‘‘I’ve always liked the secret identity genre, and now that I have a real one it feels great.’ Jen thinks to himself as he and his companion’s run through a forest to reach Urn City.
The only reason that Jen could have a secret identity is because of a game function that X Online has; if a player’s character dies, then they will be reincarnated into a random NPC of ten years old. From there they will have to start from the beginning of their cultivation. But this is, of course, a world of cultivation, so exceptions do exist, at a cost.
That may not be the kindest death penalty, but if a player has a special class or items, then they won’t lose all of their stats.
The games story is that the soul still goes through the reincarnation cycle, so since reincarnation wouldn’t halfway do the job if nothing interfered, then all things are reset.
Getting classes and items, which allow stat's to reincarnate with you is one of the major aspects of the game.
But getting back on track; this is why no one will know who a player’s previous character was; well of course if the player doesn’t give it away. Which no one is likely to do, because dying too early after reincarnation and without much cultivation will severely damage a player’s soul.
All damage is undesirable, but SOUL damage is by far one of the top few. The soul affects a person’s potential stats, which affects their speed of cultivation. It also affects a player’s body and current cultivation. If a player has a damaged soul, then the body and cultivation will be weakened, depending on the damage of the soul.
Older souls are in even more danger since they provide more benefits to those souls who are younger than them.
But all people do their best to minimize the damage done to the soul, because the soul is many times harder to heal than any other wound. An injury to the soul, depending on severity, also causes more harm to one’s character, than any other wound could.
Not only is it harder to heal one’s soul, but increasing its power isn’t much easier. Though many players increase the strength of their souls, to help their cultivation, after a certain level, they stop so they can refocus on their cultivation.
Increasing the strength of the soul is much harder than cultivation, and there are fewer spiritual arts then there are martial arts. It doesn’t matter if someone is equal in strength if they don’t have methods to use that strength. In fact, being equal in strength without methods to use it, puts the person at a disadvantage.
But what makes them special is the spiritual occupations which they can become. These are rare, and requirements are needed, such as a certain number of spiritual arts which match the occupation, or a particular spiritual art, etc. There are only a few with occupations, but those who have them make even cultivators with higher cultivation wary of them.
Another reason to keep your identity a secret is to prevent people who may want revenge on you from coming after you.
‘We’re here,’ I think to myself.
As we walk up to the city, I feel an increasing pain in my head. It continues to increase, and now I can’t keep myself from shaking and wobbling back and forth.
“Hey Jen, are you ok?” one of my companions asks.
“I don’t know; my head is killing me. I’m going to log off and take a nap,” I answer.
“Sure, we’ll meet up later. Take care.” They bid me goodbye.
After that, I log out and literally hit the bed. Then everything goes black.
--
As the darkness fades and my vision returns I look around and find that I’m in a forest.
‘How did I get here?’ I wonder to myself.
Standing up, I try to remember what happened before now. I was in my room playing the virtual reality MMORPG “X Online” when a terrible headache hit me. After that, I logged out and headed to bed, but after that, I don’t remember anything.
What happened? Did someone kidnap me, and then for shits and giggles leave me in this gosh damn forest!?
Deciding that was a possibility, I check myself to see if they left any kind of note or something telling me what the hell’s going on.
But as I look down at myself I find something strange. My clothes have been changed, and now I’m wearing a black overcoat, with black pants and shoes. They changed my clothes! I hope that’s all they did. Well, I’m not hurting anywhere, so that's a good sign.
But why all black? Wait! It can’t be! I yell in my head as I grab at my left and right waist. And what I find shocks the hell out of me. They’re here, my sword and pouch. This is my game character! Which can mean only one thing.
Some bastard who can’t take a game for what it is, found me, kidnapped me, and threw me in the middle of nowhere. Not only that, but those spiteful pieces of garbage dressed me up as my game character.
Really! I may be a die-hard gamer, but I’m not going to go out of my way to do this for killing or stealing from me in-game. What happens in-game is settled in-game.
Well on the bright side I got myself a real sword. Those people really out did themselves; the engravings are actually the same. Who am I kidding, if they found me, then they most likely used my money to buy this. Shit! How much was this, I’m on a budget you know.
“Grr”
‘What was that?’ I think to myself as I slowly turn around, scared of what I might see.
Well, I was right to be scared, since a wolf the same height as me came out from the bushes. And he’s not alone, there are at least three others with him.
‘I lived a good life, but now it will come to an end,’ I think to myself as I try to convince myself of the good life I had.
Wait, I have a sword. I know I can’t outrun them, but maybe if I swing this sword when they get close, I’ll be able to kill them. Alright, I know the chances are slim, but at least they’re there.
I slowly remove the sword from its sheath as I bend my knees and position one foot slightly behind the other for balance. At that moment two of the wolves start running toward me, but their movements look slow, and when they’re within only a few feet of me I swing my sword downward on the one to the left. Because of their slow movements I dodge the one on the right, and switching the sword’s position in my hands, I swing up.
