Gaming

The faint smell of sizzling food assaulted his nose. His stomach grumbled, reminding him he hadn't eaten all day.

Spotting a fast-food stall nearby, he made his way over. 

The place was kinda crowded but he was quickly able to start ordering.

The menu was simple had variety of fast food, he swept his gaze through them and he quickly ordered a burger and a large bottle of cola.

After receiving his meal, Lin Xuanyu took a sip of the fizzy drink and resumed his walk home, enjoying the cool breeze that swept through the busy street.

"I should come out like this everyday and enjoy the streets" Lin Xuanyu commented. 

In his old world, he barely had time to spend in leisure like this, he would either be drowning in college work or playing games after that, he wouldn't have a single bit of energy to move after all that. 

Now? he could walk around like this, enjoy the world. Sure he had to hunt down a bunch of transmigrators but this comes first!

Back in his room, Lin Xuanyu placed the meal on his desk and headed to the bathroom for a quick shower.

A cold shower is always nice after a long day out. 

After shower he looked in the mirror and he changed into a comfortable shirt and trousers, ready to eat his food.

Sitting at his desk, Lin Xuanyu unwrapped his burger and switched on his computer.

The hologram flickered to life, and he pulled up the news, letting the voices of the anchors fill the room as he took a bite.the new showed —economic updates, a robbery in one of the galaxy's hubs, and reports of rare monster sightings in remote areas.

None of it particularly interested him.

But it was better than nothing.

After finishing his meal, Lin Xuanyu leaned back on his chair and casually opened up the cosmic net.

He searched around fir a bit and was able to find to something similar to a video sharing and stream platform.

It was called Starstream.

There were countless people streaming and uploading videos in to it and even a newly updated video will get 10 million views in a matter of seconds.

It goes to show how wide the cosmic alliance was.

Most of the videos and lives in the platform were related to cultivation and what not or rather thats what the platform recommended to him at first.

There were videos like : How to fly at core-formation, Comprehensive guide on cultivating laws etc. 

It had a lot of view as well, reaching trillions of views. 

But those didn't interest him, he clicked on the gaming section within the platform and soon he saw many streamers and videos on many games ranging from games in virtual reality and Personal Computers alike. 

His eyes soon fell on a game which looked a lot like a shooter game called "Virel"

During his previous life, he spent most of his time playing tactical shooter-games like the one shown on the video and he was almost close to reaching the top rank of that rank, he even planned on doing Esports but that didn't last long.

He didn't even have time for college assignment let alone esport.

"Should I become an Esports player in this world?" Lin Xuanyu said thoughtfully as he clicked on the download link of Virel and it downloaded within a minute of time.

For now, he didn't want to focus on cultivation, he'll do that tomorrow when he will have 11 energy points, with that he can refine the rune manifestation techniques along with the energy refining pills.

With that said, he booted up the game and started playing.

Time passed faster than he expected. Lin Xuanyu was on a roll, he kept at it for 5 hours straight without and on the way he found himself a duo to play as well. 

That's right five hours, it was already past 12 AM and he was still playing.

"Watch out for flank" Lin Xuanyu calmly said out loud to his teammates.

"There's no one near the teleport, i've already checked" A pleasant female voice came out from within the PC, She is the duo who he met inside the game.

because there weren't any level level requirement for ranked plays in this game he quickly went ahead and started his first match after playing a bit with bots to understand the game mechanics and surprisingly it was very similar to the game he used to play in his old world.

Once he played the game for the first time, he was immediately disappointed. 

These people in his team was rather bad at these game for some reason, they were literally spraying and praying.

Not a single one seemed to have something called game sense...

He thought that it might be because he was in a newbie lobby, but no.

Turns out even in a higher ranked lobby, it was still the same, it honestly felt like he was playing with toddlers.

Why the heck were all his teammates a bunch of stupid morons?!

The game uses AI to track and see his perform in the match and used that a reference to give him a rank and because of that he skipped 3 ranks and was at Legendary Rank, 4 more ranks and he'll be at the top of this game, it honestly made him speechless.

But that's when he met her, Username "Codename" , she was almost as good as him, She knew how to give call outs and actually play with comms.

Finally a normal player in his team...

She messaged him first asking for duo up and he naturally agreed, on the way he taught her how to bunny-hop and how to do flickshots, she was a fast learner and eventually their team up became more fluid.

Unlike before, the legendary rank was filled with pros, they were finally almost on his level. 

The words "Victory" lit up in his screen up. a satisfied smile formed his face as he stretched after he sent "GG" in chat, "Good work codename"

"Yeah" A look of happiness sounded out from the other side, "We're officially at the Titan Rank now, the game is going to be more harder than before because from now it's all going to be tryhards and sweats in the game"

Codename remarked in a serious tone, "I heard that the owner of Golden Pavillion is also at the Titan rank, hardstuck"

"What?" Lin Xuanyu laughed, "The patriarch of the Shen Clan plays Virel?" 

