NOVEL NEXT Chapter 678
Slurping…
Cheon Saetbyeol was hastily inhaling Jajangmyeon.
Perhaps it was because of her messy eating style.
Luri shook her head and took a spoonful of Jjamppong broth into her mouth.
“Ugh! Ugh, CoughCough!”
Then suddenly, Luri burst into a fit of coughs.
Seems like she choked on it.
“Ehh, how disgusting. Here, have a tissue.”
“Cough cough! It’s all your fault, Cheon Saetbyeol. CoughCough.”
“Huh? What did I do?”
“sigh But why are we eating on the floor with newspapers when there’s a perfectly good dining table?”
“Just because? If you don’t like it, you can go eat at the table over there.”
“I don’t mind. I’m eating here.”
Recently, the two had gotten quite close.
“Na-me, aaah~.”
“?”
Thunk goes the sweet and sour pork flying over.
Yoon-seul took a bite of meat that Yoon-seul handed over with chopsticks.
“By the way, why did we move to this upper floor? Why not move to a better place?”
Nom nom. “Because if I move somewhere else, the knights’ rumors will spread everywhere. I already have people occasionally coming by to visit, even in front of the apartment.”
No matter how good the security of the house is, it’s hard to block people completely in a country where takeout food is common.
And then, weird people start showing up.
“I saw someone protesting the other day. They said their ex showed up in Dreaming Mode, and they wanted mental damage compensation.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“How strange.”
She had planned to post on her V-tube channel that they had moved.
Then people coming to their place with only information floating on the internet would disappear.
It’s illegal to even find out the actual house address, and honestly, there aren’t that many that dedicated people.
Most just dropped by out of boredom, hoping for some crumbs to fall to them.
“Is Yoon-seul still doing broadcasts?”
At Professor Cheon’s question, Seol Yoon-seul put down her chopsticks and sat up straight.
“Oh yes! I’m streaming on Twish.”
“I see. If you have any trouble while broadcasting, tell Na-me. Her company will handle it all smoothly.”
“Wha-what? Hahaha, I haven’t had that kind of trouble. These days, the hardest part is just getting out of bed.”
“That’s a big problem. Na-me, has there been any issue with Dreaming Mode?”
“It’s just a simple lack of exercise. Yoon-seul, you should work out a bit.”
“Gasp…!”
Seol Yoon-seul quickly covered her belly with her arms.
This was a common problem for broadcasters.
Even if they look skinny overall, there’s usually a bit of fat accumulating in their lower abdomen.
For now, they could cover everything with clothes, but becoming a skinny-fat was just a matter of time.
“I’ll definitely start exercising…”
On the moving day, after eating lunch, we focused again on organizing the house.
With fewer belongings, moving to a much bigger place left plenty of space on the living room floor.
Ding dong!
“Oh? I think someone’s here. Luri, come with me.”
“Yes.”
“What came? I want to see too!”
“It’s something from Wearsoft.”
Luri had gotten her own room on the second floor.
I asked if she had any specific furniture or interior in mind.
“Can I set this up here?”
“Yes, just be careful not to break it.”
“What is this!”
I ordered a large Black Dragon figure from Wearsoft.
“Ohhh.”
Dragons are all narcissistic.
Seeing the model measuring 2 meters long, Luri’s eyes sparkled.
I was relieved she liked it.
“Can I sleep on top of the figure?”
“No, I’d prefer you sleep in your bed.”
“Okay…”
She couldn’t hide her disappointment.
Once we finished unpacking, we gathered back in the living room.
Sitting comfortably in front of the huge TV, we watched various broadcasts.
Honestly, there wouldn’t have been many chances to watch TV otherwise.
As we flipped through the channels, we landed on a marathon variety show featuring famous celebrities.
“Hey, how about we try running a marathon? Apparently, running a full marathon burns 2600 calories.”
“It takes a long time, and it sounds really hard… I’ve never run even 1km in my life.”
“Right, we should gradually build our stamina.”
Yoon-seul was deep in thought, biting her lips, before she casually asked.
“Na-me, how about I try learning Magic Battle?”
“Magic Battle? Without magic, just using aura?”
“Yep! You know, that PMAAS system you created.”
“Yeah.”
“Did you know that ever since they introduced the assist action, there has been a surge in people wanting to learn Magic Battle? Our viewers even registered in clans to learn it.”
“Oh wow, I didn’t know at all. That’s quite something.”
“But everyone says it’s now easier to handle aura than before.”
“Huh? That can’t be. Using PMAAS doesn’t change real physical abilities. It’s not even a semi-virtual reality.”
I was firm on this point.
Just because you play a lot of games in virtual reality doesn’t mean your real-world stats increase.
Those who claim that are just indulging in pseudoscience.
Then Yoon-seul tilted her head with confusion.
“But for me, I felt a bit of a difference.”
“In what way? Can you explain?”
“Well, it used to be hard to send aura all the way to my legs. But remember last week? I was late for the train and ended up running like I was in Wagal, and my body felt so much lighter. It wasn’t just a feeling; I was actually faster. I usually have slow feet.”
I crossed my arms and slowly breathed in.
