SV opened his eyes on top of the clock tower. He looked at the town for a moment to see if it had changed.
Seeing nothing that stood out, he opened his logs, looking to see if a new quest had popped up.
Seeing nothing apart from the failure of the last quest, he made his way toward the manor to check if a quest would pop up there, then to the fountain, and finally to the town gates.
He exited and reentered the town, but nothing happened.
He picked up the bottle near the gate and made his way to where the graveyard was before. He looked down the hole. He thought for a moment before taking out a few pills from the bottle, wrapping them in his torn sleeve, and placing them some distance away from the hole.
Then he calculated the distance and dropped the bottle down. He immediately quit the game.
In the white menu space, he immediately relogged into his Bandit Emperor account and looked up after the entry lag. Unfortunately, he couldn't see anything flashing by in the darkness, but he fortunately managed to catch the sound of a crash.
He followed the sound and found the bottle among the debris, having smashed a few rocks to settle there nicely.
He took it and looked for a crack in the dim moonlight. It seemed perfectly fine.
SV considered using it as a blunt object; it might actually be a good weapon choice if not for its small size.
No matter.
He popped a pill.
[You have gained Exp. Exp +9142]
[You have leveled up. Lv0 -> 1. Attributes +1]
[You have leveled up. Lv1 -> 2. Attributes +1]
...
[You have leveled up. Lv9 -> 10. Attributes +1]
[You have reached the first threshold.]
Looking at the Exp being down to about nine thousand, SV mused that the fall wasn't entirely costless after all.
He shrugged and went to the BOSS corpse.
An hour had already passed since his last talent activation, and he could try possession again.
Touching the BOSS's corpse, or rather the fabric of his clothes over his crushed corpse, the talent did not give a response.
He frowned and touched several other places to no avail.
SV stroked his beard, completely confused. What should he do now?
He couldn't possess the BOSS, he didn't even know what had become of him or whether he was still alive or not.
No matter.
He had to change tactics. He looked at the lake.
There was still one thing he hadn't tried. It was to possess the formation.
He didn't know if it was possible or if the lake would get in the way and make him possess it instead. But it was always worth a shot.
Being a level 10 powerhouse, SV was more than confident that he'd manage to reach the bottom by himself.
Without further ado, he took a deep breath and dived in.
The journey wasn't as easy as SV thought it'd be since he needed to get to the bottom quickly and didn't have time to stay at a certain depth to adjust to the pressure. However, being a level 10 powerhouse, SV managed to withstand it and reached the formation. He immediately touched it and then pressed his ring and middle fingers against his palm.
He immediately turned to dust.
[Possession has been initiated.]
As the screen flashed, he felt himself being attracted to the lake. SV immediately struggled and tried to approach the formation. His efforts did manage to veer his direction, but the outcome remained unchanged. He was devoured by the lake.
[SPR check has been initiated. 211>5. Check failed. Possession failed.]
In the death screen, SV narrowed his eyes. He felt that it was possible if he tried a few more times. The problem was, he didn't even know if it actually was possible or if he was just wasting his time.
[Duration: 04:56:44]
Forget it; he still had some time to squander.
He clicked on revive.
He immediately found himself in complete darkness, a heavy weight pressing against his chest. Before he could even react, his mouth involuntarily opened, and he was slowly but painfully suffocated, like a dying fish on the ground, his mouth opening and closing trying to breathe some air.
In the death screen, he looked at the agonizing look on his corpse as it drifted and slowly uttered a word that encompassed all his sufferings, "fuck."
Forget retrying.
Whether he'd get used to this sensation and somehow manage to touch the formation was a question, and whether he'd get used to dying such a brutal death was another.
At least back in the cave, each death was painless and instantaneous. Not this. This was frickin' torture.
SV stroked his beard.
It seemed this account was ruined?
He might try to rise, but he'd drown again, and it would've been fine if he died several inches up, but unfortunately, he'll slowly die while sinking to the bottom.
Oh wait, he could've tried possession and it would've eased his pain and saved his dying spot a few inches higher. Forget it; he didn't like to experience that again.
He sighed and quit the game.
In the white menu space, SV had a sudden thought. Since the graveyard was no more, where would his new respawn point be?
Maybe he would respawn in the dream? Maybe, right?
Well, he couldn't convince himself. It felt far too far-fetched. But then again, what was he supposed to do, hug Yun Jierou to sleep and hope for the best?
He shook away the random thoughts and clicked on creating a new character.
[Talent is being generated.]
[Congratulations! You have obtained the talent "Superhuman Strength Lv1".]
[Character creation complete!]
[Beginning transmission.]
[We wish you a pleasant experience.]
As his vision darkened, a thought flashed in his head. It was a new character, so the reward for increasing the talent level would fall on it instead. What a shame.
No matter.
—
SV felt himself being torn apart once more. A strange sensation that thoroughly disrupted his senses.
