Chapter 80

Tutorial 13th Floor (8)

My sense of anxiety surged .

The Master Monk’s voice could no longer be heard, suggesting numerous possible dangers .

It could be that my consciousness had fallen too deep as the Master Monk warned of .

Or, it could be that he simply stopped talking .

Regardless, this is extremely dangerous .

No, the latter is significantly more dangerous .

The predicament I am in implied that I could die instantly if the monk wished .

Fortunately, although time continued to pass, my body… no, my consciousness still felt fine .

I became certain that I cannot hear him because my consciousness had sunk too deep .

Since then, I focused on just the flow of my consciousness .

Just like before the Master Monk talked to me and woke up my mind, I had to endure a sleepy sensation .

Assuming that the situation right now was similar, I should greatly accelerate my consciousness and wake up from sleep .

I should focus as much as I can and keep my mind active by thinking .

Think about things endlessly and beyond .

I am not sure if this is the right method .

Honestly, I am not certain about my theory on my condition either .

I’m still trying despite this . Well, it is not like I have other options .

* * *

I thought about a science fiction movie about space I watched once .

In one scene, the tether that connected an astronaut to the spaceship was cut by an accident . The astronaut was lost to the space and became a mummy .

I wonder if my current predicament similar to that of the astronaut from the movie .

I do have one thing that’s better: knowing that this hardship will end eventually .

Damn it .

The world of no senses soon became the world of infinity .

In a world where nothing existed, only my consciousness remained .

I need something .

I need something that can support my mind .

I focused my mind on my body which I could not feel .

Alone, I visualized the outline of my body, which could not be seen or felt .

The world of no senses was like an infinitely wide dark canvas . On this canvas, I drew my own existence .

Actually, it was close to just an imaginary drawing .

I had no sensory input . How could I know where my hands were, where my legs were, and what was the look on my face was?

On top of this, the drawing changed continuously .

Sometimes, it looked like my body was lying down . There were times when I was sitting .

As I thought, this was a meaningless effort .

What could be more meaningless than struggling to feel something that cannot be felt?

However, I cannot afford to quit .

I wanted to know my body’s current condition . Not knowing was driving me insane .

Even if it was just a little bit, I wanted to feel the sensory inputs from the body .

The obsession was cornered by my anxiety, and it focused on the imaginary drawing of my body, which was like a mirage that didn’t exist at all .

* * *

I continued my thoughts on the condition of my body .

I wonder how long I had been at this?

The imaginary drawing of body, which had been fluidly changing continuously before, had a stabilized visual .

Honestly, this was no different from a virtual character .

Like an account’s character in an internet’s mini-homepage, it was representing a virtual version of me .

My body was currently lying flat on the floor .

It was a little undignifying that I was drooling a little, but it didn’t look like my body had any big problems .

My hands were on top of the stomach . My legs were stretched out and spread .

Although it is an imaginary construct created by the power of my imagination… It looks too real .

Is this really an illusion? Is it possible that it is not? In the state of having no sensory input, I may have managed to detect my body through a very long time using super human focus . Is it really nothing more than just an illusion that I dreamed up? No, if that’s the case, instead of this illusion, what is body? What now? What kind of insane question is that? My body is the body that I have . It’s just that I cannot feel it at the moment . No, no . That’s not what I am saying…

Numerous random questions sprouted up, answered by an equally plentiful quantity of answers .

Before long, my mind had divided into two, and then they divided further to repeat questions and answers .

Like that, time passed, passed and passed some more .

[You acquired Mental Corruption Immunity . ]

* * *

[That’s why I’m saying this . The breakfast menu in our temple to be improved . ]

All of sudden, I could hear the monk’s voice .

After that, that was the end of the voice .

I could not hear the rest .

What is this?

* * *

All of sudden, my body started to move .

I am not talking about the real body that I cannot feel . I am talking about the illusion that I drew to help me calm my anxiety .

I had concluded that the illusion body was just an illusion .

This is just a fake imagery that I dreamed up . At least that was what I thought that .

The virtual body that I made with my mind is moving .

It is trying to raise its hands, touch my face and massage the arms and legs .

It’s moving well .

Also, I can feel them .

This is insane .

This is imaginary visual, hearing and touch .

To think that I could cause such realistic sensations using my imagination alone…

I am not just a little crazy .

