I washed my prized pair of underwear, washed myself, and then kind of just laid in the tub as I read the Tutorial Book. Oh, I also finally had to eat one of those food pills, as shortly after waking a massive hunger overcame me. Though I was prepared to eat more than 1 pill, as soon as I swallowed the first one, I felt extremely full.

It kind of tasted like a plain cookie which was weird cause it was a pill, but that was fine so no worries in being able to eat them going forward and considering I was full off just one and also not being hungry until day 4, they should last me quite a while.

Back to the Tutorial book. It wasn’t that big of a book only a few more pages more than the cultivation book. It also contained a whole bunch flavor text. A bunch of stuff about how I should be taking this seriously and how it will shape my future and all that. I mean that was nice to know but they didn’t need to say different versions of that on like every page.

Anyway.

Despite all the non-important stuff, there was a lot of good information in the book, or maybe I should call it a booklet? I don’t know. Whatever it was, it had good stuff in it.

First of all, the Tutorial did indeed have stages. We were currently in Stage 1 which was day 1-5, then came stage 2 and that was day 6-10, the next stage was a 10 day stage instead of the previous 5, going from day 11-20, after that was 21-30. Then came the longest stage in the Tutorial which lasted from day 31 all the way to day 59. That was a very long time for one whole stage. Can’t say I’m not a little excited to see what these stages are all about.

Oh and of course day 60 was a stage all by itself. That could be good or very very bad. The book didn’t explain to me what any of these stages were meant to be about, but just knowing at a certain point things would change should be good enough for now, I think.

Moving on, the book also spoke about something else I’ve been wondering about. The number of Outposts in the Tutorial. There were only 26 of them. For the billions of people on earth, only 26 Outposts.

Unless all the Outposts were of different sizes, and some of them could house millions of people, there was nowhere near enough space in each of the Outposts to house that many people.

Some people were going to die.

A lot of people.

This was a lot for me to take in because some of these people could be folks I knew. I never really got super close to anyone in my life besides my parents and they were dead, but I still had friends here and there, and one or two exes that I’d be just a little sad about if I found out they were dead. Even a couple distant relatives that I never got particularly close to, would still make me feel some form of sadness if the worst happened.

It was a weird feeling.

Knowing people could die wasn’t the weird feeling, but the fact no matter how much I thought about it I couldn’t help but come to the conclusion that I would only feel slightly sad. I know if it was my parents, I’d feel a lot more than slightly sad, but I guess I really didn’t value anyone else the same way…What a shitty friend I am.

Well at the very least If I found anyone of them, I’d at least help them out a bit, I’m not that much of a bad friend.

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Anyway.

While I didn’t know how big the other Outposts were, what I did know was that they could be upgraded. The book didn’t explain what that would entail or even how to do it, much less why it should be done, just the fact it could.

Maybe an upgrade makes the Outposts bigger so more people could fit? Or maybe it gives us stronger walls? Though our walls are pretty strong as they are right now. Who knows what it would be, anyway they can be upgraded.

The last thing the Tutorial spoke about was something along the lines of the same thing the first metal man said to me. It was about understanding that the only way to truly guarantee my own safety was to get stronger. Strong enough that I can dictate my own future without worrying about the thoughts of others. Otherwise, my next option would be to find someone who was that strong or join a group of people or basically just anything where someone or something else will shoulder the burden of strength for me.

But of course, that comes with living under their rule, under their thumb, and moving to the beat of their drums. This idea repulsed me.

I don’t know what changed within me but thinking about serving under someone else caused a sharp feeling of disgust to well up inside of me. This was weird. Apart from that, this information didn’t affect me too much as I already planned on getting strong. Being strong meant more fun fights after all.

Alright that pretty much summed up the Tutorial booklet, which means its finally time for the cultivation manual. It was very expensive, so I hope it’s worth it.

Continuing my soak in the tub I opened up the Advanced Cultivation Manual I bought, it literally had two pages, one for Body Tempering, and the other for Qi Cultivation. Starting to feel like I’m getting scammed. Anyway, I won’t bother with the Qi Cultivation page for now.

Quickly reading through the Body Tempering stuff, it was very simple to understand. It talked about sitting in a comfortable position and closing my mind off from the world and to try and sense the ambient Qi. Apparently, I just had to ‘imagine’ the Qi and eventually I’ll see or sense the Qi? I don’t really know. Then after that, I’ll just kind of use my ‘will’ to forcefully absorb a wisp of the Qi I sense.

Yep, really simple.

…

This was not simple at all. The feeling of being scammed is starting to get stronger. Though I guess I have no choice but to actually sit down and try it as best as I can. If it doesn’t a work I’ll file a complaint with the shop. Surely, they do refunds. Customer satisfaction is important after all.

Anyway.

I got out of the tub and sat down while still being wet on the cold washroom floor. That wasn’t a bad idea at all.

Okay enough of that, close my mind off time.

…

…….

……….

This…this is not working.

I’ve been scammed haven’t I.

Well, that was only a few seconds of trying to meditate. Maybe I have to do it for longer?

....

And so Raizen did his best to close off his thoughts and focus on trying to sense something that he never even knew existed. It took almost an hour of sitting there in upmost silence before something finally happened.

....

Wha...what is this…my eyes are closed yet I can ‘see’ a beautiful sight all around me. It was as if I was suddenly among the dark void that was space and small, tiny dots of Qi surrounded me like stars in the sky. I could focus on this for hours without ever being able to fully count the number of dots I can see. Was it millions? Billions? Maybe more? I don’t know. But this is amazing.

Now I just had to will one of these tiny dots to enter my body right? The manual said I had to be prepared for a lot of pain as this tiny wisp of Qi ran rampant in my body for a few minutes. I would have to repeat this process for a minimum of 5 times and a maximum of 9 times. I would also need time to heal between each session and the manual said that it should take months to heal, with the time to heal getting longer and longer as you completed a session.

It also said there were things to speed this process up, but one still had to endure the pain, so maybe I can buy things in the shop to help me get through Body Tempering even faster?

Maybe something like healing potions from that rude shop? I don’t know for sure but that seems likely. Well, I’m definitely going to aim for the full 9 as that seems like it’ll make me stronger so no time like the present, let’s try and absorb Qi for the first time.

Hmm…that’s weird.

This isn’t painful or hard at all.