The Proud Old Poison Master Sneaked Out at Midnight to Play Games

"Beep—"

"Your six hours of playtime for today have been exhausted. The anti-addiction system has activated and is forcibly disconnecting the neural link..."

As the system's cold electronic voice rang through the lobby, Computer Four's screen went black.

"What?! Why did it go dark?"

Poison Douluo Dugu Bo, who had been standing behind the machine and waving both hands wildly as he watched, jumped.

"That Maelstrom bastard was changing magazines! It was the perfect chance to hit back! Yan Yan, throw a Chemical Grenade and blow him to—huh? Yan Yan?"

Dugu Bo looked down and met the helpless gaze of Dugu Yan, who had just been forcibly ejected from the game.

"Grandpa, time's up."

Dugu Yan rubbed her aching neck. Her mind was still racing, but her body in the real world was beginning to tire. "I can't play anymore today. I'll have to continue tomorrow."

"That... that's it?"

It was as though someone had dumped a bucket of cold water over Dugu Bo's head. The feeling of being right there in the action had vanished.

He glanced at those damned "anti-addiction rules" on the wall and ground his teeth, but there was nothing he could do.

After all, even he, a Titled Douluo, had run up against those rules when he first came in that morning.

"Hmph! So it's over! I was tired of that shoddy illusion anyway!"

Dugu Bo's expression changed in an instant. He straightened his dark green robe, clasped his hands behind his back, and resumed the inscrutable bearing of a Titled Douluo.

He lifted his chin and shot Lin Ye a sidelong glance. "Nothing but cheap tricks! Yan Yan, let's go! Grandpa will refine a few batches of top-grade pills for you. They'll be ten thousand times better than this lousy illusion!"

"Yes, yes, Grandpa. You're the best."

Dugu Yan nodded absently. After waving goodbye to Ning Rongrong, Xue Qinghe, and the others, she took Dugu Bo's arm and left the Internet Cafe.

Watching grandfather and granddaughter walk away, Lin Ye sat in the boss's chair with a knowing smile.

Night deepened, and the bustle of Heaven Dou City gradually faded.

By ten o'clock, Origin Internet Cafe was empty.

Only Zhu Zhuqing remained, wiping down the counter. The soft hum of the ventilation fan was the sole sound in the lobby.

"Zhu Qing, let's close up." Lin Ye stretched and reached to shut down the main console.

Jingle—

Just then, someone eased the Internet Cafe's glass door open a crack.

A furtive figure slipped inside like a thief, wrapped head to toe in a loose black robe with his face tightly covered by black cloth.

"We're closed. If you want to play, come back tomorrow." Zhu Zhuqing spoke coldly without looking up.

"Ahem... I... I'm not here to play."

The black-robed man lowered his voice into a deliberately rough rasp. "I'm here to... to inspect the security measures of this illusion!"

Lin Ye burst out laughing.

Resting his chin on one hand, he studied the black-robed man, whose disguise fooled no one, and teased, "Old Master Dugu, aren't you sweltering in all that clothing in the middle of summer? Want a chilled bottle of cola to cool down?"

"You—!"

The black-robed man stiffened. Since he had been recognized, he yanked off the cloth covering his face and threw back his cloak.

That unmistakable green hair and grim old face, now flushed with an unnatural hint of red, could belong to none other than the famous Poison Douluo, Dugu Bo.

"Hmph! What would a youngster like you know?"

Caught red-handed, Dugu Bo blushed and marched to the counter, scrambling for an excuse. "I... I'm looking out for Yan Yan's safety! That illusion has guns and cannons, not to mention some evil sorcery involving ripped-out hearts and swapped livers! As Yan Yan's grandfather, I must venture into danger myself and find out whether this place called Night City has any side effects!"

"Of course, of course. You've put so much thought into this, Old Master. I'm impressed."

Lin Ye nearly hurt himself holding back his laughter. He played along with a few claps. "So how do you plan to investigate?"

"Nonsense! By going in and testing it myself, of course!"

Dugu Bo pulled a heavy purse from his sleeve and slammed it down in front of Zhu Zhuqing.

"Three hundred Gold Soul Coins! Set me up at a computer! And remember, you must not tell a fourth person I was here tonight—especially Yan Yan! Understood?!"

Even Zhu Zhuqing's perpetually icy expression twitched at the sight of this proud old poison master trying so desperately to preserve his dignity.

"Gladly. This way, please!"

Three minutes later.

With mixed feelings, Dugu Bo put on the helmet.

The darkness receded, and the character-creation screen lit up.

Looking at the figure in the mirror, Dugu Bo snorted. "You think I'll use my real face? Dream on!"

