Chapter 88: It's Happening

"I don't like how you are hurting yourself on purpose so I can train my healing," Zhenzhen expressed in frustration. "I can hear you are in pain and I hate it." 

Liu Ye rubbed her back to calm her down. "Everything is alright. We will only continue till you are level 20 and then we will stop, what do you think? It doesn't even hurt that much and it lasts for less than a second." 

"The fact that you are doing it for me is making it worse. I don't want to improve faster if that means hurting you," Zhenzhen replied sternly and gazed into Liu Ye's eyes before he even said anything. "This is not negotiable." 

"What is the problem?" Xu Yue questioned as she reached their position. 

Zhenzhen didn't spare him and announced, "This dummy wants to hurt himself on purpose so I can train faster. I can hear him hiss in pain every time he gets hit and I hate it." 

Liu Ye thought that Xu Yue would understand him and say it wasn't that big of a deal when she instantly frowned. "What? How are you feeling pain?" 

"I mean, isn't it how the game works? You feel a bit of pain when you get hurt in-game," Liu Ye questioned while raising his eyebrows. "It doesn't disturb me though since you only feel it for—"

"Wait, wait, wait, hold on," Xu Yue stopped him right there while her expression turned into shock. "Are you trying to tell me that you have been feeling pain each time you get hit? So when I killed you earlier, you felt as if you were burning and dying?" 

"Isn't that normal?" Liu Ye replied back with a question only to get shocked himself. "Hey, why are you crying…? It's not that big of a deal. Don't you feel the same?" 

Xu Yue's eyes were watering but after his question, she started crying with her lip shivering. She reached out and pulled his head into his chest while caressing him gently. 

"I'm so sorry baby… I didn't know…" Xu Yue muttered in a pained voice. "I should have noticed earlier… I can't imagine I made you go through so much without realizing anything." 

She pulled him up and kissed his confused face. "You didn't go through the tutorial or explore the settings in-game, did you?"

"Well, I didn't have time so I skipped it," Liu Ye replied honestly. "Why? Don't tell me you don't feel any pain in the game?" 

"Fuck…" Xu Yue cursed under her breath and ordered, "Go into your profile settings and check for yourself." 

Zhenzhen was already tearing up hearing them talk so he quickly opened the settings and sure enough, one of the tabs was named Character Settings. When he opened it and saw he could adjust his pain value, Liu Ye almost flipped. 

He has been playing on 50% default this whole time. 

"So that's why no one else was acting like they were in pain…" Liu Ye muttered as he rubbed his temples. It was quite stupid but he couldn't go back in time anymore. 

He didn't hesitate and adjusted his pain value all the way to the lowest 5%. Compared to 50%, that would mean 10 times less pain. 

"It was the first and most important thing shown in the tutorial. I should have expected that you would skip it," Xu Yue lamented while Zhenzhen simply dove into his arms again, unwilling to let him go. 

"I guess it is my bad," Liu Ye admitted as he hugged them both. "Don't worry, I'm already used to the pain so it didn't bother me that much." 

His words only made Zhenzhen tighten her grasp and he couldn't get free until minutes afterward. 

"Anyway, let's continue. Let's move to the higher-level zone. We already cleared the monsters from this area," Liu Ye announced, already eager to return to battle. "Now that I don't feel much pain, there shouldn't be a problem, right?" 

Humph!

Zhenzhen pretended to pout but she quickly cheered up with a couple of tickles. She knew Liu Ye would do anything for her so it would be impossible to stop him. 

"Alright, let's get you two a few more levels before we leave."

Liu Ye didn't take any Experience this time and gave out everything to the girls. Although it took them longer to kill, they were getting better from minute to minute. By the time the servers were about to close, Puffy was a one-man army that no one could touch. The only choice for the Monsters was to kill Zhenzhen to stop it but Liu Ye was there to protect her. 

"Ahh…" Liu Ye breathed out deeply after taking off his helmet. "That was a long day." 

He wasn't even a bit tired but he still felt weird after leaving a game. He was asleep while playing but he was technically active for the last three days without any break. It seemed like he would have to get used to his vivid dreams from now on. 

The sun was already up so Liu Ye decided to get up from the bed only to stop halfway after noticing a bottle of water on his nightstand. He hesitated for a moment but then extended his arm at the bottle with a familiar motion. 

The bottle didn't even budge. 

He tried even harder and used all of his focus on the bottle in hopes to see even a bit of movement in the water but again, nothing happened. 

"What am I doing…?" Liu Ye muttered to himself as he rubbed his eyes to get read of his crazy thoughts. Katherine's words caused him to believe he can awaken in real life and now he couldn't get it out of his mind. 

He finally got up and took a cold shower to get his mind right on track. Too bad, the water couldn't stop bothering him. 

'Why can I feel it but can't move it?' Liu Ye lamented as water passed through his fingers. Just like yesterday, he could feel some connection with the water but this time it was much stronger. 

It felt too surreal to give up on it so even after he left his room to meet the girls, Liu Ye took the bottle with him to try some more. He had nothing to lose and no one could read his mind to think he was crazy. 

"Good morning," Liu Ye greeted as Xu Yue opened the door and she immediately pulled him inside. She was only wearing her sexy black lingerie when she wrapped herself around his body and began to kiss him on his neck. 

"You have a lot of energy this early in the morning," Liu Ye commented as he held her naked waist. She looked like she was drugged with some horny pills that made her obsessed with him. 

"You smell nice… I want to eat you," Xu Yue expressed seductively and glided towards his lips. She was suddenly going all out while slipping her hands under his shirt which forced him to halt her. 

"Wait, where is Zhenzhen?" He questioned while pulling her away. She didn't reply quickly and instead drew him towards the sofa and forced him to sit down.

"She is in the bathroom, showering," Xu Yue replied casually and climbed on top of him. "Don't worry, she is not going to see us."

"Listen, this is not the time for this," Liu Ye informed but she continued to kiss him all over. He was finally forced to place his water bottle to the side and tossed her on the sofa to pin her down.

"What's going on?" Liu Ye questioned as he noticed her looking at him with burning desire. 

"I don't know why but I am so horny today," Xu Yue explained while breathing heavily. My whole body feels like it's on fire and a cold shower didn't help at all." 

Huh?

Liu Ye squinted his eyes as he checked her temperature and sure enough, she was burning. "Did you get sick?" 

"I don't think so," Xu Yue shook her head. "I feel fine aside from the fact that my body is begging for you." 

He couldn't help but reach down between her legs and she was clearly soaking wet as if she just left the shower. 

"Ahhh, there…" Xu Yue moaned loudly and grabbed his arm. "Hold it… It somehow feels refreshing when you touch me. Seems like you can extinguish my fire."

"Wait…" Liu Ye suddenly looked at the water bottle on the coffee table and had a realization. "Maybe it's because you master Fire in the game?" 

Xu Yue froze momentarily as she looked at him in surprise. "Do you think it's happening already?" 

He pulled himself up and grabbed the bottle. "You mean the awakening? I have been trying all morning but I can't seem to move it." 

He opened the bottle to show her but once again nothing happened. 

"Let me try…" Xu Yue muttered but no matter how many times she tried, no flames came out of her palm. "I guess I haven't awakened yet, but the flames in my body..." 

"So it's real?" Liu Ye questioned but Xu Yue wasn't able to reply. 

They suddenly heard Zhenzhen's scream from the bathroom.