With all six of his plants set out Jason examines them and ponders how many berries to harvest. “The one without berries can be left alone. With the five berry plant, hmm, let's leave it alone too. I ‘know’ that this is a fully mature plant. Then again, that is like how everyone else ‘knows’ blue and glowy weed are different plants. The fact the leaves are glowing means not as much Energy has gathered in the berries as possible. Next for the ten berry plant I will harvesting five of the berries. In fact, I will bring the 20 berry plant down to five as well. Besides that I will leave the other two plants alone. I doubt that the single berry plant will supercharge the berry but life is full of surprises. Huh, guess there will not be much harvesting after all. Oh well, from the ten count plant I will harvest the berries by taking some stem with it and the 20 count plant by only taking the berry. If I ever get a real garden to work with there are other ways to try but this is good for now.”

With his mind made up Jason proceeds with his harvest. The small glowing berries are easy enough to collect and he is soon ready to move on. With a sad sigh, he heads out for the day. While watching for monsters to fight Jason laments to himself. He has no way to keep the berries fresh or even identify them. His current observe skill has limited ability to check things above the level ten bottleneck and the berries count.

“Then again, being able to get a general idea of an enemies level isn’t bad. While getting to level ten isn’t a tricky bottleneck and everyone manages eventually, they keep things under wraps about it. It is the point you can do RMT. Though can it still be called that when the ingame currency is the same as the irl currency? It is not like the dawn of video games when you had to spend national based money illegally to buy gold. Gold is the standard now. Though I do kind of wish the Scifi games won, and we had credits instead. IRL gold isn’t even worth a gold anymore. Not after some disgruntled asteroid belt miners went rogue and crashed the market for it. I can’t blame them though. After mining out there for years and knowing how much of the stuff corporations had squirreled away, it would tempt anyone. It was worse than diamonds. Meh, at least I know about that change. What happens to stats? How does the lauded item quality system work? Why keep these things secret?”

“Well, okay that last one isn’t hard to figure out. They needed someway to equalize the starting point for everyone. While everyone is a part of the game, some people know more than others. If the big clans could teach their children from birth how to get ahead in the game, no one could touch them. It is already bad enough with how much help they get. The bigger clans set aside whole kingdoms to nurture their up-and-coming talent. Can only blame luck and meddling gods for not having been born to some higher up in a clan. I would not like it, anyway. Those kids are raised from young to be the ‘hero’ and I have had enough of that nonsense.”

“Then again, that is only in this realm of the game. If I compared it to my past life, this would be a mortal world. Nothing here is past level 499. The moment anything breaks through they get transported to a ‘higher’ realm. Though you need not wait till then. Even getting to level 100 is enough to let you go to other realms. You can even come back if you want and haven’t become too high a level. Not even one percent of players can manage level 500 in their life. Life extension is easy to get but the lower quality treatments most can afford don’t last forever. Beyond that some people can’t make the cut. Half of those who reach level 99 don’t even break through to 100. Apparently the System makes a personalized quest for that bottleneck. I have to hand it to the company though. They locked so much content behind a wall that even with the entire human population pounding at it most can’t reach. Even the clans lack enough of a presence in the higher realms to take a kingdom.”

“If I can make it to a higher realm, than I am set no matter what else happens. Though I should wait to reach the next bottleneck. While higher realms still contain a lot of ‘mortals’ the quantity of high tier people is astounding. Having anyone above 99 in a smaller town is unheard of here that is the level of a village chief up there. Then again, my use of the word ‘mortal’ isn’t off point. While players have our normal life spans the locals get a boost from passing bottlenecks. Level 100 doesn’t make them immortal, but it puts them on the same level as us players despite the five times difference in time between irl and ingame.”

“I should consider seeing how viable actual cultivation is irl. I heard the System hasn’t set a level cap on the game so there could be a lot more than even the original designers know. Not being able to see it all just doesn’t feel right. The extra years from a breakthrough or two combined with a good life extension could let me really dig into this game. I wasn’t planning to bother but what I have seen changes things. The biggest downfall of anyone even close to calling themselves immortal is boredom and the insanity it breeds. NeoRealm however looks like it can entertain me for Millenium to come if I play my cards right. After all it is a game. If I reach a new height alone, the System might not care. However, if others can get there as well then no matter how far I go there will always be more for me to explore.”