Chapter 19: Prelude to the Feast
"I'm really curious—how many levels does my skill have, and will my Flight skill eventually let me actually fly?" Yang Bo mused as he exited the game. He had played for two hours, which cost him 600 credit points for information services and 1,500 points for mech maintenance.
"Too bad the mech's laser gun costs at least a million credits."
Indeed, since the game uses credits in place of real money—and the in‐game currency exchanges one-to-one with real currency—there's no actual cash.
Yang Bo then checked his newly acquired Flight skill:
Flight: Advanced (135/1000).
In just two short hours, he'd managed to "cut down" at least 135 birds with his five‐meter-long plasma cutter.
What Yang Bo didn't know was that some players had already recorded videos of his aerial bird-slashing maneuvers. One clip was even captioned, "You damn thief, take a slash from me!"
The footage showed Yang Bo piloting the Blade mech as it sliced a tiny bird mid-air. It wasn't a case of using a sledgehammer to kill a chicken—it was more like using a sledgehammer to kill a mosquito.
Comments in the game chat ranged wildly:
"This guy's a psycho."
"He must be messed up in real life."
"Maybe he's just venting his frustrations."
"Could he be one of those ancient 'keyboard warriors'?"
"Haha, it's possible."
"Who is this player? I want his full details—how dare he slaughter small animals!"
"Dude, it's just a game. Everyone's killed a few little critters. I think he's just honing his battle skills."
"His battle skills? What a load of crap…"
"Yeah, right—you're the dumbass here…"
In the game, all sorts of people roamed free. Some were animal rights activists who harshly criticized Yang Bo, while others simply did as they pleased. "In a game, why are you even complaining?" one player jeered.
Of course, Yang Bo's personal information wouldn't be leaked—nobody ever knew who was inside a mech, and his game name wasn't displayed.
Feeling suddenly ravenous, Yang Bo was about to wash up and grab a bite when a wild idea struck him:
Charge Up Directly!
Twenty minutes later, he was astonished—he felt a surge of power coursing through him, and strangely, his hunger had vanished.
"Am I still human, or what? No, I need to down a box of milk to steady myself," he thought, as his body felt strangely altered.
Moreover, the battery's energy consumption during this charging experiment had increased by 10% compared to this afternoon's session—as shown on the battery display. What did that mean? Could it imply that his body's overall energy capacity had increased? Soon after, Yang Bo also noticed that his reaction times seemed quicker.
"Tomorrow, I'll go to work first, and after work I must work on improving my Dynamic Vision," he resolved. He realized that he'd neglected an important ability. When piloting a mech, without strong Dynamic Vision it's nearly impossible to predict a bird's flight path. Although mechs have computer assistance, predicting the erratic trajectories of birds is a challenge—the delay between the computer's alert and the pilot's reaction is critical. In supersonic combat, even a 0.01-second lag can mean a difference of 4 meters, given that at a minimum, 400 meters are covered in one second (or 40 meters in one-tenth of a second).
Lying in bed, Yang Bo recalled something Wu Bing had once said—that several of humanity's administrative stars had already disappeared. Was it because planets had exploded, or was it just like in the game?
On Sunday, with double pay, he earned 5,400 credit points. And since the game required "pay-to-win" spending, Yang Bo resolved not to use his hard-earned points anymore.
Later that evening, after returning home feeling a bit tired, he took out the battery to recharge and unwind. He plugged into the property-provided charging station—filling the battery in ten minutes at a cost of 50 credit points per session.
After grabbing a bite to eat, he logged back into the game. Yang Bo studied the equipment details carefully. The most expensive maintenance cost was for the rocket backpack—this device could instantly propel a mech weighing over 100 tons to a top speed of three times the speed of sound, reaching six times in just three seconds.
Compared to advanced mechs that can hit ten times the speed of sound in one second, these were practically scrap. But even so, a mech is a mech. Most early- and mid-level mechs are powered by nuclear batteries, while high-level ones use solid-state energy with tremendous burst power.
"Primary target: rats. Secondary target: birds."
Yang Bo decided not to stray too far from the fortress—it was best to remain nearby to conserve time. The local wildlife wasn't large—mostly birds, rabbits, and other small creatures—but that didn't matter; any kill that could boost his skill was valuable.
With a swift step, he crushed a rat hidden in a clump of grass.
Dynamic Vision +1!
Yes, a single stomp had taken out a rat.
Time is money—every time the mech moves, it requires maintenance, which costs money. So Yang Bo refrained from targeting rabbits or other larger animals; his radar was set to track birds and rats only.
On the game's mini-map, numerous green dots appeared—these were the targets his radar had identified. The more he used his mech, the smoother it felt in operation. The plasma cutter in his hand was like the grim reaper's scythe—each swing sent a bird flying, quite literally. Under the thrust of the rocket backpack, his mech—a mass of over 100 tons—was propelled up to 80 meters in altitude. With one graceful sweep of his blade, a bird was cleaved cleanly in half.
Then, the rocket backpack's counter-thrust safely brought him back to the ground… Perfect!
The "Base 16" facility was a massive, all-metal complex—1,000 meters in diameter and 800 meters tall—built atop solid granite.
Yang Bo spent two hours clearing out the area around the base—ridding the vicinity of rats and birds in a 1,000-meter radius—before exiting the game.
What Yang Bo didn't know was that his performance had made him a minor celebrity on the Mech World game forum. Today's show around the base had been captured on video.
"Tell me—where is this place? I'm going to report this idiot!"
"Tsk, this guy's life must be so miserable in real life."
"He's clearly a coward, a pathetic loser."
"Haha, guys, I know exactly where he is. Wait till I report it to the news."
Yang Bo never frequented the game forums; he wasn't in the habit, and two hours a night was already his limit.
"Looks like I need to buy something to test my strength," Yang Bo thought after finishing his charging session, taking in the changes in his body.
He checked his skills:
Flight: Advanced (265/1000), Dynamic Vision: Advanced (375/1000).
"I wonder where I can find some electric eels—or fluorescent poison frogs," he mused.
"If only I could find a cave with thousands of bats, that would be perfect."
Before sleep, Yang Bo's mind buzzed with these thoughts.
Meanwhile, about three kilometers from where Yang Bo lived, in an apartment, a young man with yellow hair reviewed some documents. After tossing the papers aside, he opened his communicator and, with a mocking tone, asked, "Is this really the sort of person you'd want to send someone like me to deal with—a low-level resident of Anzhijie Services?"
A mechanical voice in the communicator replied, "Sir, will you take the job or not?"
"Take it, but set the time limit at 40 days," the yellow-haired youth said, eyeing the offered reward and immediately agreeing.
"Why?" the communicator prompted further.
"Some things aren't meant to be questioned," the yellow-haired youth replied as he stood up and gazed toward a colossal building in the distance.
"Alright," the communicator responded.
"And in 38 days, at a grand feast, we'll be the undisputed stars," he added, his eyes lighting up as he looked at the giant structure emblazoned with a row of shimmering letters. It was only 38 days until the 32nd stop of the Li Duo Ai Federation concert tour—the red letters filled him with excitement.
(End of Chapter)