Alex stared at the Djinn. Or at least he assumed it was a Djinn. What the hell else was made of clouds and wandered around offering people three wishes?

"Three wishes, no catch, no nefarious plot, just three free wishes?"

"That is correct, mortal," the gaseous being replied, its purple hued fumes pulsing blue with each spoken syllable. "And hurry up, I have more important things to do than deal with inconsequential beings such as yourself."

The creature muttered something to itself, and Alex was fairly certain he heard something about a 'stupid bet.'

He took one last look at the small nebula and decided to lean into the bizarre situation. Three wishes huh? What was it he wanted?

Wealth? Didn't equate to happiness.

Immortality? Closer, but probably boring.

His mind drifted to the embarrassing amount of fiction he read in his free time. Now there's an idea….

"I wish I had heaven defying, ultimate cultivation talent and comprehension."

"Weird, but ok. That'll be two wishes though."

"Oh if thats-" the being pulsed a brilliant shade of yellow and then pain ripped through Alex's mind and body.

He felt his synapses physically start to rewire, his body shift and change. After a few moments his mind began to gain a strange sense of clarity through the pain. Instinctually he knew his body was shifting meridians, creating new ones, and restructuring to improve its ability to handle the energies of the world. His mind began to open up to the workings of the multiverse, a difficult to describe shift, but everything suddenly seemed more. Deeper. 

As quickly as the pain came, it faded. 

"One more wish human, I'll give you two minutes to decide."

Alex's mind began to race. What else would he need? He had the talent and comprehension, now he needed a cheat ability. Stealing other people's abilities or power? Too nefarious and likely to backfire if he used it on the wrong people. If this was real, he'd probably want something that increased his survivability. Cultivation worlds were incredibly brutal. After a few more seconds of thought, he narrowed down on what he wanted.

"I wish for incredibly powerful regenerative abilities that scale with my strength, work for my body, cultivation, and soul and allow me to rebuild from almost nothing."

"Done." A pulse of green this time, and Alex felt a heat form in the center of his chest. No pain this time, for which he was thankful.

"What now?" Alex asked. He had so many questions, he wanted to ask. 

"Now I leave." The being vanished, leaving Alex alone with his questions. He looked down at the table he was currently sitting at. Also alone with soggy cereal. He sighed and started to eat while ruminating on what had just happened.

Did one of his roommates spike his cereal with a psychedelic? It didn't seem likely, they didn't really have that kind of relationship. Plus, they were huge assholes, which you would have to be to do that.

It could have been a psychotic break, except Alex hadn't been all that stressed recently. Sure his job was garbage, didn't pay much, and he had a massive amount of debt from college, but he was doing fine paying his bills. 

There was a way he could quickly verify if it was all real, but cutting into his body to check if the regeneration was real seemed a bit too masochistic for him. He continued to munch away at his cereal, but nothing else really came to mind.

"Screw it," he muttered. Alex stood up and walked over to the knife block and pulled out his chef's knife. As an avid cook, he always made sure it was incredibly sharp. Supposedly sharp knives hurt less when they cut, but he still wasn't looking forward to this.

Just a small incision, its fine, he tried to reassure himself. He put the knife against his forearm, took a deep breathe, and drew it across his body. 

He immediately regretted his action. The cut was longer and deeper than he meant it to be. It immediately started gushing blood onto his counter. He hissed at the pain and reach for a paper towel to stem the flow of blood. If he ended up needing stitches with was going to be very difficult to explain.

Alex dabbed at the cut with the paper towel, and was surprised when more blood didn't keep flowing. Instead, he watched in shock as the cut began to slowly close. Millimeter by millimeter, it sealed itself, leaving smooth, unblemished skin behind. Well, bloody and smooth skin.

"I guess it was real," he said out loud.

"What was real?" 

Alex spun around to see Diane, one of his roommates, step into the kitchen with a yawn. She was dressed in black and white striped pajamas that made her look like a prison inmate from the twenties. He'd given them to her for her birthday a few months ago as a joke, but she ended up loving them. 

Her sleepy expression was quickly replaced by one of shock as her brown eyes traveled from the knife on the bloody countertop to the soaked paper towel in Alex's hand.

"Holy shit, Alex! Are you ok?"

She rushed over and grabbed his arm. Looking it over and seeing only smeared blood and no cut, she glared up at him.

"Is this some sort of stupid prank?" She asked, a dangerous glint in her eye.

Alex held his hands up defensively, "Definitely not. I can't really explain it, but I'm fine."

"Can't it explain it? Whose blood is that?" She demanded. 

"What's this about blood?" Casper asked, also stepping into the kitchen. 

Alex slapped his hand to his forehead. This morning was determined to be as eventful as it could, wasn't it?

