Double the Tribulation

"Instead, spiritual energy from the upper realm spills over, so the lower realm gets a bit richer in spiritual power too. Makes cultivation easier for a few hundred years, at least."

It was the sort of deal where you griefed the lower servers and jacked the difficulty up a notch, then sprinkled a server-wide experience buff as compensation. Either way, that wasn't the real problem.

This goddamn area effect dropped at random, but it had a nasty habit of homing in on any lifeform carrying spiritual energy like a lightning rod. Stuck next to Cheon Nan-cho, who'd just popped out of my inventory, I naturally had to tank this unavoidable Small Heavenly Tribulation for both of us—double the hits!

"Because of you, I'm taking double Small Heavenly Tribulations!"

"Hee-a, you said getting hit by those just stings a little!"

"Yeah, but it still stings, damn it!"

Even if my Dharma Treasure nullified or halved fixed damage, pain and a sharp sting were two very different sensations. Unfamiliar and thoroughly irritating, which made it worse.

"Can't you just stay in the inventory?"

"What am I supposed to do stuck in that dead storage of yours with zero spiritual energy? I need to cultivate now too."

"So that means I have to tank your Small Heavenly Tribulation on top of mine?"

"It might. This is spiritual energy leaking from battles in the upper realm, after all. Your spiritual power is already pitifully low compared to other cultivators—this should help."

"This static-shock level stuff…?"

I poked one of the lightning-energy lumps floating in the Ocean of Slaughter with my Golden Core. They'd started out the size of ocean trash and ballooned up to sea-turtle proportions. Whether from soaking in the slaughter energy or something else, the static had turned blood-red; it crackled lightly around my body the moment I touched it.

"More tools are always better, right? It's only a Small Heavenly Tribulation, but a Heavenly Tribulation is still a Heavenly Tribulation. It'll help when you break through realms or when your lifespan runs out and you have to face the real thing."

"Why the question mark?"

"Because you're so special I can't say for sure."

"Hmm. That much, huh."

I didn't really feel it. Naturally.

"In a single-player game, the player is basically a god."

"That might be taking it a little far."

Tch.

Anyway, while Cheon Nan-cho clung to my shoulder like she'd set up house there and cultivated with gusto, I kept getting periodically smacked by Small Heavenly Tribulations and slowly cleared high-level maps on Auto-Battle.

Auto-Battle handled my body and skills like some kind of machine, but the monsters were higher level than me, so the chance of losing was very real. When I fought elite mobs I didn't just zone out—I matched the movements of my runaway body and drew Tatar's Wheel.

My Natal Dharma Treasure, Tatar's Wheel, was a soul-bound personal weapon that my Auto-Battle body alone couldn't even pull out, let alone use. Just by remaining conscious during Auto-Battle, I could move it.

I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠cut off attacks aimed at my body, crushed techniques trying to bind my ankles, and interrupted whatever desperate thrashing the enemy attempted. That alone was enough. My Auto-Battle body turned the elite mob into a single meal and converted it into slaughter energy and experience.

"Oh, purple."

I checked, hoping the purple glow from item-filter mode meant epic gear. Just epic materials. Got my hopes up for nothing, fuck.

Even mid-fight I scratched my stinging scalp after another lightning strike and realized event messages hadn't been popping up lately. Hunting out on ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the map was usually the best time—lucky or unlucky—to snag permanent stat boosts from events. This Small Heavenly Tribulation event was apparently skipping every minor event in the area.

"Not like going back to base would help either."

I'd been hit by a Small Heavenly Tribulation while using the rest emote in the base training grounds, intending to cultivate. That was the sheer scale of a cosmic-misfortune-tier major event. Better to just kill the monsters suffering the same deranged weather on the high-level maps. For me it was only a tingle; for the monsters, a single hit was enough to leave them injured.

So.

One of the absolute worst trash prefixes—but as long as it wasn't an elite that could ignore the area penalty the way I could, even a high-level map would have been easy enough to clear!

The monster holding a house-sized, weathered stone axe didn't even roar. Overflowing with spiritual power, it simply glared at me with glowing eyes and swung the axe straight at my face.

