CHAPTER 15: CHAPTER 12: THIS GAME WILL EXPLODE

"Impressive! Truly deserving of the title of a master of the heavy spear!"

"Those White Feather Gang guys weren’t lying!"

Hou Fei, with his three-meter-tall figure, burst into hearty laughter. Though his hands holding the saber trembled uncontrollably, and his body suffered significant internal injuries from the impact of weapon clashes, his gaze towards Qin Mu was exceptionally fervent.

"I’ve learned the Wind-Slaying Saber and have only the last move ’Windless’ left. If you can take this move, I’ll consider it my loss!"

As Hou Fei spoke, many people from the Crystal Race revealed expressions of surprise.

"Is Hou Fei going all out? Using that move means he’ll be bedridden for two or three days."

"Is that Human really that strong? I remember this ’Windless’ move was enough for Hou Fei to fight evenly against prospective martial artists in the wild."

"Anyone who can earn a title in the wild is certainly not simple. But to push Hou Fei to use his last-ditch move, his defeat is not undeserved!"

The Crystal Race members watched as Hou Fei, ready to sheath his saber, with muscles all over his body bulging and gradually turning dark red, looked towards Qin Mu, who was less than ten meters away.

At this moment, Qin Mu’s condition wasn’t any better than Hou Fei’s. His hands trembled, qi and blood surged throughout his body, and his muscles ached, clearly showing the adverse effects of head-on confrontation.

On the Human Race side, everyone watched Qin Mu with tense eyes. Some were desperate to rush forward to replace Qin Mu and withstand Hou Fei’s final strike.

While the Human vagabonds were nervously anxious, Fang Zhen and Wushang in the back row, apart from the initial shock, now had unusually calm expressions on their faces.

"That NPC, apart from his strong physique, isn’t much," Fang Zhen commented with slight disappointment as he looked at Hou Fei, who was ready to execute his final strike. "Every strike is incredibly fast, but watching enough makes it clear that every strike has a very fixed attack position. This NPC’s attack pattern designed by the manufacturer is quite monotonous."

"Indeed, it’s fast, but it always targets the neck. Against weaker opponents, it can end the fight quickly," Wushang nodded in agreement. "However, facing opponents of equal or greater strength, it’s too easy to defend. The attack range is too fixed, with a maximum radius of about 2.2 meters. It’s not hidden at all. Once the enemy retreats to beyond 2.2 meters, this Crystal Race NPC is left clueless. This game is indeed still in the beta phase, and the NPC combat intelligence is somewhat low."

The whispered conversation between Fang Zhen and Wushang drew the attention of Lin Qi, who was listening in disbelief.

"Who exactly are they?"

Lin Qi glanced at the two who were disappointed with the NPC Hou Fei. He didn’t know what to say, having spent a long time observing without spotting Hou Fei’s weaknesses, whereas they had identified many issues in minutes. Their powers of observation were truly extraordinary.

In the center of the street.

"The last move, is it?" Qin Mu watched as Hou Fei, gripping the saber behind his back with one hand and continuously gathering strength, took each step forward. After taking a deep breath, he stomped and seized the long spear with both hands, shouting, "Come on!"

"Alright!"

Hou Fei, seeing Qin Mu prepared, couldn’t help but laugh, stomping the ground fiercely and charging at Qin Mu like an arrow. At the same moment, he swung down the saber in his hand.

Windless!

At that moment, it was as if even the wind stopped. There was no sound, just a dark shadow sweeping directly toward Qin Mu, moving so fast that everyone present gasped in shock.

Supersonic!

This was truly a supersonic strike, with the sound far trailing behind the blade!

"So fast!" Lin Qi found it hard to keep his complexion calm as he saw this strike, immediately shouting a reminder to Qin Mu, "Maintain a distance of 2.4 meters from him!"

A strike that completely exceeded the speed of sound wasn’t just fast. After all, the magnitude of kinetic energy is related to the object’s mass and speed. The faster the speed, the greater the natural power.

This strike should have exceeded Hou Fei’s overall limits.

To be cautious, Lin Qi intended to increase the limit attack distance by another tenth.

"2.4 meters?"

At that moment, Qin Mu also heard Lin Qi’s distant reminder and trusted it without a doubt. Instead of retreating, he advanced against Hou Fei.

Taking a direct step into the extreme position of Hou Fei’s 2.4-meter attack field, he suddenly pivoted his foot, sidestepping completely. His neck brushed right past the dark shadow, standing by Hou Fei’s side.

"You!"

"Entering... the Micro?"

Hou Fei’s eyes widened as he looked heavily at Qin Mu standing beside him, only able to watch as Qin Mu’s long spear struck from the side, directly hitting the armor on his waist.

Bang!

Hou Fei’s three-meter-tall body flew out more than ten meters, crashing heavily to the ground.

This scene caught the attention of Fang Zhen and Wushang, who discussed Hou Fei earlier, both looking at Lin Qi with nothing but shock in their eyes.

"Oh my! Is this the strength of our Hall Master?" Fang Zhen looked at Lin Qi before him, utterly amazed and at a loss for words, "2.4 meters precisely, this prediction is terrifying."

