Ardent wish

g trudged through the forest, the soft earth beneath his feet a constant reminder of his search. His mission was to find and hunt a beast, so he could exchange for some cash, and maybe get into the city.

But he was more than displeased to announce that he'd come up with an enormous, whopper-sized bag of absolutely nothing!

'…..!!'

"Ugh, what the hell?! I've been searching for at least an hour! You'd think I'd have come across some kind of goblin, thing, or maybe even the cliché wolf monster by now!" Ying's voice echoed through the desolate forest, a mixture of frustration and desperation laced within it.

He'd been searching for what felt like an eternity, and his patience was wearing thin. The fact that he'd yet to come across even the faintest traces of a wild beast disheartened him quite a bit.

"Sigh..."

Ying would've continued the search, he would have continued his journey, but he couldn't. He was a human after all, and humans were bound to feel exhaustion.

With a defeated sigh, Ying reluctantly stopped to rest.

''Damn, Trevor Lavender wasn't kidding around with the sensations. I feel as exhausted as I would have been in real life, had I walked aimlessly in the forest for an hour. Makes me wonder how I'd feel if someone… Chopped my arm off, or something like that…."

Ying involuntarily shuddered.

In other games, sensations like Pain and Fatigue were not incorporated, as the developers deemed them to be irrelevant and ultimately detrimental to overall gameplay. Moreover, the coding and resources required for that kind of thing were quite complex, as well as expensive.

The only other game that managed even a little bit of sensational realism was [Berserker Online], and even they only managed a trifling 5% on average for every other primary stimulus.

Cultivation Climax was really different, but was that really enough to set it apart from the rest? Was that really enough to bestow it the title— 'game if the century'?

No, it wasn't... At least, Ying didn't think so.

Ying sat on an innocuous looking boulder, his gaze wandered to the forest floor. The trees seemed to loom over him, their branches like skeletal fingers reaching for the sky.

He shivered, despite the warmth of the virtual sun on his skin. This game was meant to be immersive, but Ying couldn't shake the feeling that he was living in some sort of nightmare...

SLAP

''Alright. That's enough pondering." Ying scolded himself, "If I can't find a monster, then I'll just Cultivate." He then proceeded to cross his legs in the lotus position.

His inability to find an enemy seemed to have caused him to forget that he was still in a monster-dominated portion of this new world, but just as he was about to commence the Qi Gathering technique, he heard a very loud 'DING!'

DING!

The noise pierced the sky, it's shattering DING demanding attention and prestigeous authority. Ying looked up to see a flurry of announcements, highlighted on a gold panel, scrolling across the sky, each one a reminder of his own inadequacy.

[WORLD ANNOUNCEMENTS!]

[Congratulations! Player 'White' is the first to clear the Hidden Quest: Tea Enthusiasts' Dilemma!]

[Congratulations! Player 'White' is the first to obtain a Supreme-grade skill!]

[Congratulations! Player 'White' is the first to obtain a Supreme-grade Item!]

"….!!"

'T-t-t-three World Achievements at the same time?!' Ying raged, 'This White guy sounds like someone whom the gods did NOT forsake! Don't tell me I ended up in a weird world that has him as the protagonist!'

Although he did not yet know the rankings or grades of the various things in this world, he could easily tell that the 'Supreme Grade' was far higher than his Mortal grade trash.

He instinctively began feeling pressured to cultivate; after all, he was not enthusiastic about getting left behind in the game at all, let alone this early on.

Ying began cultivating and soon after, his Qi experience slowly began increasing. It was slow, so slow, it was annoying, but as small as they may be, gains were still gains.

[10/500]

[70/500]

[120/500]

At this point, Ying started to feel a little bit of discomfort.

The position he was sitting in was not exactly comfortable. He had to keep his posture straight and legs tightly locked, it was only a matter of time before his shoulders ached and the muscles in his thighs started to cramp.

[270/500]

[320/500]

Soon, Ying started to feel as though his Cultivation had slowed down.

The minutes felt longer as his spine felt like . For some reason, instead of the soothing sensation that Cultivation was depicted to bring in various novels and webtoons, Ying was being assaulted by a torrent of strain!

[350/500]

[380/500]

'Aaaargh! Damn this friggin' system!' Ying yelled inwardly.

It seemed that he failed to… Or rather, refused to believe that his difficult Cultivation was a result of his Abysmal Talent as well as the fact that he didn't even properly understand the entire concept…

''Crap! I give up!'' Ying exclaimed before breaking his posture, thrusting himself into the soft embrace of the warm grass, ultimately halting his Cultivation. Even as he yelled, his voice was shrill and full of exhaustion.

[448/500]

'Damn! I only Cultivated for roughly forty-five minutes, just a bit more before my level-up requirement... Damn, is it really going to be like this...' Ying thought as he observed his status from where he was on the floor.

He was close, but the task seemed strangely straining on his body.

Meanwhile, while Ying was busy wallowing in disappointment, the skies above were going crazy with world announcements.

[Congratulations! Player 'Rubén' is the first to obtain an Earth-grade skill!]

[Congratulations! Player 'Zain' is the first to slay a Body Tempering Stage—Third Realm beast!]

[Congratulations! Players; 'Xiao Li' and 'Autumn' are the first to clear the Cave of Salamanders!]

[Congratulations! Player 'Su-Ming' is the first to clear…!]

The announcements multiplied like wildfire, their gilded letters searing themselves into the horizon.

Ying's jaw tightened as he recognized some names—being the very famous E-sports athletes that they were—one of which he even knew rather personally... As well as a few which he didn't recognize at all.

Nevertheless, they were all soaring high while he languished in the dirt.

Ying sighed.

It was only natural that there would be so many names now; after all, the achievements were much simpler at the early stages of the game. It was later on, during the advanced stages, when the available accomplishments became fewer and much more daunting, that the true talents would emerge from the masses.

Ying was a bit poignant that he couldn't even achieve a single thing after more than two hours of gaming, but since the day he was born, he had never been one for self-pity.

'Ha! And since when did you start wallowing in the trenches of your own in capabilities? If you want your name up there in those skies, then all you have to do is simple – earn it.'

Ying told himself while getting up, a slight amusement of his pathetic actions evident on his face.

'Yeah, I may not have been lucky to obtain a good Talent, and I may not have a jolly good fortune in the game either…' Ying dusted his robes and then stood up straight.

'…But I'll take my shitty luck and turn it into something even the gods will covet.' He paused, a truly demented smirk creeping up his face. 'Or get devoured by a goblin. Honestly, odds are fifty-fifty.'

Ying chuckled, then set forth. His mirthless grin contrasting perfectly with the pure sparks of renewed determination which glistened in his obsidian eyes. The mission was simple—

"Find and kill, a damned monster."

It wouldn't be long now, before his ardent wish was granted.