Returning to his private room, Lu Li immediately withdrew Dreamless from his Spatial Inventory and replaced his standard, system-issued bed.
Since returning from the Kengan world, he hadn't slept a single wink. This was the perfect opportunity to test out the effectiveness of this bizarre "freebie."
The moment his head hit the pillow, his entire body physically melted into the mattress. In less than five minutes, he fell into an incredibly deep, profound slumber. Twelve hours later, Lu Li groggily, reluctantly dragged himself out of bed.
"Mmm... I was wrong. This bed is absolutely worth the price."
Lu Li formally retracted his previous assertion that anyone who bought a bed in the Terminus Space was mentally ill. Ah... it smells so good.
Setting aside the sheer, unmatched comfort, the passive regeneration buff to both his Vitality and Reiryoku made this an absolute god-tier logistical item.
Considering Explorers rarely popped in and out of Mission Worlds in a single day, being able to retreat to a safe zone and sleep on Dreamless after a brutal battle would exponentially accelerate his recovery. Over the long term, this bed would save him a massive fortune in consumable healing potions.
He could obviously cast Kaido to heal his physical wounds, but Kaido actively consumed his Reiryoku reserves. Furthermore, while Kaido could stitch up physical flesh, it couldn't instantly replenish his depleted core Vitality.
It was exactly like his hellish sparring sessions with Captain Unohana back in the Bleach world. Even after she fully healed his physical injuries, the fundamental exhaustion and massive blood loss still left him in a state of severe deficit. His actual 'Vitality' pool wasn't full.
Therefore, utilizing this bed efficiently would yield a tremendous long-term return on investment.
That sailor-suited girl really isn't simple, Lu Li thought, highly impressed. To be able to forge a bed with these specific magical properties... and the craziest part was that the item was only rated as Dark-Blue (Rare) grade. If she had used higher-tier, Purple-grade materials to construct the bed, the regenerative effects would likely be even more absurd.
After washing up, Lu Li felt completely revitalized and bursting with energy. He was currently broke, but that didn't mean he had nothing to do in the Terminus Space.
He had previously heard that the Hub contained a massive Arena. Inside, Explorers could fight against other Explorers of the same Tier in fully simulated, no-holds-barred deathmatches. Because it was a simulation, 'dying' in the Arena didn't result in actual death; it was an incredibly safe, highly efficient method to grind real-world combat experience against diverse, supernatural abilities.
Furthermore, if an Explorer managed to grind their way into the upper echelons of the global rankings, the Terminus Space provided highly lucrative, exclusive rewards.
Lu Li felt his current combat power was reasonably solid. He decided to head over to the Arena and playfully secure the #1 rank.
Lu Li stood in front of a massive, circular colosseum that looked identical to an ancient Roman gladiatorial arena. The central pit was entirely empty. Instead, hundreds of massive, translucent holographic screens floated in the air above the pit, live-broadcasting ongoing simulated deathmatches between various Explorers. The surrounding stands were packed with off-duty Explorers watching the fights.
The Terminus Space naturally protected the absolute privacy of its Explorers. When fighting in the Arena, an Explorer's true facial features were completely censored. To the opponent and the audience, their face would be obscured by whatever virtual mask they pre-selected before the match began.
[The Pioneer is currently Tier 1. Your current Arena Ranking is: 140,402.]
The moment Lu Li stepped into the Arena lobby, the system prompt echoed in his mind.
Lu Li wasn't surprised in the least by the sheer number of Tier 1 Explorers. Based on his own recruitment experience, he theorized the Terminus Space abducted human candidates from countless different parallel universes and scattered them across thousands of different derivative Mission Worlds. Therefore, a population of 140,000 Tier 1 Explorers was actually quite low in the grand scheme of the multiverse.
The Terminus Space maintained a brutal, rigid equilibrium between the catastrophic Explorer death rate and the constant influx of new abductees.
[Do you wish to initiate matchmaking?]
Lu Li selected "Yes." He then scrolled through the holographic mask menu and selected a terrifying, bone-white Hollow mask from the Bleach universe to obscure his face.
The matchmaking instantly pinged. He felt his body become momentarily weightless. In the blink of an eye, he was teleported into the middle of a blazing desert environment. His opponent, standing a few dozen meters away, looked completely bewildered, likely having also queued up for their very first Arena match.
Lu Li took a single step forward, drew his blade, and cleanly decapitated the confused Explorer before the man could even register the match had started.
[Congratulations, Pioneer, on securing your First Victory in the Arena! Please select your First Win Reward.]
Upon being teleported back to the private Arena lobby, Lu Li heard the system prompt. He was mildly surprised; he hadn't known there was a First Win bonus.
