The System Teaches You How to Be Human

Boom!

With a thunderous crash, Tru’s mecha was sent flying, slamming into the arena’s built-in protective shield. The elastic barrier rebounded sharply, and faint liquid-like crystalline fractures spread across its surface, as if it were on the verge of shattering from the impact!

[Mecha damage level increased to 10%!]

Tru tasted something sickeningly metallic in his mouth—blood. His jaw throbbed so intensely it felt like it was about to explode. That single attack had left a visible crack in the lower part of his mecha, and the system faithfully transmitted every ounce of pain straight to him!

Bai Lingqiu tried to rush to his aid, but Lin Xian, who had gone berserk at the sight of Tru’s misfortune, clung to him relentlessly!

Inside his cockpit, Lin Xian’s expression was blank, but the corners of his lips curled into a distinct smirk. He became even more reckless; he couldn’t defeat Bai Lingqiu in direct combat, but keeping him occupied was no problem at all!

Let’s see who tires out first, Tru!

After that brutal blow, Tru’s weapons had finally finished charging. His jaw was burning with pain, and in a desperate move, he activated a simulated planet-destroying cannon; a single shot of which cost thousands of gold star coins per second!

A real planet-destroying cannon could split an entire planet in half with a single blast. Even this simulated, miniature version carried immense destructive power! A luxury only rich players could afford.

Tru was convinced that Si Yisi’s mecha was nothing more than a deceptively shabby-looking shell, hiding top-tier enhancements purchased with an astronomical amount of star coins.

Furious, he no longer cared about the cost and fired the simulated planet-destroying cannon!

This one shot would drain nearly half of his personal fortune, leaving his remaining funds severely limited. But just imagining the destruction of Si Yisi’s high-performance mecha; something that had undoubtedly cost a fortune to optimize, filled Tru with an inexplicable sense of satisfaction!

He had no idea that every single one of his assumptions was completely wrong.

Lightning surged around the simulated planet-destroying cannon as it charged. The next moment, it fired; a blinding beam erupted forth, and the oppressive energy in the enclosed space of the arena created an overwhelming pressure, as if the very air had been sucked dry!

“Cough!” Lin Xian instinctively coughed, his mecha taking even more damage, but his eyes remained fixed on Si Yisi, completely focused.

What is he going to do?! Can he block this attack?

***

At that moment, the viewers on StarNet were glued to the unfolding battle. The arena’s live stream had reached its capacity, with countless spectators flooding in; so many that some were forcibly booted from the server due to overload!

“Hiss…” One of StarNet’s maintenance staff noticed the anomaly.

She clicked into the malfunctioning arena feed and was immediately stunned by the names she saw.

Tru, the Imperial Prince.

Lin Xian, the Marshal’s son.

Bai Lingqiu, the top contender for this year’s Dual Emperor Tournament.

And one more… Who’s this last contestant?!

To her shock, when she attempted to access the competitor’s details, she was met with a red-text restriction message. [Insufficient clearance.]

Higher clearance than those three major figures?! Just who is this person?!

The audience was electrified, staring intently at Si Yisi, waiting for his response.

“How is he going to counter this? He’s already locked onto—how can he possibly escape this time?!”

The simulated planet-destroying cannon’s defining feature was its “absolute lock-on” ability!

Yet, right before their eyes, that ugly, snake-like mecha moved; sidestepping the supposed “absolute lock-on”!

What weapon is he pulling out to counterattack…?

Wait… a dagger?!

There was no way Si Yisi would pull out something as extravagant as a simulated planet-destroying cannon. His only weapons were a simple dagger and a small lightsaber!

His golden title gleamed brilliantly above him, radiating an almost taunting aura. With casual ease, he shattered the illusion of “absolute lock-on,” then raised his dagger. And slashed through the mecha’s armor!

Tru’s mecha was a so-called luxury stellar-grade mecha, equipped with top-tier defenses and known for being indestructible. And yet, right now, this “indestructible” mecha was having its outer protective layer sliced away, strip by strip, by a completely ordinary dagger!

[Warning: Your mecha’s damage level has increased to 20%… 30%… 50%!!]

