Taking off his helmet, Lohan slowly reached out his hand and began to feel the physical changes he had undergone.
Not only had he risen from level 02 to level 03 that night, but he had also evolved several skills to a higher level.
If before he had felt only a subtle change when leaving the game, with only small details making his routine slightly different, this time the change was huge.
The same changes he felt in Elysium, he felt in a slightly weaker way in the real world as well!
"Unfortunately, I can’t quantify how much it has actually changed in me now, but I feel like I’ve leveled up in the real world too!" He thought in wonder as he looked at his own hand.
But the most surprising thing about it all was a new sensation he felt.
’It’s like... like I can feel the blood in my veins, but I’m sure it’s not blood...’ He thought confusedly, closing his eyes to feel it better. ’This is a very familiar feeling, similar to... SIMILAR TO MANA!’
The feeling, although familiar, was still different because his body was now solid.
The Mana in Halon’s body flowed freely, with him controlling it in any direction he wanted.
In the human body, however, the Mana followed a fixed path, flowing like blood in the veins and even resembling the visual representations he had seen in the other world about the Chakra paths that characters had.
Then a bold idea came to his mind.
Reaching out his hand, Lohan tried to reproduce the sensation he had felt dozens of times in the other world, controlling the Mana within himself to form a small arcane rune at his fingertips that slowly generated a small Ice Spike!
’No way...’
Having another idea, Lohan kept his hand extended forward and controlled the Mana within himself to reproduce another sensation.
Even without a real ’skill’ in this world, Lohan had used this skill in so many battles in Elysium that just as he digested biomass manually without relying on the skill, the skin on his hand also began to slowly change color with just precise manual control!
Just like the [Ice Spike], reproducing [Pigmentation Mimicry] was painfully slower than in the other world.
Perhaps because of the difference in biology? Perhaps because he was weaker than his Slime body? Perhaps he hadn’t completely merged? There were so many ’maybes’ that he just gave up thinking about it and let himself smile broadly.
It was a difficult night to fall asleep, as the excitement over the changes he was feeling kept him awake.
Having a normal, functional human body was already a gift that Lohan was grateful for every day, but having the possibility of integrating his Slime body into Elysium, which he practically used more than his human body at this point, and improving his body was an idea that wouldn’t let his heart calm down.
Fortunately, the fatigue he felt from the few hours of sleep he had been getting in recent days spoke louder, and his mind shut down.
-xXx-
When he woke up, it was still dark outside, probably still at least an hour before his usual wake-up time, but the feeling of power returned and Lohan woke up quickly.
Apart from Elysium, he wasn’t interested in any entertainment media in this world, so to pass the time, Lohan ate a nutritional solution and started exercising.
Last night he had increased his biomass gain by at least 40%, and this caused his nutrient absorption rate to skyrocket as well, to the point that within seconds of eating the nutritional solution, Lohan felt that he had absorbed everything and the energy in his body reached an unimaginable peak.
With nowhere to expend it, he set out to exercise.
Exercises that he could previously only do 10 reps of, with the gains accumulated in the last few days, he had already increased to sets of 25 reps for each exercise.
It was not yet at the level of human athletes, but the road ahead was bright.
Putting on his protective mask, which probably now only served to blend in with the crowd, Lohan covered his huge smile and went to college.
Unfortunately, without a stable source of income, he still could not miss classes, but that future was near.
Surprisingly, his classmate from the Lower Zone who played Elysium also got on that bus, and Lohan noticed the difference right away.
When the boy got on the bus, the biomass he absorbed from the air had increased considerably.
Apparently, the boy also noticed that something was wrong, because when he got on the bus, he froze, looked around surreptitiously, and decided to continue, squeezing himself between other passengers from the Lower Zone.
Lohan kept his eyes on him, trying to understand what had changed, because the feeling he had was somewhat familiar.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t figure out the reason for it before arriving at college and gave up.
The walk to class was normal as always.
With each passing day, people became more and more excited about Elysium, commenting on how realistic the game was, how fun it was to play, but how frustrating and painful it was to die and have the death penalty increase more and more.
There were even players with above-average bases acting as if they were desperate because when they died, they had lost that advantage, becoming normal like everyone else.
But Lohan noticed that despite their frustration, these players were just that, frustrated, not truly sad or desperate for losing something like that.
"Maybe they haven’t realized how valuable above-average status is..." He thought with a sigh, not really caring.
99% of the players in college were students from the Upper Zone, so for these people to lose some privilege in Elysium was good news for Lohan.
Upon entering the classroom, he was surprised to find Isabella Vance already there, sitting casually in one of the chairs pretending to listen to a group of girls talking about a handsome boy they met in Elysium.
Coincidentally, when the door opened, her gaze moved in that direction and she noticed Lohan.
Their eyes met for a fraction of a second, causing them both to freeze momentarily, feeling a strange familiarity, but Lohan quickly looked away and went to sit in his usual seat.
Even though he was curious about this strange feeling, facing someone who could literally end his life for not liking how she was looked at, Lohan didn’t dare to stare any longer and isolated himself again in the world of the Lower Zone students.
He didn’t notice that Isabella kept her gaze on him for a few more seconds before looking away and pretending to listen to what the girls around her were talking about.
But next to Isabella there was someone who noticed, and that person didn’t like it at all.
Not only because they were jealous of the attention Isabella had given to a beggar from the Lower Zone, but also because they already had reasons to dislike this smelly beggar.
Staring at Lohan for a few more seconds, this person clenched their fists and had an idea.