Chapter 7: CH 7

Whoosh––

Yongno felt a stinging sensation in his blood vessels as if he was being pricked by needles, but thanks to one of the D.I.O's systems that decreased users' pain sensitivity, he was experiencing a mild ache, instead of severe stabbing pain.

"Hmm..."

A lump of energy moved penetratingly through his narrow blood vessels and headed towards his right hand, but since the vessels weren’t straight, it would take a detour, then at some point...

"Eh? Are they open?"

"What do you mean?" asked Mari.

Yongno replied, "Have you heard of the conception and governing vessels or the barrier of life and death? I was planning to break through these points, but they are already open... Aren't they usually blocked in martial arts novels? It would be a freak of fate if beginners had masters unblocking those points for them."

In Mari's eyes, Yongno seemed like he was questioning if his body had limitless internal energy and martial arts.

With a snort, she replied, "Come on, your body exists as it is. Why would we bother blocking those points?”

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, but it’s a little weird since the Gold Core Immortal Technique had no need for the conception and governing vessels yet… Eh?”

"Good to hear that they are unblocked,” said Yongno.

Ignoring the confused beauty, Yongno released the energy that moved through his blood vessels from his palm. His hand then emitted gold light, and shortly after, he was holding a gold marble. 

/Your maximum Spiritual Power (Type: Internal Arts) has decreased by 10 points!/

The message appeared, as always, but Mari’s jaw dropped to the ground as she found it abnormal this time. 

She asked in astonishment, "The gold marble... Did you just take the gold marble out of your body?" 

"It’s a bummer to fail to increase my stats by reaching the maximum limit, so I came up with this plan when I was outside this game,” replied Yongno.

"But you don't have to reduce your maximum Spiritual Power..."

Mari covered her forehead, looking puzzled, but Yongno just put the gold marble in his inventory, then jumped into the water.

"Eh? Why is it so deep?" he murmured.

Yongno was surprised to find out that the sea was much deeper than he thought; the bottom of the ocean was invisible and he couldn't land on the seabed.

Mari explained, "This place is named Kaylow's Fault. A long time ago, there was a war between Kaylow, the king of the Titans, and Zigmund, the ancient dragon. The fracture is known to be the battle ruins. It's approximately 3,000 meters deep."

Considering that it was located right beside land, its depth was unbelievable.

Yongno asked, "Amazing! How wide is it then?" 

"About 50 meters wide? It isn’t as much as the depth."

"Aha, so it's like a deep cut on the ground, right?"

Mari replied calmly, "Not only does it look like a cut, but it’s actually a blade scar."

"Eh?" Yongno wondered if she was joking, but he soon nodded in agreement. This was just a game; nothing was strange inside here even if he shot a 'Kame****ha' and blew away the moon.

He uttered, "Well, it doesn't matter. Nice to find a deep spot just in time."

"Are you gonna dive?" asked Mari.

"Uh-huh, I know it's boring for you, but would you go take a rest?"

"Yeah, sure."

Mari flopped down on the surface, which was quite a mysterious sight. Although the water wasn’t moving very forcefully, they were in the ocean with crashing waves, but surprisingly, nothing dared to approach her sitting on the surface like a big rock; even a drop of water couldn’t make her wet. 

Yongno mumbled, "Hmm, her supernatural power is quite on another level, comparable to the ability to walk on water. She will have a lot of followers in the real world if she displays her goddess-like beauty and force to the public.”

Mari uttered, "Followers?"

"Nothing, just enjoy your break."

Shaking his head, Yongno exhaled approximately 80% of his breath. Before diving, people breathed in air as much as they could or, at least, a certain amount of it, but that only applied to ordinary people. 

/Activating skill - Diving./

As Yongno became accustomed to circulating the qi, he could now consciously control the process of consuming Internal Energy, instead of oxygen. His mastery of the Gold Core Immortal Technique had also reached 20%, so his Internal Energy recovered faster. Yongno also became more experienced in diving, so he could stay underwater for about five minutes with just 10 Internal Energy points. Plus, it had nothing to do with holding breaths, so with another 20 Internal Energy points, Yongno was able to remain underwater for more than thirteen minutes. 

That's a good pace, and if I increase my blood oxygen saturation, I can go without air for ten minutes without using my Internal Energy, which means it can be possible to stay underwater for an hour as soon as within a few days.

Yongno sank into the water. His body quickly went down the surface like a huge rock since he exhaled most of the air before diving. Having become heavier than water, he naturally headed down to the ground without using any strokes or kicks.

Beautiful...

The stunning view of crystal clear water entered his sight. All kinds of fish were flaunting their shades; colorful corals were vibrantly painting the bottom of the ocean.

Oh, isn't it possible to make money from selling corals?

But Yongno shook his head. He heard that some people treated corals as jewels, but he wasn’t able to figure out which one was actually profitable. He couldn’t even scratch out everything since there were tons of reefs on the bottom of the ocean.

/Warning: You reached 200 meters deep! You are starting to feel the pressure of the water pushing down on you!/

/Your status has been updated: 'Minor Injury.'/

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Aha, I thought Energy was Health, but this is how it goes.[1]

When Yongno first opened the stats window, he looked at his Spiritual Power and Energy, but not his HP. It was the biggest question he had at that time, but come to think of it, the rules weren’t the same in virtual reality as other online games. 

If this world had 100/100 for HP and users took an attack equivalent to 50 damage points, it was a little iffy to reduce their HP to 50/100 similar to how it was done in other online games. Then, what would happen when users broke their arms? How many points would the system reduce? 

