If Jin thought that the seeming mental tranquillity of inner disciple Shen would help make the training of the lance anything but hellish, then the next few months firmly disabused him of that notion.
Every morning he would wake up and the first thing that he would do would be to meditate to prepare himself for the gruelling start of the day ahead. Then he would take the wooden carving of the lance reinforced with some sort of spell resin to hold its shape no matter the abuse it took, to climb the mountain for a bit towards the clearing in which Elder Zhang had led Jin all that time ago.
There he would find inner disciple Shen already waiting for him in a cross-legged position with his quarterstaff balanced perfectly on his two knees.
The inner disciple of the Mad Monks Sect would stand up, they would bow to each other and they would fight.
They hadn't exchanged any words ever since that first initial bout. Speaking was done through their weapons.
Jin would attack, swinging his lance to cut Shen with the blade at the tip. Inner disciple Shen would either parry or block, his quarterstaff would spin on the palm of his hand as if controlled by telekinesis to lightly, but painfully, tap whichever part of Jin's body was overextended.
Jin would take a step forward, pull the lance back, and stab at the seemingly unbalanced staff wielder, only to miss and receive another painful tap on the wrist for his wrong form.
This combination of attacking, getting flawlessly countered and having his posture fixed by painful raps of the staff, continued for hours. Considering that they were moving at speeds beyond that of a normal human, Jin was receiving approximately one tap every second. Each time it happened, his posture improved slightly, and his eyes became more focused. The mental cultivation that he had undergone allowed him to process these corrections at a much faster pace than anyone else could have in his position. Unless of course they would have been guided by pure talent alone, rather than just intelligence.
The increased physicality granted by cultivation however didn't only grant speed, but also stamina. This meant that the spar could uninterruptedly last for an hour, two hours, or three hours and even then they wouldn't stop because they were completely exhausted, but simply because the prolonged practice made Jin sloppy which led to no real results being achievable after the third hour.
That was when they would bow to each other and part ways for the day.
Only to meet again on the next day, and go through the whole thing again.
Three hours a day, for a period of already three months.
It was undoubtedly the most brutal training that Jin had ever undergone.
At a rate of one correction tap per second, Jin accumulated around 10,000 taps a day. 10,000 Taps a day for three months with no break meant that he was rapidly approaching a million. Only 30,000 more to go. Three more days. The taps never reduced in frequency despite his rapid improvement at the beginning of the training, rather the mistakes that they corrected simply became smaller and smaller.
Jin had never thought that there would be such a depth in the wielding of any weapon, but such was apparently the case.
Whereas in the beginning Shen had corrected his footing, and then the positioning of his legs in general, and then the positioning of his upper body, and then the positioning of his arms, now the taps were directed at the way he held his wrists in very specific moments and the way his toes and head faced.
The wielding of a weapon in a land of cultivation where people lived for thousands of years, was as endless as the depths of the unexplored sea.
The impression that Jin got was that he would never ever reach the bottom, especially because his martial prowess would never be his main focus.
All he could do was endure, and crawl back home consisting of more bruises than man every day to spread the healing ointment he'd received from Elder Flower over his body, lay down and immerse himself in either cultivation or the development of his scenario.
He knew that this unusual punishment was technically called training and that he should be happy. However, cultivation fell to the side as he accelerated the completion of the scenario. It was only when he was done that he could leave. He had no illusions that he could learn the lance faster than he could finish his main task. Outlast would take a year at most, and the lance would take a lifetime.
Considering his days consisted solely of this, without any socialisation with anyone except occasionally Flower, one would have expected that he would have gone insane by now. But for some reason his heightened mental faculties allowed him to repress his human need for contact. He was beginning to understand how cultivators could potentially cultivate in seclusion for decades on end. This was likely where their inhumanity started, and they diverged very much from their mortal counterparts. He vowed to himself to never do something like that.
Despite his neglect, his cultivation still chugged along at a decent pace, his body purifying itself a bit to become a perfect conduit for qi.
However, his main focus was undoubtedly the scenario.
He developed the main characters that needed particular attention, like Eddie Gluskin, the perfect host that the Walrider used as a conduit to enter the world. Abused as a boy, Eddie became a serial killer by his adolescence, eventually being taken prisoner by the Murkoff sect who explored his psychology and history which could be found in a variety of notes hidden around the compound. Called 'the groom,' Eddie was obsessed with the idea of getting married, but due to the Asylum being an all-male facility could only turn to his other inmates to facilitate his wish. He would mutilate them in an attempt to alter their appearance towards what he considers to be a perfect woman.
He would get his hands on the experiencer at some point and express his desire to do the same to them. Captured by Eddie, the experiencer would have to consider the possibility of actually undergoing such a crude surgery, before circumstances beyond their control would save them from their fate.
That was likely enough already to destroy the wish of any mortal to go through the scenario. Especially because Jin could make the pain appear very very real, making them develop a fear of how an actual mutilation would feel.
And this was just one of many horrors to be found within the Murkoff compound.
The twins, brutish-looking cannibals chased the experiencer down long corridors and eventually only let him live due to the orders of Father Martin.
