[Congratulations, you have cultivated for a billion years and achieved the Supreme Great Emperor, a figure that transcends time.]
[The game will shut down in ten minutes, please enjoy your final moments.]
Blue Star, Qindu University.
Chen Lan lay on the dorm bed, looking at the game prompt on his phone, and sighed.
After playing for ten years, is the game finally ending?
The game on his phone is called "Cultivation Life," the most popular cultivation game a decade ago, focusing on how a mortal gradually becomes the strongest immortal.
Though there were many big spenders, Chen Lan relied on his love and persistence to play for a full ten years.
In ten years, he rose from a newbie to rank first on the game's entire server, the only Supreme Great Emperor, with not even a single Great Emperor tier beneath him.
Simply because the game gradually lost popularity, over a year, hardly anyone played it, and beyond his top level, the highest level was just the quasi-emperor tier, leaving him as the sole player.
"There's still ten minutes, let me at least bid you all the final farewell." Chen Lan sighed, opened the game's friend system, and saw the grey avatars, all offline.
The last time someone logged in was five years ago, his in-game Dao partner [Water Fairy].
Chen Lan vaguely remembered, back then, this girl had just learned about the game, playing it with a try-it-out mindset and looking for a mentor on the world channel.
He happened to be online, added her, took her to slay monsters for gear drops, ran dungeons, increased intimacy, and eventually they became Dao partners.
Unfortunately, the other party played for about two months before leaving for work and gradually stopped logging in.
No idea how she's doing now.
"Goodbye, Water Fairy." Chen Lan sent her a message, knowing she wouldn't see it, but he still wanted to say farewell.
He didn't have just this one Dao partner; he had many since the game had no limit on Dao partners; he had about seven or eight.
He sent a goodbye to each Dao partner, marking his farewell to the game.
With eight minutes left, he sparred with each of the top ten rivals on the leaderboard.
Though they were offline, you could spar with them freely, and if you won, it would lower their cultivation level.
Previously, he often lost cultivation levels due to these people sparring with him, but through perseverance, he endured until these people went offline.
Then he would spar with them daily, causing their cultivation to drop, with several of them losing an entire major tier.
"Goodbye, former rivals," Chen Lan sighed inwardly.
A sense of loneliness surged, as the game that accompanied him for ten years was shutting down, it was hard to part with.
From the first year of middle school until almost graduating from university, he'd played, and this affection wasn't something others could understand.
From having nothing to now having everything, divine magical treasures and spirit treasure weapons, divine mounts, invincible cultivation, divine pets, his backpack and storage filled with countless items and elixirs, all too abundant to use.
All of this he had to say goodbye to.
Gradually, with the final minute left, the game was about to shut down completely.
Chen Lan opened the world channel, looking at the empty chat box, and typed on the keyboard.
"Goodbye, Cultivation Life, you were the best game I've ever played. Goodbye everyone, see you if fate allows."
Though he knew no one would respond, he was saying goodbye to the game.
"Hey, son, want to go eat?" At this point, his roommate Luo Tao walked in drenched in sweat, holding a basketball.
"Let's go, since my son asks dad to eat, let's go." Chen Lan turned off his phone screen and followed Luo Tao out of the dormitory.
But he didn't know, the game interface once again displayed a prompt.
[Game shutdown]
[In half an hour, the game will manifest into reality!]
...
Dining hall.
"Son, why do you look so down, are you unhappy?" Luo Tao ate a chicken leg and looked at Chen Lan, puzzled.
"No, just some things are leaving me forever, that's all." Chen Lan shook his head with a slight smile.
"It wouldn't be that a girlfriend left you, right? No, you don't even have a girlfriend, did you possibly sneakily get into a relationship behind our backs?!" Luo Tao immediately lost interest in his chicken leg and questioned.
Secretly dating in the dormitory is akin to a capital offense.
"Eat your meal, I don't have time for a girlfriend, too troublesome." Chen Lan replied, annoyed.
In today's society, finding a girlfriend costs either money or energy, who's brave enough?
If one accidentally finds a Tier 0 girlfriend, wouldn't you end up with neither?
Better to wait a bit longer.
"Why not, you aren't unattractive, and your family has some money, having a girlfriend would be great. You're almost graduating, and you're still single." Luo Tao puzzled.
Chen Lan was clearly the most handsome in their dorm, girls would ask for his WeChat when they went out, but he just wouldn't date.
If he had this face, he'd already be a playboy, dating all the girls at Qindu University.
"Not interested, let's eat quickly and go back to play games."
"Alright, later I'm going to play Lan Ling King and severely torment XQ. "
"Then I'll play Shou Yue."
"You're trying to mess with me again. "
The two began a race; whoever finished eating first would help bring food tonight.
They ate quickly, and Chen Lan won in the end.
"You're eating like a starving ghost reborn, how do you eat so fast? I lose again, really impressed." Luo Tao sulked.
"Haha, just eat more."
The two laughed as they went back to the dorm, just as they laid down, thunder rumbled outside!
"Crap, is it the end of the world?" Luo Tao exclaimed.
Chen Lan went to the balcony and saw the sky filled with dark clouds, lightning flashing, thunder rumbling thunderously, and strong winds blowing, truly like the end of the world had arrived.
"I should... bring in the clothes." Chen Lan quickly retrieved the clothes from the balcony and prepared to play King of Glory again.
But then, a voice rang in his mind!
[Huaxia Game: Cultivation Life]
[Manifestation in sixty seconds!]
"What's going on?!" Luo Tao jumped up from the bed, looking around in terror.
"You heard it too?!" Chen Lan looked at Luo Tao in surprise.
Turns out everyone could hear it.
"Yeah, I heard it too, what's this game manifestation, called Cultivation Life, what kind of game is this?" Luo Tao was dumbfounded.
Chen Lan immediately realized, picked up his phone, swiped the interface, and looked at the familiar game app, frantically clicking but to no avail.
Could it be that this game is going to manifest?
What does manifestation mean?
Does it mean everything in the game will manifest over?
"Could it be the end of the world?" Luo Tao shouted in terror, losing the mood to play games.
And outside, the voices of other students sounded, opening the dormitory door, everyone was in panic.
"Crap, the end of the world is here!"
"Cultivation Life, what's that game, I've never heard of it."
"I know it, it's a game from ten years ago, I played for half a month and then stopped."
"Crap, I played it too a few years back, managed to reach Foundation Establishment stage, found it too pay-to-win and quit."
"Now that you mention it, I played it too, it was extremely popular back then, wasn't I at the Golden Core stage."
"So, does that mean we could really become immortals like in the novels and games?"
Some students were worried, others ecstatic.
Those worried were because they hadn't played the game, while the excited ones had played and weren't too weak.
At this moment, the voice rang again in everyone's mind.
[Sixty seconds passed, manifestation begins]
[First, manifesting cultivation]