[You will get 1 month of rest before entering the Spatial Battlefield. Prepare well.]
Genji appeared in his room and received this message.
"One month? I will use that well."
He walked out of the room and headed for the strengthening hall.
"Hey, Cake. How have you been this month?"
Genji greeted her when he arrived at the place.
"Much better now that I don't have to worry about my next world. Thanks a lot."
"No problem. If you're up for it, I could use a massage tomorrow."
"I'll get a replacement then."
"Cool. I'll let you know the details later. For now, I have some stat points to use."
Genji walked past the desk and found the usual egg-shaped room. When he sat down, he took a deep breath and calmed himself. He wants to fully feel the change in his body so he doesn't want to be distracted by his negative thoughts toward a certain red-haired person. When he cleared his mind, he commenced the strengthening.
[Enigma]
Health: 2,100/2100 (Con x 100, increase of 1,250)
Energy: 640/640 (Int x 20 + 180 from cloak, increase of 110 since last settlement)
Con: 17 -> 21 + 2 from equipment = 23
Str: 16 -> 21 + 2 from equipment = 23
Dex: 20 -> 22 + 2 from equipment = 24
Int: 20 -> 23
Spc: 20 -> 24 + 1 from equipment = 25
Upon upgrading his stats, Genji had enough to finally equip [Kraken's Grasp], giving him another two points in strength and constitution. When he put the armguard on, Genji sensed a strong malice directed toward him.
"Seems like Paul really hates me."
Genji wasn't going to give up on this equipment, though. It's that strong. If needed, he will simply unequip the cursed piece before entering a dangerous battle. If a small threat is enough to deter him, then he would never reach this point.
After Genji finished, he returned to his room. The main reason is that he has some privilege tokens to spend. Among the privileges he can buy, an upgrade in the training area was one of them. Since that's possible, he might as well buy it. He's going to use it a lot in the next month so why delay?
[Access to Medium Level Training Area, 20 tokens.]
It was more tokens than Genji has, but that's only at this moment. Genji pulled out the 7 scarlet cards he obtained from EonRealm Enforcers and turned them into EverRealm, giving him another 7.
After buying the upgrade, Genji was left with 5 tokens. He browsed the catalog and settled on two more perks.
[Super Luxurious personal room, 2 tokens]
[Room Teleportation, 1 token]
The first one upgrades his room to a mansion with the most comfortable furniture. It was like the name said, a super luxury. Not many would dare spend two tokens on making their living conditions better. Especially when they barely spend any time in their room.
As soon as he purchased this, he was teleported into the void. Below him, from a bird's eye view, his room was starting to shift. Walls disappeared and new ones formed. The furniture was replaced, a backyard was terraformed, the space expanded, and a new layer of paint coated the newly formed walls.
These changes happened at lighting speed as EverRealm efficiently changed the room to Genji's liking. It was like it read his mind and knew exactly how he wanted it. Once the process was finished, Genji found himself back in his room.
There were two main reasons he chose to upgrade his room.
One, it gives him a lot of space. It would cost him millions if he wants to upgrade his room to this size. Millions he would rather spend on improving his poisons and medicine. Each time he upgrades his room, the price soars exponentially. With this new space, Genji won't have to increase his room's size for a long time, if he even needs to after this.
For now, I'll leave the second reason unsaid.
As for the other purchase, it's to allow him to teleport back to his room from anywhere. As long as he's in EverRealm, this privilege will be in effect. Of course, this comes with a cooldown. He can't spam it too much or EverRealm will get annoyed at the unnecessary energy usage.
Genji doubts that will happen as long as he keeps getting high ratings, but he wants to save these leeways for important situations instead of squandering them on irrelevant things.
As for the last two tokens, Genji decided to save them.
Once that has been settled, Genji took out the knowledge book he got from Berserker.
[You have used Energy Strengthen]
A rush of information hit him, giving him a headache, but Genji was used to it. After all the knowledge books he had spammed, this little bit was nothing.