I named the illusion body, the one I made based on my imagination, the body of consciousness .

I had the body of consciousness to sit in meditative pose and started to meditate once again .

Although this was not a real body but a fake one made of my futile imaginations, my mind felt at ease .

It felt like I acquired a floating wooden plank after being thrown into to middle of the ocean .

Anyway, I could rely on it .

[You acquired Meditation . ]

* * *

[Personally, I like chicken dishes . I don’t think it is right to insist on vegetarian dishes just because I’m a

monk . ]

Again, I could hear the Monk’s voice .

I finally realized it .

The flow of time was running amok .

It was not that the monk stopped talking . It was not that my consciousness had sunk to the bottom either .

It was just that the time was flowing slowly . It was flowing extremely slowly .

In other words, my consciousness had far beyond a normal human’s capacities .

Because of this, while I had the time to finish several hours or days’ worth of thoughts, only a moment had passed .

As I thought, before I could hear the monk’s next words, several days’ worth of time had passed in my consciousness’ accelerated time frame .

[I think the chicken drumsticks are the best . What’s your preference?]

Damn it .

To withstand 48 hours, the condition of the trial, just how long am I supposed to be trapped in this prison of consciousness?

* * *

In the end, I overcame it!

I am not saying it had been 48 hours and the trial was over .

I meant I succeeded in withstanding the infinite emptiness and anxiousness in this irrational space .

I just understood it all as pain .

I am currently working on raising my resistances .

I am enduring pain .

As I thought of that, my heart felt a bit more lively .

Uuhahaha .

Fuck . At the moment, I am working .

In this world, where just my consciousness and the imaginary body created by the consciousness remained, I continued to examine myself .

* * *

[Look at this . This inflexible chef brought me potatoes again . Still, it looks delicious . I am sorry, but since you are not in condition to eat, I’ll eat by myself . ]

This is the second meal for the Master Monk .

How many times does he eat per day?

I wish these monks only ate once a day .

If that was the case, it means two days already had gone by .

However, if they do eat three meals a day… It means that not even a day had gone by .

I desperately hoped that the Master Monk was the kind who didn’t eat much .

* * *

This is strange .

I cannot collect mana .

I knew I had spent all of my mana earlier, but I was supposed to regenerate mana over time .

Where did it go?

Could it be that only a brief moment had passed since the trial started and it has not been long enough

to recover even a small handful of mana?

That could not be .

Even with my sense of time completely broken… Fuck . It felt several months had gone by . Toughing it

out like this for several months is too much .

[Once I get used to the potatoes, I can taste its sweetness, so it is delicious . ]

As for you, will you just shut the hell up?!

* * *

Now, I have the perfect grasp of the body of consciousness .

I am able to visualize my limbs, feet, hands and even fine details of the face .

Could this really be nothing but an illusion that I made with my mind?

I cannot believe this .

If this is the case, then what about my real body?

What’s the difference?

This body of consciousness has everything that it should have .

I can touch and feel with it .

I focused the mana circuit on the body of consciousness

Mana didn’t exist in the body of consciousness either .

Still, I tried .

Following the circuit’s flow path, I continued to examine the body .

I already had done plenty of examination on my organs .

I had done so much of the reflections on my past memories that I was sick of contemplating it .

I emptied my mind and moved my consciousness to circulate through the mana circuit’s path .

[You obtained Mana Circuit . ]

I found mana .

It was purely by chance .

It was not hidden somewhere .

It was a part of the mana that got regenerated over time, which was what I had thought about before .

Surprisingly, before I realized, the mana was being used to maintain the body of consciousness .

Fortunately, there was some mana left, although it was just a teeny amount .

I wanted to use the remaining mana and check my body .

If possible, I wanted to check the situation inside the room and the Master Monk .

However, I could not afford to waste the mana like that .

I circulated the mana through the mana circuit .

It should not be have been possible to recognize the mana circuit’s flow path at the moment because all

senses were paralyzed .

Also, the mana could run amok if something went wrong in mana circuit’s path, so recklessly circulating

mana inside the body is a very dangerous thing to do .

The body of consciousness helped .

It was a creation of my mind based on my real body, which I could not feel at the moment .

The body of consciousness even included fine details of the mana circuit’s flow paths . Using the body of consciousness, I circulated mana .

