VRMMORPG: The Other World Online

Cheng Xiu looked towards San Zhe and tapped him on the shoulder.

San Zhe looked towards her with lusterless eyes.

Cheng Xiu felt that something was wrong. "Are you okay?"

San Zhe nodded.

"What happened?" Cheng Xiu asked him, "Why are you so agitated brother San?"

The blue-robed man chuckled. "I am fine."

Cheng Xiu pressed her hand on his shoulder. "Tell me."

San Zhe stared at her for a while and then burst into tears.

Cheng Xiu was startled for a moment. She had never really seen a man cry in front of her. Her father did not count. He was far too gone in some reagards. But Cheng Xiu pushed the weirdness of the situation down and leaned her shoulder against his.

"What happened?" Cheng Xiu asked him in a soft voice.

"I…I just…it has been too long since I have dealt with humanoid creatures."

Cheng Xiu stared at his shaking shoulders for a moment as his words sank in. The look she gave him turned into one of understanding.

"I get it," Cheng Xiu said to him.

San Zhe sniffled. "Get what?"

"Even I was weirded out when I had to kill someone in the game. It takes a lot of guts. After all, the death is far too personal in some ways."

San Zhe stared at her for a moment. "This is the first time that I am seeing a genuine female side to you, Sister Xiu."

Yaksha chuckled at his words.

Cheng Xiu frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I…I was not crying because I was unset by that NPC's death," San Zhe explained to her. "I…I was…crying in happiness."

Cheng Xiu stared at him for a moment. "You were crying in happiness?...you were happy at being able to kill that NPC?"

"Of course," San Zhe said to her. "I always got killed by the Humanoid NPCs after I got to level 1 again. And I have been struggling to Level Up once more."

Cheng Xiu looked at San Zhe for a moment. "Level UP once more? What does that mean?"

Yaksha cleared his throat. "I means that he always falls back to Level 1 because of something."

Cheng Xiu stared at Yaksha and then turned to San Zhe with an inquisitive eyes. "Why is that? What do you do?"

San Zhe felt the joy he experienced a moment before dim. Why would it be anything he did! Why would she think that! It could be that he was being targeted or he could just be unlucky! Why was she thinking that he did something!

"Why-Why would you think it was…something that I did that woud make me lose my Levels?"

Cheng Xiu raised her eyebrow under her mask. "Aren't you?"

San Zhe sighed. He nodded. "It has something to do with a quest I got."

Cheng Xiu tilted her head. "A quest?"

San Zhe hesitated for a moment. "This…is something that I do not want to think about honestly…"

"Regardless, if you are comfortable with it, please explain."

San Zhe sighed. If he was comfortable…he wasn't. But he also felt that it would be rude of him to refuse her when Cheng Xiu was always so steadfast in her friendship with him. Though they have only known each other for two weeks now, Cheng Xiu had a strict attitude towards their relationship already. She took care of his opinions and did not look down on him in things that mattered the most. He had honestly never felt so comfortable with any other 'friend' before.

"I…got a quest that talks about the Azure Lake here in the southern continent," San Zhe said to her. "Though at the time I did not know that the quest was talking about that specific location. After I got the Poseidon Trident, I got a curse as well."

Cheng Xiu frowned. "A curse? Does it have something to do with the Trident?"

San Zhe nodded his head. "That is correct. I…I…um…the quest…it said that the Lady of the Azure Lake has cursed me for being the follower of Poseidon. And that I have to go to the Lady herself to remove the curse."

Cheng Xiu frowned. "What is the curse?"

San Zhe sighed. "That I would face a Nine Times Greater Tribulation Lightning every ten Levels, and if I don't pass the Lightning Tribulation, my cultivation will go back nine Levels."

Cheng Xiu hmmed.

Lightning Tribulation was a common trope in most chinese concept of 'Immortal' cultivation games and novels had. Basically the Gods in heaven would strike the person who was cultivating with lightning. It is only those who have passed the Lightning Tribulation who could reach the next Level.

Cheng Xiu had first thought that the Other World did not have the Lightning Tribulation because its Tribulation sequence seemed to be 'Chase the Fish' to get to the next level.

Could it be that the players would have to face Lightning Tribulation when they wanted to level up every ten levels?

Cheng Xiu put her theory forward to San Zhe.

"Your animal is a fish?" he asked her in surprise. "That is cool. Mine is a cat…how cool…right?"

Cheng Xiu looked at him with excited eyes. "Very cool! Cats are really cool!"

San Zhe sighed in relief. It would seem that Cheng Xiu was a cat person.

"But yes," San Zhe said in exasperation. "Lightning will strike you every ten levels. And it is not fun in any way. It is very painful."

"Is that the general setting of the game?" Cheng Xiu asked him, "Or are you just special because of the curse on you? It doesn't seem too profitable to make the players experience such pains for Level ups."

San Zhe stilled. Was it really like that? Was he unlucky enough that he was only one who always suffered from the Lightening strikes? He had never thought to research on this topic because he had thought that it was the default setting. But now he could not be so sure.

At that moment, Yaksha said something that changed the way that San Zhe viewed the world.

"It really is only you," Yaksha said to him. "The curse is making it harder for you."

"Thanks," San Zhe said to him with a pained expression.