---Third POV---

  Looking at the glowing orb flying around Luminaris, ProGamer_Daddy's eyes were almost dazzled.

  "What is the young goddess doing? Aren't we here to level up?" he asked.

  "I don't know. I tried saying hello, bowing, even usies," Logan replied with a shrug. "But it didn't seem ter any keywords. Wait, hold on, it worked!"

  He immediately straightened up as he saw the game panel automatically pop up.

  So it turned out...

  When Luminaris was bestowing blessings upohree believers, he discovered that these three silly followers only wanted him to teach them magic.

  Ridiculous!

  Ary-level spell could never pare to the value of a divine blessing.

  During their jourhe three of them had poked at him more thaimes! Ugh, these short-sighted followers!

  And to make things worse, Viktor and Edgar were still lurking and watg like predators.

  Left with no choice, he angrily decided to finish the task Viktor had given first. 30 divine power were deducted from Viktor's system panel.

  ---Logan's POV---

  I watched as a burst of golden light erupted from the three of us, and a new panel appeared in front of me.

  [Please select your initial skill:- Fireball- Wind Manipution- Holy LightNote: Your initial skill will determine your future css tendencies. Please choose carefully.]

  I opehe details for each skill, carefully sidering my options.

  Fireball was a simple attack magic, focused purely on damage. Its career progression was unclear.

  Wind Manipution enhanced speed and agility, likely leading to csses like assassin er.

  Holy Light could attad defend, healing the user while also damaging dark-aligned creatures.

  Dark-aligned creatures… oh, our fa leader.

  Corresponding careers would be healer or warrior.

  After weighing my options carefully, I settled on Fireball.

  My current uanding of Aeltia wasn't deep enough to determine what kind of css I might want ter. Fireball suited me best for now.

  With my low level, I desperately needed a bat skill. Wind Manipution might only help me run faster, and Holy Light didn't seem particurly useful at the moment.

  After seleg my skill, I felt a rush of memories flood into my mind. It seemed like a memory of a child learning to read a book. The experience felt both long and fleeting.

  It was like haviricity flow through your veins, but... warm? Alive?

  As the flood of information slowly subsided and I came bay senses, all I could recall was a lengthy intation.

  A fmes that dan midnight's breath, hear my call through ember's depths.

  Let the fire of creation flow through mortal hands, ighe spark of power that ands!

  But my body remembered more—the process of magiergy flowing through me, and the nuanced rhythm of the t in my throat…

  An untrolble feeling of power made me swallow hard.

  "Ignis Spiritus... Fireball!"

  A small fme appeared at the tip of my middle finger.

  So this was what it felt like to use supernatural powers through your own body?

  So mysterious, so addictive!

  Although the fme was small, leaving me slightly disappointed, I remembered reading ies that spells would grow stronger with practid could even evolve.

  In other words, I could grow my magic. When I mastered it, the fireball could grow into a massive fireball—or even a rain of fireballs.

  It was all up to me!

  The sense of freedom and growth pletely outweighed my initial disappoi.

  The sound of two rade notifications caught my attention. I quickly went over. "Have you chosen your skills?"

  Garble nodded. "I pn to go for a solo assassin build, so I picked Wind Manipution."

  He murmured a t under his breath. Suddenly, his body became a blur, moving behind me in just two seds before returning to his inal spot.

  "Holy... Did anyone see where he went?" I gasped.

  "Do it again!" ProGamer_Daddy called out.

  Garble ched his fist, clearly pleased. "I only maintain this state for five seds right now, but my speed rivals that of a car!"

  "Magic… truly amazing!" I excimed ihe Wind Manipution skill is so generous with its initial effects."

  With such speed, its offeential might even surpass Fireball.

  I turamer_Daddy. "What about you?"

  "This, uh..." He scratched his head. "I was going to pick Fireball, but I figured you'd probably choose it too. There's only the three of us ia test, and overpping skills wouldn't be great fression."

  "Plus, my leg cramped really badly retly—it hurt like hell. So I just went with Holy Light, si has healing effects."

  We nodded in uanding. We remembered how his leg had been so painful that he couldn't help transport wood earlier—it had taken all three of us to carry it back.

