《The Upgrade System》 Chapter 1 - I Wanna Be Rich!!! Under the evening sun, the street seemed to have great charm. Dan was with his girlfriend Lily who had been going out with him for 6 years. "Let''s break up," Lily said. "Stop joking, it''s not funny." "I am not joking, I know you like me a lot and do a lot of things for me but you are just a normal person while my family is worth hundreds of millions of dollars. I hope that you can find someone who you can find someone to be with." As she turned around, Dan thought he saw what seemed to be a tear but he dismissed it off. He sighed, "A person who can give up a love of six years so easily for money, there''s no way she can cry after breaking up." As he watched her get on a car and leave he thought to himself, one day I will be rich. With that resolution, he started to walk home. As he was walking home, 5 black cars stopped near Dan and got out. There were 10 men who looked to be about 30 years old, they all had tattoos of a tiger on their shoulder. Some of them were carrying bats while others didn''t have any weapons on them. The man in the lead looked at Dan and started to laugh like crazy saying, "Hahhahhah, Just beating a weak person like you can get me about $25,000." With that, he signaled his men to attack Dan, Dan knew that there was nowhere to run so he tried to punch one of the guys but his hand was caught and he used his other hand to punch Dan''s stomach. Well, what did you expect from a guy who never fought before? After a while, Dan was completely beaten up and the leader of the men said, "Remember Lily is young master Harry''s fiancee, if you get close to her every again you won''t just end up getting beat up." With that, the gangsters drove away. As Dan was about to get up he heard a voice. [Ding! Congratulations on obtaining the upgrade system!] Chapter 2 - Getting The System "What? A system really, what can you do?!?!" [With the Upgrade System you can everything. For example, you can upgrade your shoes and it might give it an upgrade in agility] [Note: Upgrade requires UP points and there is a chance of failure with the UP points and the item being lost] [Main Quest: Upgrade the world] [Requirement 1 - Unknown] [Requirement 2 - Unknown] [Requirement 3 - Unknown] [Dected that the user is in an injured state so the system will heal the user as a gift] "Wow that''s cool and now with a system, I can become rich!" "I am happy about all of that but what''s with this requirement being unknown, if I don''t know what to do, how can I do it?" [As the host gets stronger, the requirements will be revealed] "I will look into this when I get home." As Dan was walking home, he stumbled upon an old lady who needed help crossing the busy road but most people were just ignoring her and he wouldn''t go out of his way too much to help others out, this didn''t get in his way since he needed to cross the street as well he decides to help her out. Right as Dan and the old lady crossed the street a notification from the system rang. [Sub Quest: help 5 different people] [Reward: Beginners Pack, 10 UP points] [Accept or Reject] Obviously, with such a simple quest Dan accepted. With that quest accepted, Dan started to look for anyone he could help but surprisingly, no one needed help. Just like that Dan got home. As he got into his room, he saw a picture of himself and Lily together after they had graduated college 2 years ago. It brought back memories of how they used to hang out every day and all the things they did. Actually he still couldn''t understand the abrupt ending of their relationship. They even had plans to go to the beach next Saturday but guess that''s not coming true. As he kept thinking about that he slowly fell asleep. Chapter 3 - Completing The Sub Quest When Dan woke up he saw the sub quest. [Sub Quest: help 5 different people] [Reward: Beginner''s Pack, 10 UP points] [Progress: 1/5] As Dan was getting ready to go outside, he heard a knock. "Hey Dan, can you help me move some things outside of my house?" "Sure, Just give me a sec Alice." Alic wanted to move her sofa out of her house because she had a new sofa coming in. [Progress: 2/5] As the day went on, he managed to help 3 more people. The first person he helped out was a stranger who asked him to look after his cart in Walmart as he needed to get something from the other side. The second person he helped out was a beggar who he saw on the street so he bought some fast food for him. Finally, the last person he helped out was his neighbor Alice again who needed help putting her new sofa in place. [Sub Quest: Help 5 different people] [Progress: Completed] [10 UP points added] [Open the Beginner''s pack?] "Yes" [The beginner''s pack has gifted the user with a Status screen] [Name: Dan] [Level: 1] [Hp: 10/10] [Exp: 0/100] [UP points: 10] [Strength: 6] [Stamina: 8] [Agility: 7] [*Note - An average level 1''s abilities are 10*] "What the heck, not a single 10 in any of my abilities!" [The beginner''s pack has also gifted the user with the +3 agility shoes] [The user has unlocked the Inventory, Only items gifted from the System can be stored in the inventory.] Dan looked at the shoes and he really didn''t anything different from the normal shoes. He clicked on it and the same shoes appeared right in front of him. He put it on and he didn''t feel any different so he decided to go outside and run. He felt a very big difference between running now and running in the past. He ran a lot faster and he also didn''t feel tired as easily as he used to. Chapter 4 - The First Upgrade After Dan was done testing out the +3 AGL shoes, he wanted out to test the upgrade feature of the system. He went home and took out a shirt that he likes and as he wanted to upgrade the shirt a screen pooped out. [Item: Shirt] [Duribility: 10/10] [Upgrade Cost: 5 UP points] [Successful Chance of Upgrade: 100%] [Upgrade?] "Yes, Upgrade" "Hello, nothing happened. System? Did you go offline?" [Upgrade Sucessful] [Item: Shirt] [Level 1] [Duribility: 10/10] [{New} +1 Defense] [Upgrade Cost: 10 UP points] [Successful Chance of Upgrade: 90%] "Ok, a new attribute can be gained this way too. Good to know." "System, how can I get points besides doing quests?" [Currently, all forms of getting points beside doing quest is not unlocked] "Great, meaning that right now there is no way for me to get points." [Do you wish to open the universal gate?] "What does it do?" [The Universal gate opens a portal to another universe. The worlds are labeled by levels, This universe is considered a level 0 because it doesn''t have any intelligent life forms that are highly advanced or have any spirit energy that can enable superpowers and cultivators, etc.] [If you use the universal gate, you will be transported to another world in that universe with intelligent life forms] [You can only be in that universe for 1 year and you can only take out one thing from that world besides the things form the system] "What about my life here?" [This universe will be stopped completely for the year you are gone.] [Since you aren''t high leveled, you will only be set to go to a level 1 world if you wish to enter now.] [For the first time you can use the gate for free but after that, you will have to pay 10,000 points and then double that amount and so on.] [You can also use the gate only once every year] "What about my points?" [In this world there is no spirit energy so nothing will happen if you kill anyone but in worlds level 1 and higher, they will give you points and exp per kill depending on the level of the creature.] "I won''t kill humans" [For no...w] "What did you say?" [Nothing, in other worlds with spirit energy there are spirit beasts that you can kill to get points and exp.] [Do you wish to open the universal gate?] Chapter 5 - Another World "Yes, open the universal gate." Everything and everyone stopped and then a blue portal opened with the wind coming out of it and pulling Dan into it. As Dan opened his eyes, all he saw was trees, and as Dan was about to check his surroundings, a giant tiger three times the size of the normal tiger appeared looking right at him. [Name: Mutated tiger] [Level: 2] ''Come on, I just got to this world but I am about to die already.'' ''I can''t outrun that and I definitely can''t fight against that.'' ''Between the two, running seems like a better idea.'' Dan ran while screaming "Help!" hoping that there could be someone nearby who could help him. ''I really should have come here prepared but like the idiot I am, I didn''t and this is probably going to kill me.'' The tiger caught up with Dan and as it got was about to attack Dan, a blue light pierced from the sky and killed the tiger. The blue light was coming from a sword. A man jumped from one of the branches of the nearby tree. "What are you doing here? You don''t even have any cultivation. Don''t you know how dangerous the Ker forest is?" "I don''t know where I am, I just woke up in this forest. Just as I woke up that tiger came at me. I can''t remember anything." ''There''s no way I am going to tell anyone that I am not from this world.'' "This is the Ker forest near the Ker village. I am James, a hunter from the village. I am in the Qi Gathering stage 4." "Qi Gathering stage?" "There are 2 different stages into cultivation, Qi Gathering, and Foundation stage which is both divided into 10 sub-stages. Apparently there are more stages but I''ve never heard of them." ''Let me check James'' status.'' [Name: James] [Level: 4] --> [Qi Gathering stage 4] [HP: 40/40] ''So each level is 1 stage.'' "Let''s go back to the village, maybe you can regain your memories there." Chapter 6 - Meeting The Village Chief Dan and James got to the village and the village was all made out of wood, not something you would see much in the 21st century especially if you lived in the city. "Let''s go meet the village chief, maybe he recognizes you." "Sure, let''s go." James leads Dan towards the middle of the village and while going there, a lot of the villagers are looking at Dan. ''They are probably looking at me because of the clothes, they are different from the clothes they are wearing.'' James and Dan get to the middle of the village, James knocks on the door. "Come in." As Dan enters the house, he doesn''t see a lot of things. The 40-year looking man tells Dan and James to sit down and asks, "James, who is the young man?" James tells the village chief John everything about Dan that he knows. "Ok, I see. I am sorry to tell you but I don''t recognize you nor the clothes you are wearing, you probably aren''t from around here." "Since that''s the case how about you stay in the village until you gain your memories back, I have an old house that I haven''t used in a while. You can stay there for a while." Pulling out a book, the village chief gives the book to Dan and says, "Also, I don''t know if you have ever tried cultivation or not so I will give you this basic cultivation book." "Are you sure? Isn''t cultivation books like this rare and important?" "HaHaHa, where did you hear that? It''s true that there are cultivation books that are very rare but this is just a basic cultivation book, everyone in the village has this book." "Then doesn''t that mean everyone is a cultivator?" "No, just because everyone has a cultivation book doesn''t mean that everyone can become a cultivator. In fact, most people are just normal because either they can''t cultivate or they have don''t have very good talent so they just quit." "Then do I have the talent to cultivate?" "I don''t know, you just have to try using the cultivation book yourself and then see if you can cultivate or not." The village chief, John gave Dan a couple of bread for food and asked James to send Dan to his old house. While going to the house, Dan learned that there were around 3,000 people in the village and only about 500 people in the village could cultivate. Chapter 7 - Cultivation James also explained that getting to the 1st stage of the Qi Gathering realm is very easy. At most it will take a month, if you can''t reach it within a month then, well you just can''t cultivate. This is because all you need to do is take the surrounding spirit energy into your body to reach the 1st level. James took Dan to the old house of the chief and surprisingly it was very clean for a place that hadn''t been used for many years. After James left, Dan looked at the cultivation book. [Basic Cultivation Book] [2xp/hour] [Do you want to use it?] "Yes" With a blinding light, the book disappeared and all of the knowledge of the book came to Dan''s mind and he also reached the 1st stage of the Qi Gathering stage. He also felt a lot stronger as well as lighter. [Name: Dan] [Level: 1] -->[Qi Gathering Stage 1] [Exp: 0/100] [UP points: 10] [STR: 10] [INT: 10] [AGL: 10 + 3 (shoes) = 13] [DEX: 10 + 1 (shirt) = 11] ''Since it''s 2xp/hour, I will need to cultivate for 50 hours to level up once.'' Dan ate a couple of bread and then started to cultivate for 8 hours and got 16xp. As he stopped cultivating, there was a knock on the door, it was James. James was very shocked at the fact that Dan had already reached the first level of the Qi Gathering Realm. "Did you reach the first level of the Qi Gathering realm?" "Yes, is there a problem?" "No, it''s just that it''s too shocking, the village chief reached the first level 3 days after he started cultivating and you did it in less than a day." "How did you know that I had reached the first level?" "Higher leveled cultivator can see the cultivation of a lower leveled cultivator." "Let''s go to the village chief. A person reaching the first level in less than a day is unheard of." After they got to the village chief, he was also very shocked by Dan''s cultivation speed. "There is going to be a hunting lesson tomorrow where those who have never hunted before are shown how to hunt. Would you like to participate?" "Yes." Chapter 8 - Picking A Weapon Since the hunt was tomorrow and there really wasn''t much to look at in the village. Plus Dan had no money to buy anything as well so he just went back home to cultivate. Dan cultivated and just got 38xp because even though reaching the 1st level of Qi Gathering realm made him need less sleep, he still needed to sleep for some time. In the morning, a man came to tell Dan to come to the village chief''s house to eat some food and get ready to hunt. After Dan got to the house, there were 2 men aside from the village chief there. The village chief said to Dan, "These are Jacob and Lucas from the village who have broken through the first stage of the Qi Gathering Realm, they will be going with you to learn how to hunt. There will be 5 people with the 3rd Qi Gathering realm with James in the 4th stage leading the team." After everyone was done eating, the village chief took Dan and the other 2 men to the storage room which was guarded by two 3rd level experts. As the door opened, you could see rows of weapons. There were swords, spears, axes, gloves and some things Dan didn''t even know what it was. As Dan and the 2 other men were shocked at the sight of so many weapons the village chief interrupted. "To hunt beasts you will need a weapon so go ahead and choose one, you might even find a very great weapon." As Dan looked at all of the weapons all of them were just level 1 weapons but some of them had better attributes than the others. Out of all the weapons, Dan picked the best one he could find. [Item: Sword] [Level 1] [Duribility: 10/10] [+3 Strength] [Upgrade cost: 10 UP points] [Successful Chance of Upgrade: 90%] [Current UP points: 5] Jacob also chose a sword while Lucas chooses a spear with both of them having a +2 STR attribute. Another thing was that as Dan looked at the weapons of Jacob and Lucas, there was still the ability to upgrade their weapon meaning that he doesn''t need to be the owner of the item to upgrade it. Chapter 9 - The Hunt After everyone finished picking their weapons, the village chief took them to the place near the forest. When they got there, James and 5 other hunters were already there. The hunters told everyone that they