37: Chapter 37 Still Playing, Still Playing

Zhen Lu returned to the Main Star Plaza.

Xiaoguang floated out from behind his shoulder.

"Welcome back. The summoning task is complete, and the reward has been issued: 500 Credits have been deposited into your account."

Zhen Lu stood on the plaza and touched his neck.

It was still there, intact, skin smooth, with no wounds.

He looked down at his clothes; they were perfectly fine, with no blood.

He took a deep breath, his lungs filling with the faint, sweet scent of the plaza.

Pain Void was still in his skill bar, allowing him to freely adjust the intensity of pain from 0% to 100%.

He glanced at that skill, then looked at his account balance.

Five hundred Credits. For these five hundred Credits, he had been beheaded twice.

Although it didn't hurt, he didn't want to experience that feeling of his neck being sliced open, his windpipe severed, and blood gushing out ever again.

Also, the position during the second time was too bizarre; although there was a bit of a perk, he hadn't seen it clearly.

He took a deep breath.

Xiaoguang floated beside him, silent.

Zhen Lu glanced at his account balance. Five hundred Credits.

He clenched his fists.

"Xiaoguang," he said.

"I am here."

"Search for that task from just now. The Pain Suppression one. See if it's still there."

Xiaoguang flickered.

[Temporary Summoning] World: Luohun Cliff · Requirements: None · Participants: 2 · Reward: 500 Credits / 1 hour · Attached Skill: Pain Suppression

It was still there.

Zhen Lu stared at that line of text for two seconds, then clicked on it.

This time, he didn't hesitate. A white light flashed.

He opened his eyes. Shorts, wooden stakes, ropes. A row of people sat in perfect unison.

He was in the front row now.

From here, he could see the girl standing in the middle of the line, dealing with the people in the back rows.

There was blood on her sword, dripping down drop by drop.

Her junior sister followed behind her, holding the scabbard, expressionless.

Zhen Lu didn't wait.

"Hey!" he shouted. His voice wasn't loud, but it carried far across the open ground.

The people sitting around turned to look at him, some with eyes that seemed to say, "You're crazy."

The girl stopped and turned around. She tilted her head to look at him and recognized him.

It was that pervert with the incredibly hard neck who had peeked under her skirt.

She blinked, a faint blush appearing on her face.

"Ah, it's you. Why are you here again, you big pervert?"

The veins on Zhen Lu's neck bulged, his face flushed red, and his voice squeezed out from his throat, sharp and harsh.

"Are you sick in the head? Your master told you to behead a thousand people, so why did you accept the task if you don't have the skill? You can't cut through in one stroke, and you can't do it in two? Don't you know what kind of posture you have? And you call me a pervert. Why don't you use a kitchen knife to chop instead? Are you here to kill people or to chop wood? Let me tell you, that sword of yours needs sharpening, and your technique needs practice. Stop harming people here—"

He spoke fast and furiously, without taking a breath.

The people nearby listened, dumbfounded. Someone couldn't help but let out a laugh, then quickly stifled it.

The girl was stunned by his scolding, her face frozen, her lips moving without words coming out.

The junior sister behind her expression darkened.

"Senior Sister." The junior sister's voice was cold. Without waiting for a response, she had already drawn her sword.

By the time Zhen Lu saw the sword light, the blade was already at his neck.

The junior sister's sword was much faster, more accurate, and more ruthless than the girl's.

With one strike, Zhen Lu's head flew off his shoulders. His vision spun in the air, catching glimpses of the grayish-white sky, the girl's stunned face, the junior sister's icy expression, and then, white light.

"Senior Sister, next time you encounter someone like this, just deal with them quickly."

Main Star Plaza.

Zhen Lu stood on the plaza, panting.

His hands were trembling, his knuckles white, his joints creaking. This was from anger.

"Xiaoguang."

"I am here."

"Search for that task again."

"In reality, I am timid; in this game world, I will strike with heavy fists."

Xiaoguang hesitated for half a second.

"Please confirm."

"Confirmed. Search."

Xiaoguang flickered.

[Temporary Summoning] World: Luohun Cliff · Requirements: None · Participants: 245/500 · Reward: 500 Credits / 1 hour · Attached Skill: Pain Suppression]

Zhen Lu didn't even think; he clicked right in.

A white light flashed.

He opened his eyes. Shorts, wooden stakes, ropes. Front row.

This time, he was the third one. The girl was facing away from him, dealing with the people in the first row.

The junior sister stood to the side, sword in hand, her gaze vigilantly sweeping over every row.

