Chapter 86: The Prodigal’s Perception

"Boss Don! Where is it?!" Ji-Hong demanded hastily, practically tumbling out of his VR Capsule.

Behind him, Butler Lee and Great Guardian Mareum stepped out of their respective capsules as well, their eyes immediately scanning the main shop floor. The nine bodyguards had also intended to follow, but a strict message sent via the in-game friends chat channel from Butler Lee right before logging out kept them disciplined inside their pods.

The sudden emergence of the high-profile Baek Family group caused the faces of the four individuals from Babylon Mercenary to twitch almost imperceptibly.

Still, Mislaine and her trio maintained their composure; retreating or showing visible unease would make them look like amateurs. Besides, their true civilian identities weren’t easily recognized outside top-secret mercenary circles.

"Place your palm against the scanner," Donape instructed nonchalantly, without looking up from the counter monitor. "It’ll verify your character data and unlock the chamber if the extracted item matches your profile."

Ji-Hong didn’t waste a second. He slammed his palm onto the brass scanner panel.

Hiss—

With a heavy release of pressurized air, the dark wood doors of the two-meter cube slid back, revealing a glowing internal glass chamber.

Every eye in the cafe locked onto the center of the box.

Ji-Hong reached inside and retrieved a single object. Sitting in his open palm was a smooth, dark brown medicinal pill roughly the size of a chocolate truffle.

Mislaine, Morgan, Kassandra, and Viktor subtlely processed the sight, their brows furrowing. They couldn’t make heads or tails of what they were looking at.

For a split second, Mislaine considered whether this was some elaborate facade staged by Donape and Ji-Hong—but she quickly dismissed the thought. A young master of the Baek Family had zero reason to act as a shill for a small shop.

"Hehe... finally! It’s actually real!" Ji-Hong cheered, holding the pill up to the light with a triumphant grin.

"A Qi Starter Pill, huh? Not bad," Donape remarked smoothly.

He recognized the consumable immediately; he had taken one himself during the Heavenly Cloud Sect’s entrance ceremony in The Path of the Heavenly Martial Arts 1.

However, that had been an in-game scenario where his Synchronization Rate was only around 21%.

Naturally, the feedback he received back then paled in comparison to a 100% authentic, physical pill fully manifested in reality and ready to be consumed.

The pill itself didn’t automatically grant internal energy or turn the consumer into an unstoppable god.

Instead, it drastically enhanced the user’s Qi Perception—allowing them to read, feel, and track the ambient energy flowing through the atmosphere far faster than traditional training ever allowed.

In the Murim world, sensing the raw flow of natural energy was the absolute foundation of high-tier martial arts. It was a literal shortcut that could rewrite a warrior’s destiny.

For a normal human, it elevated physical perception far beyond natural human limits. And for martial artists, gaining instant, perfected energy sensitivity meant gaining a decisive edge over any opponent relying on raw instinct alone.

Without a second thought, Ji-Hong threw the Qi Starter Pill into his mouth and swallowed it whole.

Donape raised an eyebrow. ’That brat is bold... taking an unrefined medicinal pill without any preparation.’

Just as Donape predicted, Ji-Hong’s body suddenly began to tremble violently. His face turned paper-white.

"Young Master!" Butler Lee exclaimed, his stoic composure shattering. Mareum lunged forward instinctively, reaching out to catch Ji-Hong before he could collapse onto the pristine floor.

"Don’t act recklessly," Donape ordered, stepping out from behind the counter with a calm hand raised. "Stay back. I’ll handle this."

Mareum opened his mouth to voice his doubts, but Butler Lee caught his arm, shaking his head.

Watching from the side, Mislaine and her three operatives looked on in utter bewilderment, still half-convinced this was some elaborate, staged drama.

"Cross your legs and sit. Just like when you meditate for cultivation inside the game," Donape commanded. His voice was laced with a subtle thread of Qi, projecting directly into Ji-Hong’s mind. "Focus!"

The voice rang inside Ji-Hong’s head like a heavenly decree, clearing the static in his brain. Even though his entire body was shaking, he managed to drop into a cross-legged meditative posture.

"Control your breathing," Donape instructed, standing beside him. "Endure whatever surges through your body."

Minutes passed in agonizing, suffocating silence. The atmosphere inside the cafe grew thick with tension until, slowly, Ji-Hong’s erratic breathing began to stabilize.

Then, Ji-Hong’s breath hitched.

A sharp, ambient hum seemed to vibrate through the air around him as the pill finally dissolved completely, releasing a cool, ethereal surge of energy that rushed upward into his brain and flared outward through his nervous system.

Ji-Hong’s eyes snapped wide open. The world around him violently expanded.

