Watching Fights, Gaining Experience

Moonlight spilled silently into the gloomy corridor.

"Where is this!?"

Lin Nan snapped his eyes open, his guarded gaze scanning the dim surroundings. He remembered being by the river, pouring water into his canteen, only to find himself here the very next second.

Amidst a faint mist, golden moonlight filtered through several window lattices on one side of the arc, casting light onto the corridor floor of indeterminate color. The weak reflection allowed him to barely make out the shape of the hallway.

The surroundings were deathly silent. Lin Nan moved slowly and cautiously along the curved corridor, his soft footsteps echoing in the narrow space.

Outside the windows, aside from the full moon in the sky, there was only a dim and hazy curtain of light. Flowing blocks of color flickered across it, revealing no discernible details.

Opposite the windows were several closed doors, their deep, natural wood tones hinting at a sense of age.

Lin Nan crept toward the first door. He dared not make a sound to test if anyone was nearby, for ever since he had transmigrated into this world, both Hollows and Soul Reapers had proven to be dangerous.

In this eerie environment, he felt it would actually be better if he were alone.

He tiptoed to the first door and pressed his ear against it, hearing nothing for a long while. He then placed his hand on the lock, slowly and vigilantly pushing the door open. With the help of the dim moonlight at the threshold, the room's furnishings were revealed to him...

On a wide, silver console sat a large keyboard covered in unfamiliar characters, a mouse-like device, and a notebook with a pen clipped to it. Above the console, a massive monitor lit up the moment Lin Nan approached.

A ghostly blue light instantly filled the room.

"I..." Lin Nan instinctively covered his mouth, suppressing a string of profanities that threatened to spill out.

In the brief moment the screen lit up, he felt as if something had suddenly opened its eyelids and locked gazes with him.

The sensation lasted only for a fleeting second before vanishing without a trace.

"These look like the symbols used by those people in the Department of Research and Development in the anime..." Lin Nan gently traced the keyboard, which was etched with numerous peculiar characters.

He quietly returned to the corridor, looking left and right repeatedly and listening intently to the surroundings to confirm no one else was there. He then approached the other doors and tried to push them, but they wouldn't budge; it seemed they were all locked.

Confirming that no one else was in this strange space, Lin Nan returned to the first room and looked at the glowing monitor.

In the menu on the left, a highlighted file was pulsing slowly:

"Combat Replay: Duel with Unohana Retsu."

"That murderous woman has no sense of sportsmanship."

Lin Nan muttered, his eyes scanning the screen, his attention instantly captured by the text above:

"Detected damage to outer shell...

Repair function initiated...

Temporarily disabling Reiatsu concealment...

Combat footage recorded...

Friendly reminder: Damage to the Reiatsu shell will cause a slight increase in Reiatsu exposure. Please proceed with caution and do not panic..."

"What... does this mean? Did Unohana break my cheat code? Let's see what's going on."

Lin Nan hesitated for a moment, then used the mouse to open the combat replay against Unohana Retsu.

The screen flickered slightly, clearly displaying everything from the moment he entered the 11th Division's temporary barracks to the moment he collapsed after taking three strikes from Unohana. The footage was incredibly clear, and even the ambient sounds were played back with perfect clarity.

Lin Nan quickly mastered the controls of this replay system, carefully manipulating the footage to observe the battle process from different angles.

The Kenpachi was truly the Kenpachi. Watching from a third-person perspective, he realized that Unohana's first strike had created a faint shockwave on the ground.

"She went for the kill the moment she started. This woman is definitely no good!—I actually blocked such a terrifying strike?!"

He rotated the perspective, watching the posture, angle, and body mechanics of Unohana's strikes frame by frame. As the footage shifted, he continuously deduced her attack patterns in his mind.

"...If I had put more force into my right hand during the first strike, or leaned forward a few centimeters to keep my back pressed against the blade, I wouldn't have injured my shoulder..."

Following the movements in the video, Lin Nan practiced them himself, searching for flaws in his own technique. With the video's guidance and the ability to switch perspectives, his grasp of both their movements became much more precise.

Time ticked by, and the battle was replayed over and over. As the three strikes were repeated, Lin Nan gradually noticed the impact on the environment.

The clothes torn by the sword tip, the falling strands of hair, and the flagpole as thick as a bowl severed by the blade... all these were details the Lin Nan of that moment had failed to notice.

"Does this mean I almost wounded Unohana too... does this body really have this level of reaction speed?"

Lin Nan looked at the blood-soaked right arm on the screen, then at his own uninjured body, lost in thought.

"Given the level of destruction to objects, I should have had my limbs severed long ago. So, the physical defense of this body has also increased after transmigrating?"

He opened the replay of his fight with the Kusajishi Group to confirm his hypothesis.

"So that fat guy's spiked mace couldn't hurt me because my body is too tough... Hey, why does this big, dark, fat guy look so familiar?..."

With his own notes, Lin Nan finally understood the situation well enough. He flipped through the previous video records one by one, analyzing every clue. After confirming there were no other new discoveries, he opened Unohana's combat footage and began to analyze it once more.

In a hospital bed somewhere in reality, around the body of Lin Nan, whose wounds had been properly bandaged, a dense amount of Reiatsu began to gather and circulate within a one-meter radius. As time passed, it gradually formed a layer of extremely thin, nearly imperceptible Reiatsu shielding.

Lin Nan remained completely unaware of the changes in the outside world. His attention was currently focused on a line of text on the screen:

Proficiency increased, please check the relevant page.

With a hint of confusion, Lin Nan clicked the menu button at the top of the screen, which featured a katana and a diamond pattern. A new page appeared before him:

Hand-to-Hand Combat: Novice; Hand-to-Hand growth: +1, Total Hand-to-Hand points: 1;

Slash Technique: Novice; Slash Technique proficiency: +1; Slash Technique total points: 1.

Lin Nan stared at these two lines of text, and just as a thought crossed his mind, he suddenly heard a distant and hazy conversation coming from behind him. A jolt went through him, the hairs on his body standing on end, and he immediately turned around to look outward.

The sound seemed to be coming from outside, creating a faint echo in the silent, dim corridor. Controlling the weight of his footsteps, Lin Nan slowly approached the doorway and tilted his head to observe the exterior.

No one appeared, yet the conversation continued; he could distinguish both male and female voices, but it sounded as if they were separated by a wall, making it impossible to hear what was being said.

Lin Nan looked around in confusion, finally discovering the source of the sound—it was the ancient, double-leafed door.

Summoning his courage, he slowly walked up to the great door and quietly pressed his ear against the wooden panel.