Before Lin Ye had finished speaking, Dugu Yan gave an indignant snort from a corner of the Internet Cafe.
"Hey, boss! Are you blind? I haven't fought my first-round match yet!"
"Oh, right. I almost forgot about you!" Lin Ye gave his forehead a perfunctory slap. "The system just announced that because we have an odd number of entrants, Dugu Yan drew a bye in the first round and advances automatically!"
"Whoa—"
The spectators who had only watched the game cried out in surprise.
"So the rules for the finals have changed."
Lin Ye pointed at the three portraits remaining on the holographic screen—Ning Rongrong, Zhu Zhuqing, and Dugu Yan—and announced, "This is no longer a one-on-one, single-elimination tournament. It's a brutal three-person round robin! Each contestant must fight the other two. Whoever wins the most matches becomes the champion of the first Grand Prix!"
Ning Rongrong, Zhu Zhuqing, and Dugu Yan exchanged looks. Sparks practically flew between them.
"Hmph! To get that Metabolic Editor and save my grandfather, I've killed more Scavengers in the Badlands these past three days than I can count! You two might as well hand over the championship!" Dugu Yan declared.
"Big talk! Watch me turn you into a sieve with my homing bullets!" Ning Rongrong shot back.
Zhu Zhuqing said nothing. She silently drew her Katana from the void and fixed her catlike eyes on her two prey.
"First match! Ning Rongrong versus Dugu Yan!"
Whoosh!
Two flashes of white light swept them into the Arasaka Tower arena.
"Purple-hair! Times have changed! Die!"
Ning Rongrong wasted no time. The moment she landed, she opened fire with her legendary Smart Assault Rifle!
Hundreds of tiny homing rounds, packed with terrifying kinetic force, curved through the air and descended on Dugu Yan from every direction!
In the stands, Ning Fengzhi and Chen Xin clenched their fists.
That same attack had killed Poison Douluo in an instant!
Yet Dugu Yan stood her ground before the deadly barrage and gave a disdainful sneer.
Bzzzt—!
Just as the homing rounds were about to strike, a concealed layer of mechanical skin on Dugu Yan's arm erupted with blinding electronic interference!
Hum!
The rounds that had seemed to have eyes of their own suddenly went blind. Three meters from Dugu Yan, they veered wildly off course and peppered the wall behind her without touching so much as the hem of her clothes!
"What?!" Ning Rongrong blanched. "My smart weapon stopped working?!"
"Hahaha! Never seen a Tyger Claws Dermal Imprint? It's made to counter noobs like you who think they can buy their way to victory with a homing gun!" Dugu Yan laughed.
Having played through the story from V's perspective, she had spent the past three days doing more than farming money. She had obsessively studied Night City's intricate web of cyberware counters!
"Now taste my technological poison!"
Dugu Yan flicked her wrist and tossed three sickly green Biochemical High-Explosive Grenades at Ning Rongrong's feet!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Thick chemical gas engulfed half the arena!
Ning Rongrong's health plummeted at a terrifying rate!
"Cough, cough! You... you poisoned me and yourself?!"
Ning Rongrong struggled desperately in the fumes, only to see that Dugu Yan, standing in the heart of the gas, had no red damage numbers above her head. Instead, green healing numbers—"+100," "+200"—poured out!
"Hahahaha! I've got a Metabolic Editor installed! In poison gas, I'm immortal!"
Within ten seconds, Ning Rongrong collapsed in the fumes, furious and helpless.
"First match: Dugu Yan wins!"
In the stands, Poison Douluo Dugu Bo leaped to his feet, tears streaming down his face. "Good! Good! Good! That's my granddaughter! The highest art of poison is poisoning yourself too—and feeling better for it!"
"Second match! Dugu Yan versus Zhu Zhuqing!"
There was no time to rest. White light flashed, Ning Rongrong's body vanished, and Zhu Zhuqing appeared at the edge of the arena, cold and composed in black.
"Little sister Zhu Qing, your stealth won't work on me! Come any closer and this sea of chemical poison will be your death!"
Emboldened by her victory, Dugu Yan began the match by hurling Chemical Grenades at her own feet. She built a dense zone of deadly fumes around herself, hoping her poison formation would wear Zhu Zhuqing down.
Tang San watched from the stands and nodded inwardly. A clever tactic! The Tang Sect Poison Manual describes something similar: Poison Fire Encampment. Zhu Zhuqing could never break through that poisonous barrier!
But Zhu Zhuqing's icy expression did not change.
Hummm—!!!
Sandevistan, activate!
Once more, the entire world sank into an eerie, pale-blue stillness!
The spreading ripples of gas froze in the air. Dugu Yan's smug smile froze on her face.
Zhu Zhuqing moved!
Like a streak of black light, she plunged straight into the lethal chemical fumes!
