Right on Target

"'Xing Tian' attacked the main **** system a few days ago." The hermit sat upright in the teahouse, the collar of the sleeves of his robes had been mended. "Fifty or sixty people died."

"Crazy move," Su Heting dipped his finger in the tea and drew meaningless circles on the coffee table, "That group of artificial intelligence can't be killed."

"This kind of explosive activity is showing us our prestige," the hermit said in a low voice, leaning slightly while drinking tea, "My news says that 'Xing Tian' will replace us in the next operation."

"We all wear brain-computer interface ①," Su Heting turned his head to the center of the tea shop, where there were several girls performing tea hundred operas, "die faster."

"I figured out that there is no escape from this disaster," the hermit drank his tea. "If there is no competition, I will run—"

In the middle of his words, Su Heting heard the sound of gunfire. The bullet passed through the carbon steel cold-forged heavy barrel, and hit the hermit's forehead, and the blood splashed out, staining the hermit's neckline.

"Fuck," Su Heting said, "I'll **** your ancestors."

He made a decisive decision and pulled out the tail he had inserted into the interface.

The tea shop suddenly disappeared, Su Heting opened his eyes and returned to reality. The smell of instant noodles still lingers in the room, which is completely different from the environment in the online world. It is dirty and cramped, and nearly a thousand people can fit in one building.

Now is the new world in 2006. The old human society was destroyed in the war. The intelligent system formed the "Lord God Alliance" to occupy the high-tech areas of the old world, intending to dominate the new world and domesticate humans into inferior creatures. The escaped humans are called survivors. .

Survivors built an anti-system survival site on the ruins of old humans, which was controlled by an armed organization named "Xing Tian". They were also responsible for launching explosive attacks on the main **** system.

Su Heting sat up from the bed, he was sweating a little, and the T-shirt stuck to his back was quite uncomfortable. But he didn't have time to wipe it because he heard footsteps.

Those neat military boots stopped at his door, and then kicked open his door.

"I advise you to take care of yourself," Su Heting's black hair, which hadn't been cut for a while, collapsed in front of his eyes, blocking some of his eyes, and the swearing he was about to say turned into a well-behaved promise in front of the gun, "—I will take care of it too. Good myself."

"Don't complain on the Internet all the time," the leader of the organization, a fake monk with a shaved head, put his palms together and sincerely advised Su Heting, "The next warning is not a virtual headshot."

"Okay," Su Heting replied obediently, "Whatever you say with a **** gun is right."

The monk was very satisfied, and when he left the room, he still politely said: "Excuse me."

Su Heting watched them close the door, but did not hear the sound of them leaving. He sat on the edge of the bed. There were no windows and no light in the room. In the darkness, he bent down, propped his arms, lowered his eyes, and repeated that sentence.

"You're right to say anything with a **** gun."

***

Su Heting opened the door at six o'clock, and there were no monks in the corridor. He was wearing a black raincoat, stepped over the plastic washbasin next door, and walked towards the elevator. Every room he passed was very small, and some people didn’t even have a table, so they could only squat at the door and wash their hair. Xing Tian’s standard configuration for these stitchers was only a monitored network interface.

Su Heting is currently located in Area 03, where the anti-system lives, also known as the black market. There are a large number of splicing people living here-these survivors who have undergone body modification in the new world and have brain-computer interfaces are called splicing people. They were highly monitored by the Xingtian organization and were uniformly arranged to live in the black market.

Su Heting walked out of the passage, stood at the intersection and waited for the red light. The rain stained his raincoat, and he raised his head slightly, looking through the rain and fog in the xenon lights, looking at the Colosseum not far away.

In today's world of scarcity, it is difficult to support oneself, and work is accompanied by life-threatening and moral torture, but the competition is fierce. For splicing people who blur the boundary between humans and system machines, they are not welcomed by survivors. Except for dangerous employment, they basically work hard in the black market Colosseum.

The Colosseum was built in imitation of the Roman Colosseum in the old world. It covers a wide area and can accommodate nearly 10,000 spectators. It has a virtual capture device inside, which can faithfully convert the game into a paid live broadcast. Live tickets are more expensive, allowing every audience to be on the scene. The game was hosted by Xing Tian, ​​who made the final ranking of the players through the game points, and this ranking determines the price of the players on the black market.

Su Heting had to enter the Colosseum once a week. He relied on his rankings to make a living and also accepted employment. As long as the price offered by the employer is high enough, he will consider any dangerous task.

The green light came on.

Su Heting followed the crowd across the road. He bypassed the main entrance of the Colosseum and went to the east entrance of the contestants.

The Colosseum game is a virtual fight, which needs to connect the player's brain computer to activate the holographic image, so it is called the new world "e-sports". The risk of competition is that it is easy to cause nervous system damage, and the risk of death on the spot is higher than that of real fighting, but it is popular in the live broadcast market with its stimulation and diversity.

