Getting the Hang of It
Getting the Hang of It
Assimilation Rate.
Simply put, it was a device that adjusted the users' pain perception.
Depending on how high the Assimilation Rate was set, the level of immersion the users experienced changed.
Because the higher it went, the more you could feel "another reality," just as the game company's slogan claimed.
Beyond sight, smell, and hearing, it made taste and even touch feel almost identical to reality.
Users were even driven to the illusion that this place might truly be another world.
However, it was also the setting you had to handle with the most caution. Because this insane game company had brought even pain to vivid life.
Cases of damage from a 90% Assimilation Rate were already circulating through the community like ghost stories.
Someone who died with the Assimilation Rate maxed out last time ended up in a mental hospital, someone else tried dying at around 80% and had nightmares every day since, and so on.
Psychological trauma was the baseline, and if things went badly, you could even go into fatal shock.
In fact, in countries other than South Korea, there had been actual deaths—the news about some brave soul who played on 90%,
Got chewed to death by a monster, and died of shock.
...When you thought about it, it was honestly a wonder how such a dangerous game even made it to market.
At any rate, that was how dangerous the Assimilation Rate was.
But right now, Yor was insisting she raise it.
And he even said this Assimilation Rate was the very thing blocking her growth.
'Raise... this? It already hurts...?'
Naturally, Chae-rin had shown a negative reaction.
No matter what, she didn't want to feel even more pain here.
Of course, Yor knew her hesitation, so he persuaded her in a calm, reasoned tone.
"Don't worry. If you raise it, I'll end the sparring here."
"Really? You're not going to suddenly start hitting me or something?"
"Do I look like that kind of psycho? Don't worry, just raise it. Even if a monster comes, I'll protect you."
"..."
At that, Chae-rin gave him a suspicious look, but she raised her Assimilation Rate for now.
Honestly, it was because she didn't want to spar anymore.
She'd apparently been underestimating educational content way too much... It was content that was intensely draining, both mentally and physically.
Once she raised the Assimilation Rate, he gave a light command.
"Sit down."
Chae-rin followed his words and sat on the ground.
Every sense felt vividly clear.
The faint throbbing she felt in her body, the blades of grass grazing between her fingers, even the sensation of the wind brushing her skin.
The only time she'd ever used 90% was probably when sampling delicious food...
Indeed, now that she was deliberately trying to feel her senses, the level was hardly any different from reality.
"Close your eyes anyway and focus on your own body. Then try to find the foreign energy you feel inside you."
Chae-rin did as he said.
The moment she closed her eyes, total darkness came over her.
The sound of her heart beating, the stuffy pressure of her armor constricting her body—the heightened senses grew a level more sensitive.
But the 'foreign energy' Yor spoke of didn't feel like anything.
She did know what he was talking about. He was telling her to find her mana.
She knew what it was and how it functioned.
After all, even using a skill like 'Stealth' instantly consumed mana. Even moving intensely or fighting drained mana. When it emptied, a strange sense of exhaustion set in.
The point was, Chae-rin had been using mana one way or another, even without fully realizing it.
But she had only ever used it. She'd never actually perceived it directly and moved it herself.
Which was only natural. The game system had assisted her all along, so why would she bother with such a cumbersome thing?
It was even uncertain whether she could perceive and move it in the first place.
"You can't feel it?"
"Mm... no."
"No? Wait a sec..."
Of course, Yor had no intention of just standing by and watching.
As her teacher, it was obvious he should break through his disciple's helplessness.
Tap.
"Eep."
He placed his hands on both her shoulders.
At the sudden contact, he could feel her flinch in surprise.
Regrettably, he wasn't a learned man, so he couldn't guide her mana by pressing some pressure point.
But there were definitely other ways. A bit violent, though.
Basically, he'd just ignorantly jam his own mana into her body.
No matter how bad she was at sensing things, if someone else's energy was injected in, and in large quantities at that, she'd have no choice but to perceive it.
So Yor injected a massive amount of mana from his own body into hers.
"Hnng?!"
Chae-rin reacted instantly. She let out a strange moan and began trembling, her body shaking.
Well, with foreign energy entering her body that wasn't her own, she was bound to show an immediate rejection response.
Just like how an immune system reacts when a pathogen enters.
Yor glanced briefly at the chat window.
[Ah fuck]
[What disgusting thing did I just hear]
[Chae-rin, you shit, is a grown man supposed to make boyish sounds like that]
A lightly inflamed chat window.
But Chae-rin wasn't in a position to check that right now. The torrent of mana that had entered her was too intense. Heat rose in her body as if she'd been lit on fire.