If I didn’t make the body of consciousness, running the mana inside the body would had been impossible .

This was also the reason why I simply choose to conserve mana instead of circulating the remaining mana and growing it ever since the trial begun .

I stayed calm and ran the mana .

Little by little…

I did it carefully so that even the smallest amount of mana would not be lost .

I paid extreme attention to details .

I stepped on the desire to check my body and the surroundings . Instead, I focused on growing mana .

[They brought yams instead of potatoes . I like potatoes better than yams . ]

* * *

Finally, I collected enough mana .

Finally, finally!

Before I spread the mana, I moved the body of consciousness and sat down in meditation pose .

I had to focus .

Mana was quickly depleted in this space .

It won’t take long before the mana I collected so far would disappear completely .

In that short amount of time, I need to collect as much information as I can .

I hardened my resolve and spread mana .

The first thing detected by the mana was my body .

My body was sitting in meditative pose .

My real body was sitting just like how my body of consciousness was . I was shocked .

I was actually doing that as well?

Could it be that my body of consciousness is not an illusion?

Inside the world of no sensory input, I continued to make guesses and imagined to draw the outline of my body .

I believed that the body I drew this way was an illusion, so I named it my body of consciousness .

However, it was not an illusion .

What I drew was the right answer .

Inside the world where I could not feel anything, I accurately drew and recognized my real body .

Instead of calming down and organizing my thoughts, I spread the mana further .

I must set aside such thoughts for later .

At the moment, I need to focus on the mana that I already sent outside of my body . I need to detect as many things I can .

I detected the Master Monk sitting at the center of the room .

Fortunately, he was sitting motionless there .

Mana had spread further .

It got to the 33rd Room’s entrance and exit . It also went beyond .

It even got to the 32nd Room .

It detected the monk who was lying down on the 32nd Room’s center .

It detected 31st and 30th Rooms .

It even detected 25th Room’s monk .

Like that, the mana spread and spread . In the end, it even got to the First Room, the very beginning of the room .

I panicked .

It should not be possible for me to have such a long detection range with the mana I have and the mana operation skill I currently possess .

It was absolutely impossible .

The Master Monk said he had been watching me since the very first room using mana .

Perhaps this phenomenon has something to do with the Master Monk’s ability .

[You acquired Energy Sensory . ]

[You acquired Holy Power Resistance . ]

[God of Slowness is satisfied . ]

[God of Duel is complaining . ]

[You are almost there, Challenger . Hold out just a little longer . ]

* * *

[You acquired Mental Corruption Immunity Lv . 3]

[You acquired Meditation Lv . 11]

[You acquired Mana Circuit Lv . 15]

[You acquired Energy Sensory Lv . 1]

[You acquired Holy Power Resistance Lv . 1]

After sensing the entire temple by spreading the mana once, my sense of time had recovered a little .

To describe how much, I could hear the monk’s voice once every one minute .

[You have worked hard, Challenger . Your first trial is now over . ]

Is it really over?

[That’s right . Is it hard for you to believe?]

It is hard for me to believe . It feels unreal .

I had a reason to feel this way . I still could not see, hear or feel anything .

Still, a few things are different now .

[With the first trial over, a few of the effects of this room had disappeared . ]

For example, accelerated mind, increased focus, paralysis in sense of time…

Those kind of things?

[That’s right . You know well . ]

The trial is already enough to drive one to insanity without those . Were they really necessary?

As someone who just finished the first trial, I really felt that the amplification on the mind and focus were like calamities .

My thoughts were over-accelerated . The flow of time could not catch up to the speed of my thoughts .

In the end, I was trapped inside my mind .

Honestly, it was scary .

I was scared that I may never escape the prison of thoughts forever .

[Actually, in your case, the extents of those effects were particularly severe . I don’t think God of Duel arranged them that way for you in particular, but… Hm… Still, thanks to them, you have obtained things, haven’t you?]

Certainly, I had gained things .

Still, I never want to experience this again .

There probably were more people who died from going insane than gaining things from the experience .

[Uuhurhurhur . That’s actually true . ]

How could you laugh about that…

[Challenger, I strongly recommend that you challenge the second trial right away . There isn’t much time . ]

There isn’t much time? What do you mean?

[You probably cannot feel it, but your body is dying from the strains of excessive thought processing and focus . ]