Chapter 5: Today is a Training Day
Once I got back home, I stored my food, ate, and then directly logged in.
I might have been able to use Slow in real life somehow, but that does not mean I will lose time trying to figure out an explanation.
I am pretty sure I won't find one. If it was public, it would've caused an uproar by now. I know that some countries spy on people's internet searches to, quote-unquote, "identify terrorists". There's no way they wouldn't notice any of my searches.
The fact that it wasn't publicized even one bit means that searching this kind of info would be the equivalent of telling the government "Hey! Somehow I'm able to use magic!". And from there, any investigation could end up finding out I not only am able to use it, but used it in a fight, which does not help my case.
If I am constantly watched by a democratic overlord, I might as well continue living my life as it is. There is no reason to use my skills irl when I can use them in-game, and there is no reason to reveal them to the world too.
I could consider it as a defensive move, but even then I wish for a problem on such a scale to happen as late as possible.
Getting back to the game, after logging in, I followed the usual steps of my routine.
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║ Heaven-Defying Paradise...
║ Name: ImperialShadow
║ Level: 21
║ HP: 412/412
║ MP: 423/423
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║ Stats
║ Opportunism: 12353
║ Strength: 7707
║ Scheme: 3020
║ Intelligence: 2824
║ Wisdom: 2125
║ Endurance: 982
║ Luck: 915
║ Will: 517
║ Comprehension: 287
║ Dexterity: 21
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║ Inventory
║ Sticky bombs x50
║ Sticky bombs x50
║ Sticky bombs x50
║ Sticky bombs x50
║ Amulet of Endurance x1
║ Amulet of Change x1
║ Mjolnir x1
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║ Genome (4989 points)
║ Sheep Transformation
║ Soul Collection
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║ Skills (381 points)
║ Slow (10)
║ Slip (10)
║ Palm Push (10)
║ Thick Skin (10)
║ Attention Grabbing (10)
║ Bite (9)
║ Sharp Eye (1, MAX)
║ Emotionless Machine (3)
║ Master of Attention (3)
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The first step is being messaged by my overenthusiastic disciple.
My "night" play, when I am in sleep mode, is actually closer to lasting from early morning to late morning, while my "day" playing is basically the rest of the time, from around noon to a few hours after midnight.
I don't know what my disciple does in the day, but it seems like he is able to play from noon to around midnight.
Once I've been messaged by my disciple, I get to training him.
I may look like I'm a slacker, but I'm actually pretty serious about this game. I am not the top ranker just because I play the most, if it was just that, there are a lot of very talented players who play just as much. I am the top ranker because I work hard on everything I do in-game.
This is why the first thing I do after noon is giving theory lessons to my disciple.
I'm teaching him the importance of tempo, and how to disturb the tempo of your opponent, as well as make your own less predictable.
I'm teaching him how to lead the momentum of a battle, to be the one in control of any type of battle.
These are important points. I do not have over 12 thousand in Opportunism for nothing, it's because it's my strong point.
It is especially important for games that are played through 1:1 scale inputs like this. There is nothing more fluid than a VRMMO. And it also means there is nothing more susceptible to be impacted by rhythm and disruption of said rhythm.
You can be as good a player as you possibly can, with godly reflexes, sick moves, and an incredible, almost instinctual, understanding of your skills, but if your rhythm is thrown off, you can be just as destabilized as anyone else.
In a high-level fight, if one controls the opponent's tempo, they already won.
Once my disciple mastered this part of what I'm teaching, he should already be able to rise to the top ranks of the PvP Arena.
Then he'll just need practical skill, and experience.
Speaking of experience, the next thing I teach him is just that. We duel.
Because I focused on raising a set of skills to a high level first, I only have so many skills, but my all-rounder loadout can do most playstyles. So I can still fight him in various ways, to eliminate any potential weaknesses.
Of course, if it was just meant to give him experience, it wouldn't be my style of teaching. This also serves to refine his playstyle through practice, as well as gives him a clear idea of the kind of skills he wants to use.
My case of focusing on leveling up few skills, as well as these being the first skills I get, is unique. It is unique because what I got, except for Bite, fits in my playstyle nicely.
There is nothing wrong with wanting to get something you like before spending the effort needed to level up skills.
Once we finished with practical exercises, it's often been around 4 to 5 hours, so it's around 5 pm. This is when a few of my guildmates log in.
Among the top guilds, we are an oddball, I am aware of it. In our guild, we have a single division, a single team, and in it, a single possible party. And even then, among our "most elite" (only) team, I am the only pro. All the others do it on the side, either as a hobby or as an additional revenue source.
Their revenues from the game shouldn't be as high as mine, but they should still be plentiful, yet they chose to continue doing it on the side. In a way, I am curious. But I never asked about their reasons, about their family circumstances, or anything from real life. My curiosity stops where the game ends.
What happens in the game stays in the game, what happens outside of the game stays outside of the game. This is the basic rule I follow. It is to separate both worlds, to make sure the in my opinion superior in-game experience is not tainted by unnecessary thoughts.
If anyone has problems, I don't want to bring them up and be the one who destroyed their last chance of living true escapism.
Anyway, now that it is 5 pm and the guild members started gathering, we basically all go and fight in the PvP Arena until everyone in the guild is logged in.
When everyone is here, around 1 to 2 hours later in general, only 30 minutes today, we all meet up before the day's dungeon.
Depending on the guild's agenda, it is either a training day or a beating day.
Beating days are simple: we go and try to get the dungeon record by the biggest margin we can, even if we have to throw on the last hit if we see the margin is too small.
It's one of my goals to amplify our psychological impact by only beating records by sizable margins. On the most optimized dungeons, we can sometimes do hundreds of runs over several days in which the margin is too small for our liking, and each time wait until we're not beating the record anymore to finish it.
Training days are different, we essentially spend all the time we need in the dungeon to figure out all its important features, from its monsters to its landscape. We often come up with various strategies during these runs, and try them out to see how good they potentially are. When we find a strategy, we get behind it and go for it.
Today is a training day.