Chapter 23

"Or how about we try the leader map? There's a one-star mech warrior on it," Li Wenfu suggested. He and Lu Sheng had been thoroughly intimidated by Du Nan's combat prowess. It was his first time playing, and he had already mastered the rapid firing of two cannons, even the super energy cannon that required the most energy to charge... This guy was simply born for the battlefield.

"How many are there?" Du Nan asked.

"There's no fixed number. For level one difficulty, each person kills one to pass. For level two, each kills two; for level three, four; for level four, eight. It doubles each time, you get the idea," Li Wenfu explained, indicating that the leader map had no upper limit on the number of enemies.

"Alright, let's start with level one."

Du Nan listened, thinking that the leader map was much more challenging. The regular maps increased in difficulty by tenfold, but this one doubled, which was a significant difference.

Li Wenfu activated the map.

The scenery changed, and now the terrain was a massive model of an abandoned city. There were walls and gates for defense, making it impossible to charge straight in. From a distance, besides the clusters of mechanized soldiers, there were also some warriors in mechs leading the groups. Every hundred meters within the soldier clusters, there was a mech warrior. This density wasn't too high.

"Which corner should we attack first?" Lu Sheng jogged back with a more accurate electronic map and asked.

Du Nan looked at it, hesitated for a moment, and said, "Wait a moment."

Then, he raised the super cannon, charged it for two full minutes, and fired three consecutive shots. White light descended... Inside the walls, three mech warriors didn't even have time to react before they were shattered in the explosions.

Mission accomplished!

The dashboard's prompt sounded, leaving the fat man and Lu Sheng dumbfounded. They thought: Is this guy really a newbie entering the magic network training for the first time? Good heavens, if everyone was like this, would anyone still enjoy bullying newbies?

"Switch to level four." Du Nan estimated his limits and gestured for Li Wenfu to increase the difficulty.

The latter nodded involuntarily.

After the difficulty changed, a new prompt sounded, and the fat man suddenly remembered: He couldn't even pass level three, so how did he end up on level four?

As time passed, the training continued.

After a long half-day, the three finally exited the magic network.

"Just a little more, it's a pity. The last shot of the Great Armor Tyrant, I could have taken it down. It's my fault, I overlooked the charging time, just a second and a half short," Lu Sheng blamed himself as soon as he exited, as if he had committed a major mistake.

Li Wenfu shook his head.

He covered his face with both hands and slowly said, "It's not your fault. You blocked sixteen spikes. If I had blocked the Toxic Dragon's spray earlier and not destroyed Du's energy cannon, the Great Armor Tyrant would have died dozens of times already. There would have been no time for it to charge and self-destruct. The Demon Tail Bee was also a problem; if we hadn't been slowed down by its poison stinger, we wouldn't have been so delayed. Du's frozen feet also affected him greatly."

"We need a sniper..." Lu Sheng thought of the unpredictable Demon Tail Bee, feeling a deep frustration.

"Right," Du Nan sighed.

No matter how strong his ice magic was, it couldn't match a swarm of giant insects, especially with their flight, poison, and self-destruct capabilities. Reflecting on the main reasons for their failure, the elusive Demon Tail Bee stood out. Their three-person team was always short of a combat role. Of course, if he had switched to lightning magic... this would have been a map for slaughtering newbies.

The three were feeling dejected.

Suddenly, a furious shout came from the opposite building, echoing through the night sky: "To hell with the Great Armor Tyrant, to hell with its self-destruct! If you have the guts, come and fight me one-on-one! Hiding behind the Hunter Blade Bugs, what kind of leader are you! You can't beat me, so you self-destruct, may your ancestors suffer for eighteen generations!"

"Four-eyes, what are you looking at? Have you never seen a beautiful woman before, you pervert?"

The shout startled Lu Sheng, who curiously walked to the front of the building. Unexpectedly, just one glance drew a series of angry shouts from the opposite building. The anger of the girl from the opposite building seemed to shift to the poor Lu Sheng. Already timid, Lu Sheng took a few steps back and turned to seek help from the "womanizer" Li Wenfu.

Unexpectedly,

Li Wenfu had already collapsed on the sofa, cowering like a frightened ostrich.

"Huh?"

