CH 92

There were eight cities in DIO. This included the place where beginners first spawned, Starting, and the seven holy lands, home of each specialized spiritual power type. For a fee, players could use the teleportation gates to travel between cities, but since there were clean, paved roads connecting them, walking was possible.

“Ugh… phew…”

In fact, there was a man running on one of those roads, drenched in sweat and panting. Every user should possess an ability, but nothing could be sensed from him, not even spiritual qi. He was purely relying on his stamina, but his running speed wasn’t anything to write home about either.

Slip. Crash!

Lancelot ran with all his might before teetering for a moment and crashing to the ground. He hadn’t lost his balance while trying to slow down; he slipped while sprinting at full speed, so he was sent tumbling. 

“Ugh… phew…”

While huffing and puffing, Lancelot dragged himself back up. All of his muscles were screaming in pain, but Lancelot forcefully ignored it and continued running.

“Outstanding.”

Delila 7, a guard NPC standing at the gates to Thousand Scent’s land, narrowed her eyes as she spotted Lancelot about ten kilometers away. She looked slightly different from the last time Lancelot had seen her, as she now wore red glasses. She was always beautiful, but this addition gave her a sophisticated aura.

“What’s outstanding?”

The other guard, Kara 7, had worse eyesight than Delila, and after hearing the latter’s passing comment, she peered into the distance with round eyes. All Kara 7 could see was the well-paved road before her. Then, Delila unequipped her glasses and handed them over.

“See for yourself.”

“Wait, what am I supposed to- huh? Isn’t that the same user from before?”

The east gate where the two were stationed didn’t see many visitors, so they remembered Lancelot. During the beta test, everyone had used the teleportation gates aside from him. Even though Thousand Scents’ Land was the closest city to Starting, it was still 100 kilometers away. Usually, users just teleported there.

“What do you think?”

“He’s really slow. Actually, he seems no different from an average person.”

This was true. Currently, Lancelot was moving 100 meters every 15 seconds. Typically, those with abilities would be much quicker than this; even a regular person could run faster.

“Look at his status window.”

“Status window? What’s the point of checking an average person’s status window?”

“Just check it.”

“…?”

At Dalila 7’s calm and collected voice, Kara 7 wondered what she was up to, but she decided to listen. Since Kara 7 wasn’t interested in Lancelot’s occupation or job, she focused on his ability stats, which were as follows:

[Status

ID: Lancelot | Level: 2

Status: Dying

Stamina: 0/20 | Aura: 0/20]

For a moment, Kara 7 was at a loss as she tried to understand what the status window’s information meant. The numbers displayed were beyond anything she expected. However, as Kara 7 was relatively intelligent, her eyes widened as if she had realized something.

“So, what do you think?”

“Uh… uhm. What’s going on? Is something wrong with the system?”

In DIO, a user’s stamina couldn’t reach zero points. While it was possible to completely drain spiritual power, doing so would result in a painful, arduous process. The stamina stat, on the other hand, was entirely different.

If a living organism expended all of its energy to exactly zero, it would essentially be considered dead. This was because the organism wouldn’t even possess the basic energy needed to sustain life, like the pumping of oxygen-enriched blood throughout one’s body.

“Wait, how is that guy still able to move? What’s giving him the ability to do that?”

Kara 7 incredulously asked a valid question, and soon, Dalila 7 offered an answer.

“Mental willpower.”

“Eh? Do you truly think that’s possible?”

“It’s possible for an aura practitioner.”

Magic power was based on the ability to control the natural components of the universe. On the other hand, internal energy involved refining the universe’s natural qi and incorporating it into the body.

Though magic power and internal energy used vastly different approaches to manifest, the process they used fell under the same principle. To further explain, both spiritual power types utilized an outside source to create power. 

Yet, aura used a completely different method. While aura users did meditate, their powers originated from ‘inside’ rather than outside.

Everything began in one’s mind. The mind was the start and end for aura users, and the power that these practitioners wielded also came from their minds.

“Then, that means….”

“Yeah. Based on his physical properties, that guy shouldn’t be able to run, but he’s doing so anyway.”

With his muscles screaming at him, Lancelot’s nervous system was probably busy sending pain and warning signals throughout his body, so it was likely that he couldn’t control it. He shouldn’t have been capable of standing, let alone walking or running. Regardless, Lancelot kept sprinting without slowing. He was somehow forcibly ordering his body to move forward.

Lancelot’s will transcended his physical limits.

“I don’t understand.”

Kara 7 shook her head. What she was observing and trying to make sense of was beyond her common sense, and she continued, “It’s a fool’s approach. Even the system’s pain control system can’t block what he’s currently feeling. He’s trying to do something he isn’t capable of doing. I’m not sure why he’s trying so hard to-”

“There’s a reason and purpose.”

It was penance or asceticism. 