  He stretched out his leg and did a couple of high-knee exercises, way too delighted. "Look, my leg is pletely healed now!"

  "That's great. Now we've got a mage, an assassin, and a healer." I said happily. "But... It's just that my Fireball… sigh, it might take some time to develop…"

  The others' skills could give them the speed of a car or instantly heal injuries, but my skill... was barely better than a cigarette lighter.

  ProGamer_Daddy leaned in curiously. "What's wrong? Is Fireball not w well?"

  I forced a smile aended my right hand, showing the flickering fme on my middle finger—so small it looked like it might go out any sed.

  "..."

  Garble patted my shoulder. "It's okay. At least your skill has great edic potential."

  "What?! Even you are making jokes now?" ProGamer_Daddy gasped in mock horror, taking a step back. "You 't possibly be Garble. Say it—what kind of mimister are you?"

  "..."

  With ProGamer_Daddy joking around, my earlier frustration quickly dissipated. "I'm not upset. With Viktor as my example, I'll definitely reach that level eventually."

  Thinking about that put me at ease.

  "Exactly! Just don't fet to look out for your tank and healer, okay?"

  "Don't worry, I've got your back!"

  I hadn't even noticed when Viktor and Luminaris had left, too absorbed in our excitement over the new skills.

  ---Third POV---

  Viktor opened his system panel.

  F the three pyers to "prehend" their beginner spells had cost him 30 divine power.

  On top of that, Luminaris had secretly spent 3 more points with his tacit approval to bless the pyers.

  This left Viktor with just 20 divine power.

  Not much left…

  Let's see how much divine power the pyers provide tomorrow… Viktor muttered to himself.

  For the first time, he genuinely hoped that his followers would gee more divine power.

  ---Logan's POV---

  We used the remaining time before logging off to focus on practig our spells.

  Unfortunately, we were all beginners at magic. After just two or three repetitions, we'd pletely drained ical energy.

  "Is anyone else seeing two of everything?" I mumbled.

  "I 't feel my arms..." ProGamer_Daddy groaned.

  "At least your healing should help with that," Garble pointed out.

  The side effeagic depletion were really severe. I felt even more exhausted than when I'd been hauling wood earlier that day.

  My mind was clouded with sleepiness, temptio log off. Each time my visio bck, I forced myself to reect.

  My fatigue became so overwhelming that when Viktor served us a meat-based meal ter, I couldn't even taste it.

  After finally addressing my character's hunger, I was eventually booted offline.

  ---

  After removing the gami, I felt a surge of vitality sweeping away the exhaustion that had settled into my body.

  I once again marveled at the realism of icles of Aeltia, as I had tless times in the game, "This game is absolutely mind-blowing!"

  But even with the ive buffs in the game gohe fatigue from pying aire day wasn't something my body could escape from... I moved my neck.

  Huh?

  "I pyed games all day, and I'm not tired at all?"

  Not only that, but I felt the kind of fort o after a deep, refreshing sleep. This doesn't make sense... I should be exhausted.

  Having spent years sitting in front of a puter, I had developed a serious cervical spine issue. Even if I rested properly, it was rare for me to sleep as well as I did today.

  I stared at the gami in my hands like it riceless treasure, turning it over carefully to examine every detail. This wasn't just a gami!

  It ractically a godsend for insomniacs!

  "ernal power source, minimal heat geion... How is this even possible?" I muttered, running my fingers along the smooth surface.

  I was willing to bet that even if the game itself turned out to be terrible, this sleep-enhang effect alone would be enough to vince wealthy buyers to snag the helmet without g about the price.

  "But now that I've rested so much, what should I do?" I muttered to myself as I powered on my puter. "e on, you a beast. Just one more year of service, that's all I ask."

  The startup animation looped endlessly on the s.

  Wide awake and filled with energy, sleep was no longer an option, so I had to find something to keep myself busy.

  Based on my in-game fatigue meter, my character wouldn't wake up for at least a full day and night in the real world. icles of Aeltia had this one major fw—the realism of the ive statuses was way too intense.

  If your character passed out, there was no logging ba until they recovered.

