Chapter 17

Translator: Noodletown Translations  Editor: Noodletown Translations

Huh! Mu Fan’s eyes glistened, and he suddenly didn’t feel tired anymore as he grabbed Chubby Harry’s arm and asked, “Where is it?”

Chubby Harry pulled back a little. As he looked at Mu Fan, who had steam rising off of him, he quickly pointed to the side and said, “Stop! Don’t touch me with all that sweat! How about you head to the changeroom and switch to another set of clothes?”

“Alright.” Mu Fan looked down at himself; he did look a bit messy. He scratched his head helplessly and grinned before walking away to freshen up.

When Mu Fan came out of the changeroom, he saw Chubby Harry already sitting on the carpet with his skycom in his hand. There were two black boxes next to him; one was opened while the other one was still unopened.

“Hey, the unopened one is yours. I, Brother Chubby, am watching the latest combat videos between pros. One should continue to learn as they get older. See how studious I am? You should learn this from me,” seeing Mu Fan coming out, Chubby Harry said to him while casually pointing at the box that was unopened and staring at the screen projected out by skycom.

“Is this an optical computer?” Mu Fan walked over and picked up the box before he looked at it from side to side.

“Silly, press the black circle on the box,” Chubby Harry reminded Mu Fan as he saw that the latter was taking forever to open the box.

“Oh, thanks.” Mu Fan grinned again and pressed the button. The box slowly cracked and flipped open, lying flat on the ground on all four sides automatically and revealing a delicate-looking helmet inside.

“This is the newest optical computer that can be bought on Planet Loga; I will need to travel to the planet responsible for the administration of the subdivision to get the newer ones when I get the chance. Come here and sit beside me; I’ll show you how to use it.”

Mu Fan’s thumb rubbed lightly against the ring on his ring finger as he sat down beside Chubby Harry, staring at the latter’s hands to see how he was using the helmet.

Chubby Harry pointed at one side of the helmet and said, “This blue button is the power button, and you can put the helmet on once it’s turned on. There’s a brainwave synchronization instrument inside, which can automatically connect to the interstellar network. But of course, it will only work in the coverage area of the network. If you go to uninhabited planets, it probably won’t work.”

Chubby Harry then pointed to a small area at the back of the helmet and continued. “This is the chip recognition area. This is where maintenance will take place if there are problems, and it’s for the professionals to dismantle and fix, so don’t touch it. The optical computer uses compression energy technology, so it’s very energy efficient. You only need to charge it once and then you can use it for a month. That’s basically it, not much else needs explanations.”

“After you put it on, there will be a notification telling you to register an account. After you do that, you can add me. My ID is LB004LJX0077852319, and my nickname is… ‘Lemon Balloon’!!! How’s that? Doesn’t it sound refreshing and meaningful? Hahahahaha!” Harry paused a bit when mentioning his nickname, and then he laughed out loud as if he was trying to cheer himself up.

“… ” Mu Fan stared at Chubby Harry who was sitting on the ground at a loss for words.

“Anyways, did you remember the string of numbers and letters? If you didn’t, I can say it again, it’s LB…” Chubby Harry flipped the page and said to Mu Fan calmly.

“LB004LJX077852319, and the nickname is ‘Lemon Balloon’. I’ll remember,” Mu Fan interrupted Chubby Harry.

“Very smart. Now, let’s go in, and I’ll teach you the basics.” Chubby Harry patted Mu Fan’s shoulder with excitement as he thought to himself, I will need to quickly teach him a lesson when we get in; there won’t be such a chance ever again.

“Okay, let’s enter,” Mu Fan said as he picked up the helmet and looked at Harry.

“Okay,” Harry replied as he put down his skycom and put on his optical computer helmet before activating it.

After having seen that Harry put on his helmet, Mu Fan quickly moved his right hand to the back of the helmet, and his ring finger pressed onto where Chubby Harry said the chip was located.