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
To be honest, the fight was so fast that I don’t even know what I was thinking, or how I even pulled off what I just did. The shock almost gets the better of me, but I am pulled out of it as the other two wolves start running towards me.
I finish them off just like their friends. But how did I do that, and why were these wolves so big? Could I still be in the game? But I remember getting off to go to sleep, so that couldn’t be it.
Or it could be that I was kidnapped, experimented on, and given the powers of my game character? Those wolves could have also have been experiments. But to be truly honest, I have no idea which is the most likely.
It can’t be a dream, because for one it’s too vivid, and I have clear conscious control over myself to realize that this is out of the ordinary, and to think of this as possibly a dream. Really, I've had dreams where I was chased by a T-Rex and thought it was real. And besides, I can feel pain, as proven by the pinch I just gave myself.
“Sigh.” I let out a deep breath. I could just stand here and keep guessing nonsense with no proof of it or get out of this forest and find some people.
-----------------------------------------
Bull Red City: Bull Family’s Main Hall
“Chief, we’ve found Bull Ye, he’s back,” a middle-aged man comes running in as he hastily says.
“Really, is he ok? Bring him here at once!” the chief demands.
“I’m right here father. There’s nothing to be worried about.” A calm and casual voice sounds out as a young man about 15 to 16 comes walking in.
After the chief, his father, sees Bull Ye, he runs up and hugs him. Bull Ye is the good for nothing of the city, but luckily for him, he has a father who loves him unconditionally.
“Father, there’s no need to be so worried. I’m fine, can’t you see. We have bigger matters to take care of now. It was the Evlee family who hired that man to kill me. We must deal with them,” Bull Ye says with a cold smile on his face. The current Bull Ye will never let anyone with malicious intent towards him or those around him off easily.
The Evlee family is the second major family in Bull Red City and rivaled the power of the Bull family. And although Bull Ye is a good for nothing, if they could get rid of him it would be a huge hit to the chief of the Bull family. While the Bull family’s chief is in grief and using all his family’s manpower to search for the killer, the Evlee family can take the opportunity to come in and crush them from behind.
“What!” Bull Bem, the Bull family’s chief was shocked. This is outrageous. The Evlee family dares to do this to his Bull family. This is blatantly giving his Bull family no face, and it was his son they did it too. He will definitely not let the Evlee family live another day.
“Bull Ne, gather the entire family and guards, we’re going to kill every last Evlee family member today!” Bull Bem says in a cold voice as he looks towards the middle-aged man who came in earlier.
“Father, no need to be so rash. If we were to fight the Evlee family right now, we will definitely not leave the battle unscathed. After that, what’s to stop the other families from taking the opportunity to wipe us out along with the Evlee family?” Bull Ye says with a smile on his face as if he was talking about the weather or some daily family event.
Bull Bem is shocked. When did his son become this calm and collected? Even he himself was about to lead his family to their doom, but his good for nothing son was able to keep a cool mind and think about the future consequences of these actions. Not only that, but even the way he talks is different. In the past, nothing constructive came from his mouth, and he never talked with such intelligence before. But now Bull Ye seems to have changed a bit.
‘Maybe the kidnapping did him some good,’ Bull Bem thinks to himself. There was nothing like a life and death situation to change someone.
After hearing what his son had said, Bull Bem finally starts to cool down. “Ok then, we will not attack the Evlee family, but I will also not let this matter go.” Bull Bem says with a definite voice. When did he start taking advice from his good for nothing son?
“Of course, father. How could we let the matter go so easily? But don’t worry, I have a plan. For now, don’t let anyone know that I’ve returned,” Bull Ye says with a warm smile on his face, deceiving anyone who looks at him about the conversation that is taking place.
Bull Bem is shocked yet again. His son already had a plan. What really happened to him when he was kidnapped? What has happened to the way his son had acted in the past? But in any case, Bull Bem is feeling happy. His son now seems to be changing for the better.
---
“Finally, I made it to a city,” Jen says as he enters the city.
‘I should find someone and get information about this place,’ Jen thinks to himself.
“Sir, I’m passing through and was wondering if you knew the name of this city,” I ask an elderly man.
“This is Bull Red City,” The elderly man says humbly. After living at the bottom of the chain of power for so long, he would naturally not want to offend someone with an unknown background.
“Who rules the city?” I ask.
“The Bull family founded the city, but the Evlee family has become strong enough to rival them,” says the elderly man.
‘I see. Well here goes nothing. I could either look insane asking this question or look like a curious wanderer,’ I say to myself.
“What’s the highest cultivation?” I ask hesitantly.
“That would be the chiefs of the two major families. They’re both at Late Foundation realm, about to enter the Evolution realm,” the man replies.
I say my thanks and he leaves. So right now, until evidence says otherwise, I’ll say I’m in another world. The world of cultivation has now become a reality.
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Edited By: Xan120