"So that's how it is," Genji was able to grasp the knowledge instantly. Pairing the numerous years of Berserker's experience and his reckless experimentations in the Psychic world, he figured out how to apply this method to his own energy. Eager to try this out, Genji went to the newly unlocked training area.
When he got there, he found himself forcibly calmed down. It was like this place suppresses his emotions, increasing his training efficiency.
"Worthy of a higher level training area."
A bottle of rare-level rum appeared in his hand. Genji took a sip and swung his dagger. With this one swing, he felt a wave of information drill into his head and his stamina drain a little. When he went over the information, he found that it was memories of the swing, eight times over.
With this one swing, he had gained experience from doing it nine times. It was three times better than the low-level training area. As for his stamina drain, it felt like he did the swing 10 times. It was less efficient, but he saves a lot of time.
"Let's practice."
Genji got used to his improved stats first before he used the energy strengthening. He needs to have a comparison to fully understand this ability. A black glow surrounded him as he felt a newfound strength course through him.
Genji wasn't sure of the exact increase but he felt powerful. Afterimages formed in front of him as he casually swung his dagger. It was unbelievable how much faster he had become. It's nowhere near Swift Movement that directly doubled his speed, but this was an all-around increase. The only drawback is the exhaustion he felt after 3 minutes.
Considering this area drains his stamina at 10 times the speed, Genji should be able to maintain this state for 30 minutes normally.
"A berserk skill basically. I'll take it."
Genji sat down and started meditating. Turns out this area doesn't just boost physical practice by 9 times. When he tried to practice with his energy, he felt the wave of information again. This time, it's the experience of energy practice. It was the perfect area to get used to his abilities and develop new ones.
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12 hours later, Genji walked out of the area with an unbelievable headache. If it wasn't for his pain tolerance, he would have fainted long ago. That's 135 hours of information crammed into 15 hours (3 hours to get used to his body).
"Teleport back," Genji decided to make use of his newly bought privilege.
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The next moment, he found himself in the master bedroom of his mansion. Without caring for his looks, he threw himself onto the bed and plunged into darkness.
When Genji woke up, he felt sore all over. Doing a light stretch, he took a shower and went out for breakfast. After finishing, he sent Cake a message.
"Are you free right now?"
"Yes."
The response came immediately. Cake had taken the entire day off since Genji gave her a heads-up. At this moment, she's sorting out her room for Genji's visit. He might not be bothered by the cramped space, but she felt embarrassed to have her benefactor lay on the floor like that.
"How about you come to my room?"
When Cake saw this, she felt a small pang in her heart. She knows this feeling was irrational, but it feels bad to know the only person that helped her wanted to stay away from her room.
"Sure. The address?"
Cake pushed this feeling to the back of her mind and tried to put on a cheerful appearance. It would be petty of her to make a deal out of this.
When Cake arrived at the given address, she knocked, thinking nothing of it. It looks like a normal door from the outside, but things soon changed when she walked through.
"Th-this is a room?"
Her jaws dropped at the large mansion in front of her. How was this possible? How can anyone get such a large personal room? She couldn't begin to fathom how much it would cost to expand a room to this size. Her shock was so prevalent that she forgot her feelings from earlier.
"Not bad, right?"
Genji walked down the large stairs curled around the sides of the large room.
"I-what-when-how-what?"
Cake stuttered to get a question out but couldn't form the correct thought.
"Follow me. I have a room prepared."
Genji turned around to walk back up the stairs but realized Cake wasn't following him. He turned around and noticed she was still dazed from the sight. It seems like she never noticed him.
"Hello? Earth to Cake."
He waved his hand in from of her eyes, stopping only when her eyes regained focus.
"Oh. Sorry about that. I didn't catch what you said just now."
"Follow me. I have a room prepared," Genji repeated himself and led her upstairs to a large, marble-tiled bathroom.
Genji opened the door and allowed Cake to enter first before he closed the door behind him. Then he took off his shirt and got comfortable on a waterbed, letting Cake get started.
"How did you get such a room?"
After a while, Cake finally asked the question in her mind. Yet the moment that question left her mouth, she regretted asking it.
