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“Heh, the missing student has finally appeared at last.”
As Qiao Zhiya opened the door, he was greeted by Sang Bu’s sarcastic yet indifferent voice. The older youth was  sitting on the sofa reading a book. After that, he lowered his gaze back again to his book.
When Qiao Zhiya saw him there, a smile appeared on his face, and he pulled him up from the sofa and said, “Let’s go and have lunch together. I will introduce my friends to you.”
“Who wants to know your friend?” Sang Bu’s beautiful eyebrows were twisted. He wanted to shake off Qiao Zhiya, but found out that the blond youth’s strength was too strong. He got a little bit scared, and anxiously said, “Let me go, I will go home this afterno– ouch, go slower, go slower!”
Qiao Zhiya decisively took Sang Bu, Chu Yan, and Yuan Xiu to have lunch. After the meal, they dragged Sang Bu together to attend the afternoon graduation ceremony, and took a few photos for commemoration. After the diploma was officially issued, Qiao Zhiya returned to the bedroom to help Sang Bu pack his stuff. They then went to the north gate of the campus to catch a ride back home.
After being pulled along for so long, Sang Bu didn’t lose his temper, and his expression actually became warmer. Before he got in the car, he said, “You can test for the Mecha Manufacturing major despite your third-degree disability
 then my behavior disorder should be
 Hm
 well, see you there then.”
Qiao Zhiya froze, then nodded strongly, and added, “Let’s meet again, I hope we are still roommates when we enter the military academy.”
“Who wants to be your roommate?” Sang Bu frowned, turning his head into the car, no longer looking at him.
After sending Sang Bu off, Qiao Zhiya and Chu Yan returned home together. None of the adults came back, so they were bored. They decided to go to the training hall for mock battles with mecha models.
“Qiao, it’s a pity that you don’t drive mecha. You obviously have the physical requirement
”
Chu Yan was once again thrown out by Qiao Zhiya with brute force. He was without any vigor now, just laying down bonelessly on the mat.
Qiao Zhiya was too embarrassed to pull him up. He handed him a towel and a muscle soothing agent as he replied, “Well, I prefer to make mechas. If I have the opportunity to drive one, I’ll give it a try.”
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“It’s better to try it now!”
Chu Yan suddenly came alive, happily threw away the towel around his shoulders, and encouraged him, “I told you that a good mecha maker must be able to design mechas according to the preferences and battle style of its pilots! And, and, the best way to understand those characteristics is by knowing how to drive it yourself. How about it, don’t you wanna try it? “
Qiao Zhiya immediately became tempted, but remembered that he had no mecha and quickly withered. “You’re right, but I don’t have mecha
”
“It doesn’t matter if you don’t have a mecha. For beginners, it’s better to familiarize yourself with the basic operations in the virtual world. Otherwise, they might get hurt by accidents. Let’s go play, I’ll add your account.”
Because his previous account, named , is basically an anonymous account, it couldn’t be directly added. On top of that, secretive accounts like that were only available for big, rich families, and they’re monitored by other families. If it’s added on Chu Yan’s account, it would turn many heads.
In conclusion: Qiao Zhiya better use the account that is binded to his ID.
Qiao Zhiya didn’t expect it to be so, and quickly said, “I haven’t created one yet. Wait a second, I’ll create it now.”
To practice mecha driving in the virtual world, it’s best to use the Starnet Cabin with the helmet. Chu Yan asked the butler to bring one over, let Qiao Zhiya lie in, and then take out another for himself.
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The process of creating an account was no different from the last time, except that there was one more procedure for entering an identity card. After the identity card was entered, his real identity information appeared automatically on the profile panel, followed by a function to hide the information.
He chose to hide it directly, using the single word “Qiao” as his nickname. He also didn’t change his appearance, so he entered the Star Network so frankly.
After the novice tutorial, he chose mecha manufacturing and mecha driving options in the category of interest, and then he was transferred to an unfamiliar square.
As soon as Chu Yan’s friend application and voice communication were dropped, he quickly accepted.
“Let’s go to the mecha driving square to play some mini-games,” Chu Yan was full of enthusiasm and confidence because he was bringing a newbie.
‘Play mini-games?’ Qiao Zhiya wondered, completely puzzled. To satiate his curiosity, he asked, “Aren’t you going to help me learn how to drive a mecha? Why play mini-games?”
Ten minutes later, after learning the basic forward and steering operations with the AI coach, Qiao Zhiya was taken by Chu Yan to stand in front of a huge puddle. He could only stand silently as he saw the “mini-game” – it’s planks floating on water, with balloons in the air.
“The game is like this, you need to walk on the plank, balancing a bucket that has water inside. Every drop spilled is -1 point, while every balloon you collected is +1 point. You get 10 points as your initial allowance. The game ends if the bucket falls. Jiayou1Jiayou: literally “add oil”, and it more or less means the same as “good luck” or “break a leg”., Qiao!” Chu Yan briefly explained the rules and stood beside Qiao Zhiya while grabbing his hand.
