Living Life As A Game: Through And Through 80 Dealing With The Aftermath

[Status

Name: Spiritually Defunct Scarlet Sacrifice Pill

Grade: Low-tier Mortal Grade Pill (Threatening the Line to Below Mortal Grade...)

Description: Crafted with utterly horrendous and completely butchered alchemical methods of ancient times and with several incorrect subst.i.tute ingredients, it's impressive that the pill even formed in the first place. With a Refining Rate approaching the line of toxicity at 51%, the negative side effects of ingesting this pill far outweigh any merit it might have possessed.

Effects: At the cost of terminal damage to one's foundation and Dantian, the user may combust all the energy in their body exponentially faster than their base maximum.]

With a quick glance whilst donning her Inner Strength imbued eyes and a cursory probe of her usually gentle neutral Inner Strength across Zhaoren Si's body, Elizabeth discovered that the damage to the fallen man's meridian and energy circulatory pathways were in utter ruin even before he had crossed blows with her. She couldn't get this kind of a.n.a.lysis done in the heat of the battle as Zhaoren Si, while admittedly weaker than her, was still a formidable opponent for her; no attention was spared for fear of losing.

'These seem to be marks of… Overdrive Channeling?' Either Elizabeth deduction was incorrect or it would seem that there was another Acupoint artist nearby, as Overdrive Channeling was a forbidden art in the path of Medical Acupoint. The procedure would forcefully bore tunnels through the intended target's energy circulatory system and after artificially inflating the target's capacity to absorb energy, they would be able to galvanize Qi or Magic to the peak of their rank. However, the price for such a treatment was the loss of ever being able to naturally cultivate into a higher Stage.

As Elizabeth looked at Jhan, the squint in her eyes almost closed off her visibility entirely. 'That madman… he probably did this to them, if not then he at least knew of their bodies' conditions and still had them take in those garbage pills? He's… Dangerous...'

With the pill in Elizabeth's hand clearly visible to all those around, Jhan had to defend himself. Very dramatically, almost cartoonishly in fact, he said, "HWAT?! I had no clue that he was cheating!!!" After pretending to be shocked, Jhan shook his head from side to side, continuing to say, "This won't do at all! I, Slaughter King Jhan, will not stand for these malicious intentions even if they come from my dearly beloved personal disciples! In the Martial Society, we have no place for sc.u.m like you!"

There was absolutely no hesitation on Jhan's part as he sent a ray of Qi, manifesting in the wake of his killing intent, at the barely breathing Zhaoren Si! Elizabeth didn't dare stay put in the face of such an attack. She dodged out of the way, before the energy vaporized what little life remained in Zhaoren Si's eyes, and returned to Atid's side now that today's battle had concluded.

Atid, knowing Jhan's ruthlessness expected nothing less and the only reason he didn't intervene to help Elizabeth was Jhan's own volition in slowing down the speed of his attack. Atid faced Jhan and said, "Well, that marks the end of our Battle. If there's nothing else that needs to be settled today, take that corpse and get out of my dojo."

"Hmph! I'll let you bask in a little glory today, but don't think things will end with just this!" With Hou Xin lying on the right side of his shoulder and Zhaoren Si's corpse on the left side, Jhan gave one last look at Elizabeth. This time, there was an underlying threat in his gaze as he departed.

Elizabeth could tell from her spot next to Atid, that after Jhan crossed the exit of the dojo, he must have jumped up to the roof while still near the dojo to make use of the dojo's illusion formation. It suddenly crossed her mind that in the future, she would probably be able to make use of rooftops to navigate the city faster. But, given that there were still things that needed to be done, those unnecessary thoughts were quickly thrown to the recesses of her mind.

Elizabeth said, "I'll be back after fixing this guy." She was referring to Carlos, as his gesture in fighting for her was not forgotten. Elizabeth easily propped up Carlos over her shoulder, as carrying a couple hundred pounds was not a challenge if she used all her strength, and though she looked a bit silly, as a fifteen-year-old girl carrying a fully grown man, she didn't mind her image.

