Ever since the launch of the Virtual Earth Network several decades ago, the Virtual Earth Network Corporation has been steadily releasing a wide variety of virtual games.
Of course, it wasn't just the Virtual Earth Network Corporation releasing these games. Many major industries settled within the network, especially those that specialized in gaming, also partnered with the Virtual Earth Network to develop numerous titles.
To this day, the game with the highest number of active users, the most popularity, and the top ratings remained the original ninja game developed by the Virtual Earth Network itself.
Many people believed that the planning behind Ninja Era was nothing short of constructing a perfectly lifelike world!
Ninjas, ninja villages, ninjutsu, taijutsu, genjutsu, kekkei genkai… It was said that this game was adapted from a bestselling novel from many years ago titled The Uchiha's Sinners, and every player could experience an incredibly realistic ninja lifestyle within it.
Satan had played that game before as well. However, as he progressed further down the path of martial arts, he gradually lost interest in games that offered nothing but sensory stimulation and lacked real martial authenticity. Getting too immersed in such things could even dull one's battle instincts in real life!
"Earth Defense Battle… If it's just another pure MMO like Ninja Era, then it won't be anything special…" Satan muttered to himself, though he still clicked on the announcement's details. Immediately, a densely packed introduction filled the screen, complete with images and text.
"Earth is but a remote corner in the vast universe."
"Beyond Earth lies a multitude of alien lifeforms, many of whom are born with incredible power. As intelligent beings, their individual combat strength far surpasses that of ordinary humans."
"Among these extraterrestrials, a dark lord rose from the race of Ice Demons."
"He is powerful—so powerful he can rampage across the universe and destroy entire planets with a mere flick of his finger. Tens of millions of worlds and species can only tremble under his shadow, forced to praise his name in fear…"
"The Emperor of the Universe: Frieza!"
At this point, Satan couldn't help but pull a face. "Wipe out a planet with just a flick of his finger? Come on, that's a bit much! If we're talking power levels, just how ridiculous would that have to be? Goku and the others must be crying right now, I'm telling you!"
"Probably the final boss at the end…" he mumbled, then kept reading.
"With his near-invincible power, Frieza has gathered an army of elite warriors and brilliant scientists from across the universe, all working under him. Using ruthless methods, they conquer and ravage planet after planet, annihilate species at will, and trample over once-glorious galactic civilizations…"
"These are the forces of the Frieza Army!"
"This name alone is synonymous with destruction and despair throughout the galaxy!"
Reading this, Satan sucked in a breath through his teeth. He thought to himself, With that kind of game setting… is Earth going to be the Frieza Army's next target?
Sure enough, he scrolled down—
"One day, a spherical spacecraft from the depths of space hurtled toward the once-peaceful Earth. Stamped boldly on the front of the ship was the emblem of the Frieza Army!"
"Is Earth about to face the fate of invasion?"
"When confronted with terrifying enemies from beyond the stars, what choices will Earth's martial artists make?"
"Will they submit?"
"Or be annihilated?"
Satan was speechless—he had guessed it exactly right. Yet after reading the game's backstory, he couldn't help but feel a surge of blood-pumping excitement. He was one of Earth's martial artists too. If he imagined himself in the game, as someone facing the same crisis… Invade Earth? Over my dead body, you hear me?!
"The bosses probably appear in stages, from weak to strong, progressing gradually…" Satan thought, then suddenly remembered, "The briefing said Frieza can destroy a planet with a single strike. What's his power level? I wonder if any data nerds have crunched the numbers yet…"
He scrolled all the way to the bottom of the page and saw a single, simple line of text:
"Frieza: 1,000,000."
Satan's hand trembled, nearly jabbing a hole into his laptop's touchpad. He carefully counted the digits after the one. One, two, three, four, five, six—six zeroes?!
"One million power level?!"
Satan was speechless as he stared at the image in the game briefing. Frieza, as depicted, was a small-framed alien with devilish features, twin horns on his head, clad in a standard battle suit. He sat inside a floating vehicle, elbows resting on the armrests, a tail curled over the edge. His violet eyes, cold and calm, seemed to pierce through the screen, as if they could freeze Satan's soul.
"Damn... feels like he's about to crawl out of the screen and crush me," Satan muttered.
---
In truth, it wasn't just him. At that very moment, tens of millions of people had taken notice of the new announcement on the Virtual Earth Network's official site. The major forums across the web had already exploded into heated debate.
"One million? That number's way off. Is that even achievable?"
"As a martial artist from Earth, the pressure is real!"
"Goku and Tien with their mere 20,000 power level must be devastated. How are you supposed to fight an enemy like that? Throw your life at him and still lose?"
"I wonder how old man Gohan would fare…"
"Let's crunch the numbers. Right now, old man Gohan has reached the thirty-fourth floor of the Muten Tower, which means Muken x34. If he wants to reach a power level of one million, then his base power needs to be... at least 29,411!"
"That's a base strength even higher than Goku using Muken x8, plus Dragon Fist… Is that even possible? No matter how strong old man Gohan is, he's still just a human from Earth. Could he really surpass Goku and the others by that much? Goku's base strength was under 2,000, remember!"
"Hey, did all of you forget about Muten Roshi?"
"Pfft, come on, don't bring him up. That guy's in a league of his own!"
---
Satan read the ongoing discussion with keen interest, occasionally nodding along in agreement.
Then someone chimed in, confused: "It's just a game, isn't it? Why are people dragging real martial artist stats into this? If you can't beat the boss, just go level up! Once you've grinded enough and decked yourself out in full god-tier gear, even if Frieza has a hundred million power level, I'll wipe the floor with him!"
Another agreed, "Exactly! He's just a boss, not a big deal."
"Yeah, I've always treated bosses like dogs—no full god-tier gear, no entry!"
But soon someone replied with a cold laugh: "Naive. I'm a martial artist myself, and I've got the pride of one. You think I'd pick 'Game Mode'? If this was just some normal MMO, do you think I'd be wasting time with you gaming addicts?"
"'Game Mode'? What are you talking about?"
"Ha, clueless. Bet you didn't even read the announcement properly!" someone chimed in with an explanation. "This game is a groundbreaking project by the Virtual Earth Network Company. In addition to the standard online game mode, they've created a new 'Martial Path Mode.' The two modes are basically parallel worlds—completely separate."
Some were too lazy to go check the announcement themselves and asked, "I get the MMO part. But what's this 'Martial Path Mode' all about?"
---
As soon as Satan saw that comment, he returned to the official site and opened the announcement again, rereading it carefully.
Soon, he found the section detailing the new mode.
Unlike the standard online game mode—where players could level up, assign stat points, learn skills, and buy gear—this mode placed no such systems in place. The regular mode didn't demand much from the player's real-life combat ability; all you needed was to be good at gaming.
But in Martial Path Mode, once a player entered the game, their own physical and mental qualities were brought directly into the virtual world. There were no levels, no stat assignments, no skill trees, and absolutely no equipment bonuses. It was as if martial artists had truly crossed over into that game world. The only thing they could rely on to defeat the enemies in-game… was the martial arts they had mastered in real life!
This was a game developed specifically by the Virtual Earth Network Company to help martial artists temper themselves!
And now, countless martial artists were starting to realize exactly what that meant…