Chapter 5: CH 5

"Here’s the first victim!"

Yongno sneaked up on a deer grazing in the field, which belonged to the large deer herd around the river. He wielded the wooden stick like a club, then hit the small wild animal in the head with a whacking noise.

Thud.

The deer flew about three meters away and fell to the ground. Needless to say, it was killed outright, but all of a sudden, it vanished into a cloud of golden dust. 

'You gained a new skill - Blunt Combat!' 

A message appeared, but Yongno strode toward the ground where the deer's dead body had disappeared. There he found a piece of meat wrapped in butcher paper —  a Drop[1].

Yongno exclaimed, "Cool! So, I gained a Drop and 2 Spirits. If I get up to fifty of them, my EXP would reach 100 soon, then let me do some hard work here... Eh?"

Whoosh!

The group of other deers escaped in all directions as soon as they found an invader having attacked their fellow deer. 

Yongno blankly stared at the scattering herd of animals, then shouted, "Stop!"

He brandished a wooden club and ran after the deers, but catching the fleeing animals required much of his effort. Yongno swung the club violently at them, but every attempt was a miss. A moment after, his improved body returned to normal. 

"Darn it! How could I catch only one of them when I had a new improved body?” grumbled Yongno.

Mari quietly stared at him stamping his feet regretfully.

"Willed Salubrity..." she murmured.

Yongno asked, "What did you say?"

"Uh, nothing." Mari waved her hand to deny what she just said, but she couldn’t hide her bewilderment. Yongno had done something impossible. 

All I’ve asked him to do was the "Microcosmic Orbit", but how can he apply "Adding Strength" and perform "Willed Salubrity" when he's just a man of the twenty-first century and has no idea what martial power or magic is?

From Mari’s point of view, what Yongno just did made no sense, but surprisingly, she just witnessed it with her own eyes. 

Yongno shouted, "Wow! This is amazing. If I change or develop the method a little bit, it seems possible to maximize the force by channeling it all to my right hand or my fingers. No, instead, I can improve my physical abilities or make myself lighter to move rapidly when escaping from enemies... Oh! Is that the Lightness skill?"

Yongno circulated his internal energy excitedly, but he soon became perplexed by the feelings of emptiness inside his stomach; his internal arts had been drained already.

"Eh? Is it already gone? Why?" He wondered in dismay.

Mari explained, "As I told you earlier, you only had a tiny amount of internal energy, but you wasted it nonetheless. Hold on, let me check."

Mari placed her hand again on Yongno's back and moved it around. She took a similar approach that Yongno had taken earlier, but this time, his inner qi moved slightly differently.

He nodded, "Oh, I see, so it kept spinning in the wrong direction around my spine, and... Eh?"

Yongno had been checking the movements of his internal energy to strengthen his body alongside Mari's guidance, but he realized that the paused force was now in motion again. 

He stared at Mari doubtfully, but Mari just continued showing him the way to operate the energy within him. It followed her touch and moved along the route. When she finished drawing the Microcosmic Orbit, a message appeared in the air.

/You learned a new Mental Sutra - Gold Core Immortal Technique!/

"Eh? Mental Sutra?" wondered Yongno.

Mari replied, "Um... it's just like a gift. Do you remember what I’ve just shown you?”

"Ah, no, hold on. I was a little distracted this time.”

"Then let me move it again," said Mari.

As she led his internal energy to move inside him, Yongno concentrated on bringing back the flow of energy to his mind. Once he got used to the flow, Mari placed her hand down. 

"Move your energy, the qi, according to the flow, then your drained internal arts would be recovered. We call this the Gold Core Immortal Technique; it’s a cultivation method that efficiently uses only the middle dantian. This technique is very stable and has large output against Qigong Deviation, but the recovery speed isn’t fast enough even if you move the qi. Still, it’s a very strong skill, so once you get used to it, you can manage your internal energy to keep pace with the flow even when you’re moving or fighting in a battle. In your case, Oppa, you’ll be able to control the energy flow while swimming.”

