"Let me see what this Mental Burnout State actually is. I need to be prepared for every scenario that might happen!"
John returned to his dorm and slept for a few hours. Then, once he woke up, he began experimenting with the newly discovered handshake process. He kept connecting to his room, exploring the source code, and getting familiar with how to navigate the thousands of lines of code.
As he expected, going through the code lines in his Shell ability would take a long time. So he wrote a search program and started testing it. It worked brilliantly, except for the higher Mental Points cost.
After all these tests, the Mental Points started to plummet rapidly. Without realising it, he was hitting rock bottom if he continued to run the search program one more time.
At first, he hesitated. He didn't know what would happen if that weird state hit him. And yet when he realised he knew nothing about a risky encounter he might face during tomorrow night's mission, he decided to give it a try and see for himself.
"Run the search engine," he commanded.
The Shell window flickered to life. For a brief second, the black console overflowed with many fewer data lines; his script was working, filtering the room's noise into precise information. But then, the beauty turned grotesque, and success into failure.
The window began to stutter. The white code lines were suddenly slashed by jagged, erratic blue streaks that appeared and disappeared out of nowhere, like digital scars. Even the green world around suffered from this meltdown!
-
[Ding! Warning! You have emptied your Mental Points! - You are entering a Mental Burnout State!]
-
The system notification didn't even finish. It was as if someone had abruptly pulled the power line from him. The world around John went white, then a void-like black. His knees buckled, his consciousness evaporated instantly, and his body slammed into the floor as a puppet with its strings cut.
He stayed there, motionless on the cold floor, for the entire twelve hours!
When John finally opened his eyes, he didn't wake up refreshed. He woke up in a world of agony. An immense pain assaulted his body, radiating from his skull down to his toes. He groaned, the sound grating in his throat, as he slowly recalled the events of the previous night.
"Damn! It's way worse than a hangover," he wheezed, squeezing his temples with shaking hands. He felt as if a horse had kicked him squarely in the forehead, then turned around and did it again for good measure.
It took thirty minutes of heavy breathing and staring at the ceiling before the room stopped spinning and he felt remotely human again. As his vision cleared, he spotted a vertical scroll of notifications waiting for him, hanging in the air like a digital receipt of his folly.
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[Ding! You have experienced a Mental Burnout State - You were rendered unconscious!]
[Ding! Emergency Protocol: Mental Point regeneration rate was doubled!]
[Ding! Breakthrough: + 10 Mental Points cap!]
-
"Hmm, that's interesting!" John said, his voice raspy.
Seeing the messages made the nature of the burnout clear. It wasn't just sleep; it was a coma. His mind had literally turned itself off to prevent permanent damage, prioritising recovery over everything else.
"So... Being in this state doesn't mean I'll wake up the moment the burnout is lifted," he mused, leaning his back against the bed frame. "I slept for fourteen hours when the state probably cleared after six. I was a sitting duck for the rest of that time."
Despite the danger, he turned to check his profile, and his eyes widened.
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[Mental Point (MP): 28/36]
-
He was struggling to keep up with his own increasing capacity, but the math was starting to look better. If he managed this burnout state correctly, he could use it as a high-speed, high-risk, and high-gain charger during the night.
"It's still incredibly risky," he cautioned himself. He imagined a future scenario where his cap reached the hundreds or thousands. Would he end up in a coma for days? A week? He shook the thought away. For now, the perks were undeniable.
"It also increased my cap! I can use it as a training method," he realised. This was an abnormal state with few positive side effects—if, and only if, he was in a secure spot. As long as he didn't have enemies breathing down his neck or a target on his back, the burnout was a viable tool for growth.
"Just this headache... And this fatigue," he grumbled, finally forcing himself to stand. His muscles screamed in protest. He felt like he had spent the entire night at a high-intensity gym while being beaten with a lead pipe. "It definitely has a few negative trade-offs."
He rubbed his neck, summing up his gains. He had a working search engine program, a massive jump in his MP pool, and a better understanding of his own limits.
"I'm ready," he declared. He was pumped for tonight's night guard mission and finally prying into Ricky's secrets.