In front of Luon was 5 different manuals covering each aspect he was lacking. These books do not make skills magically appear in his skill list after reading it, but they were cultivation techniques that required time to master.
Before he had started training he had consulted Bendan on that aspect, how could he be such a powerful cultivator at such a young age? After all, Bendan also woke up in the same year as Luon.
His answer was simple, the Vortex Container. Not only did the Vortex Container allow one to experience realistic simulations at a slower pace than reality, but it also has a realism option. This specific mode was turned off by default as it would cause any impact, injury, body reconstruction or energy training that occurs in the false reality to appear in reality.
Not only that but because the simulations happened at an accelerated pace, it was possible for one to receive a series of injuries in the differences of seconds which may result in death.
This was one of the reasons why most combat classes weren’t held in virtual reality. As for a couple of other reasons – the body would get sluggish if people don’t exercise in reality, one would lose their sense of time, and often people would mix up with what was fake with what was real.
The liquid used in the Vortex Container was a precious liquid mixed with herbal essences to increase the healing pace as well as provide proper nutrients to the lacking body. However, the fluid found in almost all Vortex Containers was the commonly used formula as only wealthy families have the privilege for higher grade one. For the rich, their bodies if incredibly injured can heal nearly 4 times faster than the ordinary person.
Gazing over the 5 manuals again he decided it was better to determine in virtual reality where time was slower.
After he had picked them up, in the corner of the bedroom was an operation panel which gave Luon not only the ability to change the temperature and humidity of the room, but he was also able to conjure up a miniature digital scanner and a Vortex Container from the floorboards.
Luon while being guided on the simple operations of the panel by CITA, the most helpful AI ever, he was able to scan the manuals into his inventory in virtual reality. Afterward, Luon called the Vortex Container in the room and as it did a message notification appeared in Luon’s BMPU wrist-watch.
Luon opened it up to find a message from Isabella, the lady who handled his awakening process. This message was a quick greeting and was set to trigger when he first used his Vortex Container in his room, it only supplied a quick tidbit of information relaying to Luon that this Vortex Container was the one he was raised in.
‘No wonder the name tags were already to assign on the bedroom doors,’ thought Luon. Within the time frame where candidates were freely enjoying their miniature vacation before school, these Vortex Containers were shipped to the school dorm rooms.
Feeling a little sentimental about the Vortex Container he sat in it for a bit and closed his eyes. He didn’t go to virtual reality right away, he merely sat and recalled all the experiences he received from this magical device.
From the joys of childhood to the dark reality of adulthood, and this had happened several times. These were times that Luon had thought were real, but even if they were fake – it was real to his heart.
“I’m counting on you once again.” Luon began to operate the Vortex Container after giving his thanks to the Vortex Container. To Luon even though it was just a machine, a tool for multiple purposes, it was precious to him.
Luon appeared in a blank white room, the lobby room which allows him to choose the settings on what kind of simulation he would like to experience.
Luon thought for a second and asked CITA, “Hey now that I think of it couldn’t I read all the books digitally in the simulation rather than going to the library or using my BMPU?”
CITA replied robotically, “Because of differences in time in the simulations and reality and the simulations management of over millions of different users this feature was disabled to reduce the amount of load to the server.”
“Although most information is stored locally on the Vortex Container Unit, health management systems and updates are made in real time consistently to allow the most optimal user experiences.”
“With our network, we can allow users to have realistic simulations with AI behavior which is harshly regulated for your safety.”
“If you wish to read books in this subspace you must pre-input the topics and books you want and store it locally into your Vortex Container, you can have only up to 100 different books at a time.”
Luon thought about it for a second, millions of users requiring run-time support with simulations going at a pace averaging about 10 times faster than usual. It made sense to cut back on some features to make the others work better, luckily the local storage could store books for him to read a lot more unworried about the time elapsed.
Curious as he was Luon then asked CITA, “What kind of simulations do most people who use Vortex Container run? To be exact what is listed in the top 10 things to do.”
CITA then displayed to Luon a list of things other users would do in simulations.
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[Search – Top 10 Rankings of Simulation Usages] [1 – User is not authorized to access] [2 – User is not authorized to access] [3 – Life Simulations] [4 – Combat Training] [5 – User is not authorized to access] [6 – User is….] |
Looking at the list, Luon questioned CITA. “How come it says I am not authorized to know most of the things on the list?”
CITA, his electronic helper on the holographic digital display happily drove around and around while answering his query. “You do not have authorized access due to your age. The content listed is filed under obscene simulations which are classified under obscene materials, due to regulations you are not able to access them.”
