Yongno asked, "Is rapidly gathering internal energy bad?"

"No, it isn't," Mari said, "But please note that the user's control ability affects the maximum value of the internal energy."

"Control ability?"

Nodding at his doubtful voice, she replied, "Yeah, in other words, by circulating and using your internal energy, it hones your internal martial arts. This doesn’t last forever, though; at some point, there will be a ‘wall’ where it won’t improve anymore. This could be caused by how you manage the cultivation technique, as well as your level.”

Simply put, using a cultivation technique for extended periods does not guarantee results. However, if users constantly developed their internal martial arts at the same rate as Yongno, they could quickly cultivate a thousand years of mind, spirit, and qi.

Yongno said, "Interesting, then what is my limit?"

"I don’t know the level of your cultivation technique and the confines of your control ability, but I guess your level will be the first to restrict you. Oppa, since you haven’t even passed the Level 1 test, you can’t have more than 50 points. This limit doesn’t only apply to spiritual power but also other stats such as stamina or vitality. You can not go beyond this point until you pass the test."

Yongno recalled that he had earned 20 points when his middle dantian was opened by Diving. Now that he had gotten an extra point, he should have 21 internal energy points.

"Then, now I can rack up 29 points by using the cultivation technique," said Yongno.

Mari responded, "Unfortunately, you’re wrong. When you first opened the stats window, you should’ve seen that all users start with 20 points of spiritual power. While you can’t use those points since the type of spiritual power is unidentified, they still exist. Now that you have attained 41 out of 50 points, you can only gain nine more spiritual power points."

"That's quite strict. So, how do I use the unidentified type of spiritual power?"

"When you pass this basic test and reach Level 2, you'll be able to perceive mana. That's when you get to decide the type. You can choose between internal martial arts, chakra, or magical power."

Yongno replied, "Hmm, sounds interesting, but it's a little tricky."

"Huh?"

He wondered, "According to your explanation, no matter how hard I cultivate the Golden Pill Immortal Technique, my spiritual power won't increase by more than nine points. Am I wrong?"

"Are you staying in the water?" asked Mari, perplexed. ‘Aren’t you gonna go out and level up?’

Yet, Yongno covertly re-entered the water and opened the stat window to check his status. While they were talking, Yongno had fully recovered his physical strength and internal energy.

"Fine, should we go now?" said Yongno.

Mari complained, "How far are you trying to go? Geez, never mind! Do what you want."

As if she felt exhausted, Mari sighed and gently rose to the surface. Yongno kicked the rock on the shore to propel himself, expecting Mari to follow him.

Splash!

He cut through the water and moved forward.

Arc: Quintillion

Yongno’s eyes opened, showing no signs of surprise, confusion, or exhaustion. His pupils looked clear as if he closed and opened his eyes for about ten seconds, but it had actually been twenty-four hours since Yongno accessed DIO. As soon as he woke up, he checked the time.

"Twenty minutes past ten? Does that mean it's been less than ten minutes since I logged in? No way. That doesn't make sense; I have to check the date, not the time."

Yongno took out his phone and checked the date.

"Eh? It's only been a day? Unbelievable! I've been staying there for days!"

He was there for six days, to be specific. Time in DIO passed six times faster than in real life, but Mari only said that it was sped up. Therefore, Yongno was amazed at the difference.

"Wow! This would be awesome for students preparing for college. They could spend so much time there! Well, I'll get worn out if I run the game too often, but- Eh, worn out?"

As he babbled in excitement, Yongno realized that he didn’t feel tired at all. This wasn’t too surprising since only a day had passed. Days could either be short or long, so not sleeping for one day wouldn’t completely drain him, but….

Yongno shouted, "Even though I pulled an all-nighter, I don’t feel sleepy at all. Instead, I feel refreshed?!"

As if he had had a good night's sleep, Yongno felt like he was given a new life. He’d sat there, playing a game for twenty-four hours, but his mind had never been clearer. It was an odd but fascinating situation.

Yongno looked in the mirror to see if he had any bags under his eyes, but he had an incredibly healthy-looking complexion.

"Geez, this is so weird....."

The moment he stood and removed the earphones, Yongno came to a halt. The computer was still turned on, and he was holding the earphones in his hand. Standing absentmindedly for a second, he murmured, "Hmm... this doesn't make any sense."

Yongno just played a virtual reality game, a computer-generated simulation. By merely sitting in front of the computer and wearing the earphones, he logged in and started playing.

‘For goodness’ sake, how does this make sense? Can it be described scientifically or physically?’ Yongno shook his head no. What he’d experienced was inexplicable, but evidence spoke louder than theory. He had returned from the virtual world, which was an undeniably real experience.

Yongno grumbled, "Still, I can’t help but feel that it’s absurd. How can I access the game with only an earphone? I didn’t need to lay in a capsule, wear a helmet, or even plug something into my head like the Matrix."

Yongno got up from his seat. He was feeling well, but his stomach was growling in hunger. Unless he wanted to feel dizzy, it would be wise to eat something soon.

"Let's have some instant food. A three-minute meal~. I love three-minute meals~!"

Humming, Yongno opened the fridge, finding the door packed with all kinds of instant foods.

"Should I have some meatballs and hamburg steak? I've been starving for a whole day, so let’s have two fried eggs on the side~."

He poured the hamburg steak and meatballs into one dish, then put the plate in the microwave. As he waited, he prepared a bowl of rice and made two fried eggs before adding them to the top of the rice.

"Let's see. I’m not too busy for a while, so it’s fine if I play DIO, right? Well, money's not an issue for me right now, so I can temporarily stay home. Wow! That's why they say it's good to be free."

