As Chen Mochuan reviewed the battle that had just ended, a system notification from the Heaven Martial Battle Net suddenly popped up before him.
[Li Biao has requested to add you as a friend]
[Note: Brother Chuan, add me!]
Chen Mochuan accepted the request at once.
Almost at the same time, Li Biao's voice call request appeared, and he immediately answered it.
"It's already past six. We can't stay in the Virtual World forever; it'll wear you out mentally." Li Biao's voice was full of concern. "Come on, let's go get another massage and relax."
Only then did Chen Mochuan, immersed in battles on the Heaven Martial Battle Net, realize how quickly time had passed. The entire afternoon had slipped by before he knew it.
After emerging from his intensely focused state of martial training, his temples began to throb, and a dull ache swelled through his head. He realized that his mind had been overstimulated earlier, and the adrenaline and dopamine his body had released had masked his fatigue until now.
The consecutive high-intensity ranking matches had not taken much of a toll on his body, but they had seriously drained his mind.
He instinctively summoned the Golden Light Screen and found that the panel remained clearly visible even in the Virtual World.
His status on the panel had changed from [Moderate Fatigue] at noon to [High Fatigue]. He had been so engrossed in ranked matches that he hadn't even noticed the warning.
He said, "All right," and was about to leave the Virtual World when Li Biao started shouting excitedly on the other end of the call.
"No way... Brother Chuan! You played forty ranked matches this afternoon? Your rating's over eight hundred now! That's insane—you've been grinding nonstop!"
Li Biao had clearly checked his profile, since Chen Mochuan hadn't hidden his match record from friends.
"Yeah. I spent the whole afternoon playing ranked matches. Didn't do anything else."
As he spoke, Chen Mochuan glanced over his record: [Matches: 40 (27 wins, 13 losses, 0 draws), Win Rate: 67.5%].
He then checked Li Biao's profile: [Rank: Bronze (198 points), Matches: 214 (130 wins, 98 losses, 1 draw), Win Rate: 56.8%, Blood-Qi Value: 6.18].
On the Heaven Martial Battle Net, once you earned 1,000 points in a rank, you advanced to the next one and automatically received 50 points of rank-loss protection.
Li Biao's score was nearing 200, which meant he had firmly established himself in Bronze.
Compared to the 6.15 recorded that morning, Li Biao's Blood-Qi Value had risen by another 0.03. The increase was almost as impressive as Chen Mochuan's own, showing that Li Biao's Spirit Talent related to "eating" could also convert energy efficiently and strengthen his body.
"I get tired after at most four ranked matches in an hour. At this rate, you've played at least eight an hour on average. Didn't you need to catch your breath in between? Don't ranked matches wear you out mentally?"
Li Biao knew his best friend had incredible stamina. During training, he seemed almost tireless. But he hadn't expected Chen Mochuan's mental endurance to be just as far beyond the norm. After all, getting injured on the Heaven Martial Battle Net didn't cause injuries to your real body, but the pain felt so real that it still put a considerable strain on your mind.
"At first, I was matched with weaker opponents. I won plenty without much effort, so it wasn't as draining as you think," Chen Mochuan explained. "But I've definitely reached my limit now. My head's killing me."
After hearing Chen Mochuan's explanation, Li Biao still sounded unconvinced. "Is that so..."
"Come on, let's hurry and get that massage, then grab dinner. It's already past six. Aren't you hungry?" Chen Mochuan interrupted his thoughts and urged him on.
So the two of them left the Virtual World and went to get another free massage.
This time, though, the massage did nothing to increase his Blood-Qi Value. Chen Mochuan still felt exhausted, and the status on his panel stubbornly remained at [High Fatigue].
He knew that his training had to end for the day. He would have to put both his fist techniques and Stance Training on hold—his body desperately needed proper rest, or he could easily get injured.
At dinner, Chen Mochuan noticed Li Biao seemed down and asked with concern, "You don't look very happy. What's wrong?"
The question brought Li Biao's grievance back to mind, and suddenly even the food tasted bland. Gritting his teeth, he said, "In my last ranked match today, I ran into a bastard! After a few exchanges, he realized he was no match for me, so he started running all over the arena to avoid fighting..."
"That guy was slippery as an eel. I couldn't catch him, and he dragged the match out for the full twenty minutes. In the end, the Battle Net called it a draw!"
On the Heaven Martial Battle Net, the two lowest ranks, Black Iron and Bronze, had a match limit of twenty minutes. If neither side won by then, the match was declared a draw, and neither player lost points.
The more Li Biao talked, the angrier he got. "I've played more than five hundred ranked matches, and this is the first time I've run into such a shameless bastard—a pure point-grubber! If I match with him again, I'll break his legs and see how he likes running then!"
Chen Mochuan asked, "Was he anonymous?"
"Yeah!" Li Biao nodded. "I limited my matchmaking range, and he's from Antu City too. If he hadn't been anonymous, I would've hunted him down in real life! That anonymity feature is disgusting!"
Chen Mochuan teased him with a laugh. "The anonymity feature was created to protect people from 'hot-blooded souls' like you."
Li Biao pursed his lips. "He's played a little over two hundred ranked matches, and he's drawn nearly thirty times! I'm probably not the only one who wants to track him down."
Chen Mochuan was dumbfounded. A draw rate of over ten percent—he'd never seen anyone that ridiculous online. "Well, he does sound like he needs a beating."
"But I think what really pisses you off is that you couldn't catch him... Why not work on your footwork? Otherwise, even if you run into him again, you might not be able to catch him."
Thinking of how fast the man had been, Li Biao sighed. "Ah, maybe later."
That evening, Chen Mochuan returned home and lay on his bed to rest, taking stock of what he'd gained that day.
Although he'd spent the whole afternoon immersed in the Virtual World and hadn't directly increased his Blood-Qi Value, Foundation Building Fist and Tiger Fiend Fist had been thoroughly honed through the successive battles. He had absorbed many of the martial insights in his mind, and his proficiency had increased by 4% and 9%, reaching [Great Completion (18%)] and [Initiation (31%)] respectively.
After experiencing the Heaven Martial Battle Net firsthand, Chen Mochuan deeply understood how much virtual reality technology could aid martial training.
Ever since the technology had been developed and applied to simulated combat, martial arts on Blue Star had advanced far faster than before.
The Heaven Martial Battle Net had raised the realism of combat to an astonishing 99%, greatly accelerating the progress of martial arts in Hua Nation.
In real-life sparring, martial artists often held back for fear of getting hurt, unable to go all out.
But on the Heaven Martial Battle Net, they could fight with all their strength. Even being "crippled" or "killed" wouldn't affect their real bodies. At worst, they'd feel mentally drained.
At the same time, the Heaven Martial Battle Net offered far more opportunities to fight than the real world, allowing martial artists to accumulate a wealth of practical experience.
Although virtual combat still fell far short of real battles to the death, it could nevertheless improve martial artists' combat skills to the greatest extent and play a vital role in accelerating the overall development of martial arts.
With Ferocious Beasts posing such a tremendous threat, humanity on Blue Star had united in a common destiny. For the sake of martial arts development across Blue Star, Hua Nation had open-sourced the technology behind the Heaven Martial Battle Net.
Other nations had followed Hua Nation's example, creating virtual combat platforms of their own.
From then on, martial arts around the world entered a new era of rapid advancement.
As Chen Mochuan pondered the Heaven Martial Battle Net, exhausted from overexertion, he soon fell into a deep sleep.
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