Swallowing the Stars: Starting with the Battle of Geniuses

Chapter 1 Virtual Universe Anonymous Accounts

Under the cold, lonely nightlight, two dark shadows overlapped.

A low, rapid panting sound filled the air.

It was a black-clad, short-haired youth with a black sword in his hand and a mask on his face, and a man lying in a pool of blood, dressed in the same clothes.

One lives, the other... dies!

"Phew...that was close."

Hunzhen looked at his colleague lying on the ground, calming his breathing: "Although according to the simulation results, this guy is no match for me... but simulation is simulation and real combat is real combat. Even if I win ten out of ten simulations, if I stumble even once in reality, there will be no chance to recover. I can't be arrogant and careless just because I can simulate it."

After transmigrating to this Black Jade Star, I was incredibly unlucky and was reborn into the body of a killer whose corpse was still warm, and it has been over a month since then.

Why is it considered unlucky?

Having just transmigrated, he was almost beheaded by the original owner's own younger sister. It must be quite rare to see such a thing in all the worlds.

If he hadn't reacted quickly and successfully turned the tables on his opponent while they were off guard, he would probably be the world's first transmigrator to have his head chopped off by his sister within five seconds of transmigrating.

The reason for this scene of brotherly affection and sisterly harmony is due to the monthly mission requirements of the assassin organization "The Company" to which the brother and sister belong.

First, there are the monthly tasks assigned; second, there is the task of taking down a colleague within a limited time each month.

Failure to achieve any of these goals will result in annihilation by superiors.

It's not that no one has thought about rebelling.

However, each assassin was implanted with a biochip, which not only tracked their location and some physical information, but also served as a remote-controlled bomb.

When your life is in someone else's hands, what right do you have to resist?

Such treatment makes them more like slaves and livestock than employees.

The company's assassins could only work diligently, like gardeners, cleaning up people.

Coupled with mutual distrust, almost no one traveled together; everyone was alone.

The original owner was an exception.

In the past, he always went on missions with his younger sister.

The brother and sister were not from Black Jade Star, but were natives of a planet called Balian.

The people of Balian are simple and honest, and have not developed any advanced technology; they are still in the stage of a nomadic society flourishing.

In the vast, bloody, and cruel universe, it is like a peaceful paradise.

They were wiped out after being attacked by interstellar slave traders, and most of their people became slaves.

The brother and sister were sold to Black Jade Star after several transfers, and have been working as assassins for the company for three years.

After two and a half years of training in the assassin training camp, he has officially debuted as an assassin for half a year.

We've always depended on each other for survival—until recently.

The younger sister betrayed the original owner while he was asleep, delivering a fatal blow that allowed him to be resurrected.

After reviewing the original owner's memories, Hunzhen found nothing particularly strange about it.

The brother and sister were of low ability, but it was manageable for them to complete the company's tasks by working together.

However, the assassins from the same period had been fighting each other for half a year, and those who survived were all ruthless characters.

The older brother was even thinking of sacrificing himself to help his sister kill a colleague if necessary, but the younger sister didn't think so.

He probably had the idea of ​​killing his brother even earlier.

Even living for one more month would be good.

Now that the deceased is gone, Hunzhen has no intention of making any judgment on his sister's actions.

Survival is the most important thing.

Limited by his limited perspective, the original owner of this body, Hunzhen, could see that this black jade star, full of cyberpunk style, was actually the company's assassin training camp.

As an ordinary person, I felt I had no special talents.

In this interstellar world, which possesses extraordinary powers, these assassins are naturally all extraordinary beings.

However... the original owner was weak.

They are called warriors, and are divided into nine ranks. These rookie assassins started at rank one, and after half a year, the weakest of their surviving colleagues has risen to rank two, and the vast majority have broken through to rank three.

Before he arrived, the original owner and his sister were only at the advanced first level.

Among its peers, it was undoubtedly the weakest of the weak, no wonder the younger sister wanted to kill her brother to save her own life.

The one who transmigrated was even weaker than the original owner.

The original owner's memories were like a movie that could be viewed at high speed; he himself had no combat experience, knowledge, or combat awareness.

Let alone turning the tables on his colleagues, even completing the tasks assigned by the company is a problem.

Fortunately, he discovered that the journey came with a "simulation system" that allowed him to perform a simulation once a day.

Unfortunately, according to the simulation, about a month after the transmigration, a colleague at the third level will come to bully him.

If we can't find a way to survive through thirty simulations, we'll have to give back the life we ​​just got.

He didn't want to die, so he desperately clung to the last straw.

In each simulation, he can choose to bring back either "cultivation strength" or "experience and knowledge".

Of course, the system prompt did not describe "cultivation strength" and "experience and knowledge", but Hunzhen was more used to calling them that.

In the very first simulation, he took a chance and chose to run away. After leaving the vicinity of Night City, his head exploded and he died.

Realizing that leaving Night City directly would result in his execution by the company, he changed his mind and tried to leave his original area of ​​activity to deal with the assassin who was targeting him.

Then, he was killed by another assassin on one occasion, and on another occasion, he was caught up and killed by the other assassin before he could finish him off.

After wasting three simulation attempts, Hunzhen mostly chose the cultivation level reward in the next dozen or so simulations. However, he only reached the middle level of the second tier and ultimately failed to break through the sure-kill trap set by his third-tier colleague.