When he came to, the familiar view of the graveyard and the dim light of the moon greeted him.
For a second, SV thought that the instance had reset, but he couldn't see corpses anywhere. Heck, the gates were wide open and had no sconces.
He looked at the moon above his head and then shook his head. If it hadn't reset, then it meant that he had successfully logged into the dream again.
"System," he called, but no screen showed up. SV grinned, "finally! Fucking shit," he spent a whole hour smacking his head against stone. Games were supposed to be fun! What sort of shitty game was this?
Honestly, if it wasn't because he still hadn't discovered what was special about this game that OMNI would force everyone to play, he would've quit long ago.
It had absolutely nothing. Shitty language support. Shitty player experience. Shitty instructions. He had to discover everything on his own.
Honestly, the review was right; it really felt like the second world, since you had to frickin' do everything yourself.
No, that was giving it too much credit. At least in the real world you had supercomputers to assist you. What did you have here? A garbage system that sometimes wouldn't work.
Fuck!
SV vented inwardly as he smacked his hand against the ground again and again. His blood pressure was rising steadily until it gradually relaxed.
He took a deep breath and shook his head.
"Phew!" With the exhale came out his last frustrations.
"Much better," he made his way out of the graveyard.
On a side note. Even though he was level zero, he felt his physical strength was about the same as when he was level 10. It must be because of his talent.
No matter. He went into thought about his current situation.
First, destroy the dream, release the wills. Somehow.
Second, he had to avoid the BOSS since it would be K.O.
Third, he had to avoid Yun Jierou and her group since it would also be K.O.
It was fine that he had to avoid the BOSS since he was the enemy, but he somehow needed to avoid his allies too. Yun Jieoru had to compensate him more later. He wouldn't let her live it down without three extra favors.
No five.
Perfect.
But what if she just defaulted on her debt? She wouldn't, would she?
Hmm.
SV thought seriously about it for a moment and then shook his head. It didn't seem to be in her character. Even when she tried to control him, she gave the excuse of him being an uncontrollable variable. That excuse was obviously more directed to herself than to him.
She said it herself that she'd reward him handsomely once they... what did she say again? He forgot her exact wording, but the gist of it was clear.
As he left the graveyard, he saw a group holding several torches heading toward the graveyard.
Curious, SV directly took off to hide behind one of the side walls.
Under the cover of the night, he remained undetected to the group's eyes.
He watched as several townspeople carried a coffin while entering the graveyard.
He secretly approached the gate and peeked inside. He could see them digging a new grave and saying something to each other.
Unfortunately, he was too far away to hear anything.
He looked at the group and tried to memorize a few faces.
Then a thought struck him. What would happen if he killed this group? Would it liberate their wills?
He counted and found that there were about twenty people. Some old, some young. It might be a bit tough, but with his peak human strength and his talent of superhuman strength, he felt it was doable. Unfortunately, while he could beat them, he wasn't able to prevent them from escaping.
He dismissed the thought.
Suddenly, he felt a hand on his shoulder.
"You're very hard to find, boy," a familiar voice sounded behind him.
SV stiffly turned his head to see that it was one of the two men following Yun Jierou.
SV forced a smile, "good morning."
The man stared at him silently for a moment before sighing, "it's evening, boy."
"Can you let me go? I really am on your side."
The man lifted him up as he said, "that's not up to me to decide."
"C'mon, that brainless woman doesn't know shit...mmhmhm," a force suddenly sealed his throat.
"Please be quiet, boy. You can talk all you want later."
SV immediately became quiet, hearing the subtle clue. He could talk later?
Anyway, how come he wasn't killed when he started cursing Yun Jierou? Shouldn't lackeys be unforgiving if their lord was insulted? What a shame.
It's unfortunate that he doesn't have suicide talents this time. He was truly in a pinch.
—
The man took him towards the same inn Yun Jierou had taken him to and guided him upstairs to a room.
Inside, without surprises, were Yun Jierou sitting at the table, the two women behind her, and the other man sitting on the sofa.
They didn't seem surprised by his arrival, having obviously been informed by his captor when he was caught.
SV smiled brightly at everyone and then said, although no sound came since his seal was still in place, "good morning."
He raised a few eyebrows as a result. He then stared at his captor and pointed to his mouth.
His captor took a glance behind him before nodding.
SV blinked, "ahem, A, B, C, I love my ABC."
He stared at the speechless crowd and shrugged, "don't mind me; I was just testing my voice."
He then went ahead and took a seat in front of Yun Jierou.
The group was about to react to his brazenness when Yun Jierou raised her hand to stop them.
She stared at SV for a few seconds, making SV give her a wink, "you're staring for so long, am I that handsome?"
"How dare—?" The 'who do you think you are' woman wanted to jump but was restrained by a hand gesture from Yun Jierou.
Yun Jierou remained quiet for a moment before sighing, "you are really audacious."