An unknown star system.
"Ah!! I'll kill you! I'll kill you!"
Jingliu shot up from the bed.
Along with her hate-filled scream, a killing intent spread out in all directions like a monstrous tidal wave.
Immediately after, the uncontrolled power of the lunar radiance surged from her body. With her at the epicenter, ice formed into thorns and spread wildly outwards, covering a thousand meters in the blink of an eye.
Looking down from the sky, a giant ice lotus, exuding a biting chill, bloomed quietly under the night's curtain.
Wherever the ice reached, everything was frozen. The area spanning several thousand meters was instantly transformed into a frost-covered hell.
At the center of the giant ice lotus, Jingliu clutched her eyes, panting heavily.
The black blindfold on her face was nowhere to be seen, and her eyes emitted a terrifying red glow, like those of an extremely bloodthirsty beast.
After a long while, Jingliu's breathing calmed slightly.
If one were to approach her now, they would find the aura around her had grown even more dreadful.
The previous Jingliu was like a raging wildfire, fierce and overwhelming. Now, she was more like a volcano that appeared stable but was secretly accumulating energy, destined to bring apocalyptic destruction upon eruption.
She condensed the stolen lunar radiance into a greatsword of black ice, her palm gripping the hilt tightly as she muttered—Victor! Kill!
[You sparred with Jingliu. Jingliu lost control and severely injured you.]
[You died.]
"Damn it! Failed again."
Victor couldn't help but curse.
One system hour ago, seeing that it was still early, Victor, with a hint of curiosity, started a medium-difficulty simulation.
Only after he began did he realize that, despite also being a Jingliu-related scenario, the medium difficulty was several times harder than the novice one.
He basically died just a few plot points into the start.
Most crucially, he had tried every option, only to find they were all dead ends.
It was only then that he understood why the system had given a minimum Trait requirement for clearing it.
Although the system didn't forbid him from challenging high-difficulty simulation scenarios...
...if he was below the minimum Trait requirement, the probability of clearing the simulation was virtually zero.
Moreover, because he died too quickly, the simulation's plot didn't advance, failing to meet the minimum standard for completion. He couldn't even obtain any Trait rewards.
In other words, it was useless even if he tried to be a hardcore grinder.
The reason for such a large increase in difficulty was simple. Firstly, he currently only had one white Trait and a C-rank evaluation, which combined were equivalent to a single blue Trait.
And Jingliu's medium scenario required a minimum of one gold Trait.
Secondly, the novice difficulty's bonus, 'Illustrious Heritage (Gold),' was removed upon entering medium difficulty.
Illustrious Heritage (Gold)—don't be fooled by the fact that it's a support Trait that doesn't increase combat power. Its effect was immense, allowing Victor to have a winning start right from the get-go.
Any player of Earth OL knew what a huge advantage a winning start was.
By the way, the medium scenario had another hidden difficulty increase, which Victor believed had the biggest impact.
That was the fact that the medium scenario used a completely new script, instantly wiping out his advantage of 'knowing the plot.'
In the medium scenario, he, like Jingliu, was a survivor of the Cangcheng Xianzhou, and they both studied under the same master.
Their relationship had changed from master and disciple to senior and junior martial siblings.
It had to be said, this was a very novel transformation.
Hitting a wall, combined with the fatigue from consecutive simulations, drained a lot of his energy. Victor decided to rest for the day and continue tomorrow.
Victor lay on his bed and quickly drifted off to sleep.
While he slept soundly, Jingliu, in another star system, couldn't sleep at all.
At this moment, Jingliu was constantly teetering on the edge of her Mara-struck state completely losing control. The shameful memories of being toyed with and 'tuned' by Victor in the simulation had greatly agitated her.
With no outlet for her killing intent, Jingliu began to frantically search for Abundance abominations in this star system, and then... went on a slaughter!
An unknown amount of time passed.
A full moon of lunar radiance hung high in the sky, its silvery light cascading down. The ground was covered with spikes made of ice. As far as the eye could see, the entire land seemed to be overgrown with translucent blue thorns.
Even more bizarre and terrifying, these ice spikes impaled corpses of various shapes—Cloud Knights with branches growing from their bodies, winged Wingweavers, wolf-headed Borisin...
In the deepest part of this slaughterhouse, atop a great mountain piled high with the remains of countless Denizens of Abundance...
...a blindfolded swordswoman in light blue armor stood proudly, leaning on a greatsword of black ice.
After a crazed massacre, Jingliu, having vented her rage, seemed to have quieted down a little.
However, anyone who drew near would be frozen in place by the killing intent she unconsciously emitted.
Clearly, her calmness was just an illusion. The killing intent in her heart had merely transformed from a raging fire into solid, condensed ice—more enduring and more resolute.
Jingliu didn't spare a glance for the countless corpses beneath her feet. She raised her head to look at the lunar radiance in the sky, her gaze seemingly piercing through the innumerable star systems of the cosmos, straight to the Luofu.
"The Luofu... Hmph! I'll be back soon. You'd better be waiting for me, my 'dear disciple'!"
Victor, sleeping soundly, had no idea that a blackened, yandere, crazed, and overwhelmingly powerful Jingliu had now completely fixated on him.
Although the system had already warned him that after a simulation was completed, the related characters in the scenario would also retain their memories from it...
...and while he was mentally prepared, he had clearly underestimated the severity of the problem.
In Victor's view, Jingliu was currently wanted by the Xianzhou Alliance and wouldn't easily set foot on the Luofu.
Besides, the simulation was just like having a dream. Even if he was irredeemably evil, it was only in a dream, equivalent to a very realistic game.
Who would take a dream seriously?
Well, now he was about to find out.
Jingliu, already afflicted by the Mara-struck state, was mentally extremely unstable. While for others it might just be a nightmare, for her, it was an unforgettable, deep-seated hatred.
The memory confusion caused by being Mara-struck might lead her to conflate her memories of the simulation with reality.
In short, Victor was in for a world of trouble this time!
After a comfortable night's sleep, Victor got out of bed feeling refreshed and invigorated.
After a quick wash-up, Victor went straight to the Exalting Sanctum, found a cheap little eatery, and enjoyed a wonderful breakfast.
A few Tapir Rolls and some Clang-root Cakes, finished off with a can of lukewarm soda bean-milk—the taste was just so au-then-tic.
(wt: What the hell kind of food is this?)
After breakfast, Victor, in no hurry to go home, started strolling around the Exalting Sanctum to aid his digestion.
Just as he walked to an area resembling an open-air teahouse, he suddenly heard a familiar clacking sound.
It was the sound of mahjong tiles colliding. Of course, on the Xianzhou, this game had a more elegant name—Celestial Jade.
"Pong! I win! Pay up! Pay up now!"
At that moment, at one of the tables, a young girl in green robes jumped up in triumph, pointing at her fellow players and shouting loudly.
Seeing her familiar appearance, Victor raised an eyebrow. Bumping into an 'acquaintance' even on a casual walk—what a coincidence.
______
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