Finally, the little girl managed to move another leg forward, and with the guard’s help, pushed her other leg in as well, before collapsing like a rag doll, hanging limply from the guard’s arms.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
That was too close!
The group barely passed the entrance, but at least the little girl Alice had indeed managed to take a step inside before her short legs gave out completely.
The distance was calculated based on the neural interface’s evaluation of the progress of the nanofluid’s body optimization.
The neural interface was accurate to the dot.
It continuously monitors the muscle condition, neural recovery, joint stress, and fatigue accumulation, among others, within the human body.
As a result, it knew exactly just how much workload the body could tolerate.
This distance was indeed the maximum that the patient could possibly reach, but the medical staff knew that, more often than not, patients would tend to perform a little worse because they would often think that they could only reach so far.
In short, this first quest, which had almost failed to be completed, propelled the team to lower the benchmarks set by the neural interface just a little.
Slowing down the program was fine, but if the little girl failed to fulfill the quests and hit a bottleneck, what if she lost her motivation?
Then that would be a bigger problem.
While the medical staff were busy taking notes behind the scenes, Alice finally heard the most awaited sound.
Taking a sip of the warm water being fed to her by the guards, Alice looked up with blurry vision and saw the familiar blue window.
[First Quest completed.]
[You have successfully escaped the monsters and entered the Hero’s Starting Village.
The villagers warmly welcome you.]
[Rewards Received: Beginner’s Starter Pack, ✓ Wooden Crutches ×1 pair, ✓ Copper Coins ×10]
[You have leveled up.]
[New Areas Unlocked: Mossy Cave Shelter, Village Square]
Alice was exhausted, her whole body was soaked in sweat, and she felt utterly powerless, as if all energy had left her body.
Prior to the rehabilitation, the nanofluid inside Alice had reached a dormant state.
Nanobots would still be limited by the existing conditions of a human.
They had repaired most of the muscle atrophy before, but exercise was needed to actually allow the nanobots to continue to improve the body.
In short, exercise and movement were needed to increase the body’s improvement rate!
Alice could now feel that same familiar dull ache spreading to all the limbs of her body, to the tips of her toes.
It was the process of self-reconstruction starting again.
Alice succumbed to sleep.
She slept deeply until the next day.
When she woke up, she felt refreshed.
Alice looked at her small arms and flexed her muscles.
Was it just her imagination, or did she feel a little stronger?
As someone who relied on her body for survival in her previous life, Alice was naturally sensitive to the changes in her body.
Status window.
A blue window popped out above her.
Alice’s eyes brightened as she checked her attributes.
This was supposed to be her initial stats at the start of the game.
These were her real stats!
Any changes here meant real changes to her body!
[Name: Alice]
[Rank: Civilian] Find the original chapter at g.com.
[Level: 1]
[Health: 12 / 100]
[Initial Hero Attributes]
[Vitality: 4 “How healthy your body is”]
[Mobility: 1 “How well you can travel”]
[Balance: 1 “How well you can stay on your feet”]
[Endurance: 1 “How long you can keep going”]
[Coordination: 1 “How smoothly you move”]
These…
What kind of numbers were these?
Alice was speechless.
Was she this weak?
Based on the status window, only the vitality attribute increased.
Well, come to think of it, Alice still could not actually walk.
Still, it felt amazing.
Alice’s body had indeed improved again with the help of the nanofluid, hence the increase in vitality.
The dormant nanobots had clearly been stirred and worked overtime while she was asleep.
Alice could feel it herself, too.
Although the change was faint, she could indeed feel that her legs were no longer as lifeless as yesterday.
It had only been one night!
It was exhausting, yes, but at the same time, Alice had been feeling strangely excited all the time.
It was unexpectedly fun!
It was different from the boring and painful rehabilitation that she knew, just like what Dr.
Mark promised.
She looked forward to exploring more of what this game could offer.
What was going to happen next?
