Errors
Surrounded by a sea of darkness, Eduard sighed. He started checking his surroundings and thought to himself, 'Hmm, they probably haven't implemented the afterlife yet. Or am I still alive? Hmmm, I can't tell to be honest.'
Not knowing where he was, Eduard sat down and tried to recall the previous events.
'So, the breakthrough attempt was a success. However, if I tried it in real life, I would die from internal injuries. Damn, the in-game body is so good!' he let out another sigh.
'No wonder, in the grimoire, it stated that the breakthrough to first-tier requires a lot of supplementary substances; chief amongst it is a vial of dragon's blood,' Eduard stopped his train of thought and brainstormed for a moment.
'Will dinosaur blood suffice? They are all reptilians, right? If I am not wrong, a few years ago, the U.S managed to reverse-engineer some dinosaurs. However, information regarding that project is limited. It is my last required ingredient, after all. Hmmm. Should I have someone catch a mutated Komodo dragon? It's a dragon, after all.'
Being stuck as a third-tier initiate for the past two years had been painful to him. After all, the golden age for energy practice is between 10 to 18. After 18, his growth will be substantially reduced.
'At least, I got some experience of breaking through. If push comes to shove, I could forcefully breakthrough via overdosing healing serum and have a bunch of healers constantly heal me. The pain will be five times worse, though! Hais! Regardless, I have a path forward now.'
After sorting through his gains and plans, Eduard continued recalling previous events.
'Hmm, I don't know if the tree was caught in the AOE of my blast. However, I'll have to deal with that later.'
'What else am I missing?'
Eduard completely forgot his friend's sacrifice. It took him a while to recall about Chunghee.
'Ah right! Chunghee. What happened to him, though? Did he fall asleep halfway through?'
However, no reply came from Chunghee's side.
'Hmm, he must be tired. I did slave-drive him for three and a half hours plus, after all,' Eduard smiled with an evil grin.
After sorting through all of the events, Eduard looked back at his achievements. The Outer Rim was in a mess. Chaotic energy ravaged most of the world. He also suspended the game whilst it was cleansing. Furthermore, entities were forcibly moved and edited during this state. His avatar was also blown up. All in all, everything was a mess.
'Oh boy! I hope the save file is not corrupted. If not, then I hope it doesn't break that badly.'
Eduard tried to justify his action again, 'I mean, it's the game tester's job to test the game, right? Albeit artificially induced problems. However, they are still problems, after all.'
Although he tried to justify his action, Eduard was quite anxious about the game performance. He opened the in-game overlay and navigated towards the resource manager. Eduard found "outerrim_alpha.edvr" after a quick search. He clicked "Resume".
A large number of error notifications instantly flooded Eduard's face.
「Error XjN-IUZm5BT」
「Error 9f9-B1yqOyj 」
「Error Ugc-SGM8vrt」
…
「Error sL1-kRoMH7E」
He was not surprised by the notification entries. However, Eduard was ecstatic that the game was still performing.
「Resolving error:….」
Surprisingly, the game was able to resolve these errors on its own. 'No wonder Stellarium is one of the best game companies out there!'
As the game slowly debugged itself, the sea of darkness slowly regained its colour. As the colour returned, survived pieces of himself also moved. Disintegrated parts quickly regenerated. Blood, bones and organs rapidly regrew.
Eduard could feel his avatar's body again. However, the strange thing was his new heart was not of a third-tier initiate but a quasi first-tier.
The new heart beat with strength and vigour. Eduard could feel his power nearly doubled. Eduard tried channelling energy towards his sigil. Smooth light purple energy course through his body. As the sigil absorbed them, purplish-grey energy was born.
Eduard looked around for a test subject. He soon found his beloved tree had crash-landed by the riverside. The impact of its trunk and soil had pushed away a large swathe of land. Chunks of dirt, rock and soil littered the riverside.
The tree's large trunk and branches clobbered the nearby forest. Vegetation and trees were shoved aside haphazardly. The colossal tree proclaimed their spot as its sleeping place.
Eduard looked at a particular spot on the collapsed tree. It was the spot where he blew up. The explosion tried to carve up parts of the tree roots and trunk. However, the tree was somewhat protected by the membrane he had left behind. The aftermath was mostly reduced, as only a minor part of the trunk and roots were damaged. However, it did leave a bloody scene behind.
Eduard was thankful that the explosion was fairly contained. He flew around to assess the damage. At some part of the tree, Eduard stopped and cut his finger. With the cut finger, Eduard started drawing runes with his blood. Blood runes were drawn across the tree's fallen body.
It only took him 10 minutes to draw everything. Eduard settled down on another comfortable spot and began to calm his mind.
After a short while, streaks of purplish-grey lights escaped his sigil and shot towards the blood runes. They lit up one by one with an eerie glow.
"Ha, this is so much easier," Eduard laughed out loud with his success. It was indeed a lot easier. With the blood runes acting as nodes, Eduard only needed to focus on controlling them. Furthermore, purplish-grey energy was denser and more concentrated; hence, reducing Eduard's mental consumption.
Eduard can wield the colossal tree as a club if he wished; of course, he did exactly that. The tree was slowly lifted off the ground. With a flick of his finger, the colossal tree swung right, cleaving the brethren that were in its path in twain.
After turning the once beautiful forest into an illegal logger site, Eduard was satisfied with his newfound power. Although the colossal tree received a bit of damage and was de-leafed, to Eduard, it was a price well paid.
Finished with playing around, Eduard looked South. His beautiful floating island will eventually be consumed by the raging tide of chaotic energy. Hence, Eduard decided to find himself and his tree a new home.
As they flew around, multiple scenic environments greeted them. From lush tundra forest to gigantic frozen lakes, these beautiful sceneries were untainted by the destruction of the world around them.
Finally, Eduard stopped by the side of a small mountain range. It stood tall and true; a bulwark against the northern winter. The eternal protector of the verdant fields below. By its west, an untamed river ebbed and flowed with the rhythm of life. By its north, droplets of small lakes and ponds scattered about with tranquillity and harmony.
"Ah! This is good Feng Shui," Eduard said as he took in the beautiful sight.
A tired voice suddenly appeared and questioned him, "Do you even know what Feng Shui is?"
Without acknowledging the questioner, Eduard immediately responded, "No fucking clue! However, if you keep saying it, eventually, it will be correct!"