Chapter 57: Perfect Training Ground

Chapter 57: Perfect Training Ground More than when he visited this place for the first time, Xu Tao observed everything much more closely. The familiar words saying "Welcome User_0135838506!" hovered boldly in the center of his view. And the pitch-black void beyond that—it was as if, aside from the blue silhouette of his body, the floating letters, and a few scattered icons, nothing else existed. "Right, the menu..." Xu Tao whispered, tapping the cog icon in his view. He was already accustomed to the action, as it was exactly the same as how he pulled up the Lost System’s Main Menu. He couldn’t tell if this similarity was by design or mere coincidence, but he was thankful for it. After pulling up the main menu, he didn’t delay. He quickly scrolled through the hundreds of game titles and icons, heading straight to the bottom of the list. And as he expected, he could feel it there—the invisible icon he had tapped before, which had pulled him into the Lost System’s world, Alkryon. Without hesitation, he tapped the said icon exuding traces of True Heavenly Qi. [Error! Cooldown is not over! Time remaining before re-entry is available: 78:21:35] And to his dismay, he failed. The Lost System’s familiar blue window appeared, warning him of the remaining time. "Right, I forgot about that..." Xu Tao sighed, shaking his head. "Then... what should I do..." He paused, conflicted. He couldn’t enter Alkryon right now. Henrietta was away, practicing the verses on the scroll Xu Tao had given her. Uriel... had already arrived, but went straight to support Henrietta instead of coming to him. It was too early for him to train everyone personally, as most of the guards were still on duty. He... was left with nothing else to do. "I could make scrolls for everyone too, but..." Xu Tao shook his head. "With their numbers, creating a generalized one would be faster than writing one for each person individually." He did promise to make them strong, but that didn’t mean he’d dedicate his precious time to them. He was a busy man, after all. At most, he would spend time for his disciples—but for those who weren’t even part of his sect, much less his disciples, just getting a lecture from him should make them thankful enough. "Then..." Xu Tao scanned the list once more, a new idea swirling in his head. "I should familiarize myself with this Vee Arr system more than before!" Xu Tao knew he lacked knowledge about how the system worked—what each button, each word, and each abbreviation represented. In fact, he barely understood how it functioned, deducing things only after trying them. Thankfully, the Lost System and the VR System were basically the same. Which meant, he could try out any of the listed game titles and familiarize himself further through trial and error. "And I already found a curious title too." He smiled, stopping somewhere in the middle. A list marked with a large red circle and a diagonal slash over the number 18—just above that was a curious entry, even to Xu Tao. Heavenly Martial Path! (VRMMO) "I heard of a cultivation path with the same name before," Xu Tao whispered to himself, rationalizing his choice while also curiously wondering, "Could this one be the real deal...?" Of course, Xu Tao was interested. Although it was slightly different from his own path, the Universal Ultimate Dao, checking it out wouldn’t hurt. He carefully tapped the icon, expecting to be pulled into the game the next moment but— "Huh?" —instead of being transported, a new window appeared before him. On it was the Heavenly Martial Path title, along with an enlarged icon. Apart from that, a long line of words could be seen describing the world and backstory—a.k.a. the game’s summary. Xu Tao sped through the contents, reading everything—and frowned. "So, it’s a cultivation world with monsters and levels...?" he muttered. "Isn’t this exactly like the Lost System’s world, Alkryon?" he wondered aloud. If there was any difference, it was that there was no Gacha involved. It was purely a full-dive VRMMO with non-customizable avatars based on the user’s real body. A restriction that most players hated, making it an unpopular title among the many available. In fact, it was so unpopular that its online player base at any given moment was fewer than 100. But to Xu Tao, none of that mattered. What was important to him was that it was a cultivation world, it was similar to Alkryon, and most of all, that it wasn’t real. "It’s a place where death is virtual..." Xu Tao sighed in awe, reading the reviews and comments that followed—mostly negative, with a few positive ones here and there. "Sounds like a hellish world where death is not a release, but a torture..." He shook his head. He read through all the reviews, all the comments, and everything else in less than a minute before letting out a soft sigh. A harsh world, one where danger lurks at every corner—dangers that could easily lead to death. A world that... greatly pulled at Xu Tao’s interest. With a light grin, he tapped the large Game Start button. Based on what he read in the section called the "Game Manual," it was the way to start up the game. As he did, his vision started to warp, as if getting pulled into a singularity. However, unlike the time when he was pulled into Alkryon—or when he "logged out" from there—the sensations were pitifully absent. It was like he was being shown a mirage while his body remained as still as stone. To Xu Tao, this felt... anticlimactic. [Welcome to Heavenly Martial Path!] [Please customize your character!] When the visual illusion vanished, two windows now greeted him. One was a welcome notification, the other a complex character customization menu. Although the game didn’t allow changes to the user’s physique or gender, it freely allowed customization of everything else: skin color, eye color, hair color, hair length—every possible cosmetic option. "Hmm... I’ll go with this." But Xu Tao didn’t even bother changing anything other than his hair. He just went with the simple appearance of long black hair tied in a half-up ponytail—quite close to his real hairstyle. After selecting the confirm button—and realizing that he was getting more and more used to seeing buttons, drop-downs, sliders, and such—a new window appeared. [Please enter your Character Name:] "Name, huh?" Xu Tao didn’t hesitate, typing his real name but— [Error: The name is already taken. Please try again!] [Please enter your Character Name:] "...Huh?" He tried again, typing his name in reverse order, but the same error appeared. Xu Tao... couldn’t log in with his name! After that, he spent five frustrating minutes trying every name he could think of, only to finally log in with one he wasn’t really convinced about: [False Fisherman Lv. 1] The game finally accepted his name, but... the name he chose, one that the Lost System jokingly called him, was terrible. With it floating above his head, he looked more like an NPC instead of a player! "Hey, look..." And worse, upon arrival at the game’s world, people quickly noticed him. "What’s that? An event NPC?" "Event? You think the devs would bother?" "Look closer, it must be a new player!" Whispers and hums echoed, making Xu Tao uncomfortable. It was a new "World," and he’s already attracting attention!