"How can you mess up such a simple request?" On earth, inside a luxurious room, a man in his fifties threw out a file towards the woman standing in front of him, which opened midair, scattering numerous pages throughout the room.
"Get out." The man roared in a thunderous voice. "Get out before I fire your ass."
The woman didn't say anything but just kept her head down. Without speaking a single word, she just left the room, drove her car to her house and fell on her bed.
It was only now that she finally let out a heavy sigh.
"Just how long will I live like this?" Sera couldn't help but think. She loved drawing and designing things ever since she was a child. This passion later turned into her career as she completed her education as an architect. Initially, she was full of excitement towards her future... wanting to make things that would spread her name. She wanted to share her ideas with the world around her. But over time, she realised that it was just her wishful thinking.
Not to mention designing for someone, she couldn't even share her ideas. No one wanted to work with a newbie to avoid any risks. In the end, she could only join a company and work according to their request. The file that the old man threw on her face was the one she put her heart and soul into. Just a few days ago, the company received a huge job, and she wanted to share her vision about how it could be done even better.
Unfortunately for her, the man, after taking a look at her designs, called them rubbish and threw them in her face.
"Forget it." With a bitter smile, she felt like she was suffocating. Every day felt like a chore... every step a struggle. She had to force herself to smile and live amongst the people whose every action was artificial. She couldn't help but doubt if she made the right choice.
Just when she was lying there silently, gazing at the roof, the phone in her purse rang.
"Huh!?" Initially, she chose to ignore it, but thinking about how this could be something important, she decided to check it.
The moment she unlocked her phone, a pop-up appeared on her screen.
[Do you wish to have a new life? Do you want to live in a world where you can do anything? Do you want to have a different life experience, or do you want to make up for your regrets? Join the cultivation world for your new life. A brand new hyper-realistic MMORPG that will make you forget about all your problems.]
"EH!?" Looking at the lengthy row of text, she rubbed her eyes, wondering if she was seeing things.
"Did I get a virus?" This was the only plausible explanation. After all, she wasn't interested in the so-called games. She couldn't even remember the last time she played a game. For such an ad to show on her phone...
She kept pressing the back button and even locked her phone a few times, but the message didn't disappear.
Annoyed, she could only click on the message, and once she did, it automatically disappeared.
"Uh! Okay, that works too." Throwing the phone on her bed, she was about to change into a new set of clothes when she heard her doorbell.
*DING... DING... DING
"Coming..." With a frown, she rushed to the door and opened it, only to see a small, exquisite wooden box placed there with a golden card upon it.
After that, what followed was exactly the same as Gust.
----------------
By the time Sera came back to her senses, she saw a completely new world in front of her. The gentle breeze, the starry sky and the gentle moonlight illuminate everything. For a moment, she couldn't help but wonder if she was dreaming.
"No... No... No... Not like that." Just when she was wondering if this was truly a game, she heard a burst of noise from the distance. Curious, she made her way towards that place only to discover a young boy who looked like an abandoned prince silently watching a burly man in his underwear who was constantly shouting while waving his hands in the air.
"Welcome to the cultivation world, dear player." The moment Yang Ze sensed someone, he immediately assumed the position of an NPC and began his usual speech. But halfway through his speech, when he turned his head to look at the newcomer, he almost cursed out loud.
The newcomer was a woman in her thirties with blonde hair and a well-defined face that looked almost perfect. But it wasn't her beauty that stunned him; instead, it was her attire.
Just like the man, she too was only wearing undergarments.
Perhaps Sera realised it after sensing his gaze and, upon noticing it, immediately let out a scream.
*AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH
Yang Ze could only pretend not to see it and continued with his speech.
"Dear player, you could look at your character panel if you call it out. Besides the character panel, there is also an option of crafting, building, farming, fishing and much more. It is for you to decide what to do."
Sera didn't even let him finish before she discovered the log-out button at the bottom of the panel and, without any hesitation, pressed it.
"This..." Looking at the sudden disappearance of the woman, Yang Ze was stunned for a long time. Who would have thought that the newcomer would just quit the moment they arrived?
"Forget it." Yang Ze didn't believe that the other party wouldn't be tempted to explore this world. After all, the allure of virtual reality was far too great for people from Earth.
And sure enough. Hardly ten minutes had passed when he saw the figure of the woman appearing before him. And this time, she didn't scream in embarrassment. Instead, she had a curious look in her eyes.
Just like Yang Ze had thought, after the initial confusion, Sera was overwhelmed with a feeling of curiosity. Even though she had only played a handful of old mobile games, this new virtual reality game caught her interest.
"Is this a game?" She couldn't help but mutter while looking around with a curious expression. Just like Gust, she too was enthralled by this novel feeling of something new.
If there was something that she didn't like... it was the fact that she was only wearing a set of undergarments.
