Where Is My Skip Button?

“Hey, where's my skip button?”

Jiang Ye was playing a cultivation game called Tribulation of Ten Thousand Races. As a professional power leveler of the new era, he had long bid farewell to traditional hand-controlled gaming.

Nowadays, players used a helmet-like device connected to a brain-computer interface, allowing them to enjoy an immersive, soul-transmigrating game experience.

But this time, during the opening cutscene of his tenth playthrough, he couldn't find the skip button no matter how hard he looked.

Immediately after, a flash of white light filled his vision.

The first thing Jiang Ye saw was a massive... chest.

How could such a pure and refined face be paired with such a massive chest?

The young girl in front of him had wet, long hair and was wrapped in only a bath towel. The fabric was stretched taut, and the knot at her chest looked as if it would burst open at any moment from the pressure.

Her fair, bare feet stepped on the cold floor, curling up uneasily.

“Holy crap, you dog devs! I knew it! How could Bai Zhirou's opening bath CG only show her back? Look at me, glitching right in!”

Jiang Ye screamed like a manic marmot in his mind.

Before he could celebrate for long, he suddenly realized the fair, long legs in front of him had vanished. His entire field of vision began to rotate uncontrollably from left to right, as if the game character was looking around.

“Did I lose control of the character because of the glitch?”

Just as Jiang Ye was wondering, a slightly trembling girl's voice suddenly echoed in his mind:

“Who... who is speaking?”

Jiang Ye froze for a moment, then marveled, “Is the AI in the new version this smart? The emotional feedback is so rich!”

As the screen shook again, the voice came, “Senior... are you sending a voice transmission to me?”

Hearing such a realistic tone, Jiang Ye immediately felt the urge to tease the AI.

“Hehehe, why call me 'Senior'? That's so cliché. You can call me the Fourth Calamity, an Extraterrestrial Demon, or perhaps a Traveler, Rover, Trailblazer, Young Master, Little Locke...”

Before Jiang Ye could finish speaking—

The door was violently kicked open from the outside.

A heavily makeup-wearing woman with a curvaceous figure barged in aggressively, shouting:

“You brat, what took you so long in the bath? If Young Master Sima gets impatient waiting, you're going to pay for it!”

Jiang Ye's game panel displayed a red name over her head:

【Su Yanhong, Qi Condensation Level 3】

Seeing that Bai Zhirou was still cowering motionless in front of the mirror, a flash of impatience crossed Su Yanhong's eyes. She reached out to grab the girl's wet, long hair.

Bai Zhirou closed her eyes in fear.

At that exact moment, Jiang Ye suddenly felt the disconnect vanish. A wave of control over the body rushed into his consciousness.

He could move!

In front of the mirror, Bai Zhirou's delicate body trembled slightly.

In the next second, under Su Yanhong's shocked gaze, the girl slid smoothly to the left, dodging her hand.

In her mind, Bai Zhirou made a shocking discovery.

Her body was no longer listening to her. Moreover, after dodging, instead of running away, she swung her arms in place, then did a big jump, bringing her hands together above her head in a bizarre downward pressing motion.

In reality, Jiang Ye had just casually performed an air shot.

“Hmm, not bad. The controls are very fluid, even easier to move than my own body.”

Jiang Ye slowly raised his head to meet Su Yanhong's furious gaze. A cruel curve tugged at the corner of his lips as he smiled.

“I've wanted to kill you for a long time, you piece of trash.”

During his first nine playthroughs, if players didn't skip this opening CG, they were forced to watch this frustrating scripted death sequence before they could actually start playing.

As a result, this foul-mouthed woman had immediately become the second most wanted NPC on Jiang Ye's hit list.

After all, the ones you can't kill are always the most aggravating.

“You're courting death!”

Su Yanhong flew into a rage. Grabbing the long whip at her waist, her true qi erupted as she lashed out, the whip tearing through the air with a sharp whistle.

However, what happened next left her utterly dumbfounded.

Bai Zhirou moved like a ghost, dodging as if she possessed precognition.

With a series of backsteps, dodge rolls, and low-ground slides, she completely evaded every single whip strike.

However, she wouldn't have to dwell on this question for long.

A hairpin had pierced through her throat at some unknown point.

Blood gushed out. Su Yanhong's eyes widened in horror, a gurgling sound escaping her throat as if she wanted to say something.

Bai Zhirou (Jiang Ye) twisted the hairpin inside the wound, murmuring:

“Why aren't you dead yet? Talk about a tough lifebar.”

As soon as he spoke, a familiar warm current surged through him. Jiang Ye couldn't help but groan in satisfaction—his experience points had arrived!

“Excellent, excellent.”

“Wait, this is bad. What's going on? Why am I getting experience but not leveling up? It gave a decent amount of EXP too.”

Jiang Ye slapped his forehead as realization dawned on him:

“Dammit, I forgot! I'm in a sequence-break state during the intro. I haven't learned a cultivation technique yet, so my level is capped.”

Without another word, Jiang Ye bent over and began searching Su Yanhong's body. With practiced ease, he rifled through her chest area, and in less than three seconds, he fished out a cultivation technique manual and a small pouch of spirit stones.

