“Why are you following me?” Tatsumi sat cross-legged on the hard bed of the cell, looking up at Firefly as she walked in.
Firefly thought for a moment and answered truthfully, “Because you are stronger than me, and following you is safe.”
“I see.” Tatsumi said nothing more and began to close his eyes and rest.
Firefly sat on the other hard bed, carefully observing Tatsumi’s breathing rhythm.
“Is he using a breathing technique?” she guessed inwardly.
In her past life, after killing Tatsumi, Firefly had obtained a perk called “Tatsumis Champion Breathing Technique,” which allowed her to increase her Stamina points just by breathing.
Stamina points were equivalent to mana or blue bars in other games, but once Stamina points were exhausted, players could choose to use their stamina bar and HP to substitute for them.
This was a very important attribute.
The reason Firefly was able to achieve a top-100 ranking in the prefecture-level city division of the Star Sea League—the grandest event in “apocalypse”—was her reliance on her Stamina points, which far exceeded those of other players.
She wondered if she would be able to obtain it again in this life.
Tatsumi suddenly opened his eyes.
Seeing the stunningly beautiful girl staring intently at him, he gave a soft scoff and said, “My breathing technique isn’t something you can learn just by watching for a few moments.”
Hearing this, Firefly almost thought her mind had been read and nearly pulled out her transformation device to turn into Sam and run away right then and there.
Fortunately, it seemed Tatsumi had merely deduced her thoughts from her actions and demeanor.
Otherwise, if he knew she had killed him in her past life, he would surely have flown into a rage on the spot.
Firefly let out a soft breath, blinked a few times, and suddenly adopted a cute, soft, and sweet tone: “Then could you teach me?”
“…Don’t use that kind of affected, cutesy voice to speak to me.” Tatsumi was silent for a moment before saying.
“Fine.” Firefly nodded.
It seemed this guy liked the tough-guy type.
What was she to do?
She was a prisoner right now; where was she going to get a transformation potion to turn into a tough guy for him to see?
At this moment, Tatsumi suddenly spoke again: “My breathing technique isn’t anything precious, and I’m going to die soon anyway.
If you want to learn it, I can teach you, but are you sure you want to?
This is a method for tempering a Martial Artist.
For a delicate young girl like you, becoming a good Martial Artist won’t be easy.”
The game “apocalypse” had three main classes: Martial Artist, Esper, and Mage.
It was indeed not easy for female players to become Martial Artists; the EXP required to learn Martial Artist skills and perks was about 15% higher than for male players.
As compensation, it seemed female players generally had higher Charisma stats than male players, which was why large guilds almost always sent female players to negotiate with NPCs, as it was easier to trigger hidden quests that way.
Charisma and Luck stats could not be increased using free attribute points.
While there were perks that could improve these two stats, the methods for obtaining many of them were unique; if you missed them, they were gone forever.
However, Firefly had been a Martial Artist in her past life, so naturally, she preferred her old trade.
Moreover, she was currently suffering from the “Entropy Loss” debuff; if she chose to be a squishy Mage, the enemy could potentially win without even fighting if they were lucky enough.
As for Esper?
That thing was all about luck.
Even with 45 points of Luck, Firefly didn’t dare bet on being able to unlock a powerful Esper ability.
She had been an unlucky player in “apocalypse” for ten years; her heart had long since grown as cold as the winter in an RT-Mart.
Thinking of this, Firefly nodded firmly: “Yes, coach, I want to become a Martial Artist!”
“Good.
I will now teach you my breathing technique.
Listen carefully; I will not repeat it a second time.” Tatsumi nodded approvingly.
[Tatsumi is teaching you “Tatsumis Champion Breathing Technique”, progress 1%…]
Firefly actually wanted to listen carefully, but the specific operational techniques of this breathing method were truly too cumbersome.
It was like listening to a math lecture—she couldn’t remember it; she just couldn’t remember it at all.
Fortunately, she didn’t need to remember it at all.
Once the progress bar on the system panel reached 100%, all the knowledge of “Tatsumis Champion Breathing Technique” flooded into Firefly’s mind, and it seemed it wouldn’t be easily forgotten.
[You have obtained the perk — “Tatsumis Champion Breathing Technique”.
This perk is “Inner Guard Level”.
The effect is as follows: When you are breathing, your maximum Stamina points increase by 1 every 120 minutes.]
[This perk is exclusive to Martial Artists.
You have automatically changed class to “Martial Artist Initiate lv1”.
Your Strength, Agility, and Stamina have each increased by 1 point.]
Firefly felt a warm current surge through her entire body.
She didn’t really care about the other attributes, but the increase in the Stamina attribute made Firefly quite happy.
1 point of Stamina could provide her with 10 HP.
She currently had 90 HP.
Firefly felt much more at ease.
With the “Entropy Loss” debuff, she always felt like she would drop dead at any moment.
Although this debuff deducted HP by a percentage, having higher HP would at least give her some sense of security.
At this moment, the system panel suddenly popped up another notification:
[You have unlocked the class change quest for the special sub-class “Champion Knight” — Win a championship at a world-class grand event.]
Seeing this quest, Firefly was even more pleasantly surprised.
She had been coveting this special sub-class in her past life, but unfortunately, the classes she had equipped at that time had already reached their maximum capacity.
The total level cap for players was 100, and the level cap for a single class was 10.
Moreover, the main class took up a significant portion of that, so players had a limit on their sub-classes.
This was also the fundamental reason for the gap in combat power between players.
Lucky players obtained powerful sub-classes and leapt into the “Hero Level” domain, while unlucky players could only linger at the “Inner Guard Level”.
Even worse, some just randomly chose trash sub-classes like Gardener or Painter that provided almost no combat power, and couldn’t even reach the Inner Guard Level, only able to circle around the “Elite Level”.
She hadn’t expected to be able to unlock a class change quest for a special sub-class right from the start.
Firefly made up her mind; no matter what, she had to obtain this sub-class.
“…To think you learned my breathing technique so quickly and can use it with such ease; your talent is truly terrifying.” A slightly surprised voice came from Tatsumi beside her.
Only then did Firefly pull back her thoughts and look at Tatsumi.
After players obtained a perk, it would naturally take effect immediately upon being equipped.
But to an NPC like Tatsumi, who had spent a long time getting his own body accustomed to the rhythm of the breathing technique, this girl before him had been able to do it immediately after hearing him explain the essence of the breathing technique!
Breathing rhythm wasn’t something you could just change whenever you wanted.
Your body had its own inherent breathing habits.
To change this habit, you had to control your breathing rhythm for a long time.
If you lost focus or were interrupted during that period, it might lead to all your previous efforts being wasted.
Yet Firefly had been able to change her breathing rhythm in a second, as if her body’s habits were merely tools she could adjust at will…
What kind of terrifying body control was this?
Although Tatsumi’s expression remained unchanged, his heart was already in turmoil.