were going to hunt a Qi Gathering stage 1 boar. James told everyone, "At first, I will go and kill a boar so that all 3 of you can watch how I do it then you can go together to kill another boar." "I will give you some information about boars. They have a very tough hide and bones so it is very hard to kill them if you don''t aim behind the ears." "Remember, do not make any loud noise or anything that could attract beasts, there are 6 of us hunters here to make sure that nothing happens to you but we should still be careful." After all of that talking, they all entered the forest and they quickly found a couple of boar which James killed slowly to show Dan, Jacob, and Lucas how to do it. They found another boar that the Dan and the 2 others were supposed to kill. Dan looked at the boar. [Name: Boar] [Level: 1] -->[Qi Gathering stage 1] [HP: 10/10] Dan went ahead and attacked the boar and hit it behind the ear dealing 3 damage and the attacked was followed up by Jacob and Lucas both dealing 2 damage each. At this rate, everyone just needed to hit the boar one more time and it would be dead. At this point, the boar was looking towards Lucas getting ready to attack so he started to run while Dan and Jacob came from behind the boar and attacked the boar. The boar realized that it would die if it kept fighting so it started to run away but because of Dan''s agility, he managed to catch up and kill the boar. [Ding! Congratulations on your first kill!] [As a reward, the user will get a lucky draw.] [For killing a boar for the first time, the user will get another lucky draw.] [+5 Exp for killing a boar.] ''Wow not bad, 2 lucky draws and 5 Exp, that''s like two and a half hours of my cultivation.'' Chapter 10 - Level 2 ''With this, I have 59 exp so I just need to kill 9 more boars and I will be able to get to level 2.'' [New Quest] [Kill 10 more boars] [Time limit: 24 hours] [Reward: 50 Exp] [Failure: -50 Exp] ''I would''ve killed a lot of boars even without the quest, this just gives me an extra reason for me to do it.'' James asked, "Do you guys still want to hunt?" "Yes." (x3) "Ok, you guys can hunt a couple more as a group then you can try to kill a couple more on your own." With that said, one of the hunters picked up the boars as it can be sold for its meat and the group started to hunt the boars again. The group successfully hunted 7 more as a team before they were told to split up and kill a couple more on their own. Dan went on with James and found another boar to kill. This time it was more difficult to kill it because there wasn''t anyone to distract the boar while Dan tried to kill the boar but after a while, he still managed to kill it with a couple of injuries. His Hp drooped down from 10 to 8 and his Exp went up to 99. "Do you still want to fight?" James asked. "Can I fight like 2 more?" "As long as you think that you can handle it." And like that 1 more boar was hunted, this time with just drooping 1 Hp. After that happened, Dan''s injuries were healed and he also felt a lot stronger. [Ding! Congratulations for leveling up!] [Name: Dan] [Level: 2] ->[Qi Gathering Stage 2] [HP: 20/20] [Exp: 4/200] [UP points: 5] [Strength: 15 + 3 (Sword) = 18] [Stamina: 15] [Agility: 15 + 3 (shoes) = 18] [Defense: 1 (shirt)] [Items: lucky box (x2)] ''Wow, all of my attributes beside defense went up half!'' ''It''s almost time to go back to the village so let''s finish the quest by killing one more boar.'' Dan found one more boar and killed it, this time much more easily because he was faster so he could doge the boar''s attack and he could also deal 4 damage instead of 3. Chapter 11 - Opening The Lucky Box After all of that was done, everyone gathered together. Lucas and Jacob had both managed to kill 2 more boars so that was good. As everyone was returning home, James told Dan, "For some reason, I feel like you are in Qi Gathering 2nd stage but that is impossible, I don''t know what''s happening." "For some reason, I did reach the Qi Gathering 2nd stage while I was fighting the boar." James stooped in his track and questioned Dan, "What?!" "I reached the 2nd stage while I was fighting the boar." "First, What the heck! Second, Don''t talk like its no big deal." "I spent a year getting to the 2nd stage and you do it in like a couple of days, the heavens are too biased." "Don''t tell anyone about this, just stay in the house for a while. If others find out and get jealous, you are going to have a very hard time especially since you aren''t from the village. I will go tell the chief about this." "All of you can keep your weapons, I will send some of the money from selling the boars to you guys so you should go home and rest." After Dan got home, he wanted to see what the lucky box would give. "System, open the lucky box." [Opening the lucky box] A box came out and with a blinding light, 9 cards that were all white came out of the box, it flew up to the air and then placed itself in a 3 by 3 pattern. [Pick one of the 9 cards] "I always pick the middle card so this time I will pick the middle one as well" All of the cards beside the middle one went back to the box before the box disappeared. Slowly an image of an orb started to show on the blank card. [You have gained the +2 cultivation orb] [The orb has been placed in the inventory] "What does the orb do?" [It allows the user to gain +2 exp every hour when cultivating] ''That doubles my exp when I am cultivating, this is a great item. Let''s see what I can get from the second box.'' "Open the 2nd lucky box." [Opening the lucky box] [Pick a card] [You have gained a level 2 armor] [The armor has been placed in the inventory] Chapter 12 - Village Chiefs Cultivation "Show me the armor." An inventory showed up before Dan with the cultivation orb and the red armor. As Dan clicked the armor, some information showed up. [Item: Level 2 Chestplate] [Defense: +5] [Agility: -1] [Stamina: -1] [Equip the armor?] As Dan said, "Yes." A heavy red chestplate appeared on Dan. [Do you want to turn on invisible mode for the chestplate?] "Invisible mode? Does it mean that the chest plate will be on me but others can''t see it?" [Yes] "Then turn on the invisible mode for the chestplate." ''This will make sure that I won''t have to explain how I got the chestplate if someone sees it.'' As Dan was tired after the day, he ate a little before going to cultivate using the cultivation orb. In the morning Dan looked at his status. [Name: Dan] [Level: 2] -->[Qi Gathering Stage 2] [HP: 20/20] [Exp: 91/200] [UP points: 5] [Strength: 15 + 3 (Sword) = 18] [Stamina: 15 - 1 (Chestplate) = 14] [Agility: 15 + 3 (shoes) - 1 (Chestplate) = 17] [Defense: 1 (shirt) + 5 Chestplate = 6] There was a knock on the door. "Good morning Dan, I told the village chief about you breaking through to the 2nd stage of the Qi Gathering stage and he told me to bring you to his house today." "Alright, James. let''s go." After they got to the village chief''s house, they ate a bit of food and Dan realized that he had never really checked the chief''s cultivation so he decided to do it now. [Name: John] [Title: Village Chief] [Level: 8] -->[Qi Gathering 8th stage] ''8th stage! The chief is so strong..'' "Do you know how you reached the 2nd stage so quickly?" "No sir." ''he can kill me easily so I have to make sure that I don''t get on his bad side.'' "Ok, it is obvious that you are very talented in cultivation but don''t get arrogant, or else if you offend a strong person then they might just kill you before you can grow." "Yes, thank you, sir." The chief gives Dan a 50 copper and tells him, "These are your share of the money from hunting the boar, it isn''t much but it is enough to buy you some new clothes, your current clothes doesn''t fit in the village. If you need more money you can go hunting on your own but only go to the outskirts or else you might run into a high-level beast." "Ok, Thank you for the advice." Chapter 13 - The Marketplace James told Dan where to go in order to get to the marketplace. He also told Dan about money, "An average worker gets about 1 silver per month which is equal to 100 copper. 100 silver make up 1 gold but only rich families or high-rank cultivators use gold." Before leaving James told Dan, "The village chief thinks highly of you, your share should''ve only been 25 copper but he added 25 copper more to yours, so make sure to cultivate properly." Dan went to the marketplace and there were a lot of stalls selling different things. As Dan walked around, a lot of people looked at him because of his clothes so he started to walk faster to get to the clothing store and change. He found some clothes he liked and bought using 2 coppers. He also needed to buy food because he didn''t want to be eating bread the entire time he was in this world. He went to a restaurant because he hadn''t eaten today and because he had only eaten bread and some food from the chief''s house so he wanted to see what type of food there was in this world. As he entered the restaurant, he saw that it was clean, and there were a decent number of people there. He sat in one of the tables and he asked for some meat and for a person from a modern world, it tasted bland with very little spices, Dan couldn''t eat it. He paid for the meal and was about to leave but he saw Jacob calling out to him. "Dan, did you hear about the auction?" "Auction?" "Yeah, this time the auction is for cultivators, apparently there is going to be a lot of good stuff but with my current amount of money, I won''t be able to afford anything." "Do you know when it is?" "It''s next week at the auction hall." "Ok, thank you, I will go and see what''s in there." ''If there''s a very good item, I can try to buy it but I need more money so I guess, I need to go hunting for the next week to earn money. Chapter 14 - Auction In the following week after knowing about the auction Dan started to go hunting every day, he mostly tried to hunt beasts around the same level as him. He managed to earn a total of 45 silver and 24 copper. He also managed to level up to get to level 4 but now he needs 800 Exp in order to level up. ''This is going to take a long time especially because it is harder to find higher-ranked beasts in the forest meaning less Exp but I got a lot stronger.'' [Name: Dan] [Level: 4] ->[Qi Gathering Stage 4] [HP: 40/40] [Exp: 40/800] [UP points: 5] [Strength: 35+ 3 (Sword) = 38] [Stamina: 35 - 1 (Chestplate) = 34] [Agility: 35 + 3 (shoes) - 1 (Chestplate) = 37] [Defense: 1 (shirt) + 5 Chestplate = 6] ''I actually killed 3 new beasts and got 3 lucky boxes but I used one which got me the item Hidden orb. It allows me to set a fake cultivation stage which is lower than my actual stage for myself and everyone below the Foundation stage can only see that stage.'' ''The only person, I told the village chief that I have only reached the 3rd stage because I don''t want him to be too shocked.'' ''I didn''t want to tell him of my stage but I need to sell the beasts to someone.'' Dan got ready and went to the auction. As he got there he realized that for this auction, only cultivators were allowed to go inside. As the auction was about to start, there were a lot of people looking at the back. It was the younger generation of the 2 most powerful family arguing. The Kek village had 3 main powers, the village chief, the Holt family, and the Copper family. The younger generation eventually managed to settle down and the auction began. The auction started with some weapons and armors that Dan didn''t need but he still paid attention because he could probably only buy the things in the beginning section with his money. In the middle portion of the auction, the auctioneer brought out a red fruit. "We actually don''t know what fruit this is but we have estimated that this is a very rare fruit because we have only found one and no one seems to know what it is." Dan checked the stats of the fruit. [Name: Vermillion fruit] [Age: 500-year-old (Not Mature)] [Effects: A permanent increase in talent (Doubles the exp gained when cultivating)] Chapter 15 - The Bidding ''If I can get that vermillion fruit, I can get 6 Exp per hour when I cultivate. Hopefully, no one in here knows what it is.'' "The starting price for this fruit will be 5 silver and each bid must be at least 20 copper." Dan waited a while and bid 5 silver and 20 copper. He wanted the fruit but he didn''t want to raise the price too much in case someone thought that he knew what the fruit did. Dan thought no one would bid for an unknown fruit but someone did. A random person bid 5 silver and 40 copper. Dan at the price of 6 silver won the fruit. ''I made a big profit. 6 silver for a fruit to double my Exp when cultivating and anyway, I won''t be able to keep the silver when I leave this world.'' The auction continued normally until the last item of the auction. An ordinary-looking pill came up in the auction. "This is an ancient and legendary healing pill. It is said that if you eat it, it can even bring you out of the brink of death but those are just the rumors that we have heard." "The starting price will be 20 silver and will go up by 1 silver each." [Name: Healing Pill] [Level: 2] [Effect: Instantly regenerates 50 Hp when eaten] ''That can be a lifesaver in some situations.'' ''I need to do my best to buy as I get a lot of exp when I kill beasts and if I meet a high-level beast, it might save me.'' The bidding started. "I bid 21 silver." That bid keeps getting upped until it went up to 30. At that point, only a few people kept bidding, not because they didn''t have the money but because the effects of the pill were just a rumor and had not been tested before. At this point, Dan started to bid for the pill. "I bit 32 silver." In the end, Dan won the pill using 38 silver meaning that Dan only had 1 silver and 24 coppers to his name but he was ok with it because this was the last thing on the auction meaning that there would be nothing that would be better than the pill in this auction. Chapter 16 - 11 Months Later... It had been 11 months since the auction. Dan had leveled up a few times. Dan look at his new stats. [Name: Dan] [Level: 8] ->[Qi Gathering Stage 8] [HP: 80/80] [Exp: 300/12,800] [UP points: 5] [Strength: 183+ 3 (Sword) = 186] [Stamina: 183 - 1 (Chestplate) = 182] [Agility: 183 + 3 (shoes) - 1 (Chestplate) = 185] [Defense: 1 (shirt) + 5 Chestplate = 6] Dan had improved by leaps and bounds. He could kill dozens of himself from the past. He had only improved by 4 levels in the last 11 months because it took more exp to level up and there weren''t a lot of high-level beasts in the Kek forest to kill to get Exp. He had also managed to get 3 Lucky boxes and had saved it up. ''I only have like 2 weeks before I go back to Earth, I wanted to go to other towns and villages but it would take about a year to travel there so I didn''t go there as I would just have to go back to Earth after I got to town.'' "There is a problem though, how come I have never obtained a single UP point in 11 months?" [Don''t worry, after you get back to Earth, you will have a lot of chances to earn UP points.] ''Alright, hopefully, I can earn a lot of points.'' ''Since I have to go back in two weeks and I can''t take my money with me, I will have to spend it all to buy something that I can take to Earth.'' Dan decided to go to the village chief. Dan used the hidden orb to make his cultivation seem like it''s in the 5th stage, taking most of the money and buying something from him wouldn''t cause too much suspicion about where he got the money from. After discussing with the village chief, Dan gave away 90% of his money in exchange for something in the village treasury and the fact that he could only be inside the treasury for 1 hour. After that, Dan was taken into the treasury which was guarded very well, and as Dan looked inside, he saw a shocking amount of items. Even with an hour inside Dan probably wouldn''t be able to look at every item inside the treasury. [Ding! New quest] [Pick an item from the treasury] [Reward: A reward will be picked based on the rarity and usefulness of the item that