Auntie toasts the VRMMORPG

25. Martial Arts Mannequin-Routines

After tiptoeing through the room, Flora entered the courtyard. A pond with several statues of cranes and snakes decorated it.

A few people came from the side houses and entered the main house on the northern edge of the yard. Flora followed them.

A strange scene welcomed her upon entering.

The room had dozens of statues in martial arts poses. People surrounded them and touched them. Nobody spoke or moved. They all starred with glassy eyes on the figures.

'This is the strangest cult ever!' Flora's eyes darted between the statues and the open door, her emergency exit.

Suddenly one person moved. Flora thought she looked vaguely familiar, maybe from one of the lessons she had taken. The black-haired woman took her hands off the shoulder of the statue of a guy in horse stance. Then she looked at Flora, nodded, touched the shoulder again, and went back to starring into nothingness.

"Aidan, what are they doing?"

"These are Mannequin-Routines, Milady. They work like experios and transport the user in a separate dimension where they can experience the movements of the martial arts routine."

"So it's not an esoteric ritual to pray for enlightenment in martial arts." Flora was a bit disappointed but more inclined to try it. She chose the same statue as the woman and touched its forearm.

小念頭 (Xiǎo niàntou) - Mannequin Routine

To experience the Routine, please pay one Credit.

After the now familiar feeling of getting hurled through dimensions by your navel, Flora found herself in a meadow on a mountain. She wanted to look around, but couldn't move.

Suddenly, her hands started to move on their own. After a short bout of panic, Flora realized that she did the first Wing Chun form, Siu Lim Tao.

The Beginner-1 Course only covered the first section of it, but now Flora experienced the complete form.

'Again!'

At the next pass, she got over her discomfort quicker and started to feel the moves.

'Again!' 'Again!' 'Again!' 'Again!'

Gradually she began to comprehend the form and move mentally in sync with the mysterious person whose body she was sharing.

Eventually, she took a break and tried to perform the form on her own. She judged that she got the first section of the form right, but with pauses. Consequently, she returned to the statue for a few more rounds.

After she could perform the first section fluently, she moved on to the next statue.

黐手(chī shǒu) - Mannequin-Routine

To experience the Routine, please pay one Credit.

A second person appeared in front of her, a Chinese guy. Flora's body put his wrists against the wrists of the other guy. They took turns in defending and attacking while never losing contact with the forearms of their partner.

The drill was called Chi Sau, sticky hands, but Flora called it wrist massage. It was used to train energy exchange and continuous movement.

In the lessons, they only performed it with one hand, but using both felt more natural to Flora at first. Then the exercised progressed to a level Flora couldn't comprehend. Therefore she repeated just the first few minutes several times.

Of course, Flora tried all statues at least once, but the rest reached from above her level over 'Why do I have swords in my hands and what am I doing with them?' to 'What just happened?'.