"Miss Xu, I'm sorry for being late but the queue to buy the console was too long. Thankfully, I managed to buy one of the last units before they sold out."

Liu Ye grew anxious with just 30 minutes left till the next day of Avatar Online but the Butler clutched it, returning to the villa in time. He carried two headgear consoles, one of them belonging to Liu Ye. It would suck to miss the second launch since Liu Ye needed to know the answer.

​​

Did he kill the Bandit Leader or not?

"I'm glad you made it. You saved us today," Xu Yue thanked as she took the helmets away. "Anyway, it's late so we will get ready to sleep."

It was a polite way of saying he can leave but the butler glanced at Liu Ye instead.

"Don't worry, I will send Liu Ye back to his room after we talk through our strategy for tonight," Xu Yue assured, figuring out what he meant by that look. Their butler was like a protective uncle to her since he has been in their family for over twenty years already.

Butler acknowledged the answer and bowed as he left, "Goodnight, Miss Xu."

"Zhenzhen, do you want to sleep with Big sister tonight? We can have a quick shower and then I will help you set up your gear," Xu Yue suggested after closing the door. "We don't have much time so we have to be quick."

They already spent a whole evening explaining everything she needed to know about Avatar Online so Zhenzhen was prepared to face the new world.

"Yes! I would love to!" Zhenzhen exclaimed happily only to glance at Liu Ye and show a guilty expression, "Unless Big Bro wants—"

"Don't worry, I am good," Liu Ye cut her off right away. "Xu Yue will only distract me and I need to prepare myself for the night."

"Humph," Xu Yue pretended to pout and pushed his helmet into his chest. "Let's go Zhenzhen, your brother doesn't want to spend time with us."

"That's cause you always tease him," Zhenzhen defended as she oogled Xu Yue's chest. "How can he focus with such a sexy girlfriend?"

"Heh, true!" Xu Yue agreed as she caught Liu Ye's gaze. "I will call you when I reach the Mainland. It should take you a while to finish your solo run."

"You seem confident you will win," Liu Ye replied with a calm smile. "Don't forget our bet."

"Of course, I didn't forget it. I'm looking forward to crushing you," Xu Yue announced playfully. "I still can't believe you can be faster than us."

"Well, you are about to be surprised," Liu Ye responded with a shrug and left for his own room. "Don't panic when you hear my name in the announcement. Just focus on your gameplay."

Liu Ye already had a semi plan of what to do which worked for every scenario. He would simply claim his Dungeon Key from the Lord and try to kill the Bandit Leader once again, this time without any tricks.

Even if he failed to kill the boss yesterday, he would still try to gain the solo clear reward. He would lose four levels in that case but it wasn't hard to grind it back. His Elemental Master would not disappear so he would only be down in stats.

"System activated."

"Battery fully charged."

"Please connect the headgear to your Neuralink to begin synchronization."

Liu Ye cleaned himself up and laid down on the bed in his old room. A numbing electric current passed through his body as he connected the console and he immediately launched himself into the familiar space.

Multiple screens opened in front of him as he materialized on the platform with his virtual body. It still felt amazing to move around with it even after a whole day.

"Let's see…" Liu Ye muttered as he glanced at his open profile. He was scared to look at first, worrying that he would see himself down by 4 levels but it turned out to be just as he left it.

He still had two Elemental Points left as well as one skill point that he quickly assigned to his intelligence. Having more Mana and damage was crucial in the early game.

[Name: Grind God]

[Level: 10] [SP: 0]

[Exp: 1,600/10,000]

[HP: 200/200] [HP Regen: 2]

[MP: 90/90] [MP Regen: 2]

[Strength: 1]

[Intelligence: 9]

[Vitality: 1]

[Dexterity: 9]

[Wisdom: 1]

[Luck: 1]

[Physical Power: 10]

[Elemental Power: 50]

[Physical Defense: 20]

[Elemental Defense: 0]

[Elements: Water 45%]

[Arts: Waterbending]

[Abilities: Small Water Whips, Ice Projectile, Water Manipulation, Ice Wall, Water Boxing]

What surprised him was the change to HP and MP Regen which increased by 1 after he hit Level 10. Now he would regenerate 2 HP and MP every 20 seconds which helped him recover passively without potions.

'I guess I can only wait till the server is live again,' Liu Ye thought as he looked at the timer. He still had two minutes left till he could log back in the game.

Liu Ye opened the Elemental Tree to spend his time wisely when he suddenly felt some movement behind him. He leaped forward on instinct and sure enough, he saw a familiar blond beauty standing behind him.

[Katherine - Level ???]

"Can you stop sneaking up on me like this?" Liu Ye complained after determining it wasn't an enemy.

"You didn't attack me this time. That's some improvement," Katherine commented with a smile as she peeked at the Elemental Tree on the screen. "What are you going to pick?"

Liu Ye raised his eyebrows at her casual approach and stepped back on the platform. "I haven't looked at my choices yet. Also, are you really an AI? You don't act like one."

Not only was she talking like a player, behaved like a player but also all her expressions were too human-like. He didn't believe anyone was capable of creating such a natural AI.

"You must be an admin or one of the developers, right?" Liu Ye guessed after seeing that she remained silent. "It's fine if you can't tell me. It would be unfair to other players if you were contacting me like this while being a dev."

Katherine pursed her lips and actually nodded, "That's right. I'm the main designer for Avatar Online. It's fine if you know it since I know you are not going to tell anyone."

Liu Ye raised his eyebrows. "And why would the main designer of the game meet with a random player? Did I break any rules?"

Everything he did was legal if they followed the rule of 'If it's not forbidden then it's allowed.' He was simply using the mechanics existing in the game so he couldn't be punished for that.

"Don't worry, you are not in any trouble," Katherine assured as she wrapped her arms under her chest. "I came to meet you again because you are one of the top players with the best results. You are not just a random player."

The cleavage of her white dress was much deeper this time but he didn't spare it a glance and instead kept his eye contact.

"Well, if I didn't do anything wrong then how can I help you?" Liu Ye asked casually after glancing at the time. "We only have one minute till launch."

Katherine glanced at the timer and nodded, turning serious. "Alright, I will keep it short then. I originally wanted to meet with you because of your exceptional performance but then I learned about your shooting incident. I ordered my team to dig some information about you and we found out something that required our intervention."

Liu Ye frowned immediately, raising up his guard. "Who are you people? Why would you investigate me?"

"Because the man that is hunting you is also our enemy and that is enough for us to meddle in the matter," Katherine replied right away. "Master Yang, have you heard of him?"

Liu Ye didn't like how much of a coincidence that was. "That's correct. If he is your enemy, can you tell me who he is and why is he hunting me?"

"That's classified," Katherine denied with a shake of her head. "But I can tell you that I was surprised when I found out you are connected to one of our pre-picked candidates."

"You know Xu Yue?"

"Yes. We discovered a few tens of people who had potential and we pulled them into our project. Xu Yue is one of them," Katherine explained. "I can't tell you much even though you are partially involved but I wanted to give you some good news. While we investigate why our enemy would target you, we sent one of us to your location to prevent any unnecessary casualties."

"What do you mean by "us"?" Liu Ye questioned, annoyed at all the secrets. He was the one being targeted and no one tells him anything.

"You can only find out the truth if you awaken," Katherine said calmly while walking towards the screen. "Focus on the game and maybe you can join us soon. I can see great potential in you."

She smiled and pressed the button to enter the game just as the timer hit zero.

"Good luck~"