Yongno was a senior in high school, but thankfully it was the end of November, and the college scholastic ability test was over.

"Hahaha, now I can just enjoy this freedom without responsibility."

After taking out another dish, Yongno moved the rice, hamburg steak, and meatballs to it then added fried eggs over them. Next, he placed a spoon on top of the food and sat in front of the computer. He looked like a perfect homebody teenage boy.

"Let's see. I found the website!"

Yongno was surprised to find DIO’s website. He had no particular reason to be shocked, but he thought that there would be no signs of DIO in real life. ‘Does this website belong to a different game?’ Yet, after reading the introductory page, Yongno admitted that he had found the right one.

"It has many background stories and even an online library."

As he browsed the information, he discovered the martial powers, cultivation methods, and above all, the Golden Pill Immortal Technique of the Taoist culture that he’d learned in the virtual world. However, only the basic theories were available for free; viewing additional information required payment.

"I’m guessing it isn't an in-game purchase, but it doesn't make sense to have such transactions while in beta either."

Yongno couldn’t find the advanced martial power books that he was looking for, but he found a few that were open to the public, such as those in the [Basic Theory] section. These books went over various topics and were named along the same lines as follows: 'Basic Magic System,' 'Basic Martial Power System,' 'Bringing Back the Other World,' 'Chakra 101,' etc.

"There are all kinds of things here," he murmured.

Among those books, Yongno chose the 'Basic Martial Power System' and looked over it. The book discussed basic martial arts knowledge like the acupoints where life force circulated, the characteristics of each acupoint, and so on.

"Ah, I see. That's why…."

Smiling in joy, Yongno opened a notebook and started taking notes. Nothing seemed special about this young man learning from online resources, but in fact, this was the beginning of an unexpected change in Wulin’s thousand-year martial arts history.

* * *

"It's the ocean~!"

"At last, we're here..."

As he stood before the vast blue horizon, Yongno spread his arms wide; Mari was behind him, her frustration clear from her body language.

Yongno said, "I think we've gone down about 200 kilometers."

"Yeah, sir, you're freaking awesome."

To be specific, Yongno had traveled almost 240 kilometers by water. To put this into perspective, the distance between Seoul and Busan was 314 kilometers. Yongno had swum impossibly far. If it were possible to swim 240 kilometers, wouldn’t it be okay to jump into the sea from Haeundae Beach and get to Jeju-do that way?

Yongno only glided through the river and not the ocean, so he sometimes had to get out of the water and take a break. Even so, he was going beyond human limits. It only took him about twenty hours to swim all the way here, and this was after he got sidetracked every so often.

Susie Maroney was the world record holder for swimming the furthest in the open sea. It took her approximately forty hours to cross from Mexico to Cuba, which was 197 kilometers apart. With this said, what Yongno did went entirely against common sense.

"Geez, impossible things can happen here, which means this is obviously a game and not the real world. If I swam like this in real life, I would have appeared on TV shows and become a Guinness World Record holder,” Yongno exclaimed.

While swimming down to the ocean, Yongno earned 15 stamina points, making for a total of 43 points. He even increased his muscular strength by five points. Now, he had 25 points in all, although it took a little longer than he expected...

/Your Spiritual Power (Type: Internal Martial Art) has increased by one point!/

"It finally went up!” shouted Yongno. He was still performing the Golden Pill Immortal Technique.

At first, he stopped using it from time to time since he wasn’t familiar with it, but as he got more comfortable, Yongno could perform the technique effortlessly. It didn’t matter if he was swimming, occupied elsewhere, or even consuming his internal energy with Body Strengthening or Diving. And so, his internal energy capacity kept increasing.

/Your spiritual power has reached the limit and can not be increased any further! Level up or clear a special mission to increase the maximum value!/

"I have reached 50 points, but compared to the initial rapid increase, it took quite a long time, right?" asked Yongno.

Mari replied, "That's because the middle dantian had just been activated. Plus, while the Golden Pill Immortal Technique is absolutely safe, stable, and has a strong output, it’s considerably slow in accumulating energy."

Unlike other cultivation methods, the Golden Pill Immortal Technique created a marble of energy within the user’s body, similar to magical beasts or mythological animals. By forming a Gold Core, a kind of spiritual pellet in the dantian, they would be immune to Qigong Deviation, which was a dangerously unstable state of internal energy.

The dantian was usually where internal energy was accumulated, but it couldn’t endure a violent flow of internal force like the Gold Core. This made the latter great to use in attacks that involved a high output without much pressure, like a ‘lethal blow.’ After the huge release, the internal energy would run dry, but that was another problem. When it came to short-term battles, it was quite an attractive cultivation technique.

"Oh, but I have a question," said Yongno.

"What is it?"

"Is it possible to transfer points between stats? For instance, can I lower spiritual power and raise Magic Power Gathering?"

Mari replied in a bewildered tone, "Of course not. Can you make yourself dumb to improve your athletic skills? No, right?"

Yongno shrugged, "I asked just in case. This is a game, after all."

"Pfft, I get where you’re coming from. Since you can't increase your spiritual power past the limit, you want to switch points to a different stat, right? That ridiculous option doesn't exist here, so give up and go level up... What are you doing?"

Mari stared at Yongno. He was absentmindedly sitting in the lotus position on a rock. This was a method to control and use his internal energy, but why was he doing that when the Golden Pill Immortal Technique could move the qi naturally at any time?

However, Yongno simply took a deep breath and ignored her.

Fuuuu…

Breathing in and out, Yongno perceived the existence of qi. He felt the concentration of internal energy condensed near the pit of his stomach. Then, Yongno began to circulate the qi through the acupoints that he already had in mind.