Yongno asked, "Is this something good? Like a rare Mind Sutra?"

"A rare Mind Sutra? Sorry, but that doesn't exist in D.I.O. We all just find a suitable technique and learn it... Where are you going?"

"I want to dive. You said I can swim and circulate my internal energy along with the qi at the same time."

Yongno then sank into the water. Having his Stamina fully recovered, he could swim to the middle of the river without hesitation, then...

Splash.

He dived like a fish and went underwater fluidly. 

Wow, I didn't know how deep it was, swimming up there.

The place Yongno took his first test had the water level as low as his chest, but now he was swimming around the river about ten meters deep. It even had stronger currents, so if this was in real life, swimming would be banned in this location.

Splash.

'Eh? Carps?'

Yongno was surprised at the size of the fish; it was as big as his arm. Besides, there were so many of them entering his sight that Yongno thought this place could become very popular in the real world. 

What items would those fishes drop? I had a piece of raw deer meat after catching the deer, so the Drop this time could be fresh fish slices...

Watching the shoal aroused Yongno's curiosity, but he eventually gave up catching them. No matter how good his swimming skills were, Yongno couldn’t propel himself through the water and catch a school of fish with bare hands at the same time.

"Eh?"

However, Yongno realized that he didn’t feel any shortness of breath even when he was swimming for a long time. In fact, he didn’t stay underwater until he reached his limits, but Yongno had been diving for almost a minute, so he should gradually feel out of breath. 

But why am I so okay?

Yongno wondered for a second, then figured out that he had been using up his internal energy little by little.

Am I under the effect of Diving, the special ability? That will be the only explanation behind the opening of my middle dantian.

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Yongno began to count the numbers slowly to calculate the consumption speed of his Internal Energy. After doing simple math, he learned that there was a decrease in his Internal Energy by 1 point every five seconds. 

Right now, my Internal Energy is 20 points. Does that mean I can go without air underwater for about another hundred seconds, or a minute and forty seconds?

At that moment, Gold Core Immortal Technique crossed his mind. He began to move his qi along the meridians.

/You are using Gold Core Immortal Technique. You gained 30 points in Mana Gathering!/

Feeling the slight tremble within him, Yongno quickly opened the stats window and observed his Spiritual Power, then noticed the consumption speed of his Spiritual Power had reduced. In fact, his internal energy consumption rate was faster than his internal energy recovery rate. Both rates were mutually conflicting, but it was evident that the technique worked anyway.

I’m gaining 1 point every ten seconds, which indicates that Gold Core Immortal Technique restores my internal energy by 1 point every ten seconds. In other words, I can endure 200 seconds, i.e. three minutes and twenty seconds, without air in the water.

But to think of it again, Yongno's mastery of the Gold Core Immortal Technique was only about 10%. Usually, the higher the rank of a cultivation technique, the faster the internal energy recovery rate. If his internal energy recovery rate increased and exceeded its consumption rate, then… 

I can stay underwater forever!

That wasn’t true since our body needed oxygen regardless of the theory. Internal energy replaced oxygen when Yongno used the Diving skill, but it wasn’t absolutely replaceable. 

Still, users had a strong life force and will to survive, so although oxygen was necessary for people to stay alive, it was possible to stay underwater for a very long time once the player found a solution to breathe and extend the length of time between surfacing for air to weeks or months. 

Sperm whales were the official Guinness World Record holder of diving for about two hours long. In this aspect, Yongno had gained such an overwhelming ability and technique––Diving and Gold Core Immortal Technique––in this world. 

"PUFF!"

Mari asked, "Is there something good inside the water? You're diving for a long time."

"Haha, just chilling. Oh, but Mari, how do we enhance the rank of Gold Core Immortal Technique?"

"First, you must get used to it. Circulate and make use of your internal energy. Consume the gathered force and repeat the process again. After a few cycles, you will be able to enhance its level,” replied Mari.

Yongno nodded as the training strategy was easier than he had expected.

"Okay! I understood but is that all there is to activating the technique?" he asked. 

