By the time she emerged from the Ghost Market, it was already three or four in the morning. A few scattered shops remained open, their lights flickering like candlelight in the city. The hovercars had stopped running, so Yan Changfeng had no choice but to spend money to rent a flyer. Looking at the mere 600 Star Coins left in her account, she felt a wave of dizziness.
A single dagger had swallowed 300,000 of her Star Coins, and the sword she wanted to forge would likely start at tens of millions.
Plunged into a dire financial crisis, Yan Changfeng returned to her hotel room. The first thing she did was log into Star Net Space. Last time, she had reached the twentieth floor of the tower, earning a total of 100,000 Star Coins.
The first twenty floors were just a transition. Clearing floors 21 to 30 would grant 100,000 Star Coins, while clearing floor 31 would grant one million. This time, both her mental power level and physique level had reached D-class, so reaching the 30th floor should not be an issue. As for the 31st floor, she could certainly give it a try.
Yan Changfeng didn’t waste any time. Upon entering Star Net Space, she headed straight for the Sword Skill Tower.
The public screen of the Sword Skill Challenge Area was buzzing.
[Holy crap, the Emperor is back to climb the tower!]
[Really? Then I’m going to watch the match first.]
[I wonder if she can break the records of “I Am The Sword Dao Genius” and Ru Xu Feng Yue again this time. After the record was broken last time, “I Am The Sword Dao Genius” went into Challenger Mode overnight to grind the previous floors again, but unfortunately, he still couldn’t surpass the Emperor.]
Normally, once a floor is cleared, it cannot be cleared again. However, to encourage everyone to pay attention to the Time Ranking Board, Star Net Space introduced Challenger Mode. Upon entering this mode, a person’s physical data is adjusted to their state during their first attempt at the tower to ensure the fairness of “score grinding.”
While the public screen in the Sword Technique Zone was still being flooded with messages, Yan Changfeng had already successfully cleared the 30th floor. Although she cleared this floor with ease, the difficulty of the next floor would spike sharply. The recommended challenge level for the Sword Skill Tower’s 31st floor was C-class mental power.
She thought about the one million Star Coins for the 31st floor, and after hesitating for a long time, she decided to continue. This time, the challenge venue changed to a larger arena. More curiously, spectators began to appear one after another in the arena’s audience seating.
Yan Changfeng raised an eyebrow. This Sword Skill Tower was quite humanized; with an arena and audience NPCs, it really felt like a proper arena match.
At this moment, those who had been watching the match in real-time from the spectator positions were all teleported to the audience seating.
This was a general rule for all tower-climbing zones in instances.
Regardless of the challenge, once a participant reached the 31st floor, an exclusive arena would be generated, and those who could originally only watch on a screen could enter the audience seating directly. If a participant did not want the match to be viewed, they could set it to a private room before entering the challenge.
But Yan Changfeng hadn’t even looked at the rules before climbing the tower; she had no idea that this spectating function existed. She simply assumed that all the spectators entering were NPCs provided by the instance to build the atmosphere.
On the arena stage.
The phantom raised its sword first, moving with incredible speed. In the blink of an eye, it had dashed from the other end of the arena to stand right before Yan Changfeng. Both its speed and power had reached C-class levels.
Yan Changfeng relied on her Spiritual Eyes to capture the phantom’s movements, but even though she could see it, her body’s maximum speed didn’t allow her to dodge the strike. She could only barely raise her sword to block, finding the right moment to pivot and slash back.
Clang—
The sound of long swords clashing echoed across the arena. Since she was no match for the phantom in terms of speed or power, Yan Changfeng could only rely on her grasp of swordplay and her anticipation of the phantom’s next moves to lead it step by step into her trap.
Five minutes had passed, and “Trash Picking Emperor 097” had still not finished the match. This was different from her usual style of resolving things in two or three minutes. Some of the people who had been praising her wildly were starting to lose patience.
[The trash picker isn’t all that after all.]
