Lin Yu emerged from his meditative state, opened his eyes, and sat up in bed. He took out food and water, and once he had eaten and drunk his fill, he entered meditation again.
For the rest of the time, Lin Yu remained in meditation, except when he logged out at noon to change the nutrient solution.
Before he knew it, it was eight in the evening, and Lin Yu stopped meditating.
It wasn't that Lin Yu didn't want to continue meditating to improve himself. Rather, after his spirit attribute broke through to 200 points, he felt that his soul had reached the limit of the Apprentice Rank. To improve further, he would first have to advance to the Official Rank.
Now, it was time to see if he could construct the magic circle runes for Omnipotent Magic in his Magic Aperture. He had failed before because his Magic Aperture wasn't strong enough, but now he had raised its strength to the limit of what he could achieve, so he should be able to complete the magic circle.
Having decided what to do next, Lin Yu began constructing the magic runes for Omnipotent Magic in his Magic Aperture. This time, he completed the magic circle with ease.
Feeling the slight pressure in his Magic Aperture, Lin Yu breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, his strengthened Magic Aperture could support the construction of Omnipotent Magic.
Otherwise, Lin Yu would have had to find a way to simplify the magic.
Just as Lin Yu was about to dispel the magic circle in his Magic Aperture, he happened to notice that the words "breakthrough available" were glowing on his panel. He clicked on them and saw that the options inside had changed somewhat.
One reward had been added to the advancement rewards for all four options: the Innate Spell All-Purpose. Each option offered a different chance of obtaining it.
Simple Advancement had a 0% chance of granting the Innate Spell All-Purpose. Normal Advancement had a 10% chance, Advanced Advancement had a 50% chance, and Perfect Advancement was guaranteed to grant it.
Looking at the changes on the panel, Lin Yu's face lit up with understanding. "Oh! So to get an Innate Spell, you have to construct the magic formula in your Magic Aperture yourself! I was wondering why the system's advancement didn't grant an Innate Spell. Turns out you have to finish constructing the magic formula yourself first!"
"So, at its core, the system's advancement has the system prepare the advancement ritual. The materials required for the different grades of advancement are the ritual materials that assist with the advancement. The higher the grade, the better the transformation it provides, and the more perfect the transformation, the greater the chance of the constructed magic formula becoming an Innate Spell. If that's how it works, I can just choose Perfect Advancement."
Now that Lin Yu had discovered the Innate Spell reward in the advancement options, he no longer had to agonize over whether to advance on his own or use the system. Arranging an advancement ritual himself would only give him a chance of obtaining an Innate Spell, but the system's Perfect Advancement was guaranteed to grant one. In that case, he had to choose Perfect Advancement!
Perfect Advancement required a King's Soul. Where could he find a boss? Lin Yu fell into thought.
Why not see if there was any information about bosses on the forum? With that thought, Lin Yu immediately opened the forum and began searching for bosses.
"Not this one... not this one either. Why isn't there any information about bosses? Has nobody seen a boss after the game has been open for so long?" After going through more than a dozen posts, Lin Yu found that these so-called bosses were actually just special individuals among the magic beasts. The kill information later in the posts also showed that, by the game's classification, these special magic beasts were merely elite monsters.
"Sigh! Looks like I'll have to go out and find one myself!"
After confirming that there really was no information about bosses on the forum, Lin Yu closed it.
Glancing at the time, Lin Yu decided to look for a boss tomorrow.
He was already so strong. Surely he could beat a boss, right? Never mind, he had better not raise a flag.
Remembering how a wild wolf had "just passed by" after he raised a flag last time, Lin Yu decided he had better not raise a flag like that.
After a quick wash, Lin Yu went straight to bed and lay down, then opened his panel and chose to log out.
Lin Yu opened his eyes, raised a hand to open the game pod's door, and stood up inside it.
After stretching briefly, Lin Yu sat down on the bed.
Over this period, Lin Yu had clearly felt his mental power increasing every day. By his calculations, his current mental strength was roughly equivalent to 61 points of the spirit attribute in the game.
Mental power at this level was already capable of slightly affecting reality. Lin Yu had tried it: by using his mental power to its fullest, he could move a cup on the table a little.
Besides the increase in his mental power, Lin Yu had also noticed that his body was growing weaker by the day, just like his body in the game.
Could my game character be merging with my real self?
The moment the thought arose, Lin Yu hurried to the mirror to check whether his appearance had changed.
Looking at himself in the mirror, Lin Yu breathed a sigh of relief. His appearance hadn't changed.
Next, Lin Yu measured his height and weight. His height hadn't changed at all, but he had lost several jin.
The weight loss might have been due to inheriting his game character's attributes, or it might have been because he had relied entirely on nutrient solution and hadn't eaten anything during this period.
Lin Yu speculated casually.
Judging by the current situation, Lin Yu believed the changes in his body were due to inheriting his game character's attributes.
"Speaking of which, has nobody noticed such an obvious change from inheriting their game character's attributes?" After voicing the question on his mind, Lin Yu prepared to check online and see whether anyone had discovered that they could inherit their game character's attributes.
He picked up the phone by his bed. Seeing its black screen, Lin Yu realized its battery had died and it had shut down.
He had been in the game the whole time and hadn't used his phone at all, so he had forgotten to charge it.
He picked up the charging cable beside the bed and quickly plugged it into his phone. Then he held down the power button, watched the screen light up, and waited for it to start.
Looking at the browser's search results, Lin Yu was puzzled. Why did it feel like so few people were discussing Era online? He had searched both the Era forum and the wider internet. Did nobody think there was something unusual about Era? Or had everyone who knew there was something unusual about it chosen to keep quiet?
Lin Yu didn't know what was going on.
After that, Lin Yu watched short videos for a while.
"This is a little boring. Let's play some Honor of Kings!" After watching short videos for a while, Lin Yu found them a little dull.
Lin Yu closed the short-video app and opened Honor of Kings. He entered ranked mode, planning to play a few matches to pass the time.
"This is so boring! I'm done. It's no fun." After playing a few matches as Jing, Lin Yu put down his phone. He found the game incredibly boring.
With his mental power enhanced, Lin Yu's thinking speed, analytical ability, and other faculties had improved considerably. As a result, he could predict opposing players' next moves based on their actions. It was as though he had x-ray vision, and he could easily crush them.
That experience might have been interesting at first, but after playing a little longer, it became boring.