Chapter 9: Virtual Body – “No need to be polite; you just need to get a bit used to it.”
Interstellar delivery was very fast. Xie Qing arrived at the hospital that same day with the holographic helmet. However, when he entered the room, he didn’t see Yu Xia. The empty ward had only an automated little robot wandering around.
This little robot wasn’t even Xiao Jin; it was just a cleaning robot helping to tidy the room.
The little robot wasn’t as smart as Xiao Jin. After facing Xie Qing for a while, the red light on its forehead flashed. [Beep! Visitor detected. May I ask who you are?]
Xie Qing clicked his tongue in disdain. This little robot wasn’t even as smart as the cleaning robots at the orphanage. At least their orphanage’s cleaning robot could tidy everything inside and out every day and could even remember the names of all dozens of children—its memory was much better than his, the Director.
He put down the helmet and tapped the little robot. “Where did Yu Xia and Xiao Jin go?”
The not-so-smart robot’s light screen flashed a few times, as if identifying Xie Qing’s question. After a moment, it replied: [The patient has gone with the doctor for physical treatment!]
Xie Qing clicked his tongue. “Didn’t that ‘Yu’ guy say Yu Xia drank a tube of pacifying agent yesterday and is in poor spirits today, so he isn’t fit for a checkup? What kind of treatment is he doing now?”
The robot tilted its head, not knowing how to answer that question.
Xie Qing didn’t need the little robot to answer. He looked around Yu Xia’s ward, his brow furrowing tightly.
Clearly, the area around the bed had been severely damaged. Even now, after being somewhat cleaned by the robot, one could still see how thrilling and terrifying last night’s experience must have been.
Xie Qing sat down on a chair and let out a sigh. “Sigh, our poor Yu Xia…”
As he spoke, he took out the box containing the holographic helmet.
After several comparisons, Xie Qing had ultimately chosen a higher-quality helmet.
This helmet might not consume as much mental power as others, but it had few side effects on the body. Since Yu Xia’s mental power was too high to burn off quickly, he could stay in the virtual community longer—that should still calm his mental power down. But if his constitution suffered any ill effects because of it, that would be the most troublesome thing.
Yu Xia’s constitution was now the top priority. His mental power wouldn’t decrease, so he could only try to raise his constitution as much as possible. If his constitution developed any problems now, Yu Xia would have to spend the rest of his life under the pressure of his mental power.
That would be too arduous.
Xie Qing himself had experienced the pain caused by a mental power burst. He couldn’t even stand it happening once, yet Yu Xia was in pain every single moment!
The more he thought about it, the more aggrieved he felt for the child he had raised. But there was nothing he could do except help the yet-to-return Yu Xia unpack.
The holographic helmet Xie Qing bought for Yu Xia was silver-gray and very eye-catching. Hearing Dr. Yu and Mo Wen say that Yu Xia had quite a bit of talent in mechanics, and since Yu Xia had to prepare for the Imperial Star Academy entrance exam next, he decided to import all the courses Yu Xia needed to review into the helmet.
Since Yu Xia would need to put most of his energy into these things anyway, he might as well move all the courses to the virtual community of the helmet.
When Yu Xia came out of the medical cabin, removed the bandages from his body, and returned to his ward with Xiao Jin and Dr. Yu, the first thing he saw was Director Xie tinkering with something. He looked at the spherical object in the Director’s hand with some curiosity. “Director, what’s that?”
Xie Qing held up the helmet as if showing off. “The holographic helmet I bought for you. How is it? Looks good, right?”
Yu Xia always felt he didn’t deserve it. “Director, maybe we should forget it…”
Xie Qing wanted to slap Yu Xia’s back but remembered his condition and ended up just squeezing his shoulder. “What nonsense are you talking? Treating your illness is the most important thing right now. This helmet isn’t that expensive. Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing. I paid for this from my private account; it has nothing to do with the orphanage. Oh, right, I just imported the courses you need to review. Come over and try it. If you don’t like it, I can continue to adjust it. I’m very familiar with electronic communications.”
Dr. Yu also said: “Yes, he seemed to be in charge of that area before he retired.”
Since they put it that way, Yu Xia sat down on the chair and put the helmet on his head.
While helping Yu Xia continue to adjust the helmet, Xie Qing asked Dr. Yu: “How is Yu Xia’s condition now?”
Dr. Yu shook his head. “It’s quite difficult. After his mental power upgraded, it directly blew up the tester. We don’t know the specific value, only that it’s SSS+. But even if it’s just one level higher than SSS, the situation isn’t good. His constitution is D-rank; there’s a full six-level gap between his mental power and constitution. If we don’t use external means to control it, mental power manifestations will become regular. You should have seen what his mental power did to his ward. I even specifically applied for another robot to clean his ward—that shows how severe his mental power manifestation was.”
Mental power manifestation doesn’t often occur. Even if a patient with Mental Power Disorder occasionally experiences it, at most a layer of wind gathers around them. For someone like Yu Xia to directly cut himself so many times and even leave scratches on the metal surface of a robot like Xiao Jin, it showed that his mental power instability was indeed not optimistic.
