Dalvin shivered as he slowly came to, his mind buzzing and his entire body feeling lethargic. He could barely raise his head and open his eyes, seemingly even more fatigued than when he went to sleep.
He pushed himself up slowly from his sitting position and felt his bones creak and crack as they shifted into place. His body felt very good, but his mind and brain were as if they were submerged in endless muck.
Because of his poor consciousness and awareness, he could barely move his body properly, and his thoughts moved extremely slowly. It took Dalvin a whole minute to achieve a state where he could keep his eyes open and actually begin to remember who he was and where he was.
"W-What the hell…?" he muttered out loud for the first time since coming here.
He placed his right hand on his forehead and used the left to rub his temples, trying to alleviate the situation he was in. Doing this repeatedly for a few minutes seemed to help somewhat, and he was mostly awake now, but Dalvin did not understand why he was like this.
Rather than say he was tired, it was more like he was heavily drugged. He cast his mind back to the booklet and nothing within said that the Xueqi pill had such an aftereffect, not even slightly. This was a publicly used pill for all martial artists around the world; there was no way such a side effect would not be mentioned.
Dalvin himself was not that fatigued, to be honest. He had literally just woken up today and, out of laziness, opened the app, and then was transported here. All the strenuous actions were taken by his simulated self in terms of exploring; he himself stood in one place most of the time.
And this wasn't even physical fatigue, but a mental one. Dalvin wondered if he was stressed because of the situation he was in. After all, he did have a small mental breakdown previously, but he also felt like that alone could not be the full reason.
'Did I dream of anything?' Dalvin thought to himself.
He tried to recall, but a splitting pain immediately assailed his head as an image flashed through his mind of a pair of bloodshot eyes. Just having that image in his mind made it feel like someone smacked the top of his skull with a sledgehammer, causing Dalvin to howl and fall to his knees.
It lasted only a brief while, but it left Dalvin panting in shock. He did not know what those eyes meant or why they caused such a reaction, but he decided not to think of them again lest he explode his brain.
He clambered to his feet and panted. He looked around the cell and saw that nothing much had changed; even the hallway maintained its brightly lit disposition. Because of this, Dalvin could not tell how much time had passed, another factor which probably tormented prisoners down here.
However, he did have a clever way to check.
"Start a simulation."
[9.47 pm. You woke up and got your bearing together after sleeping for so long. Not knowing how much time had passed, you decided to make the most of your remaining time practicing martial arts in hope of a breakthrough.]
[9.48 pm. You pop another Xueqi pill and begin practicing the remaining three moves, feeling your body go through them slightly easier than before, even with the help of the pill in the fore.]
[10.03 pm. You finish the work out and enter the buzzed state. You sit down and wait for the state to end so that you can continue practicing, doing your usual routine of daydreaming to pass the time.]
[10.07 pm. You come down from the state and notice that your body is not as worn as before when you enter the fatigued state, but you still decided to rest until you can feel your energy come back.]
[10.20 pm. Boredom strikes, and you can no longer extend your daydreaming session, especially in such a dull and uncomfortable atmosphere. As such, you get up and decide to continue working hard.]
[10.35 pm. You finish another session and enter your buzzed state.]
[10.40 pm. The buzzed state comes to an end. You have already long completed the foundational exercises, but you have to continually familiarize yourself with them in order to breakthrough.]
[10.47 pm. You rested to recover from the fatigued state and still planned to rest for another 3 minutes before continuing.]
[An hour has passed, the simulation comes to an end.]
Dalvin's brows furrowed. He was not happy about the continual progress, nor was he happy no danger appeared during this period of time. In fact, he was not even bothered by the fact that he had slept for a whole 6 hours in such a scenario.
No, Dalvin had finally noticed a profound problem that should have occurred to him earlier, but only briefly flashed through his mind before. However, this particular simulation highlighted the problem and made Dalvin suspicious.
The simulated version of him could not use the system!
This was evidenced by the fact that after his training, he did not stop to open the menu and check the values within. The simulated version of him also did not gain any stats after working out, which was something Dalvin gained with each session.
Not to mention, the simulated version of himself did not cheese things out by simulating within a simulation! That was definitely something a smartass like himself would try, Dalvin knew, despite not knowing exactly how that would even work.
His simulated self could use blink, but then again, Dalvin could also use it without relying on the system. It was practically instinctual, with only simulation completely relying on the system as he could not activate it himself… yet.
This made him pensive. It meant that he could not verify the effect of using various system abilities during simulated futures, especially for things like battles or cultivation which were very important.
Dalvin could only take it as it was and strive to make the most of what he was given. As such, he shook his head and took out a Xueqi pill and popped it, going through the final three foundational exercise moves.
His simulated self took 15 minutes to achieve this, but Dalvin was done in what felt like only ten minutes. He opened the system menu and saw that, as expected, all his stats had increased by 0.1 again and his blood qi was 90/100, just inches away from a breakthrough.
What made him curious was the message he got from the system stating that he could only breakthrough using its mechanics. Normally, a person entered the Skin Tempering Realm when they could perform all 9 foundational moves in one set fluidly, causing their blood energy to erupt and begin coursing through their bodies, right under the surface of their skin.
What would it be like if he tried that? Anyway, he wouldn't try it because even the most talented bloke in the world took upwards of a week to a month to initiate themselves, time which Dalvin did not have much of.
If the system's method was faster, Dalvin would take it with no complaints, even if there were side effects. He was honestly just grateful to have a chance to acquire strength to defend himself; he did not have any delusions of grandeur by desiring the best foundation or seeking the best breakthrough.
When he secured his safety enough to not be in danger all the time, he would certainly consider such luxuries then.