Noob Player - Chapter 123

‘Learning Taekwondo in the game? That’s a new concept for sure.’ Shen looked at his right knee. “But will it help me? If it helps me, then sparring like this is no different than learning Taekwondo, right?”

“That’s true, actually, but you can’t learn and apply the creativity of Taekwondo in the fight if you don’t understand them. The same for other martial arts as well, so learning the martial arts gives you more advantages than just training your reaction.” Yue replied with a smile. “Do you want to give it a shot? I actually don’t know if that could happen. If so, Sky truly hides something big from us.”

Yue was saying this not from the gaming aspect but from the other aspects. If the gaming pod could be used to teach someone martial art, it could be used for many things. The era where people did everything from home would come true through Virtual Reality.

Of course, Shen did not understand that far about technology. He thought about it for a moment before replying. “Let’s give it a try.” He agreed to learn a few tricks of martial arts.

“Then let’s start now!” Yue immediately stood up excitedly and looked at Shen with a big smile. “We will make a fixed schedule for the sparring and the martial arts. Can you send me your empty schedule so that we can match our schedule?”

“I am free every day. I have nothing to do but play the game anyway.” Shen did not have a thing such as a schedule because he was free every day. “However, I prefer if we start the lesson at the same time as today. During the night of in-game time.”

“That’s my thought as well.” Yue nodded her head. “Then we don’t need to schedule if you are that free. I will be your sparring partner and also teach you a few martial arts every day. I am also free every day.”

“Good. There’s a significant advantage if I teach the lesson in Arena. You will be able to refresh your stamina, and I can teach you without taking a break. This is a big advantage of Virtual Reality.” Yue seemed to be more excited than himself, who was about to learn a cool martial art.

‘Maybe she is a martial art maniac?’ Shen thought to himself. He got up and reset his stamina, following her instruction. “Wait, don’t we get more advantage if you teach me on the main server? Who knows, we might increase our stats.”

“That’s actually a good idea.” Yue nodded her head. “But we need to find a better place for the lesson. I don’t want to teach you in front of others, so can you keep this a secret between us? It will be quite awkward if I teach you the martial art and not the others too. I am not that confident to teach many people for my first coaching. For now, let’s start the lesson in the Arena.”

Yue started from the basics, the stance. She taught him the basic stances such as; the fighting stance, the ready stance, back stance, and so on. He just realized there were so many stances in one single martial art. Amongst those stances, it was divided into more stances as well.

For example, the back stance had five different stances to form the back stance, and each stance had your feet positioned differently. It was hard to remember everything, but Yue told him this. “I am not going to teach you that stance yet. We will start from the very basics and advance slowly. You don’t have to memorize it because your body will do that job for you. I can’t explain it, but you will understand what I say later.”

After the stance, she taught him a kick, Front Snap Kick. Yue demonstrated the kick first to him, and he could hear a snap in the air from her kick. “Huh!? What’s that?” The kick could make a sound like that, making Shen’s body shudder slightly. On top of that, he saw how high she aimed the kick for. If he were standing in front of Yue, that kick would hit his throat.

Shen subconsciously covered his throat with his hand as he swallowed mouthful saliva. Stupid enough, he tried to imagine what it felt like to be hit by a kick that made a sound like that. He shook his head immediately and found out that Yue looked at him with a surprised expression as well.

“Did you hear the snapping sound, Shen?” Yue asked him. From her tone, Shen could tell that she did not know that her kick could make that sound. She asked just to make sure that she did not hear a thing.

“Yes, I did hear the snapping sound you made.” Shen nodded his head.

“This is amazing!” Yue’s eyes shone brightly. “I don’t think we can apply martial arts in a game like this. I don’t know the damage, but I think it’s quite deadly. What do you think, Shen?”

“Yes, that’s very deadly.” Shen nodded his head repeatedly. Then she saw she performed the same kick, but she lowered the target.

Snap!

Her kick made a snapping sound once again. If he positioned himself in front of Yue, that kick would hit his crotch. His balls went cold while shaking his head. ‘Make sure not to offend Yue. Not like I have a plan to piss her too

Clap!

Yue clapped her hand. “Alright, you can try the kick now. I want to see if you can comprehend from seeing me.” She smiled at him.

Shen copied her movement as he raised his right foot forward. The kick was quite simple in his eyes, kicking forward. “That’s wrong, Shen. That’s not how you do that. That’s not a Front Snap Kick, but a random kick.” Yue approached him and tapped his thigh with her palm. “You raised your knee like this.” Yue performed the kick again, but she did it step by step. “And then you snap your lower leg like this.”

Snap!

The sound was smaller than the previous demonstration, but it was still terrifying nevertheless. “Try it again.”

Shen nodded his head and followed her step by step. However, when he performed the kick. He could not produce the cool snapping sound as Yue did. “That’s a good start. If this is a reality, I may think you need some training on your legs, but since this is a game where stats matter, there’s no need for training like that. I see; this is another benefit of learning a martial art in the game.”

“Let’s try a few more kicks. I will teach a new trick later, but we have to perfect this move first. Step by step, maybe you can get a black belt like me.” Yue looked proud as she looked at her disciple.

Just like that, they spent their night sparring and learning (teaching) Taekwondo. He did not know how long he had been staying in The PVP Arena. He could not tell the time when he enjoyed sparring fighting and learning a cool martial art. He did not bother to look at the time when he logged out.

When he was out of the game, he looked at the right top corner of his gaming pod’s monitor, and it showed two-twenty, which meant he was spending seven hours or fourteen hours in the game with Yue. He did not feel like it was that long.

Shen turned off the gaming pod and came out. He immediately grabbed his Orange when he was out of the pod, and he had three missed calls and two messages. Out of three missed calls, two were from Dale, and one was Ming. The message was from Dale, asking him to go out for dinner.

He closed the message and opened the next message from Sister Mei Mei.

[I have booked the place, Sunday, at seven. We will go together from my home, and I will rent a car for us. Don’t you regret it, Shen :)]

Shen smiled and replied with, [Okay (Thumb up emoticon)]. After that, he put back the phone and threw himself to the bed. Even though he was not physically tired from playing them, he was still exhausted from playing the game that long. He closed his eyes, and a light snore came from him not long after he laid down on the bed.

*** ***

Just like that, Shen spent his days grinding his level by hunting the chickens and sparring against Yue by night. It was consistently like that, his days. It was not boring for him, because he got to spend his time with his friends.

Quickly Sunday arrived. “What are you doing, Shen? Get on!” Ming yelled at him from the car, telling him to get onto the car. His friend was so excited about the free food. Shen shook his head and messaged Yue.. [I can’t come for the sparring tonight because I have to go with my Uncle for dinner.]