The Second Simulation Begins
Lu Ping ignored the system prompt and headed for the quarters assigned to him.
He walked at an unhurried pace, his face expressionless.
The gang members passing by saw only a skinny young man.
His head was lowered and his shoulders hunched. He was a new gang member just brought up from the mines, nothing worth a second look.
Soon, Lu Ping reached his quarters and closed the door.
The room was small.
A wooden plank bed, a ragged cotton quilt, and a chipped ceramic bowl.
It was better than the mine tunnels, but worse than the rear kitchen in the simulation.
Lu Ping sat down on the bed and immediately noticed something amiss.
Ordinary gang members all slept in communal quarters.
This might have been a woodshed, but it was a private room!
The gang leader was treating him somewhat differently.
There seemed to be no special attention, yet he was being treated differently from ordinary gang members.
It seemed his earlier actions had already aroused the gang leader's suspicions.
But that didn't matter anymore.
Lu Ping focused his attention on the blue [Yes].
White light came crashing down over his head and face.
Then the white light shattered.
Familiar black characters popped out one by one from the very center, with the rhythm of an old-fashioned typewriter.
[Simulation begins.]
[You are Lu Ping, eighteen years old, an official member of the Black Tiger Gang, at the Early Body Tempering Realm.]
[KPI reward received. Drawing KPI reward...]
[Generating KPI reward...]
[Congratulations! You have obtained the trait: Breakroom Gossip (D-rank)—while in a breakroom (or anywhere with a water source), you automatically obtain the latest gossip and secrets within a 500-meter radius.]
[Currently equipped traits: Flattery (B-rank) / Passing the Buck (B-rank) / Salty Fish (S-rank) / Friend of Women (A-rank).]
[Would you like to switch?]
Lu Ping remembered that the KPI task reward was one draw for a trait of D-rank or above.
So he'd gotten the guaranteed minimum.
No switch.
[You selected no.]
[You are assigned to a separate woodshed behind the main courtyard. No one is guarding the door.]
[But the breathing of three hidden sentries above the courtyard wall is clearly audible.]
[The gang leader gave you a private room to isolate you for observation.]
[You're no different from a monkey in a cage. All that's missing is a sign on the woodshed door reading "pending."]
[In the previous simulation, you were transferred from the mines to the rear kitchen only because you were a sweet-talking slave. Naturally, no one paid you any extra attention.]
[But this time, you held up the crossbeam, revealing strength you shouldn't have possessed.]
[Your earlier suspicion has become reality.]
[Night falls. Just as you are about to lie down on the bed, someone knocks on the door.]
[The visitor is the man with the bushy beard. He says the gang leader has prepared a feast and invites you over.]
[In the Black Tiger Gang's main hall, there is a square table, four dishes, and two jugs of wine.]
[The gang leader sits at the head of the table. The bushy-bearded man stands by the door, his hand on his ring-pommel saber. Only two sets of bowls and chopsticks are laid out on the table.]
[Options appear.]
[A: Kneel at the door, saying that your status is too low for you to dare sit at the same table as the gang leader.]
[B: Take your seat calmly, keep Flattery active throughout, and respond with the utmost respect.]
[C: Turn and run, flee the Black Tiger Gang, and seek labor arbitration overnight.]
Labor arbitration.
In his previous life, he hadn't managed to secure labor arbitration against his company, so he could forget about it in this life.
The arbitration committee in the cultivation world was most likely whoever had the biggest fist.
Option A: kneel at the door.
A young man who had just been promoted by the gang leader should have been riding high, full of confidence and vigor.
What would kneeling at the door look like? A guilty conscience?
Option B: take his seat calmly.
With Flattery, sitting down with dignity was far safer than kneeling in submission.
Lu Ping chose B.
[You selected B.]
[You enter the main hall with a light step, without appearing frivolous.]
[You walk up beside the gang leader, bowing slightly, with just the right amount of restraint on your face.]
[The Flattery trait operates throughout.]
[Your position, sitting posture, the angle at which you hold your cup, and even the frequency of your chewing are all calibrated to put your superior at ease.]
[The gang leader begins making small talk.]
