Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy – A young man walked out of a train in Oakleaf City. ‘Woah!’ he looked at the surrounding train station and was surprised at how glossy and expensive looking it was. His black hair, fair skin, and childlike face made him look so very naive and simple-minded. He followed some signs to get out of the train station and finally saw Oakleaf City in its full glory. He stopped in his tracks amazed at how big the buildings were, how many vehicles there were on the road, and just how well-dressed everyone looked. “So, which way is the Oakleaf University?” he wondered as he took out his cheap-looking phone and started looking up the map. After learning the directions, he started walking.
He had a suitcase with him that he dragged along the city. Throughout the city he would see giant billboards and posters promoting a single thing, making him wonder just what was Eternal Cultivation? “Hmm… is that a new movie? Looks good. Maybe I will get to see what a big city’s cinema looks like.” His countryside village also had cinemas, but the screen was small, so he usually preferred watching the movies on his family computer. He finally reached the university and asked a few people to find his way to dormitory A. He walked up to a register table and got his key to his room. His room was numbered 205, so he walked into an elevator and got up. As he came out of the elevator, he got a phone call. He looked at the caller and realized his mom was calling him. He accepted the call. “Alex? Where are you? Did you reach the university?” a worried voice came from the other side of the phone. “Yes, mother.
I am currently in the dormitory, look for my new room.” Alex replied. “Oh good, good. Here, your father wants to talk to you.” “Hey son, how are you doing? Was the train ride okay? You didn’t find it discomforting, right?” His father asked him in a worried voice. “No, Father. It was fine. In fact, it was amazing. I never knew trains went that fast.” Alex said. “Haha,” his father laughed from the other side of the phone, “That’s what you get when you live your entire life on a farm. We shouldn’t have home-schooled you. Fortunately, you will be getting new experiences now.” “It’s okay Father. The school was in the town. It would’ve been hard for you to take me there regularly on a 2-hour ride.” Alex said. “Alright. Remember what I told you okay? Don’t be friends with bad people. There are a lot of different people in the big cities. Learn to figure out which people are good and which are not. You should be old enough to know what to do and what not to do. Oh yeah, and just because you are 18 and you can, don’t go to those stupid clubs, I hear they are just a waste of money.” Alex smiled a little and replied, “I understand, Father.
My dorm room is coming up, so I will call you later.” “Alright, I will end the call then. Oh, right! Call Hannah and let her know you have arrived.” “Bye,” his father and mother said at the same time and ended the call. Alex walked up to Room 205 and opened the door using his key. When he opened the room, he was surprised. He didn’t expect his room to already have people staying in it. Inside were 3 young men. 2 of them were up and talking, while one was seemingly sleeping. The room has 2 bunk beds and 4 closets. Aside from that, Alex couldn’t see anything there. “Hello, are you guys staying in this room as well?” he asked as he walked in. “Yes, Are you our new roommate?” one of the people asked. “Ah, yes,” Alex said as he showed the key numbered 205. “Hello, my name is Alex Benton.” He said as he walked in. “Oh, Hi. My name is Eric and this is Matt” Eric said introducing himself and the other person. “Hi,” Matt greeted as well. “You just arrived right? So, I assume you haven’t eaten anything yet. It’s nearly 3 pm.
Why don’t you freshen up and we can go get some afternoon lunch in the cafeteria.” Alex nodded and changed into a normal shirt and pants. He went to the bathroom attached to the room and cleaned himself. By the time he got out, the third man was already up. “I’m sure you can do it next time. Just buy a pill if you can’t.” “I know, but those cost money. And I’m not really playing to make money.” “Then you just gotta hope you breakthrough next time.” The man finally saw Alex. “Hey, you the new guy? Hi, I am Logan. What’s up?” “Hello, my name is Alex,” he replied too. Afterward, all of them walked to the cafeteria to get some food. The 3 started talking about the same thing they were talking about in the room and it made Alex confused. He didn’t know the context. “What are you guys talking about exactly?” he asked. “Eternal Cultivation,” Matt replied. “Oh, the new movie? I saw posters of it on the streets.” Alex said with a face of understanding. Matt, Eric, and Logan looked at him with a look of confusion. Logan then said, “It’s not a movie. It’s the best VR game in existence.
