Chapter 14

Yongno was now lying flat on a big rock, breathing quietly as if he were asleep. Mari, who had reached a much higher level of mastery than Yongno, thoroughly knew his status as well as the situation within him.

“… Unbelievable. How could he engage in self-contemplation for three days without meditating or going into a state of trance after reaching enlightenment?” murmured Mari in amazement.

Self-contemplation was a high level of spiritual ability for players to introspect themselves. Three days of being in a trance would only feel like a minute or two. However, those who contemplate would be going through a time at normal speed or even longer than the actual duration. Therefore, most of the users couldn’t engage in self-contemplation for more than an hour, but Yongno was doing it for three consecutive days.

Mari uttered, “Basically, players need mental strength and power of concentration to self-contemplate… But perhaps those don’t apply to this guy because he’s just enjoying it.”

Would it actually be sustainable for a person to study or perform complicated tasks for three straight days without any breaks? That would be close to fully concentrating on studying or doing intellectual work for seventy-two hours without having a break, meal, and sleep. Realistically, it would be almost impossible since the longer we spent time performing high-quality intellectual work, the poorer our mental health became. Even if we had the fortitude or a very high concentration, we couldn’t beat random thoughts intervening ourselves.

However, we could think differently by changing the situation. What if we were playing our most favorite game for three days straight without any breaks? Would there be a difference between working hard and enjoying ourselves? Some people could say that even playing games for all three days and nights would be quite challenging. Still, if we were thinking it cool-headedly, realistically, and based on our experience, playing our favorite game for that duration would be much easier.

“Geez, what a freak!” snorted Mari.

Whoosh.

But before she sighed, there was a sympathetic resonance; Yongno’s inner qi moved violently. It meant only one thing, and that is No Living World, the esotericism of the Gold Core Immortal Technique was open.

Mari exclaimed, “Oh my god, did he open the first realm of the Gold Core Immortal Technique? How could he do that when he learned the technique for only a month and even with that small amount of internal force?”

It was impossible, but Mari had no choice but to believe what she was witnessing.

“Phew! Okay, done,” said Yongno.

/Your Spiritual Power (Type: Internal Arts) has increased by 30 points!/

/Your 20 unchosen Spiritual Power points are converted to Internal Arts!/

/Your Willpower has increased by 27 points!/

/Your Magic Resistance has increased by 20 points!/

Yongno showed a satisfied smile as the messages appeared one after another, then suddenly, he noticed something strange.

“Eh? Why did my mental strength and magic resistance increase by so much?” wondered Yongno out loud.

Mari replied, “That’s because you’ve been self-contemplating for three days straight. Circulating qi or meditating affects the player’s mental strength and magic resistance.”

“Oh, I see… I mean, has it already been three days?!”

“Uh-huh, it’s been exactly seventy-two hours and forty-five minutes. Did it feel shorter?”

Yongno thought for a moment, then he shook his head. “… No, but I did spend some time. Still, I can’t believe I’ve done it for three consecutive days. How long did it take outside the game?”

“Come on, can’t you do some math? As you know, the time in D.I.O is six times faster than that in real life, which is a 1:6 ratio, so it’s been approximately twelve hours and seven minutes.”

“Whoa, I love how the time flows inside this game. It would have been wonderful to study here for my college scholastic ability test!” exclaimed Yongno.

Mari sneered, “Then would your test results have become better?”

“… Nah. Come to think of it, I would have just played harder here.”

I’m a troublemaker~ Studying is boring~ Humming, Yongno stood up after laying down on the rock for a long time. He loosened up his stiff body to return to the ocean.

“Hold on for a second,” said Mari.

Yongno responded, “Why? You said I’d been here for six hours. Let me dive once more before I go grab some food.”

“Why are you being small-minded when you’re gonna dive so frequently?” Mari then put her hands on Yongno’s back. His qi began to move.

“Eh?! This pattern is…!” shouted Yongno.

“Don’t move!”

Even without her warning, Yongno couldn’t move his body an inch as if something was holding it back. Mari, however, kept circulating his inner qi, and this time, there was more to it.

Mari said, “I’m gonna start reciting the mantra, but you don’t need to memorize it since I’m gonna use a technique to forcibly engrave it in your mind.”

“Wow, that’s awesome! You should use this technique on test-takers. You could make millions of dollars from it.”

“…”

Mari frowned at Yongno as he compared the technique and mantra with nothing but some test-taking strategies and school curriculum. However, she just sighed at his silly remark and continued explaining.

“The two mantras that I’m trying to pass on to you are called the Great Strength Vajra Hand and Qi Heaven respectively. One is a Hand Skill, and the other is… sort of a Qi Gong Technique.”

