NeoRealm – Staring Back Into the Future

Happy with his new Skill Jason spends the rest of the day in practice. While there isn’t anything to use the move against this won’t pose a problem. His Variant Blast Punch might not be as flashy as the normal version but it took one important aspect from his past. Using the punch did not waste a person’s energy. Honestly, the move was labeled as a poor person’s technique because of this.

Now using a Skill in combat would improve it quicker making his decision less than efficient. However Jason is in one of the instances where that isn’t true. He had already experienced another that of being taught by someone. Now on the other side he has to teach the Skill. Not to a person but rather the System itself. If the punch had already been a Skill, then the System would have judged his Skill in it and set the starting level just below his current ability with it. That is how things work when someone enters already knowing stuff like Jiu Jitsu and Muay Thai. Jason however has created an entirely new Skill as far as the System is concerned.

By practicing it as masterfully as possible the System can even potentially upgrade its rank or improve future level’s benefits. Knowing this Jason isn’t willing to leave it up to chance and let the System see anymore rushed combat use. Practicing the heart of the technique in the plains will provide much longer-term benefits. Though he admits to himself it isn’t just for a better technique. If the move is good enough once he gets to level 10 the System might offer to buy it to teach to others. Nothing says well off like having a popular Skill that people want. A constant trickle of income from people buying it will help in his future budget.

Jason shakes his head, “Enough daydreaming about living off royalties. I need to focus on what differences this body has from mine and my past. Meridians aren’t a thing here though the blood vessels can work. However, this game body isn’t full of those either. As I understand it, the higher my level the closer it is to reality but there is a limit. The System isn’t simulating every single blood vessel in everything. In fact, I remember it is possible to have ‘meridians’. Though it is also possible to have chakras, magic vessels, or even stranger fantasy internals. If you try hard enough and explain it with sufficient detail, the System will let you have a go at it. Nevermind the fact that all the different systems hardly ever match up from one person to the next and only the most classical systems have any degree of repeatability. For this I can’t depend on that. It might be time to research.”

With that in mind Jason decides to do a Home only log out. That way instead of fully logging his avatar stays in the game but he can’t leave his pods Home space. This will let him do some internet sleuthing and if something threatens his body he gets sucked back into the game. Soon the 5 minute timer on it ticks down, and he is out.

Now in his Home space he calls up a screen and starts searching. The first things that come up is that he was partly right. While a character doesn’t naturally have meridians, they don’t need to just make it themselves. When you try to generate them, the System gives the option of having the most common way. Looking into it further though soon proves that like most things here it has nothing to do with what he is familiar with. Anyway, a bit more digging shows that even in-game the system is unnatural.

Shaking his head, Jason changes his searches up. Now instead he checks on high level characters. He couldn’t be the only one looking into what the System considers natural. This new track proves correct. The first info found is some autopsy videos of powerful monsters that a famous hunter did a decade ago. While the insides seem to be all meat, blood, and bones the hunter would point out on each creature how there was nearly microscopic filaments spread throughout the bodies. Others had tried to follow up his work on lower level monsters but the corpses despawn too quickly.

This was enough for Jason though. Cultivation isn’t cut and dry. Each person will be different and that isn’t even considering any of the special body types. Unlike some novels he had seen there isn’t a true path to it. While the experience of others can help. Each person must at least in part forge their own way. So what if instead of meridians the game has strange filaments? That isn’t even the strangest thing he had seen in his past.

Satisfied with his results Jason returns to the game just as the sun is setting. After a quick meal he settles down for more meditation. Delving into his sense of self Jason feels his body's condition. The flow of his blood is powerful. Each vein a path for his energy but at the same time unnatural. Now that he is feeling for it the concept of fleshly tubes in this body is foreign. A reality imposed upon it by his earlier methods. However, within this he notices a truth. Each vein, vessel, and capillary has a thread of rightness to it. He can’t quite make it out yet but this is the lead he needs. If his concepts from real life aren’t true in the game, then Jason would rather throw out all his cultivation so far and start over with the truth. While only a game he can’t let go of his past instincts. To fight the heavens, one can’t be bound by mortal misconceptions. If the truth of his new body is these filaments, then that is what he must cultivate!