is picked.] [The user will be graded from A to F] [If the user picks an item with rarity and usefulness at grade D and F, a Punishment will occur.] [Do you accept the quest?] Chapter 17 - Looking At The Items "Yes, I accept the Quest." ''I can look at the level of the item and its effects, it shouldn''t be too hard for me to find a good item.'' Dan went in and started to look for some items and he found a lot of good items. There were even books for battle techniques even though, he had been in this world for over 11 months, he didn''t have a single one because most of them were taken by the powerful families and this was his chance to get a battle technique. From what Dan knew, there were stages to the battle techniques. There were the earth stage and the profound stage battle techniques which were each divided into low, middle, and high ranks. In the village, the best technique was already the middle earth ranked technique. [Name: Iron Fist] [Stage: Low Earth ranked technique] [Discription: This technique allows the user to make a fist hard as iron. When attacking, it adds +30 strength to the attack.] [Upgrade cost: 500 UP points] [Successful Chance of Upgrade: 50%] [Current UP points: 5] [Requires 500 UP points to learn instantly.] ''Wow, I can level up battle techniques and I can learn techniques like this instantly! Too bad, I only have 5 UP points.'' Dan found other battle techniques that were all Low Earth ranked but he kept searching for other things and eventually found some weapons and armors which were pretty good. [Name: Sword] [Level: 5] [Duribility: 200/200] [+25 Strength] [Upgrade cost: 160 UP points] [Successful Chance of Upgrade: 80%] [Current UP points: 5] For the armor, it was just level 5 shoes which would give him a +20 defense. As Dan was looking through, he found an old book. The title read, "An introduction to Alchemy." [Name: An introduction to Alchemy - Book] [Duribility: 3/10] [Discription: As the name suggests, the book will teach you how to start learning alchemy.] ''I really want a battle technique, swords, and armors but I don''t think I will need to fight too much on earth and even if I do need to, I will be able to beat everyone with my current strength.'' ''On the other hand, I could take the book introducing alchemy but there a person having a talent for alchemy is too rare. Even in the history of the village, no one has ever seen an alchemist plus you also need a good cauldron and rare herbs. Lastly, you need an alchemist to teach you if you want to have a higher chance to succeed in becoming an alchemist.'' ''I only have a minute, which one do I pick?'' Chapter 18 - Professions "I will take the Introduction to Alchemy book." After Dan selected the book, he took it outside to tell the village chief about his choice. As that happened, the system told him that the quest was completed. [Quest: Pick an item from the treasury] [Status: Completed] [Grade: A-] [Reward: 100 UP points, Lucky box, and the Professions Tab] [Unlocking the Professions Tab] ''What, only A-, shouldn''t this at least be an A. I know, I didn''t get to check all of the items in the treasury but, this is still a book teaching alchemy. I probably missed out on a lot of good stuff.'' ''The Professions tab, will it allow me to learn alchemy?'' [Yes, but you will need a lot of points to unlock it and you will need a cauldron, materials, and recipes.] As Dan was thinking about that, the village chief started to talk to him. "You picked the alchemy book? Do you know how rare alchemists are? The chances of you being able to be an alchemist are very low." "I am sure that you saw other good items in the treasury. I don''t want you to exchange your wealth with something that isn''t useful. I will give you a chance to exchange the book with another item as long as you do it within 5 minutes." "Thank you for the offer but I still want to take a chance and try to be an alchemist." After that, Dan went back to the house which he had started to rent from the village chief after staying there for a month. After Dan got back to the house, he looked at the book introducing alchemy. This time, there was one additional info when looking at the book compared to before. [Name: An introduction to Alchemy - Book] [Duribility: 3/10] [Discription: As the name suggests, the book will teach you how to start learning alchemy.] [Requires 100 UP points to learn instantly. It will make the user a level 1 alchemist.] [Current UP points: 105] [Learn?] "Yes." As Dan said that a lot of information came at Dan, including how to tell the difference between herbs and their properties. He also obviously learned how to make pills and also gained one simple level 1 recipe. It was like the Healing Pill which he had won 11 months ago in the auction but, it was worse than the one he had won because this was only a level 1 pill. Now, the question remained, how would he find a cauldron and the herbs needed for the recipes. Chapter 19 - A Cauldron ''I do have 6 lucky boxes remaining and I might be able to get a cauldron but that''s very unlikely.'' Dan opened a lucky box and it gave him 20 UP points. ''UP points, I thought that the lucky box would only give me items not points as well and only 20 at that.'' Dan kept opening lucky boxes but he just kept getting Up points and Exp. The 2nd box gave him 30 UP points, then 200 Exp, then another 20 UP points. ''Darn it, I got very good items the first two times I opened the lucky box. Was I very lucky that time or am I too unlucky this time.'' Thinking about that, Dan opened another lucky box and to his surprise, he managed to get a cauldron. The cauldron a simple item that was all black but if you looked closely at it, there seemed to be a trace of pictures but it was so faded that you couldn''t make out what it was. [Name: The Divine Culdrone (broken)] [Level: 1] [Abilities: Locked - (fix to unlock)] [Discription: This was once a legendary cauldron used by the most powerful of the alchemists but now it has been broken and reduced to a level 1 cauldron. If it is repaired, it will level up and unlock some special abilities] [Ding! New Quest] [Quest: Repair The Divine Culdrone (1/10)] [Make 100 level 1 pills] [Level 1 pills made: 0/100] [Reward: Unlock the option to repair the cauldron by one level] ''A cauldron used by some of the most powerful alchemists, its abilities have to be very good so I have to repair it, plus I have to make pills anyway.'' The problem with the herbs is easy to solve. Since the healing pill is only level 1, it only requires 5 different herbs and I have seen a lot of them in the forest. There are no alchemists near the village so those herbs are useless. That means, no one bothers to pick them up. ''I have one more lucky box, I should use it, maybe I will get something useful.'' Dan opened the last lucky box and managed to only get 25 UP points. ''Now time to get those herbs.'' Chapter 20 - Refining Pills Dan went into the forest but unlike usual, he was there to collect as many herbs as he could. As Dan went through the forest collecting the herbs, other cultivators who were out hunting looked strangely at him. Someone even stopped and asked him," Are you ok? Do you need me to take you back to the village?" Dan replied, "I am ok, thanks for the offer though." ''He must have thought I''ve gone crazy picking up "useless" herbs.'' Dan went almost the entire day picking herbs and being embarrassed because of other people looking at him like an idiot. Dan went back to his house started to refine pills. He managed to make 25, level 1 healing pills with his 100% success rate. ''I am sure I only have that success rate because of the system after all even though I know how to make pills, I don''t believe I am some sort of genius at making pills.'' ''There''s one problem, I have the pills but I can only take one thing so what do I do with the other pills. Ahhh, I should''ve thought of that before making the pills.'' ''I think I can trade the pills for a high-level armor because I only have 6 stats in defense. This means that even though I can do a lot of damage, I can''t block a lot of damage.'' With that set and done, Dan decided to go to the auction house tomorrow morning wearing a disguise. ''Even though I am ranked higher than the village chief in cultivation, there could be hidden cultivators in the village. I have only been cultivating for 11 months, if I show up with my current cultivation, those hidden figures, if they exist might think I have some godly item and want to kill me for it. I would rather be safe than sorry.'' In the morning, Dan woke up and went to the market place to buy a couple of face-changing masks. With the mask, he could change his face to anyone he thought of but the effect would only last for a day and the mask was very expensive. Dan disguised himself as a 40-year-old man and removed his fake cultivation level before going to the auction hall. Chapter 21 - Meeting The Owner When Dan first went into the lobby, he only saw a couple of staff because there wasn''t an auction today. Dan decided to go to one of the staff members and tell him to bring the owner of the auction hall to meet him. The staff replied with, "Are you crazy old man? Do you think that the owner would come to meet you just because you want him to? The owner is a 7th stag..." As he kept saying that, Dan released his aura around the auction hall and a lot of the low-level staff including the staff that was talking to Dan got crushed by the aura and the owner also felt the aura so he quickly went up to meet Dan. ''I don''t want to do this but from what I know, alchemists are very arrogant so I have to play the part.'' Dan asks the owner, "Are you the owner of this auction hall?" "Yes, may I ask why you are here sir." Throwing a healing pill to the owner, Dan says to him, "I am here to sell this pill, I have 15 more of that. Can you sell it?" "This... May I ask, what type of pill this is?" "It is a healing pill, It will help a person recover from damages, it can even be used if you are on the brink of death. Now that you know, Can you sell it or not?" "Yes, Yes, Yes, We can sell them. Do you have a specific time in which you want to sell these?" "The quicker the better. You can use one of the pills to show the others that the pill works. Sell 10 of them individually and sell the other 5 in one batch. Tell them I want rare stuff that I can either use immediately or a very good armor." "Yes sir, if it''s ok with you, we can have the auction 2 days from now to make sure that everyone in the village knows and is prepared." Dan gave 5 more pills and left saying, "Alright, I will be here in 2 days.. I will bring 10 more pills by then." Chapter 22 - Auctioning The Pills ''I am not stupid enough to give all of the 15 pills to you or else who knows, you might try to take it and run away. He probably wouldn''t try knowing I am an alchemist but who knows, greed might get the better of him.'' While Dan was thinking that, the owner was really mad. ''Darn it, if he wasn''t an alchemist and if he wasn''t stronger than me, I could have taken all of his pills. I still want his pills but I can''t tell what cultivation stage he is in meaning he is stronger than me and as an alchemist, he probably has foundation stage followers. I should just give up. My life is still worth more than those pills.'' In 2 days, the entire village was filled with the news of the pills that could even bring a person on the brink of death back to life and unlike 11 months ago, this time there would be more than 1 pills. It is said that one of the pills would even be tested to make sure that there is no doubt about the effects of the pills and if the powerful families see the effects for themselves they would be willing to use a lot of their treasures and armors to get the pill. Think about it no matter how good an item is, it is worth nothing compared to another item that could save your life. Dan changed his face and went to the auction hall. The owner took him to one of the private rooms. Dan gave 17 more healing pills to the owner telling him that 2 of the healing pills could be taken as a commission as the pills would be traded for items and not money. The auction began with some simple items and Dan didn''t manage to find anything good so he didn''t bet for anything. As the ending drew near, the healing pills were finally auctioned. The auctioneer started to speak saying, "For the last items in the auction, they will all be healing pills. 10 of them will be auctioned individually and 5 of them will be auctioned in one batch. For the pills, you can only use items that can be used immediately or very good armors." As soon as the auctioneer finished her words, people already started to bid. Chapter 23 - The Bidding War For the first 10 healing pills, only items that could be used immediately was used. The village chief and the 2 most powerful families each got one healing pill just in case they didn''t manage to get the batch of pills. 6 other pills were taken by the other smaller families and groups. Surprisingly, one of the pills was taken by an individual that wasn''t part of any faction but that didn''t matter to Dan as he wasn''t going to be in this world for very long but to the other forces in the village, it was a surprising matter. Usually, a group would have more treasures than a single person so a single person winning against groups was very surprising. Another unusual thing was that no one recognized who the person was but even with all that, the auctioned continued. In the fight for the batch of 5 pills, only the village chief and the 2 most powerful families competed for it. The other groups had already given up knowing that they were never going to win. The fight started with simple items that could be used immediately but as the auction continued, armors started to come up. As the auction kept going the head of one of the two powerful families even said, "Why don''t you two give up on this one and I will give 1 pill to each of you." "NO!" (x2) The other family head replied, "Do you think I am crazy? If we agree on this, your family will have 4 pills and we will only have two. If we were to ever fight, you would have a very big advantage." With that little chat out of the way, the auction continued. In the end, the family who had offered 1 pill each to the other family and the village chief but they had to pay a large price. The family used a Level 4 gauntlet. Dan had all of the items that he had gotten from the auction before him. [Item: Level 4 gauntlet] [Defense: +10] [Strenght: +2] [Agility: -1] [Stamina: -1] [Equip the armor?] As Dan said, "Yes." A heavy red gauntlet appeared on Dan''s hand. [Do you want to turn on invisible mode for the chestplate?] "Yes" After that, the gauntlet disappeared and to Dan''s surprise, it felt as if he wasn''t wearing the gauntlet, he could feel the texture of the table that he touched. Feeling a little surprised, Dan tried to hurt his hand with a knife but as the knife was about to touch his hand something blocked it. Chapter 24 - The Mysterious Man ''Now that I think about it, even for the chestplate it''s the same. This invisibility function is incredible.'' After putting the gauntlet on, Dan decided to use the other items. All of the other items were used to gain a boost of Exp. After using all of the other items, Dan went from 500 Exp to 12,000 Exp but he still didn''t level up. Dan decided to look at his new stats. [Name: Dan] [Level: 8] ->[Qi Gathering Stage 8] [HP: 80/80] [Exp: 12,000/12,800] [UP points: 100] [Strength: 183+ 3 (Sword) +2 (Gauntlet) = 188] [Stamina: 183 - 1 (Chestplate) -1 (Gauntlet) = 181] [Agility: 183 - 1 (Chestplate) -1 (Gauntlet) = 181] [Defense: + 5 (Chestplate) +10 (Gauntlet)= 15] After all of this, Dan left the auction hall and as he was going back home, the man who had brought one of the healing pills came in front of him when he was in an empty street. ''What is going on, I never noticed that he was near me.'' As Dan was getting ready to attack, the man started to speak. Putting his hands up, the man said, "Don''t