“What!? Underage? I am mentally over 170 years old how could I still be considered underage.” Luon asked.
“These regulations are only evaluated in consideration of the physical body, not the mind. Whether or not you have an adult’s mind in a child’s body or anything alike does not factor in. This evaluation is also used throughout the whole universe.” CITA replied as the digital display of CITA was now racing on a little race track.
“Forget it. Let’s just do some training. Turn on the default settings for training with the realism mode on CITA,” replied Luon.
Restricted from adult content and simulations? Such problems can only be fixed with time. Luon then attempted to recall if he had any real adult experiences.
The more he remembers, the more saddened he was to find out that during the centuries Luon lived in the simulations he had never had been in a relationship. 4 of the simulations were too young for such intimate acts, but the other 2 were too occupied for it.
The environment in the surroundings change to a forest with a waterfall, after seeing these changes Luon asked CITA, “I did say default but why are we here?”
“The default settings for training is set to this region after recording that 80% of the users who trained here were able to attain enlightenment, would you like to change the environment?” CITA replied.
“Nevermind then, I don’t care too much about it.” Luon pulled the 5 manuals in front of him once more.
Using his Eye of Insight skill he scans over the manuals before deciding which one to train.
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[Steps of Starlight] [Rank – Rare] [A movement technique which utilizes both Mana and Qi. The consumption of energy is drastically lower than any other technique, and it was believed that at the mastery level the movement technique would allow you to traverse through space.] |
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[Basic Manaqi] [Rank – Common] [A manual explaining the conversion, manipulation, and interconnection between Mana and Qi energy. All energy comes from the heavens and earth, the great Dao is a long road and Mana, and Qi is just a part of it.] |
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[Revolving Wind Blade] [Rank – Rare] [A sword technique created by loose cultivator. Far and wide did he used it but no one really knew about this technique as it looked similar to many other techniques. The only unique feature about this technique would be energy consumption as the power was comparable to common Qi slash technique.] |
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[Synchro Foundation Technique] [Rank – Unique] [A body tempering and meditation technique created by a researcher who studied cultivation techniques and body techniques of cultivators. This technique is comparable to a basic technique body tempering technique combined meditation technique and could only reach the 6th Realm in the physical body.] |
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[Damaged – The path of the Asura] [Rank – Unique] [Writings and notes of enlightenment about obtaining the immortal body of the Asura. Due to wear the writing has become illegible in a significant amount of sections.] |
Looking over the manuals, from what he understands about cultivation from the online forums and his life during the cultivator’s world, he should start with [Basic Manaqi], then he should train in the [Synchro Foundation Technique].
After he establishes a foundation, he should then study the basic movements for the [Steps of Starlight] technique and the [Revolving Wind Blade] technique.
As for the manual he got from Arisa he had no idea how to start with it.
Luon then had a sudden thought and asked CITA, “Do you know if any of these techniques have been trained before?”
CITA replied, “Answering your query the [Basic Manaqi] manual has been studied over 150257 times ranging from a few hours to a few days to study.”
“The [Synchro Foundation Technique] has been studied 260486 times, the first level takes about a few days to a month to study while only 15039 people had reached the final level after 70 years.”
“The [Revolving Wind Blade] technique has been studied by students 9510 times and the [Steps of Starlight] technique 91027 times. They both take the same duration to study as the first level took merely a day for 90% of the users who actually trained in it. There are no details about the final levels of these techniques as most users opt to change later on.”
“As for the [Damaged – The path of the Asura] records are classified, but for research purposes, there is only 1 person who had successfully cultivated technique.”
Luon who heard about the details of these techniques was surprised to find that the damaged manual actually had someone who used it, and the information regarding it was classified.
As for the others, it seems like his goal to at least study the basic levels of them may possibly take 1 night in real life to do. Could he perhaps do it all in 3 days of simulation? Only if he was a genius he could, but realistically he decided to train with [Basic Manaqi] and [Synchro Foundation Technique] first. If he had the time, he decided to study the [Steps of Starlight] to the basic level and then the [Revolving Wind Blade] technique.
As he started studying the [Basic Manaqi], he found that precisely like CITA claimed, this technique was way too straightforward as he was able to mix his mana and qi too easily.
From what he read Mana and Qi came from the same source, it was akin to life essences only the level of density, quality as well as attribute were different in several ways. There were many kinds of Mana and Qi, many of which share similar properties.
Death Qi and Black magic were close counterparts as well as Yang Qi and Fire Magic, and this was the same for all other attributes.
Qi energy was like a river, sometimes violet and other times serene it continuously flowed into the surroundings while mana was like a lake consistent and still, once empty it was difficult to regain.
