A startling discovery

That evening, in their hotel suite, Jiang Nan checked the miniature recording equipment he had brought along. Once the World Martial Arts Tournament began tomorrow, he would register as a contestant-the preliminary rounds took place indoors, and only contestants and their coaching teams were allowed inside.

Doris sat on the sofa beside the balcony, elegantly smoking a slim cigarette. Somewhat amused, she asked, "What if someone beats you half to death before you have a chance to surrender? Maybe I should enter instead, and you can be my coach."

According to Jiang Nan's plan, they only needed to slip into the preliminary venue and record plenty of footage. When his turn came, if his opponent's power level was much higher than his own, he could simply forfeit.

"That won't be a problem," Jiang Nan explained. "I'm a very good judge of people. I can tell at a glance who's strong and who's weak. If my opponent looks like trouble, I'll forfeit before the announcer calls the start."

Doris giggled, her eyes twinkling as she looked at Jiang Nan. "A good judge of people? Then tell me what kind of person I am."

Jiang Nan studied Doris with an air of solemnity. The flirtation earlier that day surfaced in his mind, followed by memories of their three years together. He said earnestly, "You're a good person!"

Doris's heart trembled. There it was again. Every time Jiang Nan looked at her earnestly, she felt that same jolt.

The Jiang Nan before her showed none of his usual feigned humility or cautious manner. His eyes held an indescribable composure and confidence, as though even if the sky fell, every crisis could be resolved as long as he was there.

Doris could not understand where this confidence he usually kept hidden came from. He could not even beat her in a fight, so why did his eyes show not a trace of inferiority, and even a faint hint of disdain?

Of course, that confidence came from the system!

How could he not be confident? Jiang Nan only needed to lie low for another two years before embarking on his career as the ultimate show-off.

Although he had a sworn enemy, Fett, at the institute, Doris always stood up for him. Surely lying low for two more years would be a breeze.

"A good person?" After suppressing the turmoil inside her, Doris gave a self-deprecating laugh. "What we're doing now probably isn't anything good. If the Androids really are developed successfully and Marshal Red rules the entire world, ordinary people will have a hard time under someone as arrogant as him."

"That's exactly why I said you're a good person. Bad people wouldn't worry about things like that. But you don't need to worry too much either, Lady Doris. Things will work themselves out. Whenever the world falls into danger, a savior will appear to save it. That's a rule that's held true since time immemorial." Jiang Nan slipped back into his posture of feigned humility.

"A savior?" Doris murmured. "Let's hope so."

The following day, the World Martial Arts Tournament was finally about to begin. The entire tournament would be held at the martial arts temple.

The competition spanned two days, with registration and preliminaries on the first day and the elimination rounds on the second. This differed slightly from the plot Jiang Nan remembered, but the schedule did seem more sensible.

Registration closed at ten in the morning. Jiang Nan and Doris arrived early at the registration area. Today, Doris wore a pair of extravagant earrings and a beautiful gemstone necklace-all miniature cameras specially developed by the laboratory.

"Young master, look! It's that chick from yesterday. They're entering too." One of the lackeys spotted Doris and hurried to report to Henry.

Henry had already used his connections to investigate them yesterday. All he had learned was that Doris and Jiang Nan had come together and were staying at the Grand View Hotel. They did not seem to have any powerful backing; it looked as though Jiang Nan had simply brought his beautiful girlfriend along to compete in the World Martial Arts Tournament. With that established, Henry had nothing to worry about.

"Go contact the organizers' staff and have that brat placed in the same division as Pabrik," Henry ordered. "Tell Pabrik to leave him alive. I want him watching from the sidelines while I enjoy his woman. Heh heh heh..."

Once registration closed, the drawing of lots began. There were over 180 contestants in total, "randomly" shuffled into eight divisions, each containing over twenty contestants. The preliminaries were held in the Martial Arts Arena at Tao Ming Temple, where eight fighting platforms had already been set up, awaiting the contestants.