"You will be next!" The manager blocked the cheers in the arena with his hand and shouted to Su Heting, "Are you ready?"

Su Heting nodded.

The surrounding area was too crowded, the manager pushed away the staff who blocked the way, and continued to shout at Su Heting: "Then go to the waiting area! This game will end soon!"

Su Heting saw many players in the waiting area, including his opponent tonight.

Titan is a muscular man. He is close to two meters tall. His two arms are made of steel, imitating the appearance of human muscle bulges, but the inside is not solid, but a fine and complex instruction processor. He is a typical splicer of the new world. He has experienced hundreds of games. His limbs are very loyal to the EEG signals stimulated by electrodes. Whether in virtual or real world, he can make himself the fastest response.

"Hi," Tai Tan opened the beer with one hand, and locked his eyes on Su Heting, "I heard that your tail is the same as the real one, and you still need to wash it."

"Yeah, she still loses hair occasionally, which is very troublesome." Su Heting took out a rainbow candy and threw it into his mouth, "I suggest you not to follow suit."

"I won't put a tail on my ass," Tai Tan drank a few sips of beer, "but I have raised a few cats like you." He grinned at Su Heting and burst the beer can, "They They're all **** in the pits, never in the Colosseum."

Su Heting ate the candy, as if he didn't understand: "You have quite a lot of life experience."

"—Let me turn the camera to the waiting area!" The host suspended in the center of the Colosseum was a heavily made-up clown. He waved his arms and greeted the players enthusiastically: "Look at the camera, the atmosphere between the two players is tense! Our game hasn't started yet."

"Titan!" The audience shouted rhythmically, "Titan! Titan!"

Titan looked amused, he loved hearing this.

"The Titan player has won nineteen games in a row, and if he wins another one, he will be the new Grand Slam champion," the host incited the audience, "He often pierces the opponent's jaw with his steel arm and breaks the opponent's neck. He gave back to the audience with such a serious attitude, and has always brought us a priceless visual feast! I am so looking forward to Titan's performance tonight!"

The camera showed Su Heting, and the host slowed down his speech: "Titan's opponent tonight is 'Mao Zai', who ranks 58th in points this month. He is a rookie. Let me see, it's not bad, Mao Zai, winning three times in a row. It's time to play, let me cheer you up." He put his hands on his cheeks, pretentiously, "Come on meow!"

There was boos immediately in the arena.

"It's about time," the host returned to normal, "wait, what did I see? The kitten is so different! He doesn't need a brain wire because he has a tail! My God—" the host said melting voice, "He's so cute."

Su Heting took off his raincoat, revealing his whole face in the light.

This is a cat.

Two cat ears stood up in his hair, one of them was shaking with an itch, and the attention-grabbing tail was wagging.

"According to the data, he underwent surgery because of damage to the vestibular system②. This realistic tail replaced the central processing unit, which can help him walk normally. Oh, this is still a kitten with different eyes, he is too cute Is there an eye that is misty blue?" The host lowered his head and carefully browsed the kitten's information, "This eye is also a modified implant, and it has not shown any special functions in previous competitions."

Titan showed a contemptuous expression.

"Let's start now," the host said, facing the audience, "The countdown to the connection, ten, nine..."

Su Heting lowered his tail, and the tip of the tail was automatically replaced with a connection interface, which connected to the on-site interface. At this moment, the stimulus signal rushed from the tail to the head, and a strong excitement exploded in the active area. His cat ears were sensitively folded into airplane ears under this stimulation, which looked not easy to mess with.

"Three, two, one!"

The holographic image is in place, and the virtual arena spreads out instantly.

The sound of electronic chanting was like a wave, coming from the end of the sky, flooding the entire virtual arena. At the end of the arena appeared an old monk wearing an orange cassock. He released a huge ghost car bird from his sleeve. Immediately after, the rain poured from the ground, and the entire arena began to turn upside down in Su Heting's eyes.

Those spectators finally hung above their heads, and the original night sky became the ground instead. The turbid and dirty rain fell backwards, and the ghost car bird hung upside down on the edge of the Colosseum, twisting its nine huge metal heads in all directions. It patrols the ground with eighteen scarlet eyes, like a searchlight, which is the monitoring setting for the entire game.

"-Game start!"

The avatar of the Titan is the first to debut.

The dull "bang" sound brought a heavy sense of oppression to the audience, and also increased the immersive sensory experience of the scene.

"He's coming—I seem to have heard the weight-bearing siren!" The host became excited and shouted first, "Titan is heading towards the kitten!"

Fanatical cheers erupted at the scene: "Titan!"

The madness of the audience distorted their faces. They screamed and howled in the holographic images, and vigorously shook the cheering sticks in their hands.

