Chapter 1 The Afternoon

That afternoon, Ruo Yu went out on business after lunch. Feng Bujue was home alone, and with nothing to do, he lay down in the game pod once again.

After arriving in the login space, Jue Ge looked at his friends list and found that Xiao Tan and the others were all offline. After thinking for a moment... he went into the storage room, took out the dusty ["Poker Hero" Hero ID Card] that had been gathering dust for ages, and then returned to the elevator.

Now Jue Ge was already level 50, a full seven levels higher than the last time he entered the Free Exploration Mode. Therefore... he felt it was about time to participate in the "Universal Superhero League's" "Hero Level Test."

[Madness Awakens, Level 50]

[Please select the game mode you wish to join.]

[You have selected Free Exploration Mode.]

[Each entry into this mode will consume 20,000 game coins. Please confirm your action.]

After a few quick and skilled operations, Jue Ge selected the game mode and clicked the confirm option.

[Confirmed...]

[A multi-universe under exploration has been found, do you want to connect?]

If the player selected "No" here, a dialog box would immediately pop up on the touch screen asking "Do you want to randomly select a multi-universe again?" However, Jue Ge had no intention of changing universes.

[Loading begins, please wait.]

"Welcome to Thriller Paradise." As the system voice sounded, the elevator began to move.

[Loading complete, you are currently in Free Exploration Mode.]

[This mode has no task system, no time limit, and no negative game judgment.]

[You can travel between the login space and the scenario world via the "Safe House" (each entry into this mode will consume 20,000 game coins).]

[Scenario has begun.]

When the elevator doors opened, the first thing that caught Jue Ge's eye was a rather small bathroom. Stepping out of the bathroom, Jue Ge arrived at his dorm room, code-named "z250."

Unlike his first entry, this time the system no longer required Jue Ge to "leave the safe house within five minutes."

"Hmm... how long of a time span did I choose when I left last time..." Sitting down in the room, Feng Bujue began to recall some details from his last visit, "Oh, right... three cosmic weeks." He touched his chin and muttered, "That is to say... in the eyes of the people in this universe, I've been in the room for three cosmic weeks (the universal unit of time in this universe, approximately equal to one hour). As far as 'adjusting my condition' goes, that should be enough time, right?"

When he first exited this scenario world, he had already considered... pretending to "have been resting for a while," so he chose a compromise time span for the round trip (the other four options were one minute, one hour, twelve hours, and forty-eight hours).

"So... let me see." Then, Feng Bujue used the computer in the room to check where he wanted to go, "Hmm... it's quite close, I can get there on foot (this asteroid has a very complete and free transportation system)."

After confirming his destination, he left the dormitory and headed towards the "testing area" of this Universal Superhero League.

The last time he was here, Foil-Paper Hero and Doctor Eternity personally took Jue Ge through all the procedures and explained a lot of the basic information about the Universal Superhero League. With Jue Ge's ability to learn chuunibyou (middle-schooler syndrome) knowledge, he naturally memorized all this information firmly—heroes who obtain registration qualifications in the Universal Superhero League must undergo a "hero level test" within forty cosmic weeks after registering their "Hero ID," otherwise their registered ID will be directly revoked.

Of course, there are also exceptions, such as "abilities too strong to be tested," or "mental or physical injuries not yet healed"... it is possible to submit a written statement to the league to postpone or waive the test.

…………

To make a long story short, about twenty minutes later, Feng Bujue strolled leisurely to his destination.

Level tests usually do not require queuing, so after Jue Ge chatted with a blue-skinned alien with a shovel-shaped face at the service desk in front of the test area, the other party signaled him to go inside.

The entrance passage to the test area was very interesting. There were a total of ten entrances, seven of which were arranged like steps, from small to large. This was obviously for aliens of different sizes to pass through. And the other three entrances... were the same size, but each door was covered with a force field of a different color. These three were for "non-corporeal beings," "beings unable to stop moving," and "super-adaptive beings" to pass through.

Feng Bujue entered through gate number three, which was about four meters high and three meters wide, and was classified as a "small to medium-sized corporeal being."

After passing through a metal passage several hundred meters long, Jue Ge saw a large device in front of him, like an airport security checkpoint. Next to the device stood a coffee-colored guy with a face like a fathead fish.

"Hello." When Jue Ge approached, the fish-headed guy took the initiative to greet him.

"Hello." Feng Bujue responded.

"Please put your ID card here." The fish-headed guy pointed to a card slot next to the detection device.

Feng Bujue did as he was told, and then, guided by the other party, passed through the checkpoint.

As he passed through the checkpoint, all the items on his body (his knapsack was a dimensional pocket, so the items inside could not be seen) appeared on the display screen next to the device, and a short note automatically popped up next to each item. For example, [Magazine] was annotated as "Ammunition for filling firearms in the Sub-Tech Era"; and [Bael's Everyday Knife] was annotated as "A cold weapon with super-causality function."

"Okay, the authentication is complete, you can go in." The fish-headed guy did not show any surprise at the items Jue Ge was carrying, looking as if he had seen it all before, and said with a normal expression (for a fish head), "The tests are conducted in batches. The staff inside will guide you through them. After all the items have been tested, wait half a cosmic week, and you can go to the card pick-up area to pick up your card and leave." He paused, "At that time, your ID card will have been upgraded to the version for your level."

"Understood." Feng Bujue nodded and continued forward.

After walking another two hundred meters and turning a corner, Jue Ge's eyes lit up as he saw a very large space.

This place was like a super-large stadium, filled with many strange large testing machines and exercise equipment-like contraptions. At this moment, many aliens of various shapes and sizes were undergoing tests inside, and there were also many staff members.

Coming here, Feng Bujue deeply felt that... at least in this parallel universe, humans could only be considered a "minority." He looked around and saw very few guys in the stadium who looked like "humans."

"Hero name?"

While Jue Ge was still looking around, a tall staff member made up of spheres and cylinders had already walked up to him and asked bluntly.

"Uh..." Feng Bujue looked the other person up and down and replied, "Poker Hero."

"Oh..." The other party also looked at him and glanced down at the tablet in his hand, "Earthling, are you... okay, come with me."