"Ah, damn it!! It's booked solid again. Do these dog players never go to work?"
Somewhere on Mars, a Green Titan player logged in and immediately tried to book a mentor. The system still told him he had to wait six more hours, and he instantly flew into a rage!
Aside from the Chief Instructor, all the warrior training mentors in the game had to be booked in advance. Normally, a mentor could teach only thirty students at once. According to the mentors, once that number was exceeded, the quality of instruction would decline.
Therefore, anyone who wanted to attend a guidance class had to make a reservation. They could only book together with players at the same learning stage as themselves.
When they first heard this rule, many players were confused. There were so many people in the base—wouldn't there obviously be too few mentors under such a system?
But the facts proved that there were enough. The material taught during that one-hour lesson could take two or three days of free time to fully digest, and that was without counting the time spent mining!
The AI automatically saved recordings for players to study in their spare time. Most players usually needed four or five days before applying for guidance a second time. Those who could apply again after only two days, like him, were veteran players with more than a thousand points saved up.
But his ranking had remained stuck outside the top ten!
This player was called Dog Waist. He had originally been a Green Titan player as famous as the Liver Emperor. In the game, everyone who met him would give him face and respectfully call him Dog Bro!
But his status had declined recently. The reason was that he had overworked himself some time ago and ended up hospitalized. His points had been overtaken by Little Fairy with Athlete's Foot, and as a result, he had failed to get selected for that procurement mission!
Watching those guys constantly post screenshots of their grand backgrounds on Tieba, Dog Bro secretly cursed himself for not having two powerful dog kidneys, just like his name suggested!
Under normal circumstances, players wouldn't suffer something like this. Although mining every day was exhausting, their bodies on Planet D were actually soaking in Nutrient Pods at the base, completely relaxed. Any fatigue players felt after logging out was merely an illusion of mental exhaustion.
But this fellow had seemed determined to defeat the Liver Emperor at any cost. For several days afterward, he logged out for only two hours at a time and repeatedly logged back in, forcing his brain to keep switching between a fatigued body and a relaxed one. In the end, something went wrong, causing him to go into shock. He had nearly kicked the bucket.
The Little Fairy who had overtaken him had even mocked him for it, saying that he didn't know his own limits and had actually dared to compete with the Liver Emperor in endurance. Hadn't he checked the other man's background?
Dog Bro had refused to accept that and really did investigate. He wanted to know what kind of divine being the guy who could work himself that hard actually was. Only after looking into it did he learn that the so-called Liver Emperor was a genuine programmer—and a big shot who had gone completely bald by the age of twenty-six. He really couldn't afford to provoke him!
After giving up on fighting for first place, Dog Bro relaxed and focused on enjoying the game. Even when working, he slacked off whenever possible and stopped caring much about his points.
Unexpectedly, after the lord returned, he launched a major reform, directly opening the path to professional training and giving the points that had originally been used only for rankings an enormous purpose.
He had also announced that there would be a large-scale mission later, during which outstanding players from each race would be selected to work together!
This once again ignited Dog Bro's enthusiasm. After all, although the game's visuals were spectacular and its details flawless, digging mines all day was still just digging mines. Over time, even that would cause some visual fatigue.
But after mentor training was opened, the previously dull mining life of the Green Titans instantly became much richer. Whether it was the Chief Instructor's strength and physique training or the other mentors' skill training, everything filled him with an overwhelming sense of freshness.
The realistic feeling of being taught martial arts move by move was something even the finest wuxia games in Central China couldn't provide!
Moreover, the obvious improvement in his body after training, along with the progress of truly becoming proficient with cold weapons, was simply wonderful. His reborn enthusiasm made him wish he could stay in the game twenty-four hours a day!
And failing to participate in the previous mission had always been a thorn in Dog Bro's heart. He had been brooding over it, and this time he swore he absolutely wouldn't fall behind again!
However, the process of rushing up the rankings didn't go smoothly.
