Newbie Pioneering

Hot and humid—this was Bei Bei's first sensation after regaining consciousness.

Then came the weight.

Looking down, he found that his Shrek Academy uniform was gone, replaced by a crudely made but sturdy suit of chainmail.

Two sharp iron daggers hung heavily from his back.

Beside him stood a girl in leather armor with a longbow slung over her back. It was Tang Ya.

"Bei Bei? Why are you dressed like that?" Tang Ya asked in surprise, touching the hunter's outfit she wore. "This fabric... it feels so real! Is this really an illusion?"

"Quit talking! That big thing's coming!"

A rough roar interrupted them.

A burly red-haired man, Red King, carried a bone hammer larger than a person over his shoulder and pointed angrily ahead.

Beside him, a blonde girl, the Auspicious Beast, held a long katana, her face brimming with anticipation.

Meanwhile, in the bushes at the very back, Huo Yuhao crouched trembling with a light crossbow clutched in his arms.

Roar—

The earth trembled.

A giant pink tyrannosaur with a bony spike on its nose smashed through layers of trees and emerged before them on a foul wind.

Anjanath!

The visual impact from this close was far more terrifying than seeing it on a screen.

Chunks of meat hung from its fangs, and a wave of stench hit them head-on.

"Move! You new lightning brat, go draw its aggro!" Red King roared, slyly taking a step back.

Bei Bei was displeased with the red-haired man's command, but the monster before him gave him no time to think. His instincts as one of Shrek Academy's finest students drove him straight at it.

"Beast! Don't get cocky!"

Bei Bei shouted and reflexively activated the soul power within him.

"Thunderclaw!"

He swung his right hand sharply, but the expected blue-violet lightning never appeared.

The air fell silent.

Bei Bei had swung at nothing.

Bei Bei: ???

Bei Bei froze in place, his expression changing drastically.

His soul power... was gone? His body felt utterly empty. He could not even sense his martial soul!

In that moment of distraction, Anjanath's thick tail had already swept toward him with a howling gust.

Bang!

Without soul power protecting his body, Bei Bei was sent flying more than ten meters, crashing hard into a tree.

[Health Remaining: 60%]

"Cough, cough..." Bei Bei grimaced in pain. The realistic agony snapped him awake at once. "My soul power... is gone?"

"No shit!" Red King cursed as he charged forward while swinging his massive hammer. "I told you, this is a trial for mortals! If you don't want to die, use those iron scraps in your hands to chop it! Stop posing and throwing out those useless light blasts!"

"Bei Bei! Are you okay?" Tang Ya cried anxiously from afar.

She instinctively tried to summon Blue Silver Grass to bind it, but when she raised her hands, nothing happened.

"Oh no! My Blue Silver Grass is gone too!" Tang Ya stomped her feet anxiously. Looking at the heavy hunting bow in her hands, she had no idea how to use it. "How am I supposed to use this stupid bow?!"

For a time, the scene was complete chaos.

Without soul skills, soul masters were like tigers with their fangs pulled.

Bei Bei was experienced in battle, after all. He quickly adjusted his mindset and drew the twin blades from his back.

"No soul power... then I'll rely on technique!"

He rolled aside to dodge Anjanath's bite, crossed his blades, and slashed fiercely at its lower leg.

Clang!

Sparks flew everywhere.

"So hard!" Bei Bei felt his palms go numb.

This monster's hide was tougher than that of a ten-thousand-year soul beast!

"Idiot! Don't hit its legs! Go for the head! The head's its weak point!" Red King shouted in fury. It swung its hammer, trying to smash Anjanath's head, but Anjanath turned around. Red King's hammer struck the ground instead, numbing its own hands.

On the other side, although the Auspicious Beast carried a katana, her fighting style was completely bestial.

Relying on her agility, she rushed in and hacked wildly, only to get kicked away by Anjanath after greedily overcommitting. She rolled across the ground several times.

"Ah! My hair! I'm going to kill you!" the Auspicious Beast screamed as she climbed to her feet.

Five minutes passed.

This "mixed human-and-beast squad" was beaten into a frantic scramble.

Bei Bei was down to a sliver of health. Red King had been sent flying three times. Every arrow Tang Ya fired had lodged in a tree. Huo Yuhao... Huo Yuhao still did not dare leave the bushes.