The timeline up to the "attack" was just over a month, and with each simulation, the timeframe for the next one became increasingly shorter.

Even disregarding the time needed to complete tasks and acquire cultivation resources, the total cultivation time is less than a year.

The simulated self is not a robot that carries out tasks according to his orders, but a self "without simulation capabilities".

At most, one's thoughts before the simulation can become a "belief" in the simulation, significantly influencing one's subsequent actions.

However, when it comes to some major decisions, even if they seem beneficial to oneself in one's current self, the simulated self will not make them.

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For example, one could risk their life to gather information about their colleagues through several simulations, allowing their future self to set a trap and kill them in the next simulation.

Such an idea has never succeeded.

Hunzhen quickly understood the reason by putting himself in Hunzhen's shoes.

For the simulated Hunzhen, what is the relationship between "the Hunzhen of the past" and himself?

He's already lost the simulation system, so why should he work for that nobody?

Faced with the threat of death, the top priority is naturally to save one's own life.

In fact, even though he knew it was useless, he would still try to escape and prolong his cultivation time in the simulation.

Unfortunately, the difference in experience between the two assassins was too great, and no matter how they tried to escape, they could not avoid a direct confrontation.

As the day of the attack drew closer, Hunzhen grew increasingly anxious.

Even if he used all the remaining simulation results to improve his cultivation, he could not guarantee that he would break through to the third rank and usher in a qualitative change.

Suddenly, he had a flash of inspiration and changed his strategy, abandoning the improvement of his hard power of cultivation and instead focusing on improving his soft power of combat experience.

In the first ten attempts, he was ultimately killed by his colleagues in an ambush.

But in the eleventh simulation, he was able to turn the tide and kill the opponent even when he was seriously injured!

Having fought the same person to the death more than ten times, his combat skills may not have reached the next level yet, but in terms of experience fighting this colleague alone, he believes that no one can surpass him!

The gap in hard power between the two sides is not so large as to be insurmountable!

The simulated version of himself, inheriting combat experience, is not without the power to contend with it.

In the eleventh simulation, although he managed to turn the tide and win, it was a Pyrrhic victory. After a brief moment of respite, he died.

In the twelfth simulation, despite being severely injured, he persisted for another half a month before being killed by a colleague.

In the thirteenth simulation, he was only slightly injured and won the battle against the enemy half a month later!

In the fourteenth simulation, he killed his first colleague without taking any damage. In the second month, he killed his second colleague at the cost of serious injury, and finally... a turning point arrived!

As the number of deaths among this batch of assassins reached a threshold, the company announced that the assessment would enter the next phase, the assassins' activity range would expand, and the difficulty of the monthly missions would increase accordingly.

Meanwhile, the second condition has been changed from one month to killing a colleague within three months.

Eight months have passed since this group of assassins debuted, and less than one percent of the original group of assassins remain.

Aside from exceptional cases like Hunzhen, those who survived were all extremely ruthless and formidable characters.

Even if it's about survival of the fittest, Hunzhen feels that's more than enough, and even thinks that continuing this "tradition" of infighting is somewhat meaningless.

But given his lowly status, it's pointless for him to consider these things.

As long as I can survive, that's all that matters.

only……

Although the time limit had been relaxed, he still died at the hands of his colleagues in the third month.

With his injuries not yet fully healed, he naturally had no power to resist.

However, Hunzhen in reality was not annoyed by this, because in this third month, he finally broke through to the third-level initial stage!

This time, he chose to inherit the strength and broke through to the third tier in one fell swoop!

Then, on this night, they killed the attackers without sustaining a scratch!

The battle was over, and it was past midnight. Hunzhen leaned against the cold wall, calming his racing heart, and let out a soft breath.

"Start simulation."

Three months have passed since you defeated your first colleague in a head-on confrontation and successfully broke through this obstacle that had been troubling you for so long.

As the number of assassins decreased sharply, the requirement to kill a colleague once a month was reduced to once every three months.

[Based on the previous simulation records, you were constantly on guard against attackers in the third month. However, seemingly due to your increased strength, you only suffered minor injuries during the second month's hunt, and by the third month, having fully recovered, you did not attract any attention.]

[At this point, your cultivation has reached the third tier, and your combat and fighting experience is considered top-notch among the remaining assassins of the same level. Although the company's several death trials were quite risky, they ultimately failed to stump you. Gradually, a thought began to grow in your mind: "When can I break free from this cage?"]

Knowing your own weakness and inadequate preparation, you buried this rebellious thought deep in your heart, silently completing tasks while accumulating strength.

[In the twenty-second month, approximately two years after your debut as an assassin, the company's upper management summoned the remaining survivors. You self-proclaimed veterans only now learn that you were merely interns before, and that you will undergo a final three-month intensive training program. Only after passing this training will you be officially promoted to Level 1 agents.]

In the twenty-fifth month, at the end of the final training camp, you finally broke through to the fourth-tier beginner level and successfully passed the training assessment. Among the first-level officers, your cultivation level was relatively weak, but due to your outstanding combat record and fearsome reputation, no one dared to underestimate you.

[At the beginning of the third year, during a mission, you "found" a strange helmet at the target's house. This was a mind-controlled helmet logged into with an anonymous account from the Virtual Universe Company, and you successfully connected to the Virtual Universe.]

(End of this chapter)