“A Qi Gong Technique… Is that different from a cultivation method?” asked Yongno.

Mari blurted out, “You’ll figure it out later, so please keep your mouth shut.” Then, she began to recite mantras for the techniques while performing a high-level skill to directly inject designated information into Yongno’s mind.

Yongno had no idea how advanced the techniques were, so he was just amazed by the implantation itself.

“Whoa, they are just coming into my head! But compared to the Great Strength Vajra Hand, the Qi Heaven is too long…” he exclaimed.

“Shut up.”

Mari paused as if Yongno had distracted her performance. Her brows met in the middle, but she still looked too beautiful to bring a sense of crisis to Yongno.

He whistled, “Ay yay yay, watch out your mouth.”

“Sorry, Oppa, but I can even verbally assault you.”

“Really? I wonder what it would be like.”

“Shut the f*** up, Oppa.”

“…”

When Yongno zipped his lips, Mari began to recite the mantras again. However, it took quite a while that the sun was setting down when she was finally done. It was already an hour in real-time outside the game.

“… That’s a lot,” sighed Yongno. He shook his head, feeling a little dizzy since a huge amount of knowledge, which could easily exceed a dozen books of encyclopedias, circulated in his head.

But Mari didn’t give him a break. She asked, “Do you understand the infused mantras?”

“Um… one seems to be a method of concentrating force and exploding it, and the other is… It’s very tricky to describe, but I’d say it’s like choosing only oxygen from the air, condensing it, and then creating its liquid version. It also feels like adding high pressure and heat to a lump of coal to make a diamond. I can’t articulate it precisely but it’s almost like filtering internal martial arts to the maximum limit and transforming its nature.”

Mari nodded at Yongno’s clumsy but insightful explanation, which was getting the gist of the mantras.

“Cool, then try handling them,” said Mari. She was very aware that it was almost impossible. Still, the words slipped out of her mouth.

Yongno raised his right hand and replied, “Okay, hold on… Good.” Then, he struck down the sandy ground.

PFOOM!

There was soon a fan-shaped sand burst as if Yongno had exploded a bomb within the granular substances.

/You have gained a new skill – Hand Skill Great Strength Vajra Hand!/

/You have gained a new skill – Hand Skill!/

“…”

Yongno uttered, “Hmm, this isn’t bad…” Then, he lifted his hand and pounded the sand again. Like a huge handprint making its imprint, the sand surface was pressed down about 30 centimeters.

/You have reached Rank 8 in Hand Skill!/

/You have gained the title of Entry-Level User of Hand Skill!/

Despite the messages appearing in the air, Yongno murmured, “So, these are ways to concentrate power but in a narrow range… Eh?”

He noticed something weird. Just now, Yongno had used two quite powerful skills, but he still had half of his internal martial arts left. When he first attempted the strengthening skills, he was drained of internal energy. Compared to his previous situation, his growth was phenomenal.

“I know that the skill I used in the early game was awful in its efficiency, but how can it become this better when my stats have only increased by 1.5 times? Do you have any idea what is happening?” asked Yongno.

Mari nodded, “It’s because, Oppa, you have opened the first realm of the Gold Core Immortal Technique. If users cultivate the external world of this cultivation technique, they can intensify their internal martial arts.”

“Oh, you mean Mercury?”

“Mercury?”

Yongno replied, “Uh-huh, I like your metaphors, so I’ve decided to name them after the planets. Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto… Are they correct? Anyway, now I have eight left…”

“…”

“What’s wrong?” asked Yongno, looking at Mari just standing still without any response.

Mari breathed about twice, then said, “… Alright. Would you now perform the Qi Heaven?” Her voice unusually trembled.

“Oh, you mean the latter one?”

“Yeah, the longer one. You said it felt like turning a lump of coal into a diamond.”

Yongno replied, “Right. Okay, let me try to perform it.”

He closed his eyes, then his internal qi began to move with a sympathetic resonance. When Yongno lifted his right hand, the air in front of his palm started to sway.

Whoosh––

“Oh my god…” Mari felt breathless at the sight, which she wished for but, ironically, didn’t want it to happen at the same time.

The wavering lump of qi gathered and spread soft light, then finally…

Fizzle.

“Eh?” wondered Yongno as the light went off powerlessly.

“…”

He opened his eyes in surprise and found Mari looking grim. Feeling bewildered, Yongno murmured, “Hold on. This is weird. It gets blocked! Did you miss the mantra or recite it incorrectly…?”

THUD!

At that moment, a huge force squashed the ground. Yongno turned around and saw a gigantic handprint on the surface behind him. It was approximately 10 meters deep. He didn’t dig it but merely pressed down and made that big hole.