Today, I woke up to my favorite song; all of my favorite novels had released new chapters, another novel dropped thirteen new chapters after eighteen months of silence, and a novel I thought was dead received a rewrite. It's better than the original, and I had the next 34 hours off to spend in my hotel room away from the truck, which meant non-stop reading.
Rolling over in bed, I’d get up and go to the bathroom before hopping into the shower. Getting out and toweling off, I’d look at myself in the mirror while reaching for my toothbrush. Looking back at me was a man with golden olive skin, a black curly beard, brown eyes, small curly fro, and a shape if the said shape was rather pudgy. My day-to-day life doesn’t leave much room for exercise. At least, that was the excuse I was going with.
Nodding at the distinguished gentleman before me, I clean my teeth before wearing shorts and a shirt. Clothes on, I order something to eat before lying down and logging into my account on my phone to start reading. Nothing like some good old fashion cultivation stories in the morning as I enjoy my time off.
After some time, my food arrives, and I quickly eat it before laying back down to continue reading as I readily succumb to a mid-day nap. I don’t get to enjoy these that often, so I didn’t fight it off as I willingly let go of my consciousness.
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I awakened slowly, keeping my eyes shut, trying to keep a tenuous hold on my nap. It was a good nap, and I wanted to hold onto it for as long as possible. After a few more minutes of lying down, I gently opened my eyes to find my phone and returned to reading. I noticed several things at that moment, the first being that my phone was missing, and the second was that I was now lying in a bed that wasn’t my hotel’s in a room made of wood paneling.
Quickly sitting up, I look around the room before noticing a book on a nearby table. It seemed out of place especially given that it had no windows, only a bed, that single table, and a door.
“Hello? Is anyone out there? I would like to know where I am right about now.” I waited a bit after my callout and heard no response, but my shoes were still here; no socks, though, which is fantastic. Picking up my shoes and shaking them out, I put them on before walking to the door. I was going to either figure out what was going on or escape, at the least.
As I moved closer to the door, the room seemed to stretch and warp as the door moved further and further away from me. As this continued, panic began to set in along with nausea before I fell over backwards, causing the stretching to stop and my nausea to fade slowly. I decided to close my eyes and lay here for a bit until the world made at least a little sense.
A few minutes later, I pulled myself off the floor and again looked around, refusing to even look at the door the whole time. As I did so, I couldn’t help but notice that the book now stood upright and pulsed with a blue light. Whatever supernatural force brought me here wanted me to read this book.
“Okay, magic book thing, do I have to read you, or can you speak out loud? I would appreciate it if you could talk since you know you already warped reality.” I said this hoping I didn’t have to touch or read this book that could kill me. Unfortunately, it would seem that wouldn’t be the case as the book positioned itself directly in front of my face before opening up to a blank first page. As I stared at the blank page for a bit, words began to appear before disappearing, and then a new sentence began to form that I think it’ll stick with.
‘Greetings! I hope you’ve found yourself well after this trip of yours. I saw you trying the door, and I just had to make sure you read my little book here before you went outside. Of course, once you read this book, you can explore all you like. That is, if you’re willing to die right off the bat and damn your soul to be plucked out of the cycle of reincarnation and erased forever. Surely that is the punishment for being awful entertainment, right? Dying so quickly and not providing me even a year’s entertainment should be punished, right?’
The writing paused after that, as if waiting for me to respond. Seemingly to prove my point, the book slowly moved forward before I hastily responded, “Right! If you aren’t entertained, then that’s obviously my fault, and I should be punished accordingly!”
Of course, I didn’t believe this, and who would? However, I was willing to say anything to keep myself alive. This book or whoever was in control here was on a level I couldn’t begin to fathom and was talking about removing souls from the cycle of reincarnation, which is now most likely confirmed to be real, as if it was just pouring out some water.
‘That’s right! That’s right! THAT’S RIGHT! It is precisely YOUR fault that I couldn’t get any entertainment like that. The fact that you understand this already bumps you up to my top 90 favorites out of the 100 I brought to this world. Oh! That’s right! So! Welcome to the planet known as Caliasoa. You and 99 others have been brought here by me to entertain me with your day-to-day struggle to survive on this harsh planet. You see, this planet is filled with an energy known as Qi which the natives absorb in an act known as cultivation.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Leaving you all high and dry wouldn’t be in my best interests. No, you see, I came up with cultivation manuals for you! They’re all unique to you, and you can’t cultivate anything else! Aren’t I a great and kind person to give you a cultivation method? People destroy universes for that, so I expect you to bow down and praise me.’
The writing paused again here, so I assumed they wanted me to bow down and praise them. This was more demeaning, but if it got me to safety and the ability to cultivate like in my favorite genre of books, then so be it. Dramatically falling to my knees in supplication, I’d start to sing it some praises.
“Oh, great and mighty senior in the sky, I could never thank someone as kind and magnanimous as yourself enough for this opportunity you gave me! Your words fill me with nothing but the endless wisdom of your knowledge and a drive to entertain you to my utmost ability. Please, oh great, and might sky senior, please teach this lowly entertainer the cultivation technique you have made just for me.”
