Xuan

The Sun was shining, the birds were chirping, Illustrating the beautiful summer. Xuan had difficulty opening his eyes as the sun's rays were too harsh on him, or maybe the reason was that he hadn't seen the sun for four months.

He walked to the convenience store nearby from his house and stood there. Taking out his phone, he tracked his parcel, which was supposed to be delivered to him by today.

A disappointing look flashed across his face as he stared at his phone. "Already out for delivery? I have been waiting for a week now." He sighed and looked back at the glass door, where his reflection flashed due to the sharp sunshine.

His skin looked rigid, face covered with acne and his long black hair touched his nose tip. not to mention the hollow eyes which made him hit the description of the term called 'introvert'

He sighed…

Grabbing some juice and cup noodles, he went to the cashier.

The cashier was a young lady around the same age as him, around 19, who looked at him and then showed him a disgusted look, which was taken over by a businessman's smile, as he handed his debit card to her.

"Thank you for shopping in our store, here's a monthly stamp book, you can collect ten stamps and receive some discounts." She handed him a small stamp book, which contained a few pages.

Xuan didn't even look at her and just grabbed his stuff, and the stamp book and left the store.

He didn't bother to even look around, he straight went back to his house.

"I am home…" Opening the door, he mumbled in a slow voice, then looked at a room in the right corner of the corridor.

"She hasn't contacted me since then, I think she is still mad at me? Or should I make a call?" He pondered for a while. "Sigh… forget it!"

He went to the kitchen on the left of the corridor and put the bag on the dining table. "Maybe I am so used to this lifestyle, it's starting to feel empty."

"That's why they say, 'you must cherish what you already have' " he muttered as he opened his fridge door.

*Ring* *Ring*

He looked at his cellphone showing a random number.

He picked it up, "umm… hello?"

"Is this Mr. Xuan Yu?" Another side of the call was a normal polite male voice.

"Yes? Who you might be?" Xuan was surprised to hear the term 'Mr'.

"your new VR headset has arrived sir, I am standing outside of your house, can you come and receive it?" the man asked in the politest tone.

"Oh, it has arrived? I am coming, hang on a moment!" Xuan hung up the call and immediately rushed out to get the VR Headset.

He saw a man standing on the corner of the road under a tree.

He opened the receiver's barcode and after scanning, he brought the Headset with him.

The man politely nodded and said goodbye before leaving.

"Finally! Yes, " he jumped in excitement and went inside his room upstairs, with the parcel in his hand.

He didn't even bother finding a knife and used his room key to cut the tape and open the parcel.

"Path of immortality…" he read the cover once, then tore open the box.

"Wow…" his eyes shined as he looked at the headset, which looked like a motorcycle helmet, but more futuristic.

There weren't any ports around the socket and the Inside was comfortable enough to fit his head.

He looked for the battery indicator, which wasn't there either, he frowned and looked at the only button on the inner side.

"Should I try it now?" He pondered and pushed the button inside the headset.

He noticed a blue light flashing inside the headset, as a formation diagram appeared at the place his forehead was to be positioned.

He felt weird but decided to give it a try. He lay on his bed resting his back on the bed. He did not hesitate to push his head, as he closed his eyes until it hit his temples.

'What's this feeling…' he felt relaxed as his stress seemed to fade away. He kept his head still on the bed, enjoying the soothing feeling inside the headset.

'Is this because of the light?' He couldn't help but guess.

As he was enjoying the experience, he felt sleepy and slowly his consciousness faded away.

…

"Umm…" Xuan opened his eyes, and closed them again, as the straight sunlight struck his eyes.

Confused as he was, he covered his eyes with his palms, and slowly peaked through them.

What he saw was a vast bright sky, with little to no clouds, and pure sunlight kissing his skin.

"What a beautiful sky!" He said and got up from the ground.

He looked around with a surprised expression, "Am I inside the game?" He looked at himself with confusion.

But soon a semi-transparent hologram screen appeared in front of him.

< ding >

[ Welcome Player Xuan, to the world of cultivation.]

[ the world, where the strong rules and weak suffered. ]

[ people with countless beliefs and principles exist, still a single goal of their life, Reaching Immortality. ]

The wind passed by his neck, giving him a tiny bit of flinch, his eyes fixed on the screen as a broad smile formed on his face.

