Eating, drinking, training. Not in that order.

staring at the screen of choices, I feel overwhelmed with the amount of things I could choose from.

There's everything from weapons, armor, abilities, augments, even implants. I don't want anything too crazy though. After all, I only have 100 points. So, I narrow it down to the following options:

alice says, "You should choose, [Spirit infused tea, increases speed of natural training by 50% for 3 hours after consumption] price: 5 points per cup. It only works for 3 hours so you'll need 4. But that's obvious unless you're an absolute moron who doesn't know basic math."

She waves her hand and a list of other spirit infused foods populate the screen.

[Spirit infused mystery meat. increases natural body training speed by 50%]

[Access to the body training room.] 5 points per hour.

I'll obviously be spending most of my time training naturally through meditation and physical exercise.

ALICE suggests the spirit infused food, saying they increase speed of training power in all categories by 50%. Even though it is temporary, I definitely need the forced boost to my talent stat.

"Okay, let's go with the Spirit Infused Tea," I say aloud, looking at the menu. "How many cups do I need to drink?"

"Four Cups will give you four hours of increased speed." she sasses me. "of course it's 12 hours for four cups, are you stupid? also, Don't drink them all at once Drink them inbetween each 3 hour training session."

she says, "Don't worry, you won't die, but you might vomit uncontrollably, and lose control of bodily functions. Also, you may pass out for a few more than 10 minutes, which your basic regeneration package won't fix you fast enough. which means you'll probably end up in a coma, and dead due to not conquering the planet we're sending you to in 12 hours. Remember, I can kill you with a thought and am contractually obligated to do so if you refuse."

I sigh, knowing full well that ALICE isn't kidding. If she wanted to kill me, she could. She has access to every ability and technique known to man alein, and interdimensional entity as well as that chip in my brain. I'd rather not test whether or not she actually can kill me with a thought.

But, I guess I better take her advice seriously anyway.

"Alright, ALICE, thanks," I say, taking the teacups from the table.

ALICE replies, "Your welcome, William Fieldstone! feel free to take them all at once, and be dumb. I'll be happy to watch you suffer. Even if it's in my programming to help you get stronger."

She giggles.

As soon as I leave the room, she begins her work.

I sit on the edge of the bed and begin drinking the first cup of tea. It tastes good, although bitter. I quickly enter a meditative pose and use the body cultivation scripture I bought in the first session of training. Within moments, the pain subsides and I become aware of the effects of the tea. My senses sharpen. I hear sounds louder, smell scents clearer and taste flavors deeper.

I enter the body enhancement stage of the chant and enter deep meditation as I forcibly increase my cultivation speed.

My mind feels sharper. All sense of self vanishes. For a moment, I wonder what happens if I die during this process, but decide against finding out. As long as I keep chanting, I shouldn't die, right?

After a minute or two, the chants stop and I return to consciousness.

[ You have completed your first round of training. Your current cultivation level is now: stage 1. 5th level.]

This is incredible. I've never felt this clear headed ever. In fact, I feel as if I can move faster than light itself sadly, this is just an exaggeration of my mind.

Even though the tea increased my cultivation speed, Isn't this a little exaggerated? Maybe it's because I haven't eaten yet either... I think to myself as I finish the third cup of tea, noticing 9 hours have passed and my body automatically grabbed the other two whil I was meditating.

ALICE says, "That's great, William, Now eat some food!"

ALICE suggests several types of food.

"Eat any food that costs less than 20 points." ALICE reminds me. "It's important to consume calories while you're training hard like this."

I look at the screen. There seems to be quite a variety of food here. From meats and vegetables to fruits and candies.

"What kind of fruit would you recommend?" I ask ALICE.

"Anything that has spirit energy in it," ALICE answers still sassing me. "What do you think? there's hundreds of options from over a billion planets. just hit the random option and filter for less than 20 points, moron."

"Alright then..." I realize i can't always rely on ALICE because she clearly wants me to fail, even though she is forced to help me. I'm going to need to learn to trust my own judgement again, something I haven't done since I was abducted by aliens.

I scroll through the selection of fruit until I find one that looks tasty, and I hit the button next to it.

[Spirit dilli fruit purchased, increases cultivation speed by 15% for 72 hours. Good for long infiltration missions, or long training sessions.]

Now I just have to wait for the effect to kick in. It should take about 30 minutes.

***

"Ahh, that's better," I moan as I lay back down on the bed, and start doing sit ups. There's not enough time to sleep, with my regeneration, I can definitely hold off on that for a few days.

"You know," I mutter aloud as I continue my exercises. "If I had unlimited funds, I wouldn't hesitate to pay for a personal chef. That way, I'd have fresh nutritious meals available whenever I want them." ALICE cuts in, "Servitor bots are too expensive for you, don't even think about it."