Chapter 1 Virtual World

Within a virtual world viewing platform, hundreds of viewers were watching a particular livestream, Li Miaomiao among them. She was focused, listening intently.

"Seventy percent of a swordsman's strength depends on your footwork," a man in jeans was saying in a training field, teaching swordsmanship. "Now I'm going to create a sparring partner with a combat power of 500."

Whoosh, a bandit wielding a cleaver appeared, attacking ferociously.

"The sword is an extension of the hand."

"All you need to do is control the distance between you and your opponent with footwork." The man in jeans moved like a phantom, retreating several steps and causing the bandit to miss with every furious chop.

"When the opponent misses a strike, it takes time to prepare for the next one… that's when we attack." The man in jeans seized the opportunity of the missed strike, advanced and thrust his sword like a viper into the bandit's neck. He immediately withdrew his sword and retreated, and the bandit dissipated into nothing.

"The sword has many disadvantages among cold weapons. It's relatively short and lacks power. But its advantage is its agility, as fast as lightning. We need to exploit its advantages," the man in jeans explained.

Whoosh.

On the viewing platform, Xu Jingming appeared and sat down next to Li Miaomiao. The viewing platform allowed you to select livestreams being watched by your 'friends'.

"Miaomiao, what are you watching?" Xu Jingming was still in a queue, and after practicing for more than eight hours, he was tired, so he took a break.

"Learning swordsmanship," Li Miaomiao said, turning to Xu Jingming. "I've been practicing swords as a hobby for seven or eight years, and you, the great master, even taught me personally. I thought my swordsmanship was pretty good, but in the virtual world game, I tried my best, and my base combat strength is barely 156. I'm not even qualified to participate in the ranking matches. I fought for more than two hours in the Nebula tier before finally reaching the maximum stars! I advanced to the Crescent Moon tier with one star! But as soon as I got there, I lost three games in a row. Fortunately, this game doesn't let you drop in rank, so I'm currently at Crescent Moon tier with 0 stars."

Xu Jingming nodded. "Take your time, don't rush. It's only the first day. The vast majority of people are still in the Nebula tier."

Li Miaomiao sighed. "The threshold for the Solar tier is a base combat strength of 400, and the threshold for the God tier is even higher at 1000. I'm already on a three-game losing streak in the Crescent Moon tier, alas…"

"Oh, right, this streamer, Cong Yao, has won an Olympic épée medal and also participated in the World Martial Arts Tournament," Li Miaomiao said. "His explanations of swordsmanship are quite useful."

"Cong Yao is very strong," Xu Jingming agreed.

The man in jeans who was lecturing glanced at the viewing platform and saw Xu Jingming, nodding slightly. Xu Jingming nodded in return.

"He's already at Solar tier with 28 stars! He has 29 wins and 2 losses in the Solar tier, his swordsmanship is very impressive," Li Miaomiao said. "He's probably one of the top swordsmen in the livestreams right now."

"Are there no God-tier players streaming?" Xu Jingming asked.

"There are! But there aren't any God-tier players who specialize in swordsmanship streaming," Li Miaomiao lamented. "There are too few God-tier players right now. There are only 32 God-tier players in Xia Country. Only three of them are streaming! If we want to learn swordsmanship, we can only look for Solar-tier players."

Xu Jingming opened the viewing platform and looked at his friends' livestreams, surprised to find that 125 of his friends were streaming.

"You have a lot of friends streaming," Li Miaomiao exclaimed.

"Professional players need popularity. The higher the popularity, the higher the appearance fees," Xu Jingming said. Many of his friends still had to manage their own image even after retiring, and many even participated in variety shows.

"Among my friends, there are nearly a thousand professional players, so a hundred or so streaming isn't that many," Xu Jingming said as he continued to browse the livestreams, and saw A'Shuo.

Yang Qingshuo was doing a combat livestream. Xu Jingming immediately clicked on it, and the livestream screen enlarged.

"That's your good buddy Yang Qingshuo," Li Miaomiao said in astonishment. "Amazing, to reach the Solar tier on the first day of the game, they are all top professional players. Solar 32 stars, even with consecutive wins… you need 31 consecutive wins!"

"He is quite strong," Xu Jingming said, watching.

…

Yang Qingshuo's livestream.

A snowy battlefield.

"We need to exploit our own advantages, for example, I'm fast, so I look for opponents who are alone and defeat them one by one." Yang Qingshuo, wearing leather armor and holding a silver spear, sped across the snowfield like lightning, heading straight for an opponent wielding a large shield and a hammer.

While running, Yang Qingshuo was also explaining, his voice audible to the viewers in the livestream.

Because he was a Solar 32-star player and had appeared in the World Martial Arts Tournament, his explanations were quite interesting. Yang Qingshuo's livestream was quite popular, with over a thousand people watching.

The burly man holding the shield and hammer was huge and tall, but slow. He watched helplessly as Yang Qingshuo approached, unable to escape.

"咻咻咻 (xiu xiu xiu)."

Yang Qingshuo's figure was like a ghost as he circled the burly man, thrusting his spear several times in quick succession. The shield-hammer man was also a professional-level expert, carefully raising his shield to protect himself, but the difference in skill was too great.

