The administrative building was a multi-story building made out of material that looked like limestone. The roof was tiled and slanted in a way that resembled traditional east-Asian architecture.
Even with three-hundred outer disciples clustering the entrance, the atrium remained remarkably spacious. On the walls, massive windows decorated with wooden patterns revealed the darkening sky outside.
My bare chest earned me a couple of strange and disapproving looks from both disciples and personnel, but I was far from the only one in desperate need of new attire. Thus, it seemed like I was given some temporary slack.
Needless to say, it helped that everyone would soon receive new robes.
I tried to locate Dark and Atom in the crowd, but to no avail. I hadn’t laid my eyes on them since before the courtyard purge and was starting to fear that they’d been killed. Checking my friendlist, I discovered the reason for their absence, their names were both grayed out.
“So, they either got killed or they logged out.” I remarked inwardly. The likelihood of them logging out immediately after passing the trial was low, but not impossible.
With Dark’s injury, the likelihood of them being a part of the two-hundred people who’d been purged wasn’t negligible either.
“If they passed, I’ll see them tomorrow during the introduction symposium.” I thought to myself.
While waiting in line, I took the opportunity to go through the prompts I had dismissed before. Despite my lacklustre performance, it seemed I had made some progress.
[“You have killed a mortal human with a sword. Swordsmanship proficiency has increased moderately.”]
[“You have killed a mortal human with a sword. Swordsmanship proficiency has increased moderately.”]
[“You have killed a mortal human with a sword and by expertly weaponizing your killing intent mid-battle to throw off your opponent. Swordsmanship proficiency has increased significantly. Killing Intent supremacy has advanced immensely.”]
[“You have killed a mortal human with a sword. Swordsmanship proficiency has increased minutely.”]
[“Results: +1 Swordsmanship Lv. (Beginner 7 > 8). +1 Killing Intent Lv. (Beginner 2 > 3).]
Not bothering to hide the satisfied smirk on my lips, I opened up my new and improved cultivation tab.
[Cultivation]
[Name: Bishop]
[Age: 15]
[Cultivation Aptitude: 14 ★]
[Affinities: Sword, Water]
[Affiliation: White Tiger Sect (Rank 4)]
[Rank: Outer Disciple]
[Sect Point(s): 0]
[Cultivation Stage: Mortal]
[Cultivation Method: N/A]
[Qi: N/A]
[Proficiencies]
[Swordsmanship - Beginner Lv. 8]
[Stealth - Beginner Lv.2]
[Meditation - Beginner Lv. 1]
[Supremacies]
[Killing Intent - Beginner Lv.3]
Minute at first, in the last fight, I was definitely beginning to feel the effects of my upgraded proficiencies. My sword swings were faster, more coordinated, and more lethal. It was a holistic improvement that covered everything from my grip to my stance. Contrastingly, my killing intent was becoming easier and easier to evoke even without having to overly rely on excruciating visualization.
Fine, maybe that last progress wasn’t as positive.
“Am I becoming more murderous?” I frowned as I thought about the intense reaction I’d had when I discovered Lana on the ground, a player pressed on top of her. At that moment, I hadn’t thought about anything else other than murder and the desire to inflict pain. And though I didn’t want to admit it, a part of me had even forgotten that I was attacking a character in a game.
“Would I have reacted as violently before I started playing this game?” Honestly, I didn’t know the answer to that question. I wanted to say yes, but now that societal rules and norms weren’t holding me back any more, I found that it was easier and easier to default to violence. Each time my sword severed a head, I felt like the next kill got a little bit easier and a little less nauseating.
“I bet we’ll see an uptake in the amount of batteries and assaults in the near future…” As more and more players become accustomed to killing and hurting others in-game, I conjectured that some of the behaviour was bound to bleed over into the real world. Killing someone in an ultra-realistic virtual reality environment was drastically different from killing someone with a click of a button, after all.
Ultimately, and fortunately for me, none of these ramifications was my problem. I was neither a politician nor a law-enforcer.
