Chapter 135: The Nine-Star Half-Orc Flips Me Off

Slaughtering orcs in the Sea of Brain-Machine Beasts can increase one's mental power value. This came as a pleasant surprise. Ordinary 3-star demon beasts or their cores would only grant an increase of 45 points, but here, the gains were tenfold.

"As expected of a training system built by thousands of spiritual realm experts over twenty years; in the grand scheme of this entire game, this sliver of psycho-kinetic energy is like a speck of dust among a myriad of stars."

Zhang Chu suddenly grew excited, shouldering his Scarlet Flame Sword and sprinting forward. With a flash, he performed a massive leap. For him, this game was the perfect condition to achieve a breakthrough to 8-star within a 24-hour limit.

Watching Zhang Chu act as if he were drugged, Fan Tianlei was stunned: "Check the boy's brain-machine interface and see how his physical condition is holding up."

The Sea of Brain-Machine Beasts was being activated for the first time, and there were still many instabilities. That was precisely why the beta test was necessary. If something happened to the "Light of Binzhou," he would have no way to answer for it.

"Director Fan, Professor Zhang Chu's data is completely normal, and his mental state is extremely energetic." The staff member quickly pulled up Zhang Chu's various physical metrics.

"What are you afraid of? This kid has been in my Armament Division for so long; if he couldn't even handle this much, how could he be our Deputy Director and instructor?" Zhang Daoyi crossed his legs and cracked melon seeds, showing no concern at all for the scene on the screen. He was a monstrous genius who could even formulate spirit-attachment liquid; getting excited in a game was nothing.

"Pull up the real-time feeds of the other beta testers." Following Chen Tianxiang's order, the large electronic screen split, showing the feeds of all four individuals.

Zhang Chu and Zhang Xueying had been randomly assigned by the system—one to the coastline, the other to the primeval forest. Liu Tianhe, surprisingly, was paired with Huang Lili. Though they were an unlikely duo, Huang Lili’s previous involvement with the Immortal Pond Village incident gave her some understanding of orcs. It was a bit of a struggle at first, but as they slaughtered more orcs, Liu Tianhe's expansive military martial arts began to shine, turning the encounter into a one-sided harvest. This performance certainly saved face for Zhang Daoyi.

Zhang Xueying, however, ran into some trouble in the primeval forest. As a level 6 martial artist, dealing with orcs was indeed difficult, but it was also an opportunity for a breakthrough.

But by now, Zhang Chu had gone on a killing spree. He didn't even put orcs below level 7 in his eyes. With his 7-star gravity field suppression, his "Diamond Armor-Breaking Body" combined with his "Sky-Piercing Cannon" fist technique generated immense, powerful force; one punch was enough to send an orc to meet his ancestors.

"Ding-dong, detected that the host has acquired one 7-star mental bead energy body, mental power value +1050!"
"Ding-dong, detected that the host has acquired one 6-star mental bead energy body, mental power value +900!"
...

With a 24-hour limit, Zhang Chu did not need to rest. That was the advantage of the Sea of Brain-Machine Beasts. As long as the physical body outside could withstand it, there was no need to eat, drink, or rest here—just keep fighting. Furthermore, Zhang Chu could absorb the psycho-kinetic energy here. The mental power consumed by using the brain-machine was replenished instantly, and he only grew stronger.

During the monitoring of his physical data, Zhang Chu's mental power kept climbing, already reaching the previously calculated limit of the algorithm. This turn of events truly drove the experts present crazy.

"This kid really is a monster. He’s trained the Armament Division's 'Diamond Armor-Breaking Body' to this level, and his mental power just keeps growing—it's highly unusual." Even Fan Tianlei was gasping in surprise.

"My future son-in-law, naturally, is nothing less than extraordinary," Zhang Daoyi said triumphantly. Chen Tianxiang, who was usually a man of few words, remained silent, simply observing. He always felt Zhang Chu had some secret, but he just couldn't put his finger on it.

Twelve hours in the game world had passed, while only one hour had gone by in the real world. The physical stamina of Zhang Xueying and the others was more than half depleted, and sweat had appeared on their foreheads. Zhang Chu, however, remained exactly as he was at the start, looking radiant and full of vitality.

At this moment, the staff member monitoring the data stood up: "Director Chen, there are signs of a slight decline in the psycho-kinetic energy within the Sea of Brain-Machine Beasts."