Yor looked at her, who was fidgeting restlessly, and asked.
"Well? Can you feel it?"
"Hoo, yes! I can feel it...!"
"What does it feel like?"
"Haa, hah! It's intensely hot and violent!"
[It's really gone to shit]
[Are these bastards having sex or something right now]
[↳ Kicked by a manager.]
[Yor forcing the streamer to a forced climax shiver]
[↳ Kicked by a manager.]
[But isn't it kind of hot? heh]
[Hot my ass you a lesbian?]
Ahem, Yor cleared his throat lightly.
As the chat window said, the moans were a bit... like that. Though Chae-rin didn't look like she had the leisure to care.
To free her quickly, Yor continued the lesson.
"Good, now think about gathering all that into one arm."
"Hic, haa. How...!"
"Thought. Just think it."
Fortunately, she complied readily with Yor's words. Focusing her mind with effort, she gathered the foreign energy in her body into one arm. And sure enough, the mana truly did begin gathering toward her arm.
Of course, she hadn't succeeded by her own power alone. Since it was originally someone else's mana, after all.
It was only possible because Yor had permitted her to move it and was guiding it, too.
"Good, now think about releasing it and throw the dagger."
Following Yor's words, Chae-rin threw the dagger.
Conveniently, there was a good target right in front of her. A rock that was unimaginably tough.
An obstacle she could never hope to penetrate with her current strength, no matter what.
But this time was a little different. The moment she released the dagger, the burning sensation Chae-rin had felt in her body vanished.
And that burning sensation, as if it had become some kind of propellant, drove the dagger's speed madly higher.
Soon, it collided with the rock at an extreme velocity.
Crack!
And so, an enormous fissure was carved into the rock.
The dagger she had casually thrown embedded itself dead center in the rock, as if it had turned into Excalibur itself.
"Huh?"
[?]
[???]
[Whoa what was that just now shiver]
[Something flew shiver]
Amid everyone's bewildered shock, Yor spoke lightly.
"Well, that's roughly done."
*
Thankfully, Chae-rin had left, having smoothly felt her mana.
...Though as a side effect, her arm and body had ended up a little tattered.
In any case, she had gotten the feel for it.
"From now on, not when you're fighting but when you're training alone, raise your Assimilation Rate and train. That way, you'll be able to use it a bit more properly."
Hearing that final bit of advice, Chae-rin headed back toward the city.
And that day, the community stirred for a little while.
Her broadcast aside, the content of what Yor had said was fairly useful to the users.
Thanks to that, analytical posts related to it were gradually being uploaded to the community.
+
[That stuff the Yor guy said seems worth trying?]
There've gotta be a lot of people who've felt their growth slowing lately anyway.
Your level barely goes up, monsters keep getting harder to catch.
There are probably people starting to get close to A-Rank, but weirdly still losing to B-Rank NPCs.
Well, for talent monsters like Shin Han-byeol it probably doesn't matter, but shouldn't ordinary people like us at least give that a shot?
+
[90% Assimilation Rate? Bro, is there a risk of dying?]
[↳ fr lol do you really have to stake your life on a game?]
[No, you morons, that's why he said to only do it during training, not combat]
+
[But can you actually feel that mana stuff or whatever just by practicing?]
I really dunno
Title
+
[Didn't that Chae-rin, Yoo Chae-rin or whoever use it? Didn't you watch?]
[↳ I went in for a second but the sounds were so obscene I left immediately]
[↳ It's definitely clear she felt something though lol]
[But what she used was basically a bag of tricks anyway, wasn't it? That NPC next to her spoon-fed her the whole thing]
[↳ Still, she got a feel for it, didn't she]
It was a truly constructive sight, one not seen in a very long time.
Even more so, considering the place was usually only full of bizarre posts.
There was good reason for it. As the users leveled up, more and more of them were gradually hitting a wall. For those users, that kind of solution could only be welcome.
Setting aside whether such a method was effective or not, it was at least worth a try.
And so, discussion of the method continued for a while.
...For exactly one week, that is.
It wasn't that its utility had been proven in a week, or that it had been found to be worthless. This sort of research normally goes on for a long time.
It was just that another new tidbit had crushed that tidbit flat, just like last time.
Yes. Once again, it was news related to a demon.
It wasn't a Demon Advent. At least, it was less serious than that.
+
[I got an out-of-area mission, but what the hell is this?]
It looks like a place for some kind of ritual
+
Out of nowhere, a demon's altar had risen in a remote village.
It was the Altar of Kimaris, the 66th-ranked demon.