Mu Fan scratched his head and realized that he had returned to the rotating metal door entrance after re-entering the white light.

What kind of a rookie camp was that? Didn’t Chubby Harry say that these combat simulations aren’t very meaningful? How come there is such a harsh rookie training camp?

Mu Fan looked around him and sighed out of relief after he confirmed that he wasn’t in that training camp filled with the deadly presence anymore.

Then, he looked over to the digital screen beside the door and saw that there was now a red forbidden entrance sign on it with a countdown towards 12:00 AM the next day. It probably meant that he could re-enter this door the next day, like that mysterious instructor had said.

How come that instructor felt like a real human rather than an NPC? Technology is so advanced nowadays! Mu Fan held deep respect towards technological advancements as he walked out of the training camp.

After exiting the gate, he returned to the heavily industrialized city where one couldn’t even see the sky and looked down at his wristband which showed the text [Lemon Balloon: Online-In Battle.]

Mu Fan then typed with one finger and sent Harry a message. [I’m Mu Fan; I’m out.]

…

In a virtual realm consisting of a ruined circular city with a diameter of ten kilometers, a yellow-orange mech was hiding discreetly in a concealed space formed by a skyscraper and a broken wall that had been crushed by a large stone.

Chubby Harry was sitting inside the cockpit of Lemon Balloon, his sixth and a half generation fantasy-mode mech, and he was grinding his teeth as he cussed at his opponents. “You bunch of Bronze 5-star losers, teaming up on me because I have a better mech than all of you *ssholes.”

The truth was that those Bronze 5-star players were actually experienced players who were smurfing on their newbie accounts. [TL Note: Smurfing refers to when high-level players purposely play on low-level accounts to beat less skilled players]. Chubby Harry thought that as a silver rank player, he would win easily in the battle against the bronze rank players and wipe them all out. Even though he hadn’t done it 100 times yet, he did it at least 50 times already. Chubby Harry had killed his opponents cleanly before when playing against bronze rank players, and he didn’t expect to face these psychopaths this time. There were six players on each side, and the opponent team paired up in doubles against Harry and his teammates. The opponents shot precisely at Harry’s teammates who didn’t know how to dodge, destroying their legs and making them immobile. Then, these opponents axed off their mech’s limbs with alloy blades, leaving only the cockpit intact. Then… these ba*tards kicked around the intact cockpits like soccer balls.

Now, all five of Harry’s teammates had exploded under the forceful kicking.

Chubby Harry thought to himself, Brother Chubby will never leave here today without winning! It is too embarrassing!

All of a sudden, two red dots appeared on his radar. Enemies! Chubby Harry clenched his teeth and prayed quickly as he turned on the quiet mode of the engine.

Good thing that I’ve got a good mech; those bronze losers only have the fifth generation beginner mechs.

Damn! Oh ya! Why should I be afraid of those fifth generation mechs? Mine is way better!

When choosing 12-player medium-to-small team battle mode in the PO Battle Network, the default match would only allow a difference of one generation between the mechs. It meant that if someone operated a fourth-generation mech, then the players that this person would face could only operate fourth-generation beginner mechs at the low-end and the fifth generation beginner mechs at the high-end. The System wouldn’t place players who had too big of a difference in mechs in a game since it was unfair. The difference between each generation of mechs was about five to eight years, so the technology used in the mechs would be vastly different. For those mechs that were the seventh generation and above, the difference in technology would be 10 years apart.

“If you’re so good, why don’t you go fight in the reality battlezone? What are you doing here piloting the default free mechs given by the System in Fantasy Mode? Such sick heads,” Chubby Harry was muttering quietly inside his cockpit as this was the combat zone in the easier Fantasy Mode.

Suddenly, he saw two red dots on the radar approaching his location. Chubby Harry muttered, “Crap! I got spotted!”

He had a surprising natural gift for sensing danger. Also, when it involved escaping for his life, Chubby Harry could always use his strength exceptionally well.

He noticed that the two red dots entered the skyscraper behind him. They are going to sneak attack through the walls.

Suddenly, his wristband beeped. “I’m Mu Fan; I’m out.”

This fast! Chubby Harry was shocked as he didn’t even finish a battle yet. How long was that?