worry, I am not here to harm you. I heard that the strongest person in the village is a 7th stage expert and since you are the only 8th stage expert in the village. I assume you are the alchemist that made the healing potions sold in the auction today." ''Great, he can see my cultivation and I can''t see his means that he is more powerful than me and he knows that I am an alchemist. Hopefully, he doesn''t try to kill me thinking that I have other pills with me.'' ''System, let me see his stats.'' [Name: Leo] [Level: 14 (injured)] ->[Foundation Stage 4 (injured)] ->[Current Strength: Level 10] [HP: 100/100] ''What the heck! Who would be able to injure a level 14 expert?'' The man asked, "I am currently injured and need some healing pills and spirit gathering pills. Can I buy some of them off of you?" ''Do I even have a choice in this matter.. If I disagree, you might just kill me.'' Chapter 25 - Spirit Gathering Pills ''Should I lie and say that I am not the alchemist? No, no, If he finds out that I lied to him, he would just kill me. As a level 14 expert, I don''t doubt that he will have ways to find me even if I hide my cultivation strength and change back to my original face.'' "I can sell you some healing pills but I don''t know how to make this so-called Spirit Gathering Pills." "No worries, I am not an alchemest myself but I have always wanted to be one. I have collected a couple of recipes including one of the Spirit Gathering pills and I saw all of the herbs needed for the pills deep inside the forest." Leo continued, "Can you make the pill for me? I can give you the recipe for it and I will also get the herbs from the forest." "Yes, as long as I have the recipe and the herbs, I can make the pill for you but can I ask what this pill does?" "The pill will help you get more spirit energy around you allowing you to cultivate faster." ''Then what the heck does this pill have to do with healing your injuries? You can just eat the healing pill. He is just making me do extra work for him but at least I get a pill recipe which in itself is hard to get.'' "I know what you are thinking, but my injuries are special and it needs spirit energy as well as healing pills for me to recover and the Spirit Gathering PIll will make that process faster." ''Ok, I swear you are making up stuff on the fly now but what can I do except go along with your explanation.'' A day later, Leo and Dan met in a deeper part of the forest as Dan didn''t want to come to his house and know his true identity and Leo didn''t want to attract too much attention from the village. Leo gave Dan the recipe and the herbs before Dan started to make the pills. In the beginning, Dan purposely made a lot of mistakes.. If he didn''t make a mistake especially if it''s his first time making a pill, it would be very abnormal. Chapter 26 - Preparing To Go Back In total, Dan made 15 Spirit Gathering pills with ingredients for 40 pills which was considered average for an alchemest. Dan also made 30 Healing pills. Leo took 10 of the spirit gathering pills and all 30 of the healing pills giving Dan 5 spirit gathering pills and left. ''Hello, I just made so many pills for you that could save your life. Shouldn''t you at least give me a good treasure beside the pill recipe? I mean that''s what happens in novels.'' ''Leo as a level 14 expert was injured, I wonder who injured him, if that person finds out that I helped Leo, I might have some serious problems.'' Thankfully, no one came to find Dan after Leo left and the days passed by until only a day remained until Dan had to go back to earth. Dan had broken through to Level 9 with the help of those spirit gathering pills. [Name: Dan] [Level: 9] ->[Qi Gathering Stage 9] [HP: 90/90] [Exp: 500/25,600] [UP points: 100] [Strength: 275 + 3 (Sword) +2 (Gauntlet) = 280] [Stamina: 275 - 1 (Chestplate) -1 (Gauntlet) = 273] [Agility: 275 - 1 (Chestplate) -1 (Gauntlet) = 273] [Defense: + 5 (Chestplate) +10 (Gauntlet)= 15] ''This is great but it will be a long time before I can level up again. Especially with the fact that I probably won''t be able to make a lot of pills with the herbs on earth. There won''t be any spiritual energy, and any beasts that will give me exp.'' ''Since I am leaving tomorrow, I should probably give all of the things have away. I can''t take any of them with me and some of the people from the village have helped me before.'' With that decided, Dan made some healing pills and some spirit gathering pills. Dan decided to give five of each pill to the village chief for letting him stay in his house especially in the beginning when he couldn''t pay any rent. He gave three of each pill to James and 1/3 of all of his money for helping him not die to the mutated tiger, bringing him to the village and answering questions about cultivation for him. Finally, He gave two of each pill and 1/3 of his wealth to Jacob and Lucas. He did this because they fought together at least once after picking their weapon and also because he didn''t know anyone else. He wanted to give those things to James but giving those things to James might get him in trouble so he didn''t. Chapter 27 - Back On Earth Since Dan was leaving the world with the gauntlet from the auction, he had to leave his sword behind dropping his strength from 280 to 277. This also meant that Dan had to wear his clothes from earth so that he didn''t go back to earth in different clothes and get noticed by people near him when he left earth. Since Dan''s clothes from earth had some extra attributes, Dan''s attribute changed as well. [Name: Dan] [Level: 9] ->[Qi Gathering Stage 9] [HP: 90/90] [Exp: 500/25,600] [UP points: 100] [Strength: 275 +2 (Gauntlet) = 277] [Stamina: 275 - 1 (Chestplate) -1 (Gauntlet) = 273] [Agility: 275 + 3(Shoes) - 1 (Chestplate) -1 (Gauntlet) = 276] [Defense: + 5 (Chestplate) +10 (Gauntlet) + 1 (Shirt) = 16] With all of that done, Dan went to cultivate until then the next day when the system warning came. [The System will be transporting the user back to earth in 5 minutes.] Five minutes after that Dan disappeared from where he was and when Dan looked around, he found out that he was back on earth. With a screen that only had the gauntlet, the system asked Dan to pick something to keep with him on earth and Dan picked the gauntlet. Dan wanted to go back home and watch TV and relax since he hadn''t done that in a year but he told himself he needed to see if there were still herbs needed to make the healing pills. Dan went to a store where they sold herbs and he didn''t find all of the herbs needed to make the potions but he did find herbs that had similar properties to that of the herbs he needed. ''System, Can I use these herbs in order to make the pills?'' [Yes, but the success rate will drop down from 100% to 90%] ''Ok, that''s still great since I can still make the potions.'' Dan only brought enough herbs for two healing pills and one spirit gathering pill because it cost $500 for all the herbs needed for one pill so Dan spent a total of $1,500. ''Darn it, I had so much money back at the other world but I am so poor here. I had to use my savings to buy these herbs.'' ''I am sure that I can sell these healing pills to some rich person to make a lot of money.. Now, I just need to think up of a way to make sure that they don''t find out who I am since I don''t want unnecessary problems.'' Chapter 28 - The Old Man Falls Dan went back home and decided to watch movies and relax. After a while, Dan also decided to quit his job as he never liked his work anyway. Dan successfully made all 3 pills and he wanted to see if he could still cultivate and as he started to do so, the system screen pooped up. [Cultivating] [+0.5 (Regular) +2 Cultivation Orb) +1 (Spirit Gathering pill) - (It doubles the regular cultivation) = 3.5 Exp per hour] ''This is still worse than my 8 Exp per hour by a huge margin but I thought that as a level 0 planet, there would be no spiritual energy.'' [The system said that, in a level 0 planet, there would be no or almost no spiritual energy] ''That explains this but I only want to cultivate for an hour before sleeping.'' The next day, Dan decided to go back to the store to buy herbs to make another spirit gathering pill. He wanted to buy a lot of herbs at once but he had no money for that. As he got to the store, he realized that it was pretty fancy and there were probably some rich people here maybe one of them would buy the pills but he gave up on that idea. ''They might think that I am crazy and might not even listen to my explanations. I want to sell the pill for a lot of money and though these people are rich, they might not have so much money on hand.'' With that thinking, Dan decided to just buy the herbs needed for the spirit gathering pill and was about to leave when an old man fell down on the floor. There were a couple of bodyguards around the old man and another man who seemed like 40 years old. The 40-year man was screaming at the bodyguards to call the ambulance and was trying to help the old man. Dan just wanted to walk out since he had gotten his stuff after all if he wasn''t a doctor so he couldn''t help them and if the ambulance should have been called already but he stopped when he heard what the 40-year-old man say. "If anyone can help my father, I will give him 5 million dollars." ''5 million dollars! What the heck, a normal person won''t ever be able to make even a million dollars.'' Chapter 29 - 10 Million Dollars ''System, Can the healing pill heal the old man?'' [Yes, the healing pill will cure the old man.] With that confirmed, Dan started to go toward the old man. As he approached the old man, Dan spoke to the 40-year man. "I can cure your father but can you really give me 5 million dollars?" As the man was about to speak, one of the bodyguards told the man, "He is pretty young, can he really heal the old master? Even some of the best doctors in the world can''t cure him." The man asked Dan, "Can you prove to me that you can cure my father." "Of course." "Great then can you show me?" "It will cost you another 5 million." ''It makes sense since one pill can be worth 5 million then if I have to prove it to him that I can cure his dad then I will have to spend another pill that someone can buy at 5 million dollars." The bodyguard who talked to the man was about to attack Dan but the man blocked him and agreed, "Fine, another 5 million if you can prove it to me but if you can''t then I won''t stop my bodyguard from attacking you." With that confirmed, Dan suddenly went behind the bodyguard without anyone noticing. Dan took the bodyguard''s arm and spun it backward breaking his arms. He also kicked the bodyguard''s knee from the back which also broke his legs. The bodyguard screamed, "Ahhhh, I am going to kill you!!!" All of the other bodyguards pointed their guns towards Dan. The man said, "What are you doing?" "Proving it to you that I can heal your father." Saying that Dan put one of the healing pills in the bodyguard''s mouth and suddenly, the broken arms and legs healed. The bodyguard tried to move his arms and legs to make sure that he was fine and he was. He wanted to kill Dan but he knew that he couldn''t plus he could heal the old master''s life so he didn''t dare to attack Dan again. The man ordered everyone to drop their guns and let Dan feed the pill to the old man after which the old man slowly woke up. The old man asked, "What happened?" Chapter 30 - A Bodyguard? As the man was explaining what happened to the old man, Dan interrupted. "Can I get my money now?" The man asked Dan for his bank account and transferred 10 million dollars which Dan received the notification for. Since Dan got the money, he was about to leave when the man asked him a question. "Can you please help me with something?" "Uh, no why would I want to help you?" "I can pay you for it." "What do you need help with?" "Seeing your strength when fighting my bodyguard, I know you are very powerful so could you guard my daughter?" "No thanks." ''I am a level 9 expert, there''s no way, I will be a bodyguard for some spoiled brat.'' [New Quest: Protect Sofia for three months] [Reward: Unknown] [Faliure: -5 level] [This quest is mandatory and can''t be rejected] ''What? Who the heck is Sofia?'' [Sofia is the grand-daughter of the old man you just helped] ''Why do I have to do this? Isn''t the main goal to upgrade the world, How does this have anything with that?'' [...] ''Seriously, no response?'' ''Do you know how hard I worked for those levels? That''s months of my progress and that''s in a world with more spirit energy than this world.'' Dan grudgingly turned back towards the man and asked, "How much will you pay me?" "I will pay you 100 million annually." "I will only do this for three months with another requirement." "What is the requirement?" "I will protect her but I don''t want to have to follow anyone''s orders." The man thought, ''Isn''t that the same as taking the money for free. How will I even know if you will actually protect her? Oh well, He is extremely powerful and even if he doesn''t protect her, there are other bodyguards around her. I can just consider him a last line of defense.'' "Alright, I agree." "Good, now can you give me some information about her?" "Of course, Can you come with me to meet her?" "Yes." While they were going to the company where she was working, Dan managed to get the basic information about Sofia. Chapter 31 - Sofia The old man said, "Sofia is the founder and the current CEO of Ace Corp." ''What the hell? Ace Corp. is one of the fastest-growing and the biggest corporations in the state! I got ripped off, I could have gotten more money for being the bodyguard of the CEO of the Ace corp.'' "I am not trying to be rude here but since she founded such a big corporation at her age, she would be very proud. Do you think it will be OK, if you put me in as her bodyguard without her testing me and what if she doesn''t pay me?" The man replied, "Don''t worry, I am paying you with my own money, not my own daughter''s. Plus, she is my daughter, she won''t reject me too much." ''So she will still reject you making me her bodyguard without asking for her opinion.'' The car went through the security at the front of the Ace Corp. before parking. The man took Dan to the CEO''s office and no one blocked him meaning that everyone should know his as Sofia''s father. As the man opens the door to the CEO''s office, Dan sees a beautiful woman who seemed to be doing work on her computer. Without looking up, she coldly asks, "Who are you to come in my office without my permission?" The man replies, "Oh, so now even I need permission to come into your office?" Sofia looks up and sees the man and then she sees Dan. Looking at Dan, she coldly asks, "Who is he?" "He is a bodyguard that I found for you." As Sofia looked coldly at Dan, the man interrupted, "Why don''t you thank me? I only managed to hire him for 3 months for a low price of 25 million dollars in total." ''So you did know you were paying me too little?'' Sofia screamed, "25 million dollars for 3 months of being my bodyguard!?!? Dad, Do you need to go to the hospital?" "Trust me, he is worth it, he effortlessly broke one of my bodyguard''s arms and legs without him even being able to retaliate." "Fine, but I will make him fight some people to test him." "You need to ask him if he agrees. I promised him that no one could order him around." "Then what is the point of paying him, if no one can order him around!?" Sofia continued, "Don''t even think about getting paid if you can''t even prove that you can really fight." Dan agreed, "Alright, it''s normal for you to check if I can really protect you so I will fight whoever you want me to fight." Chapter 32 - Fighting Sofia called in most of the security guards in the company. After the guards got into the CEO''s office, she told all of them to capture Dan. All of the guards tried to attack Dan but Dan dodged all of the attacks without a problem, this happened for a couple of minutes or so until one of the guards decided to threaten Dan. The guard took out his