Chapter 73: Back to the Real World

Chapter 73: Back to the Real World

I hadn’t known that everything I experienced and gained in the virtual world showed up on the terminal. It displayed not only the achievement points I’d earned, but also, in real time, my profession, location, and rank inside. That was exactly why Uncle and Engineer Lin had noticed something wrong and assumed the equipment had malfunctioned.

Before I set out, Uncle had told me that my first time in should be mainly about experience—no need to rush after money.

He’d given me thirty points. Twenty for entry access, ten for living expenses. That was the standard allotment for an ordinary person entering the virtual world. As Uncle put it, earning achievement points was no easy thing for elite people. The yearly workload the Shadow Pavilion assigned to elite people could only be exchanged for twenty points.

So when the terminal showed my achievement points had soared from an initial ten to 2,250 in just one week, and my force-of-consciousness rank had climbed, in under a month, from weak rank five to strong rank nine, it was extraordinary even by virtual-world standards—and nearly impossible in the real world. Growth in force of consciousness especially, whether in reality or the virtual world, depended almost entirely on grinding cultivation. Leaps like that simply weren’t supposed to happen.

The staff monitoring the terminal spotted the anomaly at once and rushed to notify Uncle and Engineer Lin. They feared the equipment was faulty—and feared even more that I’d run into some accident inside.

Uncle had come to check on me several times. Seeing my body’s condition remain stable, he hadn’t forced me awake.

Not until I exited the virtual world on my own did the staff call Uncle and Engineer Lin back in.

Uncle’s first question was, “You don’t feel anything wrong, do you?”

I shook my head, having no idea they’d been worried over my explosive progress, and said, “No? I just came out normally. Oh, right—when I first woke up there was some mild discomfort, like waking from a very deep dream, with a lingering feeling that hadn’t quite faded.”

“That’s normal,” Uncle said. “Everyone feels it. It comes from the continuity of the consciousness body. What I want to know is what’s going on with your achievement points and force-of-consciousness readings. They’re way off.”

At that, Engineer Lin added, “I checked the equipment. Nothing wrong with it.”

I was a little lost. “What’s wrong? Is the machine broken? Does that mean the points I earned inside are gone for nothing?”

Uncle pointed at the number on the screen. “You mean these 2,250 points?”

I glanced at the display. “Oh, they’re still there. That’s the number.”

Uncle and Engineer Lin spoke almost as one: “How is that possible? You were in there less than a month. How did you earn that much?”

“Is it a lot?” I said. “I just took part in the match between the Ziyun Sect and the Jianghai Gang. The Ziyun Sect rewarded me with fifteen gold-patterned pills, one red-patterned pill, and five cyan-patterned pills. On top of that, I fought five matches and earned 150 points. That’s already 1,730. Then some rank-eight from the Jianghai Gang wouldn’t accept the loss and insisted on a bare-knuckle bet with me—I beat him, and that earned another 620. If I hadn’t eaten a gold-patterned pill and a cyan-patterned pill along the way, I’d have 2,360.”

Uncle looked stunned. “Is the Ziyun Sect Master a fool? Why would he hand you fifteen gold-patterned pills all at once? You think gold-patterned pills grow on trees? And how did you win five matches straight? Isn’t it one match per person?”

“It’s not,” I said. “After I won the first, I could fight a second, couldn’t I?”

“How could you fight five?” Uncle said. “You won every one?”

“Yes,” I said. “I just kept going, match after match. I could’ve kept fighting, but I was afraid the Ziyun Sect would balk at how much I was winning and try to weasel out of paying, so I didn’t push it. After the fifth match, I…