Luon then began to study the Synchro Body Technique, but all he did was study. He didn’t train in it as he was surprised to find out that the concept of cultivating was relatively simple.
The manual had explained that meditation was merely to have a serene mind and understanding about the laws and elements of the world and that body tempering was just withstanding and upholding those elements into forging one’s body.
Luon thought about this carefully and being the tech-savvy person he was he thought, ‘Doesn’t this mean that cultivating is equivalent to being a big race to who can build the best computer?’
If the body of a cultivator was the motherboard and tower than what Luon needed to do is change it, body reconstruction and tempering were the only ways to do so.
The mind and soul would be the processor which can be upgraded by enlightenment and clarity of the mind to unlock the brain’s truest potential. Just like how the processor can easily be swapped out, some cultivators, mainly the old were able to leave their bodies and possess more refined bodies with some unholy techniques.
As for the power supply, that would be life essences, mana and qi energy. RAM would be my primary active memories while the HDD would be my mental archives.
Applications and software are skills cultivators use to fight each other, some need more processing to execute correctly, while others require more electricity, more energy to commit.
To cultivate properly, Luon thought he needed to make his body powerful enough to sustain the energy and techniques he uses. As for the mind, it can only grow with time.
But looking at the [Synchro Foundation Technique] Luon found it lacking. With his understanding techniques for tempering the body was equivalent to having a factory reconstruct his body. The more profound the method was, the better the factory used to create the body turns out to be, he didn’t want a shabby factory filled with muck and dirt to forge himself, if possible he wanted something better.
Luon than recalled the manual he received from Arisa and hoped to get some inspiration. However, to his disappointment, it was genuinely ineligible, and even if the words weren’t blurred, it was in a different language in which CITA wasn’t able to translate.
Luon regrets handing Arisa the sword for this manual to the point he wanted to tear it apart even if it was a unique rank item. What use could it be if it wasn’t usable? Luckily this was the virtual world version of it so he could destroy it as many times as he wanted to. He duplicated the manual several times and to appease his rage decimated the manual in several different ways.
Luon burnt it, tore it, buried it, dissolved it in liquid, and did many more inappropriate things to do to books until he decided to drown it in blood to make it very goopy did something changed.
The book for some reason absorbed all the blood as if they were a supplement, and curious as he was he examined it.
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[The path of the Asura Lv1] [Rank – Unique] [Writings and notes of enlightenment about obtaining the immortal body of the Asura. Due to wear the writing has become illegible in a significant amount of sections. To unlock more segments true blood is required.] |
Seeing how the context changed Luon read the only available text to him to find an incomplete cultivation technique. Although he was disappointed to find that it wasn’t complete as he learned more about it he grew excited. The words provided filled the gaps in the [Synchro Foundation Technique].
With determination, he began to cultivate with his beliefs combining the incomplete and the completed one. He walked under the waterfall to train his body and focused his mind on the surroundings becoming one with nature.
It took 2 days before he had reached to what he believed to be the first level of his newly founded technique, the [Circuit Establishment] technique. He named it after taking in consideration of his thoughts comparing computers to cultivation.
Afterward, he tried to study the [Steps of Starlight] technique which he found that with the [Circuit Establishment] technique he was able to learn it quickly as if it was made for each other.
Luon looked over the time realizing that he had only spent less than a day left in virtual reality since his real body is in a state of hibernation he didn’t have to worry about lack of sleep.
Although he may be a little edgy after obtaining the first level in the [Circuit Establishment] technique, he should be okay. Otherwise, he would have to take an energy pill to attend the Commander classes.
With the remaining time, Luon practiced solidifying his foundations on his newly founded techniques to the best that he could.
Once in a while he looked at his stats and smiled and by the time he was done training he was satisfied with his process.
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[Luon Fate] [Race: Half-Human/Half-Elf] [Federation ID: NEX-6854BP] [Job: Student] [Combat Level: 39] [Racial Skills: Quickness, Night Vision, Mana Affinity] [Active Skills: Wind Magic Lv2, Reinforcement Magic Lv2, Mana Manipulation Lv3] [Passive Skills: Swordsmanship Lv3, Parallel Thoughts Lv3, Eye of Insight Lv4, Manaqi Lv2, Circuit Establishment Lv1, Steps of Starlight Lv1] [Species Knowledge Evaluation: 387/1000] [Technical Knowledge Evaluation: 600/1000] [Monthly Salary Evaluation: 1997 Galaxia Coins] [Recommended Job Paths: Engineer, Soldier, Commander] |
