He quieted his mind, entered his own cognitive core, and David Parker began searching through some of the ‘martial arts manuals’ he had collected. He double-checked the steps he was about to take.

Just as desolate places are always rumored to be haunted, lively places are always filled with people.

As long as some people share common interests and communication isn’t an issue, groups will naturally form. No matter how boring the activity, these people will pursue it for the sake of their passion.

The places David Parker frequented online included the ‘Ancient Martial Arts United Enthusiasts Club’, the ‘Physical Development Association’, the ‘Martial Arts Alliance’... and so on, but his absolute favorite was an information hub called ‘Sanxitang’.

Nowadays, all forms of media have merged; there’s no longer any distinction between television, mobile communications, newspapers, radio, and so on as there was thousands of years ago—they’ve all been integrated into the information network.

‘Sanxitang’ is a gathering place and research society for a small, extremely ‘fanatical’ group of ancient martial arts enthusiasts.

The so-called ‘Sanxi’ refers to three writers who once held high status in martial arts novels a long time ago, all of whom were once wildly popular and had a profound influence. ‘Xi’ naturally means ‘rare treasures’. Whether in their own time or now, these three authors’ works still have many readers.

This group dreams of bringing to life the legendary martial arts skills that existed only in the imagination of their predecessors. Because their interests are so niche and they possess a near-religious fervor, they do not tolerate any disrespect toward their idols and are rather exclusive toward outsiders. For this reason, ‘Sanxitang’ has always remained a small group of a few hundred people and has never grown very large.

In this era, once you fuse with a bioparasite, you naturally gain many abilities that humans could never have dreamed of before. If you input a system like the ‘Chinese Ancient Martial Arts Integration System’ into the cognitive core of the parasite, you can quickly acquire advanced combat skills with just a bit of practice. If you’re wealthy enough, you can even pay a high price to order a custom-made bioparasite—better quality at a better price, and naturally several times more powerful than the government-issued ones. For this reason as well, very few people are interested in such an obscure topic as ‘Sanxitang’.

Relying on one’s own training to acquire certain special skills is the fundamental principle of Sanxitang.

Although most people are already quite satisfied with the abilities modern technology can provide, there are still people like David Parker who are tireless in their pursuit of self-cultivation. Just as David Parker can’t understand why anyone would pay a high price for a paper book, others look at him the same way.

As a martial arts enthusiast whose passion borders on fanaticism, David Parker is, of course, a die-hard member of ‘Sanxitang’. Now, he was searching through the various materials stored in his cognitive core for information on the effects of bioparasite fusion on mental strength.

Through the research and discussion of several old-timers in Sanxitang, and the personal experiments of a few brave souls, they had explored some methods for increasing strength. These were categorized and detailed, thoroughly combining classical martial arts, wuxia culture, modern technology, and physical combat into what they called ‘ultra-modern martial arts research’, and even developed some theoretical topics.

David Parker’s victory in his recent fight with Henry Clark was due to luck and psychological intimidation. There’s no guarantee that Henry Clark won’t realize this and come looking for trouble. That’s why he was eager to find a quick way to achieve the second-level fusion with his bioparasite.

After finding several suitable plans in his cognitive core, David Parker still couldn’t decide which to choose. After a moment’s thought, David Parker connected to the information center area of ‘Sanxitang’.

When choosing how to enter, David Parker selected virtual reality.

When ‘Sky Eye’ outputs information to its owner, there are generally two modes: one is a virtual screen, and the other is virtual reality. The latter requires the cognitive core to stimulate the nerves, creating a simulated experience.

A virtual screen creates a screen in your consciousness that doesn’t exist in reality, but after stimulating the visual nerves, the effect is exactly the same as actually seeing it. This technology is very mature and fits with habits accumulated by humanity over thousands of years, so its application is still very widespread. Its main advantage is confidentiality—a screen that exists only in one’s consciousness is impossible for others to see, so privacy is excellent. Of course, this doesn’t apply when sharing information.

Virtual reality appeared later in terms of technology, but the concept actually predates the virtual screen. Basically, when this technology appeared on the information network, in ‘information center areas’ that offered this service, you could experience sensations identical to those in the real world—you could walk, run, jump, sing, just like in reality. However, this technology isn’t widely used; apart from games and community-type ‘information center areas’, it’s rarely needed elsewhere.

‘In a virtual reality system, reading a virtual newspaper costs fifty times as much as reading a real newspaper in the real world.’ This was the comment of an ordinary citizen when virtual reality technology first became popular, evaluating a scientist who said: ‘Virtual reality technology is about to replace virtual screens and usher in the XX era, and so on.’