Chapter 14 The Magic Continues
Just as Oriental Bright, Ouyang Qing, and Dugu Mu were completely engrossed in the game world and unable to extricate themselves, Su Ran was also playing his own game.
At this moment, he was engaged in an intense battle with a monster that had two sharp, black horns on its head.
A Black Horn Dragon!
This monster was quite troublesome.
Although this Black Horn Dragon was not an Ancient Dragon, its strength, in Su Ran's opinion, was not weaker than an Ancient Dragon.
Especially its charged dragon charge, two-hit horn attack, and burrowing attacks, while seemingly ordinary, were not only fast and wide-ranging but also incredibly powerful.
Even with a decent set of equipment, getting hit once or twice would essentially lead to death.
If he used traps and sonic bombs, exploiting the Black Horn Dragon's weaknesses, it would be easier to fight.
But Su Ran deliberately chose to engage in a head-on battle with the Black Horn Dragon to hone his skills.
This required a significant amount of precise control.
Just as Su Ran was fighting energetically, a system prompt suddenly sounded in his ear.
"Host, there's a new customer."
Upon receiving the system message, although he hadn't played enough, as an Internet Cafe boss, he needed to maintain a professional demeanor.
He exited the game and got up to walk to the Internet Cafe entrance.
Indeed, he saw someone walking in.
"Hmm?"
It was a thin middle-aged man, with disheveled hair and a full beard, looking very unkempt.
However, what was most striking was the man's hands—no, it should be said that the man had no hands, as both of his arms were severed.
Such a customer was unexpected to Su Ran.
"Nine Heavens Internet Cafe? What is an Internet Cafe?"
"I remember this wasn't a tavern, was it? Boss, bring me wine, I want to drink!" General Feng swept his gaze around the Internet Cafe and shouted loudly.
Su Ran walked forward: "Customer, this Internet Cafe doesn't have wine!"
"No wine?"
Upon hearing this, General Feng frowned and scrutinized Su Ran.
"Who are you?"
"I am the owner of this establishment, the new owner. This is no longer a tavern now," Su Ran reminded him, clearly realizing that this person was a former customer of the tavern.
But then his tone suddenly shifted.
"Although there's no wine, there's something more interesting than wine. Would the customer like to try it?"
"What is it?"
General Feng was a heavy drinker, and hearing something more interesting than wine made his throat dry, piquing his curiosity.
"A computer!"
"What is a computer? Something to eat?"
"No, it's that machine over there. You can use this machine to play games," Su Ran pointed to the computer.
General Feng looked at it, finding it wasn't the drink or food he expected, but a strange metal device, which seemed nothing special.
"Forget it, I'll go somewhere else to drink..." General Feng shook his head indifferently, about to leave.
But then he unexpectedly heard Su Ran say: "Customer, don't you want to experience having hands again?"
"Boss, that joke isn't funny at all..." As soon as these words were spoken, General Feng's expression turned cold, and a terrifying aura suddenly erupted from him.
His previous lazy, unkempt demeanor vanished without a trace. The current General Feng gave off a profound and unfathomable feeling.
"Customer, let me finish!" Su Ran was somewhat surprised that this unassuming General Feng was actually a martial arts master, but there was nothing to fear inside the Internet Cafe.
General Feng sneered: "I suppose you're going to say next that you have a way to heal my hands, aren't you?"
General Feng had heard that there were indeed methods in the world to regrow severed limbs, and he had sought them out.
But the result was that not only did he not find any, but he was also tricked many times because of it.
Since then, General Feng's greatest taboo was for someone to use his hands as an excuse to talk.
Su Ran shook his head: "I never said that. I only said I could let you experience the feeling of having hands, not heal your hands!"
"You can experience it, but you can't heal it. What you're saying is nonsense. Are you toying with me?"
"It's hard to explain it clearly to you," Su Ran shrugged: "If you don't believe me, just try playing it yourself, and you'll know. If you're still unwilling, please leave, I won't see you out!"
"Play, of course I'll play," General Feng said with a hint of sarcasm. He wanted to see what tricks this young man was going to pull.
"Of course, you must pay first. Activating the game is 10 gold coins, and then one hour is 1 gold coin," Su Ran reminded him.
General Feng showed disdain, and with a shake of his body, 11 gold coins flew out of the money pouch tied to his waist, landing directly in Su Ran's hand, and he said with a mocking expression.
"Young man, you could actually raise the price higher. Don't say ten gold, even a thousand gold, ten thousand gold, I can afford it. Even a swindler needs ambition, don't they?"
"The price of the Internet Cafe is what it is. It won't be more or less. Even if you give me a million gold, or ten million gold, I won't accept it!" Su Ran said calmly.
"Oh, you're getting uppity after I said something!" General Feng sneered repeatedly, narrowing his eyes: "Alright, it's time to take me to play your so-called game, isn't it? You've already taken my money, so if it's not as you say, this matter won't be over..."
These words clearly carried a threat.
But Su Ran didn't care at all.
"Follow me."
Under Su Ran's guidance, General Feng sat down and put on the virtual reality device, entering the game.
