D.I.O

/You have gained 2 Good Deed points!/

“Huh? Good Deed points?”

“You gained those for saving that man’s life. Obviously, your points will increase the more good deeds you do.”

“But, when I freed that mage guy in the previous testing area, I didn’t gain any points. Why’s that?” Yongno asked, a puzzled expression on his face.

Mari snorted. “Hmph! What kind of good deed was that? You did it because it was a quest requirement.”

“Ugh, why does that matter? It’s all the same anyway.”

/You have gained 2 Good Deed points!/

Yongno whistled as an additional message popped up after swatting down another arrow.

“Oh! I guess it keeps giving me points for the same type of action.”

“If you don’t endanger someone who should’ve otherwise been safe or purposely place an individual in peril just to save them, the same actions will count as good deeds.”

“I can imagine that there are probably people grinding Good Deed points already.”

As Yongno said this, he examined his surroundings. The battle was reaching its climax. Out of the original 50 Nol, half were either dead or had sustained critical injuries, while the rest seemed exhausted. Although the village’s resident soldiers hadn’t come out of this unharmed, only around ten were wounded.

“Hey.”

“Huh? Ah! T-thank you for what you did earlier! You saved my life….”

“Alright, enough of that. Can I have a bow and arrow? I’ll help you guys out.”

“Of course. I’m embarrassed to say this, but I’m a bit injured and can’t hand it to you….”

After gathering the man’s quiver and bow, Yongno raised the shoddily-made wooden bow.

/You have acquired the Bow Shooting skill!/

“Bow shooting…”

Once he held the bow and arrow in his hands, Yongno felt a bit of nostalgia. Five years had passed since he last wielded such a weapon. He never thought he’d hold a bow and arrow again, but the game had given him a chance.

“I just came by to ask if you would reconsider starting archery again.”

Truthfully, Yongno had thought about it, and he genuinely wanted to return to archery. Yet, he couldn’t. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to do so; he was being stopped. Similar to how he felt whenever he had to get in his bathtub, Yongno felt a sense of dread whenever he saw a bow and arrow. Even merely watching an archery event on television made him sick, so how would he be able to pick up a bow and arrow in real life?

However, ‘This isn’t reality.’

Right. This wasn’t reality. He was in a virtual reality game, a space to play and experiment. He was someone who typically couldn’t step in a bathtub, and he had swum a thousand meters underwater within this game.

As Yongno drew back the bow’s string, the wooden bow made a creaking sound. If this were the past, he wouldn’t have even considered this bow usable.

“Wooden bows aren’t great unless they’ve been made by an expert….”

However, this wooden bow was all Yongno had in his possession.

Ping!

“Yip!”

Yongno jumped on top of the wooden fence and shot an arrow at a Nol that was about to bite a resident soldier. The arrow went through the Nol’s mouth, and, of course, the Nol died instantly.

/You have attained rank eight in Bow Shooting skill!/

/You have acquired the title ‘Nol Slayer!’/

Ping!

“Yip!”

Another arrow soared in an arc before directly hitting a Nol’s eye as the mob rushed toward the wooden fencing. Nols didn’t have large eyes. Moreover, this Nol had been moving at a rapid pace, so it was a tremendous feat for Yongno to have hit the Nol squarely in the eye.

/You have attained rank seven in Bow Shooting skill!/

/You have acquired the beginner level title in Bow Shooting!/

/You have acquired the special skill, Constant Imbuing!/

For players who used internal energy, there was a different approach to imbuing internal energy into a ranged combat weapon. An individual would have to constantly imbue internal energy into a sword or spear to make their strikes more destructive, but for ranged weaponry, like a bow and arrow, the same method would be rendered useless once the arrow left the user’s hand.

Thus, ranged attackers imbued internal energy into an arrow and allowed it to constantly exist even after leaving the user’s hand. However, Constant Imbuing had a time limit of around five seconds, but most ranged attackers were able to act within this frame. This was a special skill that rank seven Bow Shooting gave users.

Ping!

Another Nol, which was rushing up a ladder, was struck by Yongno’s arrow. While Nols were smaller than a standard adult human, they still weighed an average of fifty kilograms. As such, it didn’t make sense for a Nol to be flung five meters into the air after being shot by Yongno, but this was what exactly occurred. Even though this result didn’t make sense in the physical world, in the martial world, with the incorporation of one’s qi, a simple attack could have such a drastic impact.

“But this is so inefficient. I’m utilizing five years of internal energy and turning it into ten years of internal force, but this is the best I can do….”

Five years of internal energy was a third of his total internal energy. If he were using this same quantity for his hand skills, he’d be able to attack with roughly ten times more destructiveness. It was indeed inefficient to use the bow and arrow.

Ping!

“Yip!”

/You have attained rank six in Bow Shooting skill!/

Ping!

“Yip!”

/You have attained rank five in Bow Shooting skill!/

/You have acquired the advanced level title in Bow Shooting!/

/You have acquired the special skill, Explosive Arrow!/

Ping!

Boom!