["Where are you from?"]
["How many people are in your family?"]
["How did you come to Sunset Glow Village?"]
[Each question seems casual.]
[But after each one, he pauses for a few breaths, watching your expression as you answer.]
[You say you are an orphan from Sunset Glow Village, that your parents died early, and that you grew up on your neighbors' charity.]
[On the day the village was slaughtered, you were cutting firewood in the mountains. By the time you returned, it was already in ruins. Members of the Black Tiger Gang found you and threw you into the mines.]
[The gang leader listens, then smiles. His voice slowly turns cold.]
["An orphan who farmed the land could hold up a crossbeam in a mine collapse?"]
[He sets down his wine cup.]
["I've lived for more than fifty years and seen people born with divine strength, but I've never seen one who was also so good at pleasing people."]
["You don't look like an ordinary person."]
[The gang leader stands up.]
[His bearing changes abruptly.]
[The pressure of the Late Body Tempering Realm bears down on you from the front.]
[The air grows heavy, and faint ripples appear on the wine on the table.]
["Boy, I'll ask you one more time."]
["Where did your strength come from?"]
[Salty Fish takes effect.]
[You are perfectly immune to the mental pressure.]
[Your heart is as still as water.]
[But the physical disparity is real.]
[Between the Early Body Tempering Realm and the late stage stands a wall.]
[The gang leader attacks, striking at your shoulder with his palm.]
[The strike isn't particularly fast, and he holds back some of his strength. He is testing you.]
[Options appear.]
[A: Take the palm strike head-on, relying on the physique passively strengthened by the Fall Guy trait to withstand it.]
[B: Use the Body Tempering Instruction to fight back, while exposing the fact that you can cultivate.]
[C: Let out a delicate moan and use the force to collapse into the gang leader's arms, tear open your lapels, and cry out in anguish: "Well struck! Gang leader, that palm strike has completely opened up your subordinate's loyalty! Quick, hit me in the heart again, and I'll die in the line of duty right here!"]
Lu Ping stared at option C, thinking his eyes were playing tricks on him.
What the hell???
There was nothing to hesitate over.
Lu Ping chose B.
[You selected B.]
[You turn sideways and evade the gang leader's first palm strike.]
[Something changes in the gang leader's eyes.]
["You really do know how to cultivate."]
[The second palm strike follows close behind, thirty percent faster than the first.]
[You narrowly evade it again, but the wind from the strike grazes your shoulder, and your entire arm goes numb in an instant.]
[You can no longer dodge the third palm strike.]
[The gang leader's hand clamps around your neck and presses you down onto the square table.]
[The wine jug overturns, and wine runs over the edge of the table, soaking the back of your head.]
[You lasted three moves against the gang leader. For someone at the Early Body Tempering Realm facing someone at the late stage, lasting three moves has already exceeded his expectations.]
[His fingers tighten slightly around your neck, then loosen a little.]
Three moves.
Lu Ping committed the number to memory.
In his first simulation, he had died as soon as he broke through to the Body Tempering Realm.
And after leaving the simulation, he hadn't had a chance to test his strength in the Body Tempering Realm.
He had the realm but no actual combat experience.
There was no shame in being subdued in three moves...
Was this simulation about to end?
It seemed that when he returned to the woodshed that morning, he should have immediately found a way to escape the Black Tiger Gang.
Those three mortal hidden sentries couldn't have stopped him.
A Body Tempering Realm martial artist could find somewhere to lie low and secretly grow stronger; ten years later, he might well be able to come back and wipe out the Black Tiger Gang.
In the last simulation, he had never entered the world of martial artists in his entire life, so he still had no firsthand sense of its dangers.
One stumble makes you wiser. I'll be back.
Lu Ping's eyes darkened slightly.
The text continued.
["Body Tempering Realm... early stage?"]
[The gang leader's voice comes from above your head.]
["An eighteen-year-old orphan from a mountain village, at the Early Body Tempering Realm."]
[His fingers tighten a little more.]
["Who is your master?"]
[Just as the gang leader's fingers are about to tighten again, someone kicks open the door to the main hall from outside...]