57: Chapter 57 will be available online tonight at 8 PM!

The computer screen in the basement emitted a pale, cold light.

Honda sat on a folding chair.

Scattered at his feet were seven or eight empty liquor bottles and a pile of crumpled debt collection letters.

A mechanical voice, processed through a voice changer, came from the speakers.

"The program has been packed and sent. Check it."

Honda clicked on his email and downloaded a compressed file.

"Is this thing really reliable? The anti-cheat system of the Xinghai Steam Platform is constantly updating."

Honda's hand gripping the mouse trembled slightly.

After Bushido Studio went bankrupt, he mortgaged his remaining real estate, converted all his money into dark web currency, and gambled everything to buy this custom cheat.

"Don't insult our technology with those low-end scripts on the market."

The mechanical voice carried a hint of arrogance. "This is a zero-latency parry cheat based on direct memory intervention. It doesn't read the screen; it reads the game's action frame code directly."

The geek paused for two seconds.

"As soon as the monster's attack hitbox is generated, the program will forcibly cut into the memory and press the block key for you. The response time is locked at 0.001 seconds. This is a mechanical-level reaction, completely surpassing human limits."

"The final payment has been received. Good luck."

The voice call disconnected.

The basement returned to deathly silence.

Honda stared at the executable program named "Perfect Samurai" on the desktop, his chest heaving violently.

He double-clicked to run it.

A green shield icon appeared in the bottom right corner of the screen.

Honda opened the StarNet Forum and registered a brand-new account.

ID: Asura's Revenge.

He typed on the keyboard and posted a new thread in the action game section.

Title: [First Full Clear of the Entire Network at 8 PM Tonight! Silver Horn Studio's game is nothing more than child's play.]

I want Ye Fei to know that the Sword Saint he is so proud of is vulnerable in this era.

I will accept that one percent share.

Sent successfully.

Honda immediately spent money to buy the highest-level site-wide traffic promotion.

Within ten minutes, this post was forcibly pinned by the system, directly occupying the forum's homepage.

Xinglan Live Streaming Platform.

Brother Bao was controlling sekiro, wandering aimlessly in Ashina Castle.

After being traumatized by the Sword Saint's firearm yesterday, he didn't even have the courage to approach the Reed Marsh now.

"Brothers, I'm not playing anymore, taking a few days off. That combination of fast and slow strikes from the Sword Saint is really not something a human can parry."

Brother Bao picked up his water cup.

The barrage suddenly shifted collectively.

"Brother Bao! Look at the StarNet Forum homepage!"

"Someone has issued a challenge, saying they will clear the Sword Saint at 8 PM tonight!"

Brother Bao put down the water cup and switched to the browser.

He saw the bright red pinned post at a glance.

"8 PM tonight? First clear?"

Brother Bao widened his eyes. "How much fake liquor did this guy drink?"

He clicked on the comment section.

The replies inside had already exceeded 100,000.

"Waiting for the OP to be taught a lesson by the Sword Saint."

"If he can clear this, I'll eat my computer screen right here."

"Definitely here for clout. Probably just another clown who gets one-shotted and then logs off at lightning speed."

Brother Bao rubbed his chin.

"Interesting. I won't play at 8 PM tonight; I'll broadcast this master's performance instead. I want to see how he breaks through that insane margin of error."

The Capital, Silver Horn Studio.

The sun was shining brightly.

The door to the CEO's office was violently pushed open.

Song Yan walked in with long strides.

He was holding a tablet computer, his face looking rather unpleasant.

"Brother Fei, someone is openly provoking us on the forum."

Song Yan placed the tablet on the desk in front of Ye Fei. "A newly registered alt account is threatening to take the one percent share dividend tonight."

Ye Fei was sitting in his boss chair.

He was holding his coffee, his gaze sweeping over the post on the screen.

"Have you checked the source?"

Ye Fei asked.

"The technical department checked."

Song Yan pulled out a chair and sat down. "They used five layers of proxy disguises, and the final IP jump was on an overseas public server. The other party knows what they're doing; they are well-prepared."

Song Yan leaned forward, his tone carrying worry.

"Brother Fei, this one percent share is real money. If this person is using cheats, the current anti-cheat software might not be able to ban him immediately. If he clears the game in front of hundreds of thousands of people, taking the shares is a minor issue, but our game's reputation will be completely destroyed."

Ye Fei put down his coffee cup.

He turned his office chair to face the computer screen.

His fingers tapped on the keyboard a few times, bringing up a deep backend code library.

"Song Yan, the core of sekiro's combat system is sword clashing."

Ye Fei pointed at the rows of jumping code on the screen. "That is, it's based on the perfect overlap of attack frames and defense frames. This mechanism itself is extremely prone to attracting cheats."

