I Can Only Cultivate In A Game-Chapter 390: A Message

The Yellow Zone was where things started to get serious.

Qi consumption increased noticeably. The beasts were smarter, moved in packs, and coordinated their attacks. Cultivators below Mid Core Formation Realm struggled to survive here for long.

Mistakes were punished quickly.

Victor stopped pacing as the mental image of the red zone appeared in his mind.

This was where his expression darkened.

The Red Zone wasn’t just dangerous... it was suffocating.

Breathing drained qi.

Moving drained qi.

Fighting drained qi at an exponential rate.

For cultivators below mid Nascent Soul Realm, it was a death sentence.

Back then, when he’d stumbled into it...

He had been below Nascent Soul Realm.

He got cornered.

Trapped for days.

Barely alive...

He could still remember the exhaustion. The desperation. The way his qi reserves had felt like sand slipping through his fingers no matter how carefully he rationed them.

It was there he had encountered the Shadow-Eyed Moon Serpent.

To make matters worse, dying there also meant respawning there.

He would have kept losing cultivation progress if he died which would in turn weaken him till he lost everything.

Victor clenched his fist slowly.

"...But now," he said quietly, "I’m above Nascent Soul Realm."

Soul Transformation was an entirely different existence.

He got a sudddn burst of curiosity and wondered how would the Red Zone feel now?

And beyond that...

The Black Zone

A place even Void Tribulation Realm cultivators treated with caution. Survivable, yes—but only barely. One wrong step, one misjudgment, and even an elder could disappear without a trace.

And then—

The No-Man Zone.

Unrecorded.

Unmapped.

Untouched.

A region so dangerous that even rumors refused to describe it.

Victor exhaled.

"Well," he muttered as his lips curved into a faint smile. "looks like the system wants to see how far I’ve really come."

He turned toward the courtyard exit.

It was time to leave the safety of Violet Springs Sect once more.

This time, not as the boy who barely survived the Bloodshade.

But as a Soul Transformation Realm cultivator—

Ready to test whether the hunting grounds still deserved their reputation.

...

Victor left his core disciple courtyard just as the morning mist was lifting from Violet Springs Sect with pale light spilling across tiled roofs and floating bridges. The sect was already alive.

He barely took three steps before the first voice rang out.

"Big Brother Fang!"

Victor sighed internally.

Another followed almost immediately. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

"Big Brother Fang, congratulations on breaking through!"

"Big Brother Fang, Elder Mo said you stabilized perfectly!"

"Big Brother Fang, is it true you’re already Soul Transformation Realm?!"

He kept walking, offering nods here and there with a cordial expression but inwardly, he couldn’t help but find it faintly surreal.

’Three year ago, half these people wouldn’t have spared me a glance...’

Now they parted instinctively as he passed, eyes filled with awe, respect, and in some cases, barely concealed envy.

A Soul Transformation Realm core disciple, under two hundred years old.

That alone was enough to stir the sect.

If they knew the truth that Fang Chen was barely twenty-one in Ascendant Realms time... or worse, that Victor Revenant was only seventeen in his original world...

He exhaled softly.

They’d probably think the system glitched.

He crossed one of the jade bridges leading toward the sect’s outer ring when a more familiar type of presence fell into step beside him...

a faint UI shimmer that only other players unconsciously gave off.

"Damn," a voice said with an easy laugh. "Didn’t expect to see you just walking around like this."

Victor turned his head slightly.

The young man beside him looked to be in his late teens with short black hair, slightly sharp eyes, dressed in inner-disciple robes that hadn’t quite adapted to his posture yet.

The name floating above his head made him unmistakably a player.

"Fang Chen, right?" the guy continued. "I’m Jin Kade."

Victor nodded. "—Fang Chen."

Jin Kade grinned. "Yeah, yeah. Hard to forget that name now. You’re literally the talk of the sect."

Victor raised an eyebrow but didn’t respond.

Jin didn’t seem to mind.

"I mean seriously," Jin went on with animated gestures. "You vanished for over a year, come back, and suddenly you’re Soul Transformation Realm? Meanwhile I’m still stuck at late Core Formation wondering if I missed a hidden quest chain or something."

Victor glanced at him. "Some people miss opportunities."

Jin winced theatrically. "Ouch. Fair. Still hurts though."

They walked together toward the outer gates, Jin matching Victor’s pace effortlessly.

"So," Jin continued, lowering his voice slightly, "you registered for the Hidden Legacy Realm exploration, right?"

