[NR] Blame It On The Deep Wilds - Chapter 583

Jason sighed, it wasn’t like he could somehow divine what was actually going on with the System. Most times and for most people, there wouldn’t be a single error their whole lives and so many consider it rare. However, after more than a few fireside chats with Courtney, Jason had broadened his horizons. Even if this was his first sighting of an error, they’ve existed forever and there are even certain glitches that the top families make use of that still throw them.

Sure, the System does occasionally fix them. But to a certain degree, the fact there is an error message means the System has at least quarantined things so the problem doesn’t spread. It also means the System has likely come across this problem before if it is capable of slapping an error on it instead of spitting out jumbled text.

Whatever the case may end up being, Jason now had some time on his hands. So, with an irritated grunt, he slaps the disconnect button below the death message and is shunted back to his personal space. He is tempted to log out completely, but knows there is a bit more to do. In particular, he sends a couple of quick messages off to Rosha and Courtney, informing them of his “peaceful” death. Jason isn’t sure if they’ll get back before he does, but better not to worry them too much.

Satisfied that everything he needs to do online is taken care of, Jason settles back into one of his few pieces of furniture, a bed designed to be perfect for him. Yes, he should be using this time for training, but sometimes rest is the most important things to advancing. And with his death in NeoRealm, no matter how “peaceful” it might have been, a chance to let his mind process things was very much needed.

Not that he ended up sleeping all that long. Just about two hours later, he woke up refreshed. Jason had actually been prepared to sleep four or even eight hours, but in the end, this wasn’t his first rodeo when it came to experiencing death. Plus, this time there were much lower stakes.

Though one thing did stick out to him, now that he had rested. At first he had just thought he had observed wrong when he first took a look around NeoRealm’s Energy realm. Now he was certain. The first time there wasn’t so much detritus and the Energy wasn’t so snarled. And Jason figured he had the answer to that as well. That first time he was in NeoRealm, while the most recent visit was in the turbulent region between NeoRealm and the Deep Wilds.

This not only pointed towards the System having groomed NeoRealm. It also meant that outside of the System’s influence, Jason would need to be prepared for a much rougher time dealing with Energy. If anything, this means even outside of NeoRealm, Mana and Qi would be the dominant powers. After all, with those two, you have an internal pool of power that is separate from the chaotic outside. Whereas Energy involves having a direct connection to whatever is going on outside, at least at Jason’s current rank in cultivating it.

Jason however had certain knowledge. He knew of the distance a mortal could go down the path of cultivation. In his first life, he grew up on stories of those beings so advanced they could create new worlds. And if they could create new worlds, what was the power from only a single world to them?

But that was for later. At the moment, Jason didn’t even know how far away such feats were. Even if you ignore the magnitude of changes one needs to experience and the mental tempering one must undergo, just to even shed basic mortality.

Jason shakes his head, no time for daydreaming, and logs out.

He wakes up in his VR pod and rolls out of it. The sudden drop and soft bump as he falls to the floor finished clearing his mind and he stands up, stretching muscles which had been maintained through technology instead of proper training.

There is nothing to fault the pod for. However, Jason can feel some incongruities and weaknesses. Not because a muscle hadn’t been properly trained, but rather the opposite. While the service he was spending gold on didn’t stupidly stimulate every single muscle equally. It wasn’t as accurate at targeting muscle groups as some of the exercises Jason practiced.

Which was odd. The VR capsule was capable of intercepting signals between the brain and the eyes, replacing them with an entirely new view. Yet the muscle stimulation stuff can’t pinpoint target muscles? There was clearly more to it than was let in, but then again, Jason already knew that, what with NeoRealm being an actual world and not just a game.

Of course, as with most of NeoRealm’s IRL mysteries, Jason can only shake his head and move on. Besides, the only reason his body was in less than stellar shape, was because he hadn’t been logging off enough recently, too focused on building up the clearing. Plus, it isn’t like he can fix it before going back in. He only had a day and this was a problem days in the making.

Nevermind the fact that even most trained professionals wouldn’t have noticed. Jason was really being too hard on himself, but then again, the path he wants to travel requires it at the higher stage. The only upside is that after a certain point, his cultivation will be able to maintain his body. After all, it would be very hard for a cultivator to do closed door meditation training for years at a time if they needed to take a break for exercise every day.

It was just that Jason was still a distance away from such convenience. Which Jason felt was a real shame as it would save him money as well, especially since his expenditures will only get worse before it gets better. There will come a point where he will probably need his mom’s help to unlock the military grade muscle maintenance package. The only reason he doesn’t need it yet, being that until recently, he had been logging off almost every night in NeoRealm to train.