[NR] Limits On Energy - Chapter 723

Rosha and Courtney are around the campfire, staring at the stars. Next night finds them in a similar position. A week later has more of the same.

While Rosha does complain about not being out and about, it isn’t like they’re stuck in the clearing. Jason comes back often enough and they visit the town regularly. Besides that, she doesn’t actually find it that hard to stay in the clearing with Courtney.

Rosha had just gotten used to staying in motion. Not quite running from her father, but it has certainly helped her stay out of his web in her previous sci-fi game. Being able to head off in a random direction across such a large field for stars made it impossible for her dad to successfully track her.

At least, the openness made things hard enough that it would take him a while to find her again. Though at the time, simply having a moment away from what were basically spies was a relief all on its own.

One particular night after that first week, Rosha had thought things over and came to a realization. “Even in NeoRealm, I’m worried about my father spying on me. Nevermind the fact that the System will provide some protection, just under the general anti-stalking guidelines. But the Deep Wilds? They feel safe like when I could simply face my spaceship in a random direction and fly off.”

Courtney leans against her, “That is a legitimate worry and your concerns are valid. However, you can’t let your dad control you. We will eventually leave this clearing and by then, we’ll be in the top percent of users. If, no, When we break through the 4th bottleneck?

“Well, at that point your father will have a lot fewer pawns whom he can afford to throw at tracking you. Just by being here, he is limited from the largest labor pool from which he would usually pull. Those with new accounts that are willing to reroll for a bit of money.”

Rosha frowns, “What? Why would people risk a reroll? Aren’t there penalties for that if you didn’t accidentally get into a game-ending situation?”

Courtney laughs, “There’s an old saying about how everyone has their number. Implying that everyone has an amount of money that they’ll sell out for. It has since been proven to not be true. There are those who can’t be bought.

“However, that doesn’t mean most people can’t be bought. In fact, many people have shockingly low numbers to throw away their first NeoRealm character. It is practically an entire industry.”

Rosha sighs, “Well, I guess we just need to stick to more dangerous locations.”

Courtney shrugs, “Or simply not be close to starter cities. It isn’t like someone under level ten can travel all that far. Too long or far, and those willing to take the money drops off. Though that still leaves both his actual employees and the professional investigator types. Those are much more limited in supply.

“It’s like how back in the space game, if you accidentally ended up on a starter world, there would be a swarm of spies. Then even a single world away, even in the same solar system, the spies dropped down to a handful at best.”

The next day, Rosha and Courtney decided to head out to meet up with Jason. They, of course, find him working on the path. Though said path had gotten a lot closer and so they met up as he was still working on tilling the soil.

Rosha laughs, “Marching around like a toy soldier and yet you can only go that far before getting tired? For the guy who should have the most Stamina, it seems a little, yeah.”

Jason looks up from where he is sat on the ground. “Well, that sort of happens when you’re using the Stamina directly.”

Rosha smiles, “I guess it means you need even more stamina then!”

Jason sighs, “More like I’m hoping I don’t end up in a fight that needs me to fire off any Stamina-burning skill so rapidly.”

Courtney, “To be fair, you do have the Energy option, which seems to be never-ending.”

Jason shakes his head, “That would be true for a passive ability. If I could hook up a buff to just run off a constant flow of Energy, I wouldn’t even need to think about it. The only worry being how much is invested.

“For an active skill? The limit is going to be based on stress and throughput. You can think of it like the difference between a calm stream and a flash flood. The stream will keep flowing until the streambed is eroded away. The flash flood could jump its banks at any moment.

“So if I use an active Energy skill too much, it can injure me. And if I try to channel too much Energy, well the same but likely more disastrous. For even more fun, both can happen at the same time. An example would be if I tried to use War Stomp with both my feet at the same time, but separately. Too much energy and too rapidly.”

Rosha, “I guess that is fair enough. Though I have to wonder why Mana and Qi can’t cause the same sort of issues.”

Courtney raises an eyebrow, “Forgetting how Mana works, are we? I know at least a couple people should have mentioned Mana burn by now. And I’m sure Qi has something similar.”

Jason, “I’d say Mana burn is slightly different. That is more like a river that went from being filled with water, to being filled with an acid. From how I understand it, the cause is absorbing foreign Mana and not giving it a chance to turn into your own.

“As for Qi? I think the System has it locked down. Though I’m sure if you checked through all the various Qi-specific conditions, you’d find something.”

Courtney nods, “It is somewhat inevitable.”

Rosha sighs, “Fine, I get it.”

Jason shrugs, “The System might be doing all it can to bury Energy, but it can’t truly alter the power itself. After all, the System and the planet uses Energy to regulate things.”