Martial Arts Worlds

With darkness coming so suddenly, Kiernan felt like he was floating aimlessly through a void. He couldn't feel his body or the pillow under his body anymore.

'Hello?'

He tried to speak, but he only heard his voice inside his mind. None of his words came out of his mouth.

At that moment, he traversed through the empty void and appeared on a soft pillow, sitting in the middle of a bright, open-looking dojo with serene scenery showing through the windows.

The dojo had no need for any lightbulbs. All the light that was needed was streaming in through the windows.

Pure natural lighting.

'Is this Infinite Dojo?' Kiernan thought. 'It must be.'

…

Fishes swam lazily in a small pond, their scales changing colors in the sunlight whenever a cloud passed overhead.

"Mm~"

A light blue-eyed woman hummed a pleasant hum, tending to her garden of vibrant flowers. She was beautiful, with a smile that could light up the darkest of days.

The beautiful face was framed with dark, flowing locks of hair that reached her shoulders. It wasn't the longest of hairs, but it was full of volume and shine.

It made her look pure and angelic—just like those innocent fishes in the swim.

"I feel a presence."

She said with a sweet voice and turned around, her bright eyes blinking as she looked over to the dojo.

A guest had arrived.

She gently stood up, making sure that her kimono was straightened and her hair was in place. It wasn't dirty as she was sitting on clean rocks of the garden pathway.

She was making sure that they were always clean, like everything else in this small world of paradise.

As she started to make her way down the garden pathway, she suddenly stopped in her tracks, and her gentle face turned worrisome.

She turned to look at her fingers, which were straight and stiff.

Then.

The fingers started glitching. The glitching quickly spread across her body like a virus, causing her to panic.

"Ah~" she screamed. "Noooooooo…" Enjoy exclusive content from My Virtual Library Empire

The shout of no began loudly, then turned more silent before it was fully silenced.

Her head started hanging, looking like she had fallen asleep, but then her eyes slammed open.

The former gentle demeanor was gone. She looked fiercer, a sharpness in her gaze. She looked around herself, touched the kimono, then at her hair, before taking a squeeze at her cheek.

"It worked." She said in a surprise. "I didn't expect that it would work."

She then remembered something.

"He is waiting."

She didn't want to make him wait.

With urgency in her steps, instead of taking the well-maintained garden pathway, she crossed through the grass, stepping over the flowers, and raced towards the dojo.

While taking her last steps to the dojo, she saw the guest—a handsome young man with a silent intensity in his eyes—she recognized him immediately.

Hearing the footsteps, Kiernan looked over, and a flash of surprise went past his gaze for a moment. However, it quickly turned back to normal.

'I knew I would meet with AI, but I didn't expect the AI to look so much like a human.'

She got seated in front of Kiernan on her own pillow. She tried to sit on her knees, but looked uncomfortable doing so, so she quickly readjusted herself and sat down on her butt instead with her knees raised close to her chest.

"Hello," she said.

"Hi," Kiernan replied.

He thought that she would continue talking, but she just stayed silent, looking at him as if he were some kind of painting in an art museum.

"Uhm, people are waiting for me, so can we hurry this up?" Kiernan said. "I can choose my nickname, right?"

"My name is Mira." She blurted out.

"…?"

Kiernan raised an eyebrow.

"Okay…?" He said. "I am Kiernan."

Mira smiled and extended her hand for a handshake.

"…?"

Kiernan frowned, shook the soft hand, and said, "Nice to meet you, Mira."

"Same!" Mira said with a grin. "Right, your nickname."

With a wave of the hand, she summoned a holographic screen right in front of Kiernan.

[Name:]

[Generate Random Name]

"Here, you can choose your own name or generate a random name for yourself."

She said.

'Hmm. Let's see what the random generator comes up with.'

He pressed on "Generate Random Name" and saw the shuffling of thousands of names.

[Random Name Generated!]

[Name: Drunk94568]

'Uh?' Kiernan raised an eyebrow. 'What if I remove those numbers…'

He quickly removed the numbers through a holographic keyboard screen.

[Name: Drunk]

However, when he tried to apply the name, it was taken.

"May I give you a suggestion?" Mira asked innocently. "Why don't you name yourself after your surname—Hunter?"

"Wouldn't that be taken?" Kiernan asked. "I bet this game is quite popular, so most of these names without numbers are probably taken, right?"

Mira's eyes flashed with code numbers.

"Yes, Hunter is taken. However, that account is very inactive. He is at the bottom of the rankings, so no one would know him even if you took his name."

"Uh, can that be done?" Kiernan asked. "I mean, are you allowed to do that?"

"Hehe~" Mira smiled.

Her eyes again flashed with light blue numbers and letters.

"Done! So, will you choose to be 'Hunter'?"

Kiernan typed the name 'Hunter' into the nickname bar and tried to apply it.

[Account successfully created!]

[Welcome to Infinite Dojo—Hunter!]

'That's done…'

Kiernan thought, and then turned back to Mira.

"So, what now?"

"Just think about the interface!" Mira said with a cheeky smile.

'Like in the system.'

Kiernan shrugged his shoulders and thought about the interface.

Instead of opening his system interface, the game's interface opened up.

He quickly went to the friends list, searched for CoachJin, and tossed him a friend request.

"Oh, by the way!" Mira said and bowed her head. "Apologies in advance, but we have to unfortunately limit some of your abilities. I am truly sorry!"

"What do you mean?" Kiernan asked.

"You cannot use your True Iron Style—I am truly sorry. You can use Iron Style as you wish, but not that. I am truly sorry!"

"Huh, how do you know about Iron Style?" Kiernan narrowed his eyes. "What is this? Who are you?"

"I am really sorry!" Mira put her hands together and winked. "In Infinite Dojo, you don't have to worry about your body getting injured upon using your techniques.

"To keep up the balance of the world, we simply cannot allow you to unleash your full abilities in here yet. Your power is too great to be fully released."

"How do you know so much about me?" Kiernan asked and stood up with a frown. "Who are you?"

Mira smiled, then her whole body started glitching, and she slumped over.

A few moments later, her eyes fluttered back open.

"Ah… what happened?" She looked around in confusion and flinched after seeing Kiernan. "Who are you? Why am I here? I thought I was walking, and then…"

'What in the world?'