Zhen Lu took a deep breath.

He shouted at the top of his lungs, "Come here! I'm not done scolding you yet!"

The girl turned around and saw it was him. The expression on her face shifted from indifference to helplessness, then to impatience. The junior sister's face had completely darkened, and her grip on the sword tightened.

"Senior Sister, let me—"

"Forget it." The girl interrupted her, walked over with her sword, stood in front of Zhen Lu, and looked down at him. "Are you ever going to finish? I paid to hire you; can't you just cooperate?"

"Cooperate? You want me to cooperate while you play with me? Are you two ***, I'm ***. ***"

Halfway through his sentence, the girl's sword had already fallen.

This time, she didn't hold back.

As the blade cut down, Zhen Lu felt the vibration, but it still didn't break.

The hardness of his neck exceeded her imagination; Iron Skin and Iron Bones weren't just for show. The sword cut in one-third of the way and got stuck.

The girl gritted her teeth and brought the sword down again using the same posture as the first time.

"Senior Sister, I told you, no pants, how did you forget again?"

Blood gushed from the wound, streaming down his chest.

He couldn't speak anymore; his windpipe had been severed, and his throat was filled with bubbling sounds.

But his eyes could still move. He saw the girl's face flushed red, and also...

"Why is it still... so hard..." the girl muttered, panting.

The sword finally cut all the way through. Zhen Lu's head rolled off, bounced once on the ground, and landed face up.

White light.

Main Star Plaza.

Zhen Lu stood on the plaza, not saying a word.

He lowered his head, both hands clenched into fists, his nails digging into his palms. He was angry. Angry enough to shake, angry enough to want to curse someone but finding no one to curse.

Besides, this time he had seen the perk clearly, but the time was too short.

Xiaoguang huddled behind his shoulder, not daring to make a sound.

A full half-minute passed before Zhen Lu raised his head, his voice very low.

"Xiaoguang."

"I... I'm here."

"That task. Search again."

Xiaoguang flickered, then went dark.

"That... that task is gone," Xiaoguang's voice was very small. "The task has been closed."

Zhen Lu stood in place, staring at the blank panel.

It was gone.

He took a deep breath and slowly let it out.

Then he noticed a system notification.

[Detected that the Pain Void skill has endured extreme pain stimuli multiple times... Skill upgrading...]

[Pain Void → Pain Healing]

[Pain Healing: Can freely adjust pain intensity (0% - 100%). Passive effect—The more wounds on the body, the stronger the body's toughness and recovery rate. For every additional wound, physical damage reduction increases by 1%, and self-healing speed increases by 2%, with no upper limit.]

[Attribute Increase: Constitution +2, Spirit +2.]

Zhen Lu paused, stunned, then opened his personal panel.

[Player: Zhen Lu]

[Strength: 12]

[Agility: 14]

[Constitution: 13 → 15]

[Spirit: 5 → 9]

[Rank: F]

[Skills: Basic Constitution (Mastery), Basic Combat (Mastery), Basic Saber Technique (Mastery), Basic Spear Technique (Mastery), Basic Balance (Mastery), Pain Healing...]

Constitution jumped from 13 to 15, Spirit from 5 to 9. Adding the 2 points of Spirit previously gained from Pain Void, he had gained a total of 4 points of Spirit and 2 points of Constitution. Total attributes rose from 36 to 42. Six points of attributes.

He stood on the plaza, looking at the new name "Pain Healing" on the panel. Passive effect: the more wounds, the stronger the damage reduction and self-healing.

The nature of this skill was to make one harder the more they got beaten, and more resilient the more they got injured. It was in the same vein as Iron Skin and Iron Bones, but even more bizarre.

Iron Skin made one hard, Iron Bones made one resistant to blows, and Pain Healing made one stronger the more they soaked in their own blood.

With all three stacked together, he was now like an unkillable... whatever.

"I was wondering why the third time it only cut in about one-third of the way; I thought she was tired, but it turns out I've become harder."

Zhen Lu closed the panel and stood on the plaza. On the deep purple Sky Dome, the stars rotated slowly—the near ones fast, the far ones slow—each following its own orbit.

Recalling the night's experiences, he himself felt it was absurd.

He had originally come in to relax, but ended up getting his head chopped off.

He had originally wanted to escape the annoying things in reality, but it was even more annoying in the game.

When he had crawled out of bed, his mind was full of mechanical giants and shockwaves.

Now, lying back down, his mind would be full of that girl in the skirt.

A bizarre way to shift focus, but it had certainly shifted.