Victor didn’t answer immediately.

"Yes," he said finally.

Jin’s eyes lit up. "Figures. Man, if I were even Nascent Soul Realm, I’d have registered too. That thing’s going to be insane. Imperial-level legacies, ancient formations, probably death traps everywhere—my kind of fun."

Victor gave him a flat look. "Most people don’t define fun that way."

Jin laughed. "That’s because most people haven’t respawned enough times."

That earned him a faint huff of amusement from Victor.

Despite himself, Victor found the conversation... grounding.

It had been a while since he’d spoken casually with someone from his own world—someone who didn’t see him as an emperor’s bloodline heir, a savior, or a walking calamity.

"So where you headed?" Jin asked as they neared the sect’s outer boundary.

"Bloodshade Hunting Grounds, Red Zone," Victor replied without hesitation.

Jin stopped walking.

"...Oh."

Victor took another step before realizing Jin hadn’t followed. He turned back.

Jin stared at him like he’d just announced he was going to nap in a volcano.

"Yeah, no," Jin said slowly. "That’s—no. That’s not a casual trip."

"I’m not going casually."

Jin scratched his head. "You’re going deeper, aren’t you?"

Victor didn’t answer.

Jin swallowed. "Right. Of course you are."

He forced a grin. "Mind if I tag along? I mean, outskirts at least. I won’t get in your way."

Victor shook his head immediately. "No."

Jin blinked. "No?"

"You won’t survive how deep I’m going," Victor said calmly.

The words weren’t cruel... they were just honest.

Jin studied him for a moment, then exhaled. "Yeah... figured you’d say that."

He chuckled awkwardly. "Still had to ask."

They reached the outer gate formation, the boundary where sect territory gave way to the wilds.

Victor paused as a sudden thought popped up in his mind.

He turned around.

"Jin."

Jin straightened instantly. "Yeah?"

"What city do you live in?" Victor asked.

"Uhm... Blueflame City... I’m surprised you don’t know where we’re at right now..." Jin responded with a confounded tone.

"No... I meant, in the other..." he stopped himself upon realizing what he was about to say. "I meant, in the real world. What city do you live in?"

Jin’s eyes widened slightly, flattered. "Oh—uh, Helios Dome, Sector R-9."

Victor frowned faintly. "That’s... far."

Jin’s smile faltered. "From?"

"New Avalon City," Victor replied.

Jin let out a low whistle. "Yeah, that’s practically the other side of the continent."

Victor nodded slowly.

"Never mind," he said. "I was thinking of asking you to pass a message."

He turned to leave.

"Wait!" Jin said quickly, jogging after him. "I still can."

Victor stopped again, clearly unconvinced.

"The Internet exists," Jin added. "You know that, right?"

Victor looked at him. "I do. The person I’d need to reach doesn’t use it."

Jin tilted his head. "Old-school?"

"...You could say that."

Jin hesitated, then said, "There are courier networks between domed cities. Physical delivery. Takes time, but it works."

Victor’s gaze sharpened instantly.

"That requires a full address," Victor said flatly.

Jin nodded. "Yeah."

Silence stretched.

Victor’s instincts said no.

He didn’t know Jin. How could he give his home address to a stranger.

"...On second thought," Victor said slowly, "I’ll have you send a message to someone else instead."

Jin leaned in eagerly. "Sure. Whoever."

Victor pulled up his system interface and dictated calmly.

"A message. Tell them I’m alive. That I’ll return when I can. Tell them not to worry—but also not to wait."

He paused.

"Send it to this social media account."

Jin’s interface chimed as the details appeared.

He blinked. "Oh—is this... a friend of yours?

"Yes."

Jin nodded solemnly. "Got it."

He wanted to ask more questions but something told him Victor wasn’t the type that would reveal more. Nonetheless, he decided he could just ask later.

Victor met his eyes. "If you do this for me, I’ll owe you one."

Jin’s face lit up like he’d just won a jackpot.

"For real?! Man, that’s—yeah. Yeah, consider it done."

They exchanged friend requests through the system. The connection locked in with a soft chime.

Victor turned toward the open world beyond the sect.

"Stay alive," he said over his shoulder.

Jin laughed. "Coming from you, that sounds like a threat."

Victor didn’t reply.

He stepped past the boundary formation and into the wilds while Jin Kade watched his figure recede in awe.

"... Deeper than the red zone in Bloodshade," he muttered. "What kind of monsters does it take to walk into that place like it’s nothing?"