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In the corridor, Coby stood still, his entire body rigid as if struck by lightning.

His right hand unconsciously clenched his phone, while his left rested on the sword at his waist. At this moment, he deeply understood why Admiral Akainu always said, "Some pirates should be executed on the spot."

"Helmeppo..." His voice seemed squeezed through his teeth. "See you at the training ground tonight..."

Helmeppo, who was getting food in the distance, suddenly shivered. Turning back, he saw a dark aura swirling behind Coby and quickly grabbed two extra blueberry pies for his tray.

"Master! Another serving of extra spicy curry, please!" He shouted to the cafeteria uncle. "The kind that makes you breathe fire!"

It was obvious this was meant for an apology. He should have known better than to provoke Coby.

Meanwhile, in a corner of the cafeteria, Bogard was stuffing rice into his mouth while happily watching the commotion, his phone screen still showing the five-kill settlement screen from earlier.

"Just a kid's temper. So what if you lost a few games? There are more losing streaks ahead. Why rush now? Ah, I need to increase their training volume to give them enough mental resilience."

After finishing his meal in a few bites, he continued playing the game, because he found that Honor of Kings could greatly train the mental resilience of new recruits!

On the other side,

Coby dragged his weary body back to his room and collapsed onto the bed.

Today's training was particularly rigorous, and the blow of consecutive losses in ranked matches had completely deflated him.

He pulled out his phone and sighed, "Forget it, I'll practice some heroes first..."

His finger slid across the screen, about to tap open the training camp mode of Honor of Kings, when suddenly—

"Huh?"

His movements abruptly stopped.

Next to the familiar Honor of Kings icon, a bright red new app icon had appeared—a plump tomato with "Tomato Free Novels" written beneath it.

Coby "shot" up from the bed, his eyes wide and round.

"New, new software?!"

His heart suddenly raced, and his fingers trembled slightly.

You know, ever since TikTok and Honor of Kings became popular in Marine Headquarters, almost all the "firsts" in entertainment had been claimed by others—

Fleet Admiral Sengoku was the "internet celebrity" with the most TikTok followers at the headquarters; his "Buddha's Shockwave Tutorial" video had over a million likes;

Vice Admiral Garp inexplicably reached the Legendary King rank, his ID "Iron Fist of Love" struck fear into the hearts of players in high-ranked games, though many were unwilling to team up with him because losing would genuinely result in a couple of Iron Fists of Love!

Even that guy Helmeppo was showing off in the Super King rank...

And himself?

His TikTok account had less than 100 followers, and the highest view count for his "Six Styles Tutorial" video was only 200;

Honor of Kings was stuck in Eternal Diamond and couldn't climb no matter what, being called the "weakest Master Sergeant" by teammates;

"This time... this time I must seize the initiative!"

Coby's face turned red with excitement. He did a carp jump off the bed and paced back and forth in the small dorm room.

"New entertainment software means a new race track! Everyone is at the same starting line!" He clenched his fists, his eyes burning with fighting spirit. "As long as I work hard enough, I can definitely get first place!"

Thinking this, he eagerly tapped open Tomato Novels.

The splash screen animation featured an inspiring slogan: [Read massive novels for free, roam thousands of worlds!]

"Great!" Coby punched the air excitedly. "This time I'm going to be the man with the most reading time at headquarters!"

As he clicked into the library, he found only one novel standing there alone: Snow Sword Stride!

Just one?

Then I'll read this one first. He then clicked on the novel and started reading.

"Sword Nine Huang carried his box and leaped onto the wall head..."

Just reading the first paragraph, Coby was stunned.

The sword path realm described in these words was even more exquisite than any sword technique he had ever witnessed!

"So there's a world like this..." he murmured to himself, completely engrossed in the novel's plot, not even hearing the dinner bell ring.

Outside the window, Helmeppo was bringing extra spicy curry to apologize to him, but saw Coby holding his phone in a trance, and couldn't help but shake his head: "What's going on? Why isn't Coby moving? Is he staring at his battle record and gone silly?"

And at this moment, Coby had secretly made up his mind—

To finish this book within three days!

To become the number one on the Tomato Novels reading time leaderboard!

To let everyone know that he, Coby, was also a genius who could get first place!

"This time... I will definitely not lose to anyone again!"

When he saw the content of the first chapter, Coby was immediately attracted,

"King of Beiliang? Another king of the Sea? Why have I never heard of him before? Is he a character from the past?"

Although he didn't understand, it didn't affect him from continuing to read the following content,

As the novel pages turned one by one, a world of land immortals gradually unfolded!

Coby was engrossed in the plot of Snow Sword Stride. The protagonist, Xu Fengnian, was about to face a life-or-death duel. The tense atmosphere made him hold his breath, and his finger quickly slid the screen—

"Swish!"

Suddenly, the screen changed, and a colorful advertisement was forcibly inserted!

"Divine Media Culture—Global Beauty Recruitment Plan!"

On the screen, the arrogant figure of Hancock flashed by, followed by the shy smile of Princess Shirahoshi. Then, beauties of various styles appeared in rotation, accompanied by exaggerated text effects:

[Do you want to become a super idol admired by millions?]

[Do you want to create your own IP and earn tens of millions of Berry annually?]

[Sign up now and achieve your star dream!]

"What the heck?!" Coby almost dropped his phone, anxiously scratching his head and ears. "I was just at the crucial part!"

The advertisement lasted for a full 15 seconds,

During this time, he frantically clicked on every corner of the screen, trying to skip it, but only more details pages popped up.

He even directly entered the registration interface!

What a joke, he wanted to read the novel!

When Hancock struck the "Mero Mero Mellow" pose for the third time, Coby had already thrown his head back in despair and wailed, "This is more torturous than Admiral Akainu's lectures!"

Finally, the advertisement ended, and he let out a long sigh of relief, preparing to continue reading—

"Ding!"

A golden pop-up window suddenly occupied the entire screen:

[VIP Exclusive Privilege: Remove all ads with one click!]

[Only 500 Berry for the first month, read millions of novels without interruption!]

[Subscribe now and get 100 hours of audiobook time for free! You can choose from different female voices for the audiobook, exclusively provided by Divine Media Culture!]

Coby's finger hovered in the air, caught in a dilemma.

500 Berry was equivalent to his snack budget for a week, but... he really wanted to continue reading!

Should he not buy it?

To top up or not to top up....