Meanwhile, back at the Misty Town.
A girl had just entered the town and she looked like 12 years old at most and she was currently panting heavily while her body was bent down with her palms on her knees and beads of sweat dripped down her cute and adorably childish face.
She took one final deep breath and stabilized herself then muttered to herself with a low and dreadful voice.
"Sigh. He did not follow me back did he? That youth was just seriously bad news and here I thought that he's a quiet and handsome boy, yet who would've thought that he had that kind of personality hidden deep inside him?"
She shook her head and continued.
"You can't really judge a book by its cover, yikes, even I was nearly duped by him into accepting him as my disciple."
Then she suddenly remembered that the youth was also living in Misty Town and they had a high possibility of meeting inside the town, like how large could a town possibly get?
It was just a matter of time until they would meet somewhere in Misty Town unless she would leave the town and find another place he could live on.
But she couldn't do this as she still had something to finish in Misty Town thus this idea was immediately thrown aside.
Then as if she had suddenly gained enlightenment, she thought of changing her appearance, with her skills as the Great Illusionist, changing her appearance to her liking is as easy as breathing air for her.
This thought made her big purple eyes slowly brighten and thought that she had found the solution to her problem, thus she immediately runs off to a place that she could have her leisure privacy, the public bathrooms.
***
A long and beautiful crystal clear river that was flowing in a mild and gentle manner was now in front of Mirage.
The river water was pure and untainted by any impurities and there are various kinds of aquatic plants that surrounded the banks of the river that made the river look mystical and enchanting.
He could see that the moon was perfectly reflected on the still surface of the water and it would also ripple occasionally due to the slighest movement of the flowing cold water.
The river was wide and quite deep as it had at least 25-30 meters in width and had 5 meters in depth.
He looked down the river and he could see the varying types of aquatic creatures happily and peacefully swimming in the river without a care for their surroundings.
On the other side of the river was a tall and rocky cliff wall that looked extremely hard to trek no matter how much he looked at it.
He went on to examine the surroundings of the river caredully and checked for any possible traps or hidden danger but he dis not even manage to see anything even after a whole 5 minutes of scanning had passed.
Thus he relaxed his guard for a bit and took off the bloody clothes that he was wearing and dropped them down the ground.
He went to the riverbanks and first dipped his left foot to feel and test the temperature of the water, it was quite cold thus he could only slowly enter until his body finally gets used to the cold.
...
5 minutes later and his whole body aside from his his head was completely submerged in the river, he was thinking to himself of how could the game was made to the point that it's impossibly realistic.
He could vividly feel the pain and even feel the cold temperature of the water, he could even feel the blood smeared on his skin slowly dissolving because of the water around him.
Then he suddenly thought of the monthly pain that he suffered for 18 years.
'I wonder to what extent is the limit of this game? Surely it couldn't possibly simulate the real reality right?'
Then he remembered that the date today was exactly the 15th day of the month which his recurring injury would usually happen.
For some reason, his expression suddenly changed and although he wasn't too sure that his injury would affect him in the game he still hurriedly flapped his feet and was about to swim towards the nearest riverbank when he suddenly felt an intense and agonizing pain assaulting deep inside his body.
He grunted painfully and winced.
"Urgh!"
[ Your passive skill "???" has been triggered. ]
[ You have been inflicted with "Stat Reduction" status effect! ]
[ Stat Reduction: Your stats will be reduced to 20% for 24 hours. ]
[ You have been inflicted with "Crippled Health Recovery" status effect. ]
[ Crippled Health Recovery: HP Recovery will be reduced by 100% for 24 hours. ]
[ You have been inflicted with "Crippled Energy Recovery" status effect. ]
[ Crippled Energy Recovery: Energy Recovery will be reduced by 100% for 24 hours. ]
[ You have been inflicted with "Severe Paralysis" status effect. ]
[ Severe Paralysis: Your movement will be restricted for 24 hours. ]
[ You have been inflicted with "Deep Sleep" status effect. ]
[ Deep Sleep: You will be put into a state of deep sleep. Unable to wake up for 24 hours. ]
...
...
...
If Mirage could see his game screen right now then he would've been shocked silly by the series of notifications he received after his genetic injury had recurred.