This was an approach where the practitioner put their body through extreme hardship and pain, training themselves to overcome their mental limitations. This method was usually reserved for those who were seeking some sort of absolute truth. With this agonizing process, these truth-seekers trained their minds and will and unified their entire being.

“So, you’re saying that he’s putting himself through that asceticism process right now?”

“I’m not sure he knows that himself, but yes.”

Despite Dalila’s collected tone, Kara 7 was still confused.

“That still doesn’t make sense, though. How is that training? He’s improving his abilities through pain? Then, is poking one’s body with a sword also training? Is a masochist an undefeatable and all-powerful entity?”

“It’s not so simple as that. Truth seekers don’t pursue asceticism through physical pain alone.”

Kara 7 tilted her head.

“Ascetics, or truth seekers… you mean religious people?”

“They’re similar. Religious ascetics who believe in a specific god practice penance. For an aura practitioner, asceticism isn’t to wash away their sins.”

“What’s the difference?”

“To further explain, if a religious player uses divine power, an aura user is like a Buddhist who strives to reach nirvana by ignoring all worldly temptations and thoughts by focusing within oneself.”

“Christianity versus Buddhism?”

Kara 7 came from Panitris, but she was able to grasp Dalila 7’s comparison, as NPCs who had to deal with users were given information about Earth. Of course, they were allowed to access this knowledge, but it wasn’t forcefully inputted into their mind. The NPCs wouldn’t know something if they didn’t seek it out for themselves. Case in point, the orc hero, Sungmuk, knew that users were people who logged into a game from Earth, but he didn’t know about modern weaponry.

Yet, Dalila 7 had chosen to give a specific example related to Earth rather than something from DIO. If an NPC had spent an exorbitant amount of time studying, then this wouldn’t have been strange, but as far as Kara 7 knew, Dalila 7 had never accessed the Earth-related files in DIO’s system. That meant…

“Are you originally from Earth?”

“Yeah, but not the Earth that these current users are from.”

Hearing something totally unexpected, Kara 7 couldn’t help but blinks rapidly. She then clapped her hands as she seemed to grasp something.

“Oh, right. There are a hundred Earths, right?”

“Right. Earth was basically copied and pasted a hundred times over. The only difference is that each Earth is based on a different timeline. This was done by our esteemed and great Creation God, or perhaps one of the Absolute Gods.”

Actually, the differences amongst the Earths weren’t just the timelines that they followed. Dalila’s Earth was based on the eighteenth century, which was when spiritual power was discovered and used. She was a soldier in the military at that time, and she was considered one of the elites within that military outfit. Though she didn’t look too deeply into it, Dalila 7 knew that the current crop of users entering DIO was from dramatically different backgrounds than her own.

Plop.

When they reached this part of their conversation, they saw Lancelot suddenly collapse.

“Oh, he collapsed.”

“Even if his willpower is able to overcome his physical limitations, movement is still done by the physical body.”

It was impossible to run forever. No matter how strong-willed someone was, unless they had truly reached a state of nirvana, they would still be limited by the physical world.

“So, his mind has given up on controlling his body?”

“No. The object of control has been lost.”

“What does that mean- ah.”

Lancelot’s collapsed body started to shimmer and grow translucent before turning into golden smoke and scattering into the air. This was the phenomenon that denoted a user’s death. Dalila 7 frowned.

“How clever.”

“What was that so clever? He was clever to train himself to death?”

“He pursued his actions with the knowledge that his death wasn’t going to be the end. Furthermore, he won’t lose anything because of his barebones state.”

“Eh? But he’s a Level 2 user, so he’ll definitely have his points reduced… ah!”

The quick-witted Kara 7 recalled Lancelot’s status window. Lancelot’s spiritual power type, aura, was at 20, and he had 20 points of energy. That could only mean one thing.

“… The lowest ability stats.”

“Right. If Lancelot had tried to cheat the system by not using his spiritual power points, then he would have faced the traditional penalty; however, he merely died from natural causes, so he won’t be punished.”

Of course, Lancelot would still be unable to log into DIO for a set period. Yet, since DIO’s time had been accelerated to 12 times that of Earth, 24 hours in DIO was only two hours on Earth. Also, when Lancelot reached Level 2, he obtained 100 points that could’ve been added to any of his ability stats, but he had abstained from using them. Additionally, Lancelot hadn’t used the bonus points from leveling up. As such, Lancelot didn’t even have any ability stats that could be lowered if he were to be penalized.

“So, he planned on dying from the start? What’s the point of running until death?”

“He didn’t run to die….”

Dalila 7 stopped speaking for a moment before continuing,

“… he was determined to keep running, even if that meant death.”

“…”

Both guards were speechless once they comprehended Lancelot’s sheer determination and will, but they each had their reasons. As a Spiritualist/Elementalist practitioner who pursued her studies with cheerfulness and hope, Kara 7 couldn’t quite fathom Lancelot’s reason to pursue such dire and deadly training. However, Dalila 7 was slightly envious; she was jealous that these new users were able to train in an environment where they could die and return.