An Illusion?

However, just as he was rejoicing, the energy surrounding him suddenly diminished and vanished.

"It seems that my emotional fluctuations are making my use of energy somewhat unstable," Xiao Yu thought to himself.

He experimented a few more times and quickly grasped a certain pattern. Once he was immersed in a strong emotion, his use of energy became unrestrained. However, once he regained a peaceful state of mind, this control mysteriously disappeared, as if reason was limiting his potential.

This is a bit strange. Does this mean that the rules of the game only apply to rational people? This reminded him of a story he had read before about the mysteries of the human body. A scientist was experimenting on a prisoner. He first showed the prisoner a red-hot iron, implying that he was going to burn him with it. Then he blindfolded the prisoner and placed an ice cube on his body. As a result, the prisoner screamed in agony, and burn marks appeared on his body.

This experiment seems to suggest that the human spirit possesses immense power.

Holographic virtual games are essentially brainwave games. All information within the game is received and processed through brainwaves. Could it be that because brainwaves are calm, one can only use pre-designed skills, while intense emotional fluctuations alter brainwaves, freeing them from system limitations? If a madman played this game, wouldn't they be able to do whatever they want? Or, could one use devices to interfere with their own brainwaves, making them uncontrollable by the system, thus achieving a similar effect?

But this feels a bit like using cheats; if it's discovered, the account will probably be banned.

So far, no cheat codes have been found in holographic virtual games, but at this moment, Xiao Yu feels that he may have found the possibility of creating cheat codes.

Unfortunately, he hadn't studied this area much, so he could only apply the technique to himself for now. He continued to control his emotions, alternating between anger and fear, constantly recalling various memories that could cause strong emotional fluctuations. Xiao Yu soon discovered that even recalling things required certain skills, and there was a concept of practice makes perfect. Perhaps actors were able to master this technique, which was why they could portray people with different personalities so vividly.

After a whole afternoon of effort, Xiao Yu gradually mastered this technique. At this moment, he could feel how these powers worked, and he could also quickly simulate different emotions to control the various energies in his body according to his own will.

In fact, this energy has always been within his body. However, in the past, he could only use it in the way the system gave him. For example, a Fireball was designed to output a certain amount of energy to create a fireball of a certain size. All skills were designed this way.

It's like the system gives a player a cup, and the player can only use this cup to hold water, so the energy output each time is fixed.

But now, Xiao Yu can fill a cup with water, a bucket with water, or even pour the water out of the vat.

Through continuous experimentation, Xiao Yu discovered that the system's design was excellent in terms of energy utilization efficiency. However, because the system needed to ensure the fairness of the game, the power of the skills obviously could not be too strong. Therefore, some ridiculous designs would often appear in order to maintain the balance of the game, and some meaningless details would even be intentionally added.

For example, the Blizzard skill creates a Blizzard and summons hailstones from the sky to attack enemies. However, due to its large range and dispersed energy, the skill's power is not very strong. It's okay to deal with groups of mobs, but it has little effect on slightly stronger monsters. However, if you can condense all your frost power into a super-sized hailstone, its power will be extraordinary.

Without hesitation, Xiao Yu began experimenting and successfully condensed a giant hailstone weighing one ton. Although it couldn't attack multiple targets at once, its single-target damage was absolutely formidable.

Following that, Xiao Yu learned even more techniques from it.

For example, all fire-based spells can essentially be understood as the construction and recombination of fire energy. Once you master the core techniques of construction and recombination, there's no need to learn specific skills. At this moment, Xiao Yu used several skills he hadn't yet comprehended, such as the Flame Bomb Storm he used when he was Goblin fire mage. A mere Goblin fire mage could use it, but an Elemental King couldn't? This was clearly a bit unreasonable. Xiao Yu couldn't do it before, but now, Xiao Yu could perfectly simulate this skill.

Haha, this is awesome! My skill library has expanded at least tenfold! Xiao Yu thought excitedly. Not only have I gained more skills, but I can also control the power of the skills at will. Suddenly, he remembered his old composite skills, such as Frostfire Bolt and Biting Wind Protection. Since his character template changed to Chaos Elemental, these composite skills have become unusable, which is obviously due to the system's need for balance.

But now--

He stretched out both hands, and a fireball appeared in one hand and an ice ball in the other. He combined the two energy balls into one, but under his will, they did not merge. Instead, they intertwined and repelled each other. The two completely opposite energies strangely formed a balance. Then, with a push of his hand, a missile emitting cold light and firelight flew out.

It looks about six or seven parts similar to Frostfire Bolt.

"Haha, that's the taste!"

Immediately afterwards, Xiao Yu used a series of skills, including the Biting Wind Protection. He could simulate most of these skills, although the simulated versions seemed slightly different from the originals, perhaps because his control over his power was not yet fully in place. However, there were a few skills that he could not simulate at all, such as the Fission Orb.

Furthermore, he created many new skills by combining elements with different attributes.

For example, the Quagmire, created by combining water and earth, can cause Mire or Summon Clay Golem.

The combination of earth and fire can be used to create Meteor, Volcanic Eruption, and the Summon Flame Stone Golem, among other things.

Sandstorm created by combining earth and wind produce Flying Sand and Stones, and can even Summon Dust Demon.

Flame Tornado created by combining wind and fire, or Wild Dance of Wind and Fire.

It can be said that every two elements combined can create a new skill.

As for the combined skill of the three elements, he still doesn't quite understand it.

Just as he was having a great time, he suddenly heard clapping behind him.

Clap clap clap

Who is it? Xiao Yu was startled and turned around abruptly, only to find a man in a black robe standing behind him. It was the guy from the Council of Sages, whom Xiao Yu recognized at a glance.

This person appeared without warning, silently, like a ghost.

"Well done, it seems you've already grasped the basics of energy manipulation," the man said in a hoarse voice.

Moreover, Xiao Yu thought to himself, "Wait a minute, how did the other party appear in the Chamber of Chaos? Only I have the authority to open this place. Anyone else would have to defeat a series of bosses to enter."

Wait a minute, could this be my imagination? The thought suddenly popped into my head, and the more I thought about it, the more likely it seemed. I closed my eyes and sensed the elemental forces around me, but I didn't sense anything at the location of that person, as if that person didn't exist at all.

Was it really just a hallucination? Xiao Yu thought to himself, what I feared most has come to pass.

He still remembered what the doctor had told him about how to deal with these hallucinations.

These hallucinations are essentially virtual images generated by his subconscious mind, caused by the compression of brain nerves by a tumor. They are somewhat similar to dreams in reality. Every action of these images is determined by the patient's subconscious mind. Therefore, if the patient feels fear, these hallucinations will become very terrifying. Conversely, if the patient can face them easily, these hallucinations will become very calm.

At the same time, the appearance of hallucinations often means that the subconscious mind has something to talk to the conscious mind about, because the subconscious mind often contains more information than the conscious mind, so it is worth listening to it.

"A calm mind, a calm mind, I understand now, isn't it just about having a calm mind?" Xiao Yu thought to himself, then suddenly smiled slightly.

"You've finally appeared! I've been waiting for you for so long."