---

It took a few minutes, but eventually he managed to sate his roommates' curiosity enough that they stopped pestering him with questions, and they moved on with their morning routines.

While Casper and Diane had breakfast, Alex took a quick shower and got dressed for work. He decided to figure out the whole cultivation thing at his desk.

Waving goodbye to his roommates, Alex stepped out of their apartment and walked down several flights of stairs.

Brisk fall air greeted him as he exited the building. He took a deep breath, relishing the cold air. Alex began the short walk to his workplace.

While he walked, he ran his mind over what he'd read about cultivation systems in novels. From what he remembered they varied pretty significantly. Some had unified body and spirit cultivation, others were separated. If he had another wish, he would have wished for a Supreme cultivation technique, but Alex figured he could muddle his way through it all with his talent and comprehension alone.

Before he knew it, his feet had taken him all the way to work. He briefly looked at the 'Aperture Robotics' sign and wandered inside to the half circle, white front desk where a grumpy looking, elderly gentleman sat.

"You're late," was the only greeting Alex got.

"Good morning, Walter," Alex replied. He glanced at his watch. "It is exactly 8 o'clock, so I'm actually right on time."

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Walter grunted in response, "Next time be early. I'm going to miss my train if I don't leave right now."

Walter stood up and hobbled around the desk.

"No incidents last night," he stated before brushing past Alex and exiting the building.

"Bye then," Alex said to the slowly closing sliding door and Walter's back. Alex really wished that guy was less of an asshole, but at least their interactions were always short. 

Alex quickly walked around the desk and sat in the chair. He didn’t have a lot of positives to say about working security at Aperture, but at least the chair was incredibly comfortable. A few minutes after logging in to the system and starting his pay clock, Alex had pulled out a blank sheet of paper and started sketching out the basis of his future cultivation system. He quickly lost himself in the process, and was startled when someone addressed him.

“Good morning, Alex,” Alex looked up to see an impeccably dressed man in a suit looking down at him with a smile.

“Good morning Dr. Kelling,” Alex replied, a smile blooming on his face, “Are you ready for the big presentation today?”

Dr. Kelling’s smile quickly turned into a frown, “How did you know about that? It is supposed to be a secret.”

Alex laughed, “Six out of ten board members are listed as arriving VIP’s at 9 o’clock today. Hard to imagine they’d be here for anything other than what you’ve been up to.”

“I’m both flattered by your estimation of my work and impressed by your deduction. I’ll have to put in another good word with Director Selman for you. Your mind and degree are wasted glancing at security monitors and greeting guests.”

Alex’s smile broadened. He’d initially applied to Aperture as a programmer, but been rejected. Supposedly they only hired people with Phds. After spotting the security position, he had applied with the intent of trying to work his way into a position by getting to know people within the company. Network or no work as they say.

Dr. Kettering’s eyes dropped down to the paper in front of Alex.

“What are you working on?”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” Alex responded. 

“Try me,” the doctor responded with a smile. Alex paused for a moment, for some reason he had the urge to be completely honest with the man.

“A genie gave me three wishes, and I’m trying to plan out what to do with the results of my wishes.”

Kettering stared at him blankly, “If you didn’t want to say, you could have just said it.”

“I told you, you wouldn’t believe me,” Alex replied, “I’ve had the most bizarre morning you could imagine.”

“Right, well enjoy the rest of your day, Alex,” Dr. Kelling said, moving towards the building elevators.

“Good luck with the presentation!” Alex called out to his back. He was glad more than just jackasses worked for the company. 

Alex glanced down at the paper before him with the draft of his cultivation plan.

* Body preparation

* Marrow infusion

* Viscera training

* Bone transformation

* Skin strengthening

* Muscle and ligament enhancement

* Meridian opening

* Qi nebula formation

* Core formation

That was his starting point. Most of the systems he’d read about began by preparing the body for handling the vast amounts of energy that cultivators used. The order was different that what he had planned out, but he’d always felt that the order in most web novels didn’t make a whole lot of sense. His way was about building up from the foundation, first improving his blood, so that his organs had the support they needed for improvement. Then moving onto the bones and skin so that when he finally improved his musulaure, his body could handle it.

In novels they always seemed to start with the muscles, which to him was silly. If your muscles were stronger than your skin or bones, that was a recipe for severe injuries. Plus enhanced bone marrow and therefore blood should feed well into actually using his enhanced strength.

Alex spent the rest of the morning reviewing the list, but in the end didn’t make any significant changes to it.

At ten in the morning, a piercing shriek came from every electronic device around him. His eyes immediately shot to the monitors in front of him. Was Aperture being hacked?

The screens, briefly filled with static, quickly switched to a woman standing at a black podium. She was dressed in plain, black robes. On the face of the podium was a golden bird surrounded by streaks of stylized golden lightning. 