"It's over, it's over, we're going to lose again!" Seeing firelight gather in Anjanath's throat, Red King's heart sank. "It's about to breathe fire! Run!"

It was a fiery breath attack capable of instantly wiping out everyone.

At that critical moment—

Huo Yuhao, who had been hiding in the bushes all this time, suddenly heard a lazy voice in his mind.

"Ah, these teammates are way too useless. Watching them is making me anxious."

Tianmeng Ice Silkworm's voice echoed in Huo Yuhao's mind.

"Yuhao, looks like it's up to us brothers to save the day! Let these country bumpkins see what support from a million-year soul beast looks like!"

"Brother Tianmeng? But my soul power..."

"Soul power is sealed here, but mental power isn't!" Tianmeng Ice Silkworm chuckled smugly. "And I've discovered that this world is very interesting... As long as I analyze it a little..."

[System Notice: High-level spiritual entity detected. Support cheat activated.]

[Skill Loaded: Full-map Mental Detection Sharing (modified version).]

Bzz—

An invisible mental wave instantly covered the entire battlefield.

Bei Bei, Tang Ya, Red King, and the Auspicious Beast, who were fleeing for their lives, all shuddered violently.

Their vision changed.

The previously dim and complex forest suddenly became a three-dimensional model formed from countless lines.

Countless red points of light and streams of data appeared across Anjanath's massive body.

Its every movement, every muscle contraction, even the trajectory of its next attack, was clearly marked on their retinas by pale golden dotted lines!

[Warning: In 1.5 seconds, conical flame spray! Safe zone: behind the rock on the left.]

A line of glaring text appeared directly before Bei Bei's eyes.

"This is..." Bei Bei's pupils contracted. "Mental Detection? But this level of precision... how is that possible?"

There was no time to think. His body reacted before his mind could.

Bei Bei slid forward, accurately slipping behind the rock on the left.

Boom—

Towering flames swept past the edge of the rock, turning the place where Bei Bei had stood moments ago into scorched earth.

Not a scratch on him!

"You dodged it?" Red King had also escaped disaster by following the prompt. It looked delightedly toward the bushes. "Good kid! Nicely done! This cheat is incredible!"

A new prompt appeared in their vision.

[Anjanath is staggered after breathing fire!]

[Weakness exposed: Throat!]

[Recommendation: Tang Ya shoots its throat with an arrow to trigger an explosion; Red King charges a hammer strike at its head; Bei Bei uses his dual blades to attack its legs.]

Was this even a battle? This was practically a step-by-step babysitter guide!

"Xiao Ya! Shoot its throat!" Bei Bei shouted.

Though Tang Ya had never used a bow before, a red crosshair appeared in her vision. As soon as she drew the bow, it automatically locked on.

"Take this!" Tang Ya released the bowstring.

This arrow seemed to carry the absolute law of guaranteed impact.

Pfft!

The arrow drilled precisely into Anjanath's still-open throat.

Boom!

Anjanath threw back its head and roared in pain, its huge body staggering backward.

"Now! Stupid dog! Smash it!" the Auspicious Beast shouted over the voice channel.

"You're the stupid dog! Watch this king's spinning hammer!"

Red King charged forward excitedly, sliding down the slope as its body spun under the momentum of its giant hammer. It smashed the hammer viciously into Anjanath's forehead.

Bang!

A crisp crack of bone.

The Anjanath that had been swaggering around moments ago was knocked straight onto its back by the blow, all four limbs in the air and stars in its eyes.

"It's down! It's down!" Tang Ya jumped up excitedly.

"Don't just stand there! Full damage!" Bei Bei's eyes gleamed. By now, he was completely immersed in the thrill of fighting without soul power, relying purely on teamwork and striking weaknesses.

His dual blades entered Demon Mode. Though he had no soul power, the red aura surging around him made him feel full of strength.

Blade Dance!

Blade light poured down like a waterfall upon Anjanath's vulnerable abdomen.

The Auspicious Beast was even more excited. Raising her katana, she rushed at its tail and unleashed a barrage of attacks. "Cut the tail! Cut the tail! I want that plate!"

In the bushes, Huo Yuhao held up his light crossbow. With Tianmeng Ice Silkworm's assistance, every shot struck Anjanath's wounds with precision, interrupting its attempts to rise.

Ten minutes later.

As Red King's final hammer fell—

The jungle tyrant let out one last mournful cry, and its enormous body crashed to the ground.

