"What’s wrong?"

Watching the young man from his daughter’s class suddenly let out a hysterical cry, Father Shen got a huge shock. What’s going on with him? Did I run over his foot? Or is he one of my daughter’s secret admirers? Was he shocked to suddenly meet me, the "goddess’s father"?

"It’s nothing! Nothing!" Qiao Shan exclaimed. "You’re busy, you’re busy!"

Having come to his senses, he turned right around under Father Shen’s dumbfounded gaze and fled the Tourism Management Office again, not even bothering with his registration form. He just ran off.

I’ve seen a ghost! As he ran, Qiao Shan’s heart filled with grief and indignation.

The game had descended just last night. He had discovered that he had inherited over a dozen Defense Towers and used them to clear out all the monsters at school. Qiao Shan thought his time to shine had finally come. But just as he was about to show off in front of his goddess, Shen Yue, he never expected that the man who called her "Young Miss" was none other than the 18th-ranked player on the Tower Defense of Ten Thousand Realms’ Combat Power rankings.

The comparison made him look like a total joke, and the guy even had a famous nickname—Brother Kaipan.

Thinking about how he had been bragging in front of all the teachers, staff, and students, an utterly humiliated Qiao Shan left the school directly. He intended to join the newly forming Tourism Management Office. He had lost face at school, but at the new Tourism Management Office, he still had a "clean slate."

But what Qiao Shan never expected was that before he even stepped through the door, he would run right into Shen Yue’s father. Not only had Shen Yue’s father inherited abilities from the game, but he was also the director of the Tourism Management Office.

Qiao Shan was rendered completely speechless!

Do I have some kind of freaking curse when it comes to Shen Yue? Forget it, I’ll just go find other girls!

Running from the Tourism Management Office, a thought suddenly surfaced in his mind. As a powerful Ability User who had inherited Defense Towers, he was a hot commodity to everyone except Shen Yue. Countless female classmates had sent him messages and called him last night. It was just that the one you can’t have is always the most alluring. He had always liked Shen Yue, so he wanted to give it one more try.

Now, however, having been shot down twice in a row, the very flexible Qiao Shan was thinking of changing his target...

SWOOSH!

SWOOSH!

SWOOSH!

Just as Qiao Shan was changing his mind and about to head back to school, several figures in black appeared out of thin air, instantly surrounding him.

"Alright!" one of them grunted. "Spit it out!"

Qiao Shan was still trying to assess the situation when the men in black spoke in clumsy Chinese.

The Japanese?

Before he was knocked unconscious by a club, a single thought flashed through his mind. He realized who was attacking him: Japanese who had inherited abilities from a ninja game...

.

.

In a certain abandoned room, Qiao Shan had been beaten black and blue. He was force-fed a considerable amount of drugs and had mumbled a lot in his daze. Just before he passed out again, he heard one of the Japanese men muttering in his less-than-standard Chinese.

"Shen Yue, yes? Tower Defense of Ten Thousand Realms Combat Power rank 18, yes? Father Shen’s Golden Guardian, yes? Golden Guardian and Golden Celestial Horse, same color, similar aura, yes? Defense Tower at Qing City airport, ability inherited from game Tower Defense of Ten Thousand Realms, yes?"

"Qiu Sangjun! Even if it’s not Shen Yue, the man who destroyed Godzilla at the Qing City airport must be connected to her!" another voice added. "If we follow this lead, we’ll definitely find what we’re looking for!"

With Qiao Shan unconscious, the men in black—a group of Japanese Ninjas—conversed rapidly. They had used a special item to come to Qing City after seeing the man with the Golden Celestial Horse easily destroy Godzilla at the airport. Qiao Shan’s "heroic display" at the university last night had been posted all over the internet. Through those online videos, they first located Qiao Shan, who was in the same city and suspected of having the same type of Defense Towers. Then, they easily captured him once he left the defensive range of his towers.

After interrogating Qiao Shan, the group of Japanese Ninjas couldn’t believe their luck. They had managed to get a key name out of him: Shen Yue.

Not only was Shen Yue accompanied by the 18th-ranked expert from the Tower Defense of Ten Thousand Realms’ Combat Power rankings, but more importantly, her father had a Golden Guardian—the same type as the Golden Celestial Horse. Everything instantly clicked into place. The Ninjas hadn’t expected the mission to be this easy. They even deduced that the 18th-ranked expert was the very man who had displayed his might at the Qing City airport last night.

Leaving the bloodied and unconscious Qiao Shan behind, the four of them conferred and headed straight for the Tourism Management Office...

"Captain," one of the Ninjas asked their leader, moving swiftly through the shadows of the buildings, "we can inherit another 5% of our abilities tonight. Should we wait until after midnight, when we’re a bit stronger, before we raid the Tourism Management Office? We could capture Father Shen and use him to threaten Shen Yue and that rank 18 guy."

"Idiot! Time is of the essence! Father Shen will inherit more abilities too! We go now! Find an opportunity and strike true!" the leader barked.

"Yes, sir!"

"Yes, sir!"

"Yes, sir!"

The furtive Japanese figures responded in assent as they rushed toward the Tourism Management Office...

.

.

SWOOSH!

SWOOSH!

SWOOSH!

「Nanshan Villa District.」

Shen Fei sat in his bedroom.

Using the ability of a Detection Defense Tower, his vision easily covered a five-kilometer radius. His family had all left: his dad and Uncle Sun had gone to the Tourism Management Office, his sister and Yu had gone to school, and his mother had gone to the community center right inside their residential complex. Left alone at home, surrounded by ten fully operational Tenth Tier Defense Towers, Shen Fei’s safety was absolutely guaranteed.

He was controlling the Defense Towers to clear out the game’s abominations within the five-kilometer range while also taking stock of and testing his own towers.

From the first wave of ability inheritance last night, he had inherited a total of 31 Defense Towers.