Dr. Yu finally concluded: “Let’s put it this way: he could enter a vegetative state at any moment. But the situation isn’t at its worst yet. At least Yu Xia is quite optimistic now. The previous lethargy caused by mental power pressure has dissipated a lot. He probably realized himself that if he doesn’t exercise, he’s truly finished.”
Xie Qing looked at Yu Xia, who was covered by the helmet. “No matter what, Yu Xia’s situation might not be optimistic, but he can still be saved, right?”
Dr. Yu nodded. “Correct. As long as he doesn’t give up on himself, there’s still hope. Think about it—his constitution is at D-rank, and he’s only a little bit away from D+. So it’s still possible. If he can just reach C-rank, his condition will improve a lot. Of course, given his current mental power, the ultimate goal should be at least an A-rank constitution, preferably S-rank.”
“Don’t worry too much. Although we haven’t done a precise constitution check yet, we can already see that Yu Xia has at least adapted to his current body under mental power pressure. He didn’t even need me to support him when he went to the medical cabin today. He just walked a bit slowly. But Yu Xia is a patient; as long as he’s willing to walk himself, there’s still hope. Just like the textbooks say: during the growth period, anything is possible.”
Xie Qing glanced at Dr. Yu. “Isn’t that just something your medical mentors tell you to trick you? Who can raise their constitution that much in just a few years? Do you think Yu Xia is a starship? Put an energy stone in the power cabin and the constitution goes ‘whoosh’ and rises? Most people struggle with all their might and still fail to reach their ideal constitution rank.”
Dr. Yu shrugged. “It’s not exactly tricking us. Theoretically, it is true. But the body’s growth period is only these few years; if it doesn’t rise, there’s nothing that can be done. Although it’s unlikely Yu Xia’s constitution will fully match his mental power, we can at least hope for A-rank!”
This was Yu Xia’s first time using a holographic helmet.
Even the original owner had only seen holographic helmets or cabins and had never personally tested them.
After all, this was an orphanage; no matter how good the conditions were, they couldn’t compare to a normal family. Furthermore, Yu Xia wasn’t the original owner. He had never seen such a thing as a holographic helmet. When Director Xie pulled out the helmet, his first reaction was to wonder if the Director had ridden a motorcycle here and needed to wear a helmet. He even wanted to see what an interstellar motorcycle looked like and if it was any different from the motorcycles he had seen on the streets before.
Only after Director Xie handed him the helmet did Yu Xia realize Dr. Yu had mentioned a similar treatment plan to him before.
Using a holographic helmet to consume his mental power so that it wouldn’t manifest.
The holographic helmet was brand new. Yu Xia followed the virtual community guide to get used to the various interfaces.
In the virtual world, besides the virtual community, there was also a personal space. Yu Xia flipped through the personal space and found many materials already stored inside. Looking at the catalog, he recognized a portion of them; they should be courses the original owner had taken before.
However, the original owner’s energy was mostly spent fighting against his mental power. After three years of struggle, he had lost his vigor and began to doubt himself. Coupled with Ye Zhichen adding fuel to the fire at that time, Yu Xia became a different person.
After roughly flipping through the courseware already saved in the personal space, Yu Xia shed a tear for his future self, who would have to study seriously for a long time to make up for the missed courses. Then, he planned to head to the virtual community to have a look around.
Now that he was in the virtual world, he couldn’t continue to be as lethargic as the original owner, right?
What Yu Xia didn’t expect, however, was that the body in the virtual world was different from his body in reality.
He didn’t notice much while just standing, but the moment he started walking, he was suddenly unaccustomed to it. Before he could take two steps, he stumbled and fell directly to the ground.
Yu Xia never imagined that his body, which was constantly entangled in dull pain in reality, would actually not hurt in the virtual world! He had finally gotten used to his body feeling like needles were stabbing him even when he was perfectly still!
He sat on the ground and simply crossed his legs. He looked at his arm, which had been slightly reddened from hitting the ground but quickly returned to normal. He frowned and pondered to himself: If I go back to reality, will I have to get used to my body all over again?
Suddenly, Yu Xia heard a light chuckle. He looked up and saw two people standing not far away. The laughter came from one of them.
Oh no, someone saw me!
Yu Xia’s face turned red, and he hurriedly scrambled up from the ground. However, because he was unaccustomed to a body that didn’t feel pain, his movements had a very obvious sluggishness.
One of the people hesitated for a moment, then stepped forward to help him. “Sorry, it’s not very polite to ask, but do you have Mental Power Disorder?”
The other person heard this and immediately widened his eyes. “Holy crap, really? I thought his coordination was just poor. Many people who just became adults and entered the virtual community aren’t used to virtual bodies.”
Yu Xia took a step back. He still felt unaccustomed; the piercing pain in the soles of his feet had become weightless. However, he still tried his best to stand firm. “Thank you.”
“No need to be polite; you just need to get a bit used to it.”
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