“Your name, badge, and your talismans.” A young clerk requested with a no-bullshit attitude. The woman somewhere in her late teens or early twenties was wearing black and white robes similar to the ones I’d seen other outer disciples carry. Unlike the robes worn by inner disciples such as Inner Disciple Xiang or Inner Disciple Zhao, the outer disciple robe consisted of a lot more black fabric and significantly less whiteness.
Personally, I preferred the aesthetics of the outer disciple robes. Functionally, I surmised it was easier to keep clean too.
“Bishop.” I answered curtly while handing over my nineteen talismans. The clerk raised a single eyebrow at the number of talismans in my hand, some of which were stained in blood, but otherwise showed no outward reaction.
Based on my own observations, I reckoned nineteen talismans were above average, but not a crazy amount. A more reckless and versed killer probably could’ve amassed double the amount.
The clerk proceeded to fiddle with my badge, scribbled something down in a ledger, before handing my badge back to me.
[“+19 Sect Points.”] A small prompt popped up when the badge returned to my possession.
“Your disciple badge is a lesser artifact identifying you as a disciple of the White Tiger Sect. It stores basic information about your sect contributions and points. I suggest you smear some blood on it to bind it to yourself. Replacing a badge is not only costly, but a great shame that will not reflect well on your ability as a cultivator.”
I nodded to show I understood.
“You look like a size seven.” The clerk scrutinized my build before nodding to herself. A moment later she handed me a folded robe with a color scheme that resembled her own. “Although not an artifact, the outer disciple robe is far more precious than most mortals seem to realize. The cost to buy a new one is set to ten sect points.”
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
I gulped at the clerk’s warning. Ten sect points represented ten lives or ten gold sovereigns. It wasn’t a sum anyone could cough up.
Finally she handed me a nameless black binder.
“And this is the newest edition of the sect rulebook. I suggest you study it at your earliest convenience.” The clerk nodded at me before focusing on the person behind me. “Next!”
Shuffling out of the building I met up with Lana who was impatiently waiting for me by the exit.
“You took your sweet time.” She declared.
I chose not to refute her despite being reasonably confident that my procession hadn’t taken any longer than the average person.
Our stroll to the outer disciple dormitory was spent gawking over the scenery. I couldn’t wait until I got the opportunity to explore the premises.
Like the administrative building, the dormitory was visually daunting. Yet, it wasn’t until we stepped inside that we realized that what we’d thought was the building was merely the tip of the iceberg.
Eight floors with a mind-boggling amount of corridors leading into the mountain spanned before our eyes.
After talking to one of the managers, who was similarly dressed in outer disciple robes, I got assigned to room #20841.
The manager told me to head to the second floor, corridor number eight, room number forty-one.
Lana was assigned to room #81002.
After agreeing to meet up by the dormitory entrance at 6 am tomorrow morning, we said our goodbyes.
Before I logged out, I went to my room.
Maybe it was wrong of me to feel surprised by the orderliness of the dormitory, but I couldn’t help myself. Typically one would expect a dormitory with hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of adolescent teenagers to be messy and noisy. In this world, however, even outside the purview of the elders, the outer disciples remained on their best behavior.
Although I conjectured that at least part of the reason why they were on their best behaviour was due to them still being new disciples, like myself. Everyone wanted to make a good first impression whilst avoiding trouble, at least in the beginning.
It took me nearly ten minutes to find my room. But I suspected the trip would be much shorter the next time now that I knew the way.
My neighbors' rooms were closed and, despite listening closely, I heard no movement from either of them. I wondered if the owners of the rooms were older outer disciples or new arrivals like myself.
There was no manual lock on my door, instead, it opened when I pressed my badge against it.
“That’s neat.” It seemed sufficiently advanced artificing could imitate modern features and electricity.
The interior of my room was nothing to brag about. In fact, it resembled what I thought a prison cell during the middle age would look like. Stone floor, stone walls, and a stone bed without any sheets or amenities. Naturally, being as deep into the mountain as I was, there were no windows either.