[Outer protective shell has been breached! Outer protective shell has been breached!]

At that moment, Tru finally understood the despair his own subordinates had once experienced!

He wanted to lock onto his target, but Si Yisi’s movements were so erratic that precise attacks were impossible! He wanted to dodge Si Yisi’s increasingly frenzied and vicious assaults, but he was rapidly losing the strength to do so!

Crack!

God knows how Si Yisi managed it, but he had Tru completely at his mercy, beating him senseless; yet somehow, despite the relentless blows, Tru’s mecha’s damage percentage barely increased at all!

Tru had become nothing more than a human punching bag, endlessly repeating the same cycle; getting launched into the air, struggling to stand, only to be kicked away again. It was both a physical and psychological torment!

Every time he launched a desperate counterattack, Si Yisi would “coincidentally” maneuver Tru right into the path of his own weapons’ landing points, forcing him to experience firsthand what it felt like to be crushed by his own luxurious arsenal!

All the meticulous preparations Tru had made before the match had now become meaningless, merely providing Si Yisi with more “toys” to torment him with.

There was no escape. And with Tru’s mental link to his mecha, his prized “Stellar Mecha” suffered right alongside him! The once sleek and formidable machine; his pride and joy, was now falling apart, piece by piece, looking more like a pile of salvaged scrap than a cutting-edge war machine. It didn’t even compare to the crude, snake-like mecha Si Yisi was piloting!

Si Yisi took full advantage of the opportunity, methodically dismantling the “teeth” embedded within the Stellar Mecha; just like how he had dealt with the gelatinous creature before!

Tru felt every bit of it.

He was relentlessly beaten, kicked, and battered, until in the end, the phrase “losing teeth all over the floor” became literal.

But the most despairing thing of all was, this lunatic had done something bizarre to his mecha! No matter how much damage he took, his mecha’s health stubbornly remained at 60%, never rising or falling!

Even if he wanted to lose on purpose and forfeit automatically, it was impossible!

***

By this point, Lin Xian’s mecha had also reached 50% damage, but he clung to Bai Lingqiu like a piece of stubborn chewing gum, preventing him from lending Tru any assistance.

Lin Xian only got more excited as the fight dragged on—his grin widened, and his movements became even more exaggerated. Whatever pain he felt was nothing compared to the sheer joy of watching Tru suffer!

Anyway, his old man; the Marshal, trained him like this all the time. He was used to it. Normally, Lin Xian was lazy and indifferent, but the moment Tru was involved, his energy seemed limitless.

Right then, he shouted toward Si Yisi. “I can keep stalling him for a long time—finish Tru off!!”

“Pfft!”

Tru spat out a beast-shaped mechanical tooth from his mecha’s mouthpiece, and along with it dripped blue-stained blood. At a glance, it perfectly illustrated his utter mental breakdown.

He was so furious he literally coughed up blood!

Si Yisi nodded. Every single punch made Tru question his own existence.

By this point, he was completely limp, like a dead fish, he didn’t even have the strength to flop around!

Bai Lingqiu had been repeatedly tripped up. Whenever Lin Xian was on the verge of exhaustion, Si Yisi would step in just enough to tip the balance. With this two-pronged assault, the battle had fallen into a bizarre deadlock, completely one-sided in their favor!

But the one suffering the most was undoubtedly Tru.

The mighty prince, the imperial elite, had been reduced to a joke. His carefully selected mecha operator was completely useless, and he himself…

He had become exactly what Si Yisi’s title declared, [Kneel Down and Call Me Daddy.]

And he couldn’t even leverage his imperial status to force a surrender, because if this fight blew up any further, it would become a full-blown imperial scandal!

Just think about it; an imperial prince, who had received elite education his entire life, getting his teeth knocked out by some nameless nobody; what a headline!

Shame and rage festered inside Tru, but his contorted face and humiliated expression were completely hidden behind the remains of his battered Stellar Mecha. No one could see the depths of his suffering.

Meanwhile, the audience was absolutely electrified.

They roared for Si Yisi, as if they themselves had been part of this glorious, cathartic beat down! The sheer scale of destruction; the sheer budget burned in this fight, was off the charts!

