“What is it?” Xiang Ning was pulled toward the side by Su Muhan. He thought something big had happened.

She took out her communicator and showed him the interface. “You should know that this was a special year. The special class was established to accelerate the student’s strength and it’s been going on for a semester, so the Ministry of Education would like to conduct a performance review through a tournament. The central government agreed to allocate more resources to the city that wins the tournament!”

“Isn’t that the same as last time?”

“That’s right! And it’s all thanks to you. The additional resources allowed us to help 93% of the students to break through and become martial artists! We’re just one percent lower than Hanwu Academy!” Su Muhan excitedly exclaimed. In the past, Qiling Academy would have celebrated if more than half of the new students could break through into martial artists in one semester.

“So?”

“So our school decided to nominate you and your team to represent Qiling Academy. You’ll be competing with the other nine academies to obtain the top three spots of the region.”

“Oh, sure, no problem!” Xiang Ning nodded. This was extremely beneficial for them! He would never turn it down. The additional resources would significantly benefit him and his friends. Plus, who wouldn’t want to improve their own hometown?

His sister was still in school and was already so much stronger than her peers. If he won, the additional resources would greatly benefit her in addition to what she would receive every month. Talent was important, but so were resources!

“You don’t need to agree to it so soon. The tournament will take place beyond Marsh City and toward the world stage. If everything goes well, you might be bringing your team out of China and Asia. You might even be representing our entire country to fight against teams from all over the world!

“Of course, if you win, the prizes would be enormous.” Su Muhan didn’t expect him to fight internationally, but she was absolutely confident that he would dominate the southern region of China. As for fighting against teams from other regions in China, she was somewhat hesitant, but there was still a chance. Still, it would be more than enough for Qiling Academy.

“No worries, I want to travel around the world as well.” Xiang Ning smiled. He had sworn that he would bring his sister to Azura, but the time it took to travel there was too long. Even though they could travel at light speed, it would still take them a year or two. There were many dangers in space, too. He would rather spend the time researching dimensional travel technology and wormholes. It would be much more convenient if they could travel instantaneously.

If the other researchers had overheard him saying that he could complete the research in a year or two, they would have chopped his bits to bits.

“Alright! Good! That’s settled then!” Su Muhan ran for the exit as soon as she was done talking.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to purchase the tickets for Annot’s performance. Today’s the last day!” She ran as fast as she could after she said that.

......

Almost all the classes in school that day were self-revision. Xiang Ning went to the simulation capsule room with his squad.

“Good morning! Sorry for being late.” Xiang Ning threw his bag into the locker and stretched his back.

Li Zimo welcomed him. “We must win today. To think that sly little bastard would hide in the bushes and attack me with his flying knife yesterday!”

“We should also check out exploration mode today. I feel like we’re missing something.”

Xiang Ning nodded. Fighting on the battlefield was the quickest way to increase their strength. While they had grasped many new things on the battlefield, the peaceful method of cultivation in the safety of the city was a bit lacking. They felt like they needed some kind of stimulation, and the Battle Network had just been updated with new features. For the virtual tournament, they could go in solo, as a pair, or as a five-man team. The map changed every time they entered. Even if they were to play it hundreds of times, the map would never be the same. And not only could they fight against other players, they could also train and fight against beasts. As time went on, they would receive instructions to move in the same direction to fight in a battle royale.

Every single round would last for two hours. Naturally, the system would automatically sort the players in accordance with their strengths. It would be unfair if a tier one had to fight against a tier four or five martial artist.

However, the system would sort them based on the strongest person in the team. For example, Xiang Ning was a tier four martial artist, so he would fight against a tier three or four martial artist. There were only very rare instances where he would have to fight against tier five martial artists.

As for the exploration mode, it was only opened to martial artists or spiritual cultivators of tier four and above. But after the update, it allowed teams to participate as long as there was at least one tier four martial artist among them. But the exploration mode was very different—it was too real. Everyone who participated thought that they had been transported somewhere else rather than into a virtual simulation.

In exploration mode, they would pilot a mech to fight on a random battlefield. Their enemies were humanoid, yet they weren’t human. It was easier to call them aliens. The ‘aliens’ were also extremely strong. Even Xiang Ning’s mech exploded many times when he lost battles. Everyone who used the exploration mode merely thought that it was too realistic, but Xiang Ning felt that it wasn’t so simple. After all, he had earned Fury Points from the exploration mode before….

All of them entered their respective capsules after a short round of chit-chat.

“Huh! What’s this? Are they still under maintenance?” Li Zimo grumbled at the darkened interface.

“No worries, we can enter exploration mode and fight for a few hours. The maintenance for the virtual tournament mode should be completed by then,” Xiang Ning said.

“Alright, guess that’s all we can do. I was so excited to try the new mode in the virtual tournament.” He was still thinking about taking revenge on the person that ambushed him.

No one argued after that.

All of them entered the exploration mode. In an iron fortress, five more mechs lit up.

“Wait, why’s Xiang Ning’s mech so different from us?”

“That’s because I killed a few of the alien’s leaders. Maybe they upgraded my mech according to my contribution.”

Li Zimo was envious. His mech was still a starter, but Xiang Ning had already upgraded his twice. If they were able to trade their mechs, Xiang Ning’s mechs would be equivalent to five starter mechs.

“All players get ready. The recon mission will commence in three minutes. We need at least three hundred participants to explore the area around sentry outpost twenty-one. There’s an estimated five hundred enemies there. Please prepare yourself.” The announcement rang through the fortress.

“Recon mission? Didn’t we clear the area around there already? Did the aliens capture it back?”

In just three seconds, all three hundred slots had been filled.

“Be careful, Xiang Ning. A high-tier mech like yours will be their main target. Try not to let it be destroyed or you’ll have to pay half of its cost to buy another new one,” Li Zimo laughed as he unsheathed his particle longsword.

Mech fight. Let's gooooooooo.