The translucent light panel remained there for only three breaths.
Before Lin Yuan could even touch it, the text on it, along with the border, shattered into pale blue specks and dissipated into the air.
He raised his hand and made a swipe where the light had disappeared.
Nothing appeared.
The pedestrians on the street were different. A man carrying a round shield pointed a finger, and several windows immediately opened in front of him. He searched through them for a moment and took out an apple. The apple was not taken out of his pocket, but fell directly into his palm in the light.
Lin Yuan did it once.
The air remained completely still.
He changed direction and did it again.
A short-haired boy passing by glanced at him and kindly reminded him, "You have to scroll down the menu. Is this your first time using NERvGear?"
What is NERvGear?
The boy was stunned.
Lin Yuan didn't wait for his reply, turned around and walked into a deserted alley on the side of the street.
He closed his eyes first, letting his consciousness sink into his body.
The immense magic still exists.
It neither decreased nor went out of control; it even continued to flow through his body along its familiar path. But when Lin Yuan tried to get it out of his body, all the magic stopped beneath his skin, as if there were a transparent wall without any gaps separating them.
No black and silver light appeared.
Lin Yuan opened his eyes and reached out to grab the wall two steps away.
The distance has not shortened.
He then tried the Zero-Distance Crushing Fist and the Boundary-Severing Blade, and finally pressed his palm to the ground, attempting to unleash the simplest spatial perception.
The stone slab was cold and hard.
Apart from that, he felt nothing.
It wasn't a lack of magic power, nor was the space too stable. This place simply didn't allow his True Magic to appear outside his body.
Lin Yuan stood up, deciding not to continue with any futile attempts.
He drew the one-handed sword from his waist.
The sword was about three feet long, with a straight blade and a hilt wrapped in rough black cloth. Its real weight pressed down on his wrist; it was heavier than the Boundary-Severing Blade, but not much different from the training sword Erza had him use.
At least the things I just learned are still useful.
Lin Yuan swung his sword twice, the movements creating a clear whistling sound. As the sword stopped, a wooden barrel in the corner of the alley suddenly glowed red.
A thin horizontal line appears above the wooden barrel.
He didn't touch it, yet the line slowly returned to its original shape.
Lin Yuan stared for a moment, then gently pierced the wall of the barrel with the tip of his sword.
The horizontal line suddenly shortened, but the barrel itself only made a muffled thud, leaving no sword mark.
He increased the force.
The longsword pierced half an inch into the barrel wall, and the red horizontal line was cleared away. The entire barrel shattered into countless blue light fragments in an instant, leaving not even a speck of wood on the ground.
Lin Yuan looked down at his hands.
He ran the tip of his sword across the back of his left hand. The blade cut through the skin, and beads of bright red blood immediately slid down his finger bones, bringing a slight stinging pain no different from before.
The wound did not turn into a light effect, nor was it automatically erased by some force.
This body is real.
The city, however, may not be real.
Lin Yuan sheathed his sword and walked out of the alley. The short-haired boy from before was gone, and people on the street were excitedly discussing missions, levels, and closed beta information. Several people wearing identical leather armor were gathered around the fountain, pointing repeatedly at something only they could see.
Nobody found any of this strange.
Lin Yuan walked up to a guard with a sword by the roadside.
Where is this place?
The guard immediately turned to him, a standard, almost stiff smile on his face.
"Welcome to the Town of Beginnings. Brave swordsman, venture beyond the city walls to defeat the Frenzy Boar and bring peace back to the city."
How do I leave this world?
"Brave swordsman, venture beyond the city walls to defeat the Frenzy Boar and bring peace back to the city."
Do you know me?
The guard's smile faltered for the first time.
A string of extremely thin blue symbols flashed across his eyes, as if he were searching for something. A moment later, his face stiffened again, but his voice was no longer the same as before.
"Verifying identity."
Lin Yuan waited quietly.
Five breaths later, the blue light in the guard's eyes went out.
"No player ID found."
"No task record found."
No interactive character information found.
After saying those three sentences, he suddenly turned his head back to its original position and looked at the street again.
"Welcome to the Town of Beginnings. Brave swordsman, venture outside the city to defeat the Frenzy Boar-- "
Lin Yuan didn't listen any further.
The player's methods were ineffective against him, and the city's inhabitants were unsure what to consider him to be. The plaque displaying the date and location seemed more like the last message left by the rift before it closed, rather than something that belonged to him.
It seems he has not been accepted by the world.
The stone slabs beneath his feet could support his weight, and he could grip the sword in his hand. Some rule, more unfamiliar than True Magic, barely allowed him to stand here, but left him no place to stand.
Lin Yuan turned to look at the guards.
The other person was still repeating the same lines to everyone who passed by.
Only those few statements prove that the city can indeed see him, but there is no record of him in the system.