Chapter 30#
Blessing?
These blue light spots were swirling around him because some Blue Star human had given him a supreme lifelong blessing?
Zhao Xing’s mind went blank for a moment.
At the same time, he realized he had been breathing freely for more than three minutes without feeling any discomfort.
This also proved that the content of those bullet comments was true.
But… how was that possible?
He had only come up from underground yesterday and met a Blue Star human for the first time today. When could he have received a blessing from a Blue Star human?
Wait!
Zhao Xing suddenly remembered something.
—He had been immune to sedatives and anesthesia since childhood.
Could it be that this wasn’t because of his special constitution, but because he had received a blessing from a Blue Star human as a child?
When? How come he had no memory of it?
Zhao Xing tried hard to recall, but he realized he didn’t even know exactly when he had become immune to sedatives.
After all, as a child, he had never had the chance to encounter sedatives or anesthesia.
The first time he encountered a sedative was at age eight.
On a D-class train back then, everyone else was knocked out by the sedative smoke, but he alone was unaffected.
So, had he received the Blue Star human’s blessing before the age of eight?
The bullet comments grew more numerous, densely occupying the entire electronic board.
“Ding! Sightseeing card!”
“I heard Blue Sacred Light Blessing appeared on channel 27, so as a loyal viewer of the main channel, I immediately came to check in and take a look.”
“Ding! Photo card!”
“Is it a royal blessing? Is it a royal blessing? Is it a royal blessing?!”
“Blue Star folks, don’t get too excited. Your royal family has been out of sight for hundreds of years, right? They’ve probably gone extinct by now.”
“Heh, you Earth monkeys are scared, aren’t you? If our Blue Star royal family showed up, you alien species wouldn’t be running rampant on our planet anymore.”
“Wow, we’re so scared! Since your Blue Star royal family is so powerful, why have they never appeared?”
“Earthlings go to hell! Earthlings go to hell! Earthlings go to hell!!!”
[System message: 76 accounts have been banned for 24 hours. Please avoid inciting racial conflict.]
…
“Rational discussion: it’s indeed unlikely that this underground human received a royal blessing. But judging by his face—total player material—it’s possible he tricked some ignorant Blue Star girl into giving him a Blue Sacred Light Blessing with her life, right?”
“Even so, ordinary Blue Star humans can’t give a Blue Sacred Light Blessing even if they die.”
“If it’s not a royal blessing, then what is it? Could it be a blessing from some Blue Star powerhouse who’s lived for hundreds of years?”
“It might also be from some collateral branch with royal bloodline…”
“Isn’t Lord Aris also capable of granting the Blue Sacred Light Blessing?”
“…”
The following bullet comments were all debating whom Zhao Xing’s blessing came from.
Suddenly, two colorful VIP bullet comments burst onto the screen.
“Just ask, won’t you?”
“F101, who gave you the blessing?”
At the same time, a system message appeared on the electronic board, complete with a mechanical voice.
[Viewer “Rich Dude” has sent a paid question to F101, valued at 100,000 yuan, convertible into points. F101, do you choose to answer the question?]
Zhao Xing stood up, casually resetting his dislocated left arm with one hand, and tossed out a lazy reply: “I refuse.”
What a joke. He didn’t even know the answer himself.
He didn’t look at the electronic board, so he didn’t see the bullet comments getting hyped up again.
“Turning down a hundred grand, so capricious.”
“Someone who can get a Blue Sacred Light Blessing wouldn’t care about a hundred grand anyway.”
“Damn, he’s hot!”
“Ahhh, the way he reset his arm with one hand really got me!”
“How can an underground human be this cocky? Is it because he has a Blue Star big shot backing him?!”
“Seriously, are you all hot for him, or for the Blue Star big shot behind him?”
“Both! Both!”
“…”
After dealing with his left arm injury, Zhao Xing turned to look.
The Blue Star human, built like a bear, had already vanished without Zhao Xing noticing.
Only some black ash, sticky blood, and a torn hood remained on the ground.
