2: Chapter 2 Breathing Techniques

The game interface had actually activated; Tang Long was completely stunned at this moment.

He wasn't quite sure why this was happening, but the excitement and surprise in his heart were like crashing waves, impossible to suppress.

When the Great Cataclysm descended, the reason Earth's order collapsed so quickly was that compared to fragile Earthlings, the strength of Blue Star martial artists was like that of gods and demons.

And in the Doomsday Era, the reason the Resistance Army could contend with the Blue Star forces for so long was that the abilities manifested from the game were as powerful as bugs.

For example, this initial skill—Detection—could immediately obtain target information upon use.

Upon reaching level four, one could comprehend Sprint, which allowed for an unreasonable and massive increase in speed on top of one's maximum velocity.

At level seven, one could comprehend Heavy Strike, and at level ten, a class change would grant a class skill.

Just these four free basic skills played a massive role in subsequent actual combat.

Of course, these skills also had limitations; their power was tied to the skill level.

Level 1 Detection only worked on targets no more than one level higher than oneself; detecting a target two levels higher would result in nothing but question marks. The maximum range was only ten meters, and the CD was as long as 10 minutes.

But since he had been directly compensated to Level 9, he could view 90% of the information of targets within 9 levels of himself, the casting distance reached 90 meters, and the CD had been shortened to under five minutes.

The same logic applied to other skills.

Unfortunately, even with various unreasonable skills, the individual strength of players was still not considered powerful.

This was true in the game, and it remained true after the doomsday manifestation.

Facing Blue Star martial artists of extremely high Realms, one could only hope to contend by gathering an entire regiment, and even then, a full complement of classes was required—which was a complete luxury in the Doomsday Era.

Moreover, why was his interface different from before?

To be more precise, it was vastly different!

A player's initial vitality was only 100 points, increasing by 100 per level in the early stages, yet he actually had 1,000 points?

A player's initial Psionic Energy was only 10 points, increasing by 10 per level in the early stages, but he had 100...

Then there was Life Recovery. This important trait was obtained through fortuitous encounters; it was completely random and couldn't be bought with money. Some unlucky players never obtained it in their entire gaming careers, and even most of those who did only had the basic level, where the recovery unit was days, averaging only a few points per hour.

Don't look down on these few points; this skill scales with level. If obtained at level 30, it could increase to over a hundred points per hour by level 60, saving a huge amount on medicine expenses over time.

Furthermore, in the Doomsday Era, game medicines could no longer be obtained, making this skill suddenly become a god-tier skill.

Being able to recover on one's own without medicine after being injured was exactly why a group of people in the Resistance Army could persist in fighting under such harsh environments.

Now, he initially possessed a recovery rate of 100 per hour; if he grew to level 60, it could reach 6,000 per hour!

And there was more!

Players only had the first five attributes, but he currently had two extra: Spirituality and Legend.

What puzzled him most was that Realm, Cultivation Method, and Quest Issuing Authority had actually appeared on his interface?

Realms and Cultivation Methods belonged to NPCs... that is, the power system of Blue Star martial artists. Players weren't supposed to have this stuff at all!

What kind of development was this?

Could it be that I have also been classified as an NPC?

After quite a while, he finally managed to control his emotions and let out a long, silent sigh of relief.

No matter what, this was good news.

Saving the Earth might still be a distant goal, but managing to get a full meal should be no problem.

Looking at the bald Overseer dozens of meters away, he immediately cast a Detection over. A prompt message then jumped into his vision.

[Insufficient Psionic Energy (less than 9 points), Detection failed!]

Damn!

How could I have forgotten about this?

Tang Long tapped his head lightly, his gaze falling on the Juling Breathing Technique on his interface.

This Breathing Method should be the special way Blue Star martial artists absorbed Psionic Energy. Unfortunately, the human Resistance Army of the past didn't have it. From a broader perspective, the failure of the entire Resistance Army front was due to the gradual cutting off of Psionic Energy acquisition channels.

He let out a quiet sigh and began trying to continue using the Breathing Technique for breathing.

The actual effect of the Breathing Method wasn't just breathing through the mouth and nose, but keeping as many pores across the body as open as possible to absorb the Psionic Energy-containing air on a large scale.

Sure enough, after every breathing cycle, a message prompt for Psionic Energy +1 popped up.

As his Psionic Energy increased, his strength became abundant, and his vision grew clearer and clearer. Although it felt like being covered by a layer of red gauze, he could miraculously see things in the darkness.

However, this process was not pleasant.

Tang Long felt as if his chest were a small furnace; the fire was constantly becoming more intense, and his eyes were becoming increasingly burning hot.

After ten minutes or so, this heat had turned into a searing roast, producing intense pain. If he hadn't been a veteran of a hundred battles, he probably wouldn't have been able to endure it by now.

Even during the continuous increase of Psionic Energy, prompts for loss of Health or vitality would occasionally appear.

Barely managing to restore his Psionic Energy to 130 points, Tang Long couldn't help but stop.

The pain was secondary; losing vitality like this was unscientific.

Although he had a thicker foundation, if it continued like this, he probably wouldn't last more than a few days.

If even he couldn't last a few days, how could the other mine slaves endure it?

Could it be that he was practicing incorrectly?

The cultivation method was marked with [Incomplete] at the end. Could there be something wrong with the method itself?

