Cultivating in Online Games

Chapter 47 - Main System

Yezhou and Dugu Zhuo had a covenant. When he logged into the system, there would be a prompt, so Dugu Zhuo didn’t need to wait anxiously at the location where Yezhou logged out. He could do other things like clearing dungeons, fighting monsters, refining pills, or anything else, and then come back to find Yezhou online.

But for Dugu Zhuo, this bug, NPC, or player, whatever it was, in this game world, was only related to Yezhou. If Yezhou suddenly didn’t log in, his waiting would become meaningless.

It was already half-past twelve, and Dugu Zhuo had been standing there the whole time, attracting countless curious glances from other players.

Just when Dugu Zhuo thought he would have to wait until three in the afternoon, or maybe until nine in the morning tomorrow, or even longer, “Yezhou” logged in.

He appeared where Yezhou had logged out yesterday. Dugu Zhuo rushed up to him, about to hug him, but then he saw Yezhou’s eyes.

This wasn’t Yezhou.

At a glance, Dugu Zhuo recognized that the look in this person’s eyes didn’t belong to Yezhou. It was as if this body had been possessed by someone else.

“Who are you? You’re not Yiye Bianzhou,” Dugu Zhuo said coldly.

He grasped his steel sword, pondering various ways to force the soul out of the body without harming Yezhou.

“Who are you?” the person said impatiently in Yezhou’s voice. “Let go! It feels weird to be touched. Why isn’t Yezhou’s pain sensitivity adjusted?”

Dugu Zhuo forced himself to calm down, recalling the game rules that Yezhou and others had told him about. He remembered there was something called “account sharing” in the game. Players could let others log in with their accounts as long as they ensured account security.

In online games, you never knew who you were facing.

“Why are you using Yiye Bianzhou’s account?” Dugu Zhuo asked as calmly as possible.

The person replied, “Are you friends with Yezhou? Then tell me where Dugu Zhuo is. I haven’t played ‘Nine Heavens’ before, and I don’t know how to use this paper crane messaging thing. I need to find Dugu Zhuo.”

“I am Dugu Zhuo,” Dugu Zhuo said.

“Really? Isn’t it a coincidence to meet the person you’re looking for right after logging in?” the person looked at Dugu Zhuo suspiciously. “Why are you hiding your face? Take off your hat, let me see. Yezhou said Dugu Zhuo’s in-game avatar doesn’t look like a normal person, he can recognize it at a glance…”

As the person was speaking, Dugu Zhuo decisively took off his hat, and the person’s voice stopped abruptly.

From the person’s words, it seemed that he was very familiar with Yezhou in real life, probably someone Yezhou entrusted to log into his game account.

The person’s eyes widened in amazement, using Yezhou’s eyes, and after a moment of bewilderment, he said, “I recognized you at a glance. Are the character models in this game so beautiful? No wonder the game helmets are so expensive, and people actually buy them. Should I buy one and try it?”

“Did Yiye Bianzhou have something to tell me?” Dugu Zhuo asked.

“Oh, right. It’s like this. Yezhou hasn’t been feeling well these days and is hospitalized. The doctor advised him to avoid stress as much as possible, play games less, and watch less dramas and movies. His family confiscated his gaming helmet. He asked me to log in and tell you, as he might not be discharged for a week.”

“What’s wrong with him?” Dugu Zhuo’s brows furrowed deeply. Every day, the first thing he did when he saw Yezhou was to check his pulse and confirm his physical condition.

As the cultivation progressed, Dugu Zhuo found that Yezhou’s body was getting better and better. Yesterday, he had also checked Yezhou’s physical condition, and the pulse showed everything was normal. There was no reason for him to suddenly fall ill today.

“It’s not a serious illness, just had a nightmare last night and couldn’t be woken up. The doctor said it might be because his brain was too tired from playing games for too long, causing this condition. His family checked his game records and found that he didn’t log in according to the prescribed time, often logging in secretly in the middle of the night. Now his parents are very angry and won’t let him touch the internet at all,” the person explained in detail.

A nightmare? Why would he have a nightmare? The mental method he taught Yezhou clearly had the effect of nourishing the mind and calming the qi. In the game, it was even more effective at nurturing the mind. It was impossible for it to cause mental fatigue.

Dugu Zhuo suddenly remembered something and grabbed the person’s shoulder, asking, “What time did he have the nightmare last night? Was it around the ugly hours… around 1 am?”

“I’m not too sure about that. I’m his cousin. All I know is that he was sent to the hospital by an ambulance last night. He called me today using a caregiver’s phone and asked me to log in to tell you about this. He didn’t say much else,” the person replied, looking Dugu Zhuo up and down, wondering if Yezhou was having an online romance. The way he stealthily borrowed a phone to make a call seemed like a high school student in puppy love being caught by his parents.