Sure that the hood was beyond repair, Zhao Xing sighed, returned to the electronic board, and clicked on the task notification in the lower-right corner.
The task interface was still in the form of a letter.
Only a few lines were written on it:
[Among the 606 contestants of F101, one is a high-level biomimetic robot. Find it.]
Task reward: 100 points, a Z35 model laser gun, and a mysterious gift.
Zhao Xing was startled by the 100-point reward.
In this game, deliberately killing an F-group member deducted 10 points, but completing a task rewarded a full 100 points.
Didn’t that mean that if he completed this task, he could kill ten F-group members without consequence?
Zhao Xing considered the task, and more questions arose.
A high-level biomimetic robot?
How was it different from the robots underground?
Just then, Zhao Xing noticed several messages rapidly scrolling at the top of the electronic board—
[Someone found a charging station on the east side of the island. Could the biomimetic robot be sneaking over to charge?!]
[Shock! After a Blue Star human and an underground human formed a master-slave contract, they actually did this in a cave!]
[Bomb! An F-group member suddenly shows the Blue Sacred Light Blessing!]
Huh?!
Zhao Xing’s breath caught, and he quickly clicked on the last message.
It was indeed a detailed report.
At the top was a ten-second animated GIF clearly showing the scene after Zhao Xing’s hood shattered, with the Blue Sacred Light Blessing appearing on his body.
In the last second of the GIF, the blue fluorescence on Zhao Xing turned into flames, burning the Blue Star human’s hand.
Below the GIF was a text description, detailing the entire process of the Blue Sacred Light Blessing appearing on Zhao Xing, along with selected real-time bullet comments, creating a very heated atmosphere.
This tabloid even included a science section about the Blue Sacred Light Blessing—
“The Blue Sacred Light Blessing is known as the supreme blessing of the Blue Star. The blessed will be immune to poisonous mist for life. Only the Blue Star royal family and a few powerful Blue Star individuals are qualified to bestow it. It is reported that the world-class star Lord Aris has the ability to grant the Blue Sacred Light Blessing to others.
“When the Blue Sacred Light Blessing first manifests, blue holy light appears around the blessed, protecting them from being touched by anyone for two hours.
“Since the Blue Sacred Light Blessing is very rare, its other effects remain unknown.”
Zhao Xing: “…”
He never expected to make headlines on his very first day here, with his story broadcast across the entire island.
He took a deep breath and slowly calmed himself down.
It’s fine, no big deal. It was just being written into the news and played on loop.
There was no way he could hide this anyway.
And this news didn’t bring him only bad things, right?
At least now he knew that for the next two hours, no one could touch him.
So he could use those two hours to do a lot of things.
As he was thinking, the island-wide broadcast sounded again—
“The first entertainment task has been released! Brave warriors, please check the nearest electronic board to view the task!”
At the same time, a new entertainment task popped up on Zhao Xing’s electronic board.
Zhao Xing clicked on it.
[Contestant F101 has suddenly manifested the Blue Sacred Light Blessing. What’s going on? Who gave him the Blue Sacred Light Blessing? Please go find the answer. This task is long-term.]
Task reward: 50 points.
Zhao Xing: …
Fuck!
Zhao Xing kicked the electronic board in front of him to pieces.
In the dense jungle, C065 and D014 were hiding behind a huge rock, whispering to each other.
C065: “Brother Fan, I’m sure of it. F101 is hiding in the cave ahead. Let’s go catch him now!”
D014: “His Blue Sacred Light still has nine minutes left. Wait a little longer.”
C065: “You weren’t there, you don’t know! There are at least six teams lurking around here. If we wait any longer, someone else will grab F101. That’s 50 points!”
D014 said earnestly: “Little sister! F101 is protected by the Blue Sacred Light right now, so we can’t get close. But look at our gear: this barbed knife, these electrified knuckles—all close-combat weapons. The only ranged one, the injection gun, doesn’t work on F101… So let’s wait. When his Blue Sacred Light fades, we can grab that little mouse without any effort, and maybe even make him our slave…”
“Brother Fan, if we catch him but he won’t tell us how he got his Blue Sacred Light, what do we do?”