As it happened, One-Eye and the others were also talking about this issue. Tang Long immediately pricked up his ears to listen closely.

“Old brother, I feel like my heart is heating up and my eyes are getting brighter. I should have succeeded in the practice, right?”

“Heh, fooling me is useless. It only counts after passing Lord Overseer's test.”

“How do you know I'm fooling you?”

“It's simple. Before this Breathing Method is mastered, you can breathe however you want and nothing will happen. But once you've entered the threshold, because the Psionic Energy burns your heart and eyes, you actually can't practice continuously. After a few cycles at most, the pain will be unbearable.”

At this point, One-Eye also sighed.

“Actually, even if you succeed, so what? How much better can an upper-tier mine slave be?”

“The mine is dark and hot. The deeper you dig, the more stifling it gets—so stifling people can't catch their breath. Once your Psionic Energy is exhausted, you can't see clearly. If you want to see, you have to use the Breathing Technique, but if you use it too much, your body can't take it. The veterans in the cave say you can't breathe for more than nine cycles a day, or you'll die very quickly.”

“Every upper-tier mine slave will start coughing up blood about a month after mastering the Breathing Method. In about half a year, their eyes might go blind, so we can only use our left and right eyes in turns. Even so, my left eye still went blind.”

One-Eye said as he took a red crystal out of his leather pouch.

“This kind of spirit residue—each person has to hand over twenty pieces a day. You think it's easy to dig up?”

“This stuff is very delicate. Sometimes you spend hours of effort to dig one up, and it shatters if you're not careful. Do you know what that feels like?”

“If you don't hand over your quota, don't even think about getting enough water the next day. If you can't hold out, you just have to use the Breathing Technique more.”

“We just get to eat a few more bites of meat than you, but most of us don't live past five years.”

One-Eye's venting not only left the lower-tier mine slaves dumbfounded, but even Tang Long was a bit surprised.

No wonder his practice was so painful; it turned out they were in the same miserable state.

He had just done many cycles in one go; would there be any problems?

Furthermore... was this Breathing Method specifically created for killing people?

Despicable Blue Star people!

Someone quickly asked again: “Didn't they say that digging up five spirit stones would earn you freedom? You can't dig them up in five years?”

One-Eye chuckled, “Five spirit stones? It sounds like not many.”

“Unfortunately, our mine is a poor one; it's already nearing depletion. Even spirit residue is getting scarcer, and spirit stones are even rarer. Our cave leader has been digging for three years and has only ever found one; the rest of us haven't seen them at all.”

“Freedom, hehehe...”

The laughter was profound. Quite a few mine slaves shuddered and quietly stopped their Breathing Technique.

Tang Long, on the other hand, felt somewhat relieved.

If mine slaves could obtain freedom so easily, the slave owners would be saints.

No matter how hard it was for upper-tier mine slaves, at least they could fill their stomachs.

Eating one's fill was very significant; any lofty goal had to be built upon this foundation.

Waiting a bit longer, seeing the bald Overseer patrolling over, he took a deep breath and was about to stand up.

But a large hand suddenly pressed him down from the side, “Kid, do you want to die? Lord Overseer was already unhappy with you, and you still dare to bump into his sight.”

“Listen to me, whatever you do, don't look up!”

“This kind of thing happens every day; maybe he'll forget about it tomorrow.”

The one pulling him was a Bearded Man, the very person who had first reminded him during the day.

Although this person's words weren't pleasant, Tang Long felt his kindness.

The problem was... he was too hungry.

He wasn't playing a game right now; if he didn't get food soon, he might actually starve to death.

So he gently pulled off the Bearded Man's hand, “Old brother, I've already mastered the Breathing Method.”

The Bearded Man was momentarily stunned, then grew angry and cursed in a low voice.

“In just the time it takes to have a crap, you've mastered it? Are you fucking crazy for meat?”

“ I really have mastered it.”

“You can't even fool me, and you want to go fool the Overseer?”

Although the two weren't speaking loudly, the argument was still heard by many people around them. They cast their gazes over, followed by some cold sneers.

“Beard, don't waste your energy on him; this guy's head isn't right.”

“Good advice can't save a ghost determined to die; be careful not to get yourself involved too.”

“Save your strength and just look after yourself.”

“Lord Overseer is coming over, everyone keep it down~!”

“What are you all doing! Why are so many people not practicing their Breathing Technique!”

The bald Overseer had indeed noticed something was wrong here and had already strode over.

“Mine Slave 883! How are you teaching them? What did you say to them?”

One-Eye was clearly somewhat terrified and didn't dare to answer for a moment. At this moment, he also realized that Lord Overseer probably wouldn't like some of the complaints he had just made.

At this time, the Overseer's gaze fell on Tang Long once again.

“Even you, kid, aren't practicing properly. Interesting. You tell me, what did he just say?”

Tang Long slowly stood up, looked at One-Eye's nervous face, and then answered.

“Lord Overseer, it has nothing to do with them. It's because I've mastered the Breathing Method, and they don't quite believe it.”

The bald Overseer's face looked quite surprised, “You say you've mastered the Breathing Method?”

“Yes.”

One-Eye clearly breathed a sigh of relief.

But the bald Overseer first gave a light chuckle, then burst into loud laughter.