[Maybe the Emperor is researching a new fighting style? Anyway, I feel like it’s not that simple.]
[Emperor, my foot. The shortest time for this floor is 6 minutes and 07 seconds by Ru Xu Feng Yue. It’s already been five minutes and they’re still in a deadlock. You guys don’t seriously think she can break the record, do you?]
In the audience seating, “I Am The Sword Dao Genius” nudged Ru Xu Feng Yue next to him. “Do you think she can break your record?”
Ru Xu Feng Yue’s gaze remained fixed on Yan Changfeng. “It will be hard. Her mental power and physique don’t seem to have reached C-class.”
“I Am The Sword Dao Genius” gave a snort, his tone carrying a strange confidence. “How is that possible! I was beaten into the ground by her four times in a row!”
…
After successfully leading the phantom into her trap, Yan Changfeng shifted from defense to offense, unleashing one slash after another. At the same time, her legs were equally ruthless, kicking toward the phantom’s back. She wasn’t just using sword techniques; she was employing her leg and footwork skills as well.
After a final, fatal thrust, the phantom vanished, and Yan Changfeng cleared the 31st floor.
[Floor 31 cleared. Time: 6 minutes 06 seconds.]
Yan Changfeng happily checked the 2,000,000 Star Coins that had arrived in her account and then exited the Sword Skill Challenge Area.
Although she had two million now, it was still far from enough.
Yan Changfeng began to explore various challenges in the instance zone. Originally, she had thought about challenging other cold weapons, but then she saw the shooting zone in the pinned challenges.
“You’ll do.”
As one of the hot favorites, the shooting challenge area had many participants. This put a heavy burden on the Star Net, naturally resulting in some network fluctuations. When Yan Changfeng entered, it even stuttered.
After finally managing to lag her way in, she found that because there were too many people challenging it simultaneously, she had to wait in line.
Yan Changfeng: …
Since she was already here, leaving would be a disservice to the five minutes she had just spent lagging.
While waiting, Yan Changfeng went to the Star Net knowledge base to search for materials related to materials science, but her level was too low, and she lacked the permissions to purchase most of the data.
Yan Changfeng suddenly remembered “Brother Wo Ri” from before, so she sent him a private message.
Trash Picking Emperor 097: [Brother Wo Ri, can you help me find some books? Cat-making-a-heart.jpg]
After sending the message, Yan Changfeng waited for a while longer, but the other party never replied. Seeing that her time in the shooting tower queue was almost up, Yan Changfeng closed the interface and sent over a friend request.
After opening the shooting challenge instance, Yan Changfeng appeared on a training ground. An NPC stood next to the shooting preparation area.
The NPC smiled. “Please select one of the three firearms. Note that the difficulty and clearing methods for the three firearms are different. Please choose carefully.”
Yan Changfeng glanced over. A handgun, a rifle, and a sniper rifle.
To be honest, she wanted to try all of them.
After she finished her selection, the training ground changed. Three giant targets appeared fifty meters away, and a loudspeaker nearby prompted her.
[Please adjust your shooting stance.]
[Shooting stance correct.]
“Bang! Bang! Bang!”
…
[Report! A military student is blowing up fish in the shooting zone!]
A post suddenly appeared on the shooting zone forum, and within ten minutes, it shot to the top of the trending topics. The shooting zone forum was much more active than the perpetually quiet sword technique zone; in no time, thousands of replies had piled up beneath it.
[Every shot is a bullseye. They must be here to farm scores. Who is this “Trash Picking Emperor”?]
[Which S-class from the military schools created an alias to come out and slaughter the newbies? Reaching the 20th floor in half a star hour—are they even human?]
[The aliases of the S-class students from the major military schools have mostly been uncovered already. Could it be a freshman from this year?]
[I heard there’s a freshman at Holy Land Military Academy with a mental power value as high as 97.]
The difficulty of the challenge areas in Star Net Space was much lower than the simulated training within the major military schools, but many military students still ground the rankings in the challenge areas. It was considered one of the unofficial ways for the major military schools to compete outside of the military school league.