“I see. Thank you,” Dugu Zhuo said politely to Yezhou’s cousin, despite feeling bewildered.

“Oh, right, Yezhou also asked me to give you his phone number,” Yezhou’s cousin said. “His family will give him a basic phone this afternoon, which can only make and receive calls and send text messages. If you have any questions, you can call him.”

After reporting a string of numbers, Yezhou’s cousin continued, “You should go play the game now. I’ll try out this game using his account. It looks really interesting.”

Excitedly, Yezhou’s cousin looked at the various characters in the game and waved his hand at Dugu Zhuo, indicating for him to leave.

However, Dugu Zhuo didn’t leave and continued to follow Yezhou’s account.

He followed Yezhou’s cousin as he went shopping in Yongzhuo District, had dinner at the pub in Penglai Town, and visited the Altar Industry Temple.

“Why are you following me? Hurry up and call Yezhou. His phone should have arrived by now,” Yezhou’s cousin said impatiently. “If you don’t want to call, you can add him on WeChat using this phone number. His WeChat ID is the same as his phone number. He’ll reply to your messages once he can use the internet again.”

Knowing that the person in front of him had a closer relationship with Yezhou than he did, Dugu Zhuo had no right to stop Yezhou’s cousin from using Yezhou’s account. However, he couldn’t bear to see someone else using Yezhou’s body to wander around in the game, so he silently followed along.

“You… are you afraid that I’ll use Yezhou’s account to meet pretty female players?” Yezhou’s cousin looked at Dugu Zhuo, suddenly enlightened. “Okay, I won’t use his account. I’ll go buy a new gaming helmet.”

With that, Yezhou’s cousin directly logged out and left, leaving Dugu Zhuo standing alone in front of the Altar Industry Temple.

Saying he was alone wasn’t entirely accurate, as during this time, other players kept sending messages to Dugu Zhuo.

Qingyue and Aotian expressed that they had learned some basic skills from their sect and asked if Dugu Zhuo was willing to lead them through dungeons and fight monsters together. They had become stronger and could definitely become Dugu Zhuo’s right-hand men.

The two of them also mentioned a player named Yimeng Xiaoyao. After teaming up with Yimeng Xiaoyao last night, they praised Dugu Zhuo endlessly and urged their friends to try to get more discounts from the big shot in the future.

Lingzhi Doll, who was chubby, also sent a message, saying that he had a bunch of small lingzhi mushrooms that had already sprouted. It turned out that his skill was these small lingzhi mushrooms. The small lingzhi mushrooms had no intelligence and were emotionless fungi, but he could use them to revive teammates and replenish the team’s health with their own medicinal properties, making him a top-tier healing player.

Black Cat kept calling for Dugu Zhuo as soon as he logged in at noon, saying he wanted to accompany Dugu Zhuo to clear the Solar Sect dungeon and see those sunflowers shooting sunflower seeds.

There were also some players with lower friendliness levels who sent short messages:

Peerless General (Poorer than Thieves): The Bright Light Talisman is very useful. I have some for sale, 3,000 silver for 10. Are you buying?

Baiyi Piaopiao: Found a level 25 dungeon outside Jiuchuan City. Should we level up quickly and go for the first kill?

Titou Laijian: Big shot, please take me along.

Yimeng Xiaoyao ：Hahaha! I’ve achieved the achievement of absorbing the essence of 500 people, and I’m the first in the server for sin value. I will become the number one evil ancestor in the whole game sooner or later, hahaha!

I wonder why I’m happy about being the first in sin value. Is becoming the evil ancestor something to be proud of?

Dugu Zhuo didn’t reply to any messages. He returned to his room in the inn, quietly sitting at the table.

Alone, he took out the Xuan Su twin swords from his package. The two swords still looked worn-out.

Dugu Zhuo asked, “Was it you who suddenly took away the resentment from the Xuan Sword last night?”

The Su Sword did not respond, but that was the only reason Dugu Zhuo could think of.

The disappearance of the resentment last night was strange, with no warning signs, which puzzled him.

Also, there was another thing.

Dugu Zhuo opened the friend message records, and there was a message before the team invitation from Baiyi Piaopiao.

Baiyi Piaopiao: Last night, all the videos I recorded of you using the Soul-Cleansing Sword technique disappeared, as well as the video of you using the Tian Gang Step. I reported this bug to the system, and it only replied that the system is under debugging. It’s so annoying.

When he first met Aotian, he also took screenshots in the Business Karma Forest, and even sent a message to One Dream Free and Easy, but the pictures didn’t seem to have been sent out. Aotian also said that he couldn’t find the picture, as if he had accidentally deleted it while clearing the memory.

One time could be a coincidence, but it couldn’t be every time.