Don’t you know about it?” he asked. “A VR game? I didn’t know about that. I only heard about the game today.” Alex said. “It’s already been out for a month and is the most played game of all time. How come you’ve never heard of it?” Matt was surprised. “Oh, that’s cause they don’t have any billboards and posters near the farm. And I don’t really get to be on the internet since I have to help my father with the work.” Alex said. “Well, you can play now. You really must experience it.” Eric said. “Oh, but I don’t have a VR helmet or money to buy one,” Alex said. “Don’t worry about that, Eric here had got an old one, you can use that,” Matt said. “Okay, then.” Alex and the 3 walked back to the room and Eric handed him his old helmet that he was keeping in the closet. Now that he looked at it, 3 of the 4 beds all had VR helmets in them. “They must’ve been playing before I came,” Alex mumbled a little. “Just plug it in the socket there and you can start playing. Be sure to log out before 7 or you will miss dinner.” Saying that Matt and the rest got into their beds and put on their helmets.
After that, they went to asleep. ‘They are playing now, huh?’ Alex thought. He went to the only available bed, the lower bed of the right bunk bed, and put on his helmet. He plugged a wire into the socket and lay down on his bed. Soon a light started shining from inside the helmet and he finally heard something. … Alex was shocked. This was the first time he had been in virtual reality, and no description of it could ever possibly explain how real this felt. He looked down to his own body. He was currently naked with no clothes on. He looked in front of him where he could see a lot of customization options. There were so many options that he got overwhelmed with it. He saw a randomize option to the side and pressed it. The randomize option gave him a tall and lean body with well-built muscles. He now had blue eyes, compared to his real-life brown eyes. He had long hair and no facial hair. ‘This doesn’t look bad.’ Alex thought to himself, and clicked ‘Create’. He heard something speak into his mind. “Hmm… username? Should I just keep it as Alex? Probably not. Uhh…” he couldn’t come up with a name, so he decided to randomize the username as well.
He saw a notification pop up in front of him. ‘Hmm… Yu Ming? Doesn’t sound like a bad name.’ He thought as he pressed OK. Suddenly everything turned white. Alex found himself in the middle of the jungle. He looked around and saw nothing but tall, densely packed trees all around him. ‘Am I still in the game?’ he thought. There was no health bar or anything to imply that this was the game. This was just way too surreal. Alex got worried. He remembered he was naked and looked down. Thankfully, he had clothes on now. He was wearing a simple blue robe with blue pants on. He noticed something weird at his side. There was a small bulge on his left waist. He tried to touch it to see what it was when suddenly, a transparent blue screen appeared in front of him. The screen had the name ‘Bag of Cosmos’ on top and inside the screen were a bunch of squares neatly ordered. He looked at the squares and realized there were 2 icons in the small squares. One looked like a book and another looked like a treasure chest.
Curious, he tapped the book and suddenly another blue screen appeared in front of him. [Tutorial] [This game mostly works through voice commands. Say ‘Settings’ or ‘Status’ to open up settings or your info. Your first job is to make time and HP bar visible for your HUD from the settings. Say ‘Settings’ ] “Settings” A new screen appeared once more that had a bunch of little settings in it. He didn’t know what most of them did as they were turned Off, but he quickly found 2 settings related to HP Bar and TIME. He turned both of them ON. Suddenly on the top left of his vision, a green bar appeared representing his current HP amount. On the top right, a bunch of numbers appeared representing the current time. It seemed the time in the game matched the real lifetime. [Tutorial] [Congratulations on using the settings. You can later change the different settings as you see fit. Now, to check your info say ‘Status’] “Status” Another blue screen appeared in front of him. This time it had a bunch of information about him. [Player Name: Yu Ming Cultivation: Mortal (1 Qi: 100%) Body: Sun God’s Divine Yang Body Talent: God Spiritual Roots: 5 elements Yin-Yang roots Cultivation Method: None Qi: 0 ] “Oh, is this my info?” Alex looked at the status with curiosity in his eyes. He didn’t understand what most it meant though. The tutorial screen popped up again. [Tutorial] [Congratulations on opening your status. Here is an explanation of what each of these info means.
Cultivation: is your current cultivation realm and level. It shows you how much Qi you have to invest to increase cultivation, and what your chances of breaking through are. Body: is your potential in cultivation. It determines how far you can cultivate. Special bodies also give other benefits. Talent: is your talent in cultivation. It determines how fast you can cultivate. Spiritual Roots: Spiritual Roots represent your spiritual affinity towards the element. You can learn and use elements you have an affinity to more freely than the rest. Cultivation Method: this is the technique you use to cultivate. It teaches you how to gather Qi and use the Qi to increase your cultivation. Qi: this is your source of energy.
The more Qi you have, the stronger you can become. The speed at which you gather Qi can depend on your location, your cultivation method, and your talent.] Alex was truly overwhelmed now. He couldn’t understand half of what was happening right now. He had decided to play this game because his new friends had told him it was the best out right now. So, why were there this many explanations? Once he read it all, he clicked on ‘next’. A new set of texts popped up from the tutorial panel.