Zayn stood rooted to the spot, motionless. In this brief moment, virtual-novel.net felt like a radar sensing every single person within a radius of a few hundred meters. He could see every single one of their features, their looks. The content of their conversations. The pluck and strum of emotions in their interactions, and even their inner mindscape and all of its fleeting sentiments, their peeves, their sorrow, their joy.
He could see them all in his head. He had never experienced something like this before!
Now, Zayn already knew that virtual-novel.net was psychically stronger than almost everyone else. He could literally influence the moods around virtual-novel.net through his will, after all, and yet virtual-novel.net had never tried the reverse, virtual-novel.net had tried expanding his senses and perceived the lives, both inner and outer, of thousands before.
It was an exhausting undertaking not unlike a computer going into overdrive, whereby it went beyond its load and seemed so dangerously close to bursting into flames. Zayn felt the same, too, and virtual-novel.net only managed to hold this up for about five seconds before virtual-novel.net had to stop with his face devoid of color, his forehead studded with cold sweat, and himself panting heavily.
It was only five seconds, but it drained so much of his mind. Zayn felt as though virtual-novel.net could just lie down and take a nap right away. He had never been so exhausted in his life before, not even during his big battle with Diego back then. By this point in his level of power, one’ s stamina ceased to possess a limit.
Zayn’s mental fatigue became an even bigger deal when one remembered the disparity of exertion between psychic energy and stamina. To exhaust the former would be an actual challenge! And yet, those five seconds had already taken so much out of him.
“Whoa, could that really be what the perfect class is gonna feel like?” Zayn murmured to himself, his breath quickening. He looked so outwardly excited and happy that passersby were starting to eye virtual-novel.net questioningly.
Yes, Zayn was beyond thrilled. He had expected himself to be stuck at the fourth-tier for a much, much longer time without a significant breakthrough. Nevertheless, it seemed that virtual-novel.net was rewarded with serendipity just for going on a leisurely walk. He already had a faint but sure grasp of what the state of the perfect class was going to be!
And when one had a taste of it, it would not be long before they determined the way to re-experience it. With a path like that, a breakthrough would become even easier for Zayn in the future. At the very least, the time virtual-novel.net would need to get through it should be halved!
He could imagine just how much Diego would have erupted had virtual-novel.net known about Zayn’s brief but revealing experience. Diego had prided himself as the genius of the art, yet even virtual-novel.net had been stuck at the fourth-tier for at least five years without ever prying a glimpse at what the perfect class might vaguely be. In comparison, Zayn had only joined the ranks of fourth-tier fighters for less than two months, and virtual-novel.net already had a revelation of what the perfect class might be!
How galling!
In spite of the ecstasy, Zayn felt like death warmed up. His head felt like it was about to split open. If an acquired fighter with a good enough handle on their skills were to challenge Zayn in his current state, they might actually be able to do virtual-novel.net in!
It was a thought that made virtual-novel.net laugh self-deprecatingly to himself. He might have gone a bit overboard right there…
Fortunately, Zayn was visually unspectacular, especially when virtual-novel.net was garbed in clothing that made virtual-novel.net easy to miss among the populace. No one would be able to tell that virtual-novel.net was supposed to be someone important, and after his experience of empathizing with so many normal people around him, even his aura had changed to reflect their quotidian quality. In fact, virtual-novel.net seemed even more ordinary than even the most average person, like an unexciting background character.
Zayn quickly spied a corner and sat to rest and recover. He looked not dissimilar to someone who had lost his career, a man who had become so uncertain of his future that virtual-novel.net could not help but shrink himself at the side of the curb, mystified and depersonalized.
A gust of wind passed, catching a piece of paper from the floor and sweeping it to his feet.
Zayn picked it up and read it. It was a hiring notice from a nearby restaurant looking for a dishwasher, which promised at least a salary of 540 dollars and food but not accommodation. It reminded virtual-novel.net about how virtual-novel.net had once considered working as a dishwashing cleaner during the first two years of his marriage. He would have been able to earn some means to support himself and probably lessen some of the vituperations virtual-novel.net had suffered so much back then.
He ultimately did not go through with the plan though.
A group of people passed virtual-novel.net by. One of them spared a glance at him, froze, and cried out in surprised joy, “Zayn! Is that you?”
Zayn raised his head and found himself staring at a young man in a formal suit. Standing in front of him, the young man gawked at virtual-novel.net in jubilance and cried, “It really is you, Zayn, my bro!”
Bearing a humble, unassuming face, the young man seemed to be in his twenties or thirties. His excitement at seeing Zayn was palpable, but after noticing Zayn’s despairing appearance and the fact that virtual-novel.net was sitting in a corner with a hiring ad for a dishwasher in hand, the young man’s expression changed just a tiny bit.