Puzzle Madness

Chapter 208 The First Dream War (XIV)

Ruan Jingbo possesses extremely high combat potential:
That's what Ai Xi thinks.

Ruan Jingbo's joint mobility, muscle strength, and even physical strength have surpassed those of ordinary people, and are even improving over time—this may be an enhancement brought about by being close enough to Dou Dou, or it may simply be part of her obsession.

However, what truly led Ai Xi to this conclusion was Ruan Jingbo's potential.

For a normal person to fully master a set of technical movements, it requires a long period of practice to develop muscle memory.
But Ruan Jingbo doesn't need that. She only needs to input the correct instructions into the dance machine, and the movements will be exactly the same.

Furthermore, through their research, Ai Xi and Ruan Jingbo discovered that the complexity of body movements is not directly proportional to the number of input instructions for the dance machine.

Some seemingly simple actions—such as using facial muscles to make a funny face—require complex input of instructions and the coordinated operation of multiple dance machines.

However, if you want to do a [Thomas Spin] or a backflip on flat ground, according to Ruan Jingbo, you only need to step on the pedals six or seven times to complete it.

Ruan Jingbo can easily reproduce the movements by simply breaking them down into dance machine commands; there are no mistakes or errors.

Similarly, Ruan Jingbo's power generation pattern and muscle activation are also like a monster:

That dance machine in the dream had an unparalleled ability to recruit neural signals; in a way, it was a compensation for Ruan Jingbo's suffering.

This also provides a corresponding "platform" for the extended development of modular actions; it's just like the "Little Scientists' Big Discoveries" set that DouDou gave to AiXi before, full of quick feedback that is what you see and what you get.

An elegant combat platform with almost limitless potential for development. This amazed Ai Xi.

While Ai Xi was happy, she also felt sad—her classmate should never have to go through such a cruel ordeal.

But since it's happened, let's try to get something out of it, after all, that's how the world works.

Hand-to-hand combat techniques are what Ruan Jingbo masters the fastest. Whether it's wrestling, jiu-jitsu, grappling, or sanda—as long as the movements can be broken down into a "move list" of different directional buttons, she can easily learn them and use them perfectly.

Whenever she inputs up, down, left, and right into the dance machine in her mind, her real body can then move decisively without the slightest hesitation.

In addition, her height and reach are equivalent to that of an average adult male—Ruan Jingbo is currently 1.75 meters tall, and if she loosens her joints and moves around, she will be over 1.8 meters tall—which also makes her techniques adaptable. In most cases, she only needs to make slight changes to the move list to apply her fighting techniques to her opponent.

Of course, this is on the premise that all her opponents are human.

The same applies to cold weapons—simply treat sharp and blunt weapons as extensions of the limbs, eliminating the need for wrist and hand movements; you can even input fewer dance machine commands.

Therefore, Ruan Jingbo's movement speed when armed is sometimes faster than when unarmed.

Firearms shooting is different: limited by the narrow field of view and low resolution of the dance machine screen, Ruan Jingbo is like someone with severe myopia who cannot wear glasses.

Furthermore, precise operation and fine-tuning of movements are also weaknesses of Ruan Jingbo; she cannot perform well in either close-range rapid shooting or mid-to-long-range aiming (they tried it with a BB gun from a stationery store, and often couldn't even hit a soda can ten meters away).

In other words, the aiming time is too long, but the corresponding shooting accuracy cannot be achieved. However, considering the possible combat scenarios in Mong Cai—melee and cold weapons would probably be more useful. Aissi himself currently has no way to obtain firearms.

It has no sense of pain, functions far exceeding those of ordinary people, and the ability to learn movements with "photographic memory".

Overall, Ruan Jingbo already possesses a certain level of combat ability and can demonstrate a considerable amount of combat skills, especially when working together with Ai Xi.

Ai Xi is not only responsible for breaking down the movements and creating the "move list", but also for issuing commands during battle; this can make up for Ruan Jingbo's sensory deficiencies and maximize her combat ability.

She also modified some interesting little gadgets to aid Ruan Jingbo in his operations. Of course—it's all just theory so far; Ai Xi hasn't actually let Ruan Jingbo fight yet.

The only annoying thing is "maintenance".

Ruan Jingbo is not a real robot, nor can its parts be replaced: once it loses a limb, it suffers permanent damage; if its vital organs are damaged, it will most likely die like a normal person.

Furthermore, their physical strength was not suitable for experimentation—after all, they were still students in school; even if Ruan Jingbo had no sense of touch or pain, she could not be tested in a very harsh way.

Aishi cannot use her as a disposable weapon.

But Ai Xi still secretly used a utility knife to cut Ruan Jingbo's hand: it was tougher than her own skin and recovered faster.

Ai Xi heard Ruan Jingbo say that she had filled the "arcade hall" with all sorts of move lists: the pen was her own bone, and the ink was her blood.

It sounded terrifying—Ruan Jingbo refused to say what was happening to her in that [electronic dungeon], but from various details, Ai Xi and Dou Dou came to the same conclusion:
Ruan Jingbo should disassemble himself into more and more fragments so that he can cover enough arcade games and gain a deeper understanding of the body.

Similarly, she must be getting increasingly insane: this madness has become the norm, and it's hard to detect it from her body language and expressions.

Anyway, you can't die in that arcade. And there's no way to escape either.
-
After learning about Ruan Jingbo's situation, Ai Xi made a promise with her to exchange gifts:
Or it could be called a "transaction," but Ai Xi doesn't like using that word. After all, Ruan Jingbo's relationship with her was more than just classmates; they were so close they were practically friends.

Ai Xi will help her achieve good results in the Mong Cai basketball competition, and even eventually qualify for the regional competition in the entire Cochin Autonomous Region.

In return—
Nguyen King Bo will then "drive" himself into the inexplicable conflict in Mong Cai.

As for helping Ruan Jingbo return to a normal life, and even making her lose her obsession—
No matter how strong Ruan Jingbo's desire was, Ai Xi had no confidence in fulfilling it and would not make a promise that could not be kept.

Although he has lost many of his senses, such as touch, taste, and smell, and his sight and hearing are only indirectly perceived through a screen, Ruan Jingbo seems to have gradually adapted to this inhuman life.

But deep down, only Ai Xi could sense that this so-called "inhuman life" might actually be a rare kind of peace.

That night, Ai Xi was busy as usual: the approaching danger hung overhead, and there was a sense of dread as if she could fall at any moment.

(End of this chapter)