While looting the corpse, Jiang Ye couldn't help but give a little squeeze, remarking,

“Is it because of the glitch? The tactile feedback is incredibly realistic. The devs censored this completely to stop players from doing weird things to NPCs, so there shouldn't be any touch feedback at all...”

In her mind, Bai Zhirou watched "herself" shamelessly groping another person's chest, her voice trembling:

“Y-You... what are you doing?”

Jiang Ye was taken aback by the voice. “Ah? You're still here?”

Bai Zhirou: ?

The girl was so aggrieved she was on the verge of tears in her mind:

“You... you extraterrestrial demon! You are possessing my body, aren't you? This is highly inappropriate!”

“How can you call what a player does 'possessing'?”

Jiang Ye teased the adorable AI while opening the Basic Qi Guidance Scripture. A game prompt popped up:

【Do you wish to learn the Basic Qi Guidance Scripture?】

【Yes / No】

Jiang Ye instantly selected "Yes."

【Learning Successful】

In the next second, the data on the game panel updated:

【Current Character: Bai Zhirou】

【Character Cultivation: Qi Condensation Level 1】

【Talent/Physique: ???】

Jiang Ye stared blankly at the Talent/Physique column.

As a veteran of nine playthroughs, the character description for Bai Zhirou immediately surfaced in his mind:

【The Fallen Genius: Originally possessed a Lightning Heavenly Spiritual Root and a natural Sword Heart. On her way back to the Azure Mystic Sect after her spiritual root was tested, she was unfortunately abducted by evil cultivators of the Yin-Yang Sect. To protect her purity, she did not hesitate to activate her Sword Heart as a mortal to heavily wound her powerful enemy. Although she narrowly escaped, it resulted in a shattered Sword Heart and permanently damaged spiritual roots.】

While Bai Zhirou was still in shock over how she had suddenly become a cultivator, she saw her own right hand cover her face as she threw her head back and laughed:

“Hehehe, what a great bug to exploit! The devs' mothers are spared today!”

Perhaps because he laughed too loudly and made too large a gesture, Bai Zhirou's chest heaved violently. The already loose bath towel slipped off with a soft rustle, falling straight to the floor.

“Ahhh!!!”

Bai Zhirou's scream exploded in his mind.

Jiang Ye remained perfectly calm, though when he looked down, he couldn't even see his own feet.

He casually bent down to pick up the towel, wrapped it back around himself, tied a loose knot, and half-heartedly consoled her:

“Hey, we're all friends here. We've been through nine playthroughs together, we know each other inside out. Don't be so shy.”

With a thought, he opened the "Appearance" tab on the game panel and equipped Bai Zhirou with her plain, white starter skin.

With a flash of white light, she was fully dressed in a brand-new training outfit.

The voice in his mind went dead silent. Bai Zhirou was completely dumbfounded. Is this the power of a demon? Not only can he grow stronger by killing, but he can also conjure clothes out of thin air?!

Jiang Ye didn't bother explaining. He reached down to pick up the steel longsword Su Yanhong had dropped.

The moment his hand touched the hilt, the Physique column on his game panel began to flicker wildly like a virus-infected screen. A flurry of notification boxes started popping up:

【Weapon "Sword" detected. Activating talent...】

【Special Physique: Sword Heart (Damaged)...】

【System Warning: Main story has not progressed. Determined that weapon cannot be obtained... Recalibrating...】

【Forced reset of special status in progress...】

Because the opening cutscene hadn't finished, the system determined that the player shouldn't have access to a sword. Yet, Jiang Ye, who had glitched his way in, had acquired one anyway.

Two conflicting lines of source code clashed violently in the system's background. Notification boxes flashed frantically, red and blue lights alternating at a dizzying speed!

Finally, amid the chaotic flashing, a prompt popped up that made Jiang Ye ecstatic:

【Activation Successful!】

【Special Physique: Sword Heart. Function: Grants a 100% damage bonus and absolute mastery over all "Sword-type" weapons. Attacks bypass armor. Special state (unactivated).】

Looking at this dazzling special physique, Jiang Ye felt like he had just successfully gotten the final referral on a bargain app to secure a free cash payout. It felt surreal yet incredibly satisfying!

As a free character in the game, Bai Zhirou enjoyed immense popularity among the player base.

Setting aside relatively minor factors like her stunning looks, massive chest, slender waist, and long legs, what made players grit their teeth yet remain utterly obsessed was her lore of having a damaged spiritual root and a shattered Sword Heart.

This was probably a balance adjustment by the dev team, but the setting acted like a carrot on a stick dangled in front of players. There were always stubborn players who desperately wanted to find a way to repair it.

Jiang Ye was the most stubborn of them all; even on his tenth playthrough, he had never switched to another character.

“Who says free characters are weak? This character is absolutely cracked!!”

The door was violently kicked open once again.

A fair-skinned man with narrow eyes barged in, his face filled with lust.

Jiang Ye slowly raised his head.

Above the man's head, red text read: 【Sima Kong, Qi Condensation Level 9】.

A cruel smile curved on Bai Zhirou's pure, delicate face.

Because...

The NPC he wanted to kill most in this game had finally arrived.