Cultivating in Online Games

Chapter 6 – Healing booth

A nosy player squeezed over to the monk’s side, trying to peek into the bamboo basket by his feet and see if he had all the spirit players in the beta test stuffed in there.

“Don’t bother,” said the lingzhi who had just completed his daily task. “When I was in the basket, I thought I was the only one in there. Who knows where he took out another one from.”

The lingzhi then grew a pair of chibi-looking eyes and glared jealously at the snow lotus on the table. He was not threatening at all and even rather cute.

That player peeked into the basket anyway, but indeed found it was empty. Probably, when the snow lotus was done with its task, the monk would reach in and pull out another spirit anyway.

The players who couldn’t squeeze their way to the incense-offering task all gathered around the lingzhi to ask about his experience. “You gained so many levels! Are you gonna level up like this forever, though?”

“No way.” The lingzhi rolled his eyes. “After level 20, I’ll be a human. I’ll probably be able to do missions for EXP then.”

“There are so few spirits that there’s only one old monk giving missions. With the current situation, won’t player growth rate be too slow?” said a player. “You even have to line up to offer incense. There wasn’t this kind of a hassle in the PC version.”

When playing the PC game, players would only be able to see their own dialog boxes with NPCs, so as long as the server had capacity, any number of players could complete the same task at once, and there was no need to line up.

Another player replied, “This is just a beta test, so it’s natural that leveling up would be hard. The game actually ties attractiveness to level, so the levels are a way to tempt players. If it was too easy, players would lose interest too quickly, and then the company wouldn’t make any money, would it?”

Someone asked the monk who greeted people by the door, “Great master, what’ll happen if so many people come that Tanye Temple can’t hold all of them?”

The monk answered according to a template, “Each flower is in itself a world, and each leaf is in itself the complete Bodhi Tree[1]. Benefactor, you may only be able to see one Tanye Temple, but Tanye Temple is not one fixed place in the world. Anywhere our principles are upheld, there is our temple.”

“What the heck?” many players responded. “I didn’t get that. Can someone tell me that in plain Chinese?”

Dugu Zhuo, mingling with the crowd and quietly observing, spoke. “There are innumerable worlds that make up reality. No matter how many players there are, there will be enough Tanye Temples.”

The players now comprehended. “So he meant that at a certain number of players, the company will automatically provide a way to complete tasks and gain experience without having to line up.”

Listening closely to each of their words, Dugu Zhuo was quickly taking in and analyzing information.

He glanced at the lingzhi and saw that a crowd of players were now surrounding him. At some point, Qingyue love and Long @ Aotian had emerged from the Karmic Forest and were now also squeezing in around him, asking how the number one player on the leaderboard had gained his levels.

“Can you move?” one player asked, poking the lingzhi’s thick mushroom cap.

“Shove off!” said the lingzhi. “Do you know which part you just poked? I’m going to report you to the moderators!”

“Then are you a guy or a girl?” that player said, continuing to harass the lingzhi with his finger.

Yao and spirits all spoke in high, child-like voices, making it impossible to tell gender.

“I can choose my gender when I reach level 20,” the lingzhi said. With a great effort, he moved to one side to avoid the annoying player. Moving seemed to be a big problem for him.

“If you can’t move, how did you crawl all the way to Tanye Temple to be medicine for the old monk?” said the player, still poking, irritating the lingzhi until he started wailing.

A warrior monk wearing dark yellow robes walked up to the lingzhi. One of his sleeves was tied at his waist, exposing his firmly muscled arm and half of his chest. He held a monk staff in the hand of that uncovered arm, the other palm held vertically against his chest as he recited Buddha’s name. “Benefactor,” he said courteously, “this spirit has saved countless lives. I beg you to not harm him.”

After a struggle, the lingzhi moved himself to by the warrior monk’s feet.

The harasser sensed the situation taking a downward turn, but he still wanted to push his luck. Hands on his hips, he said to the warrior monk, “What if I keep poking him?”

“Then you must forgive this humble monk.”

The monk grabbed his staff in both hands, a whirlwind forming around it. “Ho! Punishing Vajra[2]!”

In one strike of the staff, that player was erased from existence and left only a piece of equipment behind.

“The player, ‘Shameless and Proud of It’[3], has harassed a spirit player in violation of in-game regulations against sexual harassment. For a period of seven days, this player may not take tasks relating to Tanye Temple.” The warrior monk delivered a server announcement with an intimidating air.

After informing everyone about the regulation, the warrior monk returned to his benevolent manner, reciting, “Amitabha.”

Everyone: “…”

All of the monks in Tanye Temple had two faces!

Someone knew “Shameless and Proud of It”, and after contacting him, reported back to everyone. “That was harsh. One whack of that staff took him down three levels, from level 12 to level 9, and also dropped his strongest equipment. It looks like this game doesn’t take sexual harassment lightly. They’ll seriously punish you!”

