Chapter 16: A Brief Respite
***
The car stopped at the entrance of the residential complex. It was only as Su Ling stepped out that she suddenly remembered something very important, the way she looked right now had absolutely nothing to do with who she used to be. How was she supposed to prove she was the owner of the unit?
Su Ling stood outside the complex and thought for a moment, then found a spot without any security cameras and jumped straight over the wall.
Her other extraordinary abilities may have been sealed away, but her superhuman physical condition wasn't restricted at all. A wall that would stop any ordinary person was something she could clear with a single light leap.
She made her way back to her front door as naturally as if she'd done it a thousand times. Out of habit, Su Ling pressed her finger to the lock, only to be answered by a short, sharp error beep. She paused. She genuinely hadn't considered that even her fingerprints would have changed.
In a way, though, that was actually a good thing. After all, everyone's fingerprints are unique. If the prints didn't match, there would be no traceable connection between her and the male Su Ling, which meant the fact that Su Ling hadn't died wouldn't be discovered anytime soon.
"Looks like my cover won't get blown too quickly." Su Ling was in a decent mood. She punched in the passcode, pushed the door open, and turned on almost every light in the apartment.
She preferred the quiet of the night over the noise of the day, but she had never liked being in total darkness. So her little home, bathed in light while the night pressed in from outside, was her most peaceful and comfortable sanctuary.
She poured herself a full glass of cola, went straight to her room, sat down at her computer, and opened her voice chat software. Her teammates were already wailing into their mics like something had gone terribly wrong, they had been desperately waiting for her to come online, even though there were still about 10 minutes before the instance officially launched.
She double-clicked to enter the voice channel. The moment Su Ling's cool, clear voice came through, the channel went dead silent. "My brother had something come up, so he can't make it. I'm his little sister, filling in for him to do a day-one run with you guys."
"Holy shit, a girl?!" Almost the instant the words left Su Ling's mouth, someone practically shouted.
"Can you even handle it? Setting aside whether you can stay up all night, are your mechanics up to standard?"
Of course, not everyone was thrilled or surprised by the arrival of a girl. Even though this group was mostly made up of friends and leaned more toward casual play, not everyone was comfortable suddenly having an unfamiliar tagalong.
After all, everyone here was more or less mechanically decent, and honestly, their chances of clearing day-one weren't bad. If someone clueless suddenly showed up, the damage to the experience would be easy to imagine.
"Relax." Su Ling laughed with confidence. The boost to her Intelligence covered every aspect, understanding game mechanics right now was as easy as child's play. On top of that, her improved reflexes and neural response time meant her skills were nothing but stronger than before.
"Instead of worrying about me holding you back, you'd be better off working harder so you don't hold me back."
"That mouth of yours is just as snarky as Ah Zi."
Ah Zi, or Xiao Zi, these were both nicknames derived from Su Ling's in-game username. As everyone knows, guys playing games never bother asking for each other's real names. Some people have been gaming together for years and the only name they can come up with is something like "InvincibleT-RexWarGod."
As for why she had a username that leaned more feminine, that ties back to one of Su Ling's 2D wives. The character's name had the character "梓" (Zi) in it, and she had just grabbed it on the spot and used it.
And as is equally well known, guys using their 2D wives' names as their own usernames is hardly anything new, so her gaming bros accepted it pretty quickly without a second thought.
As midnight drew closer, Su Ling had thought tonight would be one of those rare evenings of fun and unwinding. But after they queued up and officially started the day-one clear, her blood pressure nearly went through the roof.
She couldn't wrap her head around it. She couldn't understand how someone could get themselves killed just clearing trash mobs. She couldn't understand how someone could mess up mechanics that were obviously telegraphed at a glance. And she really couldn't understand how, with a boss head that enormous, someone could still miss it with their ultimate?
Su Ling just could not comprehend it. She felt like she suddenly understood the helpless frustration of a gifted teacher stuck with students who refuse to improve no matter what. She thought back to her own performance during Lu's special training, and let out a breath of relief, she probably hadn't spiked Lu's blood pressure too badly, at least.
The day-one run stretched all the way to noon the next day, a full 12 hours of grinding that left Su Ling's already somewhat tired mind even more drained.
The good news, though, was that under her efforts to carry the team and walk everyone through the mechanics, they did clear day-one, and their ranking was at least respectable. But she had no energy to celebrate. The moment it was over, she shut her computer off, went and showered, and got into bed.
She slept deeply, as if all the exhaustion that had built up in her body was finally washed clean away. By the time she woke up, it was already 6 o'clock the following morning. She rubbed her bleary eyes and sat up. Lu, who had been sitting on the edge of the bed reading, paused mid-page and turned to look at her.
"Had enough rest?"
Su Ling let out a yawn. After a full minute of warming up, her eyes gradually came back into focus. "I've had enough."
"Good. Then go get washed up, and then we continue the special training."
Su Ling didn't say much. She got out of bed, picked out a simple long-sleeve top and long pants, and walked straight to the bathroom to wash up.