Atid gave her a nod, also saying, "You can use any of the empty rooms here on the ground floor if you want." He had his mind full of questions about Elizabeth's past, but not a shred of intent in asking to find out the answers. Insanely talent, Martial Acupoint, knowledge of spirituality, earth-shattering growth, that nightmarish killing intent of hers… All these things on their own would inspiring curiosity in any King Stage combatant. But when combined, the culmination of all those impressive feats coming from a single person would point to said person descending from a background so powerful that it was perhaps best to not even investigate.

Atid led Elizabeth to an empty room at her request. Thereafter, Elizabeth conducted a minor surgery on Carlos. She rolled up the sleeve of his previously severed arm, then used her needles and energy to reattach and regenerate the shredded and burned muscle tissue on Carlos' arm before applying a more delicate method on his nerves to get the arm working again.

As she finalized the treatment of Carlos' arm and moved on to heal the damage done by Hou Xin's final kick, she received a startling notification from her status functions not a minute into the general acupoint treatment.

[Alert Breakthrough from the Mortal Rank of Acupoint into the Master Rank complete!!!

Acupoint Level 11 (50,750/68,750)

Description: Using needles to cure any ailment and promote the body's healing. The Acupoint skill allows the user to resolve almost all medical ailments with just a couple needles and energy.

Current Effect: Requires 10% less energy to resolve High-Peak Grade Mortal-tier ailments and wounds.]

'Huh?' Elizabeth did a double take after reading that she had acquired more than 50,000 points of experience for her Acupoint Skill. She checked her Training Summaries and after looking for more details, she understood where the influx of Acupoint experience came from.

[Training Summaries

…

Medicine

…

2) Healing Atid

…

Acupoint Exp +1,700

3) Self Recovery From The "Dog" Ambush

…

Acupoint Exp +750

4) Reverse Crystallization Dantian Operation/Chance Cultivation

…

Acupoint Exp +40,850

5) Patching up Sun's Bruises and Scratches

Outcome: +.06 Endurance +.16 Intelligence

Accupoint Exp +66

6) Carlos' arm reattachment and general treatment surgery: Treating A critically wounded Peak Phase Soldier Stage combatant.

Outcome (In progress): +1.5 Endurance +1.8 Intelligence

Acupoint Exp +6,239]

'What the f.u.c.k P! Why don't I get a notification every time I finish treating someone?!' While she was happy to see her skill in Acupoint grow, that obsessive side of her personality, consequent of her cheris.h.i.+ng number growth in the games she played, felt like it had been betrayed. Every time she received a notification of her skill increasing in proficiency, she would get rush of endorphins to the brain, now knowing that there had been several instances where she could have had that rush… It was like a drug junkie learning that all this time they had the money to buy more drugs hidden away somewhere!

'What? Oh… uh, I don't know… must be a glitch in the system or something.'

'System? I thought YOU were the system!'

'What? No… You do understand I'm a sentient G.o.ddess, right?'

'G.o.ddess or not, I want my Exp displayed every time I earn more! Pretty please consult the system manual or whatever G.o.d's use in their stead to fix this problem! I'm begging you!!!' Perhaps only Elizabeth stupid enough to make demands and requests all in the same breath; and to a G.o.ddess, of all things…

'Mhmm… Give me a second.'

Exactly one second later, Elizabeth received a notification from that unidentifiable deity that sometimes commented on her progress.

[**********: f.u.c.k you! Ask again and see if I don't turn off Exp notifications entirely - Creator of your "system"

P.S. It's not a system dummy, its something much greater than that!]

If Elizabeth didn't already know the "Creator" to be a deity she'd surely be screaming curses and crying over this blatant bullying. But, because it was indeed a deity, Elizabeth knew there was a pretty good chance it was capable of reading her thoughts. Thus, she could only hold focus on treating Carlos lest she start subconsciously letting her emotions reach the "Creator" and all her notification disappear; never to be seen again!