Spending any prolonged period of time here would be a daunting and harrowing experience for most people.
Thus, it was fortunate that I was accustomed to living in dark, gloomy, and confined spaces. My apartment wasn’t exactly a haven of sunlight and spaciousness. Nevertheless, with the lack of amenities, I didn’t see myself loafing around here in my spare time.
“There’s no toilet either.” Fortunately, the developers hadn’t seen the need to include that particular feature of life in the game.
“I wonder where the NPCs go to relieve themselves?” There probably was a communal bathroom somewhere in the building.
Closing the stone door to my new room, I noted how the distant sound of people chattering and moving around vanished entirely.
“Some kind of noise cancellation formation?” Or maybe one wasn’t needed with how thick the walls were.
In the real world, I would’ve worried about oxygen and air quality if I found myself confined to a dark room like this. But since I wasn’t, I just propped myself up on the stone bed and logged out.
…
Returning to the real world felt disorienting and discombobulating. Suddenly, I was surrounded by modern amenities, electronics, and the faint sound of vehicles passing on the overpass above my apartment.
Then there was the disappointment that was my body. I wasn’t overweight per say, but neither could I call myself athletic. Unlike the adolescent physique I had in game, my real body was riddled with work-related injuries and my hands were rough and covered in scars.
The only feature I was even remotely proud of - my pale blue eyes - was the product of good genetics and luck.
Back in the real world, the first thing I did was visit the bathroom. I had spent the entire day in virtual reality, and my bladder wasn’t exactly thanking me for it.
After an uplifting shower, I slowly began to feel like myself again.
For good and for worse.
Interestingly, despite being an avid VR user for several years now, this disorienting disconnect between reality and virtuality was new to me. While the issue was not unheard of, even when using mind dive VR, I’d never had any issues with differentiating between what was real and artificial.
“Escapism at its finest…” I smiled mirthlessly as I slumped on my couch, a pastrami sandwich in one hand and my phone in the other.
“Let’s see here…” I muttered to myself.
Two new messages. Neither of which was from my family.
“Oh, Chris responded?” My eyebrows rose as I read the message.
“Chris is playing CO? And he already got accepted into a rank 3 sect? The Silver Sea Sect?” I furrowed my eyebrows before hurriedly looking up the sect online.
While Heaven, the game company behind Cultivation Online, refused to reveal any information about the game, the same could not be said about other forums.
Consequently, before long, I found a subforum with information about the Silver Sea Sect.
“Silver Sea Sect… a rank 3 sect under the rank 4 superpower Glistering Ocean Sect… located in the South of the Western Continent.”
Realizing the plethora of information I had missed out on, I looked up the five rank 4 superpowers governing the western continent.
The Wang Clan.
The Glistering Ocean Sect.
The White Tiger Sect.
The Radiant Flame Palace.
And finally, the Black Heart Sect.
Not much was known about any of these mysterious overlords of the western continent, but their hegemony was undisputed and their strength was supposedly uncontested.
Needless to say, the superpower that piqued my interest the most was the White Tiger Sect.
“Arrogant assholes…” I skipped the generic bits that universally applied to all rank 4 superpowers. “Ah! here we go!”
The White Tiger Sect is a combat-oriented sect renowned for their aggressive martial arts, righteous disposition, and… sword cultivators.
“Ah…” My eyes widened. Suddenly, I realized the reason why Inner Disciple Zhou had held such a grudge towards me. “He must’ve been jealous…”
Still, the fact that the White Tiger Sect was a prominent and reputable sect that prioritized sword art only benefitted me.
When I read up on the other superpowers, however, I quickly realized that I hadn’t been as lucky as I thought.
“Out of the five superpowers…” I smiled while shaking my head. “Three are known for their sword arts…” The other two being the Wang Clan and the Radiant Flame Palace.
No wonder the sword is called “the king of short weapons”; it certainly was a popular choice for cultivators.
…