gun, aimed at Dan, and told Dan, "Stop moving or I will shoot." Dan was about to stop but for some reason the guard shot. Dan wanted to dodge the bullet and given his agility, he could have done so but there were a couple of guards behind him. Dan decided to just take the bullet head-on. The bullet wouldn''t be able to hurt him anyway. The bullet would do 10 damage but with the defense of 15 that Dan had, it would do no damage to him. Dan had figured out that for some reason, no matter the armor you wear, the defense attribute of the armor would work throughout the body. This meant that even if Dan only had two armor, the chestplate, and the gauntlet, and the bullet hit the leg, the defense attribute of the armor would still make sure that Dan didn''t get any damage. Just as the bullet hit Dan, it fell down leaving a clinging sound, it didn''t manage to do any damage to Dan. At that point, everyone was shocked as they all thought that Dan was going to die. Everyone was still surprised when Dan started to talk, "Are we done with this test yet, or do I have to attack as well?" Sofia managing to get rid of her shock told Dan that the test was done and he could be her bodyguard. After that, she coldly started to ask the guard that shot the bullet, "Are you crazy? Why in the world would you fire a gun at him? I told you to capture him not to kill him!" She ordered all of the guards to leave with the guard that shot the gun getting suspended for a month. After all the guards left, Dan confronted Sofia, "Suspended for a month! If the person standing in my shoes was a normal person, he would have been dead." Sofia coldly looked at Dan and said, "I decide what happens in my company. You aren''t dead anyway plus you get paid 25 million dollars for three months of work so stop complaining." ''What the heck, I thought I had proved my worth.. I should have attacked as well.'' Chapter 33 - House The man tells Dan that he can live in a villa next to Sofia''s villa. Dan immediately replies, "No thanks, I already have a house." "How can you protect my daughter if you aren''t near her?" ''Can''t argue against that'' "Alright, fine. I will live in the villa for the three months that I will protect her." ''I don''t want to protect her but the stupid mission does.'' The man gave the location and the keys of the villa to Dan and also told him that his name was Smith. The last part Dan didn''t care much about. Dan went back to his house and got some basic stuff in one go before moving to the villa. While he was driving to the villa, he found out that the villa was in a district that had their own guards. As he got to the gate, he was stopped by the guards. To prove that he was actually living in one of the villas inside, he had to call Smith but smith didn''t accept the call. Dan called Sofia and told her about the problem. She asked Dan to give the call to the guards which he did. Dan didn''t know what she told the guards but after the call, the guards said that he was lying and didn''t live in any of the villas. They told him to leave. Dan started to get mad at both Sofia and the guards. ''What the heck did Sofia say to these guards?'' Dan tried to explain to the guards why he was staying in the villa but they just laughed when he said that he was just a bodyguard. The conversation was going nowhere and Dan was getting very annoyed so he just knocked all of the guards out without hurting any of them. Dan looked at the address of the villa before he found it. He was surprised by the things in the villa. Even though Dan had visited his former girlfriend, Lily''s family''s villa a couple times. He wasn''t exactly liked by her family so at that point he wasn''t too concentrated at looking around the villa. Dan managed to get settled in the villa and when it was evening, Dan got a call from Smith. Chapter 34 - Questions In the call, Smith asked, "I am sorry, I didn''t hear the call so I couldn''t pick up. What''s the matter?" Dan told Smith about the stuff with the guards and asked him another question. "Can you figure out why the heck Sofia said that I didn''t live in the villa here?" "Yeah, I am sorry about my daughter''s behavior. By the way, can you come to her office tomorrow to know the things inside the company?" "Yes, I will be their tomorrow." "Ok, you can just go to my daughter''s office tomorrow when you go in." The next day, Dan went into Sofia''s office to find her working on some stuff. Dan just went in and sat on the Sofa without her permission. Sofia looked up at Dan and asked, "When did you get permission to sit on my sofa?" "I didn''t get permission but what can you do about it." ''you have been getting on my nerves too much. I have to protect you because of the mission but at the same time, I will be an annoyance to you.'' "As my bodyguard, you should know the people from the security department so go there." "Not going." "It wasn''t a request!" "You can''t order me around. I am not going to the security department." Sofia coldly looked at Dan then just went back to work. while Dan started to cultivate. It was like this until the middle of the day when it was lunchtime. Sofia started to head towards the cafeteria. The cafeteria was divided into two parts, the one used by the regular employees and the other ones used by the higher-ups of the company. The only difference between the two would be the fact that part of the cafeteria used by the higher-ups had private rooms. Even the food for both parts of the cafeteria was the same as the food was top quality. It was made from some of the best chefs in the state. As Dan started to follow Sofia to the cafeteria, Sofia asked, "Can you just leave me alone!?" "Nope, I have to protect you for three months.. After that, I won''t care about your safety so I won''t be following you around at that time." Chapter 35 - A Meeting After they got to the cafeteria and started to eat, there was a knock in the door of the private room. "Come in," Sophia said. A young man around the same age as Dan came inside. He looked around the room and saw Dan eating his food without caring about anything else in the world. The young man looked at Dan and asked, "My name is William. May I ask who you are?" Dan simply replied with one word, "Dan." There was a small silence before William asked another question. "What do you do?" Dan pointing at Sofia while continuing to eat replied, "I am her bodyguard." William''s turned 180 degrees and asked in a condensing tone, "What are you doing here?" Turning to Sophia, Dan says, "You should hire better employees. I just told him I am your bodyguard, what else am I suppose to be doing here beside guarding you and eating?" William hearing what Dan studders, "You, you..." "Me what?" As William is about to say something, Sophia interrupts. "What do you need, William?" "The CEO of the Overseek corporation wants to have a meeting with you to discuss the upcoming collaboration." "When and where is the meeting?" "The meeting is tonight at the Law restraunt. He said that he could reschedule the meeting if you aren''t free." "It''s fine, I can make it there." While they were talking Dan was continuing to eat and think. ''Overseek corporation is another one of the biggest corporations in the state. It''s CEO is also around the same age as me but unlike Sofia, he became the CEO because of his family.'' Time passed until it was time to go to the meeting. Sofia drove her supercar while Dan had to drive his old car. When they got to the restraunt, there was a huge fence checking if the cars were allowed to pass, all of the cars in there were supercars. ''With my car, I probably won''t be able to get in. More trouble coming my way.'' Sofia''s car went first and then when Dan''s car came in front of the gate, they just let him in. They didn''t argue with him being able to not afford anything inside like he thought he would have to get through. ''Sofia probably said something to the guards but I wonder why.. I mean she even lied that I didn''t live in the villa to the guards at the villa.'' Chapter 36 - Jealousy Dan parked his car beside all of the cars and it stood out for being the only car that wasn''t a supercar. He followed Sofia inside the restaurant and Sofia went into the best private room. As they walked in, Dan saw a young man with a couple of bodyguards standing beside him. There was also a lot of food on the table. Sofia sat at one of the chairs and unlike the bodyguards of the young man, Dan also sat in one of the chairs. "Sofia, who is the young man that you brought along?" "He is a bodyguard that my dad hired for me." Looking at Dan, the young man says, "As a bodyguard, you should protect Sofia not eat." "Don''t worry, I can do both at the same time." Turning to look at Sofia, the man says, "You are nice but shouldn''t you tell your bodyguard to protect you instead of eating?" Without waiting for Sofia to respond Dan says, "She can''t order me around." Sofia glares at Dan and before looking away and turning back to her cold self. The man is surprised by Dan''s words before talking to Dan. "Since you are arrogant and you think you can protect Sofia while eating, how about you fight one of my bodyguards to test it out." "No thanks." "Why, are you scared?" "No, I just don''t want to hurt your bodyguard and plus there''s nothing in it for me." "How about this, if you can injure my bodyguard, I will give you a million dollars and I won''t complain about what you do. If my bodyguard can injure you first, then you will have to stand behind Sofia and know your place." "Alright." With that said, Dan pointed at the bodyguard closest to the man and told him to come and attack him. The bodyguard started to attack Dan but Dan managed to catch all of his attacks without even trying. After a while, Dan decided to end this and he lightly punched the bodyguard which made the bodyguard fly backward hitting the wall and being severely injured. "See I told you that your bodyguard would be injured. I didn''t even use a third of my full strength." Dan told the stunned man and his other bodyguards, "Remember to honor your bet and give me a million dollars." Chapter 37 - Looking At Cars After that, the man and Sofia started to talk about business stuff that Dan didn''t pay attention to. He did figure out that the man''s name was Oliver. He also managed to get a million-dollar transferred to his account from Oliver. The meeting ended an hour later which meant that Dan could finally go home. As they went out, all of the cars Dan saw were supercars so he decided to buy a supercar tomorrow. ''I am sure that I will have to go to other meetings with Sofia and they will all be rich. If I keep being the only one without a good car, it will be pretty embarrassing.'' The next day, Dan had a bit of a problem. ''I want to buy a car but I also have to protect Sofia, how am I suppose to do both at the same time? If I am not near Sofia and she dies then the mission will fail. What am I suppose to do?'' At the office, Dan asked Sofia, "Can we go to the car dealer today?" "Why?" "I need to buy a car." "Can''t you go buy it yourself? It''s not like I can stop you." "Yeah, but what if you die while I am away?" "There''s security all over the place, Just because you won''t be here doesn''t mean I will die. I have been alive for over 20 years without you guarding me." "Ok, good point." Dan gave Sofia 5 healing pills. "If you are injured when I am not here, use those pills and call me." As Dan was leaving, he remembered something and turned back and said, "Remember, each pill costs 5 million. If you use them you will owe me money." With that said, Dan left the office and went on his old car to a car dealership to buy a new car. As he got there he saw a lot of supercars and employees but not a lot of customers. That was to be expected as not everyone can afford a supercar. Dan wasn''t dressed nicely like the other customers but unlike in the novels, the employees still didn''t treat him badly. A young woman came and asked Dan which car Dan wanted. "I don''t know, can you show me some car that cost around 300 thousand dollars?" ''I have 11 million dollars on me without counting my salary of 25 million dollars for guarding Sofia so spending 300 thousand shouldn''t be too bad." "Alright sure, Follow me." Chapter 38 - Buying A Car The girl started to lead Dan towards some cars. He liked all of the cars that he was shown but he ended up liking the Lamborghini Huracan. It cost him 250 thousand dollars. That was lower than what he expected it to be. After that, he had a problem. What he was going to do with the old car? He couldn''t just leave his old car and take the new car. He decided to take his old car back home. Take a bus back to the dealership and then finally, take his new car back to work. ''I should have taken a bus here since I was going to buy a new car. This is too much work.'' Dan did all of that before finally getting back to the office. As soon as he got there, Sofia had something to say to him. "In two days, there is an important meeting." "I am being told this because..." "I can''t have you being the only person without a suit on the meeting." "I am a bodyguard, does it really matter if I don''t wear a suit?" "Yes, it matters. Go buy a suit tomorrow." "No thanks, I don''t care about what clothes I wear that much." "Then don''t go to the meeting." "You could get killed in the meeting. I have to go." "Then buy a suit." "No. What do you have against people that don''t wear suits?" The day went by just like that. The next day, Dan was about to get in his car to go to the office when a car pulled up in front of his house and honked. Dan looked over at the car that honked. ''Isn''t that Sofia''s car?'' Dan went over to the car to see Sofia in the car. "Get in the car." "Why? I have my own car." "We aren''t going to the office today." "Then where are we going." "Just get on, you will figure it out later." Dan got in the car and Sofia started to drive. In the end, they managed to end up in one of the best shopping malls in the city. "Why are we here?" "To buy you clothes for the meeting." ''Are the clothes that you wear really that important?'' Chapter 39 - Shopping As Dan was thinking, Sofia interrupted. "Of course afterward, we are going to buy clothes for me." ''Ok, that makes more sense. Buying clothes for me is just an excuse. What she really wanted was to buy clothes for herself.'' Dan and Sofia went in and as Dan was looking at some of the clothes, he decided to look at the price. ''What the hell most of these cost around 500 dollars while some cost over 1,500. This is crazy.'' As Sofia was making Dan look at the suits, Dan started to get bored really quickly. "Can''t we just buy one suit and start looking for your clothes." "No, you have to try them out and see which one looks the best." ''I swear, they all look the same to me and why do you even care how I look in these!'' Dan had to wear so many suits before getting one. He also got a couple more branded clothes because he was already at the store anyway. Now came the hard part of the day. It was time to get clothes for Sofia. Sofia took Dan around the mall. They spent half a day in the mall just picking some clothes for Sofia. ''Please, let''s just go back to the office. You can do your work while I keep cultivating.'' When Dan was about to pay for the clothes, Sofia interrupted Dan and said that she would pay. Dan being the type of person he was, he stepped aside and let her pay. As Sofia was paying for the clothes, she looked at Dan as if saying, at least you could have rejected once instead of just stepping away. ''Why are you looking at me like that? You are the one who said that you would pay plus you have so much more money than I do.'' All of the clothes combined costed over 20,000 dollars. Dan and Sofia were taking their clothes and going outside when suddenly a voice called out. "Hey Dan, is that you?" Dan turned around and said, "Oh Ava, What are you doing here?" "What else would I be doing here besides getting clothes." Ava was Lily''s best friend.. Dan got along with Ava pretty well and she