The good news was that I didn't need sleep. Since players don't need to sleep in either game, I should have expected this.
This discovery made me no longer doubt that I was immortal. After all, neither game had the concept of aging, and characters could respawn after death—except in hardcore mode. I smiled as I looked at the heart symbols in my visual field.
"I hope there are falling stars or crystal hearts here, if there are…"
When I saw a falling star lying on the ground, my sentence was left unfinished. There was no need for more words; I had gotten my answer.
Afraid the star might disappear on its own, I quickly descended the treehouse with a ladder and placed the star into my inventory.
I decided to go star hunting that night. As long as I didn't stray too far from the treehouse I built, I began collecting stars around me. After a few attempts, I also realized that I could destroy items like the ones I had placed in my inventory or falling stars with just one thought, items related to Terraria or Minecraft.
"This feature prevents the things I've created from being used against me. I guess I can say it's a good feature."
I made a mana star for personal use. The energy within it was trying to enter my body from the object. I didn't try to block it and absorbed the energy from the mana star. My maximum mana increased slightly, and my body was helping regenerate the mana by drawing in the surrounding air.
Suddenly, a creative idea came to mind: could I remove the effect of the mana star from my body? I tried it, and instantly, my maximum mana dropped by half.
"Aggghhh!"
I had twice the normal amount of mana my body could store. It was tearing me apart from the inside. As I thrashed on the ground, my health points quickly dropped.
"S-shit…"
When my health reached zero, my soul separated from my body, and I became a ghost. My corpse remained intact; I could easily respawn, but before doing so, I made a promise to myself.
"This hurts. I'll never underestimate death, and I'll live every life as if it were my last. Two deaths are more than enough; the first time I died without feeling any pain, I was just lucky."
"From now on, no more dying! I swear it, for myself, my family, and everyone I love in the other world!"
Even in ghost form, the determined expression on my face remained after my death. I immediately got up from the cold ground. I quickly returned to the treehouse. Because of the effects of death, the only thing I had left on me was stone armor; my clothes didn't affect my abilities as they were in the accessory slot, and they remained with my corpse.
Once I reached the treehouse, I retrieved my clothes. My previous body, which now had little value, I buried symbolically in a nearby empty plot of land and made a wooden gravestone for it. On the gravestone, the number "2" was written, marking it as my second death.
"I hope my own spirit doesn't haunt me. I performed the burial reasonably."
After finishing the burial, I chose not to place my clothes back into the accessory slots because it made me feel naked. I didn't have much I could do at the moment, so I decided to do the best I could: collect fruits. They provided weak, temporary boosts, so I gathered as many as I could.
These temporary boosts increased my general power by 5% and lasted for 5 minutes in the game. But in the real world, these boosts were much better because one in-game day lasted 24 minutes. So the effects of the fruit boosts would last 5 hours in the real world.
Collecting fruits wasn't just a result of my pursuit for power; it was also a way to shake off the depression caused by death.
The effect was much better than I expected. A trauma I would normally never be able to overcome disappeared easily. Now, I had only one concern.
"I wonder what the others are doing right now. Have they realized I'm dead?"
I imagined my mother crying by my corpse, not a sight I would want to see. I frowned with sadness and instinctively squeezed the fruit in my hand.
"Don't worry, I'll find a way."
If it was possible to go somewhere, there should also be a way to come back. After all, it couldn't be said that I was trapped in a black hole.
After deciding I had gathered enough fruit, I spent the rest of my time collecting stars and conducting small harmless experiments with the abilities I had.
I obtained two new pieces of information: one was great, and the other was even greater. The great piece of information was that the falling stars could only happen if I wanted them to, and I could also toggle the formation of game-related monsters on or off at will.
But by far, the most amazing thing was that the changes I made to the world were semi-abstract. If I dug a deep hole, I didn't have to fall into it. As long as I didn't want it, that hole meant nothing to me or any other beings.
For example, I could dig a 2-meter deep hole, and I could walk on top of it as if it didn't exist. While I walked above the hole, it would be invisible to me. If I wanted to fall into it, the hole would become visible to me. In short, it was pure quantum nonsense. Also, I couldn't cut the same tree twice.
This was pure nonsense, but at least it meant I didn't have to take responsibility for the things I did. After all, I wasn't truly harming the land. I didn't know what country I was in, but I doubted anyone would be crazy enough to accuse me of something I didn't do.
I decided to make a small mine for myself, which would allow me to easily obtain ores. A small underground shelter wouldn't be a bad idea either, as I could grow trees and gather fruit there.
After finishing this, the small treehouse I had built would only serve as a surface outpost.
"Auuuuuuuu!"
Yes, after hearing the howl of a wolf from nearby, I realized it was time to build my small underground shelter.
I immediately grabbed my stone shovel and dug a hole to enter. After a while, a pack of wolves came and began roaming around. A few passed right over me, trying to dig up the ground above me, but eventually, they gave up.
As the wolf pack left, thinking the prey had slipped through their fingers, I continued to work on developing my hidden underground shelter.