Song Yan nodded.

"But I didn't use the anti-cheat component of the Xinghai Steam Platform for conventional defense."

"I personally wrote a monitoring program and embedded it directly into the lowest layer of Isshin Ashina's combat logic."

Ye Fei said, "For a cheat to achieve a perfect parry, it must read memory data to replace manual button presses. The fastest human neural reaction time is between 0.15 seconds and 0.1 seconds."

Ye Fei tapped on the table.

"Any perfect parry with a response interval locked at 0.001 seconds for three consecutive times will directly trigger this module."

Song Yan looked at the flashing module name and swallowed his saliva.

"What happens if it's triggered? Just kick them offline?" Song Yan asked.

"Kicking them offline is too easy on them."

Ye Fei turned his head to look at Song Yan.

"Go notify the platform's operations department."

Ye Fei said, "Give this account named 'Asura's Revenge' the highest-level banner on the site-wide homepage. Open all traffic ports to him."

Song Yan was stunned.

"Since he wants a stage, we will give him the grandest spectacle."

Song Yan took a deep breath, didn't ask any more questions, and got up to walk out of the office.

7:50 PM.

The servers of the Xinglan Live Streaming Platform were facing an unprecedented stress test.

Various big streamers stopped the games they were playing and collectively started 'room-checking' mode.

The popularity value of the 'Take Down the Sword Saint' livestream room directly exceeded 30 million.

The screen lit up.

In the camera frame at the bottom right corner of the screen sat a person wearing black clothes and a black robber's mask.

Honda sat upright in front of the computer.

He looked at the skyrocketing number of online viewers through the holes in his mask.

This made him experience a pathological vanity.

The barrage was so thick that the game screen couldn't even be seen clearly.

"Master, times have changed. Are you wearing a bulletproof vest?"

"Are you covering your face because you're afraid no one will recognize you when you're crying after being beaten up later!"

"Hurry up, don't dawdle!"

Honda clicked on the microphone switch of the voice changer.

"Audience. The game is about to start."

The low mechanical voice came out.

Honda moved the mouse and clicked on the sekiro icon.

The main game interface appeared.

In front of 30 million people, he opened the equipment menu.

He unequipped all Shinobi Prosthetic Tools.

He displayed the status bar, confirming that the "Bell Demon" and "Charmless" icons were lit up.

"The so-called high-difficulty mechanisms designed by Silver Horn Studio are meaningless in my eyes. Today, I will show you what true technical crushing is."

Honda exited the menu.

The screen switched back to the game.

sekiro stood at the entrance of the secret passage below Tenshukaku.

Mottled light and shadows hit the character.

Brother Bao sneered in his own livestream room.

"Brothers, he didn't even put healing potions on his hotkeys. He's planning to clear Isshin without taking damage. He's acting too cocky; if he can't back it up later, he's going to make a fool of himself."

Brother Bao cracked open a can of cola.

Honda gripped the mouse.

His left hand was completely off the blocking key area on the keyboard.

The "Perfect Samurai" cheat program was running stably in the background.

The green light was on steadily.

Honda controlled the character to run forward.

The wooden door drew closer.

The barrage appeared momentarily empty at this moment.

Tens of millions of eyes were staring fixedly at the action of pushing the door open.

Honda pushed the wooden door open.

The screen instantly turned into a pale, snowy light.

The wind howled.

The boundless Reed Marsh rose and fell with the wind.

Oppressive black clouds covered the sky above, and lightning rolled within the clouds.

The Sword Saint Isshin Ashina in his prime sat cross-legged in the center.

He sensed the presence of a living person, slowly stood up, and drew his katana with a backhand grip.

The cold glint of the blade flashed in the Reed Marsh.

There was no way to retreat.

Honda controlled sekiro, without the slightest hesitation, and walked towards Isshin Ashina with large strides.

The speed at which the cheat read memory data was extremely fast.

The two were ten body lengths apart.

Isshin Ashina's figure erupted into action.

He turned into an afterimage, his katana swinging from top to bottom with a whistling sound that tore through the air, slashing directly at sekiro's head.

The speed of this strike was twice as fast as Genichiro's opening move.

An exclamation erupted in the barrage.

Everyone was waiting for sekiro to be slashed in half by the strike.

Honda watched the screen.

His hands left the keyboard.

Under the gaze of tens of millions of people, he faced the camera and revealed a strange and confident smile.

The long blade descended.

The blade's edge was only one inch away from sekiro's head.

Clang!

An extremely crisp sound of metal clashing pierced through all the storms.

Sparks exploded in the Reed Marsh.