Void Realm

"So this is the Void Realm..." Yaxiu cupped a handful of seawater, sniffed it, and gave it a lick. Surprisingly, it tasted a bit sweet. Looking down, the sea surface was so blurry that he could not make out his reflection at all. Examining his clothes, he found himself dressed in the same pitch-black trench coat from his character portrait, looking quite dashing. "It's just like the textbook descriptions of the Void Realm." Since there was no one else around, Sonia spoke freely without holding back. "This must be the Sea of Knowledge—also known as the Silver Sea, the Primeval Sea... Whether genius or mediocre, legendary Six-Wing Divine Lords or One-Wing Sorcerers, their first stop upon entering the Void Realm is inevitably this very ocean." "The only difference is this." Sonia tapped the small boat and looked around, noticing a book insignia on the bow and a sword insignia on the stern. "Textbooks say sorcerers should be stark naked when they first arrive here..." "Stark naked?" Yaxiu glanced at Sonia's black camisole dress. Dark lines immediately covered Sonia's face as she subconsciously shielded her chest. "Our appearance in the Void Realm is a projection of our consciousness. 'Stark naked' means we can't have help from external objects, like bringing things in from reality... I heard from others that when you first enter the Void Realm, you're swimming directly in the seawater. There's no way you'd have a boat." "I get it!" Yaxiu suddenly clapped his hands. "You get what?" "This boat is your true body, and you're just a phantom of the soul!" "What?" Sonia froze. "Your consciousness split into two parts: one part is your heavy soul, which turned into this small boat so you can sail, and the other is your nimble mind, which took the form you have now." Yaxiu declared with absolute conviction, "The soul is the boat, consciousness is the person, and the boat carries the person to the other shore—that has to be it!" It actually sounded somewhat reasonable, but... "How do you prove that?" Sonia asked. Without a second thought, Yaxiu said, "If you don't believe me, jump into the sea and try. If I'm right, you won't be able to leave this boat at all!" No sooner said than done—Sonia dove headfirst into the sea. Fortunately, thanks to that dream trial, although Sonia had never learned to swim, she at least knew how to handle herself in the water and wouldn't sink like a lead weight. Soon, Sonia flipped back onto the boat and gave a cold snort. "You're wrong. I can leave the boat. This boat isn't formed from my soul at all..." Having personally proven the Watcher wrong felt like scoring a victory over him, and Sonia was feeling rather smug. But when she turned her head, she realized the Watcher was staring right at her. Although his features remained obscured by gloom, Sonia could clearly sense his gaze. Looking down, she realized her clothes were soaked with seawater, clinging damply to her body and tracing her slender curves. "You—" Furious, Sonia raised a wooden sword. Disregarding the difference in their strength, she immediately summoned her Wave Sword sorcery spirit and prepared to slash at him. Yaxiu scrambled back, surrendering. "Wait, where did that wooden sword come from?" Eh? Sonia looked down at the wooden sword in her hand. She remembered that she hadn't been holding any weapon just a moment ago. But seeing how infuriating the Watcher was, she had instinctively wanted to beat him with a wooden sword... "See? When you wanted a wooden sword, one appeared. It's obvious this boat also appeared because you didn't want to swim," Yaxiu spread his hands. "I just wanted to test it earlier, and doesn't this prove the boat really was formed from thought?" "Then was peeking at me earlier part of the test too? Wait, no—the wooden sword is the weapon I'm most familiar with, which is why I could easily manifest it, just like how I could manifest clothes!" "Don't slander me! How was that peeking? I was looking at you openly and honestly!" After this little interlude, the unfamiliarity and fear of arriving in the Void Realm for the first time washed away. And because they had company—knowing that if anything happened, there was someone right there to share the fall—both felt a sense of security. Yet just as Sonia did not know the difference between this 'Watcher' and that 'Watcher', Yaxiu did not know the distinction between this 'Sword Princess' and that 'Sword Princess'. ..... ... One hour ago. After finishing his meal and returning to the prison dorm, Sword Princess began chatting with Yaxiu about very adult topics. "I have two pieces of news. The good news is that you'll get to live in government-provided housing for free for the rest of your life." "There's something that good?" "The bad news is you could be dragged off to be beheaded at any time." Yaxiu understood. "It's impossible for me to break out of prison?" Sword Princess sat on the bed with her legs crossed and arms folded, eyeing Yaxiu from the corner of her eyes. "You should know that sorcerers are the most powerful group in this world, right? As a mortal, it's impossible for you to contend with sorcerers. "Even that ascetic sorcerer who turned his body into diamond could only become a diamond rat rolling around in a cesspool once his connection to the Void Realm was severed. "Besides, today's events should have made you realize that as long as you still have the chip in the back of your neck, no matter where you are, you'll remain bound by endless shackles." At this, Yaxiu's expression darkened slightly. He had originally thought the miracle chip was like an implanted computer, but he hadn't realized that the chip had turned *him* into a computer—with his administrator privileges controlled remotely by someone else. Whether he could hit someone, what content he could see, and what words he could say were all under the administrator's control. Today, the administrator could make him a polite, rule-abiding young man; tomorrow, the administrator could make him eat shit by the mouthful. Until the chip was removed, all his plans were like a computer virus—the administrator needed only to reinstall the system to wipe out everything in an instant. If the administrator decided Yaxiu was beyond