"Greetings fellow humans, I am Skaya, emissary of the Roc Emperor," the woman said, her voice smooth, her tone ominous, "Today your world has been annexed by the Empire of the Golden Roc. Normally such a backwater planet would be left to its own devices for the rest of eternity, however our Empire is at war against an enemy we aren't certain we can defeat."

Images flashed onto the screen, pictures of men and women being ripped to shreds by vicious beasts. They looked like overgrown animals from earth, but with strange coloration. One of the animals, a bear the size of a semi truck, was red and covered in flames. After a few seconds of images, the camera changed back to the woman.

"A beast horde is invading from a neighboring realm. The largest horde our Empire has ever encountered, and we don't have the numbers to fight. 

"All adults ages eighteen to forty five will be considered eligible for conscription. I know what many of you are thinking, 'this is a joke or isn't real', 'they can't enforce this', or even 'why should I fight for these strangers?'.

"I will be blunt. If this threat isn't stopped within the next ten years, the horde will find your planet. They will come. And they will annihilate every last man, woman, and child here. 

"We come for your help, but we also come to save your people."

The woman stared at the camera facing her, and Alex felt like her eyes pierced into his soul. He sat, frozen, staring back.

"The first round of the draft will occur in three days. We will be selecting fifty million recruits. Get your affairs in order, and prepare yourselves. War is here."

The screen blinked and returned to the security camera feed.

“What the-”

“Alex!” Alex looked up to see his boss walking towards him. He quickly stood up to greet her.

“Georgia, did you see that?”

Georgia, a short, powerfully built woman with dark skin and darker hair let out a forced laugh, “Hard to miss wasn’t it? The higher ups want a report of everything that happened, as if the entire world didn’t just see that and it was some sort of targeted hack.”

“Whatever they want, as long as they pay us to do it, right?” Alex joked.

“Pretty much,” Georgia agreed, “Just throw something together that explains what happened at your station and send it to me when you get a chance.”

“Will do,” Alex replied, he hesitated then asked the question that was burning a hole in his mind, “What did you think of the video? Hard to believe we’re about to be part of an interstellar war….”

“That pretty much sums up my thoughts,” Georgia replied, “They didn’t really give us much information beyond that. What a weird day this is turning out to be.”

Alex let out a laugh, she had no idea, “You’re telling me.” 

---

When he got home that evening, he was more than ready to go to his room and start cultivating. 

He opened his apartment door to blasting music and a crowd of people.

“Alex!” Diane shouted and rushed over to him. Her short, petite body crashed into him and wrapped him in a hug. Their height difference made quite the sight, Alex being over six feet tall and Diane barely over five feet. “With the end of the world, we thought we would throw a party!”

Alex sighed, of course they were having a party. Diane threw one at every opportunity she could think up.

“Cool,” he replied, thinking the exact opposite. “Who did you invite? Anyone I know?”

“Just some of my friends from school,” Diane replied, “You’ve met a few of them. You should mingle!”

So they can judge me for not being a successful programmer after graduating from college? Hard pass. Alex thought to himself, but responded with, “Sure, let me just change out of this guard uniform.”

Alex swiftly made his way through the small crowd of people and entered his room. He quickly changed out of his uniform into a t-shirt and some basketball shorts, and sat down on his bed. What a day. Alex pulled the cultivation plan put of his pocket and gave it a once over.

If he was about to be conscripted into a war against monsters, it would probably benefit him to cultivate as much as physically possible in the next three days. He pulled his legs up onto the bed and crossed them. Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and released the air from his lungs. For the next few minutes, Alex focused on taking slow, deep breaths.

Once he felt completely settled, he tried to analyze the air coming in and out of his lungs. It didn't take long for him to notice specs of white energy. Why it was white or energy he could say, just that it felt like a new sense was telling him it was so. 

The quick discovery startled him and he lost track of his breathe and the energy. Alex shook his head. Focus, he told himself.

 Once more he closed his eyes, and began to focus on his breath. Immediately the specs of energy came back into focus.  He watched as he entered and exited his lungs. With every breath, more specs entered and exited his body. However, they never stayed. On his next breath, he focused on keeping the specs of energy in his lungs the specs of energy in his lungs while he exhaled. He succeeded on his first try but felt a slight burning sensation in his lungs so he quickly guided the energy with his mind into his ribs.

When the pecs entered his bones he directed them directly to the center of his ribs, into their very marrow. He felt and saw them displace something. The something felt viscous, dark, and wrong. Alex assumed this must be the impurities talked about in cultivation novels. He pulled that wrongness into his lungs and forced it out of his body on his next exhale. 

Alex opened his eyes and grinned, he'd done it. He'd taken his step on the path of cultivation. And it had been easy.