Chapter 118: Invincible Skill

Returning to his room, Li Xin checked the Journey forum on his phone. Seeing nothing urgent, he chose to continue sleeping. Following his habit, after every match, he always slept until he woke up naturally. Back at the Dongjia Club, no one dared to disturb him.

It was already early winter; the cold wind howled relentlessly through the night.

Just past 1 a.m., the members of the Pepsi Club, having finished their party celebration, returned and retreated to their rooms. Jiang Chuxue noticed Li Xin’s room light was off and wisely decided not to disturb him.

At 4 a.m., while everyone else was sound asleep, Li Xin awoke. Without turning on the light, he quickly washed up, donned his helmet, and initiated the dual startup.

Still within his own tent, the Jialin Continent was also shrouded in night, soldiers deep in slumber.

*Ding!*

You have leveled up.

Li Xin: Gaming Master
Level: 11
Experience: 250/2000
Attribute Points: 60
Special Skill: Qiankun

Immediately, the left panel of his mechanical eye shifted, displaying personal attributes for player: Li Xin
Strength: 30
Speed: 70
Intelligence: 20
Agility: 20
Spirit: 20

*Ding!*
Reward: Special skill “Invincibility” granted to Gaming Master.

Checking the details:
Invincibility — a special skill that grants five seconds of invulnerable status upon activation. Cooldown period: 48 hours. Skill can be leveled up.

“Hmm…” Li Xin muttered, momentarily stunned. Qiankun, allowing mastery over all weapons—cold or hot—at will, was already an immensely powerful skill. Now with Invincibility, he was truly unconquerable.

Though five seconds was brief, it was enough—whether in-game or reality—to evade any lethal danger. Unless, of course, he was extraordinarily unlucky and caught in a nuclear missile explosion. But that was nearly impossible.

In other words, Li Xin had essentially gained immortality.

What was even more terrifying was that Invincibility could be improved, lengthening its duration indefinitely.

“My goodness, this is incredible,” Li Xin whispered, eyes drifting toward the center of the interface.

No major changes there—HP remained at 100, but the blue SP bar had doubled from 100 to 200. He barely glanced further; this alone nearly made him shout in excitement.

What did it mean?

Doubling SP implied that the duration of all his skills and attributes could be extended by twice, or he could cast them an additional time.

Take speed as an example.

With 70 points, his maximum speed was 11 meters per second, lasting 140 seconds. Now, with SP growth, duration doubled to 280 seconds.

A quick calculation: in four and a half minutes, he could sprint 3,000 meters.

Astounding speed.

Calming himself, Li Xin examined the final changed element.

Stealth: Activated.

Stealth: A proactive skill enabling concealment within the void, rendering the user undetectable by adversaries; however, attacking nullifies this invisibility.

Notes:
1. Stealth can, theoretically, be used continuously without restriction.
2. Upon HP reaching zero and character death, Stealth deactivates. Re-activation requires a new upgrade.

Reading this, Li Xin’s earlier excitement deflated completely. He had to reach such a high level just to unlock Stealth. If he died, reopening this skill would demand another major level-up.

“From now on, no matter what, I can’t die lightly. Even if my ethereal illusion state fails, I must protect my HP. Based on current experience, as long as I avoid using Game King’s related items, I won’t suffer losses.”

“Anyway, with my strength right now, I can hold my own for quite some time without Game King.”

Li Xin smiled faintly, a blazing light rekindling in his eyes, brimming with confidence and youthful vigor.

“The finals are next week. After that, I’ll have little to worry about. Once I finish what I promised Duan Rulong, I can return to Wujiang.”

With that, Li Xin officially began Journey.

Through the forum, he had already learned about the recent update. The game’s time ratio, previously 24:1 relative to real life, had been adjusted to 2:1.

In other words, one hour in reality now equated to two hours in the game.

Though many players complained this reduced their gameplay time and slowed leveling, Li Xin found the new setting more reasonable.

The original time ratio was absurdly large—one real day translated to nearly a month in-game, which was excessive.

After much thought, Li Xin suspected the four major game companies were well aware of this. The early adjustment might have been a deliberate move to grant players a golden period to strengthen themselves.

Before the advent of the Adventurer Guild branch system, the game’s early phase was dull for players—mostly task-based with no thrill of war. This risked losing a significant number of players.

By shortening the cycle, the developers allowed everyone to quickly reach the genuinely exciting parts—a successful attempt at innovation.

Having resolved this in his mind, Li Xin felt much more at ease.

At the top right of the game interface, a new icon appeared: Forum.

Players could now access the forum without logging off, saving much hassle.

“Seems this optimization was well done,” Li Xin noted, then frowned.

“Why do I get the feeling the four major game companies never really designed Journey properly, just rushed it out?”

“We players are like lab rats, having to provide feedback during growth to help optimize the game.”

His keen mind had sharply grasped the underlying truth.

While Li Xin waited silently through the night for dawn, somewhere on Earth, inside a vast, luxurious office, a giant LCD screen was divided into numerous smaller panels.

A video conference was underway.

A group of executives chatted amiably.

Weber, CEO of American Sports, puffed on a cigar as he smiled and asked, “Mr. Ma, how’s the preparation on your side?”

The middle-aged man in the lavish room smiled faintly, sipping Longjing tea. He was Ma Huateng, Chairman of Tencent’s board in China, ranked second on the latest Forbes China Rich List—a formidable figure.

“Mr. Weber, rest assured, we’ll complete our tasks ahead of schedule. I’m more concerned about your progress.”

Laughter erupted around the room.

Weber’s nostrils twitched awkwardly.

“Mr. Ma, you know the difficulty of our American tasks.”

“Oh?” Ma Huateng’s smile sharpened. “We have four hundred million Chinese gamers across thousands of games. If we can manage that, what difficulty do you have?”

“Er…” Weber smiled helplessly, “Too many immigrants in the U.S. Without cooperation from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, progress has been challenging.”

Upon hearing this, the executives’ expressions grew serious. If America’s segment failed to meet deadlines, it would deal a devastating blow to the overall plan.

In the end, Ma Huateng, flush with cash, made a generous offer.

“Mr. Weber, we can provide $500 million, but you must help us liaise with the FBI. Also, I want a 5% cut of your shares.”

“You…” Weber’s face darkened, glaring at Ma Huateng through the screen.

Silence fell over the conference, everyone waiting for the two to continue negotiations.