What? Upon hearing this news, everyone's heads buzzed. This was a virtual world created by the combined psycho-kinetic energy of thousands of spiritual realm experts and advanced supercomputers, with spiritual energy more than ten times higher than in the real world.

"Fix it immediately!" Chen Tianxiang ordered. If the psycho-kinetic energy in the Sea of Brain-Machine Beasts collapsed, this game would be a failure.

"Director Chen, don't worry. The decline is less than one-ten-thousandth, and the system has an automatic replenishment capability. We just need to shut down the server for 24 hours after the test to allow for self-repair. We are currently tracking the cause of the decline." Hearing the expert's words, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. If the beta test failed, twenty years of hard work would go down the drain. If the Martial God Academy were to blame them, all three parties in Binzhou would be in serious trouble.

While those outside breathed a sigh of relief, Zhang Chu inside the Sea of Brain-Machine Beasts let out a long breath: "The Sea of Brain-Machine Beasts is even more insane than the Special Combat Hunting Ground in the Military Skills Library. I've gained so much mental power in just thirteen hours."

Along the way, the strongest enemy he had encountered was a 7-star Violent Diamond Orc, which was even stronger than the orc Gu Yue. In its beast-transformed state, Zhang Chu had to use his mental combat techniques, "Gravity Field" and "Electric Vine Entanglement," combined with his "Diamond Armor-Breaking Body," and it took him about 30 minutes to kill it. He had roughly calculated that he had killed nearly 200 orcs in half a day.

"System, pull up my personal information panel." Finding a large stone slab along the coastline, he sat down to rest for a moment. The personal information panel projected before his eyes:

"Name: Zhang Chu."
"Level: 7-star."
"Martial Power Value: 800,000/1,500,000."
"Mental Power Value: 900,000/1,500,000."

Gaining 100,000 mental power points in half a day was a terrifying speed. "It's a pity that the energy in the Sea of Brain-Machine Beasts can only be used to supplement mental power and cannot increase martial power." But on second thought, being able to cheat in a game world was a win.

With nine hours left until the end of the 24-hour beta test, Zhang Chu decided to press on. He had to reach at least 1,000,000 mental power points. For the next few hours, no matter which way Zhang Chu walked, he couldn't leave the sea area, let alone find Zhang Xueying. He began to understand that this was effectively the "newbie village" of the Sea of Brain-Machine Beasts. The beta test was confined to the newbie village, and other areas were not yet open.

Since he couldn't get out, he would just keep fighting. For those below level 7, he fought with brute force; for level 7s, he used a combination of mental combat techniques and martial arts. The orcs here were all energy constructs; no matter how many he killed, they wouldn't decrease, as the Sea of Brain-Machine Beasts could generate new ones at any time.

With one hour left before the end of the beta test, Zhang Chu's mental power finally reached 999,000. Just one more 7-star orc, and he would comfortably reach one million. And he was just that lucky.

Just as he finished off an orc, a violent storm broke out over the sea, and a massive wave rose up, accompanied by a ferocious and powerful aura. A human-headed, dragon-bodied orc leaped out from the sea.

"Old Fan, what are you doing?" Outside, Zhang Daoyi stood up as he saw the scene on the screen.

"I want to see the limits of this kid. It feels like 7-star orcs are nothing but cabbage to him." Just a moment ago, Fan Tianlei had manually intervened to generate a 9-star orc directly in Zhang Chu's area. The expert who had been tracking the data had informed him that the decline in psycho-kinetic energy was localized precisely to the area where Zhang Chu was. That led to Fan Tianlei's forced intervention.

Chen Tianxiang tacitly agreed with Fan Tianlei's move: "City Lord Zhang, do not be nervous. The Sea of Brain-Machine Beasts is virtual; Zhang Chu will be fine. We just want to test his potential."

But Zhang Chu, at this moment, didn't think so. The dragon-bodied orc before him looked exactly like him. In other words, 7-star Zhang Chu had encountered a 9-star orc version of Zhang Chu. What was even more outrageous was that the human-headed, dragon-bodied "Zhang Chu" looked down at him and slowly raised his right hand.

The gesture was all too familiar! Could it be...?

Sure enough, the orc "Zhang Chu" gave him a universal gesture and revealed a provocative smile: "Trash, if you're scared, just admit defeat."

"Oh, f*ck!" Zhang Chu's head buzzed. This guy was a carbon copy of him, even his speaking style was exactly the same.