To him, that was a very exhilarating feeling that he had experienced.

"I can feel the wind on my skin, as this…" he squatted on the ground, extending his hand, feeling the texture of the grass field.

"Is this really a game? It's just too realistic and immersive…" he muttered and looked around the plain grass fields he was in.

His eyes caught a big, gate-like structure a few hundred meters away from his spot.

He started to walk towards the gate, as a newfound energy had taken over him, he felt really energetic.

"The air… it's so delicious, unlike the city, this air feels so refreshing… wait! It's just a game right?" He took another deep breath and exhaled. He felt this 'game' was too realistic to be a game.

As he reached the gate, a notification popped on his system screen.

< ding >

[ Player name - Xuan Yu ]

[ Cultivation level - mortal ]

[ Constitution - primordial flame body ]

[ Physical Attribute - Yang Fire element ]

[ physical strength - 35 ]

[ physical endurance - 39 ]

[ mental strength - 55 ]

[ mental endurance - 62 ]

[ soul strength - 39700 ]

His eyes tracked every detail on the screen, making him frown.

"What? What is this… soul strength?" He mumbled with a dazed expression as the gate in front of him started to flash, and a portal appeared on the gate.

< ding >

[ Enter the portal to start the game. ]

Another notification appeared on the screen as he started it a bit.

He took a deep breath and extended his arm at the portal, while his heart skipped a beat.

As his hand touched the portal, a superficial force surrounding him pulled his body inside the portal, and he got sucked in and disappeared from there.

"Woahh…"

As he went inside the portal, he found himself in a dark void-like space where he kept falling downwards.

His wait came to an end as his feet landed on a solid surface, as the surroundings changed in an instant.

huge palm trees, stone roads, and a few carriages on them.

"Here we are miss, the River shore city," the coachman pulled his carriage to the side of the road and opened the door.

"Oh, we are here…" the lady said and stepped out.

Xuan's eyes fell on her as she turned her face to him, a gust of wind blew as he stared at her mesmerizing eyes.

She also stopped, as she felt his gaze on her, and they looked into each other's eyes for a good few seconds, before the carriage door closed, snapping out both of them in their dazed state.

She turned to the coachman and took out some silver coins from a small pouch. Handing over the coachman three silver coins, she turned to Xuan again, before entering the city gate.

Xuan noticed his pounding heart, and blushing face, and fixed his posture.

"Hmm… let's see, what awaits here for me…" he smiled as he looked up at the sky, as his eyes emitted a golden glow.

He noticed the lady showing a glass-like token to the guard before entering the gate.

He approached the city guard to see if he could enter, but the guard declined and said, "you can only enter after showing me your registration token."

As he opened his mouth to ask how he could acquire it. The guard pointed at a big hall outside of the city gate just a hundred meters away. Hanging there was a signboard 'Registration office'

He didn't ask further and directly walked over to the 'registration office'.

After entering the office, he saw a receptionist at the front desk, who was just sitting there.

"Umm… hello?" Xuan hesitantly asked.

"Huh? New in the city?" The receptionist was a grumpy old man, who did not even look at him and kept his eyes on a book.

"Ah. Yes, I want a registration token."

"Here fill this," the old man handed him a paper and went back to the book.

Xuan ignored the old man's attitude and looked at the paper.

He filled the paper with his name and some basic information, but he didn't know how to fill in the address, so he left it blank, and handed over the paper to the receptionist.

The old man snorted looking at the paper, "no address? Hmmph!" He said and took the brush and filled the spot with some random address.

"That would be two gold coins." The old man said as he put the paper beneath a pile of papers.

"Gold coins?" Xuan had a dumbfounded expression as he looked at the old man.

The old man noticed his gaze and lofty expression. "What? You have to pay 2 gold coins for the registration, don't you know that?"

"I don't have any money on me… right now." He said and looked indifferently at the old man.

"Then go away! Don't waste my precious time! Come back when you have money."

The old man shooed him away.

Xuan frowned and glared at him, the old man noticed his glare but turned his head away. "What are you looking at scram!"