Hiss, hiss, hiss!
The poison savaged Zhu Zhuqing's health, but she was too fast!
So fast that the system could barely register damage before she swung her blades again!
Within the slowed flow of time, Dugu Yan watched helplessly as the black-clad reaper charged through the poison and reached her.
The two Mantis Blades filled her vision!
Slash—!
Time returned to normal.
A crisp metallic cutting sound rang out from the poison cloud.
Dugu Yan's gas-masked head flew into the air!
"Second match: Zhu Zhuqing wins!"
"H-how is that possible?!"
Tang San dropped back onto his plastic bench, cold sweat pouring down his body.
She had ignored the poison formation!
She had charged straight in!
Before such monstrous speed, every elaborate tactic and vicious Hidden Weapon trap was a joke!
"Third match! Zhu Zhuqing versus Ning Rongrong!"
Only one duel remained in the holographic arena.
If Zhu Zhuqing won, she would claim the championship undefeated.
If Ning Rongrong won, all three would be tied.
"Zhu Qing! I'll fight you with everything I've got! Gorilla Arms, smash her!"
After respawning, Ning Rongrong knew her homing gun was useless. She went straight into a frenzy.
Swinging her monstrous legendary metal arms, she hammered the ground again and again!
She meant to force Zhu Zhuqing out with shockwaves covering the entire area.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The whole Arasaka Tower landing pad shook violently!
"Too slow!"
Zhu Zhuqing's voice seemed to come from every direction.
Her Sandevistan was still cooling down, but cyberware was not the only thing she had trained these past three days. She had also honed the art of stealth assassination to its limit!
"Optical Camo, activate!"
Zhu Zhuqing vanished, as though she had dissolved into the dust in the air.
She did not attack immediately. Like a patient hunter, she circled Ning Rongrong without a sound.
"Come out! Show yourself!"
Ning Rongrong swung her metal fists wildly, leaving herself wide open.
Then she threw a punch that hit nothing. In the instant before she could recover—
Slash!
A cold blade emerged from empty air and swept across Ning Rongrong's throat without hesitation!
Splurt!
An instant kill!
"Third match over! Zhu Zhuqing wins two matches with no losses and is crowned champion of the first Grand Prix!"
Lin Ye's voice rang through the Internet Cafe. The arena's blue holographic barrier shattered and burst into a sky full of dazzling cyberpunk fireworks!
She had won!
In the stands, Dai Mubai was weeping openly. He pounded the railing before him. "Zhu Qing! Did you see that?! That's my fiancée! She won the championship!"
Tang San, meanwhile, had lost the ability to think.
He stared at Zhu Zhuqing in the center of the arena, a queen of the night. The monument to his belief that Tang Sect Hidden Weapons were supreme had come crashing down!
Whoosh—!
All the contestants were teleported back to the Internet Cafe.
Zhu Zhuqing removed her helmet. Excitement brought a flush to her usually cool face.
"Congratulations, cashier number one." Lin Ye snapped his fingers, and an elegant silver metal case appeared on the counter.
"Now it's time to make good on my promise! Open it. This is your prize... made real!"
Everyone held their breath.
With trembling hands, Zhu Zhuqing slowly released the clasps.
Click.
The case opened. A blue glow, beautiful with technology far beyond the age, lit the entire Internet Cafe!
Inside lay a precision-engineered metal spine. Pale-blue energy circuits flowed across its surface as it rested on a velvet cushion, as exquisite as a work of art.
Legendary Operating System Cyberware—[QianT "Peregrine" Sandevistan]!
"It really... became real? It isn't an illusion... That weight, that feel of metal—it's real!"
Sword Douluo Chen Xin drew a sharp breath. Despite being a Titled Douluo, he sensed in that cold metal a terrifying power capable of changing the very laws of the Douluo Continent!
"The times... really have changed," Ning Fengzhi murmured, shaken.
Zhu Zhuqing stroked the metal spine as though it were a treasure, feeling its chill beneath her fingers. Tears of joy finally spilled from her catlike eyes.
With it, the Star Luo Imperial Family's pursuit and Dai Mubai's cowardice would become laughable memories!
In the corner, Tang San watched the peerless mechanism capable of slowing time enter the real world. His jealousy and obsession finally overwhelmed his reason!
"No... it's mine! Only the Tang Sect deserves a peerless mechanism so far ahead of its time!" Eyes bloodshot, Tang San shamelessly dropped to his knees and began kowtowing to Lin Ye. "Senior Lin! I'll give you all my Hidden Weapon blueprints! Please sell me one too! I can enter the competition! I—"
Bang!
Before Tang San could finish, an impatient Dugu Bo kicked him straight out of the Internet Cafe.
"Shut up, you noisy spectator! Get lost! Can't you see we're witnessing history?!"
Before you continue