Jacob looked at the Fast Food points that were displayed in a separate section of the status window. From feeding and serving his customers earlier, he had earned 15 points, but was still confused on how exactly he was supposed to use them.
However, after noticing a plus sign next to his stat markers, Jacob put two and two together and assumed they were like free stat points.
[Not just that! You can also use them to exchange for items in the system shop!]
He paused.
Did that bastard just read my mind?
Despite his momentary alarm at the system being able to read his mind, Jacob focused his attention on the words 'system shop', and realized he'd forgotten about gaining access to that from the beginner gift package.
Interested about what the shop might hold, he flicked through the system windows until he found an icon of a very generic shop. Upon clicking on it, he... didn't quite know what to say.
"Are you Amazon?!"
The shop layout was essentially a complete and utter copy of the Amazon website, with only the colour scheme and company name having changed. He noticed a search bar at the top, and multiple different sections for all kinds of gadgets and tools. Hell, the system shop even had advertisements!
For who?! And who's paying for these?!
Slowly coming to terms with how cheap his system was, Jacob decided to just numb his mind before bringing his attention to the top right.
[Balance: 15 points]
"Considering how simple it was to get 15 points, I imagine I won't be able to buy much, huh..." Scrolling through the items, Jacob decided he was essentially poor. Unbelievably so.
He found a section related to cultivator knick-knacks as well; most of the shop had just been regular online shopping items from his home world, though he did notice that the system seemed to use materials from this world to create them instead. He didn't really want to ask what kind of materials they used this time.
Looking at the cultivator items though, Jacob searched by most expensive and almost crapped himself.
[Divine Heaven Cultivation Technique - 10,000,000,000
[Primordial Crystal - 5,000,000,000
[Firmament Crushing Bastard Sword - 2,000,000,000
Jacob immediately closed the system shop in a cold sweat.
How many customers would I need to feed?!
Even trying to calculate the amount of people he'd need to serve gave him a headache, so he threw it to the back of his mind and decided to just focus on what was in front of him.
Going back to his status screen, Jacob spent a bit of time thinking before investing his points and upgrading his stats. If he wanted to live in this world and not get swatted down like a fly, he needed to become stronger.
Obviously he wouldn't be fighting against the heavens, but at least enough so he wouldn't get bullied.
[Name - Jacob Smith
[Age - 17
[Cultivation - Mortal
[Qi pool - 100
[Strength - 13
[Dexterity - 9 >> 15
[Agility - 7 >>15
[Wisdom - 5 >> 6
[Intelligence - 7
[Fast Food Points: 0
As soon as he made his choices, Jacob immediately felt a difference in his body. He could feel his fingers and reaction time becoming swifter in response to the alteration of muscle and tendon, along with the speed increase of his motor neurones, allowing him to respond to stimulus instinctively quicker.
He wasn't quite sure about the effects of wisdom yet, but he'd only put a point into it, so that was to be expected.
Jacob made his choices after considering his way of growth in this world. He wasn't like the other cultivators - he didn't even have a cultivation technique. So he decided he'd go all in on the one thing he could use to grow, his restaurant.
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Jacob would increase the stats that would help with working at the restaurant, and use it to farm more Fast Food points so that he could grow and become stronger.
But...
"Hey system, how would I increase my Qi pool?" Jacob was a bit stuck on this part, as he knew that he needed more Qi to rise through the realms and become stronger.
[Responding to the host! You would need a cultivation technique, or some method of gathering Qi into your body.]
"Wait, so unless I get a cultivation technique, I'll be stuck as a mortal?"
[Responding to the host! You were a mortal for 17 years, just keep being one - you can upgrade your stats anyway.]
"...huh. Yeah, that makes sense actually. I don't need to go into harms way for a cultivation technique if I don't need one." Jacob and the system agreed with one another, treating this as some kind of small matter.
Little did they know of the impact this would have on the world later down the line.
***
Castellan Chen Yu had been feeling good ever since he left McDaonald's.
Was it a suspicious store? Certainly.
Did he question their motives and allegiances? 100%.
Was their food absolutely delicious? No doubt.
So he decided to live and let be; to take a page from the Buddhist practitioners he seems to encounter often: "The world is in its natural state, and I have no need to be unnatural."
Smiling to himself, he continued down the street on his horse whilst reminiscing about the taste of that 'Happy Meal'.
As a cultivator, Chen Yu was obviously capable of flight, but as the Castellan he needed to make lots of public appearances to keep his reputation up. This resulted in him riding a horse quite often around the city.
However, there were occasionally situations where he had to ditch his horse and switch to flying.
This was one of those situations.
Chen Yu's communication jade lit up, and his smile immediately dropped as he jumped from the horse, reaching into the sky and bolting in a straight line north.
Clouds fluttered and split from the winds produced by his speed, and he quickly reached the northernmost area of Xiaowen province. As soon as he arrived, he felt the presence of a cultivator he had long since had a rivalry with.
"Chen Yu! What a pleasant meeting we have once more!" An arrogant, mocking voice cooed from the throat of a large, muscular man. He wore a loincloth and animal fur skin around his lower half, with his chest exposed and a necklace of bones arranged from his neck. His skin was a tanned brown, and his eyes mutinous as he snapped the neck of a civilian he had in his grasp.
Floating up, the wild man faced Chen Yu head on and laughed at his expression.
"What, are you mad about the man I just killed? Shouldn't you do something about that, Oh Grand Castellan?"
Chen Yu seethed with rage. The barbaric scum in front of him was called Shen Yusheng, a member of the wild tribes in the far north of the continent. He has routinely come to Xiaowen province to provoke him and kill innocent civilians just to make the fight more interesting. Then, just as the fight would near its end, he would run away.
No matter how hard he chased, Chen Yu could never catch him.
"I believe I will do something today." He flickered from view - an after image still present as he appeared behind Shen Yusheng and viciously struck out with a punch. "I'll start by taking your head!"
This antagonization only seemed to make Shen Yusheng more excited, as he accepted Chen Yu's blow by quickly spinning and crossing his arms - mitigating a lot of the damage.
"Hahaha! We'll have to see if you've got the capabilities!" His muscles rippling with strength, Shen Yusheng pushed out his aura and forced Chen Yu back a few metres.