CH 8

“May I invite a lucky guest to play the game ‘Star River Battlefield’? How about that tall guest with the mask?”  

The host, under the watchful gaze of the audience, pointed at Si Huaixi, who covered half of his face with a mask. However, his striking features were still visible from the contours which hinted at his handsome Beta appearance. Under his jet-black hair, his stunning ocean-blue eyes were like a natural and mysterious sea in a dense foggy sky.

Standing tall and proud, Si Huaixi attracted everyone’s attention with his ethereal and enigmatic aura. It made people wonder what was behind the mask and what his true appearance looked like. 

The cameraman instinctively turned the camera towards Si Huaixi, and his image appeared on the big screen, causing a commotion among the audience who stared at him in awe.

Unaccustomed to the attention, Si Huaixi tightly pursed his lips and emitted a vibe that kept strangers away.

The host excitedly asked, “Would you like to try playing the game, handsome guest?”

Si Huaixi hesitated for a moment but eventually stepped onto the stage. 

The host asked eagerly, “What’s your name, guest?”

Si Huaixi didn’t want to reveal his identity in this kind of setting. Recently, due to his popularity, people would gather around him for photos whenever he went out, making him feel extremely uncomfortable.

Si Huaixi replied, “Playing the game is enough. I’m not a special person, so there’s no need to reveal my name.” 

The host felt sorry that such a good-looking person didn’t reveal his name. As a single Beta, he didn’t mind being the bottom for someone as handsome as Si Huaixi.

Unfortunately, since this guest doesn’t want to speak about it publicly, we’ll have to speak to him privately later. With that thought, the host smiled even more warmly and said, “Let me first introduce the simple controls of this game to you, our guest.” 

“‘Star River Battlefield’ is a newly developed holographic game, with near-perfect realism in touch, smell, hearing, and other senses. The simulated scent from the game’s virtual warehouse can even let you smell the scents of the game world. The operation of the game is also very simple, and the game system will provide instructions. For new players who have just started, if they are not familiar with the Mech, they can use the automatic navigation mode, which allows them to complete simple tasks such as walking, jumping over obstacles, blocking, and simple attacks without actually controlling the Mech.”

After entering the virtual warehouse of the game, Si Huaixi opened his eyes and found himself in a completely new world. Surrounding him were lush green mountains and a door plate with the name ‘KC144 Novice Village,’ which was probably his birthplace in the game. 

The technology in this interstellar peace era is really advanced!

Si Huaixi looked around in slight surprise, instinctively using his psychic power to explore the terrain.

This was a skill he developed during the apocalypse, where he would expand his psychic power to sense anything that came into contact with it. That was why he could walk fearlessly among the zombies in the post-apocalyptic world. 

Not only did he have this skill, but he also had some other special skills, which helped him quickly advance to become a high-level psychic ability user. However, he would leave those for later. 

The host’s voice continued to echo in the game’s virtual warehouse, like the voice of a god.

“The game has just started, and the protagonist is an initial interstellar mercenary with a level of 0 and no basic armor. You need to complete Novice Village tasks to gather a set of basic Mech.”

While the host is still introducing the game tasks, Si Huaixi has already explored the entire KC144 Novice Village map as if cheating.

KC144 Novice Village covers an area of one hectare, and although it is small, it has all the basic facilities, such as the mercenary guild, weapon shop, pharmacy, tavern, Mech arena, and restaurant. 

However, when Si Huaixi saw the synthetic food on the restaurant table, he immediately thought of the synthetic food noodles, furrowed his brows and looked disdainful. 

Apart from this, the NPC expressions in this novice village are vivid and lifelike. When passing by, he even saw two middle-aged women quarreling. 

After Si Huaixi explored for a while, the host said, “Most players use the automatic navigation mode, but there is also a full manual mode for some challenging players who can control Mechs for high-speed and high-agility combat.”

“This is a test account, and the Mech has been placed in the player’s backpack. Now let’s go to the Mech Arena!”

The screen changes. 

They arrive at a spacious metal platform, with a vast expanse of stars overhead and a fierce-looking zerg soldier standing opposite them. 

