Ethan Marshall was tall, with black hair and a neatly trimmed beard. His eyes were grey, speckled with green. He held the door open as he inputted the alarm code before he exited and locked the door.

“Finally!” he thought as he walked away from the supermarket. “Long fucking day.”

Night had fallen, and as Ethan entered his car, he felt his bed calling. He turned the key, but the car failed to start, and as Ethan grumbled, he looked up at the skies.

“Didn’t the forecast say it should be clear skies?” he squinted as he looked up into the sky. “Hmph.”

As he looked back down, he noticed his reflection in the windshield. He had bags under his eyes, and his hair was matted to his head. The only thing that looked fine was his beard. He shook his head and twisted the key once more.

When the car finally started, the radio turned on, but all that came from it was static. Ethan changed the channel, but nothing but static, so he turned it off. 

He sighed and gripped the steering wheel tightly before putting the car into gear and setting off.

He’d only taken a few turns through the darkened city before he heard a rumbling.

“Is that thunder?” he looked around as much as he dared while driving but saw no sign of lightning. “They can’t have gotten it that bad, right?”

Another rumble drew his attention, and as he looked around, the car started sputtering.

“Damn it!” he roared and ground his teeth. “Piece of shit! Come on! Don’t do this to me, not now!”

He pulled over, but his old car died with a clank and a groan. Ethan leaned back in his seat, hands on the steering wheel and closed his eyes. He sat still for a few seconds before he shook his head, sighed, and exited the car.

“Aw man!” he lamented as he walked to the front and popped the hood. “Just my luck.”

He stumbled back, frowning and wide-eyed as he saw the engine was missing entirely.

“What the fuck!?” he exclaimed and looked around just as another rumble sounded, this one far closer. “What’s going on? This isn’t normal at all.”

He looked around, his eyes flitting to the tall buildings around him, and he noticed the lack of any light. The street lights had gone dark, no lights came from the windows of night owls, and he saw no sign of other cars on the road. A shiver ran down his spine.

The rumbling didn’t stop but grew louder, more oppressing, and just as Ethan clapped his hands over his ears, there was a blinding light.

Ethan fell to his knees as the rumbling grew ever louder, and the light pierced his eyes, blinding him. He screamed.

A pressure descended above him, pushing him to the ground and forcing the air from his lungs. His scream turned silent as he desperately heaved for breath.

“Is this it?” he thought as his body shivered and spasmed. “Is this the end?”

The ground beneath him was coarse, hard pavement, and Ethan felt the tremor in the ground as his body strained against the pressure.

His spasming calmed, and his trembling subsided as his consciousness began to fade. 

Images flashed through his mind. Images of his mother and sister, the books and books of study material on his desk back home, his dream: himself graduating from University, and his bright future.

Suddenly, it all disappeared. The pressure, the loud rumbling, and the blinding light faded as if they never existed, leaving Ethan dazed and gasping for breath. He lay on the cool ground, unmoving.

“What the fuck just happened?” nothing made sense to him as he squeezed his eyes shut. He heard nothing except a sharp ringing sound in his ears and smelled ozone. “Urgh! Everything hurts.”

He remained still for several minutes, lying on the cold, smooth ground.

“Wait!” Ethan realised. “Smooth? I was on the pavement, wasn’t I? Shit, what happened?”

He tentatively opened his eyes and found himself in a plain room with warm, white walls. It was small, square, and without a door. At the centre of the room was a desk with two chairs opposite each other.

One chair was occupied by a woman, unlike anyone Ethan had seen before.

She had pure white skin, almost blending into the surrounding room. Her hair was long and blonde, and she wore a white dress. Her eyes were purple, but what drew his attention were the long, pointed ears poking through her hair.

His body protested as he rose from the floor. The woman looked at him disinterestedly and gestured with a dainty hand for the other chair.

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“Sit,” she said with an ethereal, soft voice.

Not seeing any way out of the room, Ethan obliged. The chair was hard and uncomfortable, causing Ethan to squirm and shift as he sat there, but the woman sat perfectly still.

“Let us begin,” she said after a minute. “Your planet, Earth, has been integrated into the Multiverse. In the immediate future, the planet will be flooded with Qi as the System unblocks the core. As such, the planet's sapient creatures have been invited to similar rooms to be tested.”

Ethan’s eyes widened, and he opened his mouth, but a wave of something pulsed from the woman, and Ethan’s fear disappeared. It left him empty, without worry or dreams.

“Please remain calm,” the woman continued. “First comes a test of intellect, then a test of Cultivation. If you pass the second test, you will face another trial to test your mettle. At the end, you will be granted a reward based on your performance.”

Ethan sat there, staring blankly at the woman as she spoke.

“Now,” she said as she raised a hand. “I will partially lift the restriction on you. You will be able to speak and think rationally. Consider this a gift, as none expect you to act rationally and calmly under the circumstances.”

Another pulse of energy passed over Ethan, and he found himself able to think, but as she said, he couldn’t feel any fear, though he knew he should be.

“I will ask you a series of questions,” she said as she brought out a piece of paper and a pen. “Answer to the best of your ability.”

“Question one,” she said, not looking at Ethan. “What is Life?”

…

***

“The mitochondria,” Ethan answered the final question while clutching his head.

“Correct,” the woman said and made a note. “That was the final question. You answered the majority correctly, although few to a satisfactory degree. You are graded above the norm due to the complexity of the questions you answered well. You may continue to the next trial.”

She gestured to a door that had suddenly appeared on the wall to Ethan’s right, and he stood up and walked through it, still clutching his temples.

“Fucking hell, my head hurts,” he grumbled internally as he entered another white room. This one had a simple mat at the centre, without any other decoration. The door disappeared behind him. 