  Which meant that I probably wouldn't be able to log in at all tomorrow.

  Well, that works out, I thought.

  In two days, I o update my video el anyway. But after experieng icles of Aeltia, I had pletely lost i in pying any ames.

  Holding my head in frustration, I let out a deep sigh. "Why 't I just py icles of Aeltia forever?"

  I screamed in protest internally. AAAAAHHHHH!

  In the end, my dreams had to bow to reality.

  "Sigh, I still o eat… I'd better look for a new game."

  My puter was an a relic, slow as mosses when booting up. But I had no pints—it was reliable for video editing and saved me a ton of money on an upgrade.

  Finally, after enduring the agonizingly long startup animation, my jaw dropped when a pop-up appeared on the s.

  [SpeedBoost Pro Alert!][Warning: Your startup time (20 minutes) is slower than 98.7% of systems in yion!][Click here to INSTANTLY boost your PC performance!][Auto-s reeime in Munich: 3:05 PM]

  "WHAT? It's only 3 PM?!"

  My eyes nearly popped out of my head. I immediately got up and opehe heavy curtains in my room.

  The moment, sunlight flooded the room, blindingly bright.

  Now I had no choice but to believe it.

  I calcuted the time I'd spent in the game. There was no in-game clock, but the game panel recorded the hours I had been online.

  I distinctly remembered cheg the panel right before logging out—it showed 14 hours of pytime.

  The game servers had u 8 AM, which meant in-game time rogressing twice as fast as real-world time.

  "No way… This pany actually developed time-acceleration teology?!" My heart ounding so hard that it almost felt numb. I had genuinely spent 14 hours in the game.

  Looking at this from a broader perspective, wouldn't this kind of teology essentially extend human lifespans?

  "icles of Aeltia, what other surprises are you hiding from me?" I murmured to myself, my gaze plex.

  This time, I had truly hit the jackpot with the game's hype.

  I had a strong hunch that icles of Aeltia was destio go viral. And as one of the first beta testers, I stood to gain the most from it.

  Before that, however, I o ect with the other two beta testers.

  As one of only three partits, we had agreed to form a team, so exging tafo outside the game was a must.

  I already had the handle of one of them, ProGamer_Daddy. I created a new group chat and invited all three of us to join, ensuring smoother unication.

  To make my uping game reendation video, my personal experience alone wouldn't be enough.

  The teology in icles of Aeltia was too advaoo revolutionary. The perspectives of the other two testers were crucial to filling in any gaps in my uanding.

  "I just hope they'll cooperate," I muttered nervously as I began drafting an introdu for my group message.

  Just then, I noticed something surprising—ProGamer_Daddy was actively chatting in my fan group.

  And not just chatting—he was arguing with several other active members. And judging by the messages popping up, they seemed to be discussing icles of Aeltia.

  I quickly opened my fan group and scrolled through the chat history to see what was going on.

  ---

  [GameLord420]: Ugh, it's s! Why is the group so dead today?

  [MemeKnight]: Isn't it obvious? Because NeverShowOff is irrelevant now.

  [GameLord420]: Not like he was ever popur to begin with, right?

  o see my fans are as supportive as ever...

  [GameLord420]: Wait, I remember now! Didn't ProGamer_Daddy say he was going to live-text his experieh a new game today?

  [GameLord420]: It's already the afternoon, aill hasn't shown up!

  [Actually_Hitler]: What new game?

  [GameLord420]: That knockoff game ridiherworld Revolution's coattails from a few days ago. The oh the horribly doe.

  [GameLord420]: You were there for that, weren't you?

  [Actually_Hitler]: Oh, yeah! Now that you mention it… @ProGamer_Daddy, Great Daddy of all Nations, where are you?

  [ProGamer_Daddy]: Ta-da, the main character has arrived! Sorry, everyohe game was just too good—I pletely fot!

  [LootGoblin]: You actually mao summon him? I was trying to get him earlier for tips on passing engineering courses, and he ignored me!

  [ProGamer_Daddy]: Shut up, shut up! If you use my stories to flirt with girls one more time, I swear I'll track you down through the i!