Father Martin was a man who had started referring to himself as a priest of the Walrider, thinking it as his calling to spread the gospel of the outsider. He was amongst other horrible things the only ally the experiencer would have in the asylum. However, Father Martin was the one who had in the original series shut down the electricity of the Asylum making escape for the player increasingly more difficult due to this action. In Jin's scenario, the man would similarly be the one who would shut down the sealing formation of the compound, just as the experiencer thought that they had perhaps ended their nightmare, throwing them into an even deeper pit of despair.
There were other encounters with variants throughout the storyline, such as the one with Richard Trager, a former member of Murkoff who had betrayed them and suffered the consequences. Driven into insanity by the experience of trying to host the Walrider, the man would strap the experiencer to a wheelchair, and show them the exit to the compound. Tell the experiencer to leave, but considering that the player was at that point strapped to a wheelchair they obviously couldn't. This was used as an argument that the player didn't want to leave, at which point Trager would take them to his so-called laboratory where he dissected other inmates in an attempt to further his knowledge of biology. He would cut off two of the experiencer's fingers before they finally escaped.
The more time Jin put into developing the story of Outlast and its characters, animating the movements of the variants and inputting the sensory deprivations and pains of the scenario, the more sorry he started feeling for the mortals doomed to experience the horror that he was creating.
As the person who had to go through their memories of the game to adapt it to cultivator aesthetics and historical context, he knew more than anyone how painful and frightening the experience could truly be once one was forced to go through asylum without the ability to engage in combat, and forced to follow the convoluted path of escape.
However, he assuaged his conscience with the fact that if the mortals could not handle the scenario, then at least they would not become disciples who couldn't handle the mental requirements of being a Mad Monk.
A day of horror was undoubtedly better than a lifetime of actual madness. The scars that people would bear from going through the scenario would be less painful than what they would lose if they didn't.
Thus he continued working, tirelessly, hour after hour, every day. Month after month the scenario started looking more and more complete. Soon he would be able to show it to Flower who would undoubtedly have a few comments on the content which would force a bout of revision.
But afterwards, he would be mercifully done. The Mad Monks Sect was very slowly starting to become his very own personal hell. Painful training every day, followed by immersing himself into the horrible world of Outlast which he had so foolishly chosen only to then go to sleep and repeat it all over again.
Working on Ornstein? Even with his increasing martial capacities he simply didn't have the time or energy. He wanted to finish Outlast as quickly as possible so that he could put the entire thing out of his mind for the rest of his life.
Dragonslayer would come after, doubtlessly improved by his increased capabilities with the lance. But right now he simply couldn't afford the distraction.
Time passed. Three months turned into four, four into five and five into six.
It was on the 6th month that Jin finally concluded the scenario with the escape of the experiencer from the compound which had been torturing them, and him for the last 6 months. In the end, the experiencer would receive a number code which they could tell the invigilator of the exam to prove that they had managed to complete the entire scenario.
Jin sighed, knowing that this wouldn't be the end. Elder Flower would doubtlessly have something to say. Nevertheless, he put a little digital bow on the whole process and sequestered it away into his mental library where he kept these sorts of things.
Tomorrow he would have to go to Elder Flower, and get her opinion on the matter and hear her ideas on how he could revise the scenario to be even more frightening, more effective, and more streamlined.
For now, however, he laid down on the futon that he'd been provided by the Mad Monks Sect and closed his eyes, starting to circulate qi throughout his body instead of just his brain as his cultivation method required.
This was a trick he had figured out to recover his muscles after the brutal workouts that they had to undergo everyday and to relieve the soreness and the bruises covering him like sores covered the asylum inmates of his scenario.
-/-
Elder Flower sat in front of Jin with her hand touching the brightly shining Illusion Room. Not just any Illusion Room, but the Illusion Room containing the Outlast scenario that had been completely overtaking the last half year of Jin's life.
However, rather than being nervous about the fact that Elder Flower was testing one of his works, of which success was fairly necessary if they wanted to improve their diplomatic relations with The Mad Monk Sect, Jin was too busy being enchanted by his senior's beauty.
He hadn't seen her for a few months now, she had gone on a mission in the middle there, meaning that he hadn't actually glimpsed a woman in two months. His stay on this mountain had as always consisted of gruesome training with inner disciple Shen, and then being immersed into the horrible world of Outlast.
He had essentially for weeks now been living the life of an orthodox monk on Mount Athos not glimpsing a woman for almost a quarter of a year.
In other words, unable to even enjoy the beauty of the sex that he was attracted to, he had become incredibly backed up.
It didn't help that Elder Flower was of course as an Elder in the nascent soul cultivation stage one of the most beautiful people he'd ever seen. Immaculate pale skin and red lips created a face of utmost perfection framed by the black straight hair of a professional model.
The only reason he could enjoy such a sight was because she had her eyes closed at the moment due to being immersed in his scenario.
He sighed, wondering if upon returning to the Illusion Room Sect he should find himself a girlfriend.
