brother Dao and the others who woke up together and eagerly asked, "What about you? How many times did you die?"
Red Barrel rubbed his back of the head, "Three times, I think. By the fourth time, the countdown started, and we figured we couldn’t go any further, so we just let it go."
"Whoa, how did you manage that?" The Big Guy was shocked.
Then Brother Dao began his tale.
"You guys said at first not to go for the frontal attack, right? So we thought maybe there was another way. Then Red Barrel suggested maybe we could just walk in without fighting, since it was obviously not a legit place."
Everyone’s eyes suddenly turned to this civil engineering guy.
You could smell the chicken without entering the place...
"Cough...back in the day, I accompanied leaders for entertainment. Just accompanied them, I didn’t do anything, really."
Red Barrel was a bit embarrassed.
"When we got there, we threw our bags on the roadside; after all, those NPCs were virtual, no one would take them."
"When the thugs stopped us, we just said we were going in for fun. After checking us for weapons, they let us in."
Potato and the others nearly went crazy. They struggled and died dozens of times without even touching the door, while these few just casually walked into the club?
Brother Ni gave them an ’I get it’ look, "Hey, tell us, what’s inside? Any exciting programs?"
"It’s alright, a bit thrilling but not that explicit yet." Brother Dao coughed, "We could only hang around the first-floor lobby. The setting was quite suggestive, with girls pole dancing, even... A lot of people were watching Dream and we tried it, but saw nothing when we wore it."
"And they didn’t have what we were looking for on the first floor. The guards forbade us from going to the second floor, saying we didn’t have a VIP card, and if we forced our way in, we’d be shot down. There were surveillance cameras everywhere, stealth didn’t work, and we were wiped out the first time."
"The second time, we tried to find a breakthrough elsewhere, entering from the nearby apartment buildings to gather clues. Guess what? We found a female hacker on the second floor. The hacker seemed to know us, leading us to the rooftop, not only hacking the club’s cameras but also guiding us on how to infiltrate and steal, significantly reducing the difficulty."
The Wildman asked eagerly, "So, did you steal the stuff?"
The Crappy Warrior smiled awkwardly.
"No, when I jumped off the building, I slipped and fell to my death from the third floor to the first floor."
"That place’s narrow and high, plus you have to walk along the window ledge to kill someone. An ordinary person can’t do it. We tried twice and failed both times."
"But that scene designer is really awesome. The details are exploding with materials. I suggest after logging off, we find a blueprint or use 3D software to map out the club’s building and terrain, then deduce a strategy."
Now everyone realized this instance’s difficulty was not ordinary high, likely taking a long time to conquer.
But the players didn’t know that one day Lin Miao would lead them to the real Phoenix Club entrance, where they could only wish Jotaro luck then.
"By the way, why haven’t we seen the BOSS?"
"He said he had something to do, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen him at night."
Li Jiangang took off her helmet and took a deep breath of fresh air. Although she had been busy in the game all day, she felt particularly energetic now, almost like waking up naturally on a weekend without her mom pulling off the quilt.
When she went out to wash up, her mother who was cooking saw her enter the bathroom and then looked at her phone, suddenly surprised,
"Why are you up so early today? Are you meeting friends? Is the apocalypse coming or what?"
"You make me sound like a piglet, do I only know how to sleep in?"
Li Jiangang grumbled a bit discontentedly. After washing up, she didn’t care about the heat as she grabbed a bun from the steamer on the table, blew on it, and threw it into her mouth.
Sitting on the sofa with reading glasses and a newspaper, her dad saw his daughter arrive and asked without lifting his head,
"Got fooled, eh? I told you long ago virtual reality technology is impossible; it’s just a finance trick to hype stocks. How much did you spend on that big helmet?"
"Hm, I said it’s real, do you believe me?" Li Jiangang sat beside her father and stuffed a small bun into his mouth.
"Stubborn mouth." Her dad ate the bun, lowered the newspaper, and said, "Finish your Master’s, choose a stable job, stay in the research institute, don’t fool around with games all day."
"Sure, but can you not nag about this early in the morning?" Li Jiangang felt a bit impatient at first, then curiously asked, "Dad, do you believe another world exists, just because a change in a historical node sent it down a completely different path from ours?"
"Of course I believe that, but I think you should wash your face, because I think you’re not awake yet."
"Tch! Not talking to you, stubborn old man!" Li Jiangang pouted displeasedly, snatching three or four buns from the plate and walked to her room.
Her mom came out of the kitchen with porridge and shouted to her, "Hey, where are you going?"
Her mom looked strangely at her husband, "Isn’t it summer break now?"
"Who knows what she’s up to, maybe she’s been swindled and crying under the covers."
"I think it’s more likely she’ll smash the helmet with a wrench and throw it out."