Of course, after earning a new title Jason can’t help but test it and so the next hindbear the two meet suffers a similar fate. Only the next though, as Jason can easily tell the difference. For the very first strike of the knife to the temple, it goes in much easier.
While Jason wasn’t exactly all that skilled in daggers, but this didn’t feel like the System had made the dagger sharper or the target weaker. Rather, it felt like the hindbear just wasn’t as able to absorb the damage.
Now that sounds weird, but Jason just couldn’t really think of a better way to explain. It was as if before the hindbear’s skull was covered in a non-newtonian fluid like oobleck that he had to pierce through before actually piercing the skull. Before, he hadn’t noticed it. In fact, it was very odd that he hadn’t noticed it and even now it wanted to slip out of his mental grasp.
When Jason realizes that he slams the log out and ejects into his personal space. Even as he pulls up his notes app, the information seems to almost gain a will of its own as it tries to escape. Like a talisman, though, the more he writes his observations down in the note, the more it comes back to him. No matter how special NeoRealm is, the personal space is sacrosanct.
That observation recorded, Jason logs back into the game. It is only moments later but with such a simple action his thoughts stay clear. Clear enough to realize this shouldn’t have been the first time, just the first that he had captured.
Jason shakes his head and laughs at himself. It should have been obvious after he learned of the state of the world. The fact everyone knew, that the VR capsules can’t mess with your mind. Of course, NeoRealm would break it. The System was godlike in scope and power within NeoRealm.
If NeoRealm had just been another videogame it wouldn’t have mattered. But this was a true realm and the System had true power. Jason was too low on the scale in his last life to have a good idea of what it means but one particular myth now rings true. With enough power, one can control their own karmic ties.
The System, through its own power was simply not allowing people to remember things about it and NeoRealm was in a sense the System. It didn’t help that every player was inherently hooked directly into its power through the System’s Energy lines. If anything, it made even more sense why so few players even touched Energy. Just the fact he had managed to train in it was a miracle all on its own.
Jason sits back and sinks his sense into himself and observes. Soon he finds evidence of what had just happened. While his cultivation is mostly just rough Energy, the concepts behind it still have a mental form and they tell a story. The walls are scarred and a portion of the gates had been broken.
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
His cultivation had protected him and would only become more able to do so with time. Beyond that, though, there is a connection. Whatever sends his consciousness into NeoRealm leaves a path back. Thinking about it, of course, this would only make sense.
There is a connection. Whatever sends his con. scious. ness.
There is a connection.
His cultivation had protected him, and it seems to still be under attack? Not only that, but there is a connection within the walls. Jason’s thoughts feel slow to him but he pushes on as he focuses on the connection.
He realizes it should be a connection back to the outside.
He turns to the gates and focuses on them, fixing those already busted. From outside, endless waves of thread flow back and forth as his walls hold them back.
Jason squints as he says something while also writing it in the soil with his finger. “There is a connection between this body and my other. It is within my cultivation and should be what allows my soul to be in two places.”
Even as he speaks, though, the words become muted and fade away in an unnatural manner. Jason doubts that even Lily heard him. While he writes out the words, the soil smooths out behind his finger as if he hadn’t touched it.
He can feel the knowledge rest uneasily in his mind and can sense that if he tried the logout trick, it would be wiped in an instant. There is a connection but that connection is too core to the System. Right now, he just doesn’t have the power to remain conscious of it.
He, however, is fine with not being conscious of it right now. So like a seed, he takes that small nugget of info and buries it under his cultivation’s field. There it rests beneath a [Substance] that even the System can’t deny.
His cultivation had protected him and would only become more able to do so with time. Beyond that, though, it seems the gates are being repaired so at least that is somewhat automatic. Still, it would be nice to know about it when they are being attacked in the first place. As it is, it feels like he was some town’s mayor sleeping in bed as the town falls to bandits.
He can only shake his head, stuff like that will come with time. After all, the System isn’t acting like some raiding party, but rather a thief in the night. At least it should be limited to only things directly related to NeoRealm and then only when physically in game.
That, of course, brings up other questions. Simplest among them is what happens with the players who managed to break through the final bottleneck? When someone hits level 500, they should, in theory, go beyond the System’s control to at least some extent. While likely this isn’t entirely true, there should be something to it.
Jason shakes his head, which he just now notices hurts a bit. There are just too many things to consider at the moment and none of them are going to help Lily turn into the fluffiest assassin this side of reality. With a sigh, he stands up and stretches before heading off. He didn’t get around to harvesting this hindbear, but he just can’t seem to care.