“The player is not afraid. This is a simulation battlefield in the Mech Arena. This is our empire’s hostile force, the Zerg… Hey hey, hey!!!”

In the blink of an eye, a black light seemed to flash by, and the Zerg soldier bled to death and fell to the ground.

The system also gave a prompt: “Congratulations to the player for breaking the record of [Killing low-level Zerg], Timing: 1.57 seconds.”

“What’s going on?!!”

Both the host and the audience were dumbfounded.

A bulky black Mech wielding a metal blade stained with the dark green blood of the Zerg appeared in the arena. Si Huaixi’s eyes lit up with interest, thinking that if he had a Mech like this in the apocalypse, perhaps he could have ended it once and for all. He unexpectedly felt quite pleased. 

As the lower-level Zerg was slayed, the arena opened a new instance mode, with more Zerg appearing. Si Huaixi thoroughly studied the Mech with his mental power. He could even control the human brain, let alone this relatively simple-structured lower-level Mech. He had complete mastery over every tiny change. 

Despite its bulkiness, the black Mech moved with unexpected agility, darting among the numerous Zerg like a graceful tuxedo-clad dancer, performing a beautiful death waltz. The lower-level Zerg were killed before they even touched the Mech, and some special Zerg units posed only a slight challenge before being swiftly resolved.

The sound of breaking records repeatedly rang out from the system. Everyone present was astonished beyond words. Even the e-sports players who came to liven up the atmosphere shouted “God!” in admiration, too embarrassed to show their low-level skills.

“Motherf*cker! Where did this God come from? Is this a Mech battle? This is art!”

“Where did the host find this god-tier player? I’d have thought he was a soldier from a Mech army!”

“Even if he’s not Alpha, he must be a top-tier Beta. I’d believe it if you told me this master was an S-rank Beta!” 

Si Huaixi controlled the Mech, and the sound of fluttering wings caught his attention through his highly sensitive psychic powers.

A high-level flying species of the Zerg ambushed him. There were also more than a dozen ordinary Zerg species around the Mech, which were not easy to deal with. Some of them even had the ability to spray corrosive fluid from their mouthparts. If one was not careful, the Mech’s weapons could be damaged. 

Intentionally exposing a vulnerability, Si Huaixi wasn’t sure if the game’s intelligence wasn’t that high or if this advanced flying Zerg species had a relatively low intelligence, but it immediately fell into the trap.

The agile Mech, like a dark elf, stomped on the head of a low-level Zerg, executed a 170-degree mid-air rotation, and with a near-perfect side slash, cut off the flying Zerg species’ back and wings. The flying Zerg species, which had lost its balance, became a shattered Zerg corpse. 

This was a real flying high-level Zerg species! 

At least a team of 12 high-level Mechs were needed to deal with it! How could it be so easy to handle, like cutting vegetables and slicing melons?

After Si Huaixi left, everyone was still stunned and didn’t dare to move. 

Soon, a video with an extremely high number of views was circulating online, titled “Shocking! A player drives a low-level Mech to kill an advanced flying Zerg species surrounded by many other Zergs!” 

The comments below were full of criticism. 

“False advertising!” 

“How is it possible to be that powerful? This video must be fake.” 

“The game manufacturer must have made a fake video for publicity. The marketing copy is garbage! People are being fooled without using their brains. How could a player operate so skillfully? Even General Pei wouldn’t dare to do something like this!”

“Report it. Don’t release it to deceive kids.”

As for the subsequent reactions from netizens, Si Huaixi had no idea. When he was leaving, the host wanted to stop him, but was scared off by his cold gaze.

(Host: Wu-wu-wu! Even if he didn’t leave his name, why did he have to be so fierce? But the way the male god’s fierce look was so damn cool! (〃▽〃))

After playing this Mech game, Si Huaixi suddenly felt that it was very useful and went to a certain online shopping platform to check the prices of Mechs. 

But when he saw that the prices of Mechs in the product column started from a minimum of seven figures…

Si Huaixi looked down at his account balance, which had only four digits…

He had never worried about money in the apocalypse, but here he suddenly felt a shortness of breath due to financial constraints.

He wanted to earn money!

Urgently!