Chapter 1036: Chapter 40: Still Unfinished and 129633

That was truly a good fight.

Even to this day, whenever Lu Xuanyu closes his eyes, the details of that battle still occasionally appear in his mind.

The audience’s cheers were deafening, and on the stage, two martial artists finally shed all external burdens and exchanged pure techniques.

That match was more like an exhibition. Lu Xuanyu deliberately limited his strength and speed to be roughly on par with his opponent. Under such circumstances, the offense and defense of both sides approached an “ideal state,” where, as long as no flaws appeared, the interchange of offense and defense could last for a long time.

Even when the teacher made a mistake, Lu Xuanyu chose not to pursue or expand his advantage.

He really hoped that this battle could last a little longer.

That exoskeleton was not Mr. Althus’s private property but the asset of a military enterprise in the north. Its maintenance team and built-in AI belonged to that military enterprise. Due to the personnel changes Xiang Shan anticipated, all those in the “exoskeleton faction” within the military enterprise had adjusted their positions. Even if this enterprise still wished to participate in the next competition, it would not be with the exoskeleton technology. Mr. Althus couldn’t afford the cost and maintenance of the exoskeleton.

This should have been his only chance to don the exoskeleton and compete against martial artists of the next era.

Lu Xuanyu wished it could last a little longer.

At the same time, Lu Xuanyu himself also yearned for that battle to last a little longer.

His martial arts were not yet complete.

Lu Xuanyu opened his eyes.

At this moment, it was already 2048. The Lantern Festival had just passed, and the streets seemed to still be immersed in the aftertaste of the festivities.

More than two years had passed since the first Number One Martial Arts Tournament.

In those two years, Lu Xuanyu had done many things. He had registered his martial arts school and trademark, and with Xiang Shan’s help, had already laid the groundwork.

At the same time, he had shot two action movies… it’s hard to say whether they were “near-future sci-fi” or “realistic cop-dramas.” He portrayed a remodeler policeman and ranger, upholding justice in modern society (after all, his current image doesn’t quite fit costume dramas). One film had already been released, grossing over a billion US dollars globally, while the other was in post-production.

Additionally, Lu Xuanyu had participated in several exhibition matches, fighting once again with old rivals who had just completed remodeling.

Relying on his first-mover advantage and prosthetic body advantage, he had yet to lose.

However, Lu Xuanyu had not yet begun to take on students.

He still felt that his martial arts were not yet complete.

Xiang Shan and the others weren’t very concerned about his delay in becoming independent. Lu Xuanyu still had public relations responsibilities. At least in the coming years, Xiang Shan planned to maintain the “Number One Martial Artist” brand. Lu Xuanyu’s training conditions remained excellent.

Lu Xuanyu got off a medical care bed and unplugged the cable attached behind his ear. This bed was designed for patients lying down for long periods, preventing ulcers, necrosis, and thrombosis, and it was very comfortable to lie on. Although it wasn’t necessary for someone like Lu Xuanyu, whose prosthetic body exceeded fifty percent, he couldn’t deny that it was quite comfortable.

This was his new training device.

A fully immersive VR combat arena.

This training equipment was very pure, with computers randomly generating scenes and maps, followed by randomly generating weapons, and even randomly refreshing martial artists. Trainees only needed to fight them.

The AI of those martial artists was randomly generated based on training data from training robots around the world and even showed something akin to “personal style.” The various martial arts formed within “True Martial” were also all input into it.

Moreover, this refreshing process didn’t stop.

There’s no game objective, no storyline, just pure scoring, fighting until death.

Scoring was highest by delivering a large amount of damage in one go to knock down opponents. Normal strikes also accumulated a small amount of points, that sort of thing.

Lu Xuanyu moved his body, preparing to go out.

At that moment, a disheveled, stubbly man pushed the door open. He was wearing a crumpled suit, walked downcast toward the virtual reality equipment.

“Chen…” Lu Xuanyu hesitantly greeted.

Chen Feng raised his head, then noticed Lu Xuanyu. The corners of his mouth turned up slightly, “Lu Xuanyu.”

“You’re here to train too?”

“Just got out of the research group, read some reports… They didn’t allow overtime, so I had to come here.” Chen Feng expertly inserted a cable behind his ear. “This is pretty much my only hobby now.”

Chen Feng’s demeanor was entirely different from a few years ago.

Lu Xuanyu sighed internally.

Last year, Chen Feng’s wife, Ms. Lin, passed away.

She was the first failed case of the standardization gene modification surgery.

Since then, Lu Xuanyu had never seen Chen Feng as cheerful as he used to be. Even if he laughed along at a joke from someone else, the laughter felt odd and heavy. He also retreated into the virtual world, spending almost all of his spare time playing games.

It’s hard to know if this behavior made his daughter angry or if his daughter’s lack of understanding trapped him in this state… His relationship with his daughter Lin Yu was also very strained.

Sometimes Lu Xuanyu didn’t know how to talk to him. Lu Xuanyu’s own wife underwent the same standardization modification surgery. Lu Xuanyu was always very proud, feeling it was a great honor to have earned this opportunity for his wife with his fists. However, Chen Feng, one of the founding figures of the standardization surgery, lost his wife to the same procedure—something beyond Lu Xuanyu’s imagination.