Xuan took a deep breath and decided to ignore the old man, and proceeded to exit.

Xuan walked back to the road as a notification popped in front of him.

He instinctively turned to the corner so others couldn't see the screen.

< ding >

[ Player Xuan received starter gifts and a starter quest. ]

[ starter gifts - steel sword, two robes. ]

[ starter quest - break through the mortal body shackles and enter the first stage of the qi gathering realm. ]

Reading the description, he frowned. He then asked, "where are the gifts?" Confused as to when he received a gift?.

< ding! >

[ the gifts are directly transferred to your inventory space, you can access it by saying 'inventory' ]

Xuan noted that and shifted his gaze back at the city gate, he felt a bit unhappy, as he couldn't see the lady from before.

He looked back at the road leading in another direction and decided to go along.

As he was walking, he noticed a few Carriages would stop at him, asking if he was looking for a ride, and as soon as he would tell them that he didn't have any money, they would just leave with the empty Carriage.

He had to walk for an hour just to see some people walking around, and he assumed that there could be a city nearby.

"Umm… excuse me? Can you tell me if there's any city nearby?" After a bit of hesitation, he decided to ask an old couple, who were walking around, wrapping arms around each other.

"You can go ahead, there's our village in just 15 minutes." The old man said with a bright smile and looked at her partner.

"Dear, it's past noon already. If you want to go to the next city, you should get a Carriage." The old lady smiled graciously at Xuan.

"Thank you very much," looking at their polite behavior, Xuan couldn't help but feel moved.

The old couple turned around and walked away.

Xuan didn't know what to do, he stopped as he heard a notification.

< ding >

[ Player Shen Jia has successfully broken through to the Golden core realm and became the no. 1 ranking player. ]

Xuan looked at the message with surprise, as he didn't know about the cultivation realms.

"What? Golden core realm? How does the cultivation system work here?" Xuan recalled that once he read some eastern fantasy novels.

< ding >

[ the cultivation realms are divided into 7 realms. ]

[ Qi gathering realm ]

[ Foundation establishment realm ]

[ Essence gathering realm ]

[ Golden core realm ]

[ Nascent soul realm ]

[ Dao physics realm ]

[ Ascension realm ]

[ furthermore, each realm has been divided into ten stages till the golden core realm.]

[ from the golden core realm to the ascension realm, each realm has been divided into three stages. ]

Xuan read all the information with a smile, as a newfound path appeared in front of him, he felt the thrive to get stronger, the enthusiasm to continue. And the will to improve.

In his current state, he felt he could do anything and achieve anything as long as he put effort, and he was willing to…

After reading the whole description, he closed the panel and started to walk again.

But his steps came to halt, as a light flashed from a distance, which was enough to bling people. But his surroundings turned dark, as this flash was the bane of every living being.

Everything disappeared in front of his eyes, as darkness engulfed the whole world.

He was in a shock, as everything around him was happening so fast, and he couldn't react fast enough.

"Hmm… interesting, I can't even see through a mortal?"

A hoarse voice sounded from his behind, making him turn his head in alarm.

"W-who are you?" Xuan couldn't help but become surprised looking at a middle-aged man standing right behind him with a smirk.

"The question is, who are you? The man looked at him from uptown, but couldn't see through him at all.

"Are you an NPC? or a player?" Xuan calmed down as he recalled that this was a game and asked.

The middle-aged man glared at him, and then frowned, "NPC? player? What are you talking about?"

Xuan was confused as he concluded that the man was an NPC.

"I can feel primordial yang energy from your body… but then it doesn't make sense, why would I sense this on a mortal?" the middle-aged man muttered and pulled out a small, glowing, golden-colored plate from his robe, and handed it over to Xuan.

"Take this, this is my jade token, if we meet again, or you can show this to anyone from the Jade sect. They will bring you to me." He said and turned around.

"Wait! Who are you?" Xian decided to ask his name.

"You can just call me Sect Master Jian." He said and disappeared from the place.

Xuan was left there dumbfounded, as he looked around.

< ding! >

[ the servers went down, sorry for the trouble, profile rebooting… ]

As the message popped up Xuan felt his consciousness fade away…

(a/n - tell me if you like this in the comments, I will be glad to continue this.)