Lo Guan woke up coated in grass. The two moons illuminating the ocean of green coated the field in a majestic glow. He could only describe the view as serene. That day, the system would discover that one thing that a strike of lightning couldn’t cure was arrogance.
The first thing he noticed was that the mind technique affecting him did not seem to have left his mind. The incessant beeping of the small screen in the corner of his vision wanted something from him, for him to press a so-called button, labeled ‘Start Tutorial.’
Hello? Whoever used this technique, can you hear me?
No response from the weird beeping screen.
If you can hear me, please explain how this rectangle is a button! Can it even hold two pieces of cloth together? It’s clearly a… qi rectangle.
This time, another screen flashed in his vision.
“Please press the ‘Start Tutorial’ button to begin. Questions can be asked once the tutorial begins.”
Interesting. So the user of the technique can hear me, though they won’t tell me who they are… wait! I can just ask it once I press this… button.
Lo Guan reached up and tried to reach the so-called button with his finger, and somehow unsurprisingly, the screen changed.
Welcome to the system, user Lo Guan! Error… Unnatural Name detected… Updating name…
Welcome to the system, user Logan!
Hey! Who’s Logan? What kind of name is that? Can I ask you questions now?
User Logan may ask questions once the first part of the tutorial is over.
Damn rat!
Lo Guan would certainly come back to defeat the user of this technique, this system later on, when he was stronger.
I am punching you in the face as soon as I find whoever used this technique!
Welcome to the first part of the system tutorial, user Logan.
Today You will- Error… Unnatural system detected… Overriding system… Error… System too powerful… Error… Error… Er-
User Logan has requested a style change… Approved.
Would you like to update to the Level System from the Cultivation System?
Yes / No
What? Who do you think I am? Fuck no!
Processing… Accepted.
Injecting knowledge into user Logan’s brain.
Complete.
You have 1 new notification.
Lo Guan’s vision went dark, and he fainted. For some reason, he decided he was called Logan now.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
***
When Logan woke up, realized that the qi rectangles were indeed called buttons. That turned out to be such profound wisdom to him that he passed out again.
***
Logan woke up again with a groan. He looked up to the sky and yelled, “FUCK YOU SYSTEM!”
He received knowledge about all of cultivation. While the system would normally show new users how to use each feature of the system, which in Logan’s case was how to advance through each stage of cultivation, and the perfect use of qi.
Why did I have to be cursed with this knowledge… to think, all we thought cultivation was… no. System! Erase those memories. Leave terminology, I don’t want my epic story to end this quickly. You are responsible for this. Fix. Now.
Request acknowledged.
Processing…
Accepted.
Prepare for memory deletion in 10 seconds.
***
So. The system allowed Logan to view people’s levels and names, but not if they were too powerful. Makes sense. It also allowed him to view information about himself as numbers, such as strength, intelligence, wisdom, dexterity, charisma, vitality, and his current ‘hit points’ which is the same as his health.
System. Why is my charisma score a three? The rest of them are all fives! Are you telling me I’m ugly?
Request acknowledged.
Processing…
Denied.
Message: Statistics, or Stats, represent you, and normally people would level up to increase these by getting classes and leveling, but you decided to avoid that and instead use the Cultivation System.
WHAT? Are you kidding me? Okay. From now on, I will ignore the system. System, silence all notifications until I request for you to pull them up.
Request acknowledged.
Processing…
Accepted.
With that last remark, all screens except stats vanished from Logan’s view.
Much better. Maybe now I can start making sense of this dumb world Mr. System decided to transport me to.
***
Logan had decided to spin around in a circle for a minute and walk in the direction he ended up facing, since the field reached farther than he could see. That turned out to be a mistake as Logan stumbled through the field like a disoriented air dancer.
An hour later, Logan decided to sit down and cultivate, since the field wasn’t going anywhere anyway. There was a significantly higher amount of qi in the air than there was back in the River Flowing Sky Wind Lightning Tribulation Fighting Sect’s cultivation room. Logan pictured himself reaching into the air around him and plucking bits of qi and dragging them into his core.
Some time later, Logan switched to simply using his qi manipulation technique to guide the qi streams into his core instead. It was harder and took longer to direct the streams of qi without touching than manually plucking the qi, but it was definitely worth the effort. Logan’s core expanded rapidly as the dense qi streamed into his core. Slowly, he redirected it back out of the way, as the qi could give him qi poisoning due to the high density.
When Logan finished absorbing the qi from the surroundings and started cycling half throughout his body to replenish his hunger and half to his core. He relaxed at the feeling of being finally fully fed. As a proper cultivator, he no longer had to eat and drink like a mortal. His health replenished to full in less than a minute. He was never at full health before, since he was barely surviving on the streets.
Wow. Why has nobody told me I could just form a core? I would have tried shaping one so much earlier!
Deciding there was no use in thinking of the past, Logan continued walking forward at a pace he had never thought possible for himself.
Now that I’ve started on my path of pure qi manipulation, I’ll be unstoppable once I grow strong! Everyone knows the first steps on the path to strength are to completely eliminate the need for sleep and nourishment. With the knowledge given to me by that sewer rat of a system I can probably do that when I manage to condense a solid core. Haha. Sewer rat. The system gave me so many unnecessary terms yet they’re so useful at the same time!
The next month flew by with Logan following the same schedule most days, with the exception of the day the system called “Sunday.” It was a relatively simple schedule, overall. Sprint until you collapse from exhaustion, pull yourself with your arms until those don’t work anymore, and then cultivate the rest of the time. If anyone from this world saw him, they would think him a madman, though this was simply the daily routine of his favorite hero of the stories he was read when he was younger. Logan’s logic was, “If I can’t even follow the training routine of the Great Ei Garou, what chance do I have of reaching heights such as his?”
With that crazy thought, Logan continued to follow his training for the next two years.