His body was still biological for now and had certain sexual urges. This meant that if these remained unaddressed for too long it was very likely that even his cultivation would become impacted.
That's at least what he told himself as a rationalisation for the relatively unnecessary waste of time that being in a relationship would cause. After all, at this stage of his life, he needed to concentrate on his cultivation to break into the next level. Otherwise, he would die an inner disciple due to old age.
Flowers' eyes suddenly fluttered causing Jin to look at the ceiling pretending that the wooden beams up there held some utterly fascinating heavenly mysteries in the groove of the wood.
"Interesting," Elder Flower commented as the first thing after coming out of the scenario.
Jin naturally had not assumed that the Elder would come out scared or anything, but still, a simple 'interesting,' wasn't really what he'd been hoping for. He flinched slightly.
"I can see that at least some thought went into the story, and I think that the basics of it are easy enough to accept. A demonic cultivation sect has once again been doing experiments that backfired on them because of the inherent flaws in their approach." She shrugged. "Simple enough," she said. "No need for improvement. As for the aspect of not including combat," she hummed. "I think that worked out quite well."
Jin breathed out a breath that he hadn't known he'd been holding in. That sounded good, didn't it?
"As for everything else," Elder Flower started again. "I guess the saving grace of it is that it will only be shown to mortals. That helps somewhat with the low resolution of, well, everything," she commented like a true follower of the peak gamer race scripture.
"Thank you for your kind words, Elder Flower," Jin said with a grateful nod.
The woman sitting opposite him at the tea table waved him off. "That wasn't praise. Praise would be saying that I felt deeply uncomfortable at some parts of the game. Which I did," she said with a resolute nod. "It was doubtlessly the most unpleasant scenario I've ever had to experience," she said.
Jin helplessly tilted his head. "In a good way, or a bad way?" he couldn't help but ask.
"In a good way," Elder Flower responded. "I guess the worst ones would truly be the ones that were so badly made that they made me want to explode my soul and die, but this one was intentionally horrible. Very ugly, very very ugly," she muttered.
Jin wondered if the reason she had such a light response to what was supposed to be an absolutely horrifying experience was because she knew more than anyone else, as an Illusion Room cultivator herself, that she was never in any danger, or if this was how everyone was going to respond.
Was the benchmark of horror just so much higher in a world where everything sucked anyway? He hadn't just wasted 6 months on a product that had given him more nightmares than anything before in his life only for people to say that it was deeply unpleasant and very very ugly.
"I have a lot of suggestions, of course, the movements of a lot of the characters were a bit stilted. You do have to work on the fluidity there. Similarly, while I do appreciate the variety of information and psychological profiles that can be found scattered throughout the compound, I do wonder if they may detract from the pace of the scenario, allowing people to relax a bit."
Jin hadn't thought of that last bit, he'd simply followed the directions of the original game at that point. He personally thought that it heightened immersion, and if anyone wanted a break they could just stand in a room to catch their breath. Not moving forwards wouldn't trigger the next horrors to come which meant they could catch a breather.
"The biggest issue I found in terms of content is with the Eddie character. He is naturally interested in women, which means that he mutilates the men to fit his aesthetic standards. However, some of the mortals trying to qualify to become outer disciples will doubtlessly be women, at which point the whole thing becomes a bit odd?" Elder Flower said while running a finger through her hair.
Jin on the other side of the table barely refrained from facepalming. How could he have forgotten that? Such a basic thing as well. It was always the little things that bit you in the ass. Illusion Room scenarios had no concept of a player character who was immutable in form. Every experiencer brought with them their own body since the whole point was to experience the whole thing with their own skills. In this case, female mortals would bring with them their female bodies. This was naturally problematic as then that part of the story wouldn't necessarily make sense. He had to fix that.
"Other than that I also included some feedback on the general atmosphere and look of the place. I see that you continued with your trend of creating a novel style of architecture, and I will praise it here because it will make people even more disconcerted. However, as someone who has experience of raiding actual demonic sect compounds I do understand how you were able to miss out on some things which are generally present there which can help create a more realistic atmosphere," Elder Flower commented.
She pulled the roll of parchment from the pouch at her hips, put it on the table and touched it with her finger. Black characters suddenly started streaming onto the page, filling it out completely.
"This is all the feedback I have. I don't imagine that you'll need more than just another month," she said consolingly. "In fact, your speed of work is remarkably fast," she praised.
Jin, meanwhile, was crying on the inside. He had started developing a phobia of training with the lance but knew that he couldn't just stop now because he'd never get the opportunity again. Staying here for another month? Working on Outlast? This just meant that his personal hell had been extended once again.
"All right, Elder Flower. I'll get to work immediately," he whimpered.
The woman gave him an odd look at his tone of voice. "I'm sure you'll do fine," she reassured him before standing up.
"Do try to get some sleep. You look incredibly tired," she said before promptly leaving the room.
Jin started crying. He knew he looked horrible. He hadn't slept in days finishing this thing as fast as possible. Even if he actually got to bed on any given day, nightmares wouldn't let him sleep.
Why the fuck had he done this to himself?