Living Life As A Game: Through And Through

Without needing to hear it from Elizabeth herself, Amy understood how badly she wanted to harm her mom after learning that she had tested her affinity. Concerned and even fearful for her mother"s well being as she had never seen such concentrated killing intent, Amy cried out, "Stop!" Separating her hand from Elizabeth"s, Amy said, "I… I don"t need you to heal me if you want to hurt my family!"

Snapping out of her own personal issues, Elizabeth was about to curse Amy"s parents into oblivion as she felt nothing but disgust for people who would be so cruel to children; never mind their own flesh and blood. However, before she did or said anything, she caught her disparaging words by biting her lip. Instead, being a bit more civil, Elizabeth did her best to calmly explain, "S-she knew! She knew you were not suitable to practice the technique and still had you learn and cultivate it! How could that not upset you? To know that her interests in you taking on some family tradition or becoming a powerful heir are more important than your health… Doesn"t it grate on your nerves?"

"What do you know?! They… they never forced me to do anything! I… I just want to be a good daughter like my cousins… T-they"ve tried to make me learn other techniques, but I want to make them proud by practicing the clan"s signature method! If you want to get mad at someone, don"t bother my parents and stop treating me too, if that"s what you want..." Moving off the seat Elizabeth had given her to sit on while she healed her, Amy walked all the way over to the edge of Elizabeth"s block and just before she crossed it to leave, Elizabeth called out to stop her.

Apologetically, Elizabeth said, "I… I shouldn"t have jumped the gun... I"ll tell you what, if you come back… not only will I treat you, but I can also give you an Affinity for Yin before the Event ends." Thinking through the choices presented to her once more, Elizabeth, while certainly impacted by knowing the truth regarding Amy"s case, felt that the rewards for picking the first choice outweighed both the "rewards" of the second choice whilst also taking into account the potential risks.

Knowing fully well that all manner of horrific phenomena were on their way to unfolding on Earth, as a part of the impending Cataclysm, Elizabeth didn"t want to see the end of civilization if she could help it. She may have previously acted with top-of-the-line antisocial and borderline sociopathic behavior, but that was only because other people were a plague on her life which revolved in the world of games. Elizabeth was never an absolute misanthrope that wished to see humanity vanish into extinction. Moreover, world domination was never a goal of hers and even if it were, she was more than willing to bet that achieving it would only be an eventuality given the ridiculous path she had embarked on.

Additionally, that description that came with the Choice Quest, had a detail that caught her attention. "Sowing Karma" with others, while not a phrase she used regularly had its meaning resonate with her as she thought through whether or not she wanted to help Amy. Sure, Amy might only be a little Soldier Stage n.o.body now, but she was only five… As a five-year-old what kinds of traits had she thus far expressed?

First and foremost was that tenacity to bear through the pain of forcefully cultivating a technique that didn"t match her innate affinities and then ignore the painful side effects that constantly breaking her body inflicted. Then, there was the aspect of talent, as Amy, at only half a decade old, trained all the way up to the Soldier Stage. Lastly, even though they had only talked for a short time, Amy"s furious defense of her parent"s was more than a little impactful on Elizabeth. Possessing such valorous and gracious personality traits, the calculative part of Elizabeth"s personality felt it would be a safe bet to say that Amy would remember if she granted her the boon of Yin Affinity.

Stopping in her tracks, Amy asked, "Are you serious?" The capacity Elizabeth had to switch moods was truly impossible for her to understand. "One second she looked like she was ready to ma.s.sacre a city and the next she was apologizing and offering up something as precious as granting me an Affinity..."

"Yes, I"m serious. But! Because we"ve lost all this time bickering, I need to use my needles. Otherwise, I won"t be able to heal you and properly manipulate your Dantian to give you an affinity for Yin."

Cringing at the thought of being stabbed by Elizabeth"s needles, Amy took a deep breath before she slowly walked back. Although the thought of being pierced by needles scared her immensely, having already put up with the cold pains her "sickness" already put her through over the past year, Amy"s subconscious did its best to convince her that it would only be a little more pain. "I"ll just be a bit longer, and then… Then, not only will I not feel any more pain… but I"ll also be able to practice the Clan"s technique without getting sick..."

Sitting back down on her seat, Amy closed her eyes and told Elizabeth to do whatever was required to get through the pain as quickly as possible before sinking into a long period of anxiety. Feeling nothing but her clothes being moved around and the healing sensation of her pain fading away for several minutes, Amy eventually got over her anxiety and woke up to find that Elizabeth had already pierced several dozen needles into a Taiji Formation around her Dantian.

Stunned to find that there was absolutely no pain at all, Amy opened her eyes just in time to hear Elizabeth say, "You fragmentary meridian and acupoint channels have already been restored to perfect health. I"ve also already treated all the symptoms of Yin Corrosion and discarded all the chunks of solidified energy around your body. Now all that"s left is to give you that Affinity for Yin. But before I begin, I want to ask, is the Yin technique you"re practicing a Martial Art or a Cultivation method?"

Only conveying what was already known to the public, Amy responded by saying, "My Clan"s signature technique is divided up as a cultivation method that has special martial techniques ingrained in its foundation."

"Perfect! Then, just focus on the cultivation aspect of the technique so we can get this over with quickly." Upon concluding her words, Elizabeth waited for Amy to sink into a cultivation session before she activated the Taiji Formation of Needles to dilate Amy"s Dantian. Initially, Elizabeth thought of overcharging the dilated Dantian with her own Yin Magic, but since she still had a bit of time left, she decided to try Amy achieve affinity off her own efforts.

Naturally, with all the exposure the previously weathered Dantian had endured, after being dilated and supervised by Elizabeth, it didn"t take much longer than a couple minutes for an Affinity for Yin to manifest. Closing the activation points for the Taiji Formation, Elizabeth retrieved her needles with Amy still cultivating Yin as to not scare her. She left her in that state until Amy naturally woke up to the sounds of the buzzing that came with each Stage ending.

Jolted out of her cultivation, Amy immediately thought she would feel pain from jerking her body still full of needles, yet as she looked down and saw that her body was completely devoid of needles, she felt a mysticism for Elizabeth"s method of eliminating all sensation when treating her patients. Wanting to thank her but not being able as an attendant was already urging her to leave the arena, Amy had to yell as she was pulled away, "Miss! My name is Amy Dewington. Don"t be surprised if you hear someone from my family try to contact you later! My parent"s will surely want to thank you for treating me!!!"

Immediately after she stopped talking, the doors to the VIP judging area on the ground floor were closed and Elizabeth could no longer see or hear from her. Sighing, as she felt a tension escape her body, Elizabeth received a notification of the Choice Quest"s completion.

[Choice Quest 5: Expanding Contact (Complete)

Degree of Completion: Null

Difficulty: Incalculable

Choice 1) On occasion, when deemed appropriate, spread good fortune with others (✔)

Choice 2) Keep to yourself and the people within your immediate circle of intimacy (X)

Choice 1) Increases the world"s probability to survive future Cataclysmic Events by elevating the potential and power of the people you influence. However, you take the gamble of trusting others not to use the fortune granted onto them against you.

Choice 1) Affection Function Upgrade: Universal Status Alert]

"Ay! Totally didn"t expect such a sweet bonus reward~" Smiling and laughing as Elizabeth digested the use of her Affection Function"s upgrade, the people around her were disturbed by the psychotic tendencies she had shown thus far along the Medicinal Event. In unison, several hundreds and even thousands of people thought, "Only an insane person would switch between moods so randomly…"