I hope I didn’t lay it on too thick with this, and I really hope this powerful being liked the ass-kissing I was doing, or else they might just screw me over. After a few more moments, I raised my head to stare at the book as the being began writing again.
‘Yes! I am pretty generous for giving you the chance to entertain me! Being able to see Mt. Tai is impressive. You have moved up to my top 80 favorite contestants. I’ll give you a cultivation method I spent a little time on because I thought it’d be neat. I call this method the Dantian Forge. It pulls your Dantian, which you now have, out of your body and places it into an object you create which becomes the forge. Once this forge is established, it will gather Qi and circulate it. With this method, the only benefit your body gains is that should it be destroyed, your Dantian Forge can rebuild your body from the ambient Qi. This will take twenty years, with each realm lowering this by a year.
Of course, you won’t be utterly defenseless since that wouldn’t be fun for me to watch. So with that in mind, the Dantian Forge will allow you to take creatures that have died within the last hour, put them into the forge, and convert their body into a Qi Phantom that’ll rest where your Dantian used to be. You can then call out said Phantom to aid you in your fight for survival, where it’ll last for four hours, less time if it uses any Qi-intensive techniques, or you’re too far away from your Forge since it's supplying the Qi to the Phantom.
Finally, you can also move your Forge around by carrying it somehow. It's pretty heavy, so you’ll have to figure something out, or else you’re screwed. Now then, any questions so far?’
“Yes, I can’t comprehend the greatness you’re trying to impart onto me, oh great sky senior, so I was wondering if you’d leave another book for me to study to use this method.” I had to ask this since there was absolutely no way I could remember or even put into action what it wanted me to do. Why couldn’t it force the knowledge into my head and let me be?
The book flashed a few times before another one appeared. It was a thin book, so hopefully, it worked on the same principles as this floating book. With the appearance of the new book, the floating book backed off of me and beckoned me to pick up the book and read it. It was labeled ‘The Dantian Forge and You’ with a picture of a forge and a person sitting in it.
Opening the book and quickly scanning it showed it was more complicated than the Floating Book explained. After my quick scan, I look back towards the Floating Book, hoping it will either finish its explanation or leave me be for now so I can deal with this new life it forced me into. I was more than a little excited to jump right into it, mainly because my life hinged on getting as big of an edge as possible. While I was upset about not being back on my own planet, this was still a considerable step up from being a truck driver getting yelled at or talked down to by my patronizing bosses. I would surely miss my family, but, at this point, we’ve all made our preparations in case any of us suddenly passed away or went missing.
Turning back to the book, I can already see new sentences formed and waiting for me to read.
‘You know I was initially just going to implant the knowledge into the minds of every single last one of you, but your idea is better! I decided to do it for everyone and even let them know who was so helpful with their suggestion. Oh? They all seem to be so happy and want to meet you directly. This is so great! Here I gave out your picture to them so they could know exactly who did this for them. Well, would you look at that? You already have fans looking to meet you and potentially kill you! Oh boy, they really do not like you. Not only can I feel their killing intent, but they’re thinking so much about killing you that their thoughts are radiating out. This is so great!
Look at you already making yourself enemy number one. I love this so much. Well, I think it's about time for me to go and let you figure out what to do. I only have two things left to tell you, the first being that if you’re the last one standing, I will grant you precisely one wish that can be anything you could ever hope for. The last thing more important than that is that when you’re within twenty miles of another participant, a flare that only participants can see will shoot into the sky. This will only happen once a day unless another participant enters the area, where the flare will happen again for everyone. Goodbye, and remember, don’t die before bringing me as much entertainment as possible!’
With that last sentence, the book simply fades away, leaving no indication it was ever there. It left me with several things to worry about especially considering that I now had a massive target on my back. I couldn’t even hide once that flare the book talked about went out since they were given pictures of my face. Should I disfigure myself? Conceal my face so no one can ever see who I am? I’ll have to figure something out, or else my life will be cut short when another person finds me.
Clearing my head of those thoughts, I grab the book with my cultivation method before turning towards the door. I tentatively take a few steps towards it in case the warping effect happens again. With nothing happening, I move towards it and look outside to see where I’m at even.
Opening the door, I can see that wherever I’m at is in a clearing with trees maybe ninety meters away, and a river about forty meters away from me. It seemed to be about midday, so I hoped I was at least a little safe from some of the creatures of the forest. Deciding it was now or never, I gathered my courage and walked out into the sun of this new world. I needed to see what was behind my little house to make better plans while cultivating.
As I quickly moved around the back while keeping my head on a swivel, I noticed that the air quality seemed much higher here. At least, that was what I assumed with how breathing was more manageable. It’s a slight positive to attempt to outweigh all my new situation's negatives. Putting yet another thing away from now, I finally make it to the back of the house only to confirm that the building was encircled by the forest and, strangely, the river. It flowed around the building before leaving a small natural bridge on the opposite side of the house.
While interesting, I’ll have to come back to it later once I’m ready to explore the area around me. I head back into the house and, picking up the book, I begin reading it to try and at least begin to protect myself.