Chapter 3-1
“Three… two… one. Teleportation ends.”
Zheng stood up from the sofa, his body drenched in sweat. He took off the sunglasses then sat back down and breathed heavily.
“Seven to one thousand seven hundred and forty-one, plus one more loss. Why is his demon transformation so much stronger than my dragon transformation? Do I have to abandon the dragon’s genes and depend only on the genes inherited from the ancient times?”
The virtual reality crafted from Cultivation technology almost perfectly reproduced the clone Zheng that was in Zheng’s memory. His terrifying power was equal to the one from Resident Evil. Zheng could also exert his full power in the virtual reality. However, the score in the virtual battles still ended up with him losing seven to one thousand seven hundred and forty-two.
Real battles contained numerous variables such as the terrain, strategy, stamina, morale, emotion, or comrades. The only person in team China that could rival clone Zheng was Zheng. This score was concluded using his current strength against the clone Zheng from Resident Evil. No matter how many variables there might be in the real battle, his hopes were slim given this score.
“Where did it go wrong?”
Zheng pondered, yet unable to reach the solution. The two of them were nearly always on par in the thousands of battles. Neither side had a definite advantage over the other and clone Zheng was always at the brink of death by the end. That was how Zheng managed to win those seven times. However, he lost rest thousand times. Once or twice could be attributed to luck or coincidences but over a thousand times continuously was never coincidences.
“Why? Why? Why… Why! My power is on par with him. If I use dragon transformation and Destruction I am even more powerful than him. These forms do not last long but I could overpower him in the duration, if only slightly. Why did I lose over a thousand times?”
Zheng sat there for half a day, angry and upset at himself. When his stomach cried, he finally noticed the time had come to six in the evening. Time in the virtual reality was a hundred times slower than the actual world but it still went by fast. Before he realized it, a day was coming to an end. There were only two days until the start of the next movie, and those two days included the current day.
“You awake?”
While Zheng was drowned in his own mind, a gentle voice sounded. Lori walked into the room and he didn’t notice it. She saw the sweat drenched his head and took out a handkerchief then gently wiped the sweat for Zheng.
Lori had a tender heart despite being sharp on her words. The lack of color in God’s dimension isolated her from being tainted by the society of the real world. The girls who she interacted with were all virtuous in nature so she was becoming gentler as the days went by. Though sometimes she still liked to yell and cry.
“Is everyone ready for dinner? Whose room are we going to tonight?” Zheng kissed her and stared at her blushed face.
“Yes. It’s Heng’s room tonight. Dinner is ready. We are waiting for you to appear… Hehe. You don’t know this. YanWei seems quite happy that Heng didn’t use his creation slot. She kept a straight face when she was cooking but going by Heng’s expression, the dishes she made are all his favorites.” Lori wrapped her arm and Zheng’s. She said with a laughter as they walked. Zheng slowly recovered from the stress of the battles.
(Put away the result of the battles for now. Our meeting would not come so fast. I died in a movie so our rating probably dropped down a few tiers.)
Zheng hid away his worries then followed Lori to Heng’s room. As he stepped into the room, he heard ChengXiao’s characteristic laughter. His girl was here today so he was behaving himself and didn’t flirt with the other girls. Though those laughters were still accompanied with perverted jokes.
It was a Chinese custom to improve relationships on the dining table. The effect also applied to those who were already in good relationships. To the team’s surprise, Xuan appeared at the dining table on this occasion. He was eating vibrant foods. Normally, he wouldn’t show himself until it was time to enter the next movie. It was surprising to see him here today and they thought he was going to do something unexpected again.
“The dishes are delicious but for some reason, I can’t stuff anything when I see you sitting there quietly with your fruits. The worry that you are planning something again just can’t go away from my mind. Haha… I am probably overly sensitive.” Zheng laughed and picked up a cup of tea.
Xuan casually nodded on the side. “Yes. I am planning something.”
“Hey, I was joking.” Zheng nearly spit out the tea and immediately said.
Xuan sneered at him. “I am not joking with you. There is something… The Yellow Turban experimental version is complete. Bring it with you in the next battle.”
“Yellow Turban experimental version? When did you craft this, Doraemon?” Zheng, WangXia, Heng, and ChengXiao spoke in sync.
Xuan brought out a piece of yellow cloth from his pocket. Countless symbols and rune words were inscribed on the cloth. In its center was a huge symbol of Taichi.
“Uh. The virtual reality can absorb the Light of the Soul of those who enter it. The translated texts reveal that the Light of the Soul exist within the consciousness of every living being. Normal organisms merely lack the knowledge to utilize this light. Cultivators consider the sea of consciousness an inner cosmos. Energy in the inner cosmos is the same as the outer cosmos. The Light of the Soul can also be converted into refined Qi and Magic. The Yellow Turbans are rune word robots created based upon this ideology. They can absorb the Light of the Soul and use it as an energy to evolution. The strong the enemy’s Light is, the stronger they become in the next resurrection. Of course, there is a limit to their growth. This limit is dependent on the amount of Light the inscribed cloth can contain.”
Zheng became excited at Xuan’s explanation. “Shit. Does that mean we have an infinitely growing cheat? Just throw a few dozen Yellow Turbans out at the start of a movie and hide somewhere safe. Then we will be able to farm points and ranked rewards without any effort.”
Xuan cut off his daydream and said. “Unfortunately, the technology to craft the Yellow Turbans is more advanced than virtual reality. The core rune word technology is not within the exchange system. It takes approximately five to six days to craft one, an incomplete one that can’t absorb the enemy’s Light. We must provide this Light ourselves to supply its evolution and power. Yet, we are limited at how much Light we can accumulate. Once the energy is exhausted, the Yellow Turbans will become useless. That’s why it’s only an experimental version.”
“Is that so? That’s a pity… Speaking of which, did you decide to craft the Yellow Turbans when you started with virtual reality? So that you can absorb our Light of the Soul when we use virtual reality. No wonder I feel exhausted every time I entered it. In other words, the reason I am losing isn’t due to a disparity of power but that you absorbed my Light?” Zheng suddenly felt enlightened and relieved.
Xuan sneered at him. “Stop dreaming. The glasses only absorb the Light that you leaked and have nothing to do with those inside your body. My room is the backend of the virtual reality. It only manages the accumulated Light. The reason for your defeat isn’t one of physical strength but mental. You don’t have the absolute intent to kill your clone. I watched your thousand battles from the backend and that was how you lost every time… You don’t actually want to kill him, do you?”
Zheng was stunned for a second then shouted. “What are you kidding? Why would I not… Why would I not want to kill him? He killed my comrades. He has deviated into a demon. Why would I not want to kill him… a me that’s like this, my clone that’s like this.”
(… Yet, the things he experienced and the pain and sadness lying deep down in the abyss of his eyes, do I really not want to kill him?)