Perhaps sensing her embarrassment, Yang Ze took off his robe and threw it towards her.
"OH! Are you a player?" Placing on the grey robe, she couldn't help but move closer to Yang Ze while trying to communicate with him.
Unfortunately for her, Yang Ze repeated the sentence he had practised countless times.
"Dear player, welcome to the world of cultivation. Here you will find..."
After giving her a long speech, telling her the basic knowledge and functions, Yang Ze gave her the same 'quest'.
"OH!" Initially, Sera wasn't too interested in the so-called fighting, killing and levelling up. But when she heard she could farm, craft and even build, her eyes lit up in excitement. This was more in line with what she desired. Besides... if she couldn't share her designs in the real world, perhaps she could share them here with these people.
Thinking about it, she was about to pick up the stones and wood for crafting, but then saw the man in his underwear waving his hand in the air.
At the top of his head was a name, 'TheLegend27'.
"Another player?" Intrigued, she immediately rushed towards him before shouting in an excited voice.
"Hey!"
Gust, who had given up building a farm upon realising that he needed some type of crop seeds, has now focused his attention on building a house.
Standing there, he was constantly waving his hand around, trying his best to make a blueprint for the house. Upon hearing someone speaking to him, he was irritated at first, but, realising that it was a woman who was standing there with the name 'Sera' on top of her head, he was stunned for a moment before jumping in excitement.
"Holy shit, another player?"
"When did you arrive?"
Sera nodded in response before replying in a soft tone. "Just received the helmet and when I put it on, I was here."
"How long have you been playing this game?"
"ME?" Gust immediately let out a smile. "It's been a few hours, I guess."
"Hey, do you want to team up?"
"Sure."
Within moments, the two of them made a party. It was only now that Gust paid attention to the robe she was wearing.
"Huh! Where did you get this outfit?" Even though it wasn't something special, it was at least better than being in their underwear.
"This? Sera pointed towards Yang Ze in the distance. "He gave it to me."
Before Sera could finish her sentence, she saw him running towards the boy in the distance.
"Hey... Where is my welcome gift pack?" Gust couldn't help but curse out.
Yang Ze just gave him a blank look before repeating the same line.
"Dear player, welcome to the world of cultivation. Here you can find..." Listening to him go on and on, Gust clenched his fists before constantly nodding.
"Good... good... The female players get free outfits, and the male players get nothing. The game developer must be a simp."
Ignoring Yang Ze, whose face was turning black and blue after hearing those insults, he began to talk with Sera.
Sera, upon learning that he was trying to build a house, immediately beamed with joy and took over this responsibility. She just asked him to collect the resources and leave the job of building to her.
Gust, who was already having trouble with the design, immediately agreed with a smile and began to collect the rocks.
The method of building houses was rather rigid. Initially, Yang Ze wanted to give them complete freedom like typical crafting games, where one needs to put down floors, then walls, then roofs and so on. But the rule got rejected. In the end, he could only set up the rules that one needs to design a blueprint of a building first before submitting the materials. In this way, one could design anything they wished for, but at the same time, the materials required would also be adjusted by the world itself. They can't just make a flying fortress just with stones and rocks. They would need the materials that could actually support the structure. As for how much the players were going to abuse this system... he was looking forward to it.
With the two of them together, it took them less than half an hour to finish designing the blueprint for their first house.
In front of the two of them was the outline of a small, exquisite house in neon light that only the two of them could see.
[Stone: 120, Wood: 100]
Looking at the materials required, they chose to build it without any hesitation, and the moment they chose to build, a bright white light flashed before their eyes as a small construction icon appeared at the top.
Yang Ze's eyes almost popped out of his sockets when he saw the stones and woods suddenly appearing out of thin air, falling into the white light, and after twenty seconds, a small exquisite house appeared in front of him.
"Holy shit." Compared to the crafting of a pickaxe, this process was much grander and miraculous. He couldn't help but envy the players. If he had such a gamer ability, he wouldn't have had to worry about anything.
The moment the house was finished, a prompt sounded in both players' ears.
[Received 20 EXP]
[Congratulations to player 'TheLegend27' for stepping into the first layer of Qi refining.]
[Congratulations to player 'Sera' to step into the first layer of Qi refining]
Both of them felt a warm current enveloping their body as they felt like they had grown stronger and could now control the spiritual energy in their body.
Yang Ze, on the other hand ,saw a different prompt in front of him.
[Congratulation on both summons reaching Qi refining stage 1. You have successfully stepped into the Qi refining stage 3. Personal panel can now be viewed.]
Controlling the surging power in his body, Yang Ze finally saw a small translucent screen in front of him.
[Name: Yang Ze]
[Age: 16]
[Realm: 3rd Stage Qi Refining] (10/30)
"HOLY SHIT." These were the only words that came out of his mouth when he saw the panel in front of him.