"Is this the true power of the NPCs in control of our player permissions?" Wushang stared at Lin Qi with surprise and awe. In the previous battle, she was quite sure of Hou Fei’s maximum attack range, it couldn’t be more, yet Lin Qi was even more precise than her.

To know she’s one of the rare geniuses in Pilgrimage, ranking among the top three in combat intuition.

But now she’s surpassed by an NPC, almost unthinkable.

For a moment, Fang Zhen and Wushang both felt that the Hall Master arranged by the game company was not as simple as it seemed.

"Won?"

"Brother Qin won!"

The people of the Human Race side looked at Hou Fei, who had already fallen to the ground, hardly believing it was true.

"Entering the Micro Realm?"

Lin Qi gazed at the unharmed Qin Mu, deeply shocked, nearly forgetting the joy of victory.

In the world of Gao Wu, mastery over one’s body is categorized into three levels: basic, specialized, and micro. Generally only martial artists can reach the micro level.

Once at this level, one can precisely control the body like a machine, maximizing the use of attack ranges to deliver optimal counterattacks and responses.

Qin Mu could dodge Hou Fei’s attack with such precision in a Windless slash, which would be impossible without reaching the micro realm.

Meanwhile on the street, Hou Fei slowly stood up, his expression slightly crestfallen.

"I’ve lost, we’ll leave here as agreed." Hou Fei inhaled deeply, glanced in the direction from which the reminder came, and looked at Qin Mu with much sentiment, "I never thought, besides you, there’d be other experts among the Human Race, but losing to you, a micro realm master, I’m not ashamed. It’s just surprising that someone like you hasn’t joined the city’s martial arts halls to strive for the Martial Artist realm, yet you choose to stay here. Truly, our luck is extremely bad."

"Don’t underestimate the Abandoned Area of the Human Race, there’s more than just one expert here." Qin Mu also glanced at Lin Qi among the crowd behind him, nodding in gratitude. He had remembered Lin Qi’s voice before, but didn’t expect this seemingly small guy from the dilapidated martial arts hall to be a hidden master, able to gauge Hou Fei’s attack range with precision.

After greeting Qin Mu also turned towards Hou Fei, firmly saying, "As for your doubt, I’ve lived here since childhood and am used to living here now. If I joined those martial arts halls, I wouldn’t feel as free. Besides, someone has to stay here, just as those people did before."

Hou Fei didn’t say much in response.

"Where do you plan to go next?" Qin Mu asked out of curiosity, "With your skills, it won’t be hard to join those martial arts halls."

"Me?" Hou Fei laughed, "Of course I’ll go with everyone to find the next place to live, since I’m also accustomed to freedom."

"Then I wish you luck." Qin Mu watched Hou Fei leave and turned back to his dwelling.

After Qin Mu’s victory in the bet, the vagabonds living in the area celebrated joyfully. Many undocumented vagabonds specially bought various foods and drinks they normally couldn’t afford from the suburbs to celebrate alongside Qin Mu.

Nighttime, Black Obsidian Martial Arts Hall.

"Luckily we had Brother Qin Mu this time, otherwise I’d have had to leave this place." Lin Qi looked at the distribution map of various forces in the Abandoned Area on the table, feeling a growing urgency to increase strength. "The Crystal Race ranks low among the many races in the Abandoned Area, and due to the influence from the Half-Scale Race, powerful races have left their original living areas."

"I must quickly enhance my strength, otherwise I’ll have to obediently leave this martial arts hall if we lose again."

Lin Qi then decided on two growth directions.

The first is to thoroughly search this martial arts hall to see if he can find more training techniques and martial arts for players to learn and improve.

The second is to carefully consider how to evaluate and screen talented players. After all, he only has seven slots left, but the reservations have exceeded ten thousand. He must carefully select since he can’t quickly complete the martial arts hall restoration.

Blue Star, Huxin City, Celestial Beauty Pavilion high-end neighborhood.

In a bedroom as luxurious as a palace, a woman in a white t-shirt and jeans with long hair draped over her shoulders rushed out of the virtual game pod with a look of urgency.

This woman was none other than Luo Wushang, the renowned vice president of the Celestial Might Guild in Pilgrimage.

"Qingwei, has the president logged off?" Luo Wushang opened the president’s secretary’s phone with excitement and enthusiasm.

"Miss Luo, my dear Vice President Luo! Do you realize what time it is in the early morning? Even a production team donkey is treated better than this." Qingwei, the female secretary, yawned dissatisfiedly, "The president hasn’t logged off yet, and is probably in a meeting with those guild executives. They won’t be free until tomorrow morning."

"That late?" Luo Wushang’s eyebrows furrowed, "I need to contact the president now. I’ve found a new game to replace Pilgrimage!"

"A new game to replace Pilgrimage?" Qingwei’s spirit also lifted a bit, she said with a smile, "Didn’t expect you to be this capable, Miss Luo, to find a substitute so quickly."

"However, many in the guild have found some interesting new games recently. If you wish to recommend, I have a form here. Let me know the potential of the new game, and tomorrow morning, during the meeting, I’ll submit it for the president’s review."

"Potential? Describe the details?" Luo Wushang thought about the incredible battle scenes and excitedly exclaimed, "I can only say, this game will explode! It will completely reshape the virtual gaming world!"