It was 1 PM during the day. The sun was past the zenith, and there were no clouds visible in the sky.
Alex arrived at the university's east gate. He looked around and quickly found Hannah standing in the shade, and walked up to her.
Hannah was wearing a yellow sundress with a white hat on. She was about 170 cm tall and had a lean body. She took off her sunglasses when she saw Alex walking towards her.
"Alex? Oh my god, look at you… you have grown up so much. How long has it been since I saw you last? 2 years? 3?" Hannah was astounded to see him so tall.
"Hello, sister. I believe it's been 2 and a half years since you guys last visited us. How are you?" Alex replied with a greeting.
"Oh, look at you being so formal. If you have to ask, I am perfectly fine. How are you? How are aunt and uncle? " She started inquiring about Alex's family's well-being.
"I am good, sister. Father and mother are fine as well." He replied.
"Come, let's go to a cafe or something. It's too hot out here." Hannah said as she brought Alex to a nearby cafe.
Alex was astonished to see all the cool little things the city had. He was amazed to see how many people there were constantly on the street, even during the hot day. The many cars and vehicles, some he had never seen before. The tall buildings that made you nearly break your neck just to see the top of it.
Alex felt very overwhelmed by everything. After they reached the cafe, Hannah entered it, and Alex followed behind her.
'Woah,' feeling the hot air from the outside immediately shift to the cold air from the air conditioning in the cafe, nearly made him vocalize his amazement.
He had rarely been to places with air conditioning, never one this fancy. Most of the places he visited back home had fans instead of air conditioning.
Hannah walked up to an empty table and said, "Sit here, I will bring us some food, what do you want to eat?"
Alex didn't know what to say. " I don't know what's good. Maybe some burgers would be fine?"
"Okay," she left for a bit and came back with 2 sets of burgers and drinks. They started eating.
"So, you are staying in a dorm, right? Made some friends yet?" she asked.
" Yeah. I have 3 roommates. They are friendly." Alex replied
"Good. Good."
Alex and Hannah talked for quite a while. Alex learned a few things about Hannah. It seemed she was currently in her third, and last year of college. She was renting a place a few blocks away from the university, where she and 2 other friends of hers lived together.
After finishing their food. They stayed there and talked for a bit. After catching up, at around 3 PM they both said their goodbyes and left.
In a few short minutes, Alex made his way back to the dorm. He was about to enter the room when he heard someone call his name.
"Hey Alex, where have you been?" Logan asked.
From the looks of it, Logan, Matt, and Eric were just returning from the cafeteria.
"I went to meet with my cousin. She studies in the university as well." He said.
"Oh. Cool. You had your meal? If not, you should probably go to the cafeteria before they close." Matt said.
"I already ate outside. Oh right, can I keep the VR helmet for a bit longer?"
Matt looked at him and laughed, "You got hooked as well, didn't you? Hahaha. Eternal Cultivation does that. Go ahead, keep it as long as you like." Eric was very generous about the VR Helmet.
They all went into their rooms, put on their helmet, and went back to the game.
Alex opened his eyes back in the tavern room. He slowly stood up. He looked around the room, and thought, 'Hmm… the sun is still up, should I just go fight some monsters and level up?'
The level system in this game was a little weird, it had names, instead of numbers one could remember.
"What level am I at again?"
He then opened his Status to check. What he saw shocked him.
[Player Name: Yu Ming
Cultivation: Skin Tempering 3rd Realm (1500 Qi : 100%) [Breakthrough]
Body: Sun God's Divine Yang Body
Talent: God
Spiritual Roots: 5 elements Yin-Yang roots
Cultivation Method: Starry Sky Qi Absorption Method
Qi: 131709
]
'What? How do I have so much Qi?' he couldn't understand. ' If I remember correctly, I had around 500 after eating the pill from the fox's body. So how come I have so many now? I don't remember eating any more pills or even cultivating at a-wait, did I actually cultivate last night when I fell asleep?'
