[NR] What Is Left Behind - Chapter 585

Jason took a moment to read the note left by Rosha and Courtney.

[Heyo!

Sorry, not sorry to hear about your death! Congratulations on joining the rest of us. Well, I assume Courtney has died at some point. She’s nodding right now so I’ll take that to mean I’m right. Anyway, Lily is doing fine. How could you leave her alone like this? What if she got hurt? Thankfully, she was able to take care of herself and managed to kill a handful of pests over the last three days.

Oh yeah, we got here on your third day of death penalty. No special reason? Well, we did turn around when we heard of your accident. Anyway, Courtney says you’ll probably end up dying a few more times and to not worry. Apparently, while your cultivation stuff is a new take, you aren’t exactly the only one to try weird nonsense with your body in NeoRealm. So yeah, going by past experience she says to prepare to die at least five more times. Hopefully, you don’t lose too much.

Rosha ☺]

Jason closed his eyes and breathed out through his nose. While he wasn’t expecting to get things right on the first try, five more deaths were not in the plans. Then again, it wasn’t like he would be rushing into more attempts.

Had he hoped to do it in one try? Well, hope springs eternal. Plus, with what he had known, Jason had figured there was a decent 70 to 75 percent chance of it working. Now though, it was clear his first attempt was doomed to failure from the get go.

Jason laughs at himself as he considers that maybe there was a reason it took the natives at the level cap so long to escape from the System. Though there were a few more things to handle before jumping back in. The first being easiest.

Right now, Jason was not naked, though it was a close thing. The System made sure you always revived with some modesty clothes, but they weren’t worth anything and not just because they stopped existing once you got some proper clothes. They were definitely designed to make sure people didn’t just keep wearing them.

So to get out of the not quite itchy and not quite the right size clothes, Jason descends into his cultivation chamber, not really sure what he would find. The System is less than consistent on how it deals with the dead body of players. Well, that isn’t fair.

The System is completely consistent. It is just that the rules dealing with player bodies are super complicated. Both because of legal requirements, privacy promises, and other fun bureaucratic nonsense. Though a common result is for a generic body of the player’s race to be left behind. That way, someone can’t mess with another person’s body.

Less common, but if the identity of the player would be important, the System will leave a pretty accurate manikin behind. Said manikin isn’t made of anything special and will break down at a rapid pace, but the details are good enough to ID. In this case though, Jason finds nothing.

Mind you, he does find his gear and such. There just isn’t a body at all. Jason isn’t too shocked. It wasn’t unexpected that after making himself a void, all that would be left is a void. Though presumably if a monster aiming to eat him managed to take him down, there would be a body left behind.

For this, though? Jason is quite satisfied with the result as it means he doesn’t have to strip his armor off of something that either looked like him or was less than fresh. Five days wasn’t long and being underground meant it was relatively cool, but that only goes so far.

Not dwelling on it too long, the temp clothes much too uncomfortable to ponder in, everything is soon reequipped. Though after it is all back on, Jason takes a moment to think about some of his less obvious equipment and feels that might contribute to the System, allowing his body to just stop existing. After all, if it left a body, the System would have to deal with his special rewards.

Sure, the bones are simple enough, but he has a literal ritual in his lungs. Nevermind his most recent addition of the skin ritual. The System wouldn’t want that dropping because it would make farming his body profitable in a way that wouldn’t be desirable. While there are some sapients with special body parts, the System does its best to make sure hunting people for parts isn’t profitable. All endeavors to make money off of PvP and similar are strictly limited to pure gear and assassination quests.

Yes, it is hypocritical. But that’s what you get when an outside force doesn’t want social media to blow up with stories of players literally butchering people and still wants to accommodate PvPers. Jason doesn’t care in particular as his last life had at least paved the way for treating even the oddest looking sapient as a person. Sure, it wasn’t every day that a levitating bonsai tree came by the sect, but it also wasn’t a one-time thing.

Jason smiles, plants tend to be the most diligent cultivators. And speaking of diligence, he sits right back down where his clothes had been strewn before and does a quick checkup. After all, his death was the result of unwinding the System’s control. In theory, upon respawning, a player would be recovered to perfect health.

However, that is very much only in theory. As an example, what does a scar or tattoo count as? Yes, the System will generally recognize self selected modifications as being a part of the base body. However, not always. Then there are special modifications. An angel based race that had their wings ripped off because of some dark force or as a punishment by their deity will find those wings still gone.

So to say Jason was less than sure what he would find was understating it. However, even upon first glance, he can tell that the lines are considered a part of a healthy body as they’re all back in place.