Teeth brushed, face washed, stomach emptied, Su Ling pulled out a sandwich from the fridge, heated up a cup of milk, and fried an egg. A simple breakfast was laid out on the table just like that.
As she ate, Su Ling noticed something felt slightly off. She looked across the table at Lu with suspicion. In front of Lu sat a breakfast that was identical to hers, and Lu was eating it slowly and unhurriedly.
"Where did your breakfast come from?" Su Ling wasn't the type to guess. Her approach with Lu had always been, if there's a question, just ask it.
Lu swallowed a piece of the fried egg and picked up the milk for a sip. It was sweet. She liked that very much. "Whatever you eat, I can choose to experience the taste at the same time, though only I can eat what I eat."
Fair enough.
She had no idea why Lu, being a sword spirit, would enjoy human food, but Su Ling had never been one to get hung up on details that didn't really matter. Once she finished eating and washed the dishes, Lu sent her back into that blood-soaked training space.
The special training was still centered around one-versus-many combat. At this stage, Su Ling had too little experience with group fights. And to sharpen Su Ling's sense for danger, Lu directly blindfolded her. Su Ling's goal also shifted from killing everyone to simply doing her best to survive while being swarmed.
Once, twice, three times, Su Ling died fast in the beginning. With her vision blocked, all she could rely on was her perception and hearing, but compared to the eyesight she had depended on for 20 years, these were still raw and underdeveloped.
Lu didn't push her harshly. The moment she sensed Su Ling's mind starting to wear out, she immediately called a stop to let her rest. Once Su Ling's mental state had recovered enough, the encirclement would start all over again.
And as Su Ling's death count climbed, each death came slower than the last. She went from doing nothing but scrambling around trying to escape at the very start, to now moving through the chaos with ease, even finding pockets of opportunity to pick off 1 or 2 people in return.
Because the number of attackers had increased, the individual enemies were somewhat weaker compared to the original 5-person team. After all, no matter how talented Su Ling was, she had only just started out. Constant extreme pressure doesn't always forge an exceptional fighter, it can just as easily crush a rising star before they ever get to shine.
Watching Su Ling move freely and effortlessly through the storm of gunfire and blades, Lu knew this round of training had reached a satisfying conclusion. She lifted the blindfold from Su Ling's eyes. With perception already honed to a razor's edge from the ordeal, now paired with restored vision, it didn't take long before Su Ling cut down every last enemy.
At the same time, the final inscription on the Immortal-Slaying Sword had fully turned gold. A blood-red radiance wrapped itself entirely around the Immortal-Slaying Sword, and Su Ling was kicked back into the real world.
She checked her sealed storage space. The Immortal-Slaying Sword looked exactly as she had last seen it, completely cocooned in a blood-red luminous shell, as if in the middle of some transformation.
"The sword is leveling up. It'll be done in about 10 hours." Lu had not vanished along with the Immortal-Slaying Sword's upgrade. She was sitting out on the small apartment balcony, reading a book in the sunlight that streamed in through the window.
Su Ling checked the Immortal-Slaying Sword's status. Sure enough, the World Tree notification said the Immortal-Slaying Sword was undergoing a quality upgrade, completion in 10 hours and 15 minutes.
With nothing else to do, Su Ling opened her computer and played some games. But the games that used to keep her endlessly entertained now felt somewhat flat and hollow.
Because it was all too easy. In shooter games, popping heads from long range was effortless, even if an enemy showed up for just a single frame, she could land a precise headshot, as if she were running hard aimbot. She played 2 matches, got reported for cheating in both, and her account landed in a shadowban.
In games with longer time-to-kill, it was even worse, her aim tracking was so smooth that not a single bullet missed. One match in and she was already done, feeling completely empty, because it was just one-sided slaughter with no resistance whatsoever. No different from playing against bots.
Single-player games were even more extreme, she one-lifed every single one, no deaths from start to finish. Playing through an entire game felt like running through a walkthrough with the answers already in hand. Only story-driven games gave her even a faint feeling of actually playing something.
Time slipped away quietly without her noticing. The following morning, the World Tree notified her that the Immortal-Slaying Sword had completed its upgrade. At the same time, a notification that the first mission had unlocked appeared before Su Ling's eyes.
【Immortal-Slaying Sword】
Origin: Second Compound Forbidden Curse Magic Circle
Quality: Green
Category: One-Handed Sword
Durability: ∞ (Indestructible)
Attack Power: 21~34
Equipment Requirement: Silver Dragon
Weapon Resonance: 82%
Sword of Slaughter Effect 1: Sharpness +6
Sword of Slaughter Effect 2: Bloodthirsty Demon Blade (Passive) — for every enemy killed while wielding the Immortal-Slaying Sword, permanently gain 1~10 Sharpness based on the enemy's strength.
Description: Only the sword master she truly acknowledges will she willingly shed all her power and pride for, starting from zero to grow alongside you.
Rating: 25 (Green Quality rating range: 16~30.)
Price: Soul Contract (Cannot be traded by any means.)