Chapter 16: Fifteen Days After the Game Began

Days passed quickly, and before he knew it, three days had gone by.

During this time, the number of participants occasionally dwindled; when twenty people had been eliminated, he was offered a choice between a strength-enhancing boost or a comprehensive healing. Li Gang did not hesitate and immediately chose the enhancement. After all, he still had one unused comprehensive healing left. He reasoned that, in the early stages, he would play it safe, avoiding direct confrontations with others, making the likelihood of needing healing rather slim. It seemed wisest to accumulate as many enhancement opportunities as possible.

Within the enhancement panel, he now had two chances to boost his basic four attributes: one offered a tenfold increase, while the other provided a standard ten percent boost; additionally, he still held one chance for comprehensive healing.

After three days of training, his basic attributes had changed markedly. His stamina had increased by ten points, reaching ninety-five; strength by five, now eighty-five; mental acuity by two, now seventy-two; speed by five, now seventy; and his combat power by seven, now seventy-five. All four attributes were drawing closer to the average values of adult men on Earth.

Li Gang attributed his five-point speed increase largely to halving the time spent on stamina training, allocating more hours to boxing and basketball, and dedicating the remainder to firearms practice. Through relentless effort, his marksmanship had improved significantly; once he couldn’t hit the target at all, now he could, marking real progress.

He invested so much time in firearms training because, after the divine rules and game rewards had been announced, he realized that no matter how much he enhanced himself early on, it couldn’t compare to the power of guns. For a long period—perhaps a year, maybe several years—he suspected that firearms would be the primary weapons in combat.

Having thought this through, Li Gang was tempted, for a time, to use his first tenfold enhancement on speed, so he could quickly become a sharpshooter. However, recalling his initial plan to survive as cautiously as possible in this game, he dismissed the idea.

His original strategy had been to use the first major boost the moment any attribute surpassed the average for adult men. Yet, after these days of self-directed training and the significant gains in all four attributes, he realized something important: if he kept up his regimen, it wouldn’t be difficult for him to bring all attributes up to the average.

With this realization, Li Gang resolved to wait until all four attributes exceeded the average; then, whichever was highest, he would use his first enhancement on that one.

He didn’t know whether his decision was correct, nor how powerful the effects of Rule Two would be, but these choices were his own, and he had no regrets.

Li Gang now understood why the deity forbade the AI from offering advice on strengthening or improvement. True strength isn’t gained by following someone else’s instructions step by step, but by making one's own choices. The path of the strong is forged independently.

Yet, the deity’s primary goal was unmistakable: to force the ten thousand chosen to hunt and slaughter one another until only the strongest remained. This instantly reminded Li Gang of the Gu-raising tradition in Miao culture, and also of a battle royale game that once swept the globe.

Though the prospect of a mysterious gift after his first successful hunt was alluring, and he was eager to learn what it was, the idea of actively hunting others filled him with resistance, fear, and reluctance. Thus, he decided to remain cautious and keep to himself—not only out of reluctance, but also because he was still too weak.

If he sought someone out, who knew who would hunt whom in the end?

From the start of the game, Li Gang had trained every day with a clear plan, striving to grow stronger, abandoning his former carelessness. Especially after receiving the game reward information three days ago, and learning about the first reward, his training intensified.

Li Gang didn’t aspire to be a hero; he merely wanted his parents and friends to return. Perhaps it was as the old saying goes: you don’t cherish what you have until it’s gone.

He wasn’t indifferent to other rewards, but if their prerequisite was being the last person in the world, what meaning would they have?

Two more days passed. On the morning of the fifteenth day since the game began, Li Gang was alone, quietly performing basic endurance exercises in the fitness center.

Suddenly, a notification from Xiaobai sounded in his mind.

“Li Gang, a stranger has entered the fifty-kilometer radius.”

Li Gang heard this without changing expression, his face calm. This had happened a few times before.

At first, he was nervous, rushing to check and preparing to leave immediately if anything seemed amiss, but he always found the other person was merely passing by and not targeting him.

Nevertheless, Li Gang stopped training at once, quickly activated the tracking function, and checked the map.

Sure enough, on the fifty-kilometer map, a blue dot appeared in the upper left corner—right on the edge, clearly just entering.

At the start of the game, every participant had a signal transmitter implanted in their heart, sending out a positioning signal in sync with their heartbeat every minute. Li Gang had already figured out that the signal updated everyone’s location every minute.

He watched the timer on his digital watch; a minute passed swiftly, and the blue dot on the map refreshed, drawing noticeably closer to his location.

Estimating the distance moved between updates and considering the scale of the fifty-kilometer map, he couldn’t calculate the exact movement per minute, but could tell the stranger’s speed was high—either running or using a vehicle.

Another minute later, the blue dot refreshed again.

This time, Li Gang’s expression grew more serious. Though the direction had deviated somewhat, it was still approaching him, and the speed hadn’t slowed.

The change in direction was easy to explain; after all, vehicles rarely travel in a straight line.

Several more minutes passed, with similar updates.

Li Gang’s intuition told him that the stranger this time was highly likely coming straight for him.