Without fail, every arrow would become an explosive arrow. Moreover, this special skill was instantly applied once he acquired it. From that moment on, Yongno dominated the battleground.

/You have attained rank four in Bow Shooting skill!/

Ping!

Boom!

/You have attained rank three in Bow Shooting skill!/

/You have acquired the special skill, Death Arrow!/

Ping!

“Ugh.”

An arrow had hit a Nol’s shoulder, but the Nol coughed up blood and crumbled to the ground. This was the effect of Death Arrow. Rather than exploding the internal force imbued in an arrow like Explosive Arrow did, the Death Arrow skill carried one’s internal force into the target, burrowing within them and exploding internally. Furthermore, from this explosion, a chain reaction would occur in those who wielded internal force. The targeted Nol didn’t possess much internal force, so it only collapsed after being struck. Yet, if the arrow had hit something which possessed a large amount of internal energy, magic power, or uncontrolled spiritual power, this attack would have been catastrophic.

Ping!

/You have attained rank two in Bow Shooting skill!/

At a certain point, fifteen Nol had fallen under Yongno’s hands. Since there had only been roughly 25 Nol remaining when he entered the battle, Yongno had effectively taken care of more than half the remaining enemies. Moreover, Yongno had killed off 15 Nol with only seven arrows, as he usually took down multiple targets at once. Thus, his Bow Shooting skill was leveling up with every arrow.

Ping!

“Yip!”

Finally, the constant rank-up messages stopped appearing. Even though each of his arrows found its mark, Yongno’s Bow Shooting rank didn’t increase again. Seeing this, Mari realized something.

‘Since his rank-ups stopped at rank two, it means his skill level is at the first rank. Really… really… I can’t believe this guy. Even if he had some archery experience, it’s a completely different process to use internal energy.’

As she thought this, Mari noticed that Yongno was smiling, and she fell into further contemplation. Then, Mari brushed her thoughts aside and waved her right hand at Yongno.

“Normally, this isn’t ‘allowed’ per se, but….”

Mari circulated her magic power. She was trying to read Yongno’s mind by peering into his movements and thoughts. To avoid attracting his attention, she only used a basic level of her magic skill to read Yongno’s mind at a surface level.

Ping!

“… Ugh!”

Mari let out a small cry after being inundated with extensive amounts of data. A supercomputer may have processed this deluge of information without an issue, but it was too much for Mari. Actually, this would’ve overloaded any ordinary human. The data contained information on the environment’s condition, the power level of various entities, the variables that affected the flight and direction of the arrow, and the expected result of each attack. Yongno was visualizing the entire process of shooting each target.

However, rather than being overwhelmed by this massive amount of data or sustaining himself through cold rationality, trained thought processing, or any other learned process, Yongno was producing and processing this information simply through enjoyment.

‘A genius who enjoys what he does….’

It was often said that a genius couldn’t beat a hard worker, and a hard worker couldn’t beat someone who enjoyed what they were doing. However, this saying wasn’t totally correct. Being a genius was innate, while effort and enjoyment were something you learned.

‘A hard-working genius is terrifying. And to add to that, a hard-working genius who enjoys what he does….’

She was witnessing what a hard-working genius looked like first-hand.

Ping!

“Yip!”

/You have attained rank one in Bow Shooting skill!/

/You have acquired the expert level title in Bow Shooting!/

/You have acquired the special skill, Directional Change!/

After felling ten additional Nol, Yongno ranked up once more. If an individual showed a skill level two or more levels above their actual rank, they would obtain 100% experience for each successful attack. On the other hand, if their skill level were only one rank higher, the experience they gained would be 10%. This explained how Yongno ranked up after ten successful attacks.

“Y-you…”

The village resident soldier looked fearfully at Yongno. As he saw this gaze, Yongno looked back at the soldier with an expression that stated, ‘I’m helping you out, but why are you looking at me like that?’ Yet, before Yongno could respond, the soldier spoke first.

“Y-you’re smiling and enjoying killing the Nol….”

“…”

Yongno didn’t know how to respond. He wasn’t actually enjoying the Nol massacre, but to an outside observer, that was probably exactly how it looked.

/Clear!/

“Ah! It ended right when I was getting into it. I also wasn’t able to give that soldier a full explanation.”

“It’s a temporary world anyway. It doesn’t matter if anyone misunderstood you. Anyway…”

Whoosh!

With a ringing noise, two beams of light shot up and circled Yongno. Then, a message popped up in front of him.

/You have reached Level 2!/

/You are now able to use some level-restricted items!/

/Your maximum ability levels have increased to 100 points!/

“Oh! I’ve reached Level 2!”

“Hmph. It took you long enough.”

Yongno took everything in. It didn’t matter if Mari was clicking her tongue or tsking in disgust; he was elated that his maximum ability points had increased. Since his maximum point levels were now 100, Yongno felt that the point restrictions wouldn’t stress him out for a while.

Whoosh…

Soon, the twenty doors turned into rays of light before dispersing and disappearing. In their place, two doors formed, and Yongno looked at the writing on them. One door read [Joint Warfare] while the other stated [Starting Room].

“There’s still some testing left?”