If this world applied a rule of dropping energy points only by the attacks subjected to death, cutting off the users’ limbs wouldn’t affect their lives, so their HP should remain high. In fact, what were the judging criteria of HP in the first place? 

That was why D.I.O's system updated the user's status to Normal, Minor Injury, Serious Injury, Fatal Injury, and Dead accordingly; it also gave different names based on the players’ injured areas. In fact, it was unnecessary to check the stats window since the users could directly observe their physical conditions. Wouldn’t everyone immediately notice their injuries if they broke their arms or legs? 

Anyway, Yongno began to feel the change of water pressure on his body, but he didn’t slow down his descent. As it was hard on his body, Yongno circulated his internal energy through the designated route, using Body Strengthening. However, since his cultivation base was lacking, Yongno performed a weakened version of it by using only a small amount of Internal Energy.

/Your HP has been enhanced by 15 points (Effective for 180 seconds)!/

/Your status has been updated: 'Normal.'/

Alright, this much is enough to work.

Just then, Yongno stopped diving deeper as he got close to harming himself. When considering the diving time, he could still go down a little deeper but consuming his Internal Energy to improve his physical condition had reduced the duration that Yongno could stay underwater. Besides, the deeper he dived, the higher the water pressure, so it was time for Yongno to restrain himself. 

Suddenly, Yongno was reminded that he was inside a virtual world; it was possible to rise from the dead. However, he didn’t dare to test that in this hyper-realistic game. Yongno was not the only person who thought that way; every user would also hesitate to risk their lives. 

Comparing this situation to bungee jumping, one would fear jumping off the tower when looking far down. Although one would be assured that the large elastic cord connected them safely to the support, they could hardly deny the fear of injury or death at the breathtaking height. 

Likewise, although it was a game, who would dare to end their life without any hesitation? Some people might find it possible, but if they could really commit suicide that way, those people weren’t fearless; they were just out of their minds. If they had experienced death a couple of times, that was another story, but Yongno had never met his death yet.

I’m running out of time; I have less than a minute to look around this place.

However, it was too dark around since light couldn’t travel this far in the deep ocean.

Gosh, I wish I had something like a Night Vision... Oh, maybe that could work!

After a short pause, Yongno circulated his internal energy and pooled it together in his eyes, then he recalled the night vision goggles that he once saw on his father's desk.

Yeah, those night vision goggles were an image intensifier tube.

The old goggles used during the Korean War or the Vietnam War were active night vision devices that converted the infrared lights reflected from objects and switched them to visible images. However, the user's location was detectable when using that method, so the latest ones were passive night vision devices that utilized automatic scanning equipment.

In fact, the night vision goggles were based on a simple theory. Using an intensifier tube, the device collected and amplified infrared and visible light. These eyepieces amplified the starlight into a high degree of light, even in the pitch-black darkness, and offered a clear view. Although Yongno had dived into the deep dark ocean, the light wasn’t utterly blocked, so there was a possibility to get visibility.

But would it be a problem if I go deeper into a lightless space?

Yongno thought about using the thermal detector system to capture the infrared light, but he soon shook his head.

Thermal detectors allow us to see a far distance, but they become useless in the rain because infrared light is absorbed by moisture. It makes detecting infrared light underwater almost impossible.

However, that wasn’t the problem here, so Yongno circulated his internal energy immediately. His pupils began to shine gold, and soon a new message appeared in the air.

/You gained a new skill - Enhanced Eyesight!/

Okay! I can see now.

Although it wasn't as bright as noon, Yongno was able to see objects around him. He let out a huge cheer at his achievement. Meanwhile, time was also running out since he was using his Internal Energy to also channel Enhanced Eyesight, so he quickly looked around and found... 

King clam!!

Yongno approached the clam opening its mouth in the middle of a cliff-like steep surface. The king clam looked literally huge; the shell was as big as a tire, and there was thick meat and a large pearl inside.

Yey!

Looking at the pearl as big as a child's fist, Yongno felt like he had found a treasure. And the moment he caught it...

WHAM.

Eek...?!

All of a sudden, the clam bit his arm. Yongno tried to take it out in fright, but unfortunately, its biting force was unbelievably strong. His arm started to release beautiful gold smoke, but the clouds of gleaming fumes were definitely blood.

God d*mn it! Ugh, it doesn't get out!

He fiercely swung his hand in fear, but the clam didn’t release his arm. As he couldn’t stand the tightening pain anymore, Yongno instinctively circulated his internal energy.

/Your Strength and HP has been enhanced by 100 and 60 points (Effective for 5 seconds)!/

That was when he stopped bleeding. The tight clamshell opened by force. It was temporary, but his Strength had now reached 145 points with the title buff. Yongno could now lift a 500-kilogram rock, so although the clam had an intense biting force, Yongno was able to open its shell with ease.

Open sesame!

As soon as he took out his arm from the clam, Yongno opened the inventory and shoved the whole king clam into the compartment. It was dark around him, so there was no problem opening the inventory. In fact, the problem was lying elsewhere.

/Your Internal Energy has dropped! Skill - Diving has been canceled! Skill - Body Strengthening has been canceled! Skill - Enhanced Eyesight has been canceled!/

/Warning: The pressure of the water begins to push down on you!/

/Your status has been updated: 'Minor Injury.'/

Yongno’s face turned grim at the messages appearing one after another.

Oh my god!

Yongno kicked the water immediately to go up to the surface. He grabbed and bounced off the precipitous underwater cliff to rise from the deep water, but he still had 200 meters to go.

1. Edited slightly to reflect the English translation. ☜

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