didn''t look down on him just because he was poor. Chapter 40 - Ava Ava asked, "How is it going?" "Good, I guess." "Do you know why Lily has been sad for a couple of days?" "She''s been sad?" "What the hell! She is your girlfriend. How do you not know she has been sad for a few days." "Um... We broke up a couple of days ago and I haven''t talked to her since." "What did you do?!?!" "I didn''t do anything. Why did you immediately assume I did something?" Pointing to Sofia, Ava says, "It must be her. You broke up with Sofia to be with her." "No! Lily broke up with me first and I am only a bodyguard for the person you are pointing at." "I don''t believe you. Lily is about to be here, We will wait until she gets here and she tells me that she broke up with you first." As Sofia walks away, she says, "You can do whatever you want but I am leaving." Dan following behind her looks back at Ava and says, "I am doing my job right now, you can ask Lily about the truth. Bye." ''Plus, I don''t want to meet Lily right now. Even though I haven''t seen Lily for over a year because of the system, I still like her.'' Dan went into the car with Sofia and the car drove away. As they were driving, Sofia asked him a question. "Did your girlfriend break up with you because you cheated on her?" "No, I didn''t hear on her. It was for a different reason." "Oh, you know the reason she broke up with you. What was it?" "It was because I was poor." "Seriously for being poor. Wait, that doesn''t make sense. You can make 5 million dollars for selling one pill, you could be rich using that so why did she say that you were still poor?" "I didn''t have that pill at the time." "Even if you didn''t have the pill, you could have still made a lot of money using your combat skills." "Do you think that everyone is as rich as your family which can afford to spend 25 million dollars for 3 months'' worth of work and I wasn''t that powerful at that time either." ''Why am I even telling her these things?'' Chapter 41 - Chat "Wait a second, you didn''t have your current strength a couple of days ago meaning that you managed to get so strong in such a short amount of time. How did you do it?" "Umm... I trained." "So you managed to train to the point of being able to kill professional bodyguards in a matter of seconds within a couple of days. Do you think I am dumb enough to believe that?" "Let''s not talk about this." Dan continued, "You know the media prints you out to be a very cold person but you don''t really seem like it with you talking to me like this." "I don''t know why I talk to you so much either." Dan and Sofia went back home. Dan had nothing to do so he decided to go back to cultivating but as he was about to start a call came through. Looking at the number, it was the number of one of his friends back in high school. Dan answered the call. From the other side of the phone, a man said, "Hey Dan, still remember me?" "Of course Liam. How have you been?" "I have been good. How about you?" "Same. Why did you call?" "There is going to be a gathering from our class in high school. Do you want to come?" "High school. That was so long ago, I would barely remember most of our classmates." "Come on man, I heard that Lily is going to come as well. Didn''t you like her before?" ''Ya, I did. I even went out with her but we broke up.'' "I will think about it, can you tell me when and where the gathering will be?" "Ok be sure to think about it, I will send you the location. The gathering will be in a week from now. I will talk to you there." "Ok." ''A week from now, I could meet Lily again but what''s the point, she already broke up with me.'' With that thought, Dan decided to go back to cultivating and try not to think of Lily again. The next day, Dan got ready to go to the meeting.. He didn''t care much about it since it wouldn''t affect him much but he still made some more healing pills just in case. Chapter 42 - Bodyguards Dan got to Sofia''s car again to go to the meeting. ''How come after I bought the new car, I have only driven it once and even that was just to get the car to the office and back home.'' They went into the same restaurant as when they went to a meeting with William, the son of the Overseer CEO''s con. There were a couple of men around 40-year-old who were the heads of some of the biggest corporations in the state. They had also brought some of their kids around the same age as Sofia with them. As Sofia sat down at one of the chairs, Dan just stood behind her like the other bodyguards that were brought by the other men but unlike the other bodyguards, he didn''t look like a bodyguard. One of the middle-aged men asked, "Sofia, is that your bodyguard?" "Yes, my dad hired him." "Ok, I don''t know if he can protect you very well." Dan thought, ''Screw you. I am strong enough to protect her ok.'' The man continued, "How about I introduce to some powerful bodyguards." "No thanks, I am sure that my bodyguard can do his job." That conversation was set aside and they started to talk about some other important things that Dan didn''t bother listening to. In the middle of the conversation, the same man who kept talking about introducing some bodyguards to Sofia started to talk about it again. Sofia kindly said no but the man continued to pester Sofia about it. "Are you sure that you don''t want me to introduce some powerful bodyguards to you? I know that you might not want to fire a bodyguard that your dad hired but you should still prioritize your safety." ''Why do you keep talking about introducing some bodyguards for Sofia? Don''t you have more important things to talk about and I am more powerful than those bodyguards.'' "Are the bodyguards you are going to introduce to me just as strong as your bodyguard?" "Yes, they are about the same in terms of strength." "Then how about this, why don''t you get your bodyguards to fight my bodyguard and if your bodyguards win then I will consider hiring the bodyguards that you want to introduce to me." "Of course, that seems fair." Chapter 43 - Dan Vs Bodyguard Before the fight started, Sofia whispered to Dan, "Make sure to win but don''t kill the bodyguards." Dan whispered back, "I didn''t agree to fight the bodyguards." "I will give you a million dollars." "Consider it done." Everyone made room for Dan and one of the man''s bodyguard to fight. The bodyguard made a gesture to Dan telling him to attack first. Dan obliged. Before the bodyguard could realize, Dan moved in front of the bodyguard and punched the bodyguard. The bodyguard flew off hitting the wall which made a small crack. The bodyguard was unconscious but he was still alive. While everyone beside Sofia was shocked, Dan asked, "Anyone else want to go?" Everyone quickly said, "No." After this, someone took the injured bodyguard to the hospital and everyone went back to their seats and started to ask questions. One of the men excitedly asked, "Sofia, Do you know where your dad hired your bodyguard from?" "I think he hired him when he was in a herb shop." "A herb shop? Hahaha, can you really tell me where your dad hired him from? I want to hire one as well." "I am being serious, why don''t you ask him." The man turning to Dan and asked, "Is it true that Sofia''s dad hired you from a herb shop?" "Yes." "Can I ask what you were doing there?" "It''s a herb shop. I was buying herbs." "Buying herbs? Are you good at making medicine?" "I guess you can say so." Everyone thought, ''How do you manage to go into a herb shop and get a great bodyguard?'' With that out of the way, they started to talk about business again which Dan preferred because he didn''t have to do anything. While the old men and Sofia were talking about business. One of the men who came with his dad came up to Dan and started to ask him some questions. He said, "My name is Isaac, what about yours?" "Dan." "You look around the same age as me, how did you manage to get so strong?" "I trained." "Can you tell me what you trained in?" Chapter 44 - Isaac "No." "Why not? Just tell me what you trained in." "I just don''t want to tell you." "Can you train me then?" "No." "I can pay you." "No, I have to protect Sofia for 3 more months." "Then how about after that?" "No, I have other plans." ''I have no other plans. I just don''t want to teach others how to cultivate just yet.'' After a lot of no''s, Isaac finally gave up trying to train under Dan. After that Issac and Dan started to talk about things that they found interesting. By the end of their conversation, the two of them had managed to be friends. Dan had managed to find out that Isaac''s Dad owned one of the biggest real state company in the state and was very rich. Isaac had also managed to make a name for himself by creating his own real state company. He was still pretty small compared to his dad but in the city, his company was considered to be one of the biggest. By the time the meeting ended, it was already night time. It was a big meeting making up of some of the biggest entrepreneurs in the state and taking up an entire day After the meeting ended, Dan and Sofia started to head back home. As Sofia was driving in the middle of the road where there was no traffic, two cars came up blocking the road making sure that Sofia''s car couldn''t go forward and two more cars came from behind. Sofia stopped the car and out of the four cars came out a couple of men pointing their guns at Sofia''s car. One of the men said, "Get out of the car with your hands up." Dan wanted to tell Sofia to stay in the car but she had already opened her car door and had started to get out and some of the men had already started to point their guns at her. Dan had no choice but to get out of the with Sofia. Sofia started to talk, "Do you guys want money?" A man replied, "No, if we wanted money, we would have stolen a bank don''t you think so, Sofia, CEO of Ace Corp?" Chapter 45 - Killers "How do you know who I am?" "Well you are in the news and we did our research on our target." "Target? Did someone pay you to kill me?" "Yes, now if you could don''t fight back, we can make this quick and easy." The man ordered the others to shoot. As the bullet came towards Sofia, Dan quickly moved in and pushed her inside the car and got in front of all of the bullets. All of the bullets dropped on the floor without hurting Dan scaring the killers. One of the men dropped their guns and said, "Who... Who are you?" "I am just a bodyguard." Some of the men got out of shock and tried running away while others continued to shoot at Dan. Dan quickly took care of the men who were shooting. He broke all of their arms and legs so that they couldn''t shoot or run. Dan started to chase after the men who were running away. After he caught up to them, he only broke their legs and took away their guns. After that, Dan went to the car to see if Sofia was still alright. Sofia was fine and she called the police who promptly came and took the killers away. Dan drove Sofia back to her home and as he was about to go back to his home Sofia asked him to stay. "I live right next to you, I can come in quickly if something happens to you." "No, what if someone makes me unconscious. I wouldn''t be able to scream so you wouldn''t be able to hear me." After a bit of arguing, Dan finally agreed to stay at Sofia''s house for a couple of days. As they got into the house, Dan realized that unlike what he thought the house inside would look like, it was pretty simple but the house still looked very good. Sofia told Dan that he could sleep in any of the guest rooms. Dan picked the one of the rooms that was pretty close to Sofia''s room and they both went into their own room. ''I think I need to be more careful from now on.. If I hadn''t managed to push Sofia back into her car then she might have been injured or maybe even killed.'' Chapter 46 - Store System After Dan got into his room, he started to cultivate. As the sun rose in the morning Dan got a couple of notification from the system. [Congratulations for upgrading to level 10] [Name: Dan] [Level: 10] ->[Qi Gathering Stage 10] [HP: 100/100] [Exp: 10/51,100] [UP points: 100] [Strength: 413+ 3 (Sword) +2 (Gauntlet) = 418] [Stamina: 413- 1 (Chestplate) -1 (Gauntlet) = 411] [Agility: 413- 1 (Chestplate) -1 (Gauntlet) = 411] ''Ok, a big improvement. It''s level 10, isn''t there something else?'' [Store System unlocked] ''Store system, Does it mean that I can buy things from the system?'' [No] ''Ok, that was the only thing I thought that could be. What does it do?'' [It is a system in which you can use to sell or buy stuff from others.] ''Who are the ''others''?" [You are like the administrator for the Store System. You can add anyone that you have seen to the system.] [You and everyone that you add can buy and sell items in the system.] "What is the difference between this and buying things in real life?" [Everything that is sold will be instantaneous and no one will be able to figure out the identity of the seller or the buyer unless they have revealed their username to the world.] ''Is this even useful? I mean what could someone sell in here that could be useful to me?'' [In the future there will be a lot of useful stuff and for now, you can earn UP points this way.] ''How do I earn UP points with this?'' [You can set a maximum tax rate of 5% of all things sold and the currency used in the Store System is UP points.] ''I earn UP points by doing missions. How are people going to earn UP points?'' [Exchanges. People can exchange real money for UP points] [The current exchange rate will be set as 1 million USD for 1 UP points.] ''Can I buy UP points as well?'' [No] ''Can the people use the UP points to upgrade things?'' [No. To the other people, UP points will just be a currency] [Store System] [Administrator: Dan] [Users: 0/5] [Exchange rate: 1 million USD = 1 UP points] [Upgrade cost: 500 UP points] Chapter 47 - New Quests [New Quest: Make 500 UP points from the Store System] [Reward: +500 UP points] [Time Limit: None] ''So if I make 500 UP points from the Store System then I will gain another 500 UP points plus there''s no time limit.'' ''This is a free gift.'' [New Quest: A new cultivator] [Discription: Make sure that there is a new level one cultivator, in one month] [Reward: A new cultivation technique] [Time Limit: 1 month] [Failure Penalty: -10,000 UP points] ''Of course, a hard quest comes up after an easy one and seriously -10,000 UP points. I have never even made that much UP points.'' ''Well actually, Sofia needs more protection and I also need to make a new cultivator, these two things can be solved with just making Sofia a cultivator.'' ''I don''t have the cultivation technique that I am using now but I have memorized the entire thing so I can just copy it down.'' Dan wrote down everything about the cultivation technique that he used and then decide to put it in the store. [Do you want to put the cultivation technique in the store as the administrator or as a user?] ''What''s the difference?'' [Nothing much, If you sell anything as a user, then you will have to make an account and you can just sell it as the user but if you sell it as the administrator then the item just shows up as being sold by the system itself.] ''Sell it as the system.'' [Price?] ''Sofia might not know its value so put it in as free.'' [Ok] ''Add Sofia into the system.'' [Added Sofia into the system] At the same time, In Sofia''s room the system''s notification came up. As Sofia was about to get in her bed to go to bed a screen popped up in front of her. {Congrulations for being added to the Store System} ''I didn''t know that being scared can also give you hallucinations'' {With the tore System, you can buy and sell things with people that have been added to the system} {As a gift a free cultivation technique has been added to the store by the system. Do you want to ''buy'' it?} Sofia pinched herself to make sure that she wasn''t hallucinating and she realized that she wasn''t as the pinch hurt. Chapter 48 - Cultivator Sofia "Ok buy the cultivation technique." {Please set a username for yourself} "Just use ''Sofia'' as the username." {Ok, the username has been set.