“That’s simple. Cut off one of his arms. If he still won’t talk, cut off a leg…”
…
A hundred meters away, Zhao Xing smiled and rubbed his burning right ear.
Barbed knife, electrified knuckles, injection gun, huh.
Perfect. You’re my targets.
Eight minutes later, Zhao Xing shook his hand in pain and kicked D014, who had already been knocked out by the injection gun’s anesthetic, in frustration.
Zhao Xing sighed.
Fighting surface humans was really tough.
They were completely different from everyone he had ever fought before.
Take this D014—he looked pretty ordinary, but who knew that under the three-piece kit, his arms were completely made of metal?!
Hiss… he almost broke his knuckles.
If the Blue Sacred Light hadn’t burned through that guy’s metal arm, the outcome of this fight would have been uncertain.
Zhao Xing hummed softly, unbuckled D014’s belt, tied it around his own waist, and stuffed his spoils—the barbed knife, electrified knuckles, and injection gun—into the belt.
After a moment’s thought, he decided his own ID number was too conspicuous, so he stripped off D014’s jacket with his ID number on it and put it on himself.
Finally, he removed D014’s hood and used it to cover his own handsome face.
Wait.
If this guy died an hour later without a hood, would he lose points for it?
Zhao Xing paused mid-step, walked over to C065—who was kneeling on the ground with her long hair burned off by the Blue Sacred Light, her legs also burned, sobbing quietly—and leaned down with a smile: “Little sister, do you have an extra hood?”
C065 sobbed and shook her head: “No, no. Brother Fan and I both have special-material hoods that can block toxic gas for three months, so we didn’t… didn’t bring any extras.”
“Alright.” Zhao Xing sighed.
No way around it.
Zhao Xing reached out, took the hood off the girl’s face, and put it on D014.
The girl froze.
But she quickly reacted, and within a minute, she removed the hood from D014’s face and put it back on her own.
This time, she held her hood tightly with both hands: “What… what do you want?!”
Zhao Xing raised his hands and stepped back.
He turned around, looked up at the hovering micro-camera, and said innocently: “Ah, you see? I didn’t take off D014’s hood. His sister did. So if he dies of poisoning in an hour, I shouldn’t lose points, right? I didn’t deliberately kill him.”
Under the transparent hood, the girl’s expression turned stunned, then she flushed and argued loudly: “No! That’s not it! That hood is mine. I was just taking back my own hood. Brother Fan’s hood was taken off by F101. Even if Brother Fan dies, it’s F101’s fault, not mine!”
Zhao Xing looked at her pityingly: “But before he dies, the last person to take the hood off his face and steal his hope is you.”
With that, he stopped arguing with the girl, dimmed the transparency of his own hood, and turned to leave.
After walking three or four meters, Zhao Xing suddenly remembered something. He took two steps to the left and came to the nearest electronic board. The bullet comments were still heated.
“Damn, so cool!”
“Can he really do that? Someone tell me, is that really allowed?”
“In theory, yes. After all, as F101 said, no matter whose hood it was, if D014 really dies without one, responsibility falls on the last person who took off his hood—that is, C065.”
“Is F101 exploiting a game glitch?”
“F101 is a genius. I checked other channels—all the other F-group members have been captured as slaves. F101 is not only free but has even killed two surface humans.”
“I feel like F101 is going to break the record of no F-group survivors in all previous seasons.”
“Is F101 disguised as D014 now? How long can he keep it up? So many people are watching.”
Zhao Xing stared at the line “How long can he keep it up” for two seconds, then suddenly took off his hood and smiled directly at the camera next to the electronic board.
He was naturally handsome, but usually his arrogant and unrestrained demeanor made people overlook his looks, overshadowed by his knife-like aggression.