[Mission Complete!]

[Hunt Target: Anjanath!]

[Settlement Rewards: Anjanath Plate x1, Mega Potion x5.]

"We won..."

Bei Bei dropped onto the ground and panted heavily.

His entire body ached, and he was drenched in sweat, yet he felt more exhilarated than ever before.

This kind of battle, walking the line between life and death while relying entirely on trust in his teammates and his own reactions, was ten thousand times more exciting than the turn-based fights at the Soul Fighting Arena, where one person threw out a skill and the other answered with another.

"That was awesome! So damn awesome!" Red King tossed its hammer to the ground and rushed over to hug Huo Yuhao, who had just crawled out of the bushes, patting his back vigorously.

"Good kid! This king knew it was right about you! Your full-map vision was incredible! Without you, we'd have been roasted meat by now!"

Huo Yuhao was nearly coughing up blood from the blows, but a silly grin spread across his face.

This was the first time he had received such recognition from someone this powerful, even if it was a soul beast.

"Great job, little Yuhao!" Tang Ya ran over as well and rubbed Huo Yuhao's hair. "Even I didn't expect that arrow to hit so accurately!"

In the real world, at Origin Internet Cafe.

The three humans and two beasts removed their helmets at the same time.

Bei Bei took a deep breath, still immersed in the battle just now.

He subconsciously circulated his soul power, then suddenly froze.

"My soul power..."

To his shock, the previously unshakable bottleneck at rank thirty had actually loosened slightly!

Not only that, his mental power was clearly far more condensed than before. His sharp awareness of the surrounding environment was the lingering effect of Mental Detection from the game.

"So this is... the effect of the internet cafe?"

Bei Bei abruptly turned toward Lu Yuan behind the counter.

Lu Yuan leaned back in his chair, looking at them with an amused smile. "So? Was two gold soul coins a waste?"

"Not at all! It was absolutely worth it!" Bei Bei sprang to his feet. "Senior, this is practically a miracle! This kind of tempering of one's battle awareness can't even be achieved in Shrek's inner court!"

"Boss!" Red King called out as well. "Can we bring out that Anjanath Plate that dropped just now? It looks like excellent material for making weapons!"

"That's game material. You can't take it out," Lu Yuan mercilessly shattered its hopes. "But any equipment you make in the game will still be there when you log in next time."

Red King was somewhat disappointed, but the moment it thought of wearing a full "Anjanath set" next time and crushing other monsters, it became excited again.

"Boss, top me up for another ten hours! I'm going to slaughter that Rathalos too!" Red King slapped down another chunk of ore.

"Me too!" the Auspicious Beast refused to be outdone.

Watching this group of humans and beasts succumb to gaming addiction, Bei Bei smiled bitterly and touched his flat coin pouch.

Though he and Tang Ya were soul masters, they had not yet graduated from the academy and were not well off.

The money they had just spent was already their living expenses for the next few days.

"Xiao Ya, we..."

"We'll come again tomorrow!" Though reluctant, Tang Ya knew they had to take things slowly. "Bei Bei, we need to hurry back to the academy and tell this good news to... uh, who should we tell?"

A sharp gleam flashed in Bei Bei's eyes.

"We tell no one! If those old fossils at the academy find out about this place, they'll definitely shut it down." Bei Bei said gravely. "We'll come here ourselves in secret! Besides... this can be our base for special training!"

Watching the scene unfold, Lu Yuan was secretly laughing to himself.

Not tell the academy?

Heh. Once your strength skyrockets and you start crushing students of the same rank, do you think those teachers are blind?

Especially that crazy old hag named Zhou Yi.

Lu Yuan glanced at the system panel.

[Today's revenue: 200 gold soul coins.]

[Received a cut of all things: Lightning Control (Beginner), Mental Detection (Beginner), Plant Affinity (Trace).]

[Host's soul power level increased: Level 12.]

[Next-stage mission triggered: Make a name for yourself at Shrek!]

[Mission requirement: Make at least one Shrek Academy teacher become a member.]

Lu Yuan felt the power that had appeared in his body out of nowhere, and the corners of his lips rose.

The first batch of leeks... no, seed users, had been fully cultivated!

Lu Yuan shook the cola in his hand and waved toward the entrance of the internet café. "Take care, and remember to bring enough money tomorrow!"