I Can Program My Body?

"No need to fret. I'm only lending these to you. You can return them after the competition or pay me back later."

Hearing this, they heaved a sigh of relief, happily accepting the items he provided.

Whether they won or lost a place in the cosmic competition, they were confident they could repay the items.

At worst, they could work for Nash for the rest of their lives.

After handing out everything and offering some advice, Nash dismissed them to prepare for the start of the cosmic competition.

---

The next day, opening his eyes after deep meditation, Nash headed toward the virtual pod.

"This device is really mysterious…" Nash thought as he stepped inside.

The virtual pod, or any virtual access device, could magically scan not only his image but all external items he carried.

Even his storage ring could be virtualized, along with the items inside.

In the past, he didn't understand the reason for such a powerful ability and took it for granted.

But after learning about the runic language, he had a guess.

Using the power of law, it was naturally easy for the device to scan every internal and external thing he had.

As for why it was so cheap despite such a powerful ability, the virtual pod must only be a carrier, a relay to connect to the Virtual World or Dark Plane and tap into its power.

Snapping out of his thoughts, Nash logged into the virtual world.

---

[Participant of the Cosmic Competition Detected.]

[Please stay on standby. The competition will begin in 0 days, 0 hours, 13 minutes, and 27 seconds.]

As the clock ticked by, Nash browsed the virtual forum to kill some time. Finally, the time for the competition arrived.

[Nova Cosmic Competition Begins]

[Transmitting the participant to the 1,330th Zone…]

---

1,330th Zone:

Transmitted to an alternate virtual world, Nash quickly looked around to assess his situation.

The area was a ruined city, swarming with zombie-like dark beasts, flocks of birds flying in the sky, and other participants who had just arrived, like him.

As he wondered how the cosmic competition would unfold, a flash of information appeared in his mind, accompanied by a virtual panel popping up before him.

[Nova Cosmic Competition

Zone 1,330: 1 billion/1 billion

Points: 0

Rank: N/A

Time Left: 29 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes, 55 seconds]

The Nova Cosmic Competition was divided into thousands of zones.

Each zone had one billion participants.

Killing a participant earned 1 point plus half of the points they had accumulated.

Killing dark beasts also granted points based on their strength.

With the points each participant earned, they would be ranked from 1 to the number of participants still alive.

To make it easier to find and kill each other, a map showing everyone's position would appear every hour.

Each day, the map would shrink, preventing participants from staying too far apart.

To win a place in the competition, one had to rank in the top thousand of their zone.

Alongside these core rules, there were a few auxiliary rules and mechanisms.

First, participants could only bring weapons usable in the dark plane, which were scanned by the virtual device they used.

Second, treasure chests were scattered around so that poor individuals could have a level playing field as much as possible.

After all, the rich could simply bring items engraved with runic language and overwhelm everyone with their power.

To simulate the dark plane to the greatest extent, such destructive and unfair weapons were allowed.

As long as one was rich or capable, they could bring anything.

After all, being born rich was its own kind of talent.

Fortunately, such destructive weapons had limits. Otherwise, Nash was worried he would encounter someone who could bomb the entire zone in one shot.

Third, along with the information sent to his mind, Nash received details about the reward mechanics for those who passed the Nova Cosmic Competition.

Skipping various miscellaneous details, he searched for information on how one could secure a spot in the seeded talent program.

Soon, finding the details, Nash couldn't help but frown.

"It's troublesome…"

To secure a spot in the seeded talent program, one had to either eliminate all billion participants in their zone or rank in the top ten across all battle zones.

For the remaining 80 spots, the top thousand who had the most points could compete in one-on-one fights.

"This will be tiring…"

Even if he killed one participant per second, he could only earn about 2.5 million points.

Of course, Nash wasn't foolish enough to follow such a plan.

Quickly finding a hiding spot, he began to deduce the most efficient way to earn points.

After some thought, Nash formed a complete plan.

For the next 25 days, he would hunt higher-tier dark beasts while waiting for participants to eliminate each other.

Although he could only inherit 50% of a defeated participant's points, it should be enough to secure a spot in the top thousand.

Furthermore, not wanting to waste these days in the trial, Nash planned to optimize his module system along the way.

First on the list was the [Combat Module System]. From auto-dodge, attack, aim, and tracking, Nash planned to add an auto-hunt feature.

Initially, for the [Combat Module System] to work, it had to cooperate with the [Autonomous Module System], which had some delay.

Although this wasn't a major issue, in high-speed battles with rapid changes, it could be fatal.

Second on the list were the [Overloading] and [Overclocking] module systems.

Having two module systems for amplification was too redundant.

Nash planned to combine them into a single module system.

While this wouldn't have a significant effect, it would be neater and easier to upgrade in the future.

The last task was combining the [Control] and [Autonomous] module systems.

Both were used to manipulate his body, with the only difference being that the [Control Module System] was for manual control, while the [Autonomous Module System] handled automatic control.

Like the previous combination, this wouldn't have much impact but would be neater and easier to upgrade.

With his plans for the 30-day cosmic competition outlined, Nash began his hunt.