"[Auto-Batt—!"

Too fa—

I couldn't even see the swing, yet the house-sized stone axe was already filling my vision like a wall. The one who reacted was Cheon Nan-cho, half-dozing against my neck while cultivating on my shoulder.

Dozens of layered spiritual barriers unfolded as naturally as plants sprouting and flowers blooming in midair. They momentarily blocked the house-sized stone axe—but only bought a hair's breadth of space.

Of course they did. That elite was carrying a trash prefix, yet the monster itself was literally named "Axe." An axe-skill master. In this shitty game's lore, a basic-skill master was basically the fantasy-novel equivalent of a Sword Master—an Axe Master. A monster that made my win rate in close combat plummet if I relied solely on Auto-Battle.

"…le]!!!"

But I had master skills of my own.

The instant Auto-Battle activated, countless chopsticks of slaughter energy formed a halo of light behind me like a nimbus, and my personal weapon—Tatar's Wheel—rose above my head, devouring slaughter energy as it spun.

The elite cleaved through the tidal wave of chopsticks pouring from the halo with a single swing of its stone axe. Spiritual fire flared in its eyes—and my wheel accelerated just as fast.

Even as the house-sized stone axe filled the sky and came crashing down, my Auto-Battle body simply raised streams of slaughter energy and met it head-on like it had no choice. I immediately moved the wheel.

Auto-Battle was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠undeniably powerful. But now that reality had been patched in, it had limits. For example: if something was ridiculously strong, my consciousness got blasted away too—and the fact that mine was still here was proof enough. Auto-Battle didn't care about efficiency.

"Hee-a!"

Tatar's Wheel rolled.

At Cheon Nan-cho's warning cry, my Natal Dharma Treasure—linked to my soul—followed my will, drawing slaughter energy up from the Ocean of Slaughter and unleashing its power.

I still don't know when it got that close; I couldn't even track its proper movement. The monstrous axe stroke filled my vision at point-blank range and collided head-on with the wheel spinning above me.

The house-sized weathered stone axe in the monster's grip had its life stolen on the spot by the wheel. It wasn't just a simple stone axe—the spiritual energy, experience, and connected soul of the monster's long years contained within it couldn't withstand the vast slaughter energy packed into the wheel. They were crushed and killed outright.

Even though I'd only drawn a portion, the river of slaughter energy from the Ocean of Slaughter had struck the stone axe dead-on through the wheel. There was no other outcome. The slaughter energy Yu Hee had accumulated was, even in part, filthy amounts—literally river-like.

And once the axe vanished from an elite that looked like an axe-skill master, Auto-Battle inevitably went berserk. My Auto-Battle body snapped the elite's neck and killed it in an instant. Only then did I feel control of my body return.

"Fuck, I almost actually lost!?"

If I hadn't switched to manual mid-fight I really would have died. What the hell was a basic-skill master monster doing spawning out of nowhere? If it just hadn't had the Immovable prefix, I could've beaten it while it was still reeling from the Small Heavenly Tribulation!

"Kyaaaaak! This is unfair! This is unfa—kyaak?!"

Ow! Hot!!

"Take the hits better, Hee-a! Unlike you, I die if I get hit wrong!"

"Treating me like an umbrella?! If it weren't for the cooldown I'd have sent you straight to prisoner exploration!"

I watched Cheon Nan-cho shake out her hair—singed where the lightning had jumped—and plop back down on my shoulder, then started walking again.

Seriously, even for an area effect, fixed damage plus defense ignore plus unavoidable—what the hell was I supposed to do with that? I wanted to tank it with a HP-bloating gear set, but the Sharp prefix attached to the Six Great Calamities dropped max HP by 30%, so the set efficiency was garbage.

And looking at it, the fixed damage, defense ignore, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and unavoidable only seemed to apply to me, the player. Otherwise it was a miracle the map's neutral NPCs and monsters were still walking around fine!

"This difficulty is fucking ridiculous!"

What a piece-of-shit game.