Now, with that smile, his brows relaxed, accentuated by the warm sunlight behind him, he gained a touch of the spirited elegance unique to youth.
He pointed at the new ID number on his jacket and said with a beaming smile: “Shh. I’m D014 now. Could you all please keep it a secret for me? Don’t go spreading it around, okay?”
To be honest, if it weren’t for the bullet-comment crowd spreading news about Zhao Xing’s Blue Sacred Light Blessing, he wouldn’t have been broadcast across the island or turned into the target of an entertainment task.
The bullet comments paused for two seconds, then exploded into a frenzy again.
“Okay, okay!”
“Big sis has a tight lip. I won’t go blabbing to other channels!”
“Damn, I know full well that F… no, D014 is a ruthless person pretending to be good, but my heart still races and I totally fall for it!”
“Boo hoo, with a face like that, Brother D014 must have been framed for whatever he’s in prison for.”
“…”
“Some Earth women, wake up, will you? I’m amazed you can get horny over a criminal like this. Not like me. I just find him delicious enough to eat—physically. Slurp, slurp…”
“Little bro is so bewitching. I’m blown away!”
“Since the good little bro says he’s D014, then it must be right!”
“…”
Was that considered “good”?
If they ever met Luo Luo…
Zhao Xing shook his head, dispelling stray thoughts.
He put his hood back on and walked forward, idly spinning the injection gun he’d pulled from his belt.
Zhao Xing recalled the news about the charging station.
Now that he had some basic weapons, did that mean he was qualified to compete for it?
But…
Zhao Xing touched his stomach.
He was a little hungry.
Looking around, there were plenty of wild fruits and mushrooms, but Zhao Xing had lived underground his whole life and had never seen these things. He couldn’t tell if they were edible or poisonous.
Should he ask the bullet comments?
But what if someone in the comments tricked him?
Too risky.
Maybe he should go back and have C065 test the poison for him.
Was that a bit ruthless?
Ehh, it’s fine.
After all, that brother-and-sister duo had been planning to cut off his limbs.
Zhao Xing thought this as he picked a wild fruit from a tree.
“Ah—!”
A scream of pain and terror came from far away.
Zhao Xing was so startled he almost dropped the fruit.
He hesitated, tucked the fruit into his belt, and carefully followed the sound.
Zhao Xing smelled the blood before he saw the person.
When he saw the scene before him, he almost couldn’t suppress his nausea.
What did he see?
Fingers.
So many fingers.
Scattered all over the ground.
How much blood can a single cut finger produce?
Zhao Xing didn’t know.
But he saw an entire patch of grass dyed red with blood.
A man with the ID number D004, no protective hood, and both arms entirely made of metal, complained impatiently: “Su Ye, I’m so tired. My back hurts. These people are all E and F group trash. Would a biomimetic robot really be among them?”
“Cutting off fingers is the fastest way to find a biomimetic robot,” a woman’s voice replied. “And you’re complaining about being tired? What good are you?”
This “Su Ye” was someone familiar.
—C005.
The woman with long curly hair, a red dress, and no protective gear, exuding soft charm.
“Ah!”
The last woman’s scream rang out.
Su Ye sighed in disappointment: “Looks like there’s no biomimetic robot among this batch. Bad luck. 4, give these slaves and whores back to their masters, and remember to pay compensation.”
D004: “Two compressed biscuits each, right? Lucky I brought enough.”
Zhao Xing leaned against a tree, no longer looking at the bloodbath.
So… the value of one finger was two compressed biscuits.
After the group left, Zhao Xing stood there for a while, then left as well.
Zhao Xing arrived at a small stream.
He used the clear, flowing water—a sight he had never seen before—to wash his face.
He also tasted the water.
It was very sweet.
The surface world was really strange.
So beautiful, yet so bloody.
“Wow! It’s F101! You changed clothes, so I almost didn’t recognize you!”
Zhao Xing immediately raised his injection gun and pointed it at the newcomer.