Millions of thoughts were going through his mind. He didn't understand how he gained so many Qi. He did vaguely remember starting to cultivate last night, but he had fallen asleep immediately.
'Maybe I did cultivate during my sleep. They did say you can play the game while sleeping. Maybe I did just that.' He thought.
'Either way, since I have so much Qi, why don't I level up?' Alex decided to press the [Breakthrough] button.
<Congratulations you have broken through to 'Skin Tempering: 4th Realm'>
He lost 1500 Qi. The next level-up requirement was now at 2500 Qi. He pressed the [Breakthrough] button again.
<Congratulations you have broken through to 'Skin Tempering: 5th Realm'>
And again.
<Congratulations you have broken through to 'Skin Tempering: 6th Realm'>
And again, and again.
<Congratulations you have broken through to 'Skin Tempering: 7th Realm'>
<Congratulations you have broken through to 'Skin Tempering: 8th Realm'>
<Congratulations you have broken through to 'Skin Tempering: 9th Realm'>
<Congratulations you have broken through to 'Muscle Tempering: 1st Realm'>
'Oh. A new name.' Alex stopped breaking through when he reached 'Muscle Tempering: 1st Realm'. He looked at his status and realized he had used up 23,000 Qi, and the next requirement for a breakthrough was 10,000 Qi.
He still had enough Qi left, so he pressed [Breakthrough] once more.
<Congratulations you have broken through to 'Muscle Tempering: 2nd Realm'>
"Oh," Alex realized something when he looked at his status once more. It looked like the requirement for each realm in this level was increasing by 5000 Qi. The next requirement was 15000 Qi.
'Wow, the requirement went up by a lot,' he thought
He broke through once more.
<Congratulations you have broken through to 'Muscle Tempering: 3rd Realm'>
He once again checked and found the requirement for the 4th level to be 20000. He still had half of his original Qi left, so he proceeded to click [Breakthrough] multiple times once more.
<Congratulations you have broken through to 'Muscle Tempering: 4th Realm'>
<Congratulations you have broken through to 'Muscle Tempering: 5th Realm'>
<Congratulations you have broken through to 'Muscle Tempering: 6th Realm'>
He couldn't break through anymore after that.
'Woah,' Alex got a weird feeling from his body. It didn't feel like his body anymore. The skin was smooth and shiny, and he could see the muscle definitions inside his body, even though he vividly remember not having as much muscle before.
He also felt unusually hungry. 'Do I have to eat in-game as well?' he thought. Thankfully, he was staying in a tavern, so he could go down to eat anytime he wanted.
For now, He checked his status once more.
[Player Name: Yu Ming
Cultivation: Muscle Tempering 6th Realm (35000 Qi: 100%)
Body: Sun God's Divine Yang Body
Talent: God
Spiritual Roots: 5 elements Yin-Yang roots
Cultivation Method: Starry Sky Qi Absorption Method
Qi: 8709
]
'Wow, that's nice,' he thought. He didn't really understand how good or bad, having the 6th realm of Muscle Tempering was, but he assumed it had to be good.
He believed he was essentially around level 15 in the game. But, he couldn't tell how much further he had to level up since he had no idea about the higher levels.
He decided to put those thoughts to the back of his mind and went downstairs to have a meal. He got a good meal for a silver and ate it with enjoyment.
He kept thinking how this meal wasn't as good as the burger he had eaten with his cousin today. But he had no choice but to eat for now.
After he finished eating, he got out of the tavern. 'Man, if the game requires me to eat, and food costs 1 silver every time, I am going to go broke in no time.'
'I should probably go hunt those monsters more.' He thought. He walked to the city gates and saw the guards there checking the people going in and out.
He walked up to one of the guards and asked if he needed to pay another 2 silver for leaving the city for a few hours. Unfortunately, he did.
'Oh, well. I can pay them after I earn from the monsters I will kill.' He thought and went towards the forest.