Kevin Walker shouted happily, lay down without hesitation, and directly chose to enter the virtual battle network: "I'm coming, I'm coming, I'm still alive, I'm still alive, come save me..."

As countless spiritual source connection sensors flashed with light, Kevin Walker suddenly felt a brightness before his eyes. The next moment, Kevin Walker found himself standing on a huge metal platform, surrounded by pure white, spotless.

"Detection complete. This is your first login to the virtual battle network. Please choose a name for yourself."

Kevin Walker said anxiously, "That's not important. I need to get online now, contact the military, Huaguo, or anyone on Earth, I need to tell them I'm still alive, there are still living people on Mars, I'm..."

The voice was not mechanical, and Kevin Walker had seen the news before—this was recorded by the world's youngest girl group, so at this moment Kevin Walker was extremely excited.

"Detection complete. This is your first login to the virtual battle network. Please choose a name for yourself."

But no matter how excited Kevin Walker was, it was useless. Kevin Walker quickly realized this. This thing had a fixed system. Usually, Kevin Walker hated all these logins, registrations, agreements, permissions, and now he was even more anxious.

"Taiji."

He blurted out "Taiji" instinctively. The birthmark on his chest was a Taiji, and he had even activated a little Taiji figure in his sea of consciousness. Aside from the hardships he had recently endured, the little Taiji was definitely the most memorable thing for him.

"The name Taiji is already taken. If you still wish to use this name, 002578 will be added as a unique identifier, but this will not affect normal use..."

"No problem..."

"Hello, Mr. Taiji. Would you like to connect to the network..."

"Yes."

"Hello, Mr. Taiji. The virtual battle network must also comply with national regulations..."

"Yes..."

"Hello, Mr. Taiji. Would you like to change or cover your appearance, or..."

"Yes, yes, anything is fine..."

...

Next came a lot of terms, notes, rules, commitments, things about body shape, appearance—Kevin Walker had no mind to pay attention to any of this now.

He was extremely anxious, because he could hear warning sounds constantly coming from the virtual battle pod. When repairing it, Kevin Walker had barely managed to piece it together, and now he was most worried that the virtual battle pod wouldn't last much longer.

So he was desperately trying to speed up, to complete all the procedures as quickly as possible. He needed to contact Earth as soon as possible, to tell them there were still living people on Mars, that he was still alive, help...

"Would you like to enter automatic battle..."

"Yes."

Chapter 8: One Punch Breakthrough

"Swish!" The next moment, the surroundings changed.

"Wait..."

Suddenly, Kevin Walker realized something. Battle—why was he entering a battle? What he needed now was to use the virtual battle network to contact Earth, to reach customer service.

Unfortunately, he had agreed too quickly, and it was too late.

This was a platform shining with great glory. Opposite Kevin Walker stood a young man wearing combat soft armor, soft alloy combat boots, and beautiful shield-blades on both arms.

A living person, a real living person! As long as it was a living person, Kevin Walker felt close, incredibly close. It's hard for anyone who hasn't experienced it to imagine how lonely and painful it is when a race, a species, is reduced to just one survivor.

Many people can't bear this pain, so at this moment, seeing another person, Kevin Walker was already overjoyed and excited: "A human, it's a human, haha, hello, my name is Kevin Walker, so here's the thing... hey... what, newcomers can't talk..."

Appearing on the battle platform, Kevin Walker immediately wanted to communicate with the other party. Not knowing how long the hastily repaired battle pod would last, he needed to get the message out as soon as possible.

But after saying just a few words, he realized a problem: in the virtual battle network, newcomers can't speak until they've completed ten battles. Some higher permissions require even more battles or victories.

This was to encourage more people to battle. After all, for a while, many people were using the virtual battle network for other things. Even though it hadn't been developed into a game globally, there were still places for profit, socializing, and daily life.

"Can't talk, can't talk... Oh, right, look at my hand signals... SOS, you get that, right..."

"Uh, you don't understand hand signals. Okay, I'll write, you can at least read, right..."

"Help me contact the military..."

...

Kevin Walker realized he was restricted as a newcomer, so he tried to use hand signals, but saw the other person didn't react. He immediately thought to write, squatting down to write on the ground.

Chris Reed frowned slightly: "Ridiculous. A newcomer dares to challenge Glory? Go die..."

Chris Reed had been standing proudly. His battles were always live-streamed. He had planned to wait for the other party to say a few words, introduce himself, and then make his move. But seeing the other party unable to speak, then gesturing wildly, and even squatting down to write like a lunatic, he was instantly annoyed.