Then, he clenched his teeth as he spat out his words viciously, “You losers are forcing me, Young Master Harry, to show you what I’ve got.”

Scorpion Landmines! Explode!

Four soccer-ball sized holes suddenly appeared on the ground inside the skyscraper behind Harry’s mech, and four mechanical scorpions, made of shining white metal, crawled out of the holes. They used their laser-scans and locked onto the two mechs that just closed their automatic radars and snuck into the first floor of the building.

Jump and collide! The four scorpions jumped towards the two mechs at an incredible speed.

Boom! Boom! A series of strong airwaves were generated from the explosion, and even Harry’s orange mech was pushed out of the hiding spot by the immense force of impact.

As for the two mechs, they had shattered into pieces already.

“You underestimated Grandpa Chubby, eh? I’ve got the highest-level automatic seeking explosives in Fantasy Mode within my sixth generation mech,” Chubby Harry said while grinding his teeth together viciously.

The two red dots on the radar disappeared.

“Damn it! No. 3 and No. 6, calling on No. 3 and No. 6, copy if you receive this, over.” The captain of the opponent team was calling out to his teammates in the team communication channel, but unfortunately, there was no response.

System announcement: ‘Lemon Balloon’ killed ‘Johnson’.

System announcement: ‘Lemon Balloon’ killed ‘Zeldaka’.

System announcement: ‘Lemon Balloon’ obtained a double kill.

“Hahahahahahaha! You bunch of losers!” Chubby Harry’s voice came from the ruins through a speaker.

Bam!

The bright orange mech was like a lighthouse in the dark. With the sound of a crisp gunshot, the energy reactor of Chubby Harry’s mech was torn apart by a huge bullet from a sniper rifle, leading to a heated energy explosion.

“You son of…” Chubby Harry didn’t even get to spit out his last words before he was engulfed by the flames of the explosion.

There were many fewer players in the waiting zone now when Chubby Harry reappeared here. Then, he lounged on a sofa, looking upset.

“I’m so tired of those noob teammates!” Chubby Harry said with resentment about that battle. No teamwork and strategy; a complete mess. If my mech wasn’t good enough to destroy two enemies, this would’ve been a totally one-sided stomp.

Ay? Did I forget something?

Chubby Harry slapped his forehead as he remembered. Mu Fan said that he finished already. I almost forgot to reply to him since that battle earlier was too intense.

“Video call requested; accept or reject?”

Mu Fan has been staring at his wristband for a few minutes, and he finally heard the crisp notification sound about the video call request.

“Mu Fan? You’re out so early. See? I told you that it’s a boring training session.” Chubby Harry still looked upset from the battle earlier.

“Yeah, the training’s done. What do we do now?” Mu Fan didn’t want to explain much as it was embarrassing that he died twice, and it felt so real. Also, he wasn’t the type of person to explain everything.

Chubby Harry sighed as he said, sounding upset, “I was in a battle, and I didn’t notice your message. Those losers beat me too. Damn.”

Mu Fan did not have a complete concept of winning and losing yet, so he asked, “What do we do now?”

Chubby Harry seemed more upset as he noticed that Mu Fan didn’t give him a reaction. He said with a sad face, “Wait, I’ll send you the coordinates, and you can come here using the portal beside the training camp.”

“Beep. Received the coordinates that your friend ‘Lemon Balloon’ shared. Do you want to sync it into the navigation system?”

“Yes.” Mu Fan clicked the [Yes] button, and the route was projected onto the light display screen. He looked up at the map and confirmed the location of the portal that was ahead and slightly to the right. It was flashing white light as there were already many people entering and exiting.

Mu Fan walked over to that egg-shell-like structure and realized that there weren’t as many people as he had expected. There was only him inside, and it seemed like that PO Battle Network could automatically open an individual portal for everyone during teleportation.

An automatic message appeared on a floating rectangular automatic controlling station. [Please say or enter the teleportation destination.]

“Teleport destination coordinates XXXX, XXXX.”

“Confirmed, Player ‘Lord Egg’. Please enter the teleportation circle. Beginning teleportation.”

A light flashed by as Mu Fan, the blank slate rookie who hadn’t finished the individual combat training nor received any mech operation training, teleported out of the newbie base.