[NR] Kept Up Late - Chapter 504 (Patreon)

The group took a little time to prepare and then the night was upon them so they split off with plans to set out bright and early. Jason and Rosha got to sleep quickly enough, using this as likely their last good night’s sleep in a while. Courtney, on the other hand, spent some time thinking.

They hadn’t gone over what they got for breaking through the bottleneck. No particular reason, it simply didn’t come up and people tended to keep such things close, anyway. That, however, meant she didn’t really get a chance to talk about some options she was “rewarded” with.

Courtney had been offered multiple things to divulge what she learned from Jason. This sort of thing isn’t new. After all, just the last bottleneck Jason got to sell off his one skill. Except unlike that, this was the System asking for out of character knowledge as the game forums would call it.

At least in asking, the System tipped its hand at its ignorance. Sure, when Jason originally told her about it all, they weren’t in some protected area, but the System also hadn’t been paying attention. After that? She only ever talked about it while in her private VR room.

That meant not only did the System not record everything happening in NeoRealm, but the private rooms actually were private. Good information to have. While both were assumed at this point to some degree. Personal confirmation was always nice.

It also meant next time Courtney got to talk to Jason about this stuff, it would be in one of their rooms as the System was certainly watching now. Of course, it would already have at least some of the info. After all, she had been having others test it. Except that was only the most basic first step.

If it wasn’t for a relatively unique concept behind breathing, it would be strange if people hadn’t already known what she had told her test subjects. In fact, it was likely that some people knew and just didn’t have the next step. Which might be part of why the System was asking.

Though one important piece of information almost slipped past her. However, Courtney managed to grasp that tidbit. Not only did the System not know the information, Jason’s information was new.

It would be wrong to say the System had access to all of humanities knowledge. Except that would be a bit of misdirection. Not many know how pervasive NeoRealm’s System has gotten, but Rachel’s family knew enough things to put two and two together.

The System was basically the underlying foundation for most government and private IT architecture. Sure, there was probably a filing cabinet stuck in a faraday cages that the System didn’t have access to. However, something like capital ‘C’ Cultivation?

If it was in use or being experimented with, the System would know. After all, it was the System who had dug out the locations of the last remaining nukes. They needed to be maintained to work and so left enough breadcrumbs the System could find them. Not that there are no more nukes. Just that they weren’t under any one government or organizations control anymore.

Still, for the System to have unearthed even the most secret of locations? It would have already known Jason’s secrets if it was being used or shared anywhere else. Jason’s knowledge was either completely new or at least different enough that it had value and couldn’t be guessed at. This left Courtney with a choice.

No, not whether she would sell. Rather, how she wanted to continue the tests. Clearly, what was being tested so far wasn’t enough to reveal the key secrets, but anymore and things might unravel.

Courtney, of course, didn't expect the secret to remain so for too long. However, she knew how this kind of stuff always went. Those ahead use the advantage to get further ahead.

If Courtney wanted to assure Rachel’s progress, she needed to be one of the first. They needed to gather the supplies to grow faster. Sure, Jason was going along without supplements, but that was because he didn’t have access to the network Rachel’s family had.

Energized ores? Mystic herbs? Strange crystals? All just an order away. It might take a little time for the family procurers to find, but if it existed on the planet or even in the nearby space around it, Rachel only needed to ask.

Except to figure out what was needed, Rachel needed to start cultivating. With the various experiments, even the most basic start at it allowed the test subjects to get a feel for what they might need. Even simple herbs that had grown long enough were enough to provide a small boost.

It just took that first step to unlock the knowledge. Or rather, the craving. At least, this is how the one mother in the test pool talked about it. She compared it to how her pregnancy cravings felt.

Though thankfully only when actually around a particularly aged and potent herb that she had wanted. Otherwise, it was more of a back of the mind sort of thing. Information you could remember when you needed to, but otherwise didn’t get in the way.

At this point, Courtney needed to decide if she knew enough to let Rachel begin cultivating. Even without direct knowledge from Jason, she could tell that starting young was better, if only because it would preserve one’s youth. This meant the sooner the better.

It all came down to whether she trusted Jason enough. Because, while this style of “Cultivation” might be new. It certainly wasn’t the only way humanity had found to stuff a person full of external power. Just that those other methods tended to be unstable and end with some nasty results.