Chapter 228: Captured by a Demon Cultivator
[Sect Channel]
[Zhou Nvzi: A lot of new people arrived today! Welcome, everyone!]
[Gu Yunxi: You’re posting that, but they can only watch without being able to talk. It’s not like any of them have points yet...]
[Lin Yuyu: Buying materials! Buying all kinds of spirit materials! DM me if you’re selling below market price!]
[Zhen Weida: Expert-led team recruiting lifestyle players interested in Artifact Refining! Newbies, if you’re interested, please PM me. If you don’t have points, come find me at the office in Wang’an County. Of course, if you chose another Sect, then I can’t help you for now!]
[Su Daqiang: Oh? Weida’s back? How’d the blind date go?]
[Honghuang: So, did you massacre the village?]
[Zhen Weida: ...Don’t talk about it. What a waste of a few days. I’m kicking myself. My childhood friend went with me, and she wasn’t into me... she was into him.]
[Gu Yunxi: My condolences.]
[Yang Meimei: My condolences.]
[Zhou Nvzi: My condolences.]
[Honghuang: Slaughter your friend’s entire clan!]
[Zhen Weida: Piss off, all of you. I didn’t even want a relationship in the first place. If I were dating, when would I have time to play the game? The game is obviously more important. No one can stand in the way of my Cultivation.]
[Zhou Nvzi: That’s true.]
[Daoist: True +1]
...
The incoming newbies wandered aimlessly around Wang’an County, their eyes glued to the Sect channel.
The newly arrived players were still reeling from how shocking the game was. They only managed to calm down after the system distributed the Spirit Root Pills, and they took one before logging off.
Most of them had seen Han Tian’s beginner’s guide, so they knew what to do.
Only a few players hadn’t read any guides online.
While the new players were buzzing with excitement, the veteran players were making their own unique discoveries.
It was already very late when Chen Miaomiao logged off. She sat up in her luxury pod and spaced out for a moment before checking the time.
Two in the morning.
Normally, this was prime sleeping time. Anyone would tell you that staying up this late was a bad idea.
But she wasn’t particularly sleepy.
The deeper she got into the game, the more she felt her body changing.
She felt more and more energetic.
It was simply unbelievable.
Despite spending most of her time immersed in the game and logging off later each day, she felt increasingly energized.
Yet if she lay down in bed to rest, she would fall asleep almost instantly.
’It’s as if my subconscious is telling me I should still be sleeping.’
’Because humans have to sleep.’
Wearing the VR headset for so long had left a noticeable pressure mark on her nose, but it would fade back to normal after a short while.
Looking at the time, Chen Miaomiao suddenly felt hungry.
This, however, was the opposite of how things were in the game.
In the game, once they began to cultivate, they didn’t really need to eat. They ate purely for the enjoyment of it.
But in reality, she felt her appetite was growing.
She never used to eat midnight snacks.
But now, whenever she logged off late at night, she would always feel like eating something.
She also ate more during the day than she used to.
She had worried that her body was undergoing some kind of adverse change, since she was playing the game every day.
She’d even gone to the hospital for a check-up, but the results were excellent. She used to have issues with hypoglycemia, but she hadn’t had an episode in months.
This was true even on the occasions she played through the night and forgot to eat breakfast.
Only then was her mind put at ease.
Since she enjoyed eating more than before, it was a good excuse to try different things and satisfy her cravings.
Food delivery would take a while this late at night, so Chen Miaomiao got up and took a look inside her refrigerator.
In the end, she decided to cook some noodles.
As she was cooking the noodles, a mosquito flew in through the small kitchen window.
The tiny insect buzzed up and down, hovering around the edge of the steaming pot.
Worried the mosquito would fly into her pot and ruin the noodles, Chen Miaomiao grabbed her chopsticks to shoo it away.
But for some reason, as she focused on the mosquito, it suddenly seemed to be moving in slow motion.
Her hand moved faster than her thoughts. With a quick snap, her chopsticks closed firmly around the mosquito in mid-air.
The mosquito died instantly. Only after the fact did Chen Miaomiao freeze, stunned by what she had just done.
After a moment, she took the chopsticks to be disinfected and washed, then grabbed a clean pair, muttering to herself, "That’s weird. How did my reflexes get so fast? Or could it be..."
She was always one to read more into things than others.
An astonishing possibility occurred to her.
’Could it be? Does playing the game for so long really affect the real world?’
’After all, the game had always felt so real it was ridiculous.’
’It didn’t feel like a game world at all.’
At this thought, Chen Miaomiao suddenly raised her hand and pointed at a flowerpot by the window. It held a cluster of small, purple-and-white flowers she had picked from the roadside in the countryside.
Just like she did in the game.
She silently recited the Wood Element Growth Mantra. Like Fireball, it was a very common Basic Spiritual Energy Technique. In the game, it could at most make a few short green plants sprout.
But the flowerpot showed no reaction.
Chen Miaomiao recited it several more times, but the flowerpot still showed no reaction.
After a moment, Chen Miaomiao sighed and laughed. "I’m being so ridiculous."
’If anyone saw this, they’d probably think I’ve gone crazy.’
’Getting this obsessed over a game.’
The noodles in the pot began to boil over. She shook her head and turned to scoop them out.
As she turned away, she failed to notice something in the flowerpot. A small, thin, drooping green stem—part of the cluster of small, partially withered flowers—which was normally almost unnoticeable, suddenly and slowly began to straighten.
It was as if it had regained its vitality.
Meanwhile, back in the game, a player who had chosen the Taixue Sect logged on as soon as he could, only to encounter the unluckiest event in the game’s entire history.
He was captured.
That’s right. He was captured by a Demon Cultivator.
The terrain of the Taixue Sect was complex, and this player had spawned some distance away from the Taixue Sect City, right on the edge of the area monitored by the city’s guards.
He’d found a place to hide and managed to hold out until his Spirit Root awakened.
This player’s ID was [Liu Bo].
But he hadn’t even had a chance to celebrate being online...
...when a Cultivator snatched him up and pulled him close.
The Cultivator’s eyes were jade green, but his pupils were thin vertical slits—clearly not the eyes of a human.
His entire face had a greenish pallor.
Only daring players chose the Taixue Sect, but no amount of daring could have prepared him for getting captured on his very first day.
The Demon Cultivator before him was initially excited upon seeing him, but after taking a closer look, a flash of pity flickered in his eyes.
"To think you’re as ugly as I am. I imagine they couldn’t stand the sight of you either, could they? The Human Clan is utterly hypocritical. No wonder you’re so old and still just at the Qi Refinement Realm..."
Liu Bo: ?
’Seriously, man? How rude can you be!’
As it turned out, Liu Bo’s luck was a bit peculiar. The puppets created by Song Jiulai were divided into "ugly" and "ugliest" tiers.
And he had managed to pick the ugliest one of all.
The thing was, he’d been so excited to rush into the game that he hadn’t bothered with character creation at all. He’d seen Han Tian’s stream and knew that players would get another chance to customize their appearance later (by using points to exchange for a puppet made of new materials), so he didn’t care in the slightest about how he looked.
Before Liu Bo could say anything, the Demon Cultivator suddenly seemed to sense something. His expression changed, and grabbing Liu Bo, he took off running.
He moved as fast as the wind, vanishing from the spot in the blink of an eye.
Liu Bo was starting to panic. "System, what am I supposed to do now?"
System: "Tough cookies."
Liu Bo: "..."