Especially in areas like the shooting zone, mecha combat zone, and fighting arena… the rankings were basically dominated by military students. No military student wanted to see anyone but their own people at the top of the list, so during vacations, the aliases of various top students would take turns dominating the boards.
Yan Changfeng cleared twenty floors in one go, directly seizing the shortest time records for the first twenty floors of the shooting zone. When she emerged from the shooting tower with the ID “Trash Picking Emperor 097,” a large crowd of onlookers had gathered.
The shooting zone was not as “socially anxious” as the sword technique zone. The students from the major military schools were undoubtedly the top tier of geniuses; they entered the military schools early and headed straight for the battlefield upon graduation. Ordinary people could usually only see them on league live streams.
To the onlookers, this was a living “military student,” a rare sight indeed. Everyone was eager to crowd around and get a closer look.
Being stared at by these strange looks gave Yan Changfeng goosebumps. Every step she took, those gazes followed her. It wasn’t just the people surrounding her; the red notification dots on her Star Net account’s message list were refreshing constantly, forcing her to turn off the function for receiving messages from strangers.
At that moment, “I Am The Sword Dao Genius” sent a private message.
I Am The Sword Dao Genius: [Emperor, you’re actually a military student! Which school are you from? Dragon City or Mo Nanshan? Are you participating in the next All-Star Interstellar Military School League? Will we be able to meet?]
Trash Picking Emperor: [Huh?]
Yan Changfeng had a rough idea of what was going on; she had likely been mistaken for someone else.
I Am The Sword Dao Genius: [It’s too crowded where you are. Come to my place.]
Immediately after, he sent a location.
When Yan Changfeng teleported to the location, “I Am The Sword Dao Genius” was sitting at a table with a silver-haired youth. As soon as he saw Yan Changfeng’s figure, he shot to his feet.
“Over here!”
“I Am The Sword Dao Genius” introduced them enthusiastically. “Emperor, this is my friend, Ru Xu Feng Yue. You can just call him Fengyue. Fengyue, this is the Emperor!”
Yan Changfeng: “Hello.”
Ru Xu Feng Yue didn’t say a word. He gave a polite nod and then continued to look down at the book in his hands.
Yan Changfeng took a curious peek, but he very sharply moved the book away, using his body to shield it completely. Not even a corner of the book was visible.
Was there any need to guard against her like she was a thief?
Yan Changfeng didn’t feel awkward and asked directly, “What are you reading?”
Ru Xu Feng Yue paused. He didn’t know whether to hide the book or not. He pursed his lips. “Private property.”
Yan Changfeng gave a casual “Oh,” but her eyes still couldn’t help but drift toward Ru Xu Feng Yue. She lowered her head in thought for a moment and sent over a friend request. “Want to add me?”
Before Ru Xu Feng Yue could respond, “I Am The Sword Dao Genius” was already pressing his hand down to accept the request. “Do it for my sake. The Emperor took the initiative to add you; don’t be a jerk.”
Ru Xu Feng Yue: …
Seeing the friend request accepted, Yan Changfeng turned back to “I Am The Sword Dao Genius.” “So, what exactly happened in the shooting zone?”
“I Am The Sword Dao Genius” directly sent several of the most popular posts from the shooting zone to Yan Changfeng.
[Unmasking the alias of the new military genius!]
[Wow, that woman must be from this military school!]
There were several other posts like these. Yan Changfeng silently looked at the nonsensical discussions in the threads, her eyelids twitching. “So, they think I’m a freshman from Holy Land Military Academy?”
“I Am The Sword Dao Genius” let out a few laughs, his eyebrows arching in delight. “They definitely won’t suspect that you aren’t from Holy Land, but are actually from United Stars Military Academy, hahahaha.”
Yan Changfeng didn’t explain much, letting “I Am The Sword Dao Genius” fill in the blanks himself. After chatting with him for a few more minutes, she logged off.