Just as Jiang Nan remembered, the matchups were drawn one by one, with contestants who drew the same number paired against each other. They would advance through successive rounds until each division had a single winner. Only those eight finalists would qualify for the next day's elimination rounds.

The rules were simple too. Surrendering, falling out of the ring, or losing consciousness all counted as a loss. The organizers also strictly prohibited killing an opponent. If an opponent died, the contestant would immediately be disqualified and handed over to the World Federation Police stationed at the venue to be taken away for trial.

For a while now, Jiang Nan had kept sensing someone watching him with ill intent. When the matchups came out, his suspicion was confirmed. He was up first, and his opponent was a bald man who gave him a vicious grin and drew a hand across his throat like a blade.

He's probably from that damned Silver Dog Society or whatever it's called. As sponsors of this tournament, manipulating the matchups would be child's play for them, wouldn't it?

Jiang Nan checked his opponent's power level: 69. An expert!

This man also had the highest power level in Jiang Nan's division.

"I forfeit!" Without a moment's hesitation, Jiang Nan promptly conceded.

"Contestant Pabrik wins!"

The referee announced the result loudly. The bald man stared in astonishment, then snarled at Jiang Nan, "You gutless bastard!"

Jiang Nan was utterly unfazed. What a joke. After more than a decade of surfing the internet, what kind of troll had he not encountered? What insult had he not heard?

Back in the day, Jiang Nan had been the sort who could mute his mic and flame all nine other players at once. But circumstances were against him now, so he treated his opponent's words as a dog barking and claimed a psychological victory.

Doris could not help laughing either. She had not expected Jiang Nan to surrender without even stepping into the ring. "You've already signed up," she asked. "Don't you want to give it a try?"

"Getting beaten up isn't exactly pleasant. Do I look that bored?" Realizing that his attitude was a little too casual, Jiang Nan added, "We've already gotten inside successfully. Our objective is complete, so there's no point wasting effort."

Doris thought that did make sense and dropped the subject. She and Jiang Nan began moving around the arena to watch the matches, recording the contestants' fights with their miniature equipment.

Pabrik also immediately sent word of Jiang Nan's surrender. Upon hearing the news, Henry, the youngest son of the Silver Wolf Society's chairman, burst into smug laughter. Now he could be certain that Jiang Nan and Doris had neither powerful backing nor any real strength-and Jiang Nan was a coward to boot.

Henry ordered his men to keep a close eye on Doris and find an opportunity to act that evening. Just imagining himself violating Doris in front of Jiang Nan made him burn with lust.

As Jiang Nan had predicted, Pabrik emerged as the winner of their division and advanced smoothly to the final eight, qualifying for tomorrow's elimination rounds. What surprised Jiang Nan a little was a familiar contestant among the finalists-King Chappa.

According to the plot he remembered, King Chappa should have won this tournament. Yet his power level was not the highest among the contestants present: it was only 72, while the strongest contestant had already reached 81. Could power level fail to represent someone's actual strength?

Jiang Nan soon figured it out. Power level only indicated a person's physical capabilities. Many other factors could influence the outcome of a real fight, such as combat experience and luck.

Take Doris, for example. Although her power level was as high as 147, she would probably struggle to defeat that supreme show-off Mercenary Tao, whose power level was similar to hers. Mercenary Tao had fought countless battles and mastered all sorts of killing techniques, whereas Doris had no combat experience and disliked fighting. If the two faced off, she would probably have almost no chance of winning.

Of course, when the gap in strength was overwhelming, all fancy techniques became useless. Jiang Nan silently resolved to stay safe and lie low for several more years. Steady. Don't get reckless.

If he went too far and altered future events, causing powerful enemies such as Frieza to appear ahead of schedule, things could turn ugly.

While the World Martial Arts Tournament was in full swing, thousands of miles away at the Red Ribbon Army's North City base, Fett made a startling discovery in one of the laboratories at Dr. Gero's institute.

