The full moon hung high in the sky. Clear water wound between the bluestone rocks, reflecting the scarlet petals drifting across the heavens and the towering green mountains.
Between the treetops, two figures flashed past at incredible speed, one chasing the other.
The girl’s skin was as pale as snow. Her long hair was coiled atop her head, and her eyes burned like torches as she watched the figure ahead.
Her wooden sandals, worn beneath thick white socks, struck branch after branch. Her kimono, decorated with two ink-wash cranes, fluttered in the wind and outlined her graceful figure.
A samurai sword hung at her waist. Her jade-like fingers rested on its hilt, while her crimson eyes reflected the man’s back.
“Slash!”
As the sword left its sheath, countless cherry blossoms scattered from the blade and swept forward with it.
The strike cleaved through the man’s back and split him in two. Yet the spray of blood she had expected never appeared.
The afterimage shattered.
The real figure suddenly leaped from the treetops behind the girl. His face was hidden beneath the moonlight’s reflection. As his cloak billowed, it revealed twelve sword hilts strapped across his back.
In a fully simulated game as brain-intensive as *The Sword God’s Realm*, most top players specialized in a single type of sword.
This man, however, carried twelve different swords on his back.
Light flashed.
Twelve streaks of radiance shot from their scabbards, like twelve alluring phantoms with different forms. They coiled around the man before splitting into two groups, arranged in two circles that surrounded the girl.
“I fell for it!”
A trace of uncertainty appeared in the girl’s determined eyes.
The man was already dropping straight down. As he swept through the air, he seized one of the swords.
He began with a katana, knocking her into the air. A tang dao followed with another rising strike. A lightsaber slashed repeatedly. A Western sword stabbed in quick succession, and a Chinese sword finished with a horizontal cut that drove her toward the ground.
He drew another katana and launched her upward again. Then he thrust with a short sword, sending her tumbling backward in a suplex that slammed her into the ground.
He drew a knight’s sword with a reverse grip and struck upward. As he pulled back a curved saber, a matched pair of swords shot forward together.
The man discarded each sword after using it. Yet in the very next instant, he drew another and continued the combo without pause.
The final pair of swords sent the girl flying into the air.
Eleven of the twelve swords had already been discarded. His own health bar had dropped to exactly two percent, while his opponent still had seven percent remaining.
“It’s over!”
Fear filled the girl’s eyes. The man’s figure was reflected in her pupils.
He had already leaped in front of her. A greatsword was braced between his legs as he plunged straight down.
The blade pierced her lower abdomen.
At that instant, the world seemed to begin collapsing.
The young man and girl looked like shattered works of art. Along with the mountains, grass, trees, and clear water around them, they turned into drifting blue particles.
It was as if someone had torn open a shell and revealed the stage beneath.
A host in a suit walked onto the platform. He held a microphone, tears in his eyes, and shouted in a nearly hoarse voice:
“The champion! He’s the world champion!”
The projected mountains around them vanished, revealing the audience beneath.
As if celebrating some glorious victory, tens of thousands of people erupted in thunderous applause. Many were so excited that tears streamed down their faces as they hugged one another.
A stunning beauty in a bunny-girl cosplay climbed onto the high platform. Her dainty feet stood in red high heels as she raised a heart-shaped sign above her head.
Her smooth, pale legs showed through her fishnet stockings. Black briefs, a thin top with a daringly high-cut chest, and her beautiful face completed the outfit.
No one around her could tear their eyes away.
She shouted at the top of her lungs, “Ou Tao, I love you! Those twelve swords in the final second were so cool!”
“Miss, please come down! Your grandfather will be furious if he sees you dressed like that!”
“Miss Lianxue, you’re a celebrity! This is going to look bad!”
Ou Tao opened his eyes.
He listened to the cheers roaring around him like a storm. A trace of exhaustion flickered through his gaze.
“Little sister, did you see that? Big Brother won!”
He removed his helmet and set it aside. Then he sat up from the reclining chair and tossed the red flag draped over him behind his shoulders.
The entire venue erupted once again.
He walked toward the stands, every spotlight converging on him.
He was the star of the day.
“Let’s congratulate this sixteen-year-old boy! Today, he has won the world championship in the sword division of the World Games’ full-dive gaming event!”
“He will now raise the trophy!”
Ou Tao walked past the host and lifted the trophy with both hands.
It had been carved from white jade and inlaid with gold. The four characters *Blade of Supreme Might* shone especially brightly.
The atmosphere inside the venue reached its peak.
“Student Sword God, do you have anything you’d like to say?”
The audience gradually fell silent.
Ou Tao swallowed.
Even he hadn’t expected to reach this point during his first year away from school.
Dozens of thousands of eyes were fixed on him below. Through holographic projection, hundreds of millions more watched from around the world as if they were right there.
He felt a little embarrassed.
His heart pounded faster and faster. The last time so many people had stared at him was when the principal caught him reading manga in class.
He’d then been forced to read a five-thousand-word self-criticism aloud during the flag-raising ceremony.
“Thank you... for everyone’s support. Thank you to my teachers for nurturing me, and to my team for the funding and training.”
“I’m... truly honored!”
“Looks like you still need some experience handling big occasions!” the host said. “During the match, you sent your enemies flying and used twelve swords to cut them down without mercy. Why not bring a little of that spirit into real life?”
“Well, I actually wanted to resolve things peacefully. They just refused to cooperate, so I cut them all down!”
