[NR] Well That's Troubling - Chapter 444 (Patreon)

Jason stood there for a moment as the chupacabra alternated between being stunned and gnawing on his arm as he got a feel for what was happening. Not very exciting, though it somewhat explained why the town chose to cultivate the nest. The dang things were perfect practice dummies.

Not only did the one attacking him keep trying the exact same thing over and over, but all the while others ran past him. In fact, as long as he wasn’t almost directly in their way, the other monsters completely ignored him. It was actually kind of sad.

To see such a classic irl cryptid reduced to this wasn’t the most pleasant of experiences, especially since they weren’t a known entity in his last life. Such an interesting life form and yet they’re worse than a rabid dog when it comes to combat. So after sufficient testing of his conductive skin, which includes finding out that the runes themselves could glow a little, Jason tossed the one attacking him over his back and returned to the town.

From there, Jason didn’t really have anything in particular to do. So over the next five days, he spent most of his time cultivating as his technique was also at a bottleneck. A bottleneck that was likely just as artificial as the one on his level. Though can you really call it artificial when the entire world was created based on it?

Whatever the case, Jason could feel that the System was resisting his attempts to break through. This created a situation where during his time out of VR his irl bodies cultivation was also held back. It wasn’t a complete stop; he was still able to dig out the obstructions in his meridians. It was just that as he dug out more and more it became clear that part of them refilling with cruft was because of his connection to NeoRealm.

More than that, he started to realize that the world’s obsession with NeoRealm might not be entirely natural. It took stints of irl cultivation to manage, but he cleared a second meridian. This resulted in a change. It was small, but like how one moment a fog might completely conceal something and the next it thins just enough and a shape forms, Jason felt his own obsession for NeoRealm diminish.

Not by much, in fact most people wouldn’t be able to notice. Hell, Jason didn’t even truly notice it directly. However, he trusted his instincts in a way that most humans in his new life never could. Whatever was filling his meridians was at least in part responsible for him being so focused on NeoRealm. This was more than a little scary, especially since there was no way the people on top didn’t at least realize that NeoRealm was apparently spiritually addictive..

More than that, Jason had always been obsessed with the game, just like everyone else. So either the “corruption” came from the VR pod itself or it was passed down from mother to child. There was also the problem of what would happen if enough people started to cultivate. Without the all-encompassing drive to play NeoRealm, what would happen?

Jason couldn’t hide it from himself. Resource wars. In fact, NeoRealm might be the poison that cures. No one currently wants to fight a war as it would mean losing time in NeoRealm. On the other hand, space exploration and a number of other technologies had stalled out as people no longer reached for more than their capsules.

These thoughts and more could only cause Jason to sigh again and again as the world spanning reach of this nonsense hits home. He didn’t want to be some protagonist! He just wanted to cultivate and play NeoRealm. Even now, after working to separate the obsession, he still wanted to play VR games.

However, he had a bad feeling. In-between this life and his last, he had hung out with deities as they watched the play that was his friend’s adventure concluded. Why hadn’t they just sent him on his way? Jason wasn’t blind to the fact that even if friendly, he wasn’t on the same level as those gods and goddesses.

So here he was, on a world that had stagnated under the weight of a VR game that took place in another dimension and his brand of cultivation just happened to help reduce the obsession. Fat chance that was a coincidence. On the other hand, it wasn’t like he had some sort of mission.

He had just wanted to cultivate so he did. His friends were important to him so he started to pass on this knowledge to them. Jason pauses as the next thought enters his mind, the fact that his cultivation was also able to push away those corrupting powers. Yep, totally a coincidence.

However, unlike this world’s ideas about how deities operate and despite what they might have tried to portray, Jason knew their limits. Within a dimension, they’re restricted to the rules of that dimension. His previous life certainly knew about the gods, what with all the cults that constantly popped up since they were a shortcut to power.

But having been a part of a sect with powerful enough seniors, Jason knew it was basically a trap. To be a god meant to be limited in the end. They were only as powerful as they were and even if they gained more power, it would not make a qualitative change. This also meant that those who gained power from them would also be limited.

So while Jason was thankful to the ones who helped his friend, he was not going to worship them. In fact, with this latest discovery, it seems they aren’t done with him yet. The only question was why? Even if Jason somehow managed to spread cultivation to the entire world, it isn’t like everyone would start worshiping those gods.

So there had to be more to the story, just as there was more to what happened to his friend. Such a classic story that was. Hero loses his best friend and so vows vengeance. What did the gods get out of this? Also, why did Jason only start to think of this now? It seems more than just the obsession with NeoRealm had started to fall away from his eyes.