The fifth spear strike, coming from the side, grazed the edge of the shield and pierced the burly man's head, causing his figure to dissipate into nothingness.

"Beautiful."

"A Solar-tier opponent, taken down in just a few spear strikes."

"So amazing, 32 wins and 1 loss, a real monster, carrying the team!"

"Yang Qingshuo has revealed his combat power, it's already at 970. The threshold for the Solar tier is 400, there aren't many in the Solar tier who can stop him."

The viewers watched in amazement, and some enthusiastically gave tips.

Various gifts were given.

Yang Qingshuo glanced at them, delighted, and continued, "When we fight, we have to choose opponents who we can counter. For example, the opponent just now was obviously a slow, heavy type, while we are agile and fast. We can attack freely, but it's difficult for them to hit us."

"Look, the one in the distance using dual blades," Yang Qingshuo said, staring at another opponent on the snowfield. "He's probably cultivating the Shadow Leopard Evolution Method like me, but he's not as fast as me, and his dual blades are shorter than my spear, so we can easily take him out. We must try to defeat them one by one before their team groups up. Later in the game, our team will have a numerical advantage and can easily win."

Yang Qingshuo quickly sped off.

…

Xu Jingming watched, feeling gratified. "A'Shuo, a hero finally has a place to use his skills, and he can earn money through livestreaming."

"Friends from all over the country are fighting hard," Xu Jingming said, looking at one livestream after another. He didn't know about those who weren't streaming, but his streaming friends were all engaged in combat.

He himself had queued up for 'combat', but because he was a God-tier player, it was a little difficult to gather enough people.

"Miaomiao, where are the God-tier players streaming?" Xu Jingming asked.

"Here," Li Miaomiao said, very knowledgeable about the livestreams. She quickly brought up three livestreams, all with the same scene—

The void of the battle space, with only the message: "Seven players are ready…"

"Streaming, but no one's there?" Xu Jingming laughed.

"Livestreams can lock the battle space," Li Miaomiao said. "Those who can reach the God tier now are all relying on the ranking matches. It means their base combat strength is at least 1200, they are all monsters. Many World Martial Arts Tournament players can't even reach that."

Xu Jingming nodded, looking at the three God-tier players' livestreams.

"Panda Zhang Qian, Archer Wang Yi, Valkyrie Sun Yuting," Xu Jingming read out the names of these three people, all of whom were very famous.

Li Miaomiao also said excitedly, "Before, because of the difference in physical fitness between men and women, the World Martial Arts Tournament has always been a stage for men. But now women also have suitable genetic evolution methods, and they are no longer at a disadvantage physically. On the first day, there were female players who became God-tier players. Archer Wang Yi… a three-time Olympic archery champion, the great demon king of the archery world."

"A God-tier archer is very terrifying," Xu Jingming nodded. Among cold weapons, archers are a great threat.

"Valkyrie Sun Yuting, has won first place in two Women's World Martial Arts Tournaments. But the popularity of women's events is much lower than the World Martial Arts Tournament," Li Miaomiao said. "Now, she can truly prove herself."

"There are also fewer female professional players than male players," Xu Jingming nodded. "That's because the popularity is generally low, and the income is generally low as well."

This was also normal.

Because the World Martial Arts Tournament is open to all genders, women can also compete.

But women are indeed at a disadvantage physically, and at the highest level of the World Martial Arts Tournament, the most dazzling are still the men.

"With genetic evolution methods, women's physical talent is no less than men's," Li Miaomiao pointed out. "Three of the streaming God-tier players, two are female, this proportion is telling."

"Hmm, what's that? A pinned livestream?" Li Miaomiao said in surprise.

Xu Jingming also saw that a livestream on the viewing platform had been pinned.

"Xia Country Official Livestream?" Xu Jingming and Li Miaomiao both saw the name.

"Let's go take a look."

The two clicked on it.

Swish!

As the only pinned livestream on the viewing platform since the opening of the virtual world, a large number of viewers were constantly pouring in. The viewing platform was infinitely wide, with two million people, five million people… more and more people were entering.

Xu Jingming and Li Miaomiao also entered, sitting in their seats, looking into the distance.

"Zoom in." With a light tap, the distant livestream scene quickly zoomed in.

Three people were sitting in front of the commentary stand.

"This is the Xia Country Official Livestream." The host was the official golden host 'Liu Xin', next to her were a middle-aged man and woman. Liu Xin smiled and said, "Today is the first day of our official livestream, the two next to me are the head coach of the National Martial Arts Team, Huang Yong, and the coach of the women's team, Qin Yiwen."

Huang Yong and Qin Yiwen both waved and said, "Hello everyone."

"Our livestream has just started, and we already have over ten million viewers." Liu Xin's smile was radiant, and her smile alone could become popular online. The official media also regarded her as a treasure, and now the virtual world's first Xia Country official livestream was letting her be the host.

"For our first broadcast, we will be livestreaming the first God-tier battle that is about to begin in Xia Country!" Liu Xin said.