Chapter 12: Aftermath and Synchronization

I'm not gonna lie, the fight just now was particular. If I'm usually able to do several fights in the PvP Arena, it's because the fights are usually way easier than that.

One of the advantages of having the strongest character, together with being not too bad a player, is that I've been keeping a winning streak for several months now. I'm rarely met with opponents as troublesome as the one I played against just now.

The result of that is that even if I was still in the mood to continue fighting it out, I don't have enough skill points left to risk ending up against an opponent of that caliber again.

What killed my mood was not to be met with competition. In fact, I welcome competition. What killed it is the fact that the top level of this game might be currently in the middle of a paradigm shift. If up until now, the level difference between two characters was the most important deciding factor, it seems that the builds will soon overcome that.

In fact, it makes sense. The level differences could only be as marked as they were for so long. Over the past year, the player base had time to mature and get more skilled, and with each increase of level, the characters had more and more time to grow apart in terms of strengths, weaknesses, and abilities. The higher the level, the most likely it becomes for the overall build strategy to become more important.

Eventually, it might reach a point at which big guilds become able to custom-build characters to their liking from the ground up. By then, I must be too far ahead to have problems.

Yes.

I must start putting more thought into my evolution.

I'll stop there for today.

Exceptionally, I'll log off and have some real sleep for the first time in a while.

Maybe sleeping will give me ideas.

[...]

When I wake up, I am welcomed by familiar messages.

>

>

For a while, I wonder whether I am so used to not sleeping that I accidentally went to sleep in-game, but a quick look at my surroundings tells me all I need to know about where I am.

As far as I know, my bedroom isn't anywhere in-game.

Getting back at the current situation, the sudden stroke of inspiration given to me by my well-rested state allowed me to understand something I didn't before.

-Synchronization, huh...

I don't really have any obligation to say it out loud, but I needed to externalize it a bit.

As calm as I'm trying to be, I'm still pretty shocked at the implications.

The skills can be used in real life, that I already knew.

The system is still connected to me in real life somehow, that I also knew.

But I didn't think it through, or maybe, I rather avoided to. The synchronization itself must be planned, as it has its own notification.

The fact that everything needs a special action to synchronize means that it was made to be a time bomb. Are they a terrorist organization or something?

Anyway, the fact is that right now, I have full access to my Wisdom and my Luck. It seems that just like in-game, I need to make a conscious effort to use stats related to the mind.

Let me use my wisdom on this situation.

-...

Can I undeduct that, pretty please?

If my wisdom is right, I want nothing to do with anything. I don't know if the company keeps track of synchronization or if the Anti-Magic Authority looks for any possible use of magic in the world, but I'd rather keep my current status hidden and stay away from both parties.

If there is one thing that could help me, it'd be the ban on magic itself. If I can assume the company behind the game to have made synchronization as a way to bypass the ban, it's unlikely for the AMA to look for any signature, as the ban would stop any signature from happening in the first place.

I guess for now I must count on human nature.

Let me believe in humanity's ability to be negligent!

Anyway, with synchronization being a thing now, it's too late for me to backtrack.

The AMA hasn't done much beyond maintaining the ban magic recently, but I heard they have some pretty heavy methods and low tolerance.

Assuming I do nothing, I might just end up either forcefully stripped of all power or, if it's not possible, killed. I wouldn't like either case.

I haven't had much synchronized, but it's way harder to lose something you gained than not gain anything. It's just how things are.

If the AMA discovering me is only a question of time, I might as well get as strong as I can in-game, and thus in real life.

It's also a fact that the game company, the same that is able to affect the cognitive abilities of its players in-game, has some kind of agenda through translating it to real life. If they have the intent of using the players who synchronized part of their status, I doubt there's much any player can do against it.

If so, it's also better for me to be stronger for this side too. A stronger status means a higher value, which in turn means a better position.

I'm aware they can just give any status to any player, as they are fully in control of the systems, but I'm sure they know that a player with thousands of hours spent truly mastering his skills way outmatches a player to which they were just given at max level. The level of the character itself might not be important, but the skill of the player as well as the specific build the player is used to might.

So, no matter which side contacts me first, it's going to be important for me to strengthen myself as much as possible.

This means it all comes back to the same question I had when I first went to sleep:

What direction do I want my character to evolve toward? What is my ideal build?