The titan's avatar is an enlarged version of himself, which makes his steel arms even more terrifying, especially those modified for battle. He moved his shoulders and made a tooth-piercing "click". He spread his legs and stabilized his heavy figure.

"The correct way to use the implant," Tai Tan raised a forearm, and said to Su Heting, "I am willing to help you with a correction—"

After Tai Tan's voice fell, Su Heting's fist had already hit him in the face. Compared with his cool steel arms, Su Heting's avatar is quite simple, except for the pair of ears and the tail, he is like an ordinary human survivor, with no offensive avatar decorations on his body, just A copy of Kitty himself.

But Su Heting is very fast, this is the effect of increasing the speed of nerve reflexes.

Tai Tan's nasal cavity quickly became hot, and he was sure that he had a nosebleed. But he is willing to give Su Heting this lottery, because the audience likes to see blood, and blood can make them even crazier. But one shot was enough. Facing Su Heting's fist that rushed to his head again, he squatted down to dodge, and at the same time raised his arm, making a protective movement, and then used this arm to wrap around Su Heting's extended arm violently.

"He's going to fight back," the host said intently, "He caught the kitten!"

Tai Tan's arm was not remodeled in vain, he threw Su Heting to the ground in the next moment. The water splashed on the ground, and there was also a coordinated roar on the scene, ensuring that every audience could feel the vibration brought by this force under their feet.

"Jab!" the audience shouted hoarsely, expressing their desire with all their strength, "Pierce his jaw with a jab!"

They want to see more exciting and **** pictures!

Su Heting grabbed Tai Tan's hair, like carrying a dog, and greeted Tai Tan's bridge of nose again with his strong hands.

Tai Tan was forced to meet Su Heting's fist, a steel arm made a "buzz", and the outer baffle retreated "swish", exposing the shark teeth inside. The shark tooth turned like a chainsaw. He pushed Su Heting over with his bent knees, and then smashed Su Heting's head with the shark tooth.

Just one second away!

Su Heting's ear was almost cut off, and at the same time as he was rolling, Tai Tan's steel arm hit his side.

"It's so fast!" The host marveled, "My friends, this is all thanks to the tail. It is precisely because this tail replaces the central processing unit that the kitten can adapt so well to the increased nerve reflex speed. Look, he's solid in dodging and attacking! I'd make an irresponsible guess that he had a long training period after the implant surgery."

At the same time, Tai Tan kicked Su Heting's shin, trying to kick Su Heting to the ground, but Su Heting did not fall.

Tai Tan suspected that Su Heting had turned off the pain, otherwise why would he not even frown!

Su Heting's palm hit Tai Tan's ear fiercely. The blunt impact made Tai Tan's eyes black, but the sound waves at the scene held him hostage, making him choose to continue attacking while breathing heavily.

Su Heting dodged Tai Tan's reckless uppercut, and hit Tai Tan in the face with a straight punch. Tai Tan failed to block, and Su Heting hit him with another straight punch. The dizziness made the real Tai Tan retch immediately.

fuck it! This guy is not an ordinary player at all, his fighting skills belonging to the military are ruthless and accurate!

Tai Tan was beaten so dizzy that he even felt that he was also bleeding from the nose in reality.

The barrage of paid viewers on the Internet seemed to be like a burst of water, flooding the entire arena from top to bottom, enveloping the players in it. This is the climax of the whole game.

【kill him! kill him! 】

These bullet screens surround the fighting arena, soaking the faces of the audience in the virtual light and shadow. Everyone is shouting, like aliens eager to eat meat.

Tai Tan punched weakly, his steel arm was dodged by Su Heting like a toy. The stamina brought by Su Heting's cupped hands was beyond his imagination, Su Heting hit Tai Tan's head with his elbow before he even woke up from the faintness in front of him. Titan immediately fell to the ground, and there was a loud "boom—" sound.

"Did you look down on me just now?" Su Heting's remodeled blue eyes narrowed slightly, as if they were not affected by the strong light in the arena. He picked up the Titan's steel arm, ripped out the command processor in the arm, and crushed them like the Titan did with the beer cans before the opening scene.

"Bullshit muscular man, **** your slam king."

The author has something to say:

① Brain-computer interface: the information system connecting the brain and the computer, allowing the brain to communicate directly with the computer. ——"Jack Life: Has the Brain-Computer Era Come?" "

Simply put, with it, you can surf consciously and control your own implanted prosthetics.

②Vestibular system: A group of devices in the inner ear that are in charge of the balance of the head. For details, please refer to Baidu Encyclopedia. Xiaosu's vestibular system is damaged, and he must use artificial cat ears and cat tails as the central processor to fight, otherwise symptoms such as dizziness and unstable balance will appear.