The host silently complained, *I’m pretty sure you would’ve cut them down even if they had cooperated.*
“Is there anything you’d like to say to your opponent, Kato Miko?”
“She played very well. She’s the first person to force my health below ten percent. But she’s still a little way from becoming the strongest in the world.”
“Oh-ho!”
The fans holding signs that read *Go, Sword Saint of Yang City!* immediately broke into a chorus of boos.
“Sorry, but the *Blade of Supreme Might* trophy and the title of the world’s number-one full-dive gaming Sword Saint will be staying here in Yang City, Hua Nation, with me today!”
“Yeah~!”
The audience applauded this somewhat timid boy who had already begun to reveal a hint of manly confidence.
After the interview ended, Ou Tao returned backstage and placed the trophy into his backpack.
Then he turned and entered a secret passage.
He didn’t want tens of thousands of people surrounding him until not even water could pass through, leaving him exposed to the crowd all night in the freezing wind.
“Ou Tao! Congratulations! You’re the strongest Sword Saint in the world!”
Su Lianxue jumped out from behind him and hugged him directly.
The young man’s back was pressed against her ample chest, and his cheeks instantly reddened.
When he turned around, he found an exquisite face pressed close to his own.
Su Lianxue was the Noble Club’s coser and owner. She was also a famous female singer in Hua Nation.
Rumor had it that her father was the club’s mysterious billionaire backer.
She had stunning looks, a powerful singing voice, and extraordinary skill at portraying all kinds of characters.
She was the complete package: a superstar, a wealthy beauty, and a master cosplayer capable of becoming any female character.
No otaku could possibly resist her.
Being hugged from behind by such a beautiful woman in a bunny-girl outfit was surely the dream of countless people.
“Don’t do this, Sis Su!”
Ou Tao struggled in her embrace for quite a while before finally escaping.
Su Lianxue wore a smile as bright as spring.
“Little rascal, can’t I celebrate a little?”
“Um, Sis Su, I know you’re happy, but I have a request!”
“Of course!”
Su Lianxue looked at Ou Tao and teasingly lifted his bangs with a jade-like finger tipped by a crimson nail.
“You did a great service for the team today. Whatever you want, Big Sis can satisfy you tonight.”
“My contract has expired. I’m leaving tomorrow. I want to retire!”
“What?”
Su Lianxue’s beautiful face instantly lost its color.
“Ou Tao, you’re still so young! You’re only sixteen. Why are you retiring?”
“I’ve earned enough money for my sister’s treatment. Now I only want a peaceful life.”
Ou Tao turned his head away and gazed into the distance.
“You’re not allowed to leave!”
Su Lianxue blocked his path.
“Our team can’t do without you. I can’t do without you, either!”
“Is it because the money isn’t enough? Forty million! I’ll raise next year’s salary to forty million. Just tell me what you want. I’ll give you anything!”
Su Lianxue couldn’t accept this sudden fall from heaven to hell.
Ever since the fully simulated helmet had been invented, its users had surpassed several billion. Countless immersive full-simulation games based on virtual 3D engines had appeared, and competitions had been created soon afterward.
Su Lianxue had once been an avid immersive-game player herself.
When she dropped out of school, her father gave her the first round of funding to start a business. If she failed, she could simply return home and inherit the family’s billions.
She had been too young at the time and formed a club of her own.
Unfortunately, the team’s results were poor.
Then, one year ago, came the final match of a *Sword God’s Realm* tournament.
If no one could defeat the opposing team’s top-seeded player, Noble would have no game division entering the playoffs that year.
By then, Su Lianxue had nearly fallen into despair.
She had already prepared herself to return home and face her family’s contempt, neglect, and ridicule.
The team captain was sweating from fear and didn’t even dare step onto the stage.
That was when someone raised a hand from the corner of the substitute players’ bench.
It was Ou Tao, a pale, slender, almost sickly-looking junior high graduate from an esports training class.
“I’ll give it a try!”
Then, like a beacon that suddenly illuminated everything, he changed Su Lianxue’s life.
He stepped onto the stage, put on the helmet, and defeated two of the opposing team’s top players in succession.
Today, he had won the *Blade of Supreme Might* championship in the individual division and carried the trophy out of the venue.
What did a sixteen-year-old world champion represent?
The human brain was widely recognized as reaching its peak between eighteen and twenty years old.
If Ou Tao continued growing for two more years, what would he become then?
Calling him the strongest full-simulation gamer in the world wouldn’t be an exaggeration.
“I’m sorry. It isn’t about the money!”
Ou Tao’s voice grew somewhat urgent.
He felt that something about Sis Su was strange today. Her usual image as a gentle older sister was beginning to collapse, replaced by an inexplicable sense of danger.
“Don’t leave, Ou Tao!”
Su Lianxue grabbed his clothes tightly with both hands.
“One year ago, when you first stepped onto the stage, Big Sis already knew she couldn’t live without you.”
“What do you want? Money? Beautiful women? Something else?”
“Even if I have to go home and beg my father, I’ll get it for you. Just don’t leave!”
Faced with the desperate pleas of a stunning beauty and the longing in her eyes, any normal person would have been moved.
Ou Tao, however, only shook his head.
“Life is hard. I’ve been walking this road for eight years, from the age of eight to sixteen.”
“I really just want a peaceful life.”
After saying that, Ou Tao shouldered his schoolbag and walked away.