“Still don’t feel any fear, though,” he mumbled as he looked around. “I should be overwhelmed with worry, fear and insecurity, but I feel nothing of the sort. Uhh, this is messed up.”

He walked over to the mat and looked at it.

“Am I just supposed to sit down here?” he wondered, frowning as he rubbed his temple. “The woman mentioned cultivation. That’s some eastern thing, isn’t it? Something about the energy of the world or something. Qi, right? Oh, right, meditation and stuff.”

Ethan sat down on the mat in a lotus position, and after shifting a bit, he found a decently comfortable position. He closed his eyes and sat still.

“What is meditation, though?” he wondered. “Do I just sit here? I don’t think that’s it. I need to draw in energy, or Qi, don’t I? How do I do that? Hmm. If I want to draw in, I need to see or sense it, somehow, I think. Or I could try to find a way to draw in everything, and I hope I get what I need. How do I draw- I breathe, of course.”

Ethan took a moment, then took a deep breath.

“Breathe in, hold, breathe out,” he thought and executed. 

For a long time, nothing happened, but Ethan persevered, and eventually, he felt a spark of something. It felt like warmth was building in his body and grew as he breathed. Every inhalation caused the warmth to grow, turning into a pleasant fullness, while every exhalation caused black motes to escape his body.

After a while, Ethan had no idea how long it had taken; he was full. No more energy built up within him, and no more black motes escaped, so he opened his eyes, finding himself in yet another new room. 

This one was a large rectangle. In the middle was a square of sand, and standing in it was the woman from before. 

“Well done,” she said. “Now it is time for the next trial. You have proven capable of cultivating, separating you from the mortals, as you can now strive for immortality. On the path to immortality, you will face opposition. Enemies will come for you, and you will need to defend yourself. This is the combat trial. Choose your weapon.”

Ethan walked up to a rack that appeared at the woman’s gesture and looked at the weapons displayed. He frowned, shook his head, and grabbed a simple, straight sword with a wide guard.

“I know nothing about weapons like these,” he grumbled to himself. “Let’s just go with the classic.”

“Very well,” the woman nodded, and a sword appeared in her hand. “Now come, show me what you can do.”

Ethan dashed forward and swung hard, but the woman deflected his attack easily, smacking him in the back of his head and sending him sprawling. Groaning, he got back on his feet, turned around, and rushed in again.

This repeated several times before Ethan sighed. He frowned as he looked at the woman.

“She’s good,” he lamented. “Or, more likely, I’m terrible. She’s too fast, too precise. I can’t mo- Fucking hell, I’m an idiot! Use Qi. I’ve meditated and filled my body with it. I should be able to use it, right?”

Without closing his eyes, he tried to feel for the Qi he’d infused into his body, and it responded quickly. It flooded his body and followed his will into his arms, legs, and torso. He dashed forward with far more force than before, and Ethan thought he saw a slight look of surprise on the woman’s face. Sand burst behind him from the force of the movement.

This time, it looked like she had to make an effort to deflect him, and he managed to avoid the riposte attack. A flurry of attacks from Ethan followed while the woman parried and evaded everything. The impact of their swords was jarring, but Ethan pushed through, gritted his teeth and kept fighting.

Throughout it all, the woman kept an impassive face and moved fluently and effortlessly.

Within minutes, though, Ethan was exhausted. His Qi sputtered in his veins, and he stumbled to the ground.

“Well done,” the woman said as both their swords disappeared. “You show promise. The trial has been passed. Now it is time for the reward.”

The room warped around him and turned back into the first room he met her in.

The woman sat in the same chair as before, and Ethan sat down in the other one and waited for her to speak.

“You have done well,” she said. “While you didn’t answer all questions satisfactorily, you did answer most of them partially correctly. You figured out how to cultivate very quickly, proving a strong aptitude and impressive ability to learn and adapt in combat. You have earned a very high mark. As you would know from Earth, you’ve gained an A rather than an A+.”

A screen appeared on the wall to their left, and the woman gestured to it.

“There will be a roulette,” she said as various symbols appeared on the screen. “As your world does not have much Qi from before, affinities would take a long time to manifest, so the System shows mercy by granting them to the first natives based on their achievements in these trials. Your high marks will nudge the result into stronger affinities and stronger attunements, attunement being how well you can use your affinity.”

The symbols started spinning rapidly and became a dizzying blur as Ethan watched. Eventually, they began to slow down, and not one but two symbols showed on the screen, along with four dots.

“Oh my,” the woman looked genuinely surprised as she witnessed the result and looked at Ethan wide-eyed. “Congratulations! You have been granted a dual affinity of two powerful elements. Void and Space. You also got a tier four attunement, which will aid you significantly.”

“This feels bad, though,” he said as he looked between the woman and the screen. “If it’s all based on luck with this roll, then there are those with a lot of potential that will draw poorly. That’s not exactly fair.”

“No, it is not,” she nodded and smiled crookedly. “The world and the System are not fair, and luck plays a pivotal part in the cultivation journey. Now, that is all the time we have. I will leave, but you will be granted a chamber to cultivate for a while until the Earth is ready for your return. Do make use of it, as you may struggle to find a good spot to cultivate your elements when you’re back on your planet.”

She disappeared without another word, leaving Ethan alone as the room warped around him.

The walls disappeared, and the space around him turned into an empty void. Ethan struggled to comprehend what he saw or didn’t see, as there was nothing. His eyes saw nothing, but his brain filled it in with a black space; even so, his senses told him there was nothing.

A ding sounded in his mind, and words appeared before his mind’s eye.

[Cultivation System Unlocked.]