Su Yuehe ignored his complaint. At An Changqing’s signal, she projected a virtual screen onto Chen Guan’s desk, and a dense task list immediately spread out before them.
Chen Guan shifted his gaze from the barrage of comments to the screen. With just one glance, he sensed something was off.
Su Yuehe’s fingers flew across the screen, scrolling rapidly. As the list rolled on, her expression darkened bit by bit.
“What’s wrong?” An Changqing asked.
“It’s worse than I thought.”
Su Yuehe stopped her operation and looked up at the others, her brow furrowed.
“The Supernatural Association has cleared out all the D-rank and E-rank tasks meant for freshmen to practice on.”
She pointed to the task filter bar at the very top of the screen.
“Right now, the lowest-level tasks available in the system start at C-rank.”
Long Ao leaned in to take a look and let out a snort.
“Starting at C-rank is supposed to be bad?”
He jabbed a finger at one of the task briefs, his tone dripping with disdain. “Clearing out the mutated rats in the west district sewers—this kind of task is at most annoying for someone with a cleanliness obsession.”
“Don’t underestimate it.”
Su Yuehe shot back with a serious expression. “The old C-rank tasks and the current C-rank tasks have completely different evaluation standards.”
“Dean Situ made it very clear earlier. The academy’s curriculum has undergone a full overhaul. That means the criteria for rating task difficulty and danger levels must have been adjusted upward as well.”
An Changqing took over, analyzing further. “Yuehe is right.”
“If C-rank tasks have become the new baseline, then their actual difficulty is likely already close to the lower limit of the old B-rank tasks.”
“Which means all the first-year students in the entire school will be fighting tooth and nail over what looks like the easiest C-rank tasks.”
An Changqing’s gaze swept across Chen Guan and Long Ao.
“There’s no need for us to scrap over those leftovers.”
Long Ao’s eyes lit up; he instantly caught the implication behind An Changqing’s words.
“You mean...”
“We’ll take on a B-rank task directly.”
An Changqing stated his decision.
“Since bloodshed is inevitable, let’s find an opponent worth going all out against and fire our first shot.”
There was something else An Changqing left unsaid.
Namely, since their squad could be considered the strongest among their grade level, there was no reason for them to take on C-rank tasks. They could leave the easier ones for others.
An Changqing figured that even a B-rank task would be challenging but manageable for them—nothing they couldn’t handle.
No... He glanced at his teammates beside him. Maybe not even challenging.
Long Ao cracked his knuckles, brimming with excitement. “I agree. Now this is interesting.”
He felt he’d been slacking off and craved a real fight!
He turned to Chen Guan, who had remained silent.
“Chen Guan, what do you say?”
Chen Guan simply nodded. “I have no objections.”
To him, the difference between C-rank and B-rank was minimal.
Besides, for protagonists like them, did ranks really matter?
He had a feeling this would escalate into A-rank, maybe even S-rank.
Protagonists, you know how it is. If nothing unexpected happens, something unexpected is bound to happen.
Su Yuehe refocused her attention on the screen, her fingers gliding over the B-rank tasks as she murmured to herself.
“Eliminate the B-rank demon beast known as the Three-Headed Hound, holed up in an abandoned factory on the city outskirts... No, the firepower up front is too intense.”
"Escorting important supplies to the northern front line is too far, with too many variables."
She quickly filtered through the options, her finger finally stopping on a less troublesome mission.
"This one... maybe worth a try."
In the center of the screen, a mission briefing was enlarged.
"B-rank Investigation and Capture Mission."
An Changqing read out the mission title: "Target: a minor cult leader codenamed Preacher."
"Where's the location?" Long Ao pressed.
"Right here in the old district of North City."
Su Yuehe’s expression turned odd: "The mission briefing says the target is extremely cunning and highly skilled at verbal psychological manipulation."
She paused, then added a crucial piece of information.
"Three junior operative teams from the Supernatural Association have already gone missing while tracking him."