He didn't know whether to laugh or cry, what were big shots like that doing in a game like Virel? also wouldn't it basically be cheating for someone like him to play this game? 

Being the patriarch of Shen clan, his cultivation was at a very high level, it wouldn't be far-fetched to say that his were fast enough to see into the future, yet he was struck at Titan rank?

That's when Codename's laughter rang out from the PC, "You might be wondering why he's still hard-stuck at Titan Rank" 

"Yep" Lin Xuanyu nodded.

"Well it's the AI of Virel, It won't allow a higher life-form to play in it unless they reduced their powers to that of mortal for fair play."

Codename as a matter-of-factly. "I'll tell you a secret. The game Virel was created by the Federation Master himself but only a handful amount of people know that. So don't go telling anyone, thanks."

"???" Lin Xuanyu was dumbfounded.

"And Before you say I'm lying, see for yourself, if you have spiritual perception, try using it on the PC"

"Hmm" Lin Xuanyu nodded thoughtfully, "I do indeed have spiritual perception"

"Then use it and see for yourself" Codename said from the otherside.

Lin Xuanyu flared up his spiritual perception like codename said he sent it towards the PC and almost immediately warning sign appeared on his face and the Play button down below turned grey, but it turned bright again once he took back the spiritual perception.

"Considering how the play button just turned for a moment, I'm guessing that you used your Spiritual perception and got the warning?" Codename's laughter came from the other side. "Interesting right?"

"Interesting indeed" Lin Xuanyu said with a laugh, "This federation master doesn't seem like an ordinary figure."

"Of course not" Codename said, "He's the one who manages the cosmic alliance, of course he is not an ordinary figure"

Lin Xuanyu yawns, "It's past 12 AM for me and I have stuff to do tomorrow, so i'm going to sleep. let's play tomorrow."

A surprised codename's voice came from the otherside, "Sleep? Why do you need sleep, aren't you already at Legendary Transformation."

Lin Xuanyu froze, that's right, only Legendary Transformations had spiritual perception and he actually blurted out he had one. But he didn't panic.

"Who said a I can't sleep" Lin Xuanyu retorted back, "Sleeping is my usual habit, I probably won't stop it even if reach the realm above legendary transformation!"

"Hmm" Codename's bored voice came from the other side, "Hermit, Why don't we add each other On Wallet, that way I will be able to message you to check if you're free or not and you could do the same for me!"

Hermit was his in-game name.

"Alright" Lin Xuanyu nodded, he quickly sent a link to her with his Wallet ID, and she did the same.

They soon added each other as friends.

Her real name was also revealed then, Liu Yue.

Soon enough, Liu Yue sent a waving sticker in dms.

Liu Yue: Hi

Lin Xuanyu: Hey

Liu Yue: I'll contact you through here from now on.

Lin Xuanyu: Alright.

Lin Xuanyu is offline.

With that he closed the chat and stretched his body as he stood up from the chair after closing the PC off. It was time to hit the bed.

While he was on his way to the bathroom he noticed that his evolution point has increased and is now at 11 because it was a new day now. 

But the stuff of refining is for tomorrow, now he needed to sleep.

But then he froze, He felt two presences just outside his room, One had a big build and the guy next to him had a small build.

Instantly a annoyed look appeared on his face.

They just had to come at this time!!

*****

While Lin Xuanyu's sleep was being interrupted by certain people, far across countless galaxies, inside a large mansion, a different scene was taking place. In one of the many spacious rooms, A young girl sat in a sleek gaming chair, her pink hair with blue tied into a half-up, half-down style, with loose waves flowing down her back.

The vibrant color of her hair, paired with the soft side-swept bangs framing her beautiful face, highlighted the happy expression she wore as she focused on the glowing screen before her.

Her eyes sparkled as she glanced at the chat on her wallet. A smile slowly formed on her face.

"Finally, someone I can play with," the girl muttered under her breath, clearly pleased.

But the smile quickly faded, replaced by a sudden seriousness.

Her expression tightened, and her eyes narrowed slightly, as if she'd just realized something important.

Before she could dwell on it, the door creaked open. A woman, a little older than the girl, entered the room in a maid uniform, moving with quiet grace.

She bowed slightly when she saw the girl.

"Miss Yue," the maid said calmly, "Your father, the Federation Master, has returned."

Yue glanced up, her expression unreadable. "Is that so?" she replied, her voice cool.

Without waiting for an answer, she stood up from her chair and headed toward the door. "Very well, I'll go meet him."

The maid nodded with a small smile, then left the room, closing the door behind her.