'Is that too personal? Will he think I'm a nosey person? Will I lose a friend because of this? Oh no-'
"You heard of privilege tokens?"
Before Cake could overthink her situation to death, Genji interrupted her thoughts.
"Tokens? What's that?"
"I guess the simplest way to describe them is a reward EverRealm gives people when they help it with something. They are nontransferable so only the person who earned them can use them. With these tokens, EverRealm lets its members buy certain privileges that make their life easier. This is one of them."
'So he's reached that level already. Will I still be helpful to him or will I become a hindrance?'
"What do you think of it?"
Genji sensed her mood fluctuating and changed the topic.
"It's very good," she replied in her best-sounding fake voice.
"How would you like to live here?"
He instantly followed up with this question.
"Ah?"
Cake's brain short-circuited once again. Everything was so sudden. How was she supposed to answer this? It would be nice to live here, but does she deserve it?
"I-uh-what-"
"Calm down. Deep breaths."
Cake followed his instructions and calmed her hyperactive mind.
"I-I"
She hesitated to say her answer. Her heart says yes, but her mind says no. She wants to, but she's afraid of being rejected. After all, why would Genji offer her this? It's his personal room so what right does she have to live here? She's honestly terrified of the consequences of a rejection. It always feels the worst when hope forms and is later crushed. It is despair-inducing.
"I just need a yes or no. Nothing else."
Hearing his encouragement, she took a deep breath. It's now or never. She closed her eyes and decided to give her answer. Her true answer. She decided that she will be honest with herself for once. No more hiding behind a life of lies, afraid of the consequences of every action.
"Yes. Yes, I do."
"Good. I'll let you choose your own room after this."
"You don't need to do that. I'll take whatever room you don't need."
Cake's burst of courage had faded and she returned to her hesitant self, afraid that if she asked for too much, everything will be ripped away from her.
"Has anyone ever told you that you are like a doormat? That you are okay with people walking all over you?"
"What?"
Then Cake processed Genji's meaning. Her face turned a deep shade of red. Her hands stopped the massage and changed to a hard pinch, trying to hide her embarrassment.
"I am not a doormat!" Cake said firmly, unwilling to accept the degrading comment.
"Then stop acting like one. How about you take this payment and settle yourself?"
Genji ignored the pain in his back and initiated a trade.
"I will-"
Before Cake could finish her sentence, she saw how much the payment was. 100,000. Far more than what he had given her last time. So much that she doesn't dare accept.
"What's wrong, doormat? Can't even uphold your words the moment you said it? You understand why I call you a doormat now?"
"Fine, I will!"
Unable to bear his provocation anymore, Cake accepted the trade and crossed her arms, looking away from Genji. At this moment, she is putting on the appearance that she's angry and won't talk to him until he apologizes. A few minutes passed and things started getting awkward for her. It's not easy to hold this position for so long.
When she finally couldn't bear it any longer, she turned back to see a widely grinning Genji observing her.
"I was wondering how long you will hold that position. It's very funny to watch."
"Why are you like this?"
She pouted and started the massage again.
"Because you wouldn't have accepted the money any other way."
Cake wanted to refute him, but realized he was right. If it was under normal circumstances, she would not have accepted the trade. What is he going to do? Hold her at gunpoint and force her to accept it? That's not going to happen in EverRealm.
"*sigh* Then why did you give me so much?"
"Because I will be in EverRealm for the entire next month. During this duration, I will be training a lot so I want you to be prepared."
"I would have been happy to help you for the entire month. The previous payment was more than enough."
"To you, yes. To me, your value in assisting my training outstrips that amount. I don't want you to overwork yourself without compensation."
This then brings us to the second reason Genji purchased this luxurious room. He's seen the cramped conditions of her room the last time he visited her. If possible, he doesn't want his personal masseuse to live in that small room all month when he can lend her a spacious room.
Not when he's going to be tiring her out the entire month. It's a worthwhile investment for him because she can fully focus on improving her skills instead of worrying about living conditions.