“Hmm, that’s another realm altogether. How can I explain… For instance, I taught you part integration in a makeshift way.”
“Yeah.”
“Even if you didn’t seem to understand what I was saying, I would ignore that and show you the step-by-step process and the answers. But part integration actually involves a lot of mathematical techniques, right? In short, you learned how to multiply while listening to my lectures.”
“Isn’t that the same thing?”
“No, it’s different. I just provided the opportunity for you to learn part integration. Whether you perfectly grasp it or just learn the differentiation of exponential functions or just multiplication depends on you. Playing games doesn’t enhance real abilities, but it can inspire you to awaken certain skills.”
The simple reason why not every human can run fast even with aura is straightforward.
They just can’t imagine a person who used to run at 20km/h now running at 60km/h.
The idea of just pushing hard with their legs or moving quickly isn’t remotely sufficient.
At 60km/h, the time your feet are on the ground gets significantly shorter, so the muscles and nerves must react almost instantly.
Balance becomes extremely unstable, air resistance significantly increases, and even a small change on the ground can lead to an easy fall if you slightly misstep.
The pressure on joints and bones also increases several times compared to usual.
To fully sense and control that speed, you need to be aware of bodily and sensory changes you’ve never experienced before.
Most people cannot accept this.
This conscious process is followed by philosophical contemplation to bring it back into the realm of the subconscious.
“Ugh… I didn’t understand at all.”
“I’m giving a soccer ball to a caveman.”
“Ah-ha! Now I get it perfectly!”
It’s really a result-oriented statement…
But I believe those who awakened aura techniques through PMAAS possessed the potential to do so originally.
However, the reason might be a lack of opportunity to learn or perhaps they are blocked by some barriers that still keep their bloodlines sealed.
“As Yoon-seul said, it’s true that due to PMAAS, it’s easier to run fast. But that doesn’t mean it’s a cause-and-effect relationship.”
“Ah-ha, so it’s more of a correlation than causation?”
“Oh, that’s it!”
“Hehe.”
As I was explaining, a question arose in my mind.
“But why do you want to learn Magic Battle? Do you have a specific martial art you want to learn?”
“I heard Magic Battle is great for dieting. Even a small amount of movement can lead to significant weight loss; it sounds like the dream workout.”
“Gasp.”
Cheon Saetbyeol took a deep breath beside me.
“Though it’s true it burns a lot of calories…”
“Yeah! If I could lose 1kg after an hour of exercise, that would be amazing! I was really surprised. A marathon takes 3 hours to burn 2600 calories, while players in the National Exchange Tournament can burn up to 5000 calories in just 30 minutes. If I’d known there was such an easy way to lose weight, I would’ve learned it earlier!”
Growl…
Cheon Saetbyeol barked softly.
Kariri probably hasn’t even reached the vicinity of mana exhaustion.
It makes sense since she usually has no use for aura.
“No, Boss! If it were that easy to lose weight, why would I starve all day to diet? Not even if you did it for an hour, even for a minute—Boohoohoo!
“It’s a good exercise, though! I spar with Saetbyeol once a month, and every time, her body has gotten so much better.”
Boohoohoohoohooo!
I quickly covered Cheon Saetbyeol’s mouth.
Do you really want to decrease the already scarce Magic Battle population?
I whispered in her ear.
“If you bring Yoon-seul next time, I’ll make sure to cut your sparring time in half.”
“…!”
Her ears perked up.
“Is it really not such a good workout…? Is it that hard for an average person…?” Yoon-seul asked with concern.
“No, no, no! No problem! Magic Battle is so much fun! Don’t you want to fly around swinging a wooden sword? Let’s go to the training arena together this weekend! Don’t you want to see Na-me Unni’s skills?”
“Yeah, I can’t wait! If I use a wand, I can create a weapon just like in Wagal, right? I have a Honey Badger build that’s a total hit.”
“Are you kidding? Our Na-me Unni is the world champion. She’s worth more than a billion bucks!”
“Ugh, thank you…! I’ll work hard with my viewers to prepare for it!”
Hehe…
Cheon Saetbyeol has recruited another new victim.
“Maybe dad too?”
Cough cough. “Hmmm… Is it going to rain tonight? My back is aching.”
“But there’s not a cloud in the sky.”
At my words, Professor Cheon shrank back.
“Luri? Huh? Where did Luri go?”
“She went up to her room a while ago.”
Luri was already gone from her seat.
Well, we had a productive day organizing the Magic Battle sparring party for the weekend.
As we were watching a variety show again.
“PMAAS is playing some role in breaking through some barriers, huh?”
I kept pondering over the new realization I learned from Seol Yoon-seul.
“What if.”
“?”
“Are there others like Yoon-seul who want to learn Aura Techniques in reality after gaining insight from games?”
“Of course! There might be quite a few.”
PMAAS doesn’t create talents that didn’t exist before.
But let’s assume it has the role of letting people know what they are talented in.
That leaves only effort left.
No matter how amateurish.
Even someone who knows nothing about Magic Battle.
Surely they could perfectly replicate, or even exceed that of one technique of martial arts, right?
“I just thought of something interesting.”
I grinned while biting into the melon.