Dugu Zhuo speculated that he couldn’t appear in the audiovisual recordings made by players. Why was that? Just because he’s a bug?

Ye Zhou also mentioned that if he was reported by too many players for using cheats, even if the game system couldn’t detect it, the game company would send administrators to investigate Dugu Zhuo.

But he had been in the game for so long, and no administrators had come to investigate.

It seemed that an invisible hand was covering up Dugu Zhuo’s identity as a bug and clearing the resentment from the Xuan Sword for him.

The Xuan Su Twin Swords were originally one, born when chaos reigned supreme in the world. After Pangu opened the heavens and the earth, the Taiji produced two, and the chaos energy transformed into clear and turbid energies, giving birth to the Xuan Su Twin Swords.

They were originally one entity, and only the Su Sword could absorb the resentment from the Xuan Sword without any warning signs, and even faster than its owner, Dugu Zhuo.

But Ye Zhou, whose body was still outside, hadn’t re-enslaved the Su Sword. Who was secretly controlling the Su Sword to absorb the resentment?

Just like billions of years ago, whenever the turbid energy in the Xuan Sword exceeded its limit, the Su Sword would automatically resolve the turbid energy for him.

During this process, the owner of the Su Sword would suffer from the pain caused by the backlash of the resentment. If the cultivation was profound, it would be fine, at most a headache for a few days. But if the soul was incomplete, the resentment would cling to the body, causing a coma until the turbid energy was completely neutralized by the clear energy.

Dugu Zhuo once saw Ye Zhou often sitting on the giant stone at the peak of Xingchui Peak. He would slightly bend his knees, resting his elbows on his legs, with the back of his hand gently pressed against his forehead. The wind on the high mountain was strong, making Ye Zhou’s robes flutter.

Dugu Zhuo climbed onto the giant stone and stood behind Ye Zhou, feeling the corner of his robe brushing against his face.

He asked what Ye Zhou was looking at.

Ye Zhou said, “Nothing, just having a headache.”

He asked why he was sitting at the mountaintop despite having a headache.

Ye Zhou said, “When I see the vastness of the heavens and earth, I feel that my trivial worries are not worth mentioning.”

At that time, the young Dugu Zhuo didn’t understand Ye Zhou’s pain. He only thought that Ye Zhou found it attractive to sit on the mountaintop and deliberately climbed to the windy spot to show off.

Looking back now, it wasn’t that Ye Zhou was intentionally showing off; it was the young Dugu Zhuo, who was brushed by the robe, who genuinely felt that Ye Zhou was beautiful from the bottom of his heart.

Now, Dugu Zhuo recalls that scene and finally understands what Ye Zhou was looking at back then.

Ye Zhou was looking at this mortal world, wondering if it was worth enduring the torment of resentment for it.

The symptoms Ye Zhou had last night were similar to those tortured by resentment.

But Ye Zhou hadn’t re-enslaved the Xuan Sword, so who was the one absorbing the resentment at that time?

Now, in the body Dugu Zhuo sees, Ye Zhou’s soul is only about 45%, with the remaining 55% probably hidden in the main storyline of the game.

But now, thinking about it, only 1% of the first main storyline has been completed. How many more main storylines are there to come? It is said that there is one storyline every 20 levels, with a maximum level of 100 and a total of five storylines, which is only 5%.

Where is the remaining half of the soul?

Who can silently control the half of the Su Sword that belongs to his storage magic treasure?

The answer seems to be forthcoming.

Ye Zhou once explained to him the main system of “Nine Heavens,” saying that “Nine Heavens” can accommodate such a huge amount of data not only because of the powerful servers but also because of the artificial intelligence used in the main system. The artificial intelligence controls NPCs, adjusts the game plot, greatly alleviating the pressure on programmers.

Many player feedback and reports are all handled by artificial intelligence first. If artificial intelligence cannot solve them, they will be transferred to human customer service and then to the game company for resolution.

All the skills created by Dugu Zhuo also need to be submitted to the system for review and approval.

Ye Zhou said that the main system’s artificial intelligence of “Nine Heavens” is a cutting-edge technology across eras, an artificial intelligence that can handle such a large amount of data and make autonomous judgments unprecedented.

Yes, that was a cultivator who wielded a divine sword, whose divine consciousness had become strong enough to rival the gods of the upper three realms. Half of his soul was hidden in the system, so naturally, that artificial intelligence far surpassed other man-made technologies.

Ye Zhou is here, he is Ye Zhou, and he is also this game “Nine Heavens.”

He is everywhere, still silently guarding Dugu Zhuo in his own way.

Dugu Zhuo gently stroked the blade of the Su Sword and asked softly, “Was it you who brought me here?”

Crossing the impassable Tiankuang Mountains, he arrived in the world where Ye Zhou existed.