At a glance, there is no correlation between the two, but Genji knows differently. As someone that has personally experienced the improvement brought by clearing away his worries, he knows the potential of the mind. By changing the living condition, he hopes Cake's worries can be lessened.
That way, she can work on getting over her depression and inferiority complex. Yes, inferiority complex. Genji might not be able to read minds, but his sharp senses can faintly make out her drop in mood whenever he talks about himself. It's sad to think about. Just what had she been through that she looks down on herself the first chance she get?
Once that heart demon has been conquered, her skills should experience tremendous growth, and be able to fully make use of her talents. Basically, Genji believes in Cake's potential and wants to invest in her. The more he puts in now, the more he will get later.
"Fine. I guess you really thought about everything."
"Of course. It directly impacts my training after all."
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A few days later, Cake asked, "Why are you working so hard?" as she massaged Genji.
This was the eighth time in the past 3 days and she was starting to understand why he paid her so much. With each session, she could feel how tense his muscles were and the broken parts he had overstrained.
To her, these must be very painful. She didn't understand why someone so strong continued to push himself so hard.
"I want to get stronger," he replied.
"But why? You can easily survive with your strength. Not many would be able to join a pirate crew and gain a strong standing among them. You should have no reason to chase after power so frantically. Shouldn't you be enjoying the luxury you have accumulated?"
"You don't understand. To me, this is enjoyable."
"How so? How can you endure the pain of your body breaking down, over and over again without healing? I even get imaginary pain when I look at your condition."
"I was an assassin for most of my life. People would pay me and I would remove their nuisances. That's how I spent my time. To me, it was an interesting job. People would do everything they could to survive while I did everything I could to kill them. It was a battle of both wits and skill. Each target I killed had a unique challenge. I enjoyed that challenge and strived to improve myself so I could overcome them."
Genji started talking about his past, disorienting Cake. He was an assassin? She would never have guessed that. He didn't give off the feeling of one. Shouldn't assassins be cold and indifferent to life?
"Eventually, I got so good that nothing could stop me. Things quickly became boring after that. A single bullet from kilometers away was all it took. So I started making things harder for myself. I would warn the targets, toy with the police, and even infiltrate them for the thrill of it. My partners were not happy about that, but it was fun. Yet this excitement soon got boring as well.
So I wanted to quit. To change my life and find something else to do. To start over and experience the feeling of being challenged again. Yet my organization had different plans. At the time, I didn't think about it, but everything about that last mission was suspicious. I was too eager to leave that place. It turned out they matched me against a champion. What a hard fight that was."
Genji chuckled to himself as Cake's eyes widened. A champion? Aren't they supposed to be incredibly strong? If Genji was a champion that would explain why he was so strong.
"But at the last moment, my partner betrayed me, leaving me to die. Lucky me, I had killed the champion and entered EverRealm as a slayer. For the six months after that, I only lived for revenge. Everything I did was to ensure I survived to leave the world. Even if it meant risking my life in arduous battles I had no chance of winning. I did everything I could to ensure I was the last one standing. It was through this process I obtained the power I currently have. I got strong enough to enact my revenge and kill everyone who offended me."
At this moment, Cake was able to make out the coldness in his voice. This was what she expected a seasoned killer to sound like.
"So what motivates you now? Why do you strive so hard?"
"Power. EverRealm opened the door to the pinnacle. I want to climb up there and see what it looks like. What is the view like? How will I achieve it? How much can I improve until I reach that point? I want to know all of that."
"That sounds like a perilous path. Aren't you worried about dying?"
"EverRealm gave me the freedom and I chose to follow it. If I die, then it only means I'm not good enough. I have no regrets."
Genji was very carefree about this topic. He had no mortal ties anymore so all his attention was focused on this one goal. It was because of this change that his techniques were improving so fast.
'So this is the difference between us,' Cake thought to herself, amazed at his mentality. She could never be like this. Not when she had family and people she cared about.
"I think that's enough of that topic. How about I introduce you to a friend?"
Genji got up, put on a shirt, and started walking downstairs to greet the visitor who had just knocked on his room.