The thought struck Ye Bai like a bolt of lightning, and she couldn’t sit still. If she could use this method to "bring" skills out of the game, the significance of her second class advancement would far exceed her initial expectations.
Compared to reality, Ye Bai held an overwhelming advantage in the world of "Boundless Realms."
A single small photo op by Bai Ye in Boundless Realms had stirred enough waves to earn Ye Bai enough star credits to settle comfortably on Giant Sea Star for a long time.
Beyond her personal level surpassing most other interstellar civilizations, Ye Bai possessed even greater resources within the game—whether it was the talents and technologies of her territory or the high-tier equipment she carried. These were the very factors that contributed to her immense influence in Boundless Realms.
However, for other players, the game’s impact on reality was limited to mental fortitude. For Ye Bai, it extended to skills and innate talents—though these were unrelated to the game’s other resources.
Even if Ye Bai could wield draconic magic in-game thanks to the Dragon Tongue Spirit Whistle, this was an equipment effect and thus unusable in reality. Even if she equipped the Tome of Death in the future, its powers would remain confined to the game.
But now, if she could use the Spellbreaker’s ability to "store" skills and manipulate them in-game, it would be no different from Ye Bai obtaining eight "magic scrolls" she could actually use in the real world.
Action followed thought. Ye Bai logged in immediately. In-game, it was still nighttime, and the inner gates of Laen City were shut at this hour.
So, where could she obtain a skill to test this theory?
This didn’t stump her. Scanning her surroundings, she soon spotted a patrolling golem in the nearby district, and her eyes lit up.
With a single Insight cast, she discerned the golem’s level—45.
Standard golems corresponded to second-tier classes, typically ranging between levels 40 to 50. There were even higher-tier war golems at level 60, making them one of the most practical super-units.
Instead of avoiding the patrolling golem, Ye Bai strode straight toward it, boldly stepping into its alert radius.
"According to Laen City’s Statute 32, unauthorized personnel are prohibited from loitering in the inner districts after nightfall. You have violated curfew regulations. Remain where you are, present identification, and pay the fine—or we will proceed with your arrest!"
Unsurprisingly, the golem issued an immediate warning.
But instead of complying, Ye Bai turned tail and bolted in the opposite direction.
The golem’s gemstone eyes flashed red as its hovering form pivoted, its staff charging with energy. Even as it moved, it continued reciting with mechanical precision:
"Per the supplementary clause of Laen City’s Statute 32, your refusal to cooperate during enforcement warrants immediate arrest!"
Not just this golem—others patrolling nearby received the same directive, converging on Ye Bai’s fleeing figure. Soon, they had her surrounded.
Despite possessing skills like Shadow Step for teleportation, Ye Bai deliberately avoided using them, relying only on rolls to evade. After taking several hits from the golems’ second-tier spells, she was finally cornered and apprehended.
Through this orchestrated ordeal, Ye Bai sacrificed over a thousand HP but successfully stored two spells in her rebound slots: [Frost Nova] and [Flame Dragon]. She had encountered more spells, but only one per element could be retained.
In the end, the golems hauled her off to Laen City’s prison.
Xi Bei, the Dandi Civilization’s female agent, would never have guessed that Bai Ye—who had just visited her in prison—would wind up behind bars herself barely two days later.
Fortunately, since Ye Bai had only fled without fighting back, her sentence was lighter: just one in-game day of confinement.
She obediently followed the guards to her cell. As befitted a main city’s prison, the conditions were better than even Bai Ye Village’s newly built cells—though this might also owe to the fact that those who caused trouble in the inner districts tended to be individuals of notable status or power.
Once locked in, Ye Bai wasted no time logging out.
Back in reality, she closed her eyes, sensing carefully. Then, a peculiar sensation washed over her.
Compared to before, she distinctly felt something new…
But only experimentation would confirm it. Taking a deep breath, Ye Bai willed the folded fluid sandbag before her to unfurl again.
After a moment’s consideration, she opted for the less conspicuous Frost Nova.
Unlike in-game instant casting, reality granted her finer control. Guiding her mental energy slowly, she targeted the sandbag and released—
The room’s temperature plummeted instantly.
[Room temperature dropping below freezing. Increase climate control output?]
[No]
The environmental alerts came first. Dismissing the prompt, Ye Bai focused on the sandbag.
A blue wave engulfed it, and she felt her mental energy manipulating thermal reactions in the air in ways she couldn’t fully grasp.