"Hiding in a brightly lit city. Now that’s interesting."
Long Ao stroked his chin, his fighting spirit high. "Let’s smoke him out and make him our opening victory."
An Changqing nodded as well: "Investigation-type missions test our overall abilities more than simply hunting monsters."
"Let me see the detailed files."
Chen Guan, who had been silent until now, finally spoke. He felt this mission had all the red flags.
He still needed to check the situation—maybe the bullet comments would spoil something for him.
Su Yuehe gave him a slightly surprised look but nevertheless brought up the attached files for the mission.
A stack of blurry photos from the crime scene and survey reports popped up.
Chen Guan’s eyes swept over the documents, finally settling on a corner of one photo.
It was a wall stained with blood, and in the gap between the bricks, a barely noticeable mark had been carved with a sharp tool.
It was a pattern made of irregular geometric lines, looking at first glance like a random scratch.
But the moment he saw that mark, a image flashed through Chen Guan’s mind.
It was from his training in the northern border—the ancient boundary marker.
This mark...
A chill ran up his spine, and goosebumps spread across his skin.
Damn. We really hit the jackpot.
The Lord of Nothingness...
He thought he had escaped that being’s sight, but the appearance of this mark was a silent warning in itself.
The Lord of Nothingness was still chasing him!
...
When night had completely swallowed the last trace of light on the horizon, four figures appeared silently at the entrance to the old district of North City.
This was a corner forgotten by the modern metropolis—the towering buildings cast enormous shadows over the entire area, so deep even the moonlight seemed reluctant to fall.
"The urban planning here stopped fifty years ago. Many of the sewer pipes are in a state of semi-abandonment."
An Changqing lowered his voice, warily scanning the dilapidated low-rise buildings around them: "Stay alert. There’s no surveillance coverage here. It’s a natural lawless zone."
Chen Guan still carried the huge coffin on his back, silently following at the rear of the group, his eyes darting through the dark, deep alleyways.
[Holy crap, the atmosphere is lit, way scarier than that offline haunted house I went to last time.]
[Don’t be scared, bro. Just wrap yourself in a blanket.]
[What if I’m still scared even in a blanket?]
[Then scrunch up in the middle of the bed, and whatever you do, don’t let your feet hang off the edge.]
Chen Guan glanced at the barrage of comments—all just chatter like this. It seemed the bullet comments were useless again.
“Yuehe, I’ll trouble you to investigate.”
An Changqing stopped walking and spoke to Su Yuehe, who was beside him.
“Alright.”
Su Yuehe nodded. Closing her eyes, her gentle spiritual power silently spread outward like rippling water.
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
ine. During your journey, you save an abandoned baby girl and become her elder brother】 【You rely on each other, becoming each other's support】 【At the end of the simulation, you shield the now-grown girl with your life, sacrificing yourself to block numerous demonic cultivators. You die, and the light in the girl's eyes fades】 …… 【Second Simulation: You are transported to a world where steam and magic coexist】 【You immerse yourself in the study of magic, obsessed with its research. One day, while out, you encounter a half-blooded demon girl wandering the streets. You take her in as your student】 【You teach the demoness what it means to be human, show her the beauty of the world, and nurture her into a miracle that surpasses even the gods】 【At the end of the simulation, you die of old age in front of the nearly immortal demoness due to your mortal lifespan】 …… One simulation after another, one encounter after another. Xu Xi suddenly felt something was off: "Wait, you said you're coming to the real world to find me?"
tions: attribute allocation, analysis, proficiency, and simulation. Specializing in mechanical alchemy, from crafting sorcerous battle armor to handcrafting mechanical maidens, his mechanical legion conquers endless realms... Relying on his wits, he begins with a student-teacher romance, wins over a female director, enslaves a female assassin and a underworld queen, becoming the husband of a Grand Duchess... He enslaves the Goddess of Magic from the divine realm, developing his power simultaneously in both the Wizard World and the Realm of Gods...
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