Chen Feng’s daughter, Lin Yu, is now being cared for by Ms. Lin’s sister, the little girl’s aunt. Instead, it’s Xiang Shan who visits her quite often. During the winter vacation, a little girl from Japan came to see him, and he even took the two little girls to an amusement park, as if he were their father.

When chatting with Chen Feng about this topic, he simply acts as if he didn’t hear it.

Perhaps we can only count on time to help him recover.

Of course, Chen Feng doesn’t have this trouble at all. Like an ordinary gaming enthusiast, he talked to Lu Xuanyu about “strategies.”

Currently, this simulation training is only used by Lu Xuanyu and Chen Feng. Other early remodelers occasionally come to experience it, but they are usually defeated instantly; scoring ten points is already considered impressive.

Lu Xuanyu’s highest score is over 9,300 points, while Chen Feng’s is around 7,900.

Xiang Shan has also considered having Action Master, in which he holds shares, package and sell this training software as a game. However, AM’s developers all stated that the technology involved in this game is far beyond the level of ordinary people. But if people were to use a keyboard or game controller to input commands to control characters… then the mystical nature of the enemy’s moves wouldn’t be fully displayed, wasting materials and computing resources.

Lu Xuanyu still feels that battling a machine is somewhat lacking compared to facing a human opponent, where you can clearly feel “intentions” and “emotions,” experiencing the clash of “minds” and “thoughts.” However, this high-intensity training still benefits him.

“Today, I’m aiming to break 9,000 points,” Chen Feng said excitedly. “Come on, Old Lu, don’t let me surpass 10,000 first—huh? Did you alter the game data?”

Lu Xuanyu was taken aback: “What are you talking about?”

“Nothing, I just feel like someone logged in with an admin account and changed some records…” Chen Feng waved his hand, summoning an invisible keyboard, “There wasn’t supposed to be maintenance or updates today… Let me see who altered what.”

Lu Xuanyu smiled, saying nothing.

He was about to push the door open and leave.

At that very moment, Chen Feng let out a strange cry.

Lu Xuanyu turned back, looking at Chen Feng: “What happened?”

Chen Feng took a deep breath and waved his hand.

Then, a notification flashed in the corner of Lu Xuanyu’s vision.

It was a chat notification from some internal communication software.

Inside the chat box was a screenshot.

Lu Xuanyu’s eyes widened.

…………………………………

Three hundred years later, Asgard roughly pulled out the data cable by Li Zheyuan’s ear: “Alright, alright, recreation time is over, recreation time is over. Prisoners should be conscious and not waste our valuable computing resources.”

“You!” Li Zheyuan’s head was filled with anger.

Asgard casually connected in, checking the internal operations of the computer. The reason for her sudden appearance was to see if Li Zheyuan was up to anything behind their backs.

Li Zheyuan’s remote signal privileges were turned off. Now he could only use wired signals to operate the equipment. The sudden attack left him unable to react. The computer was frozen in the state he had just operated on.

Just like in the old days, when the violence agencies needed to seize a hacker’s computer while they were committing illegal operations, it was a similar principle.

“There’s some software that’s resource-intensive… What’s this? ‘True Martial X’… some ancient martial studies training software.”

The virtual image of the elderly Xiang Shan floated in front of Jeanne: “This guy still practices martial arts? That’s really something, let’s take a look…”

After Jeanne connected, Xiang Shan couldn’t help but laugh: “Wow, it really is that… a bit more advanced than the original version, with some more contemporary patches and mods. It should be slightly more challenging than in my time. Let’s see what score Li Zheyuan is struggling to achieve…”

“Pfft.”

Xiang Shan laughed until he almost fell over: “A highest score of 140,000 points… A highest score of 140,000 points? Hahahahaha… hahahahahahahaha, after three hundred years, is that it? Is that it? Huh? I’m really questioning the theory that ‘Benchmark Man gets stronger with age’ is correct. Isn’t it said that over time, the special protein deposited in the nerves of elderly Benchmark Men would continuously accelerate the transmission speed of electrical signals? This guy… is too funny.”

Jeanne asked with confusion: “A highest score of 140,000 points? Is that funny? Is it weak?”

“What… what do you mean?” Li Zheyuan was like someone whose sore spot had been hit, wishing he could jump up. He screamed, “What exactly do you mean?”

And Asgard closed her eyes, running through a thought process: “Just… just this? There’s no challenge at all, with enough time, you can score infinitely?”

Jeanne looked at the Xiang Shan in her mind with confusion.

Xiang Shan closed his eyes, folded his hands behind his back, and laughed: “For you guys, the enemies appearing in that game sure present no difficulty. But back when this game was released, breaking a five-digit score was incredibly tough.”

…………………………

Three hundred years ago, Lu Xuanyu and Chen Feng looked at each other, puzzled over the screenshot.

The leaderboard, first place.

Noname, Score: 129633.

This record had been casually deleted by an admin account.