Chapter 180 - Torment but not the spell
For the first time, she actually regretted putting the pain sensitivity to max.
That setting was objectively smart to max. For starters, pain was useful information. It told you when you were injured, when you were in danger, when you needed to retreat or defend or heal. Sure, you had a health bar, but what was faster? Checking a bar to see, or simply feeling it? Anyone would know the answer.
Sure, it made everything hurt more, but that was a good thing. It would make you care about the injuries and seek to avoid them. It would make you develop better combat instincts and avoid damage more efficiently.
Plus, it was important to get used to the pain now.
Once they broke free from the system, they wouldn’t have the luxury of pain dulling. The system’s ability to reduce suffering would be gone. They’d experience everything at full intensity whether they wanted to or not.
It was much better to acclimate to that reality while they still had the safety net of respawning. That way, they trained themselves to function through extreme pain before it became a permanent condition.
That logic had made perfect sense before.
But right now, experiencing the baptism at maximum pain sensitivity?
DAMN AAHHHH!!!
The internal scream echoed through her thoughts, the only outlet available for the suffering that consumed her.
The pain was making her want to die.
She didn’t mean this casually, how some people jokingly damn "damn I wanna die." She didn’t want to hurt anymore. It hurt so badly. She wanted it through any means necessary.
Just kill her.
Seriously, just kill her. Anyone, someone, PLEASE! Where was the end of this suffering!? WHEN!?
The fact that she could think at all was a miracle. Her mind was still functioning, still processing, observing and reasoning despite the agony trying to drown out everything else.
Was she getting used to this? Used to suffering?
Human beings could adapt to almost anything given enough time and exposure. Was her brain already adjusting to the baptism’s torture, categorizing it as the new baseline and learning to function anyway?
Wasn’t that a good thing?
She actually really hated it. If she blacked out right now, she’d be happier. Because she really wants to die. If she couldn’t think at all, it would be better.
Yet it was also objectively a good thing, because it meant her pain tolerance was now unlimited. As long as she could do something, she’d be able to, despite the pain.
Yet, it was funny! Because she couldn’t do anything right now! She was just in the agony cloud!
Ahahaha! Kill her. Kill her.
[HP: 187/639]
[HP: 151/639]
Hey, speaking of dying...
She checked her health properly. It made her upset. It made her really upset that despite all this pain she had the mental facilities to check her health. It should be a good thing that she was still conscious...
The pain...
Sob... sob...
She’d like to cry, but she couldn’t!
[HP: 128/639]
That was dangerously low.
She was going to die. That much was obvious now. The baptism wasn’t slowing down, and her health was dropping steadily. She’d pass zero long before the process completed.
She hadn’t died in Masteria before.
The realization brought an odd sense of anticipation. She’d come close plenty of times. She’d been reduced to double digit health on multiple occasions. She’d survived situations that should have killed her through sheer luck and or last second healing.
But she’d never actually died.
Looks like this would be her first time.
Despite the agony, despite wanting the torture to end, there was a part of her that was curious. What would it feel like? What happened when your health hit zero? Sure, it was easy to imagine that it wasn’t truly a real death, since it was just a "game".
She knew it wasn’t a game, however. Her body would truly die, and her soul would be... probably sent back to her real body? Or maybe it would be in a waiting room, waiting to be moved back to her body when she logged off.
Hmm, how did the respawn system work from the player’s perspective?
She wondered how long the respawn time would be.
The system determined respawn duration based on level. The higher your level, the longer you had to wait. Obviously, since it cost the Dark One more to revive stronger bodies, he’d need to discourage mindless death as much as possible.
At her current level, she’d probably need around two hours. Maybe a bit less if she was lucky, maybe a bit more if the system was feeling strict.
Two hours wasn’t that long in the grand scheme of things. It was annoying, sure, but not catastrophic. It was just the rest of her time today. Something they had already established, this would be the best use of.
[HP: 114/639]
[HP: 101/639]
[HP: 98/639]
[HP: 71/639]
Almost there.
Just a little bit longer and this would be over.
She felt herself approaching the threshold. Her body was failing, as if it wasn’t already. She-
What the fuck. She chastised herself as she suddenly realized. Couldn’t she had just disabled her magic guard!? COULDN’T SHE!?
After all, even if a native had to actively sustain it, due to the system, it was just a toggle.
Fuck it let’s die.
She immediately went to disable her magic guard. She immediately flicked it off on the skill page.
...?
She saw the panel. It was off.
Yet she literally felt the magic guard still enabled.
[HP: 43/639]
Her health was still going down at the same rate...
What the hell!
Kill her, kill her!
[HP: 19/639]
[HP: 4/639]
Please, please! Death was so close!
The world went dark.
[You have died.]
The pain stopped instantly. One moment she was in agony, the next, she wasn’t.
She immediately felt relief. A severe exhaustion in her soul, yet mixed with endless relief. She didn’t open her eyes, she had no eyes, but her awareness expanded out to see where she was. She existed in a strange bright liminal space. An endless white expanse.
Then the respawn interface appeared.
[Respawning in 2 hours 4 minutes.]