Chapter 67: All My Disguises Are Here

Although Ye Chao’s physical condition was what it was, it seemed there was an asymptotic line ahead of him—no matter how hard he tried, he could only approach it infinitely, yet never quite reach it...

Encountering a limit wasn’t the problem; everyone had bottlenecks. The issue was that his ceiling was simply too low!

In this era of natural disasters, he couldn’t even reach a passing grade. Not only did he fail the standards for high schoolers, he didn’t even meet those for middle schoolers.

Yet, Ye Chao always had the dream of becoming stronger. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have gotten involved with Alpha Ji, causing so much trouble—building helmets, developing games, recruiting teachers, promoting, trading, then producing even more helmets...

Now that things had settled into a routine, it was time for a set of Iron Man armor.

Though he only had a couple hundred battery cells, a far cry from a Tesla’s thousands, still... even an electric scooter had a horsepower or two, far outstripping Ye Chao’s feeble output.

Not to mention, thanks to the imaginary space, range was no longer a concern.

Of course, range was just one of many problems. Having electricity didn’t automatically provide power; you also needed a motor.

This was a deep issue, from manufacturers of electric razors to car makers, from producers of nanobots to high-speed trains—everyone was researching it.

Even with a motor, it wasn’t enough; you had to figure out operation and movement—though Alpha Ji handled this part, the wiring and layout were up to Ye Chao.

Then, how to manage output? And, while outputting, how to ensure system safety? You wouldn’t want to electrocute yourself before even hitting the enemy...

Especially once combat started, when armor could be damaged, accidents were most likely to happen. How would you rescue yourself then? Or even, how to maintain combat abilities in a damaged state?

All these were issues, waiting for Ye Chao to solve them one by one.

“All right, enough thinking. You can’t make a good battle suit by locking yourself away; a human brain isn’t a program, it gets tired. After some research, you need a change of pace,” Alpha Ji said, watching Ye Chao crouched in the lab, lost in troubled thought.

“A change of pace? How?” Ye Chao asked, still immersed in his studies.

With a snap of her fingers, light and shadow shifted. When Ye Chao came to his senses, he found himself on the Quality Square.

Yes, the very Quality Square from the battle royale game—the place everyone waited before the match started, a spot that truly showcased one’s “quality.”

Since everything was set in imaginary space, there was no need to load maps, refresh memory, or wait for start bars; Alpha Ji simply used the Quality Square setup.

On the square, Guan Junyuan led the teachers, while Ximen Qiong led the soldiers. Both sides were already sparking real competition, flexing muscles, exchanging insults—indeed, showing plenty of “quality.”

Fang Ju trembled in the middle, caught between them.

He had just logged in; previously, due to doubts, he’d bought a helmet but let his father use it, then his mother, and only now did it finally come to him—only to face an extremely tough dilemma.

His father worked in school logistics, so he was on the school team; his mother was a military auditor, naturally on the military team... but as a hybrid, which side should he join?

Thirteen helmets, and as the odd one out, he faced the hardest choice since birth.

But the arrival of Ye Chao and company saved him.

Why “company”?

Because it wasn’t just Ye Chao present, but also four others with usernames like Jin Yan Shasha, Stand-up Comedian, Hu Xia, and Jiong Xiao Yi.

People might not know the usernames, but their real names—Liu Sha, Duan Yanze, Xia Zhiban, and Meng Yan—were Alpha Ji’s most important “parents,” and the first batch of employees on Ye Chao’s “idiot assembly line,” naturally well-acquainted.

What... was going on? Ye Chao was bewildered.

Not understanding, he simply didn’t think about it; when it came to matters needing social intelligence, that was always his approach.

He waved to greet Fang Ju, but was immediately stopped by Alpha Ji: “Don’t speak carelessly, mind your image!”

Ye Chao took heed—and things only got stranger.

Why?

Because he was no longer himself; he was inhabiting Zou Guoqiang’s body—the username “Waste Metamorphosis”—another key “parent” of Alpha Ji...

“What’s this?”

“Stimulating players to make impulsive purchases, of course,” Alpha Ji replied succinctly.

Stimulating impulse purchases? What did that have to do with him turning into someone else, and Alpha Ji splitting into four? Ye Chao couldn’t understand.

Alpha Ji didn’t expect him to. She strode boldly toward the other side.

The teacher and soldier teams had already noticed.

First, they exchanged puzzled looks. There were only thirteen helmets—where did these people come from?

After a moment’s confusion, realization dawned. The awakened powerhouse was said to be absent from River City; could these be...

“Hello, never seen you before. Are you newcomers? Where are you from?” Alpha Ji, inhabiting Dr. Liu Sha’s body, greeted them.

Back then, even the CEO of a regular household, in order to promote QQ, used fake profiles to chat with users as girls. So Alpha Ji had no qualms about these tactics.

By the way, QQ, WeChat... The helmet could totally add these features.

They really were from other cities.

“Hello,” Guan Junyuan nodded. “We’re from River City. You are...?”

“River City?” Alpha Ji blinked, paused for several seconds, then drew out a long “Oh.” “Is that River City in the Northern Sea Alliance?” Her clueless acting was seamless.

“River City in the Cloud State Alliance!” Guan Junyuan emphasized, thinking: Can’t you tell from our accent?

After the disaster, with transportation cut off, connections were nearly severed. At this point, China was almost re-divided into nine provinces: roughly, the Heavenly Capital Alliance, East Sea Alliance, Deep Port Alliance, Northern Sea Alliance, Three North Alliance, Milky Way Alliance, Ancient Capital Alliance, Sichuan Prefecture Alliance, and Cloud State Alliance—the nine major forces, plus scattered minor factions, collectively called the Nine Provinces Grand Alliance.

The alliances’ names had some regional flavor, but “River City” was a bit generic—there were more than a few by that name.

“Oh, sorry.” Alpha Ji apologized politely. “But Cloud State Alliance also has a River City? Have you heard of it?” She turned to Xia Zhiban beside her.

Alias Two shook her head. “No, have you?” She turned to Duan Yanze.

Alias Three shook his head. “No, have you?” He turned to Meng Yan.

Alias Four shook his head. “No, have you?” He turned to Ye Chao at the end.

It was like a comic skit, but group-style; like a roll call at the front of a line—“One, two, three, four...” from head to tail, so synchronized it made you want to hit someone.

“Uh...” Ye Chao’s lack of social intelligence left him unable to respond.

Was this... picking a fight?

Of course it was!

While Ye Chao was still puzzled, the River City team exploded on the spot: “Never heard of it? Come here, let me introduce River City’s mighty fists to you!”

“Bring it on, who’s afraid of whom...”

Fists flew, feet kicked, bodies leaped.

But alas, this was the Quality Square—no matter how lively the brawl, there was no harm, no pain, and zero sense of accomplishment.

“Start the game! Start the game!”

“Let’s see the real skills in the game!”

“We won’t bully you; you have five, so we’ll only send five.”

When it came to picking fights, the social intelligence program was truly professional—how could it ever fail?