Su Ming dragged himself home before ten, exhausted to the point of seeing stars.
Even with 18 stamina, he still got folded. The Taixu Sword Technique was terrifying.
But no matter how tired he was, he still had to "pay the marital dues" (tragic).
And, while he was at it, he could clear the system's daily quest (nice).
Panting into his ear after the intense workout, Mei murmured in broken, breathless fragments:
"D-darling… why does it feel like… mm… you're not as strong as yesterday…"
Huh?
Su Ming almost dumped the two free attribute points he'd just earned straight into Stamina, just to show his wife what a real "heavy hand" looked like.
Thankfully, he had at least a shred of self-control. He quickly put the points into Strength and Constitution, then drove in deeper.
"Smack!"
He slapped Mei hard on the rear.
"Getting cocky, are we?"
"Mm Then come on. It's not like I'll run"
Mei looped her arms around his neck, tracing slow circles across his back. The gentle, virtuous wife he knew had turned into a succubus ready to drain him dry.
In the end, after what felt like eight hundred rounds, Su Ming still won.
So what was the price?
He lay on the bed clutching his waist, showing a rare hint of fatigue.
Kidney deficiency always comes after overwork—
No. Hell no!
My kidneys are fine! I've got 18 stamina, alright?
Sitting bolt upright, Su Ming realized he'd walked straight into a pig-butchering scam. At this rate, every day would be: drained by Teacher Hua in the evening, then drained by Mei at night. Loop forever. Sooner or later even his protein intake wouldn't keep up…
No. Absolutely not.
Su Ming made up his mind: he was going to grind this dungeon like a lawnmower on full throttle, push his other stats up to match his stamina, and then start pumping stamina again—reviving his former glory.
And now that he'd upgraded his gear, it was the perfect time to test his blade.
System—start!
[Instance loading…]
After the familiar process, Su Ming returned to the dungeon's spawn point. But instead of rushing to farm, he sheathed his blade and prepared to test his newly learned sword art.
Sword Initiation · Hazy Moon Sever!
With a sharp exhale, he drew and slashed, following the口诀 to simulate the flow of "qi."
Shashash—!
Honkai energy surged along the blade and burst from the tip, forming three cold, moonlit arcs that scythed toward the scythe-wielding Deadwalker "big sister" he'd picked as a test target.
EXP +20
No surprises. Roadside trash mobs couldn't withstand a sword technique powered by Honkai energy.
Stamina wasn't an issue yet, but the Honkai energy in his body was only enough for four more techniques of the same output. So he'd need to conserve it—save it for elites.
That meant his earlier hypothesis was fully confirmed: Honkai energy could absolutely exist in the prime world.
Damn this system. The moment it shoved "Honkai resistance" into his hands, he'd known it was up to no good.
Now I have to save the world.
As a transmigrator from Shenzhou, Su Ming had a peculiar mindset. If this world was truly a peaceful daily-life timeline, he'd be perfectly content to lie flat, cuddle his wife, and live well—maybe inherit ME Corp on the side.
But now that Honkai's existence was proven, his mentality flipped completely. He couldn't help thinking his presence must be meant to handle some variable, to create some positive change. Otherwise, if the original timeline could be solved by Kiana and the others, why would he even be here?
When poor, perfect yourself; when capable, help the world. With a system on his back, Su Ming clearly had the power—and the responsibility—to save the world. It was a little cringe, sure, but he still wanted to fight to protect all the beauty in the world.
So for the sake of saving the world… Deadwalker-chan, Charger-chan, Shadow Samurai-chan—please die for me~
EXP +60
Without even smudging his clothes, Su Ming arrived at the two-dog "godslayer" formation where he'd suffered bitter defeat last time.
He sheathed his blade and strolled up to the two Chargers.
Just as they wondered why this human wasn't resisting—why he wasn't even raising his weapon—three clear arcs of light flooded their crimson vision at a speed too fast to perceive.
Crack.
The flying blade-light tore across their shells, shredding armor in sheets, then ripping apart the fragile Honkai compound structures inside, scattering glittering Honkai particles.
Thud.
Their mangled remains hit the ground, struggled weakly for a moment, then dissolved into chaotic points of Honkai energy.
EXP +40
This was the power of mechanics. Even without a huge increase in base stats, yesterday's victim became today's butcher.
The blade-light he produced was still airy and elusive—not as condensed as Teacher Hua's—but Su Ming believed that if he kept learning-by-doing, he'd eventually match her skill.
After all, he had a system… and he could stay up late grinding instances.
Stepping over the Chargers' fading remains, Su Ming crossed the corridor bridge and entered the main building's third floor.
[New exploration node discovered: ME Corp Main Building · 3F Entrance]
[From now on, when you revive you may start from this location. When new nodes are unlocked, you may choose any unlocked node to begin. No teleportation exists between nodes.]
Hm?
Su Ming raised an eyebrow. At the entrance, there was something resembling a certain "railway" teleport anchor—either a real object, or the system shamelessly ripping off someone else's IP.
A new anchor was both good and bad news.
Good: he could start farming directly from here.
Bad: this "open world with an explicit objective" clearly had a linear progression, and the appearance of nodes was the system telling him the real difficulty curve was about to start. It wouldn't let him farm easy EXP forever.
But with the Taixu Sword Technique in hand… I'm unstoppable!
After one farming cycle, Su Ming had raised Taixu Sword Technique from Lv.1 to Lv.2 (Proficient).
Enemy density on 3F was noticeably higher. Groups of Deadwalkers and Chargers popped up constantly. Su Ming could fight them, but any loud skirmish risked pulling nearby enemies.
So his strategy was simple: pick off stragglers first, then clear the clusters.
I'm going to grind, grind, grind!
Deadwalker "big sisters," Charger wings—doesn't matter. I'll take them all!
As EXP notifications kept chiming in his ears, Su Ming could barely contain his excitement.
EXP +15…
Huh? Why did it drop?
He checked his panel. He'd hit the level cap again—Level 3—and now killing small mobs only gave 15 EXP.
No problem. Fifteen is still EXP.
After clearing all the stragglers, Su Ming looked at the remaining groups. In his eyes, they weren't enemies at all.
They were piles of delicious EXP.
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