Chapter 3: The Rescue

The battle arena was the ancient Roman coliseum.

The circular ancient structure compressed the entire combat space to an abnormally narrow size.

Tall stone walls formed a closed ring.

They stripped away line of sight, escape routes, and even psychological evasion all at once.

Such a field was often tailor-made for “combat-type” or “assassination-type” game characters.

As for “shooter-type” and “spell-type” characters —

There was no doubt it was a completely rotten hand.

Those agile fellows who moved like birds and excelled at mobility preferred to keep distance.

They chipped away at the opponent’s HP little by little with ranged means.

For them, a “tropical rainforest” or open-terrain map was the real home field.

Holding such thoughts, I raised my gaze toward the two long bars floating above the Delinquent’s head.

One was a striking green, the other carried a yellowish tint.

They were encased in dark-gray steel-tube containers.

They were clearly displayed in my vision through a semi-transparent interface.

Honestly, the experience was actually quite marvelous.

According to real-world visual logic, at this distance I might only barely make out the outline of the tubes and the color of the liquid.

Yet the bubbles constantly churning inside the tubes were clearly magnified and presented.

This was precisely the highly “humanized” part of BHAO’s design.

—Life Point.

That is, life points, more commonly abbreviated as HP in many games.

The bar formed by green liquid was exactly the life value required for the virtual character to maintain existence.

Under BHAO’s system control, these values were precisely projected into the player’s vision.

They avoided judgment errors caused by blocked sight or distance discrepancies.

Because of this, I felt that this game was indeed quite friendly to humans in certain aspects.

“Wow… that, that guy is a combat-type character!”

“And he’s even equipped with rare mechanical armor!”

Heita’s voice came from the stands, almost trembling.

“Yoruichi… Yoruichi… you have to take care!”

He stood on the spectator seats, vigorously waving his arms.

The Tier 2 “Magic Shield Knight” had no flashy appearance.

Modern fiber armor combined with a huge magic shield that almost pressed down on his height instead looked somewhat cumbersome.

To be honest, that design completely wasted his originally decent looks.

However, I did not even have the right to mock him.

Because right now I looked almost no different from myself in reality wearing the school uniform.

Black short hair, an unremarkable face.

In a crowd, I probably would not even be noticed with a second glance.

It was less “ordinary” and more completely “without any distinguishing features.”

In this gorgeous and exaggerated BHAO world, I stood out like a sore thumb.

The only difference was probably that the still-neat school uniform had been replaced with a set of crude, low-quality cloth clothes.

In comparison, it looked even more shabby.

Heita on the stands had already lowered his shield.

He clasped his hands together and earnestly prayed for me.

But I knew very well that such behavior could not change any outcome.

The moment the duel began, the ending seemed to have already been written.

This would be a destined defeat.

Relying solely on a human body, it was simply impossible to confront that terrifying machine raising its metal fists high.

The massive body continuously spewed hot steam.

The steel structure emitted dull sounds during operation.

Even if the attack method was entirely concentrated on the fists and looked somewhat stupid —

I still had no means to counter it.

Magic affinity: zero

Unable to use armed machinery

Unable to hold exclusive weapons

Unable to train muscle strength

……

This character seemed to have been my enemy from the moment it was born.

No matter how many points I possessed, I could not strengthen myself.

Even ten thousand points, or a hundred thousand points.

I could only remain forever in the initial state.

Compared to Heita’s Tier 2 “Magic Shield Knight” that could at least fulfill a defensive role,

My character was more like a failure product forgotten by BHAO’s creators in a corner.

“Coward!”

The Delinquent’s half-skeletal mech rear thrusters suddenly erupted.

The roaring sound made one’s scalp numb.

“Just taste this strike of mine properly, then obediently hand over all your remaining points!”

At the same time, in the gray steel tube below the HP, that segment of golden-yellow liquid shrank back by half a grid.

—That was the mech’s durability value.

Golden HP was far purer in quality than ordinary characters’ green HP.

To reduce the same numerical value required paying double the attack intensity.

But the current situation was obvious.

The Delinquent was burning his mech’s blood to exchange for short-term explosive output.

“Hey, hey!”

“Is it necessary to use this kind of attack against someone like me at Tier 0!”

I could not help letting out a cry of alarm.

Pressed by the momentum of that behemoth, my legs uncontrollably retreated backward.

Just as I was puzzled why he was wasting points, several cube-shaped data particles suddenly emerged on the stands.

They slowly converged.

They coalesced into several virtual characters of different styles on the seats.

Immediately afterward, discussions rose and fell one after another.

“Isn’t that the ‘Steel Meat Grinder’?”

“Oh? That senior-year bully?”

“I heard he could have risen to Tier 6 long ago but deliberately stalled his points to specially squeeze low-tier integrals.”

“Who’s his opponent?”

“Pfft… look, isn’t that the famous Tier 0?”

“This is bad, he’s completely ‘food.’”

Every duel in BHAO would be synchronized to network terminals.

As long as one searched, any player could enter the spectator seats.

Of course, millions of duels occurred every day.

Therefore, the system by default only displayed nearby battles.

And those duels with continuously rising viewer counts would be pushed to the terminal list.

Clearly, these spectators had gathered here by searching for nearby battles.

“Then — I’ll be taking your points!”

The Delinquent’s tearing roar tried to cover the mech engine’s roar.

The attack burning mech blood had been prepared.

The overheated exoskeleton emitted a piercing red light as if panting.

The heavy, unsettling steel body advanced forward.

Two mechanical steel legs supported metal giant fists far larger than the body itself.

I could not help swallowing a mouthful of saliva.

—How much would it hurt next?

BHAO’s pain-simulation system was always known for being “realistic.”

Wind pressure slapped against my face.

The feeling was like a male lion about to pounce on its prey.

My eardrums vibrated.

My heartbeat was chaotic.

“…It’s really going to hurt a lot.”

I gritted my teeth.

My body already prepared to endure everything.

A scorching breath reached the tip of my nose.

In the next second, those giant fists should have smashed into me.

However —

They stopped right in front of the tip of my nose.

They did not advance even an inch further.

Just as I still had not figured out what happened, a voice fell from above the mech.

That voice was clear and resounding.

It carried undeniable power, yet was also filled with the lightness and vitality unique to a girl.

“Don’t keep attacking Yoruichi anymore, okay!”