The newcomer had two mechanical arms, with mottled bloodstains still on the metal fingertips and spatters of blood on his clothes.
—This was none other than D004, who had been cutting off people’s fingers just moments ago.
The moment Zhao Xing saw his face without a protective hood, he knew he had made a mistake.
—He shouldn’t have drawn the injection gun. This gun was useless against this man, who was also blessed.
But it was too late. By the time Zhao Xing regretted it, D004 had already fired a bullet at him.
Zhao Xing tried his best to dodge, but the bullet still grazed his arm.
D004: “I’m really, really curious. How did you get the Blue Sacred Light Blessing? Tell me, okay?”
As he fired, D004 muttered to himself: “Huh? Could you be a biomimetic robot? Is the Blue Sacred Light a gimmick by the showrunners? Possible. I have to strip your skin to see if there are wires inside.”
Zhao Xing was grazed again, this time on the thigh. Gritting his teeth, he pressed his hand to the wound on his thigh and collapsed to the ground with a thud.
D004 laughed loudly, switched his gun to his left hand, and pulled a sharp dagger from his waist with his right.
The dagger glowed blue all over. Zhao Xing didn’t know what material it was made of, but it looked far more impressive than his own barbed knife.
D004 crouched in front of Zhao Xing, twirling his dagger triumphantly: “Let me see, where should I cut?”
The dagger slid down from Zhao Xing’s handsome face and pressed against his carotid artery, his tone laced with regret: “Ah, you’re a human who has received the Blue Sacred Light Blessing. How can you be so weak?”
He spoke: “I’m also a blessed one. I spent 500,000 at an auction to buy a two-year blessing. So expensive. Why you? Why did you get a lifelong blessing so easily? Because of your face?”
The sharp dagger, without much force, easily left a streak of blood on Zhao Xing’s neck.
Zhao Xing bore the pain through gritted teeth, but cold sweat still broke out on his forehead.
D004 wasn’t satisfied with cutting his skin there; he moved the dagger downward: “Hmm. Su Ye saw the news about you and said you have a good body and nice abs. I want to see how nice your abs really are.”
The dagger first sliced through Zhao Xing’s outer jacket like cutting tofu, then pressed against his tight undershirt.
He looked up, grinned at Zhao Xing, changed the dagger’s angle, and with a sudden force, stabbed downward!
“Ah!”
A miserable scream startled the unknown birds from the trees.
The sharp dagger fell to the ground, clinking against the pebbles on the bank.
Zhao Xing took off his electrified knuckles, picked up the dagger, and smiled on his pale face.
He let out a genuine compliment: “What a beautiful knife. Much better than mine.”
D004, his face pale from the electric shock, twitched slightly on the ground.
Zhao Xing picked up the white fruit that had rolled away with his bloodied hand and stuffed it into D004’s mouth: “I’m a little hungry. Help me test if this fruit is poisonous.”
D004’s eyes flew wide open. His lips turned purple visibly.
He mustered all his strength to spit out the fruit and coughed hoarsely.
“It’s poisonous.” Zhao Xing sighed in disappointment.
But he quickly wiped the disappointment off his face and pressed the dagger against D004’s neck: “Never mind. You can still help me test how sharp this knife is.”
D004 suddenly laughed.
The poison in the fruit made his voice hoarse and harsh: “Haha… you can’t kill me.”
“Why?” Zhao Xing asked, puzzled. “The knife is in my hand.”
D004 laughed smugly: “If you kill me, you’ll lose 30 points. Do you have points to spare? Do you know what happens to someone with negative points?”
…No.
Zhao Xing tightened his grip on the dagger but said nothing.
After a moment, he squinted and spoke slowly: “Even if I don’t kill you, I have countless ways to make you wish you were dead…”
D004 suddenly exerted all his strength to press a button on his neck.
Then he let out a comfortable sigh and sprawled on the ground: “You stupid underground rat. You’re so ignorant. Go ahead, torture me. I’ve temporarily turned off my pain receptors. No matter how you torment me, I won’t feel a thing.”