} A book appeared in front of her and the book in the store disappeared for her which shocked Sofia. She asked a question, "How many people are in the system?" {You don''t have access to that information} "Ok, How do I get access to that information?" {You don''t have access to that information} "Ok, that wasn''t helpful." She continued to ask questions, "What currency does the system use?" {UP points} "UP points? How do you earn UP points?" {You can trade 1 million USD for 1 UP points} "What? A million USD for 1 point? What can you even buy in here?" The system didn''t answer her so she just started to read the book and she found the book to be crazy. ''How could someone be so powerful just after cultivation using this technique?'' ''Wait, Dan is powerful and even bullets can''t hurt him which isn''t possible for a normal person so maybe he used the cultivation technique.'' ''I should just try it, the system could make a book appear out of thin air. If it wanted to kill me, it would be very easy for it so I don''t think that the cultivation technique will harm me.'' With that thought, Sofia decided to start cultivation. In the other room, Dan was glad that Sofia ''bought'' the book. Right after Sofia bought the book, the system asked Dan a question. [Should I make it so that every user can get the cultivation book from the store for free?] ''Yes, do it.'' Dan decided to earn some UP points now that he had a way to earn it. He started to make some healing pill and not the spirit gathering pills because the spirit gathering wasn''t useful until a person actually got to level 1. Dan made as many healing pills as he could out of the herbs that he had and had managed to make 25 of the pills. In the morning, Dan decided to put the healing pills in the system as the administrator for 10 UP points each. He also put a message saying that the price would increase after this batch of the pill was sold out. Chapter 49 - Talking To Sofia As Sofia stopped cultivating, she got a message from the system about the healing pill. ''I was pretty sure that Dan had the system but with this pill, it''s basically confirmed.'' Dan came downstairs as Sofia was about to finish making breakfast. He saw that Sofia was making breakfast and he was shocked that a rich person like Sofia could even cook. ''I just assumed that rich people just had other people make their food.'' As Dan and Sofia started to eat their food, Sofia started to talk about the system. "So when did you get the system?" "What?" "The Store System. Don''t say that you don''t have it. I saw the pills that you gave me and my dad being sold there. There was also the cultivation book and you always cultivate according to that book as well when you have nothing to do." "Fine, I have the system. When did you get it?" "Yesterday." "Ok." "Hey, aren''t you a little bit shocked." ''No, not at all'' "Why would I be shocked? I mean I had it already and the system is based around buying and selling with others so I always knew that there would be other people and it might add others." "Ok, fine that aside aren''t you worried that I would fire you now that I can cultivate as well." "Did you read how long an average person takes in order to get to level 1?" "Then what if I fire you after 1 month, I mean I assume you are only level 1 as well since you said that you didn''t have your current strength and pills a couple of days ago." "Well yes, If I was a normal person, I would only be level 1 but that''s not the case." "How are you not normal then and what do you mean you aren''t level 1?" "Well let''s just say I am over level 5." "What? How? It''s supposed to get harder the more you level up. How did you get to over level 5." "I am a genius." "Yeah right, even a genius wouldn''t be able to level up so quickly." ''Hey system, can other people also level up by killing animals?'' [Yes, but it has to be animals which has spirit energy, so the animals in this world wouldn''t give them any Exp] ''Ok.'' Chapter 50 - Class Reuinion Dan and Sofia went to work and nothing changed for a couple of days. Sofia was a genius at cultivating, she had managed to get to level 1 in 5 days instead of the average 30 days but even after that, she still sais that people could gang up on her so Dan still ended up staying at her house. As Dan was about to go to his room to sleep, he remembered the class reunion that was happening tomorrow. "Hey Sofia, Do you have something to do tomorrow that will make you go outside of your office tomorrow?" "No, why do you ask?" "I have a class reunion tomorrow that I have to go to." "Ok, Just go. I am sure I will be fine. I managed to get up to level 1." ''Oh, yes level 1. Add 10 of my spirit gathering pills to the store with the price of 10 UP points.'' "Hey, do you see the Spirit Gathering Pills?" "Yes." "Do you want to buy you some?" "No thanks, I have some." After their conversation, Sofia and Dan decided to go to the office and a day passed by very quickly. The next day, Dan took his car and was about to go to the class reunion but then Sofia wouldn''t have anyone to protect her while she was going to work so he decided to take her to the office first. After Dan did that, he started to go to the hotel for the reunion when his phone rang. Dan picked up his phone and saw that it was his friend Liam calling so he picked up the call. "Hey Dan, are you coming?" "Yeah sorry, I had to do something so I might be a little late." "Ok, everyone is already here, try to be a little bit quicker." "Alright, no problem just give me a couple of minutes." "Ok man." In a few minutes, Dan managed to get to the restaurant where the class meeting was. As he parked his car and started to go inside, he saw that the place was pretty fancy. It wasn''t as good as the one where Sofia had her meetings but it was still a lot better than your average restaurant. Chapter 51 - Old Friends As Dan went inside he had no clue which room the reunion was happening in so he called Liam. "Hey, I am in the hotel, can you tell me which room you guys are in?" "Oh, you are here, just wait. I will come to get you." A minute later, an average man in his 20s came up to Dan and said, "Wow, you have changed bro." "You say I have changed Liam, you should look at yourself on the mirror." "Wow, really. I guess I just haven''t realized. Let''s go in, everyone has changed a lot since we were in high school." "Alright." Liam led Dan to one of the rooms and as he opened the door, Dan saw a lot of familiar faces and some he couldn''t even recognize. Dan also saw Lily and they made eye contact but they quickly looked away. Everyone introduced themself to Dan and they started to order some food and start to talk about themself. Most of them worked in an average job but Dan was surprised at Liam. Liam started to introduce himself and apparently Liam now worked at a mid-ranked company in the state and he had managed to get himself a pretty high position in the company and had managed to get a salary of about a million dollars per year. After Liam was done speaking, he asked Dan, "Where do you work Dan?" "I work at Ace Corporation." "Ace Corporation! You mean the biggest company in the state. I heard that you have to pass a hard test to get in there but the benefits are really good." "Yeah, It''s good." "Hey, What''s your salary? It must be pretty big since you work there." "I am only working there for three months. I will get paid around a couple million for that." Liam spit out the water he was drinking and looked at Dan completely shocked. Lily was also dazed when she heard that Dan would make a couple of million dollars working for 3 months. Someone from the reunion got out of his shock and asked, "What? Seriously? I know that the Ace Corporation is big and can afford to spend millions without worry but spending a couple million for a person doing a job for 3 months.. That''s unbelievable." Chapter 52 - Arguement Liam interrupted, "Well, I believe you." "Why?" "You are an honest person. I don''t think you would lie about your salary." "That was when we were still in high school. Who knows if I might have changed." "Well, I still believe you." Some people started to change the subject and in a few minutes, everyone was no longer talking about their salaries. Time quickly passed and it was about to be night time and everyone was drinking a lot. Dan didn''t much at all but he was still about to pass out because he usually didn''t drink and so he didn''t have a good tolerance towards drinks. ''Hey, system. Can you get rid of those drinks so I don''t pass out.'' [No, You will have to be level 11 for that] ''Why? I shouldn''t have drunk so much.'' As Dan was thinking of how not to pass out, Lily was looking at Dan worriedly because she knew that he didn''t have a very good tolerance toward drinks. She went near Dan and asked him, "Are you ok?" Dan looked at Lily showing some sadness, he replied, "I am fine, you don''t need to worry about me." "Are you sure?" "Yes, I am sure. I know myself well enough." ''No, I am not fine. I am about to pass out here. Why are you even worrying about me after breaking up with me so abruptly.'' As Lily was about to say something, Dan''s phone rang. Dan answered the call and on the other side was Sofia. "Hey, are you done with your class reunion?" "We should be done in a couple of minutes. Why?" "No reason. You sound drunk, do you need me to send someone to pick you up?" As Dan was about to answer, Lily interrupted, "I can send you back home." Sofia sounding a bit angry asked, "Who is that?" "A former classmate." "Ok, Just tell me your location. I am almost done with my work. I will pick you up." "I can take him back with me." "Don''t worry, I live close to him.. I will take him back home. Can you tell me the address now Dan?" Chapter 53 - Dont Drink Dan told Sofia the address before ending the call. Looking back at Lily, Dan asked, "How are you doing." "I am doing great." "Ok, I just asked because Ave said that you have been feeling down for a couple of days." "No, she must have mistaken. I am doing fine. What about you?" "It''s been ok. I heard that you have a fiancee." "Hu, Who told you that?" "Well, a couple of people." "Who are those couple of people?" "Well, let''s just say that the day you broke up with me, your fiancee sent some people to beat me up." "I am sorry. I didn''t know that happened." "Don''t worry. I am not telling you this to gain your sympathy or anything. I just need you to tell your fiancee something." "What is it?" "Tell him that I won''t hold it against him for sending someone to beat me up but if it happens again then well he should just be prepared." Lily quickly replied, "Don''t go against him, it will be bad for you." Dan not hearing the worry in her voice looked at her eyes and asked, "Are you threatening me?" "No, of course not. I just don''t think that he will kill you if you try to do anything to him." "You don''t need to worry about me. If he tries something, you should be worrying about your fiancee." Right after Dan finished his sentence, his phone rang. "I am outside the restaurant." "Ok, I am coming out." Dan said goodbye to everyone and went outside while Lily just quietly watched Dan leave the room. After Dan got on Sofia''s car, he felt like he was going to fall unconscious any minute. "Why did you drink so much?" "I didn''t. I just don''t have a good tolerance towards drinks." "Well, then you should probably stop drinking completely." "I only drank today because it was the reunion." "Ok, just be careful and don''t drink anymore." "Yeah, and were you not worried that people would come after you when you came to pick me up?" "I am already at level 1 so I shouldn''t be too helpless." "Just be careful when moving around without protection." "Ok, fine.. Look at the thanks I get for coming to get you." Chapter 54 - A Favor "Alright, how about I owe you a favor for taking me back home." "Ok. Can you do something for me?" "Calling in the favor already?" "Well, I wouldn''t say that. You might like it a little." "Ok, what is it?" "Can you help me manage a small project from one of the branch company." "If it is a small project, why would you want me to manage it?" "Well, I have heard that some people from that branch have been doing private deals and I need you to look out for people like them." "Can''t you get someone else to do it?" "Most people I trust in the company all have very important things to do." "So, you are trying to say, I am the only free person." "Well, that and most of the people I trust in the company are already known to report to me a lot. This would mean that the people making private deals might not tell them about the deals that they make but they don''t know anything about you." "Ok, I get it but where is that part that I might like?" "I will let you figure it out by yourself" "What?" "How about this, you can manage that project for me, and if you don''t like it just take it as me calling in the favor." "Ok, how about you add-in 1 million dollars if I don''t like managing the project." "Fine, you really do like money." "Of course, why wouldn''t I?" "Fine. The project will start two days from now, Just be prepared." "Ok." After they got home, Dan thought of the quest he got a week or so ago. ''Sofia has already been level 1 a couple of days ago. Where''s my reward for completing the quest?'' [Quest: Make a new cultivator has been completed] [The quest reward, a new cultivation technique has been added to the host''s brain] Suddenly, Dan managed to get new memories of the cultivation technique. He also got a notification from the system [Cultivation Technique: ?????] [+4 Exp/hour] [Upgrade Cost: 1,000 UP points] ''Why doesn''t the technique have a name?'' [The name has been left blank so that the host can make up the name for the technique himself] Chapter 55 - Upgrading Items "Ok, Can I leave the name of the technique blank for now?" [Yes] ''Another question. Why did you not give me the reward when the quest completed?'' [Because the reward didn''t help] [Since the current world has very limited spirit energy, even if your cultivation technique is very good, you still wouldn''t earn more exp.] [Right now no matter what technique you use you will only gain 0.5 exp/hour from just cultivating regularly. The only reason you get more exp is that you have the cultivation orb and you always use the spirit gathering pills when cultivating] ''I knew that. You told that to me when I first started cultivating on earth but that still isn''t an excuse to not give me my reward and now that I think about it doesn''t it mean that the reward for that quest is useless to me?'' [It might be useless to you now, but not in the future] ''Ok, I guess that is true.'' ''I have 15 more UP points because Sofia bought some healing and spirit gathering pills making it so that I have a total of 115 UP points. I should probably upgrade somethings and sell them for more points.'' Dan slept for the night and when he woke up the next day, he decided to go to a couple of shops so that he could buy something that a girl could wear every day. Dan decided on buying a small golden bracelet that costed around $50,000. After buying the bracelet, Dan decided to go ahead and go back home. After getting back, Dan decided to upgrade the bracelet which costed him 5 UP points. [Item: Golden Bracelet] [Level 1] [Duribility: 10/10] [+1 Aglity] [Upgrade cost: 10 UP points] [Successful Chance of Upgrade: 90%] [Current UP points: 110] Dan upgraded the two more times which cost him 30 more UP points which both succeded. With the new upgrades, the bracelet had a total of 3 attributes. The new attributes were +3 strength, +1 agility, and +4 defense. ''Now that I think about it, I spent 35 UP points to upgrade this bracelet which is equivalent to 35 million dollars. If I add regular people to the system, how will they afford anything?'' Chapter 56 - Adding More People To The System ''The more I upgrade, the more UP points I have to use. Won''t the world economy be affected if the price of the items is too high?'' [Don''t worry about