“That goes without saying,” Qingyue love said, having joined the crowd at some point. “In a while as everyone levels up, they’ll all be beautiful and handsome, so what’ll happen if someone really develops bad intentions? They spent so much money upgrading this game to VR, so it would be awful if it ended up banned because of a few people’s inappropriate actions.”

Another seemingly female player said, “That’s totally right. All contact from the neck down is banned. Even changing clothes is done automatically.”

Back when Nine Heavens was a traditional PC game, each character was drawn more revealingly than the last one, wearing very thin fabric as well. Now that it was a VR game, however, both men and women were covered up tightly and properly.

Even so, having actual contact with a beauty beat looking at pictures through a screen, so players still spent a lot of money to buy helmets and experience the game.

Qingyue love sighed. “I originally came for the hot men in the teaser trailers, but after I spent all that money on a helmet, everyone looks so lame. Low-level players’ faces lose out to even random NPCs. Tanye Temple has so many good-looking monks!”

There were several female players standing next to the warrior monk. The monk closed his sharp eyes and sculpted brows and recited, “All vulgar thoughts are empty.” An aura of white light surrounded him, preventing any players from getting close.

The meaning being, NPCs also couldn’t be harassed.

The intent of the game company was clear—that this was a healthy and family-friendly game!

Someone then exclaimed, “There’s a really distinguished-looking NPC lining up for the healing booth. Maybe he has a hidden quest?”

Qingyue love was attached to good looks, and the whole reason she had bought the game was to have close contact with 3D characters, so when she heard someone talk about looks, she immediately turned her attention from the warrior monk to the healing booth. She saw Dugu Zhuo standing in a line of unremarkable NPCs like a crane in a flock of chickens.

“That’s not an NPC, that’s a player!” she said.

Unfortunately, no one heard her. The players all mobbed the healing booth.

On a computer, you could select who you wanted to talk to using a mouse, but in a VR game, where you weren’t allowed to harass NPCs, the players were forced to gather around Dugu Zhuo and talk at him.

There weren’t many NPCs at the healing booth. The line was maintained at five people, so that a new NPC appeared only when an old one had been treated.

Standing at the back of the line, Dugu Zhuo became a sixth person, yet no NPCs stopped him.

He pretended to not hear any of the players and waited attentively for his turn.

Dugu Zhuo had been watching everything that had happened at Tanye Temple, and figured out a few guidelines from the players’ explorations.

Firstly, a player had trouble figuring out whether someone was a player or NPC, but an NPC didn’t.

Secondly, if you caused trouble during an NPC’s task, like purposefully handing in an unsuitable item, you would be penalized by that NPC (same as that cat).

Thirdly, he could avoid the Tanye Temple monks’ attacks.

When those two monks had struck, Dugu Zhuo had seen everything. They didn’t use a fixed amount of power with their attacks, instead adjusting them according to the player’s level and the severity of their offense.

The lingzhi harasser had been at a different level than the black cat, and thus the monks’ attacks had been at different strengths.

Dugu Zhuo calculated that the monks’ attack power and speed should be at least half that of a maximum level player. If he secretly manipulated his sword and used the footwork he knew, he put the odds of him avoiding a strike at seventy-thirty.

And for Dugu Zhuo, that was a good enough chance to risk.

His “Identity” entry was even now still locked. When Ye Zhou thought of him as a player, it wasn’t unlocked, and when Qingyue and Aotian thought he was a boss, it wasn’t unlocked. Now that everyone around thought he was an NPC, it still wasn’t unlocked.

Dugu Zhuo wanted to know what he was. Letting other players guess wasn’t going to work, so in that case, he might as well try the NPCs.

The old monk was giving NPCs treatment, and Dugu Zhuo had injuries, so he should qualify for the charity healing booth. If he was an NPC, he would successfully receive treatment.

Dugu Zhuo watched the old monk’s movements, imagining several angles of attack and testing routes of escape in his mind. He felt slightly nervous, but outwardly he showed only calm.

Players could come back from the dead, but that might not necessarily be true for him.

The danger of this experiment was high, but Dugu Zhuo didn’t want to back down.

The way he saw it, if one had set out on the path of cultivation, then they should fight to overcome heaven.

At Qingtian Sect, he had always been raised to be the heir of the Xuan Sword. Only Ye Zhou told him that he had to fight fate, and never come into contact with the sword.

After seeing the destiny that Dugu Zhuo was burdened with, he had tried without pause to push Dugu Zhuo away from the abyss of his fate. Yet, in the end, he couldn’t stop Dugu Zhuo from killing his father and seizing the Xuan Sword.