To him, the ambient air was no longer empty. He could suddenly see and feel the faint, translucent threads of atmospheric energy drifting through the room—the subtle warmth radiating from the counter, the cold spatial distortions weaving around the VR capsules, and the heavy, dense pressure radiating off the people standing around him.

A sudden, visible wave of refined aura burst from Ji-Hong’s skin, fanning outward in a quiet, rippling shockwave.

He slowly turned his head to look up at Donape, his eyes wide with utter terror and reverence.

"B-Boss Don..." Ji-Hong muttered, his voice trembling as he struggled to find the words. "Your Qi... it’s so dense... so massive..."

With his newly awakened Qi Perception, Ji-Hong could finally see the truth. Donape didn’t just look like a strong shopkeeper anymore; he looked like an ancient, slumbering ocean of raw power.

Ji-Hong realized in an instant that even if every single person inside the shop jumped Donape at once, they would all be wiped out miserably.

He felt like was looking at the most terrifyingly powerful human on the planet—a man who appeared harmless on the surface, but held absolute, godlike authority within.

"More or less," Donape said, waving a hand dismissively as he walked back behind the counter. "Stop making a scene on my floor and get back to your game."

Butler Lee immediately approached, leaning in to whisper, "Young Master... do you possess internal energy in your body now?"

"No," Ji-Hong replied, his face lighting up with the brightest smile he had shown in years. "But now... I can finally feel and understand what internal energy actually is!"

Before using the extraction feature, Ji-Hong had suffered a massive headache browsing his inventory. He had grumbled endlessly over his inability to pull out whatever top-tier equipment he wanted due to his severe lack of in-game funds—having only 17 Gold Coins to his name.

Not one to give up easily, he had relentlessly extorted gold from his bodyguards and even shaken down Butler Lee, eventually squeezing out a total sum of 99 Gold Coins.

In the end, he settled on the Qi Starter Pill—not because it was his first choice, but because it was the absolute cheapest item in his possession that he could actually afford to materialize!

A young master as wealthy as Ji-Hong—renowned far and wide as a lavish prodigal—ending up an absolute beggar inside a VR game was genuinely pathetic.

Yet, as he dusted off his clothes, Ji-Hong caught the lingering, skeptical look on Great Guardian Mareum’s face.

"Sir Mareum? Are you still doubting the pill I just swallowed? Or do you still refuse to believe that martial arts and Qi are real?" Ji-Hong asked, a smug grin plastered across his face.

Mareum remained silent. While he was thoroughly amazed by the VR Capsules’ terrifying realism and spatial mechanics, his pride as a seasoned warrior made it difficult to accept that a tiny brown pill could rewrite human limits overnight.

Standing near the entrance, Viktor couldn’t hold himself back any longer after listening to the absurd exchange.

"Miss Carla, we should leave," Viktor muttered, casting a cold glance around the room. "This place feels like a scam shop built purely for delusional people."

Morgan and Kassandra subtly nodded in agreement. The entire setup felt far too theatrical.

Mislaine, however, merely looked back at her team without expression. No anger. No disdain. While her rational mind shared their deep skepticism, her sharp instincts warned her that this shop was anything but normal.

She wasn’t ready to dismiss it just yet.

Noticing the disbelieving stares, Ji-Hong chuckled softly.

"Boss Don, how about showing them what Qi actually is?" Ji-Hong suggested casually.

Donape tilted his head. "Why should I? I have zero obligation to make anyone believe in my shop. Besides, causing a commotion or fighting inside the store is strictly prohibited. While I won’t get blacklisted, the System’s penalty lightning strikes indiscriminately."

"Then how about a simple hand-pull or arm wrestle?" Ji-Hong grinned. "Let all five of them try to move your hand at once. No fighting, no rules broken!"

Donape paused, considering it. "Hmm. Fair enough. That won’t violate shop policy."

Stepping out from behind the counter, Donape stood facing the pod bay. He placed his right hand behind his back, extending his left hand forward as if offering a casual handshake.

Mareum glanced over at Viktor. Sharing a silent, unspoken agreement between veteran fighters, Viktor stepped forward alone to take the challenge.

Ji-Hong didn’t care who stepped up or how many tried. He simply took a step back, focusing his newly awakened Qi Perception to watch the show.

Still standing in a relaxed, completely posture-free stance, Donape offered a dry warning. "You might regret this. Start whenever you’re ready."

Without wasting words, Viktor grabbed Donape’s left hand and gave a firm, casual tug.

Donape didn’t move a millimeter.

Dumbfounded, Viktor adjusted his footing, leaned his entire body weight backward, and grabbed Donape’s wrist with both hands, pulling with full physical force.

The result was identical. Donape remained anchored to the floor like an unshakeable mountain.

Apart from Ji-Hong, who was grinning from ear to ear, every single onlooker in the room stood completely flabbergasted.