What Alice did not know was that in the modern world, this feeling was called game addiction.
Alice spent some time daydreaming on the bed since no one came to disturb her, before finally pushing herself up and looking around.
The game was indeed fun, but was she really going to live here in this gym during the whole rehabilitation program?
Alice was currently inside a cave.
The walls around the cave entrance were covered with moss, but the air was clean and dry.
She was lying on a straw mattress with a fire pit burning in one corner.
The fire pit was embedded in the wall, and the smoke passed through a chimney, Alice assumed, because there was no smoke inside the cave.
A pot was boiling over the fire, though the little girl was unsure of what was inside.
Alice had been covered with sweat before she fell unconscious, but now her clothes smelled clean and fresh, and she did not feel sticky at all.
The medical staff must have taken care of her while she was sleeping, then carried her to this shelter and tucked her into bed.
Such dedication.
How impressive.
It should be that cave shelter that was unlocked for Alice yesterday, the place where she would be staying while still at Civilian Rank.
Alice looked down at the pile of stuff on the straw mattress lying beside her.
There was a pair of wooden crutches, a pouch that probably contained the copper coins from the reward, and…
There was also a glowing treasure chest, just like the ones Alice saw in the cartoons.
Alice tilted her head, thinking back to the rewards mentioned before.
The wooden crutches and copper coins were already beside her, so this must be the so-called starter pack.
She curiously reached out a hand and tried to open the lid of the treasure chest, but unexpectedly, Alice’s hand passed through the treasure chest, as if it were not there, and at the same time, she felt a strange tactile sensation, like she had touched something.
The moment her hand passed through—
The treasure chest burst into countless starry dusts that dissipated in the air, and in its place, another message appeared.
[Congratulations!
Your starter pack includes food and accommodations, valid while in Civilian Rank: free meal delivery three times a day, and free fully furnished cave shelter.]
[Reminder: Completion of all Daily Quests provides a bonus reward of improving the dinner provided for that day.]
Alice tilted her head in confusion while looking at her small hand that had clearly passed through empty air.
What was going on?
The chest did not seem to be real, but Alice was sure she had felt something…
System, she automatically thought, wanting to confirm her suspicions.
[Young hero, you have called.]
!
Alice instantly tensed when a small, flying creature appeared in front of her.
It was a subconscious stress reaction because monsters in her previous life would often suddenly appear out of mid-air like this.
What appeared was a tiny girl with wings, her entire body glowing golden-white.
She was so small that she could fit inside her palms.
[Do not be afraid, young hero.
I am the Heavenly System.
This body is merely an illusory extension of myself.]
An illusory extension.
In short, her body was not real.
Just like the rest of the village that suddenly appeared, just like the treasure chest.
The system had pretty much answered her question.
With her confusion finally solved, Alice’s small face showed a look of realization.
In fact, it was not strange at all to have an illusory tactile sensation, because the neural interface had already shown its ability to modify Alice’s other senses, such as sight and hearing.
Alice could see illusory scenes, hear illusory sounds, and now she had confirmed that she could also feel illusory objects around her.
But because they were nonexistent, Alice could not truly hold or touch them in reality.
That was why her hand had passed through the treasure chest.
Alice looked at the straw mattress below her with interest.
She wondered if what she saw was really a straw mattress in reality.
She pressed her small hands against the mattress and felt the fibers of the dried straw through the thick layers of fabric.
Alice was not sure whether the tactile sensation of the straw mattress was real, but she was definitely lying on top of a bed.
Again, it was that same feeling.
Alice felt uncomfortable after realizing the extent to which the neural interface could affect her perception.
She already thought that the neural interface was amazing, but she seemed to still underestimate its abilities.
Alice could not help but worry that one day, she might not even know whether the reality she saw was truly reality or merely another illusion created by the neural interface.
Her solemn thoughts were interrupted by a sound from the entrance of the cave.