Neglecting Proper Work

Neglecting Proper Work PS: This is awkward—I set the scheduled release time wrong. Sorry.

What left Yang Bo speechless was that there was something in the fish pond: a group of shrimp, brilliantly colorful shrimp. They looked like protected animals too, and the client added another five hundred to the budget.

"Working on Saturday really is great." After getting home from work, Yang Bo carefully did the math. He had earned 4,200 Credit Points today.

"I'll test it and see whether charging can replenish the light energy after it's used up." Yang Bo had thought of it today: what exactly did Light Energy Control and Electrical Energy Control consume? His own "energy"? In the bathroom, Yang Bo placed his palm in the bathtub, and it crackled with electricity. Frying fish in his palm was no longer just a dream.

After keeping it up for half an hour, Yang Bo felt his body going weak. He got up and put on a bathrobe. This was what excessive depletion felt like. Then he directly placed his hand on the positive terminal of a battery.

A numb, warm sensation traveled from his palm up his arm before spreading through his entire body. The reason he did not test it in the bathtub was that he was afraid a leak might cause unnecessary trouble, such as tripping the circuit breaker.

Twenty minutes later, Yang Bo was full of vigor. Looking at himself in the mirror, he said, "Will I have to carry such a huge battery around whenever I go out in the future?"

Feeling refreshed, he entered the Mecha Game. Mecha Piloting tested one's reaction speed. The strongest mecha warriors could fight while their mechas traveled at fifteen times the speed of sound.

At that speed, they were practically invincible.

The combat training Yang Bo was doing in the game only required him to reach supersonic speed.

Of course, the Blade Mecha Yang Bo was currently piloting in the game could not reach fifteen times the speed of sound either.

Blade: Third-generation humanoid mecha. Height: 8.2 meters. Weight: 115 tons. Equipped with a Rocket Pack. Maximum speed: Mach 5. Maximum full-power operating time: 20 minutes. Equipped with a Plasma Cutting Blade and Energy Shield.

Most mechas fought in close combat. Long-range combat was exceedingly rare.

Why? If long-range firepower was really needed, it would be better to call in a space battleship's Laser Cannon. Locking onto and hitting an object moving several times the speed of sound from several thousand meters away was still very difficult.

It was not impossible, of course. It required Gene Evolvers with special abilities, otherwise they would not be able to react in time.

Yang Bo controlled his mecha. He was familiar with it now. With several rapid consecutive movements of his left hand, he had the mecha crouch and roll, dodging another mecha's attack.

Accelerate! A string of commands followed. The mecha kicked off with its left foot, and the Rocket Pack on its back erupted with a roar. Yang Bo's mecha instantly charged toward the opponent at twice the speed of sound, while the Plasma Cutting Blade in its hand flashed with blinding light, vibrating as many as 180,000 times per second.

"Congratulations, Nagging Eighth Master. You have completed Beginner Combat Training and may now enter the game." A pleasant voice rang out as he watched the opposing mecha get sliced into a crippled wreck.

Upon entering the game, Yang Bo found that its setting involved a virus leaking from an anti-human laboratory somewhere in human territory. Some people became Mutants with many incredible abilities, and even the wild beasts had mutated.

Yang Bo roughly skimmed through the game setting and paid no further attention to it. He was only here to experience it, after all. This was the legendary thing, after all.

"Damn, what a rip-off. An information service fee of three hundred Credit Points for one hour?" Yang Bo looked at the scenery before him. It was beautiful.

A massive Steel Fortress stood atop a mountain peak. To the right stretched an endless Plain, while to the left lay endless mountains. The game's starting location was a base called Number 16.

What exactly was the information service fee for...? It was similar to an hourly game card.

"Forget it. I'll play for an hour and then log out. This damn game must be making a fortune." Yang Bo noticed quite a few players. There were at least several hundred within his field of view alone.

Looking at the minimap, he saw that the developers had divided the map into safe and dangerous zones based on player skill, and did not recommend that players enter the dangerous zones marked by the developers.

Yang Bo followed the signs out of the Steel Fortress. The enormous Laser Cannons atop the Steel Fortress looked incredibly realistic.

The sky above was gray and overcast.

After leaving the base, the road split into two. The side leading into the mountains was a dangerous zone. Yang Bo was someone who listened to advice, so he headed toward the Plain.

Yang Bo controlled the mecha while making all sorts of movements, such as picking up the Plasma Cutting Blade and waving it around like a child with a toy.

He accelerated from time to time, experiencing speed and excitement. Unfortunately, his body felt nothing; it was only a visual sensation.

A large tree stood ahead. Yang Bo chuckled and charged forward. The Rocket Pack activated rapidly, launching the mecha forward at supersonic speed, and the Plasma Cutting Blade in its hand instantly swept through the tree.

Flight +1!

Flight +1!

Flight +1!

Yang Bo froze. What was going on? He stopped the mecha and looked at the severed half of the tree crown. Then he turned back and carefully searched through it. Before long, he spotted a bird's nest, with three birds lying on the ground.

"What's going on?"

"Could this planet really exist?"

"Are the so-called Mutants and anti-human organizations real too?"

"No wonder I can't see the Starry Sky?"

Countless thoughts flashed through Yang Bo's mind. He did not know whether it was because his abilities had improved, but he felt that his mind was extremely sharp now.

Yang Bo silently called up the skill and soon saw Flight: Beginner (3/10).

"Holy crap, could this skill eventually let me fly with my physical body?" Excited, Yang Bo activated the mecha's radar and scanned for this type of bird.

Soon, the radar displayed traces of many birds. This was a future New Technology. Every plant and animal had different structures and genes, and the waves emitted by this search radar could distinguish different living creatures through the different waves reflected back.

To put it simply, with this kind of radar, finding mushrooms would be easy. After going up a mountain, you could scan for the mushrooms you wanted—or mushrooms stored in the database—and one sweep of the radar would tell you where they were.

Thus, many players witnessed a bizarre sight: a beginner mecha waving a Plasma Blade, leaping and scrambling about, occasionally launching itself into the air, then... using a five-meter-long Plasma Blade to chop at birds weighing less than two kilograms. Naturally, the birds were easily sliced in half, and the players who saw it all began discussing it.

"Is that guy sick?"

"Probably a newbie."

"He's killing small animals. Report him."

"What the hell is that bastard doing? The information service costs three hundred an hour, and he's using it to kill small animals?"

"There are weirdos every year. Just wait until he goes back to maintain his mecha—then he'll know what pain is."

"Maybe he's honing his skills?"

"What kind of nonsense is that? If he wants to hone his skills on animals, he should at least go to the Plain and find Mutated Animals."

"Maybe he's some coward who gets bullied in real life and came into the game to vent."

Yang Bo could not care less about any of that. He was somewhat regretful now. "If I'd known this would happen, I should have chosen another mecha equipped with Laser Weapons."