The girl from the opposite building, noticing the unusual situation, lifted her slender, white, fang-like legs and, with a single leap, crossed the ten-meter gap between the buildings, landing with a thud. Ignoring Lu Sheng, she saw Li Wenfu's cowering form and smiled, as if she had found a small toy to vent her anger on.

"Fatso."

She stomped hard on Li Wenfu's butt, looking thoroughly satisfied: "Get up, stop pretending to be dead, I've already seen you. It's great to see you today. I just got blown up by the Great Armor Tyrant and am still fuming. Fatso, how do you plan to torture me?"

She looked like she was ready to beat him up, asking him to choose which punch she should throw first, left or right, as if indulging him.

A name flashed through Du Nan's mind: Yinxing.

The only person who could scare Li Wenfu like this was her.

A soft thud sounded, and Du Nan felt another person land. This person's lightness was no less than Yinxing's.

"Ying... Yingjie... Don't... don't hit anyone..."

Outside the door,

A snow-white, tender face appeared, timidly trying to stop the commotion. Seeing Lu Sheng and Du Nan turn their heads, she shrank back, only showing one eye. She looked as if boys were dangerous beasts, and she needed to stay at least ten meters away to be safe.

"Hua'er, don't interfere." Yinxing looked like she was still fuming, indicating that torturing this fatso required no effort.

"But... but..."

The girl called Hua'er wanted to come in and stop the commotion but was too afraid to approach. The three boys in the room made her feel like she was facing demons.

Thinking about Yinxing's plan to torture someone,

She felt conflicted, looking extremely distressed.

"Yingjie, Big Sister Yingjie." Realizing there was no savior, Li Wenfu miraculously woke up, his face full of "surprise," as if meeting Yinxing was a blessing he had earned in a past life: "Great, I've been waiting for you, and finally, I see you, Yingjie. In just three months, you've become ten times more beautiful. At this rate, no other beautiful woman will be able to live. Yingjie, what brings you here? If you need anything, I'll run to the ends of the earth to help you. It's late, are you hungry? I can call my family's chef to make you a delicious meal."

Li Wenfu's rapid-fire compliments left Yinxing unmoved.

Her expression suggested that even if Li Wenfu could speak flowers, she would still torture him.

She was immune to flattery.

"Ah, this..." Li Wenfu's eyes darted, and he changed tactics: "Wait, I heard that Yingjie was... blown up by the Great Armor Tyrant's self-destruct? That's truly regrettable. With Yingjie's abilities, defeating it should be a piece of cake. I'm sure the Great Armor Tyrant shamefully hid, refusing to face Yingjie head-on, right?"

Yinxing looked proud and defiant, as if she was invincible.

She indicated that her failure was purely an accident.

"I knew it." Li Wenfu looked admiring, with an expression of reverence: "Yingjie is mighty and invincible. Only cowards would disrupt Yingjie's battlefield. Fortunately, I was prepared... Ta-da, let me introduce my two new friends. Little Four-eyes, Lu Sheng, and the martial arts genius, Brother Du Nan."

Yinxing's eyes lit up at the mention of a martial arts genius.

Even the shy Hua'er glanced over. Clearly, they had heard of Du Nan.

Among the new students,

Only Du Nan had second-level martial arts, while they had third-level, so they naturally paid attention.

Du Nan, though not too bothered by being sold out by his teammate, found it amusing: Fatso, to avoid being tortured, you drag me and Lu Sheng into the line of fire. Do you feel guilty towards your friends? By the way, you're a shield-type warrior, right? This 'willing to take a bullet for a friend, but willing to stab a friend in the back' skill of yours is quite advanced, but will it really work?

"Yingjie." Seeing Yinxing's bloodlust rising, Li Wenfu quickly tried to salvage the situation: "Actually, we were also blown up by the Great Armor Tyrant. We cleared out its minions, but couldn't defeat the Demon Tail Bee and the Great Armor Tyrant. With our two shields, we were just a little short of winning. Now, we should be united against a common enemy."

"You have two shields?" Yinxing was surprised.

She knew the fatso was a shield-type warrior, highly skilled. Unfortunately, he was a level below her, so she didn't pay much attention. He was the least popular defensive role, which is why he had no friends. Now, hearing that he had two friends, one of whom was also a shield... this was a cluster of misfits.

Wait a minute?

"Hold on, fatso, you cleared out the Great Armor Tyrant's minions?" Yinxing found it hard to believe. Those little bugs were practically a swarm of giants.

How could they clear them all?