MTL - From Soldier to Officer: A Game Addict’s Journey - Chapter 33 Retreat, surprise (seeking collection, seeking support)

On this land of real souls, with millions of different martial art institutions, there are so many strong fighters just like the trees in the forests.

Among all, a mediocre apprentice from one of the mediocre institutions suddenly became a martial art genius after a mysterious incident. Not only did he acquire a photographic memory and keen perception, but he had also come to discover that his ability to comprehend martial arts is astronomically good, which eventually made him an almost godly existence.

From the hot-blooded intense battles to the clashes between the top geniuses, Martial Arts is no longer limited to the mortal world, it reaches to a level that can do everything from controlling the oceans to flying up the sky and diving under the ground.

- Description from Novelupdates

In the year 2090, technology has advanced to the point where Simulation Boxes, (Sim Box for short) are common place, allowing for the user to link up their brain's neural network to a full dive Simulation. While initially used for educational purposes, recently a large gaming company, Averon, released a fully fledged immersive MMORPG simulation where users can become anyone they desire, level up, choose their class, and become a hero or a villain. The name of this simulation is The Shattered World Online.

Eli Winters had no interest in playing it. His father, a jobless bum who spent his entire life playing games in the hope of becoming a famous player or streamer, was able to use the release of The Shattered World Online to gain wealth and fame, quickly becoming the number one player and a household name as the game took the world by storm. He immediately abandoned Eli and his mother in favor of being with someone from his guild, despite his mother having worked two jobs to support them and raise Eli by herself. Eli had nothing but spite for his father and the game.

When Eli's best friend convinces him to try out the game, his father's fame begins to interfere, culminating in him being singled out and shunned by his peers, and his father offering to pay for his university tuition in return for Eli hiding their relationship and quitting the game. Instead of complying with his father's wishes, Eli decides to prove to everyone how useless a guy his father is by challenging him that if Eli is able to surpass him in the game world he must delete his account and quit his streaming career. His father accepts the challenge believing his son to be useless at games - but Eli will soon show him just how ambitious a spiteful person can be.

Ding Ning was just an ordinary youngster from a small border town in southwest China, but he had learned tremendous medical skills from his masters since his childhood. After graduating from college, he stayed in Ninghai City and tried to seek a job in a hospital there, but things did not go well at first. However, he accidentally saved Shen Muqing who was from a rich and powerful family, and then got involved in the confrontation between Ninghai special police team and a mysterious organization called Vampire Mercenary Group in order to protect Ling Yun who was his landlord’s daughter. It became the turning point of his life. After that, he started an incredible adventure during which he would find out the real identities of his father and masters and discover the secrets behind the mysterious organization Vampire Mercenary Group and the special weapons and tactics team Dragon Soul…
The story tells about how he opened nine apertures, fought with rogues, chased after various pretty girls and established a rich and powerful family by himself. He climbed up to the peak of his life step by step, and finally became medical sovereign.

- Description from Novelupdates

This is the first part, the second part is “Playing Fish Trapped in a Secret Room (密室困游鱼 Mi Shi Kun You Yu)”.

In 2007, at the WCG Asian Tournament in Singapore. In just a few hours time, between left and right hands, there goes a life and death battle. In the Chinese team that year, there is a professional player who’s only 15 years old, nicknamed “God’s Left Hand”. At that match, he sits right next to her.

Their professional lives start from 14 years old until they retire, disappear, at 25 years old.

In these non-mainstream tournaments, where a small niche of the population follows closely, their only possessions are a mouse, keyboard, and headphone each. There they won gold medals one after another for China.