"Where is this place? How did I end up here?"
"Hmm? Why can't I use my Martial Qi anymore...?"
Suddenly appearing in an unfamiliar place, surrounded by people, surprised General Feng.
He instinctively tried to circulate the Martial Qi within his body, but found that there was no Martial Qi at all.
"This is just the game world. You can't use Martial Qi in the game world..."
Su Ran took the opportunity to explain some basic game knowledge to General Feng.
"Playing in a nearly real world, is this what they call playing games? I don't know if it's real or fake, let's just watch and see!"
General Feng looked doubtful. In his younger days, he had traveled around the Nine Heavens Internet Cafe and seen many grand sights.
However, this was the first time he had experienced something so miraculous.
Thinking this, General Feng intended to ask the surrounding team members about the situation, but as soon as he stood up, he felt a sense of uncoordination, almost falling to the ground.
"Hmm?"
General Feng then noticed some changes in his body. He looked down and his pupils contracted, an expression of disbelief on his face.
"My, my… My hand, how did my arm get better?"
He actually discovered that his arms had inexplicably grown back.
"Your hand isn't better!"
However, at that moment, Su Ran suddenly took off General Feng's virtual device.
General Feng was stunned. Returning to reality, he looked at his hand, and it was still a severed arm.
"This, this…"
Putting the virtual device back on, his arm reappeared.
"You should understand now. Because the game is a virtual world, what you are in the game is just a clone you created, so you can use both arms normally. But this doesn't mean your arm in reality has recovered!"
"So that's how it is!"
He understood. General Feng finally understood, filled with shock.
It turned out that what Su Ran said was true.
He could really re-experience the feeling of having both hands.
Even if all of this could only happen in the game, he was trembling with excitement at this moment.
…
"It turns out I'm a member of the expedition team exploring the New World."
"Ancient Dragon? What kind of savage beast is that?"
After adapting to his restored arms in the game, General Feng officially started playing the game.
If at first, he only found the game magical because he could use his hands normally, then after truly experiencing the game, going through the Melting Mountain Dragon opening, landing on the New World, and then fighting against Thief Wyvern and various other powerful monsters…
He truly felt the real charm of this game.
He was slowly attracted by this almost real game world.
At the start of the game, General Feng chose the Great Sword as his weapon, and he quickly learned its main move, the Charged Slash.
He killed the Thief Wyvern in the opening without dying once.
Afterward, he quickly became familiar with the Strong Charged Slash and True Charged Slash. These three stages of Charged Slash are the core moves of the Great Sword weapon.
Therefore, the monsters in the early game posed no difficulty for General Feng; he swept through them.
After all, General Feng was a powerful Martial Artist in reality, and he clearly had extensive combat experience. Even if his Martial Qi disappeared, he didn't panic at all.
This was his advantage.
However, this was only in the early stages, as the monsters became increasingly difficult later on.
To clear the game without good equipment and without using items or traps, unless he could be like Su Ran, who deeply understood the game mechanics and was familiar with all the monsters' habits and weaknesses.
This was clearly not the case, so General Feng gradually encountered strong enemies and got stuck after dying.
But this did not make General Feng feel frustrated; instead, he became even more engrossed.
"What is the origin of these savage beasts? Why have I never heard of any of them, and why do I have to fight them without being able to use Qi!"
"Alright, it's a bit difficult, but it's really interesting…"
Such a realistic combat experience.
How long had it been since he could personally wield a weapon and participate in intense and thrilling battles with monsters?
He played for several hours without realizing it.
"What a pity, it seems I won't be able to uncover the secret of the Melting Mountain Dragon today!"
It wasn't until close to evening that General Feng reluctantly exited the game. If he didn't have something to do, he would definitely have continued playing.
"Huh, why do I feel like my Martial Qi cultivation has improved?"
But as soon as he exited the game, General Feng was surprised to find that his cultivation, which had not progressed for a long time, had actually increased.
And it had increased quite a bit.
One must know that he was not an ordinary Martial Artist. At his current realm, even a slight increase in cultivation required a long period of arduous training.
Clearly, this was no coincidence.
Playing this game could even improve cultivation?
At this moment, General Feng was completely stunned.
"To be able to possess a divine artifact like a computer, the background of this Internet Cafe must be extraordinary!"
Thinking of the implications, General Feng looked at Su Ran again and felt that this young man was somewhat unfathomable, somewhat extraordinary.
Unable to figure it out, he stopped thinking. General Feng mumbled, "I'll come earlier tomorrow to continue playing," and then left.
In fact, as General Feng left, Su Ran was also observing him.
He had been wondering, since Wu Lei's damaged meridians could be repaired, was it possible that General Feng's arm could truly regenerate?
However, it seemed that apart from an increase in his cultivation, his arm showed no signs of recovery.
Just then, the system answered his question.
"The current Internet Cafe is too small, and the energy purity is insufficient."
Su Ran was stunned: "What if there are more people?"
"Yes, and the speed of strength improvement will be faster."
Upon hearing this, Su Ran understood. To put it simply, the more customers the Internet Cafe had, the more awesome it would be.