As George brought out an impressive display of various dishes on a wooden table, Jun could not help but scorn his ingenuity. When they first met, George gave him the equivalent of dog gruel but now, was serving him like a king. He wondered what exactly caused a drastic change in personality: most people might brush it off as earning his recognition and trust, but Jun knew that human relationships were less than ideal. What exactly was the cause for the switch in behavior? It honestly seemed that George just became a stereotypical NPC in a game.
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As Jun began eating, George got up and left the room, leaving Jun to his own devices. He casually looked around the room to see if there were any hidden viewing ports, but Jun knew that his every move and sound was likely being scrutinized and watched. Any miss-steps or abnormal behavior would probably expedite his death or hostility. As he slowly ate the food, he opened the dusty, worn out manual before him and before he could even read a single word, the System immediately activated.
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"A skill book has been detected. Would you like to learn the skill?"
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Jun mentally approved, and the System immediately displayed his skill menu and he hovered over the new skill, "Only Breath Technique."
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"Skill Menu
- Survival (Passive, Beginner)
- Axe Mastery (Passive, Beginner)
- Only Breath Technique (Toggle, None)
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Only Breath Technique (Toggle, None)
- Requires: Concentration
- Continuously gather worldly energies from your surroundings to advance your cultivation. Recover 1 Energy Point per hour. Permanently increase Maximum Energy Points by 0.05 per hour.
- Cooldown: None
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After seeing the new skill, Jun immediately sat back down and began weighing the pros and cons of the skill. It was obvious that the skill improved himself greatly, but he was unaware of what exactly the world's standard of progress were. He needed to prolong his peaceful existence for as long as possible, giving him as much as time as he could possibly get to gather his strength for his eventual escape. Increasing his Constitution would increase the abilities of the Fifth Ring, Superbia, as it was based on his Constitution stat alone: however, he had still not completely figured out whether or not he should be using the ring in the first place. And so, solely focusing on his Constitution and making a pure-Constitution build would be foolish as it ultimately depended on the ring. As Jun was thinking, the System quietly updated his Character Menu and interrupted his thoughts with a beep indicating completion.
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"Name: Jonathan (Jun Kim)
Class: None
Level: 1 (0 / 100 XP)
Race: Human
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Red Bar (Health Points, HP) (? / ?)
Green Bar (Energy Points, EP) (? / ?)
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Strength (STR): 4
Dexterity (DEX): 8
Constitution (CON): 4
Intelligence (INT): 4
Wisdom (WIS): 8
Charisma (CHA): 10"
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As Jun stared at the two bars, he noticed that the green bar was just a small, almost invisible sliver while the red bar was larger, albeit still extremely short. Sighing at how squishy he was, he decided that cultivating the Only Breath Technique in conjunction with consuming the pills was his only choice. That being said, he turned his attention back to his mental space and opened up his Inventory Menu. Within one of the gray boxes of the Inventory Menu, there was a dark-colored band of metal. The ring itself, upon closer inspection, would show a dark, subdued purple that seemed to either repel or absorb all the light around it. The metallic surface was ambiguous and seemed to constantly morph and change, akin to staring at a starless night sky.
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He closed his eyes and moved into a stereotypical meditative stance of sitting upright with his legs crossed and his hands resting on his knees. Entering his mental space and taking the ring from the Inventory Menu, he closely examined it, scrutinizing it for any details he missed. Not discovering anything, he looked up into the air--the position where he imagined the System would most likely be--and asked.
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"This ring, what's wrong with it?"
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All he was met with was silence. Looking back at the ring and back up into the air, he continued his inquiry.
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"This ring channels essence from a separate plane of existence. What exactly is this plane?
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"..."
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"Alright. If you can't answer that, probably due to some insufficient experience or knowledge. Can I sever the connection?"
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As Jun waited for a response from the System, it suddenly replied.
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"Cost. 100,000,000 XP. Alternatively, you can exchange the Golden Impermanence Pill."
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Taken aback by the System's response, he was shocked at the enormous cost: merely leveling to level 2 was 100 XP, and severing a connection costed a million times that. But at the same time, this pill George had given Jun was of equivalent cost, highlighting the vast worth and value of the pill itself. This cast some more doubts about George's intentions, but he buried them temporarily and returned back the subject at hand.