When his father, Dugu Yue, died in front of him, Dugu Zhuo finally realized that everything in his life had been arranged to be. He was like a pawn on a chessboard. His parentage, his friends, his sect, even his love for Ye Zhou, had all been decided from the moment of his birth.

The heavens had picked him to be the wielder of the Xuan Sword. In order to accept this sword, he had to bear every sin in existence and personally sever all of his emotions.

But why? What gave the gods of the upper heavens the right to coldly manipulate his life, all in order to shape him into a scabbard for a sword?

Dugu Zhuo had never accepted fate, and being in a new world wouldn’t change that.

There was certainly the possibility that he was an NPC designed to be in this game. Using the players’ words, an NPC would carry out its set programming within the server. That was exactly the same as him, back in Qingtian Sect.

He wouldn’t submit to destiny.

His turn finally came, and he sat in front of the healing booth, extending a hand and allowing the old monk to take his pulse.

Qingyue love moved close to Dugu Zhuo and sent him a private message. “Get out quick! When the old monk finds out you’re a player fooling around, you’ll be beaten to death and lose experience like the other two troublemakers!”

The private message was sent to Dugu Zhuo in the form of a voice transmission, wrapping one’s voice in spiritual energy in order to send it directly to someone else’s ears, without anyone else being able to hear.

Dugu Zhuo knew how to do this too, so he sent a private message back to Qingyue love. “I’m injured, so I want to test the game’s rules.”

“Oh wow, you’re so smart!” Qingyue spoke openly instead of sending another private message this time. “You got an injury in order to try lining up in front of the healing booth! Maybe this can become a place where players can get healing!”

“Really?” The snow lotus acting as a healing item on the table was also interested. “Doesn’t that imply that in the future, spirit players will be able to fill support and healing roles, and maybe even revive party members?”

A bunch of players nodded. “That’s a possibility!”

Everyone’s eyes were now fixed on Dugu Zhuo. Some people stubbornly believed he was a special NPC, and some now believed he was a player.

The old monk slowly reached out a hand to rest it on Dugu Zhuo’s wrist.

“Benefactor, you…” The old monk’s friendly expression instantly sharpened. He grabbed Dugu Zhuo’s wrist with one hand, and struck the table’s surface lightly with the other. An ocean of spiritual essence engulfed Dugu Zhuo.

This was…

Sensing the properties of the spiritual essence, Dugu Zhuo had figured out what the old monk was about to do. He was very capable of breaking the monk’s grip and escaping, but held himself back and allowed the monk to trap him within the spiritual essence.

The chaotic voices outside instantly vanished, as all the players froze. The only ones in the area who could move were Dugu Zhuo and the monk.

This was the most profound realm of a Buddhist cultivator, the Formless World. Using spiritual essence, they could create their own small world. It would be isolated from the real world, and time would only flow within it.

This was just a game, so how could there be a Formless World?

As Dugu Zhuo wondered, he heard the old monk speak. “Sir Dugu, this monk is incapable of treating your injuries.”

“What did you say?” Dugu Zhuo replied calmly. “Aren’t you an NPC?”

“What is an En Pee See?” The old monk pressed his palms together in greeting. “This humble monk is Tanji[4].”

Grandmaster Tanji?

Dugu Zhuo remembered that Grandmaster Tanji was the Buddhist cultivator of the greatest virtue within the mortal realm. He could’ve ascended to the upper heavens long ago, but he continued to reincarnate and bring salvation to mortals, gathering virtue over multiple lives.

Why would a great figure like him show up in an online game?

“Sir Dugu, you used your own body as a conduit for the powers of the twin swords of creation, in order to attack the foundation of the upper heavens. You’ve received these injuries from the backlash of the Xuan and Su Swords and the divine realm’s power. This old monk is unable to resolve your divine penance,” Grandmaster Tanji said. “However, you have given the countless lives of the lower heavens a future, and accrued immeasurable virtue based on that action. This is currently restoring your meridians, and someday, you will fully recover.”

“How could I have gained virtue?” Dugu Zhuo asked.

“Sir Dugu’s actions were a sin against the gods, but a blessing for posterity,” the old monk said.

Dugu Zhuo had more questions, but at that moment, everyone else began moving once more, and the animated and responsive Grandmaster Tanji had returned to being a wooden stock character. He said to Dugu Zhuo, “Player, please do not interfere with the treatment of the commoners. Players can receive healing from the medicinal hall in the next town over. Level 20 and below players will not need to spend spirit stones.”

Dugu Zhuo was ushered away from the healing booth by the old monk. Qingyue love ran over and said, “I shouldn’t have doubted you for a second. You immediately found out a method of healing. Did you use to be a pro player?”

Dugu Zhuo paid her no heed. He checked his personal information jade slip, and saw that the field for his identity had been unlocked—

Name: Dugu Zhuo

Identity: BUG[5]