"Magical!"
The Monkey King stared, dumbstruck, "This treasure actually recorded everything I've experienced, it's really too magical."
However, something even more astonishing was yet to come.
On the screen.
[You ride a raft, drifting on the sea, and just when the time is right, a strong wind blows. You take advantage of the wind and head towards Nanshan Continent.]
"This treasure can actually predict the future!"
The Monkey King was shocked but quickly calmed down, clapping his hands and exclaiming cheerily, "This is perfect, let's see if I can seek the Immortals and ask about the Way. If I die halfway there, then I shall..."
Mid-sentence, the Monkey King looked towards the small island, which was still faintly visible, and gritted his teeth, "Then I shall change the direction. I promised my monkey subjects that I would learn the way of everlasting life; how can I give up halfway?"
More importantly, he was afraid the monkeys would laugh at him.
[After you land on the coast of Nanshan Continent, you wear tiger skin, scare away the crowds, then catch a lone fellow, strip his clothes, put them on imitating his appearance, and throw the tiger skin over the naked, feigning-death middle-aged body.]
The Monkey King touched the tiger skin beneath him, which he had stripped from a tiger that had killed a little monkey because it wouldn't heed his warnings. Enraged, he had killed the tiger.
And he had turned the tiger's skin into a seat cushion.
Because it was comfortable to sit on.
[After leaving the coast, you have mingled in the human world for over a decade, learning human rituals, human speech, and human script, never forgetting your original resolve, wholeheartedly seeking the holy ways of Immortals and Buddhas, all for an elixir of immortality...]
This was a lengthy process.
The Monkey King was captivated as he watched, and just like the on-screen version of himself learning human rituals, speech, and culture, his innate talent as a spiritual monkey did not disappoint, and in no time at all, he had mastered human ways.
"Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful!"
The Monkey King danced for joy, then realized his actions did not adhere to human etiquette and adjusted his posture, standing upright, to appear more human.
"Great fortune!"
"Great fortune!"
The Monkey King continued to gaze at the illusory screen before him.
He saw that his on-screen self had spent years searching in Nanshan Continent without finding any Immortals, meeting mostly those greedy for fame and gain, he then seemed to lament in poetry,
When will the chase for fame and gain cease? Rising early, sleeping late, not at ease!
Riding donkeys and mules dreaming of fine steeds, holding office, desiring the rank of royal deeds.
Worried over clothing and food, toiling endlessly, why fear Lord Yan's hook to come decisively?
Seeking wealth for offspring, none look back they flee,
nobody willing to return indeed!
"It seems that there are no Immortals in Nanshan Continent, those people are all greedy and mediocre." *
The Monkey King thought about the four or five months he had already spent on the bamboo raft, considering whether to change direction, but then he felt his body shiver and quickly grabbed hold of the raft to prevent himself from falling off.
Had he collided with something?
The Monkey King stood up and realized he had already reached the shore.
Could this be Nanshan Continent?
The moment the Monkey King had the thought, the Heavenly Life Simulator paused.
To end, one needed to simulate his own death or achieve some great feat.
Only then would it be a complete run.
During his sea voyage, the Monkey King had also roughly figured out the purpose of this device, that it could pause according to his wishes.
Carrying the tiger skin, the Monkey King went ashore and saw people catching fish, hunting geese, digging clams, and making salt. Indeed, just like in the simulator, he was even more delighted.
In the simulator, he had dressed as a tiger and scared those people, stripping one of their clothes.
This time, he planned to be gentler.
But as the Monkey King got closer, those people, seeing a monkey standing on two legs, were so terrified that they scattered in all directions, abandoning their fishing nets, shovels, and the like.
"A monster!"
"There's a monster!"
The Monkey King bellowed, "Don't run, I am the Monkey King of Huaguo Mountain, and I don't eat humans."
"A talking monkey, it truly is a demon!"
"Run quickly!"
"He must be deceiving us!"
The Monkey King thought to himself: Why are these people so cowardly?
In the end, the Monkey King still managed to catch someone, precisely the fellow he had caught in the simulator. This person was roughly the same size as him and was running the slowest.
Seeing himself caught, this person was cunning, lying straight down on the ground and playing dead.
The Monkey King found it amusing and leaned forward to touch him.
"Oh no, this must be a lecherous demon!" The person trembled all over but still kept his eyes tightly shut, thinking to himself, "As long as this lord is pleased, even if I lose my innocence, at least I can save my life."
"Get up! Get up!"
The Monkey King called out several times, but when he saw that the person didn't get up, he threatened, "If you don't get up now, I will bury you in this sand."
"Don't!"
The person really woke up, and upon seeing the Monkey King wearing a tiger skin, with only a smooth, jade-like face exposed, he thought it was a tiger spirit, "Mercy, Great King! Don't eat me! And don't bury me!"
"Rest assured, I won't bury you, nor will I eat you," the Monkey King said, grinning, and pointed at the person's clothes, adding, "I want the clothes you're wearing."
Quickly, the person stripped off his clothes and respectfully handed them to the Monkey King, saying, "For you, all for you."
Having shed his tiger skin, the Monkey King put on the clothes and ended up looking rather like a human, albeit a yellow-furred ghost. However, just looking at his face from a human perspective, there was a certain odd beauty to it.
After dressing himself, the Monkey King said to the man, "I've taken your clothes, so I'm giving you this tiger skin. You can sell it for money, which would be very good."
"Thank you, Great King! Thank you, Great King!"
The man thanked the Monkey King profusely, originally thinking he was going to lose his life only to find out he had actually gained a stroke of luck.
This tiger skin, looking quite intact, could, if sold, not just buy one piece of clothing, but easily a hundred pieces, not to mention he wouldn't really sell a hundred pieces of clothing, would he?
The money attained would be worth three years of clam digging on the coast.
The Monkey King, now clothed, began to walk around the realms of the Nanshan Continent, and although he knew there were no immortals here, he had only observed this world through the simulator before and had not genuinely experienced mortal life, hence he wanted to wander.
After several years, the Monkey King had traveled through every street and alley of the Nanshan Continent, did good deeds amongst men, and learned things he had not picked up in the simulations before, and unknowingly arrived at the coast of the Western Ocean.
"It seems the Nanshan Continent truly has no immortals."
Having personally experienced the warmth and coldness of human relationships on the Nanshan Continent, the Monkey King gained insight and could understand why his simulated self had composed a poem.
His determination in the Dao grew ever more resolute.
"Right, there's also the simulator. I almost forgot about this treasure in these three years."
Slapping his head, the Monkey King summoned the simulator, only to discover something different.
It turned out that although he could continue with the last unfinished simulation, the simulator now had a new prompt: [Detecting that the host has spent less time on the Nanshan Continent than during the first simulation, would you like to interrupt the first simulation and start a completely new one?]
A wholly new simulation?
The Monkey King was surprised beyond measure, not expecting his idea to venture out to sea would give the simulator a new direction for simulation.
However, he had no more simulation attempts.
If he interrupted the first simulation, it might not be possible to start a new one since he still didn't know how to get more simulation attempts.
"Don't start it, I want to continue watching the first simulation," he said.
[Simulation continued.]