After finishing dinner, Venix and Yuna returned to the Nine Heavens game.
Upon reentering the game, Venix noticed that the area was once again filled with the sheep he had killed before; they were all alive again!
"Damn!"
Venix hastily exited the previous game without finding a safe spot.
"Baa ~"
"Baa ~"
"Baa ~"
One by one, the sheep bleated and immediately attacked Venix as he entered the game with their horned heads.
"Quick! Fly, fly, fly!" Venix thought urgently, but his body's response was much slower than his thoughts.
As Venix flapped his wings once, the brutal head attack from the horned sheep had already struck him!
Bang!
The horned sheep's head brutally struck Venix, causing his bird character to be thrown ten meters away before falling and sprawled on the ground.
Thud!
"Kroak ~ Kroak ~"
Venix's bird character was screaming in pain at this moment.
Venix felt his mind shaking from the excessive pain.
"Open settings!" Venix commanded the system in his mind.
The system interface appeared, displaying the game settings.
There, Venix saw that his current Pain Level was at 90%!
If Venix had a human form right now, his face would have turned as pale as paper!
"I'm dead! I forgot to lower my pain level after using the
Venix tried to reduce his Pain Level to 0%. Even if he died now, he didn't care. What mattered was that he wouldn't be tortured to death!
What's even more unfortunate, the Pain Level couldn't be changed while a player was in the middle of a battle.
Tears welled up in Venix's eyes.
In his sorrow, another sheep approached Venix, who was lying on the ground, and launched another head attack with its horns!
Bang!
Once again, Venix's body was sent flying and fell to the side.
Bang!
Without much delay, another attack came from another sheep.
Bang ~
Bang ~
Bang ~
After ten consecutive attacks, Venix lay on the ground, trembling as if he'd been shocked by electricity.
Venix felt his vision darkening, the light fading in front of him.
His third death came just like that.
One minute later, Venix was resurrected in a quiet, desolate forest area with no other creatures around.
After his revival, Venix remained silent and didn't say much.
Quietly, Venix opened the settings and lowered the Pain Level to 0%.
With his two large bird wings, Venix enveloped his own body, seeking warmth within.
Venix remained silent and sat alone in contemplation for 5 minutes.
He did nothing except gaze blankly at the open field in front of him.
After a while, Venix opened the in-game menu and selected the 'Sleep' option in the system.
A few moments later, the black bird character vanished, transforming into specks of light in this world.
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Upon exiting the game, Venix arrived in a new place where everything was white.
Venix randomly chose a design from the available options.
Instantly, the white world transformed into a resort near a beautiful blue ocean.
There was a bed not far from Venix.
Venix didn't admire the beautiful scenery around him. He went straight to the bed, hugged a pillow in his arms, and closed his eyes, attempting to sleep.
Every VR game had a personal world feature for players who wanted to sleep and rest.
Essentially, this was a marketing technique employed by VR game developers in the past to attract individuals who weren't interested in VR games and encourage them to purchase their games.
A virtual world with a dream house for a comfortable sleep was something people could only obtain from a game. Even if their real homes were shabby and unsuitable to live in, purchasing a VR game and entering 'Sleep' mode allowed them to sleep comfortably and soundly.
Venix's hands trembled slightly as he attempted to sleep and struggled to close his eyes.
***
The next day, at 7 in the morning, Venix emerged from the game capsule and stretched his body in his room.
After stretching, Venix left his room and went straight to the bathroom to wash his face, then proceeded to the kitchen to prepare breakfast.
Venix had cooked rice in the rice cooker the previous night, so he only needed to prepare the side dishes.
This time, Venix chose to cook scrambled eggs and cubed potatoes with chili.
Once everything was ready, Venix brought all the dishes to the dining table.
Venix approached his younger sister's room and knocked on Yuna's door to wake her up.
Yuna woke up quickly and went to the bathroom to wash her face.
Yuna joined the dining table, and a simple family breakfast took place in the morning.
Venix ate his food calmly and in a normal manner.
However, Yuna, who knew her brother better than anyone in the world, knew that something was wrong with him.
"Big Brother, has something happened?" Yuna asked Venix.
"Hm? Nothing's happened. Why do you ask?" Venix replied casually.
"You're acting a bit strange today," Yuna said, furrowing her brow.
"Strange?" Venix scratched his head in confusion.
Yuna had a basic understanding of her older brother's mood.
If it were assigned a number, the peak of happiness would be 100, while the peak of suffering would be -100.
When they lived in an orphanage as children, Venix and Yuna would often cry at night because they missed their parents. It was a normal experience for both of them.
But Yuna knew something that Venix didn't.
On a typical day, Venix's mood ranged from 10 to 30. If something bad happened, Venix's mood would drop to between -10 and -20.
In the past, every time Venix cried quietly, it would make Yuna sad to see her brother.
The next day, Venix would suddenly return to a normal mood with a rating of 0. In contrast, Yuna, due to the events of the previous night, still had a sad mood and couldn't act normally.
So, every time something bad happened to Venix, he would wake up with a mood rating of 0 and be very normal, calm, and much quieter.
That's why Venix would become stable much quicker than she did. Yuna had seen this kind of thing happen too often in the past.
So at a glance, Yuna could tell that her older brother was at a 0.
Because Venix was okay now, Yuna didn't plan to inquire further.
"By the way, last night, a professional player managed to reach level 10," Yuna informed Venix.
