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[Would you like to register for a match? ]

"Yes."

[Please state your stage name.] (Note: For the sake of your privacy, please don’t use your real name. Try creative and clever names. The maximum of 15 characters is set for your stage name.)

"Is [Anon] available?"

[Yes. Would you like to set [Anon] as your stage name? ]

"Yes, please."

[Stage name claimed and created. Welcome to The Challenger’s Rise, Anon! ]

[Please create your stage avatar.]

Ren didn’t go overboard in this part. He didn’t even change his hair or eye color since he’s already unremarkable. All he did was to make his hair a little bit longer than what he actually had.

He erased the mark of his aberrant physique here, the sleeve tattoo that made him eye-catching. This doesn’t mean that it won’t affect him in the VR world; oh, it will. He still can’t use weapons; not even the VR world could make that fantasy real to him or anybody from his clan.

All he could do was erase its appearance for his stage avatar; that’s it. That’s the most he could do.

To give his avatar some unique traits, he gave it a dense and artistic tattoo starting from its neck extending to his upper torso. He also gave himself a neatly trimmed beard and mustache to make himself older since he’s already pretty tall for his age.

As for clothes, a black training gi with a gold cloth belt and straw sandals will do. He also gave his avatar a headband to soak up his sweat during rites. The rest stays as is.

Once he’s done and satisfied with his avatar, he indicates that he’s finished.

[Scanning...]

[The system detects that you, Anon, are at the Foundation Strength Stage. Is this correct? ]

"Yes, I am."

[May I ask for your intention on joining The Challenger’s Rise? ]

Ren wasn’t surprised by this question. Although this sounds unnatural and too invasive, in truth, this was the AI’s way of assisting the users to improve their experience in this world.

So, Ren wasn’t one to put on airs; he replied truthfully to the inquiry.

"I’m here to gain combat experience. I can’t get it reliably in the real world, so this is the next best thing I could use."

[Thank you for your candid answer. The system will do its best to give you a pleasant and fruitful experience in your future matches.]

[Your account is ready, and you can start participating in versus matches now. Enjoy and please give us a good review! ]

Shortly after reading this message, Ren felt the world spin around him for a bit before he found himself standing in the middle of the arena now wearing the skin of his stage avatar.

He didn’t feel any violent reactions or changes as this happened. Not even the faintest sensation of being in a new body.

Aside from this, there was a system prompt before him that asked if he wanted to participate in singles or party matches.

He chose the singles, but he didn’t summon enemies right away.

Instead, Ren took his time to test out his movements here. He did some warm-ups, threw a couple of punches and kicks, and carefully sensed the movement of his chakra.

He wanted to make sure that there were no delays or changes that he needed to adapt to first before he started fighting. It’d be foolish to dive headfirst into a match and discover this in the middle of the fight.

Fortunately, everything felt normal. He didn’t feel any difference from what he usually feels.

Once he confirmed this, Ren didn’t hesitate to summon his first enemy.

That’s right, summon. He’s going to be fighting bots for now.

There’s no avoiding this. The system AI had to collect his information first so that it could design a better experience for him. The bots he had to fight will push him to display everything he could so that the AI gathers enough data about him.

The enemy summoned is a faceless fighter. It didn’t have some ferocious aura or intimidating presence, but it was ready to tussle.

Ren took a deep breath and went into a stance. The countdown started, and when it was over, the bot immediately took the initiative.

Bam!

A solid punch landed on Ren’s biceps right away. It hurt a little, but Ren was ready. He had seen it coming and used the Golden Fleece technique for the first time in actual combat.

He absorbed that impact and most of the pain that should’ve accompanied that punch. He didn’t return the damage to the sender right away; he stored it for now and threw fast jabs at the bot’s face in quick succession.

The bot’s guard was up, so it didn’t do any damage, but Ren was focused now, and his perfected mastery over the Basic Footwork Technique was showing its edge here because he got up close and personal with the bot.

His accurate spacing, pacing, and speed didn’t give the bot much time to think or respond. And since Ren was moving a lot, his chakra flow was starting to become really active.

Soon, he’s got enough to use the Nine Echoes Technique.

His eyes remained sharp as he focused on his enemy. Even though it’s a bot, Ren didn’t look down on it.

Hell, he never even thought about defeating it since that just won’t happen. This bot was created to force everything out of Ren; therefore, it’s inhumanly durable. It would be able to withstand anything that Ren could throw at it.

Even if he punches it to the stratosphere—not that he could do so, but even if he could—it’d just stand back up once it comes down, shaking off the pain and injuries as if they never happened. That’s why Ren never thought about defeating it.

Instead, he treated it like a living and breathing training dummy, because that’s what it is, really.

With Ren’s focus and attention sharp, he immediately grasped the timing and opening that the bot showed. And when it was time for him to act, Ren acted decisively.

Chakra covered his fist, looking like oceanic waves. When his next strike landed on the bot, it grunted and was thrown back each time the ripple took effect.

Since he had mastered the Nine Echoes Technique to perfection, the rippling effect of his punch happens nine times, and each ripple was 90% as strong as the initial strike.

The bot reacted realistically in a way that it spat out blood from what he did. But in truth, it wasn’t really deterred. Its injuries didn’t even slow it down.

It just charged at Ren after spitting blood, as if it never happened at all.

Ren wasn’t surprised. He knew that this was going to happen anyway.

What followed that was an exchange of punches, kicks, and so on. Ren utilized the Golden Fleece Technique whenever he could, absorbing pain and impacts without releasing them.

His grasp over timing was perfect each time, not because he’s just that good, but because the strength and speed of the bot he’s facing were well captured with his reaction time.

Ren hasn’t grown arrogant just because he’s fighting a bot. Especially not when he’s still so inexperienced.

At some point, Ren had enough and grasped another chance to release all the impact and pain he accumulated using the Golden Fleece Technique.

He could only endure about three times the amount of his actual durability before needing to release it. Anything higher and the technique will fail. Additionally, releasing the accumulated burden only happens once Ren intends to release it and if he ’parries’ another strike.

It’s a ’return to sender’ type of technique after all. He can’t return something if he never received anything.

The release was timed perfectly, and the bot was once again heavily injured because of it. Not for long, though. It recovered right away and kept coming at Ren like a tireless machine.

Ren didn’t back down. He resolved himself to give it his all. Because as unrealistic as this battle was, it’s still experience in the end.

And even though this battle was fake, Ren was learning a lot, which is the whole point of why he came here in the first place.

He was learning many things about his fighting styles. He’s correcting previous assumptions that turned out to be wrong; he’s becoming more flexible, more cunning, and a smarter fighter as he goes.

But eventually, as designed, he was defeated by the bot. Not because it’s much stronger than he was, but because it’s cheating. It’s never meant to be defeated. It’s designed to take everything he could ever throw at it so that the AI could collect sufficient data about him.

Ren had bruises and cuts once the fight was done, but his body felt so pleasantly numb that he didn’t even notice them.

But that wasn’t the end of it. No. This was just for the singles matches. And a PvP at that.

Next, he’d be in a two vs. two battle, and it’ll go all the way to a seven vs. seven.

Then, it would be him against a monster, his team against one huge monster, and his team against a boss monster.

Only after going through all of this would he get the chance to actually begin fighting real people.

But that would be for tomorrow night since all the data collection matches will take up the whole night.