Explosive! Thrilling! Satisfying!!

There was no way StarNet viewers were going to focus on a loser who had been completely crushed.

Tru was on his knees, scrambling to pick up his lost teeth, but the relentless barrage of attacks never stopped, pinning him down, suffocating him.

Finally, he couldn’t take it anymore. With a voice so weak it was barely louder than a mosquito’s, he choked out, “We… surrender.”

Lin Xian casually made a motion as if digging his ear. Even though he lost a few more percentage points of his mecha’s durability, he was completely satisfied.

“What did you say?”

“I said—” Tru’s mouth was full of blood, and his eyes were bloodshot. “We forfeit!”

Tru redirected some of his fury toward Bai Lingqiu, glaring at him viciously. “Did you hear me?! Voluntary forfeit! Forfeit! Forfeit!!”

But Bai Lingqiu only gave Tru a cool glance before taking two steps toward Si Yisi, his expression serious. “You’re a formidable opponent. I hope… we can have a proper match in future competitions.”

“We’ll see.”

Si Yisi raised his hand, and with a decisive slash, his lightsaber pierced straight through the heart of Tru’s mecha!

Right before his eyes, Tru was immediately teleported out of the arena, collapsing onto the ground on one knee, his face twisted with resentment and unwillingness!

Ignored and humiliated, Tru was on the verge of madness. Half-paralyzed outside the battlefield, he pounded on the protective shield. “Why didn’t you forfeit?! Do you not understand human speech? Huh?!”

Bai Lingqiu glanced at Si Yisi, then wordlessly activated the auto-forfeit function. His body dissolved into a streak of silver light, vanishing from the battlefield and entering his private spectator space near the arena.

“Want to get acquainted?” Lin Xian stopped where he was, intending to remove his mecha suit. Meeting someone this talented, his first instinct as a proper noble was to recruit him.

Not that he usually cared about such things, but watching Tru get humiliated had put him in an exceptionally good mood, making him a bit more proactive than usual!

“No need,” Si Yisi replied flatly and logged off without another word.

***

Tru, still panting, rounded on Bai Lingqiu in his private space. “Why didn’t you listen?!”

Bai Lingqiu responded without a trace of emotion. “We were only in a simple employer-employee relationship. But now that the mission has failed, the payment will be fully refunded.”

“Also,” Bai Lingqiu showed no reaction to Tru’s furious glare. He paused before stating the facts plainly, “You might want to pay attention to the outside situation.”

Outside situation?

What outside situation?!

Just before Tru could recall the fact that, prior to the match, he had spent an enormous amount of money on aerial cameras, prepared exclusive news articles, and written up press releases; It was already too late.

All of that content had silently spread across the entire network!

The press release still followed the original format; glorifying Tru to the heavens.

But the footage captured by the aerial cameras showed nothing but Tru getting beaten to the ground over and over, searching for his lost teeth in pure humiliation!

The last frame recorded by the cameras displayed the official match results on StarNet. [Kneel Down and Call Me Daddy] has inflicted the greatest damage on [Tru].

And once it was publicly displayed on the match’s final results screen, the summary had been automatically shortened to. [Kneel Down and Call Me Daddy, Tru!]

Tru had failed to make Lin Xian kneel and beg for mercy.

Instead, he had completely backfired on himself; not only losing the match but also becoming the biggest joke of the day!

He frantically ordered every available resource to suppress the news, but the incident was simply too explosive to contain! All he could do was watch helplessly as it spread like wildfire!

A sensational news article titled [What Exactly Are the Imperial Heirs Doing?] rapidly climbed the trending charts, dominating every major news outlet across the interstellar network!

“Hurry up! Buy trending spots on other news articles! Get this one buried!”

“Find that damn [Kneel Down and Call Me Daddy]! Right now! I don’t want to wait any longer!”

As Tru scrambled in a frenzied panic, Si Yisi put down his terminal and looked up as Wang Qi approached him.

“Young Master Si’an, how was your experience using StarNet? Is there anything I can assist you with?”

Si Yisi let out a light “Ah”, then answered, “It was great. Beating people up… felt amazing.”

Wang Qi: “???”

What… did I miss?