Remembering what he had picked up from watching Dugu Yan that afternoon, he swiped through the options and made himself a weathered-looking character with long silver hair, a striking scar across his face, and a piercing gaze.

"Assign points... Intelligence? Cool? What's with all this fancy nonsense? A real man draws blood with every strike!"

Dugu Bo maxed out the Body and Reflexes attributes.

He entered the game.

To a pulse of frantic electronic music, Night City's riot of neon-lit streets appeared before the Titled Douluo.

He had watched it on a screen all day, yet when he breathed in the oily air and felt the cool touch of acid rain on his skin, Dugu Bo was still stunned by how real it felt.

"What an illusion... Even the rain feels real..."

Dugu Bo muttered to himself.

He tried to circulate Soul Power through his body. Sure enough, there was none.

He was now an ordinary mortal through and through.

But after his initial panic passed, Dugu Bo broke into an excited grin.

"Hahaha! So what if I have no Soul Power? I've fought and killed my way through countless life-or-death battles to get where I am today! Take away my Soul Power, and I'm still a king of combat!"

A few dozen minutes later.

Dugu Bo finished the beginner quest and fished a rusty solid iron pipe out of a roadside trash can.

He gripped the pipe and gave it a couple of practice swings. Hearing it whistle through the air, he nodded in satisfaction. "It's no proper sword, but this iron bar will do as a substitute."

Just then, three Tyger Claws thugs with garishly dyed hair and Kinetic Pistols in their hands swaggered into the alley.

"Hey, look at that old geezer, dressed like a bum! Oi, old man! Hand over your Euros!" The thugs raised their guns with savage grins.

On the Douluo Continent, Dugu Bo would not have spared them a glance. A single look from him would have reduced them to puddles of pus.

But here...

"You wretched insects!"

A cold glint flashed in Dugu Bo's eyes.

Though he had no Soul Power, the combat instincts and reflexes he had honed as a Titled Douluo remained intact in this game character with maxed-out Reflexes!

Whoosh!

Without another word, Dugu Bo moved!

He used the Snake Shadow Tracing Step, a technique of his own creation, and became a blur in the narrow alley!

Bang! Bang!

The thugs fired on instinct, but their bullets struck only the afterimages he left behind!

"What?!"

The thugs blanched.

"Too slow!"

Dugu Bo's icy voice sounded beside their ears.

In his hands, the rusty pipe might as well have been a peerless weapon.

Crack!

The pipe struck one thug's throat at a vicious angle and shattered his windpipe!

Dugu Bo turned his wrist and swept the pipe into the second thug's temple with tremendous force!

Every movement flowed into the next!

In just two seconds, an old man armed with a battered iron pipe killed three gunmen using nothing but close-quarters skill!

"Hah—"

Standing among the bodies, Dugu Bo slowly exhaled and stared at the blood on his pipe, his eyes alight with fascination.

"What a rush! How many years has it been since I last fought a raw, brutal fight like that?"

Ever since becoming a Titled Douluo, he had won his battles by blanketing the area in poison mist. Victory came easily, but the thrill of fighting had disappeared.

Night City had awakened the wildness sleeping inside him!

"Hahaha! Who says I need those lumps of metal to survive here? Today, I'll cut my way through Night City with this iron sword!"

Dugu Bo had lost himself completely. He picked up the few hundred Euros the thugs had dropped and charged out of the alley in search of his next victims.

However.

Ten minutes later.

Bang—BOOM!!!

A deafening shotgun blast rang out, followed by the roar of a high-explosive grenade.

At the entrance to a heavily guarded nightclub, a Maelstrom elite with heavy machine guns for arms tore the swaggering cyber swordsman to pieces.

[Flatlined]

Dugu Bo stared at the blood-red death notice in his vision.

Back in the Internet Cafe, he pulled off his helmet. His dark green hair stood on end, and his eyes nearly bulged from their sockets.

"That bastard cheated! My pipe pierced his heart, but his heart was a steel plate?!"

To make matters worse, his hour of playtime was almost up, and a low-balance warning had appeared on the screen.

Dugu Bo trembled with rage, but all he could do was pound the desk in helpless fury.

No matter how good his footwork was, it meant nothing when someone fired a high-explosive grenade straight at his face!

"Boss!!!"

The Poison Douluo, who had insisted he wanted nothing to do with the game just moments ago, stormed up to the counter with bloodshot eyes. "Add more of that playtime credit! I'm going to tear that tin-plated monster apart today!"

"Of course. It's two Gold Soul Coins per hour, though you still have five hours left today, Old Master." Lin Ye took the money with a smile.

"Enough talk! Start the machine!!!"