He checked the holographic menu. There were three options available:
A. 1,000 Terminus Coins
B. Random Skill Scroll
C. Random Blue (Excellent) Grade Item
Hmm... pretty stingy. But it made perfect sense. Since literally every single Explorer could claim this reward upon winning their first match, the system wasn't going to hand out anything luxurious. It was just a minor incentive to encourage participation.
After a brief moment of thought, Lu Li immediately eliminated options A and C; their overall market value was simply too low. Option B, however, offered a sliver of gambling potential. If he got lucky, he might actually pull a highly useful utility skill. He selected B.
[Initiating Random Skill Scroll generation. Drawing from the pool...]
[Draw Complete. You have received the Skill Scroll: Reconnaissance.]
Lu Li inspected the scroll. Its function was exactly as the name implied: an active scanning skill. By using this skill, he could view the core attribute block of any target, provided the target's Spirit attribute was not more than 3 points higher than his own. The wider the gap in Spirit, the less information the skill would reveal.
He honestly couldn't tell if this was a lucky pull or a complete dud. Judging by the nature of this skill, the entire "prize pool" for the First Win reward was likely restricted to basic, fundamental survival skills specifically designed to help low-tier Explorers stay alive.
From that perspective, getting a free, permanent Reconnaissance skill was actually incredibly useful. At the very least, when facing future enemies, he could analyze their exact numerical stats rather than purely relying on his intuition to guesstimate their strength.
Having claimed his prize, Lu Li immediately re-queued. He was here to claim the absolute top spot.
Ten minutes later...
[The Pioneer has achieved a 4-win streak. Your ranking has increased to: 112,103.]
Lu Li sat in his private lobby, frowning thoughtfully.
The matchmaking was near-instantaneous. During those four matches, he had deliberately stalled in the randomly generated environments, using the opportunity to carefully observe and analyze the various flashy, bizarre magical skills the opposing Explorers utilized.
But after four matches, he realized it was a complete waste of his time. The Explorers at the bottom of the rankings were simply far too weak; their skills were clumsy and full of fatal openings.
He decided to accelerate the process. The moment the environment loaded, he showed zero mercy, instantly blitzing and decapitating his opponent with a single strike.
Lu Li proceeded to grind the Arena for ten continuous hours. He achieved an absurd 260-win streak, yet his ranking had only just barely breached the Top 1,000.
He wasn't experiencing any mental fatigue, but his stomach was starting to growl. He decided to call it a day and resume his climb tomorrow.
Once he breached a certain ranking threshold, the caliber of his opponents naturally spiked. Currently, every single Explorer he matched against was maxed out at Level 10, with core attributes hovering right at the 30-point ceiling. They possessed genuine, lethal combat capabilities.
Having reached this high-tier bracket, Lu Li's win streak naturally slowed down. It wasn't because he was feeling pressured; he simply wanted to carefully observe and document the diverse, specialized abilities possessed by the absolute top-tier Explorers in the Tier 1 bracket. Broadening his horizons and analyzing different power systems would be highly beneficial for surviving future Mission Worlds.
And so, Lu Li practically lived inside the Arena for six consecutive days. Finally, after sprinting across a ruined cityscape and ruthlessly cleaving a terrified female mage in half, he heard the glorious, long-awaited system prompt.
[The Pioneer has achieved a 968-win streak. Your ranking has increased to: 1]
[The Pioneer has obtained the Title: Peerless (Tier 1)]
[Peerless (Tier 1): All Attributes +1 (Only effective if the specific attribute is currently below 50 points)]
(Note: This Title will be permanently revoked upon the Pioneer advancing to Tier 2, or if your Arena Ranking drops below #1.)
Naturally, Lu Li couldn't spend the rest of his life sitting in the Arena actively defending his title. However, the Terminus Space utilized an advanced "Mirror" function. Even when an Explorer was offline or deployed on a mission, the Arena would automatically generate an AI-controlled Mirror phantom of the Explorer, perfectly replicating their absolute highest recorded combat performance to defend their rank against challengers.
The Peerless title was incredibly unique. It was a "Special" Title, meaning its passive effects remained permanently active without needing to be manually equipped into his primary Title slot. Lu Li was extremely satisfied.
The sudden, violent usurpation of the #1 rank sent massive shockwaves throughout the entire Tier 1 Arena community. Countless elite Explorers noticed the brand new, completely unknown name that had rocketed up from the absolute bottom. Every single one of them silently etched the alias "Qiu Mo" into their memories.
Having successfully claimed the ultimate prize, Lu Li was just considering treating himself to an incredibly lavish, expensive meal in the Commercial District when a system mail notification chimed.
Opening the message, his mood instantly soared even higher.
It was an automated contract notification from the bizarre sailor-suited girl. His custom-forged equipment was finally finished.
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