Something miraculous happened. When his finger pressed against the helmet, the ring on Mu Fan’s finger turned into a streak of silver liquid metal, as if it melted, and it started to move towards the chip area. Then, it slipped through the slits and got into the helmet.

It only took a blink of an eye for the small streak of silver liquid metal to disappear completely into the helmet.

Mu Fan’s hands trembled a bit as he held the helmet delicately, deeply moved on the inside. He turned his head toward Chubby Harry and clenched his teeth as he put on the helmet and pressed down on the blue power button.

Buzz! Activated!

…

The world turned black instantly for Mu Fan, and it was a feeling that he had never experienced before. He felt as if his consciousness had left his body and flew into the dark sky, causing him to see himself from the third-person perspective. Then, under the push of a strange force, his consciousness suddenly returned to his body.

Mu Fan looked down as he clenched his fist. In the virtual world inside his own consciousness, he could only see himself clearly with darkness all around him. This new strange feeling made Mu Fan feel curious and excited.

Mu Fan swiftly punched out with his right fist and quickly retracted it. Then, he stared oddly at his own fist. He could feel that this was his body, but the delay in reaction time made his brows furrow as his reaction time in reality was several times faster than this. He wasn’t used to this.

“Ding. Welcome, dear player. Welcome to PO Battle Network. Please select your login account or register a new account if you don’t have an account with us.”

When Mu Fan was pinching his character’s arm, he suddenly heard the system notification. He looked up and saw a levitating robot in front of him in the darkness, which shined with a blue light. To his sides, there were two options on two light screens. One read [Login] while the other read [Register].

“Ding. Welcome, dear player. Welcome to PO Battle Network. Please select your login account or register a new account if you don’t have an account… Beep…”

The robot repeated itself again, but it suddenly stopped this time before it could finish. Then, after a long beeping sound, both the robot and the light screens disappeared.

Everything became quiet again, stunning Mu Fan slightly. What is going on?

“Hello? Is anyone here?” Mu Fan couldn’t help but ask out loud to the empty space around him, and it was not surprising that there wasn’t any reply.

How do I get out? Mu Fan was worried as he looked down at his own body.

“Ding. System reboot – successful… Welcome, dear player. Welcome to PO Battle Network.”

There’s a voice again! Mu Fan sighed in relief, Wait, how come it’s not the same cybernetic voice as before!

“… Because you haven’t answered within three seconds, the System has registered you a random account by default.”

What? Such harsh conditions? No, this voice… how come this voice sounds so familiar!

“Black Egg!” Mu Fan suddenly looked up.

A silver-white sphere about the size of a fist appeared out of the darkness before Mu Fan, and it dashed towards Mu Fan, stopping before him with a backspin before settling down and continuing to float in the air.

“Mu Fan, hello.” Two curved eyebrows appeared on the silver-white ball, and a familiar smiley face faced Mu Fan.

“Black Egg, it’s really you.” Mu Fan couldn’t help but reach out his hand and touch the floating spherical object in front of him. The cold sensation that he felt from the surface of this sphere gave him a false feeling that he was still in reality.

“Mu Fan, this optical computer has been optimized by the liquid metal which was my vessel. In the dozens of seconds that you were waiting to enter the System, I have downloaded some information and optimized a section of the user interface that can be considered a breakthrough. Now, the neuro-simulation level on this optical computer has been upgraded to 85%+1% from 70%.”

“Okay, you can set them up for me.” Mu Fan didn’t know anything about technology and couldn’t understand these technical terms, so he decided to leave it all up for Black to decide.

“Order accepted.” A laser wave pattern flashed across Black’s surface as the sphere turned red and then back to the silver-white color.

“Mu Fan, I have now officially entered the interstellar network. For quite a long time in the future, I will be self-recovering and optimizing here. If needed in the future, I can assist you in combat by residing inside a physical vessel.”

Mu Fan only understood the beginning half and had no concept of what Black meant in the latter half. What physical vessel? What assistant in combat?

“I don’t understand this part; but yeah, you can make plans most of the time, and I’ll just follow them,” Mu Fan replied concisely.