Cultivating in Online Games

For his entire life, Dugu Zhuo had been toyed with by heaven. His cultivation had been destroyed, his familial bonds had been severed, his friends had passed on, and he was burdened with the crime of patricide. Even his one and only true love, Ye Zhou, had been killed and his soul shattered. Having lost all hope, he walked every corner of the world accompanied by a spiritual jade containing a single fragment of Ye Zhou’s soul, wishing only to find the other pieces so they could be with one another in a next life. However, one day, near the end of his life, he wandered into an illusion and suddenly saw Ye Zhou being chased by several beasts. When he slew those beasts, a strange sound rang by his ears. “Ding! For slaying a monster, you’ve received 3 low-grade spirit stones.” “Ding! For slaying a monster, you’ve received a secret book, the Reverse Sword Technique.” “Ding! For slaying a monster, you’ve received a rare healing item, the Spirit Replenishing Herb.” “Ding! You’ve gained a level and restored 1% of your cultivation.” And the Ye Zhou he had just “saved” waved his sword at him furiously, yelling at him, “How dare you steal my monsters!” Dugu Zhuo: ? — In the VR game Nine Heavens, Ye Zhou met an eccentric player called Dugu Zhuo. He didn’t understand common sense, he didn’t know the controls, he was never offline, and he often gazed at Ye Zhou with hidden depths in his eyes. Ye Zhou only thought he had taken a good-looking little disciple, helping him level up step by step, and after flirting for a long time they married each other in the game. Just when Ye Zhou was considering meeting Dugu Zhuo in the real world, there was a system notification from the game: [Player Yi Ye Pian Zhou has triggered the final storyline, ‘Sword Tomb’, and unlocked the final boss, Dugu Zhuo.] Ye Zhou: … What a coincidence, that was his husband’s name!