In terms of training, he had once been a player who nearly caught up to the Liver Emperor, so his points reserve was still fairly substantial. The key problem was time. Ever since he had been hospitalized, the Internet Management Bureau had forcibly placed him on a monitored list, requiring him to stay online no more than eight hours a day. The game AI was also extremely cooperative, reminding him to log out whenever he was nearing the eight-hour mark.
This made things extremely inconvenient for Dog Bro, especially with skill training. Skill training required a great deal of time to practice and digest. Even after he finally finished digesting the material and wanted to continue the course, he was often told that the mentor was occupied. He had no choice but to hurry offline so he wouldn't waste his precious online time.
But the time after logging out was so hard to endure. As a wealthy second-generation heir who didn't need to go out to work, there seemed to be nothing to do in real life besides spend money. Couldn't they just let him quietly become self-reliant and strive for success in the game?
Sigh, what a world...
After logging out, Dog Bro stretched and slowly walked out of his luxurious Game Pod. Clearly, the player named Dog Waist wasn't as vigorous in real life as his name suggested. Instead, his face was pale and wan, and although he was young, his hairline had already reached the standard of a thirty-year-old man. His poor daily routine was obviously to blame.
"Hey, honey? You're out so soon?" In the villa, a very beautiful woman asked with concern.
"Mm..." Dog Bro nodded, then sat on the sofa in a daze. In real life, he was unusually taciturn.
Seeing this, the woman suggested, "The weather's so nice. Why don't you go out for a walk? Staying at home all the time isn't good..."
Dog Bro said, "No... It's hot..."
"It's precisely because it's hot that you should go!" the woman said with a smile. "When the weather's hot, the girls on the streets dress more lightly. There'll be long legs everywhere—it's the best way to cool off!"
Dog Bro's mouth twitched at that. He turned his head away and said, "Give it a rest. Every time I bring someone home, you're dissatisfied. When all's said and done, aren't you the ones deciding who I'm allowed to date?"
"That's because you have terrible taste. Every girl you bring home is a gold digger."
"But the only thing that attracts girls about your son is money. If I use money to bring them home, and they aren't gold diggers, what are they—chaste maidens?"
As he spoke, the boy looked at his mother's beautiful face, then at his own ordinary face reflected in the small mirror she had placed beside the sofa. He couldn't help asking, "Mom, did you have plastic surgery when you were pursuing Dad? Why didn't I inherit any of your good looks?"
"Bah!" The woman spat angrily. "Your father was ugly—that has nothing to do with me! Considering what your father looked like, the fact that I managed to combine our genes into someone like you means my genes were already doing a great job, all right?"
The boy said, "If Dad was that ugly, why did you marry him?"
The woman said, "He had money!"
The boy said, "..."
The woman said, "Actually, son, you're not that ugly. At most, you're a little plain-looking. If you exercised and built up your body, you wouldn't be so bad. But you're so weak despite being young, and you never look manly at all. Your father won't let you hang out with those useless friends of yours, so you stay home playing games every day. It really is too ridiculous."
The boy lowered his head in silence. To be honest, he did have some regrets. Before his body had fully matured at fourteen or fifteen, those drinking buddies had dragged him into a life of wine, women, and excess every day. Now, despite being only a little over twenty, he was as frail as a thirty-five-year-old uncle.
"By the way, Grandpa's birthday is in a couple of days. Everyone from the family will be going, and many younger members of other families will also come to offer their congratulations. Behave yourself at home these next few days and play fewer games. I've had the nanny prepare some supplements for you, so replenish your energy and complexion properly. You'd better find some time to exercise, too, so you look more energetic. Otherwise, Grandpa will make more sarcastic remarks when he sees the two of us."
"Huh?" The boy's face immediately fell. The Grandpa his mother was referring to was his grandfather, a retired Old Military Chief with a painfully strict personality. He had always looked down on his decorative mother and spendthrift self, so the boy avoided him whenever possible. Besides, his birthday celebration would definitely be full of older and younger male cousins and outstanding heirs from various families. There would certainly be comparisons, and such occasions were the most troublesome...
Sigh, if only I lived in the game world. I wouldn't even mind mining for the rest of my life.