"Oh?" Venix became more interested.
Level 10 was the first challenge for players.
"However, after reaching level 10, the professional player couldn't progress and got stuck on that level last night," Yuna added this news to Venix.
"They got stuck on level 10?" Venix's curiosity grew even more.
What could be the reason behind this?
"Yes, they got stuck on level 10. And one by one, other professional players followed suit, getting stuck on level 10 as well," Yuna said.
"That means there's something else going on besides leveling up in the Nine Heavens game," Venix grasped the key point.
"Oh, hold on a moment," Yuna reached into her pajama pocket and retrieved her phone to check her friend's shared news.
"An hour ago, a player named Golden Sword managed to break through level 10 and reached level 11! He's now a Tier 1 player!" Yuna read the news with excitement.
Levels 1 - 10 are Tier 0.
Levels 11 - 25 are Tier 1.
Levels 26 - 50 are Tier 2.
Levels 51 - 100 are Tier 3.
Levels 101 - 200 are Tier 4.
Above level two hundred is Sovereign. The pinnacle of power in the gaming world!
"Where is this player from, and which guild did they join?" Venix inquired.
"Huh? It says here that the player Golden Sword is not a professional player or a member of a big guild. It's mentioned that Golden Sword is from Europe and is a martial artist who decided to play Nine Heavens for fun," Yuna said, amazed after reading the news.
"Not a professional player?" Venix was also surprised.
"Nine Heavens Game ran ads in the past and interviewed some martial artists who became Beta players for Nine Heavens. They mentioned that the game is very accurate with any martial art and guarantees that their combat experience in the game will be very different," Yuna recalled the past promotional ads for Nine Heavens.
Yuna continued scrolling through the news and noticed that it was somewhat diverse.
"I thought the interviews with the martial artists were just a typical marketing technique, but it seems they were genuine," Yuna said.
"Who knows? Maybe that person was a Beta player for Nine Heavens," Venix replied casually.
"It's possible, but Beta players for Nine Heavens are currently under strict surveillance. No spoiler information is released about the future of the game. The Nine Heavens game system only allows everyone to have one account that can't be deleted, and this also applies to Beta players.
"The developers mentioned that Beta players would be able to join other players once more players have reached Tier 2," Yuna added.
Venix pondered for a moment and felt that what Yuna said also made sense.
Could this mean that the Nine Heavens game is genuinely linked to martial arts?
"In that case, you should hold onto this information tightly. Knowing a lot about martial arts might be the key to success in the Nine Heavens game," Venix advised Yuna.
After finishing their breakfast, they decided to return to their own rooms and re-enter the Nine Heavens game.
Finally, Venix re-entered the Nine Heavens game, and his black bird character once again materialized in this virtual world.
"New day, new story," Venix murmured softly.
Then Venix opened the settings and accessed the Pain Level menu.
In an instant, Venix raised the Pain Level to 50%!
"This should be enough," Venix thought.
After reaching 50%, Venix felt a significant difference compared to 40%.
Venix could sense the flow of energy within his body much more vividly than before.
As he controlled the energy within his body, Venix encountered no difficulties at all.
"If this game is genuinely linked to martial arts, there should be various Skills, right? At least animal Skills should be available," Venix contemplated.
Human characters could learn certain Skills from NPCs or even hidden NPCs.
But now, the problem was that Venix was a bird. Where could he learn new Skills?
His combat Skills were too limited, making it difficult for Venix to hunt more ferocious Beasts in the future.
"Right, the ability
However, the Devouring Ability seemed to be a coincidence.
"Because this game was created to be exactly like real martial arts... Does that mean it offers a lot of freedom?" Venix wondered.
Martial arts were limitless. Every great martial artist could undoubtedly expand their art without strictly adhering to the basic rules of their style.
"In that case..." Venix extended his right wing and channeled energy into it.
Although the game was indeed created to be similar to real martial arts, the game developers had simplified many aspects.
Venix channeled his energy into his right wing, making it significantly stronger.
But Venix didn't want to stop there.
Venix exerted more effort and attempted to extend his energy to the outer part of his right wing.
After trying so hard, Venix saw a few millimeters of transparent blue light emanating from his right wing.
Seeing this, Venix became excited!
However, the energy emanating from his wing was fragile and weak, resembling a puddle of water that could be disrupted at any moment.
Venix gathered his thoughts and attempted to control his energy, making it denser, harder, and sharper.
Slowly, the previously feeble blue light gradually stabilized and merged, becoming firmer and denser.
[Player activates the
"Success!"
Venix shouted with joy upon seeing his successful experiment, which resulted in a new Skill for him!
Once a new Skill was obtained and learned, executing it became much more manageable.
Venix extended his left wing and channeled energy into it.
Finally, a blue light appeared on his left wing, activating the
With this, everything will be much easier!" Venix was delighted with his newfound skill.
Then Venix deactivated the
With the
In this moment, Venix felt confident and had no need to stay away from the Beginner's Village for humans.
So, in only seven minutes, Venix spotted six wild boars in one area.
All six of you will be the trials for my new Skill!" Venix shouted as he dove toward the area where the wild boars had gathered.
With the
"Oink ~ Oink ~"
The wild boars squealed as Venix's wing blades sliced through their bodies, injuring them.
"Hahahaha! Come on, come on! All of you, gather!" Venix was exhilarated.
Previously, he had limited attack capabilities, but today he could finally dance with his two wing blades against these wild boars!