He even tapped his mechanical fingers cheerfully on the ground, like playing a few piano keys: “Come on, cut off my legs, cut off my hands. Then I can replace my limbs with better materials. Wow! Even cooler!”
Zhao Xing: “…”
Fucking madman.
Zhao Xing ground his teeth.
He really, really wanted to kill him.
Maybe at first, Zhao Xing hadn’t intended to kill this man.
But now, a bloody and violent emotion surged from the depths of his heart, making him crave the touch of blood.
Ah, because his parts could be replaced, he was so reckless in cutting off so many fingers?
Because surface humans were so powerful that they could even block pain, they created the F101 game to chase a higher thrill?
Shouting the name of harmony and coexistence, yet every rule and task was designed to make them slaughter each other.
Was this the light and future he had been seeking underground all this time?
The sharp dagger pressed against this man’s neck.
Crimson blood oozed out drop by drop.
Yet it seemed as if an invisible thread was tied to the dagger, stopping it from sinking any deeper.
A demonic smile slowly spread across D004’s lips: “Little rat, you can’t kill me. But I will kill you. After all, your life is worth only 10 points.”
He said: “You might hurt me today, but it doesn’t matter. Once I finish surgery, I’ll come back here. I will hunt you down relentlessly, cut you into a thousand pieces, and watch you die miserably. You’ll understand that the surface world is not a place for a little rat like you to covet. Ah, you must have been shocked and ecstatic when you crawled out from underground. Pitiful little rat, you haven’t even seen the sun. If this game didn’t need you as slaves, you’d probably die old and forgotten underground.”
Zhao Xing’s grip on the dagger tightened, barely restraining the violent emotions inside him.
How he wanted… wanted to kill this man.
What would happen if his points were at negative 30?
Would he be sent to the electric shock room like in District K13?
That was fine.
If that was the price for killing this man, he was willing.
Just then, a fragmented mechanical voice sounded faintly in Zhao Xing’s ear.
[…Has tipped F101 300,000 yuan, automatically converted to 30 points.]
D004’s expression suddenly turned terrified.
In contrast—
Zhao Xing’s smile slowly widened.
The dazzling, impossibly beautiful dagger finally sank smoothly into that man’s neck like cutting tofu.
Blood sprayed out, splattering all over Zhao Xing’s face.
Zhao Xing turned and meticulously washed his face clean in the stream.
Then he walked to the nearest electronic board.
That golden system message hadn’t disappeared yet.
Zhao Xing read the message three times.
Then he smiled and spoke the tipper’s name:
“Thank you, L.”
The bullet comments froze for a moment, then countless system messages poured in.
[Viewer “L” has tipped F101 100,000 yuan, automatically converted to 10 points.]
[Viewer “L” has tipped F101 20,000 yuan, automatically converted to 2 points.]
[Viewer “L” has tipped F101 1,623.4 yuan, automatically converted to 0.16 points.]
Zhao Xing: “…”
Seeing this person gradually running out of money, Zhao Xing quickly stopped him: “No need. Thank you, L. The points you gave are already enough.”
Soon, a few special effects of gift boxes appeared on the screen.
[Viewer “L” has gifted F101 a luxury lunch set, will be delivered by flying robot. Please wait for delivery.]
[Viewer “L” has gifted F101 a luxury medical kit, will be delivered by flying robot. Please wait for delivery.]
[Viewer “L” has gifted F101 a luxury weapon case, will be delivered by flying robot. Please wait for delivery.]
[Viewer “L” has tipped F101 41,784.5 yuan, automatically converted to 4.17 points.]
Zhao Xing: “…”
I’m numb.
Meanwhile.
Onboard a high-speed autonomous aircraft.
A surface human in a tight suit was crouched in the corner, hands cuffed, trembling in fear.
Luo Mingshan stared at the words “insufficient balance” on the screen, tapped his slender knuckles lightly on the table, his brows full of sarcasm and dissatisfaction:
“Is this all the money in your account?”