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If Jun were to sever the connection with this alternate plane of existence, it meant that its overpowered abilities would most likely disappear and the ring would become virtually worthless compared to its current state. Would the unique nature of the ring--as indicated by its overpowered stats and abilities--stay the same? He would guess that the ring would lose all its current powers, but he could most likely just feed it experience--as indicated by the System's willingness to convert XP into actionable things like modifying equipment--to return it to its prior state. By eliminating its connection to the plane, the ring would become underpowered but also be freed from its limitations and restrictions.
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This was all speculation and it very may well be the case that the ring would be rendered completely worthless. But it was better than nothing, and Jun would rather gamble on this ring than take the Golden Impermanence Pill as a) he knew more about the ring and the System provided him clear details--maybe due to his complete ownership and granted knowledge of the ring--; b) the ring came from the System while the pill came from George--a clearly dubious figure; and finally, c) the System highlighted the importance of the world and its narrative.
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If Jun was to take this magical pill and become the cultivation genius--the cliche track George clearly was leading him toward--he would become apart of the world's narrative in exchange for immense power and strength. If he was gaining so much by becoming apart of the world's narrative, then it meant that being confined to this narrative was equally a huge loss on Jun's part. He imagined that he would lose his freedom, perhaps being tied down with too much cosmic karma to defy the world's fate for him: whether that be as the cultivation genius heralded as the greatest hero or its greatest villain. He remembered the stories about Systems who enslaved transmigrated people into its plots as just another NPC or mechanic for its main characters, and he feared the possibility of joining the narrative would lead him to a similar end.
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Of course, on the other hand, perhaps Jun was too paranoid and doubtful of the System itself: maybe its earlier actions were just childish pranks gone too far by the power-crazy System who viewed him as a fun toy or pawn and it was just Jun's fate to stick with the System and follow its rules. Perhaps the System was trying to make him into the MC of this world, and he just had to follow through with the System's and the world's guidance. Why was Jun resisting so much from all the positive possibilities?
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Ultimately his paranoia and cynical nihilism cast these positive possibilities away as he remembered the stories about defying the System in pursuit of personal survival, strength, or just freedom and independence. Maybe his role was to escape the sick game of the System. Or maybe the world. Or maybe both.
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Either way, he steeled his nerves as he knew that giving up the pill was the best course of action in his current predicament. He immediately agreed mentally and the System popped open a quick Yes or No panel to confirm his choice. Pressing Yes, the ring glowed slightly and began levitating in front of him. As moments passed by, the room was filled with an overbearing amount of pressure, causing Jun's mental projection to immediately collapse onto the floor and slowly disintegrate. His mental form was being pounded into non-existence, as the tendrils and threads of mental solidity that was Jun's consciousness and mental body were dissolved into nothingness.
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This entire process was extremely agonizing to Jun, feeling as if his entire body was being torn apart and dissolved before his eyes. It felt as if every single fiber and cell of his being was being burned alive, or dissolved in the strongest of acids. Although only a few seconds had passed, the pain and agony for Jun was slowed down by thousands, even millions of time, and he was forced to endure this pain for what felt like years, maybe even decades. Honestly, he lost all perception of time as he every waking thought was just pain and he had no mental strength to think of anything else. His entire mind was forced to focus on every aspect of pain, exponentially amplifying the duration and sensation of pain.
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After those few seconds, the ring immediately just poofed out of the space and entered the Inventory Menu back into its rightful spot. As this happened, Jun's mental form immediately relaxed and he immediately fell unconscious. Outside of his mental space and in the physical world, Jun suddenly collapsed from his meditative stance head first onto the manual on the wooden table. A loud resounding bang echoed through the room as his forehead crashed into the table with the full weight of his upper body, causing it to swell and bruise heavily. George immediately entered the room and scrunched his face up in confusion before noticing the opened manual.
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Shaking his head in amusement and contempt, George muttered.
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"Damn fool tried to learn the Only Breath Technique alone. He couldn't even get past the first page before he completely exhausted his mental power and collapsed completely."
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George picked up Jun with one hand as if he was just a rag dog and plopped his limp body on top of a nearby bed. Shaking his head again with derision, George left the room chuckling.