repair, they could even scrap and recycle him directly, forcing Yaxiu to start life over. "Is there a way to remove the chip?" Yaxiu asked through gritted teeth. "Like carving out the back of my neck..." "If it were that easy to remove, this prison wouldn't be so lively." Sword Princess scoffed. "Though it's called a chip, as you grew up, the miracle chip gradually fused deep into your bone marrow. Every bone, nerve, and muscle in your body bears the chip's mark now. If you want to purge the chip, jumping into molten steel at a steel mill might do the trick." "In other words, ordinary methods can't remove the chip," Yaxiu said. "What about a sorcerer's methods?" "Sorcerers have plenty of methods," Sword Princess said. "And the one you're most likely to acquire is the swordsmanship miracle 'Severing Self'. "'Severing Self' is a defensive miracle for sword sorcerers, specifically used to cleanse abnormal status conditions. Even though it's a silver miracle that a One-Wing Sorcerer can cast, it can directly cleanse the persistent damage caused by most Two-Wing sorcery spirits. "The miracle chip targets mortals and One-Wing Sorcerers, so it cannot resist the 'Severing Self' miracle, which carries the power of the Second Wing. As long as you execute Severing Self, you can purge every trace of the miracle chip throughout your body in an instant. Only then will you have a chance of breaking out of prison." "Then how do I get the 'Severing Self' miracle?" "To cast a miracle, you must first possess a sorcery spirit. And to obtain a sorcery spirit, you have four paths." Sword Princess held up four fingers. "First, resonate with the Void Realm by studying knowledge, allowing Void Realm knowledge to materialize in reality as a sorcery spirit. "Second, go into the Void Realm to search for wild sorcery spirits. "Third, kill a sorcerer and plunder their sorcery spirits. "Fourth, trade for sorcery spirits. "First off, the first path is closed to you." Sword Princess glanced at Yaxiu. "The miracle chip has long severed your connection to the Void Realm. No matter how much knowledge you absorb, it's impossible for you to trigger resonance with the Void Realm." Yaxiu glanced at his profile on the light screen and indeed saw a status: "Void Realm Resonance Prohibited." "As for the third path, a mortal killing a sorcerer isn't unheard of. Most instances involve female or male consorts taking the opportunity to murder their masters in bed..." Sword Princess studied Yaxiu's face and shook her head. "No chance for you on that path either." "You don't have to write me off so completely! Isn't there even a tiny chance? I could make a living on my looks, couldn't I?!" "As for the fourth path, needless to say, you don't have any capital to trade with anyone. "All in all," Sword Princess said, not bothering to banter further with Yaxiu, "the only way for you to acquire a sorcery spirit is to go to the Void Realm and find wild sorcery spirits." Yaxiu asked, "Then how do I get to the Void Realm?" Sword Princess replied, "The only way to reach the Void Realm is by activating the Gate of Truth within a sorcery spirit, allowing your consciousness to travel directly to the Void Realm." Yaxiu blinked. "So what you're saying is, to go to the Void Realm, I need a sorcery spirit?" "Precisely." "And the purpose of going to the Void Realm is to find a sorcery spirit?" "That's right." "Wait, wait, wait..." Yaxiu clutched his forehead and stepped back. "Isn't this just like a fresh college graduate finding out every job requires three years of work experience?! I can't go to the Void Realm without a sorcery spirit, but I have to go to the Void Realm to find a sorcery spirit—isn't this an infinite loop?" "Who told you that going to the Void Realm requires using your own sorcery spirit?" "Huh?" Sword Princess pointed to herself. "Did you forget? I already have a Wave Sword sorcery spirit, so I'm qualified to enter the Void Realm. Watcher, you and I formed a soul bond through the Manual; we can even share experience, so taking you along to the Void Realm is naturally a breeze." There was a function like that? Subconsciously, Yaxiu opened the Sorcerer Manual to check his talents again, only to discover that a new feature module had appeared in the game at some point: "Void Realm Exploration: Form an operator squad to explore the Void Realm." However, when Yaxiu clicked "Void Realm Exploration," checked "End Watcher" and "Death Frenzy Sword Princess" to deploy together, and tapped "Ready," nothing in reality changed—because "Death Frenzy Sword Princess" was still "Preparing." "I've already confirmed I'm ready. Hurry up and confirm too," Yaxiu urged. "Then I'm heading back to prepare. You just wait patiently." Yaxiu was dumbfounded. "What else do you need to prepare?" "A lot, a whole lot. A virgin like you wouldn't understand." "What the fuck virgin proof do you have to say I'm—" Watching Sword Princess curl her lips in a teasing smile before vanishing into thin air, Yaxiu could only lie on his bed and wait. Perhaps the regenerative treatment had drained too much of his stamina, or perhaps a night without a phone to scroll through was simply too boring, but Yaxiu soon grew drowsy and closed his eyes. When he woke up again, he found himself sitting in the same boat as Sword Princess, drifting on an ocean veiled in white fog. ...... ... Aboard the small boat on the Sea of Knowledge, Yaxiu suddenly recalled something and muttered inwardly, trying to summon his light screen. He had both failed and succeeded. The failure was that while he managed to summon the light screen, most of its functions were disabled—the Void Realm truly didn't support physical plug-ins. The success was that the Sorcerer Manual was still operational. He opened Sorcerer Manual -> "Void Realm Exploration." A map suddenly popped up on the light screen, along with a prompt: "You have entered Void Realm Exploration mode. Please read the beginner tutorial..." On the other side, seeing Yaxiu falling silent, Sonia turned her attention back to the Void Realm. Leaning down, she paddled the seawater with her hands, trying to propel the small boat forward. "Wait, Sword Princess, don't be so impatient and thrash around. Let me do the moving."