Roland was now energetic every day, partly because he slept early and partly because he exercised every day.

The miaodao technique was definitely not simple. Waving it hundreds of times every day could be an arduous task, not to mention the regular training on movement.

The third reason was that Roland’s mental power had soared compared to a year ago.

His body in the game, undoubtedly, had unbelievable mental power, but his body in reality had higher mental power than average people did, too.

So, he did not feel drowsy at all when he woke up. He was in the clearest state of mind the moment he opened his eyes.

Sitting at the edge of the bed, he looked at the black glass cup on the table and snapped his fingers. A blue hand appeared out of nowhere, seized the cup, and slowly delivered it to Roland’s right hand.

When Roland grabbed the cup, the blue hand vanished in the morning sunlight as glimmering blue dust.

It was Hand of Magic… or the ultimately weakened version of it.

Such a spell carried no damage. It was even slow for delivery purposes. However… this was reality.

What did it mean if one could cast spells in reality?

That was exactly the reason why Roland was worried in the game last night.

It was indeed worth celebrating that he could cast spells, but he hadn’t learned a lot yet. What if the game authorities shut off the server because of the pressure?

He had taken this ability from the game. What if he couldn’t learn more knowledge and tricks of the magic from there?

“I hope that the company can endure a few more years.” Roland sighed.

Ever since he spotted the weird ball of energy in the ancestral hall, Roland had been searching for similar energies in the past year, only to no avail.

But he had been practicing the arts of Nourishment of Life without any interruption.

Perhaps because of his familiarity with mental power in the game, he was able to apply the mental power that he cultivated through Nourishment of Life in reality.

More importantly, he could absorb the magic power in the air with mental power.

Though magic power was pitifully rare in reality, it was not nonexistent.

Roland had accumulated magic elements from the air for half a year before he finally stored enough to cast Hand of Magic.

And it was the ultimately weakened version.

There wasn’t much magic power in reality, which was probably why there were few people with superpowers in reality.

Roland didn’t go to the saber arts club this day. Instead, he searched for news on the game company.

Though some news had been blocked, Roland was able to infer a lot of things from what he had access to.

Exactly as Vincent said, the game company was under barrage. Even the share prices of Penguin Corporation had plummeted.

After reading the news, Roland leaned against the back of his chair, wondering what he could do.

Eventually, he realized, to his disappointment, that there was nothing he could do.

In reality, he was just an ordinary person without power or influence on anything.

So, the only thing that he could do was acquire as much knowledge and magic tricks from the game as possible.

As long as he learned enough, he would still be able to apply his magic knowledge to reality even if the game was shut down someday.

However… Roland also realized that his pessimism might be ungrounded. Whoever produced this game couldn’t be scared of any regular old pressure.

But it couldn’t be wrong to be prepared for the worst.

After he made the decision, he began to practice Nourishment of Life.

He had to double the time in Nourishment of Life later in order to increase his mental power in reality, so that he could understand and apply the magic knowledge from the game.

Soon, night fell. Roland finished his half-day training and washed up, before he entered the game again.

The following days in the game were rather monotonous. Roland conducted experiments in the Magic Tower every day and checked up on the new apprentices now and then.

Occasionally, he would spend some quality time with Andonara. Though he couldn’t really have sex with her, Andonara, as a young woman who had received special lessons from the royal family before her marriage, knew a lot of ways to play.

In the meantime, Andonara made a fortune by helping the players transform into Great Swordsman.

This dull but busy life lasted about a month, until an event was exposed on the forum, shocking everybody, including Roland.

A sheriff player asked for help on the forum.

The sheriff was hired by Winterwind. It was one of the results of the royal family’s divide-and-conquer policy.

But the player treated his job solemnly. After all, he was paid regularly every month, and he had a bunch of NPC soldiers as his subordinates. He was more successful and powerful here than he was in reality.

However, for reasons he didn’t know, the guys of Jalan Temple and Silver Wings all came to Winterwind.

Also, those two parties were in conflict. At first, they were fighting on a hill outside of the city, and the sheriff, with his men, looked at the intruders in fear.

The players caused such a racket that everybody in the city was scared.

But as they fought on, and after multiple deaths and resurrections, they really burst into fury.

Eventually, Winterwind was involved in the battle.

The resurrected players fought right near the Temple of Life. Soon, the whole of Winterwind became their battlefield.

Though the players had intentionally kept a distance from the civilians, it was not easy for them to pay enough attention to outsiders when they were enraged.

The spellcasters, in particular, could easily hurt civilians by accident with their area skills.

The archers might accidentally shoot civilians too.

Even Warriors might crash into a house, causing civilian casualties if they missed their target during their charge.

Some civilians tried to escape, but more hid at home, too scared to come out.

After all, where could they possibly flee to?

There was no food or shelter for them outside. Because it was early winter, they might be frozen in the frost.

The civilians were not professionals. They were less sturdy against unfavorable circumstances.

The sheriff cried in his video that more than three hundred civilians had been killed, and that he had no time to calculate the number of wounded. He called for someone to help the ordinary people in Winterwind and stop the players from fighting in the city.

The post immediately attracted the attention of the players, and those two guilds were reprimanded by other players too.

Normally speaking, the players who were accused on the forum would lay low after they stirred public indignation.

However, the two guilds did not stop at all. Instead, they fought harder and harder.

The other players were all confused about why the two guilds hated each other so much.

But then, an anonymous player threw a bomb on the forum.

“Although I’m a member of one of the guilds, my conscience can’t stand it anymore as I watch the innocent civilians fall. Let me tell you the reason. Jalan Temple and Silver Wings discovered a high-purity gold mine on the hill outside of Winterwind. They’re fighting for the gold mine.”

At this point, more than a thousand civilians had been killed in Winterwind.