Location: Khemi province, Stygia.

Time: 11 am, local time.

Ramun rubbed his growling tummy in frustration, while looking at the clear blue skies, hoping fervently for it to rain burgers and some tasty fried chicken.

He had spent the last two hours looking through the small hut for food and found nothing, he had also searched the surrounding vegetation and found small edible fruits and nuts that tasted like crap, but were still eatable albeit not satisfying.

The humid air of the environment, had shown that it didn't like him very much, and the feeling was mutual.

The hot midday sun beat down fiercely on his head, while the excitement and exhilaration he had experienced, from finding a positive solution to the dilemma he was in was now long gone.

All he felt now was hunger, fatigue, and an increasingly mounting frustration at not finding anything to eat.

Earlier his spiritual will had swept through the globe, and he noticed that the landmass of the earth was completely different from what he had been taught in his geography classes back on his earth.

The surface of the earth now contained one huge continent with small islands dotting the oceans, while the oceans themselves contained sunken lands and treasures while also teeming with "exotic" wildlife.

While he been on that Astral high, he had also seen that the city he called home was a coastal one, it was also surrounded by oceans, rivers, forests and swampy lands, and navigating through all that would be a bitch.

Ramun had thought about asking the system for a map of the whole forest when he then remembered that he actually had to traverse the area before it gets mapped out in real-time.

He hadn't updated the system yet, therefore he couldn't use the radar function until the next update.

Ramun had wanted to wait until he got something to eat before he updated the system, but it seems that it will have to wait.

System !!

[Yes host]

"How much time will the next update take?"

[The next update will take only ten minutes, host]

"Thank, God."

"Alright, use one realm stone to update to level 2."

[Host be advised, because the system will use an energy source that surpasses the upgrade requirements, more functions will be unlocked....]

[Do you wish to continue with the upgrade host?]

"Yes, you may begin."

Going into the hut, Ramun decided to take shelter from the scorching unforgiving Sun, while waiting for the system update.

After ten minutes Ramun, who had been thinking of the various paths to immortality, invincibility, and general badassery, while also feeling very hungry and irritable perked up.

[Ding!]

[System has been updated to level 2]

[ The Radar, Map search and Augmented reality functions are now  unlocked, Host]

"Finally, I have been waiting, like forever," Ramun complained grumpily, his eyes looking like a hungry ghosts.

Pulling up the map screen, he saw the sections that had already been drawn on the greyed areas of the screen while he had been out foraging.

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Ramun commanded the system to perform a radar scan, for at least two kilometers.

Looking at the results of the scan, he saw that he was in a mangrove like forest, which had a rich amount of wildlife having lots of reptilian, aquatic and avian animals.

Looking at the map north-east from the small clearing the Hut was in, he saw a nameless stream, not far from his current location.

Thinking of the delicious possibilities, while drooling slightly he set off towards the stream.

......

After an hour a disheveled and disgruntled Ramun emerged from the bushes, tired and exhausted.

Whoever said using maps were easy, was a colossal asshole!

Even with the map he almost got lost a few times, he had found it difficult to orient himself in the hike through the woods.

If it weren't for the GPS function attached to the map, which was only activated after asking the system if there was one, he would still be running round in circles.

I really need to work on that cultivation manual, or else I'm going to die at this rate.

He looked at the wide flowing clear stream in front of him admiring the beautiful fish swimming in it, while also thinking of how good they feel once they were in his belly.

Ramun rushed forward into the stream trying to catch the fish with his bare hands, not caring about the danger in doing something so suicidal.

After ten minutes of not catching anything, he gave up in frustration and asked the system to look in its database for blueprints on fish traps.

It didn't take long for the system to provide him with what he needed, another ten minutes was spent choosing the optimal design that could be used within this Time period.

While performing his selection, he thought idly to himself about how although fast and efficient, using these mental commands to ask the system to perform tasks was just not what he was used to.

The system basically had that [Subroutine function], therefore it was possible to create a user interface, that looked just like the Windows OS.

The operating system side was covered, as it was basically an A.I that had a database that contained data from a whole civilization. Therefore, It would include all the various system apps including a fast and efficient search engine, while also using the floating screens as the user terminal.

Ramun pondered briefly if he could toggle the screen design while stopping his perusal of the various designs of traps.

[System is it possible to make a user interface for you.]

["....."]

[Affirmative]

"Alright schedule it for the next update."

[Acknowledeged, host]

"Ugh, see what I mean, it's all so...... efficient."

Throwing aside the minor distraction he continued looking at the designs until he settled on one that looked pretty good.

[The Woven funnel trap..]

After 30 minutes of looking for the materials and another 30 minutes of building the damned thing, Ramun was more tired and exhausted than he had started out.

[Fuuuck!!!]

He quickly but tiredly set up the trap in the stream and waited for it to catch something.

.....

As Ramun waited by the stream bed, he thought idly that it would be for the best to actually start that "getting-to-live-longer-or else get-smashed-to-death-project" he had been bitching about, before it was too late.

While fantasizing about how powerful he was going to be, something he had been doing much of lately, a thought suddenly hit him.

Augmented reality, the fucking augmented reality, the System's function that helps the user in performing tedious tasks in a virtually created space that builds up experience, while cutting out wasted time in real life, something he could have used earlier.

"Ugh, that's it, I'm a fucking idiot," Ramun flopped on the ground too tired to think, he was more interested in the cultivation manual.

"Cultivating oriental style, ascending the heavens in one step!!"

"Fuck!, just thinking about it gave him the chills."

But he knew it wasn't that easy, even practitioners from those cultivation-styled worlds found the whole process quite difficult and dangerous.

When Ramun had read those web novels back on earth, about inner demons, cultivation deviation, and the general killings, he knew that the whole business was dangerous as fuck.

This was why although he had asked the system about all the techniques it had stored in its database, in other to create a powerful technique that could topple mountains, drain seas and all the other bullshit, he had meant the techniques which had a basis in reality, not the overpowered techniques from the novels.

What he wanted to create was a foundational technique that could conceal him from prying eyes, and could potentially grow exponentially into the seriously overpowered ones.

He wanted a technique that took the essence from different cultivation and supernatural systems while discarding the useless parts, that was why he needed a very powerful foundation, and a manual that could build it.

Lying on the shore of the stream, Ramun daydreamed about his op-ness, not at all bothered about how he was going to explain to his father and family how he had been missing for almost a week.

This was another worry that had been niggling at the back of his mind for a while now, his butt still aching with phantom pains from the last ass-whooping.

"Aaaahhhh, such is life, one moment thinking about killing gods and demons the next being afraid of an ass-whooping."

As Ramun pondered on the profundities of life, he heard frantic thrashing from the trap he had set, feeling giddy with happiness and perhaps hunger, he rushed towards the stream almost falling down in the process.

As he pulled the woven contraption unto the shores of the stream, he kept mumbling, delicious fish, sweet fish, scrumptious fish, tasty fish, yummy fish, come here, come to daddy, repeatedly to himself, all thoughts of OP-ness the furthest from his mind.