"Doctor, come and look!" Fett rushed to find Dr. Gero and reported, "Doctor, look at this sample."

It was a biological genetic sample. Dr. Gero took it and examined it carefully under a microscope, but saw nothing unusual.

Then Fett dropped a bombshell. "This sample is a year old!"

"Impossible!" Dr. Gero could hardly believe it. "Are you certain it's a year old? Whose is it?"

"I discovered it by chance while sorting last year's samples for disposal," Fett said. "It's Jiang Nan's biological sample. I was shocked too. Normally, once cells leave the human body, they can only survive a month or two at most, even in a laboratory culture. But Jiang Nan's..."

"I remember now!" Realization dawned on Dr. Gero. "Do you remember how long Jiang Nan has been here with us?"

Fett regarded Jiang Nan as a thorn in his side. How could he ever forget? "Doctor, he's been here for over three years!"

Dr. Gero tapped the desk lightly. "Three years. Even your face has begun to show signs of age, Fett. So why hasn't Jiang Nan's appearance changed at all?"

"You're right!" Fett exclaimed. He had not noticed either, but now that he thought about it, it truly was baffling.

Dr. Gero immediately thought of his Android experiments. Jiang Nan really was a test subject sent to him by heaven. Once he unraveled the secrets of Jiang Nan's body, he could successfully create immortal Android Warriors.

This is bad! Jiang Nan went to South City with Doris. If he slips away from her, the world is so vast that finding him again would be like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Dr. Gero immediately called Doris, but she had left her portable phone in the hotel room, so he could not reach her.

Although he was frantic and wished he could fly to South City immediately, Dr. Gero knew that even the Red Ribbon Army's most advanced aircraft would need four hours to get there. Rushing over with such a conspicuous operation might only tip Jiang Nan off. With no other option, he could only pray that Doris would return his call soon.

By the time the preliminaries ended and Doris and Jiang Nan had eaten dinner and returned to the hotel, it was already dark. Doris finally saw the several messages on her portable phone and went out onto the balcony to call Dr. Gero back.

The portable phones in this world-or mobile phones, if one preferred-were rather like the earliest smartphones from Jiang Nan's era. They had buttons and screens, and could even make video calls. Doris placed a video call to Dr. Gero. As soon as he answered, his grave expression appeared on the screen.

"Thank goodness, I finally reached you," Dr. Gero said with relief before asking, "Doris, is that brat Jiang Nan beside you?"

Doris glanced at Jiang Nan without betraying anything. Puzzled, he leaned closer as well, wanting to hear what Dr. Gero had to say that required such secrecy from him.

Doris lied. "No, he's in another room."

"Good! Listen to me, Doris. Stop what you're doing and return to North City immediately. And make absolutely sure that brat Jiang Nan doesn't escape," Dr. Gero said sternly.

Doris brushed back the hair over her forehead. "Doctor, has something happened? The World Martial Arts Tournament won't end until tomorrow. We've only collected combat data from the preliminaries today."

Because he trusted Doris, Dr. Gero concealed nothing and told her about that day's discovery. Jiang Nan, eavesdropping beside her, was left dumbfounded too.

Even Jiang Nan himself had not realized this. He had been twenty-six when he transmigrated into this world. Although he occasionally looked in the mirror to admire his own face, he had always assumed it was his narcissism that made him think he still looked so bright and handsome. So there was another reason?

System, system! Jiang Nan called out to the system, which he had not spoken to in a long time.

"I'm here!"

"Have I really not aged since I transmigrated here?"

"In answer to your question, Master, you are not a life-form native to this dimension, so time in this dimension cannot erode your body," the system replied.

Does that mean I'm immortal in this spacetime? For a moment, Jiang Nan did not know whether to be happy or sad. Immortality was a weighty subject, and he could not quite come to terms with it yet.