Mari explained, "No way. Gold Core Immortal Technique is divided into Microcosmic Orbit and Macrocosmic Orbit. The Sutra is completely different at each rank and you must get used to the new one. What you just mastered is the early stage of it, the beginner course of Gold Core Immortal Technique."

"Eek! Then why aren't you teaching me the middle stage and the latter part?"

Looking dumbfounded at Yongno's complaints, Mari retorted, "Hey, Mister, you want everything for free! Normally, I don’t teach cultivation methods this way, but since this is the beginning part of the game, I've been doing it at my own discretion, and you don't appreciate my effort. Shame on you! After finishing the tests, go to the library and pay them to learn the middle and the latter parts."

Yongno wondered, "What? Do they sell them in the library? Is this technique so common?"

Wasn’t it an ability through chance encounter to boost me up? Yongno looked frustrated. 

Mari heaved a sigh at the expression on his face, "Geez, I told you things like fate doesn't exist in D.I.O. The martial arts techniques like Heavenly Magic Divine Technique or Dark Northsea Divine Technique are all in the library, and they are easily acquirable if you can afford them.”

Yongno uttered, "So, the game gives everyone an equal opportunity to learn. Is that correct?"

"Exactly, and it depends on the users whether they reach that level or not."

"Really?" Yongno nodded to agree with Mari, but something lingered in his mind.

This is just a game. Yongno had opened up his mind and accepted everything with that perspective, but ever since he ‘actually’ realized that he was inside a game, Yongno began to become conscious of strange things.

This game isn’t normal...

A game was entertainment provided to the users accessing the service. The providers of the game got paid for the playtime or additional services to derive benefit. Therefore, the more users spent their time playing the game and using cash or paid services, the stronger their characters became or the more excitement they found throughout that time.

But there’s something weird in the system.

Everyone could see the secret skills, but not all players could reach the required level of mastery. Was this game then dividing its users based on their 'abilities?' 

Another suspicious thing was that the level-up in this game wasn’t affected by the users’ playing time or the number of monsters they caught. Instead, the players ought to take 'tests' and 'pass' them to level up. It was a system Yongno had never experienced. 

This game didn’t treat the long-time users more favorably, but it gave a boost to the players who were well adapted to the system since their stats would go higher as they leveled up. This kind of system was close to...

"It's a school!" shouted Yongno.

Mari asked, "Excuse me?"

"Uh, nothing," Yongno murmured.

Then the rewards for leveling up and passing the tests are like merit scholarships given to those with a high degree of academic performance? 

Questions popped up in his head, but Yongno started to perform the Gold Core Immortal Technique. A message then appeared in front of him.

/Your Spiritual Power (Type: Internal Arts) has increased by 1 point!/

Yongno shouted, "It went up!"

"It goes up faster in the beginning,” said Mari.

He asked, "When does the recovery speed increase?"

"I have no idea either."

Yongno was going through a rapid achievement. To raise the Spiritual Power in D.I.O's stats window by 1 point, it would require half a year of Internal Arts cultivation. But right now Yongno had gathered that half a year just by cultivating Gold Core Immortal Technique for ten minutes. 

Being awed by his abilities, Mari murmured, "Well, I did know that you can do it, but you're bringing them together so effortlessly."

"What do you mean?"

"Your Internal Arts... Well, D.I.O doesn't have something like a rebirth, a complete change for the better, but if we provide this service for about a year, there would be a lot of users with master-level force."

Gold Core Immortal Technique was a divine technique that emitted and performed miraculous powers but not enough to accumulate half a year worth of cultivation base in ten minutes without any side effects. Yongno had just done it nonetheless. To think of it, who on earth would spend six decades playing a game to collect a total of sixty years equivalent of cultivation base? From that perspective, what Yongno just did wasn’t impossible. 

When it came to qi absorption, Yongno was an average person. Other users who used different methods to cultivate their internal energy could increase their strength in a similar time frame since that was how the system of D.I.O. worked. This virtual world ran parallel from players’ individual talents or physical abilities.

1. An acquirable item dropped off of enemies or monsters ☜

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