Qiao Zhiya sideyed the cheerful Chu Yan. He recalled the operation tutorial that was learned only once, and chose to start the game.
The Chu family’s adult trio came home and soon found that the two youths were actually playing in the virtual world.
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“I was going to take them out for dinner for their graduation celebration,” Gu Yan’an said as she tidied up her hair. The spar bracelet she got from Qiao Zhiya glittered brightly.
Chu Huai felt a headache starting to build up. “It shows that they are currently using a mecha and cannot be forced offline. It seems we can only tell them via in-game messages. But
 can Qiao drive a mecha? What are they playing?”
The old butler popped up in time, and explained things to Chu Huai, “The Third Young Master said that he would teach Young Master Qiao how to drive a mecha, sir.”
“
” Chu Huai was speechless, thinking that the two youths really knew how to play.
Chu Rong looked at Qiao Zhiya, whose face was flushed in the Starnet Cabin, seemingly having a good time. He raised his hand to unbutton his military jacket, and told the old butler: “Give me a Starnet cabin.”
All of them immediately looked at Chu Rong in shock. Chu Huai couldn’t help asking: “What are you going to do on the Internet? Join in their game?”
–“Does your heart still have that childish innocence?” went unasked, because Chu Huai knew the limits of his question.
Chu Rong frowned and looked at his silly elder brother and shook his head. He replied in a cold tone, “No, I’ll call them down for dinner.”
The Starnet Cabins lined up in the living room became three, making Chu Huai want to cry in the incredulousness of the situation. “It’s been decades since Lao Er’s account went online
 and to think, he used it to call those two for dinner. This is really
”
“Really good,” Gu Yan’an finished his statement while patting his shoulder, then added, “Anyway you cut it, it’s better for this silly reason than for political ones. Let’s live our own lives and let outsiders guess.”
Chu Huai nodded. He embraced her with a smile, took her to the sofa and sat down, waiting for his younger brothers to go offline.
“Qiao, you are a genius!”
Ending a round of battle again, Chu Yan opened the battle video of Qiao Zhiya and looked back, excited, “Your combat talent is really good! Although your movement is still jerky, it’s very standard, and your proficiency is increasing at a crazy pace. You can even mimic my attack pattern after seeing it once, so amazing!!”
This genuine praise made Qiao Zhiya blush. “N-no, I’ve been losing
” He also lost miserably, basically killed by one blow.
“I have learned mecha driving for more than ten years, and it is normal for you to lose to me! I mean, your learning speed is already stupidly fast for beginners,” Chu Yan was not happy that Qiao Zhiya put himself down. He continued his encouragement, “Qiao, you are talented in this field. When we go offline, you must buy a real mecha and practice driving it! We can practice together in the future. Hey, why don’t you become my training partner? I don’t want to continue practicing with Erge, it’s more interesting to do it with you.”
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–What he actually meant: “It’s more interesting to win than being one-sidedly pummeled into dust by Chu Rong.”
Qiao Zhiya looked at him silently. As soon as he was about to speak, he found that Chu Yan’s expression suddenly changed. His avatar wavered, like glitchy pixels that flickered on-and-off before he disappeared. When he tried to contact him, he only found that he got a battle invitation – it’s just a room number, no access without password.
Meanwhile, the netizens felt something odd happening. Especially for those in mecha driving area, they were all stunned speechless. They looked at the top of the Battle Rankings, which had a record of more than ten years – specifically the name on the top. It’s normally always gray, indicating that the owner was not online.
But now

[The Internet has been hacked?]
—[Marshal was hacked?] (this means replying to the original poster/OP)
–Since the Internet as a whole cannot be hacked, what they meant was

[Marshal Chu is online!]
–[Marshal Chu, who used to dominate the ranking, is online??]
–[Rong Tian is online!]
–[The dusty Rong Tian2ćźč怩; the Rong is the same as Chu Rong (耚ćźč) and it means to allow/permit. 怩 means sky/heaven. The name itself can be translated as the “sky’s/heaven’s permission” or something in that line., who was not online for a decade, is finally making a return!]
The most important thing is, this means

Marshal Chu’s spiritual strength was really recovering! Those rumors saying his recovery is fake were broken in just one action!
Chu Rong’s log-in became hot news in a matter of seconds. The enthusiasm of the people was suddenly ignited.
Their God of War is finally back!
If you can, please support me by donating on my ko-fi~ For every 2 ko-fis, I’ll release an additional chapter ^^
1Jiayou: literally “add oil”, and it more or less means the same as “good luck” or “break a leg”.2ćźč怩; the Rong is the same as Chu Rong (耚ćźč) and it means to allow/permit. 怩 means sky/heaven. The name itself can be translated as the “sky’s/heaven’s permission” or something in that line.