But it's a pity that he couldn't even afford to spare a single glance at his game screen because of the pain he was currently suffering.
The various negative statuses affected his body and prevented him from moving to keep his body remain afloat thus his body was slowly sinking into the 5 meters deep cold waters.
He couldn't breathe in the water and he was suffocating as he wanted to go back to the surface but then he felt that he was slowly losing consciousness.
Thus he bit his tongue to prevent himself from sleeping temporarily and he frowned for a moment before he forced himself to lie down the water in a horizontal way.
He had immediately lost his consciousness not long after his body came back to the surface and his unconscious body was slowly drifting down the unknown location to where the river was flowing to.
***
Somewhere deep inside the Misty Forest.
A tall and handsome clad in black was currently being chased by a black-haired tiger and he was running away from the creature with great speed while occasionally throwing sharp paralyzing daggers towards the chasing creature behind him.
The black tiger easily evaded his daggers though and no matter what tricks he did, he wasn't able to throw the tiger off track as they were both equal in terms of running speed.
At this rate, the first one who loses their stamina would be the one who had lost the game and he/it would either get thrown off/get killed by the other.
The man clad in black clothing wasn't the black tiger's match thus he couldn't fight it head-on as he would only be courting death if he fought it in a confronting way.
He was only able to last this long of a chase because of his fast speed and wisely using his surroundings to his advantage, but he knew that this stalemate wouldn't be able to last any longer as he felt that his stamina was already approaching its limits.
He slightly frowned and his handsome face had a bit of anxiety and he was still maintaining his full speed all this time while he was silently thinking to himself.
'This is bad. I need to do something that would help me break out of this situation... but what exactly is it?'
Then, as if the gods were mocking and playing with his fate, he saw a seemingly unending cliff with unknown height just a few meters ahead of him.
His cold face immediately changed and became a face full of despair while he was indignantly thinking to himself.
'I'm doomed!'
He did not completely give up though as he still felt quite hopeful and optimistic that maybe he would be able to get out of this situation alive by using his brains to think of something that would help him.
Maybe he would be able to trick the tiger to jump down the cliff by abruptly stopping? No that's too unlikely as the black tiger was too cunning and wouldn't fall for this simple type of trick.
Maybe he could just jump down the cliff himself and find a protruding place that he could climb on?
Finding a particular spot on the cliff wall is like gambling for his life as he didn't even know what the cliff wall look like much less know of what was below it.
But he did not have much of a choice as he could only grit his teeth and reluctantly jump down the cliff ahead of him.
He was running as fast as he can while the black tiger was still hot on his heels and they didn't take too long for them to arrive before the terrifyingly high cliffside.
He stopped in his tracks and turned to look at the creature behind him who also happened to stop and it was looking at him with mockery and playfulness as if knew that he wouldn't be able to run off any longer.
He slowly took a step back while vigilantly staring at the cunning creature in front of him as he was guarding himself against any sudden movements from the black tiger.
The moment the tiger moved just a little bit of its paws, he would immediately jump down the cliff without hesitation.
He had already backed down until he was now at the edge of the cliff while he could now also see what awaited him down the cliff, and subconsciously gulped hard the moment he saw the raging waves of river water below.
His face was filled with cold sweat and he was extremely unwilling to jump thus he could only think of various countermeasures in his head to avoid himself from diving down the waters.
But then he wasn't given much time by the black tiger as it had suddenly moved from its spot and lunged towards him with its terrifyingly wide open mouth with rows of sharp and vicious teeth inside.
It looked like it was planning to tear his body into pieces using its mouth and he suddenly felt a bit of a panic and lost his balance as a result.
He realized his carelessness too late as he had already plunged down the raging water after he had recovered from his stupor and the last thing he had seen was the black tiger's incomparably graceful and skillful aerial maneuver as it managed to land on the cliffside safely while its purplish-red eyes showed disappointment after it saw him getting drowned by the raging waters.
The black-clad man clad finally closed his eyes and lost his consciousness after he saw it leaving.
No one knows if the man or Mirage would be able to survive this dangerous water traveling as the both of them were now slowly drifting down to somewhere unknown with their eyes tightly closed.