Virtual Earth Network, Sky City, Main City of the Muten School.
"Huh? This isn't the same place as before?" Krillin looked around the massive room in surprise. Turning his head, he was even more shocked to see Goku was there too—hadn't Jarvis said that every person logging into the Virtual Earth Network would appear in their own room?
"So weird… nothing seems different…" Goku patted his body, then suddenly realized, "Ah, the feeling of 'ki' is different…" He turned to look behind him. "My tail's still there… but," he scratched his head, "something just feels off…"
Krillin, however, was even more surprised. He pointed at Goku. "You feel something different? If I'm not mistaken, even the total amount of ki should be exactly the same as in the real world, right?"
"Maybe… but it still feels kinda different!" Goku wasn't really sure what Krillin meant, and just wagged his tail with a goofy grin. "Whatever, not a big deal!"
"You haven't changed a bit, still carefree as ever…" Krillin said with a sweat drop forming on his forehead.
The two of them waited in the spacious room for a while, but no "personal AI assistant" appeared, which puzzled them. The little bald man led Goku out of the room, and when they saw the scenery outside, they were instantly dumbfounded...
"Wha—what is this?!" Krillin looked up at the sky outside and quickly ran a few steps to the front yard exit. Looking down, just as he thought, beneath them were the densely packed streets of a city, crisscrossed like in real life. Members of the Martial Arts Association bustled about—it was very lively.
"What's going on?" Goku walked over and stretched his head to look.
"The login point… it's become a private mansion in the sky…" Krillin muttered.
Just then, a voice came from behind them: "After all, you two are now the personal disciples of Master Taro. A bit of special treatment is only natural." Krillin jumped and turned around—there stood a refined middle-aged man in gold-rimmed glasses. It was Jarvis, the one they had seen back in the Muten Tower!
He was also the intelligent steward of Muten Island—Jarvis!
"It's you, Jarvis!" Goku greeted him cheerfully. "You came here to play too?"
"Idiot, this virtual place… this whole virtual world was created and maintained by Jarvis!" Krillin said speechlessly. Then he looked at Jarvis, rubbing his chin with a sly grin. "That means… compared to the others who need to spend points to live in a place like this… isn't this kind of unfair? Hm… unfair, yeah…" Though he said it was unfair, he didn't look embarrassed at all—he was clearly quite proud.
Goku didn't care about any of that. He was looking around in awe and was startled by what Krillin said: "You created this world…? That's amazing, Jarvis!"
"Compared to Master Taro, it's nothing," Jarvis replied, a flash of white light glinting off his glasses.
"From now on, this residence will be your place. And as for your personal assistant within the Virtual Earth Network, I'll handle that myself," Jarvis continued. As he spoke, streams of green data separated from his body and formed a row of ten identical copies of him, who all pushed up their glasses in unison.
"So cool…" Goku exclaimed in wonder.
Looks like Tien and the others will appear here too from now on… Krillin mused thoughtfully. Then he spoke up: "So, Jarvis, you know why we logged in this time, right? Take us to the Muten Tower!"
The little bald man's expression was firm, filled with anticipation. After all, he had trained hard for a whole year under Master Taro's guidance. Now, he couldn't wait to find out just how far he could climb in the Muten Tower!
The ten Jarvis figures merged back into streams of green data and returned to the central body. In a calm voice, he said, "Of course. I'll take you now… and by the way, from now on, you won't need any points or face any restrictions when entering the Muten Tower."
"Huh?!" Krillin barely had time to be surprised when the scenery around him shifted. In the blink of an eye, he found himself standing in the first zone of the second level of the Muten Tower, just like where he left off last time. "Whoa, we're already in?" He was shocked, because last time they had to go through procedures outside the tower before entering.
"I already told you—you two have specially designated access," Jarvis replied coolly.
"Where's Goku?" Krillin looked around and didn't see him.
"He's on the first level. Although you both have access, what level you're on still depends on how far you've actually climbed."
"I see…" Krillin took a deep breath. Behind him, a clone identical to himself was formed from green data. The little bald man turned around with a smile. The ki level of his opponent was exactly the same as his own, and Krillin knew that this version had perfectly mastered the first zone of the Muken's second level.
"Let's go!"
In the Main City of the Muten School, after the Muten Tower's growing influence, eventually, a new panel appeared in everyone's interface on the Virtual Earth Network. It displayed in real-time the progress of climbers within the Muten Tower.
Of course, if climbers didn't want their identity revealed, they could choose to remain anonymous via their personal AI within the Muten Tower.
Originally… this feature was only available within the Main City, that is, to members of the Martial Arts Association. The reason was because this feature was primarily designed to support another function—allowing members within the Main City to clearly determine whom they could request guidance from.
In the Muten Main City, users could spend points (or negotiate using virtual currency) to ask others for martial arts guidance.
If people only relied on reputation or word of mouth, then choosing someone for guidance became vague and limited… more importantly, those well-known "old-timers" could be ridiculously expensive!
For example…
Everyone knew about the legendary Master Gohan—his position in the Muten Tower was at an untouchable peak. But who had enough points—or the qualifications—to request personal instruction from him? To put it another way, even if you had the points, would he even agree?
Some of those old-timers didn't even offer a guidance function at all!
They hoarded their wisdom like precious heirlooms! Many young people were quite upset about it.
But after the Muten Tower's climbing progress became public, everyone could now choose targets just slightly ahead of themselves in the tower and ask them for guidance. After all, the tower's AI-generated guardians didn't offer any hints or advice—every breakthrough had to come from the climber's own comprehension.
It made person-to-person interaction far more convenient.
However… after increasing complaints from fans of martial arts celebrities, the Virtual Earth Network Company finally opened this viewing feature to users in all nine major cities on the surface world. Although they couldn't apply for challenges, still… seeing their favorite experts' rankings rise gave them pride and excitement!
...
"Whoa whoa whoa… am I seeing this right? How did this guy level up so fast… ah, second level, second zone… third zone… Who is this guy?!" someone exclaimed in shock after glancing at the "Muten Tower" panel that popped up in their interface.