When his consciousness returned, Aldrin once again found himself staring in front of his monitor. He retained the memory of what happened so he hurriedly looked at the IDLE Database's interface to check if he only dreamt of it or it truly happened.
[Idle Adventure Mode Run Time: 3 hours 10 minutes, 24 seconds]
[Total Creatures killed: 62]
[Total IDLE Points gained: 310]
[Total IDLE Points used: 60]
[Total IDLE Points to be converted: 250]
[Lower Dimension Conquest progress: 6%]
[Remaining Chances: 4 (will reset at 0:00 local time)]
[Evaluation: D- Rating]
"It's real… My consciousness was sent inside the game."
Although that's what he wanted to see, he still became dumbstruck upon seeing the result of that run.
And before he could recover, his computer's monitor shined brightly as the transference of the converted Dimensional Energy began to bask his whole body once more.
From inside Aldrin's body, he began to sense the flooding Dimensional Energy flowing through his body as they began to gather in one place. Below his navel.
However, when the flood stopped, the Dimensional Energy gathering at that place dispersed and scattered across his whole body, significantly enhancing his inner organs, bones and flesh.
"That was the first time I clearly felt the flow of Dimensional Energy… Am I close to Awakening?" Aldrin wondered as soon as the somewhat pleasurable feeling encompassing his whole body subsided.
His eyes then moved down to check his body, his previously soft muscles due to minimal exertion hardened slightly.
He felt that if he punched his wall now, he could punch through it given that it's not that thick at all.
Before starting the second run for the day, Aldrin stood up from his seat.
However, he noticed that the foamy seat and backrest were awash with his own sweat. As it turns out, he sweated a lot during that 3-hour run where he controlled his Dimensional Clone inside the game.
No. Given that his chair looked like it had just gotten wet, it happened when he was being basked by the Dimensional Energy light from his monitor.
He then looked at the clothes he was wearing and sure enough, he had just noticed that he's dripping wet with sweat.
Due to that, he hurriedly went to his bathroom and took a quick shower.
After eating one of the two boxed meals left that had already turned cold, he drank a glass of soda before going back in front of his computer.
As he contemplated whether he would do Manual Control again or just let his Dimensional Clone hunt by itself, his phone vibrated, indicating that it received a message.
Following that, from outside his window, he noticed lights coming from the northwestern direction.
Upon understanding the situation, he went to his window and opened it to get a better view of the returning Metadome Battalion.
At the same time as that, he read the message that was actually sent by the Lonewind City Hall regarding the Dimensional Rift that appeared outside the city.
[The Level 1 Alert over the whole Lonewind City has been lifted. The Metadome Battalion led by Commander Yun of the City Hall Guards has successfully closed the Dimensional Rift and dealt with the monsters that escaped. The Barrier has been deactivated. Intercity Transportation has resumed.]
"How does it feel like to fight against those creatures? Everything I know about them is all from footage and educational videos shown to us when I was still in school."
Aldrin stared at the leading Metadome that was probably piloted by Commander Yun.
It's a name too famous within this city. A strong Refiner who single-handedly closed one Dimensional Rift that appeared when he was about to leave for an Intercity Competition among all Secondary Cities like the Lonewind City.
After that event, although he failed to place high in that competition that was publicly broadcasted to every Secondary City, he was honored because of that feat. The clip which one of the train passengers caught was also broadcasted.
Upon watching that, every citizen of Lonewind City began revering him as a Hero.
Even Aldrin looked up to him. If he was not there at that place and time, the city would've received damage due to how close to the city the Dimensional Rift appeared.
It took 10 minutes before the City Hall Guards and Refiner's Association could respond. And by the time their troops arrived, Commander Yun already closed the Dimensional Rift.
Once the Metadome Battalion passed by his apartment building, Aldrin closed his windows and returned in front of his PC to begin his second run.
"I am close to Awakening. I am sure of it. Once I awakened as a Refiner, my whole life will definitely change. I can go back to our house and… apologize to my family for being a hopeless nutcase before. I will not slack off again…"
Halfway through his monologue, Aldrin's voice trailed as an embarrassed expression appeared on his face, "Wait, I think I need a breather before experiencing that again… I'm sorry Mom, Dad, your son is going to slack off again!"
After saying that he resolutely clicked 'No' when the prompt whether to manually control his Dimensional Clone appeared.
"Go forth my Dimensional Clone and show those Ants how strong you are now!"
He knew he sounded cringe but he couldn't help it. It's his way to cope with his embarrassment.
Right. To embarrass himself further.
Fortunately, it's the dead of the night, no one heard him.
Or so he thought.
"What the fuck is the guy at the next unit doing at this hour? Roleplay?" One of Aldrin's neighbors who was roused to sleep wondered upon hearing his voice that passed through the walls.
-
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[Level 1 Worker Ant (Difficulty: Easy)]
Two hours later, after his Dimensional Clone killed more than 70 Worker Ants, he noticed a change in the Worker Ant's information.
"Easy? It dropped from Normal to Easy?!" Aldrin repeated twice.
Following that, he watched as his Dimensional Clone, who surprisingly was also holding a sharpened wooden stick, attacked that Worker Ant and killed it in a minute.
[Dimensional Clone killed the Worker Ant by stabbing its head multiple times]
[You received 3 IDLE Points]
"The gained points dropped…"
With his eyes stuck to the monitor, Aldrin began wondering how that changed.
Another minute later, his clone found another Worker Ant and as he expected, it showed the same information. Its difficulty dropped to Easy!
"Is it because of the number I killed? No, there should be a notification about that somewhere… Or is it because my Dimensional Clone already grew strong enough that the Worker Ants are now considered easy prey?"
Aldrin had too many questions running in his mind. However, thinking about it, he actually noticed how his Dimensional Clone copied what he did earlier. It picked up a stick. It sharpened it enough to be able to stab the somewhat thick carapace of the ant. It also stopped relying on just ambushing and became able to set up a trap. More importantly, it was now disposing the Worker Ants' bodies to not leave a trace that the Ant Colony could trace back to him.
"It's growing or it's mimicking my real self…" Aldrin concluded. "If that's the case and the difficulty will be lowered based on my Dimensional Clone's capabilities, the caterpillar from before should also experience a drop in its difficulty."
Sure enough, when the Dimensional Clone encountered a Level 3 Caterpillar a minute later, its difficulty dropped to Normal!
And because of the Target Settings, the Dimensional Clone recognized it as one of its targets.
Before Aldrin's eyes, the Dimensional Clone began stalking the Caterpillar.