The sensation differed subtly from other magic. Rather than wielding the power herself, casting this skill felt as natural as breathing—yet also oddly like following a preset path.
"Crack… crack…"
Soon, the fluid sandbag froze into a rigid, ash-gray block, utterly unlike its original form. Even after Ye Bai withdrew her energy, it remained unchanged, failing to revert as it once would have.
She stepped forward, pressing a hand against it.
Cold, unyielding. Her personal terminal registered its temperature at -23°C.
In the past, such cold would have frostbitten her. But now, with C-rank mental fortitude and the [Tenacity] talent, it merely felt chilly.
Her terminal showed no signals from the sandbag. Every indication confirmed it had been irreparably damaged by her test.
When she’d hit it with the first-tier Ice Spike before, the sandbag had quickly reverted to fluid—let alone been destroyed.
Reflecting, Ye Bai tried to cast Frost Nova again but found herself unable. It was as though some essential guide had vanished.
However, when Ye Bai attempted to unleash another skill, "Flame Dragon," that familiar feeling of "I can do this" surged back once more.
After several attempts, Ye Bai confirmed conclusively that through the abilities of the Spellbreaker, she could "bring" skills from the myriad realms in an unconventional way.
Of course, the exhaustion brought on by the mental energy expenditure also reminded her that casting these spells—ones her original class couldn’t learn—required consuming real-world mental energy.
But what did all this imply?
If the myriad realms were a real world, and Ye Bai was using her own mental energy in this manner, it wouldn’t be entirely accurate to say she was extracting skills from the game. It was more like she had temporarily learned them. But if the myriad realms weren’t real, then how was this "imprinting" effect achieved?
Ye Bai’s thoughts deepened as she pondered for a while, only to find herself circling back to the fundamental questions: Why did the myriad realms enhance players’ mental energy? And why did allocating talent points affect her real-world body? She eventually set these questions aside, deciding not to dwell on them further.
Now that her hypothesis had been verified, it meant that any powerful, life-saving skills Ye Bai acquired in the myriad realms could also be applied in reality—effectively serving as an extra layer of security in case of emergencies.
Of course, this was merely a precaution, something to give her peace of mind. She was quite content with her current life—rapid progress in the game and tranquility in reality. The last thing she needed was any unexpected complications…
"Stop, no more thinking," Ye Bai muttered to herself. "The more I dwell on it, the more it feels like I’m setting myself up for disaster. Ugh, no, no, no!"
The mental energy expenditure reminded Ye Bai of her mana consumption issues. With a thought, she logged back into the game, returning to her prison cell.
This time, she opened her talent page and allocated the new talent point she’d earned at level 40 to [Awareness].
A flash of golden light enveloped her.
"Ugh…"
Even though she’d braced herself, Ye Bai couldn’t help but clutch her head and collapse to the ground. It felt as if her skin had been peeled away, exposing her flesh to the air—simultaneously icy, scorching, and excruciatingly painful.
The sensation lasted over ten seconds before Ye Bai finally exhaled sharply and logged out, returning to reality.
Back in the real world, she opened her eyes and wiped her face and forehead, now drenched in sweat and slightly grimy.
Ye Bai used high-tech molecular cleansing showers daily, so this state could only be attributed to the effects of upgrading her talent.
"Seriously? The whole ‘expelling impurities from the body’ effect that’s supposed to come with ‘cultivation breakthroughs’ didn’t happen when I upgraded [Fortitude], but now it shows up?"
As she washed off with water, Ye Bai focused on sensing the changes brought by upgrading [Awareness].
[Awareness] was a core talent in the third-tier progression, a must-have for players following the standard game progression. It increased energy regeneration from the base rate of 3 points per second to 10 points per second.
Without this boost, players in second-tier classes—where most skills cost 50 to 60 mana—would struggle with abysmal sustain, burning through potions after just a few rotations in combat.
Cosmic news had even reported cases of real-world psychics naturally awakening this talent.
Even with Mana Siphon, Ye Bai considered this talent essential.
The stronger her personal abilities grew, the more powerful skills she could acquire—but without sufficient mana reserves, she wouldn’t be able to use them.
As she attuned herself to the changes, a smile spread across Ye Bai’s face.
If her previous mental energy recovery had been passive and unconscious, like breathing, she could now genuinely perceive the cosmic energy in reality, ebbing and flowing like tides.
After upgrading [Awareness], she no longer relied on passive recovery. Instead, she could actively and deliberately replenish her mental energy in the real world—like drinking water, but on a much larger scale.