it. That problem will be solved after you get to level 11] ''Can you tell me how that problem will be solved?'' [No] ''Ok fine. Sell the bracelet at the store at the price of 40 UP points.'' [It has been put in at the store] At the same time, Sofia received the message. ''Hey, what does this defense attribute do?'' {It makes it so that any damage that is done to you that does 4 damage or lower is automatically canceled} ''What? That is almost half my current strength. I want to buy the item.'' Quickly a golden bracelet appeared at Sofia''s hands and she got the option to make it invisible which she didn''t do. ''Darn it, I was searching for an item that a girl could wear every day. I forgot about the invisibility function.'' As Dan and Sofia were having breakfast, she asked Dan if he wanted the bracelet since he fought more than her. "No thanks, besides the defense attribute, the other attributes change almost nothing for me and either way, that could save your life at a certain time so make sure to not take it off." "Ok.'' As they were going to the office, Dan decided to sell most of his pills at the original price of 10 UP points per pill. Dan also decided who he was going to aff in the 4 extra stots left in the system. Dan decided to add the 4 old men who Sofia had a meeting with in the past. ''They are the richest people I know plus they are also pretty old so they might buy a lot of healing pills and a lot of spirit gathering pills so that they can quickly level up and increase their lifespan.'' After this, Dan just started to read over the project that he was supposed to manage tomorrow. It wasn''t anything important to Dan but since he had already promised Sofia that he would manage the project, he decided to do his best. Chapter 57 - Red Spirit Energy After a day of reading over the project. Dan managed to find out that the project was about creating a small theme park. The estimated cost was around $200 million. The Ace Corporation could do the project by itself but it wanted to help other smaller companies so it decided to partner up with a couple of smaller companies. The first job of Dan was to make sure that there are no private deals between the employees and other companies. To make sure that everything went correctly, Sofia gave Dan full authority over the project meaning that he could even pick the companies who the Ace Corporation would work with for this project. "Hey, Since I have this much power in the project, aren''t you worries that I would pick companies that secretly give me money." "No, I am not too worried. You might want money a lot but you do keep your promises. Our contract says that you don''t have to follow my orders but you still follow most of my orders." After that conversation, Dan went to his room and cultivate using his new technique. As he started to use the technique, he felt that the spirit energy instead of just entering his body like usual started to get smaller and it also became bright red. Dan suddenly stopped cultivating and asked, "Why did the spirit energy get smaller and become red?" [Don''t worry, it''s just part of the cultivation technique] ''What does it do?'' [You will know in the future] [Don''t worry, it will be good for you] After knowing that the red spirit energy will be good for him, Dan continued to cultivate. After an entire day and night, Dan had managed to get an additional 30 Up points making it so that he had a total of 135 UP points. Dan went on with his regular schedule, taking Sofia to her office but after that, he had to go to the branch office as today was the day he started to be in charge of creating a theme park. As Dan arrived at the Branch office, he went into the reception area. Before he even said anything, the woman at the reception already started to speak. Chapter 58 - First Day "Are you, Mr. Dan, the person in charge of the theme park project?" "Yes." "The higher-ups are waiting for you at the meeting room. Should I take you there?" "Yes, Thank you. I don''t know where the meeting room is." As Dan opened the door to the meeting room, Dan saw a couple of middle-aged people there already waiting for him. "Hello, Mr. Dan. I am Levi, one of the executives at the branch company. We have been waiting for you to start the meeting." "Sorry for making all of you wait." "It''s nothing, we just got in here ourselves." "Ok, then let''s begin the meeting." As Dan was having the meeting there were people from other companies coming to see if they got picked. One of those people happened to be Lily, her dad, and her fiancee. "Harry, are you sure that we can get the theme park project?" "Of course uncle. Dad said that he knew a couple of higherups people from the branch company. He said that he has already asked them for help." "Ok, I will go thank him tomorrow." While shifting his gaze towards Lily, he said, "There''s no need. We are already family." "Haha yes of course. It''s too bad that your dad''s company can''t participate in this project." "Yes, we already have another big project and we can''t take on 2 of these big projects at a time." As they were talking about that, Dan was listening to the higher-ups of the branch company recommending some companies to work with. Levi suggested the Avalon company which was the company owned by Lily''s Dad. Dan ended the meeting saying that he would look at the proposition of the company and decide which companies would work in this project. After waiting for about an hour, Dan saw that most of the people from the companies that wanted a piece of this project were here so Dan decided to just go in and look. Dan went in and talked to some of the people and asked some questions about their companies. He just said that he was an employee and was told to ask some questions. As Dan was going around, asking questions, he saw Lily in the crowd. Chapter 59 - A Small Conversation ''Why is she here? I know that her Dad''s company is participating in this but only her dad should be here.'' As Dan looked at the people around her, he saw Lily''s Dad and another person talking to each other. As Dan saw Lily''s dad, Zane also saw Dan. Zane''s face became a little annoyed and called Dan out, "What are you doing here?" "I am working, you got a problem with that?" "Stop lying, how could the Ace Corporation hire trash like you." "Oh, how am I trash?" The other person near Zane said, "How dare you talk back to Uncle!" "I am not talking to you and by the way which idiot are you?" "How dare you call me an idiot. I am Harry and I will have you know that my father is the CEO of the Coldwell company." "Whatever idiot." "How dare you! I just sent some people to beat you up last time. This time I will send someone to cripple you." "You can try but let me warn you. If you really send someone after me, you should be prepared to get your arms and legs broken." "Hahaha, a poor person like you dares to say that you will break my arms and legs." Lily tried to change the conversation saying, "Let''s just go somewhere else and focus on getting picked for the project." "No need. I told you, my dad has asked someone from the higher management of the branch corporation to make sure that uncle Zane''s company will be one of the companies picked the project." "Oh, your dad knows someone from the higher management and is making private deals with them." "Yes, are you scared now? I can get you fired anytime I want." "If you beg now, I won''t fire you." "You can go ahead and try." Lily told Dan, "Just apologize, your job at the corporation seems good. Don''t ruin it." "I am not ruining anything." "Just forget it, Lily. I am going to call." Lily tried to stop him but the call had already connected. "Uncle Levi, this is Harry, there is an annoying employee here. I was wondering if he could be fired." After a while, Harry ended the call and told Dan, "Uncle Levi said that he would be coming down here himself.. Get prepared to be fired." Chapter 60 - Misunderstanding? "Is he also the person who said that Zane would get the project?" "Of course, he is in higher management, he can make sure that uncle Zane would get the project." ''So Levi is making private deals. Guess I found one person that I need to report to Sofia.'' Mockingly, Harry says, "Why aren''t you talking anymore? Are you scared? Even if you beg now, you will still be fired." As Harry kept mocking Dan, Levi had managed to arrive on the same floor. As he looked around, he saw Harry mocking Dan saying that he would be fired and other things. Harry also saw Levi and called him, "Uncle Levi, please come here." After Levi got near them, he was about to speak but Harry spoke first. "Uncle, you have to fire this guy. He is annoying and rude. If he keeps working here, he would just make the corporation worse." Dan and Harry''s conversation had already been noticed by others before but they hadn''t said anything because it wouldn''t do anything for them but after Levi showed up, it was different. They thought that Harry was close to Levi since he called him uncle. Levi was a higher up in the branch corporation so if they supported Harry, they might remember them and maybe they might get an advantage in getting the project. After most people came to that conclusion, people around them started to support Harry. "Yes, this employee is very annoying." "He is also very rude." "You should fire him." Dan saw that there was one group of people that didn''t say that about him but they didn''t speak up for him either since they probably wouldn''t get the project of they spoke up against Harry. Levi spoke up, "This must be a misunderstanding." After he said that, people were starting to get confused, ''shouldn''t the employee get fired immediately for going against Harry?'' "Misunderstanding, I don''t think so. Harry here even threatened to cripple me. Is he your nephew." "No, no, no. He is just my friend''s son. This must be a big misunderstanding, we should quickly resolve this." "Don''t worry, I will solve this so-called misunderstanding by myself.. That aside, I heard that you said that you would get Zain''s company here the project." Chapter 61 - Calling Sofia "No, I would never do that." "Well, let''s hope that I don''t find evidence about that." "Of course." Dan looking at Harry says, "How come you haven''t gotten me fired yet?" "You, you." "Me what?" "..." Seeing that Harry had nothing more to say, he said to Levi, "Mr. Harry here doesn''t seem to part of any of the companies trying to a project here. Get someone to throw him out." "Well, I think he came here with Mr. Zane here." "He isn''t part of the company or Mr. Zane''s family member. Throw him out." "Yes." As the security guards came towards them, Dan whispered to Harry, "This time I will only throw you out. Next time you annoy me or get in my way, I will cripple you and if it''s bad enough, I don''t mind killing you either." After saying that Dan quickly walked away. After Dan was gone, Harry who was about to be thrown out asked, "Uncle, who is he? Why are you listening to him?" "I don''t know who he is. All I know is that he is sent from the headquarters to be the head of this project." After saying that, Levi told the guards to stop and told Harry to get out before DAn comes back he actually gets thrown out. After everyone heard that Dan was the head of the project, they all started to get worried. "Do you think he remembers us. What if he doesn''t give us the project because we sided with Harry earlier?" "Almost everyone was going against him and since he will have to choose from the people here to work within the project, it shouldn''t matter too much." After he got back up to the meeting room where there was no one, Dan called Sofia, "This Levi guy seems to have made a private deal, what should I do about it?" "I will leave that decision up to you." "Ok and that aside, can we change the number of partners for this project from 3 to 1?" "Why?" "Well, let''s just say that most of the people annoyed me." "Wow! How did almost every person who was trying to get a portion of this project manage to annoy you?" Chapter 62 - Do Your Worst After Dan told Sofia what happened, she asked, "Isn''t getting revenge for that a little childish?" "Maybe but I am still going to do it." "Alright then, I have something to do, I will see you later." "Ok." After the call ended, Dan called up all of the executives from the branch corporation to tell them of his decision. After that, Dan looked at the company which hadn''t accused him of things and he found out that they were a good and reliable company and decided to go with that. After everything was done, Dan went up to the floor with all of the people from the companies and started to speak. "Unfortunately, we have changed the numbers of partners we are going to work with from 3 to 1." "The reason we are doing this will be explained later on the corporation''s website." ''Well let''s hope that someone can come up with a reasonable excuse because I don''t have one.'' "You are doing this because we offended you!" "No, don''t spout such lies. None of you offended me. You merely annoyed me. If you had offended me, you would have a much much more troublesome matter to worry about than to worry about not getting a project." "Do your worst." "..." "Why aren''t you doing anything? Are you going to kick me out? That''s the only thing you could do." As he said that the other people were whispering amongst themselves, "Is that idiot crazy. Dan could probably shut down his entire company within a week if he has a high position in the headquarters of the Ace Corporation." "Come kick me out!" Levi was about to call in the security guards and get the man kicked out but Dan stopped him. Sighing, Dan said, "Remember you wanted this. Getting kicked out is such an easy thing to deal with." After saying that, Dan suddenly appeared behind the man. "How? How did you get behind me?" "You shouldn''t be worrying about that." Saying that Dan held one of the man''s arms and broke it. "Ahhh, you devil. What are you doing!?" Smiling, Dan slowly said, "Didn''t you ask me to do my worst? This is just the beginning." Chapter 63 - No Deal After saying that, Dan held on to the man''s other arm. "Please don''t do it. It hurts." "Since, I started this. I am going to finish it." The man screamed, "No, don''t do it. Someone call the police!!" As he looked around at other people, he saw that all of them were avoiding his eyes. While the man was looking around, Dan broke his second arm. As Dan let go of the man''s arm, the man tried to run away. "Why are you running away? I am not done yet." Dan quickly went behind the man and kicked the back of his knee. The man quickly fell down onto the floor. "Ahh, it hurts. Please stop, I will give you everything, all of my money and anything else that you want." The man saw Dan stopping and he thought that Dan was thinking about whether to accept his deal or not so he became very happy but at the same time, he wanted to go to the hospital because of how much he was hurting. As the man looked up at Dan''s face, he saw that Dan was smiling a little. ''Yes, He is going to accept my deal and won''t kill me.'' Dan while smiling slowly kicked the man''s other knee breaking that as well. "Why?" "I just don''t want to accept your deal." "Guards, throw this man out." ''If I kill him, it will be a bit of a problem with so many people here so I will let him off.'' As Dan quickly walked away, most people were still very shocked. The person who was shocked the most was Lily and Zane. ''How has he changed so much? It has only been around a month since we broke up.'' ''No way. How did that brat get so strong? A month ago, I could say whatever I wanted to him and he couldn''t do anything but now it''s so different.'' ''What if he holds a grudge against me for the things I did to him in the past? Will he kill me? Wait, what if he still likes Lily.. I can have the two of them go out and he probably wouldn''t kill me.'' Chapter 64 - Police Levi quickly snapped out of it and announced the company that would work with the corporation and asked everyone besides the company that won the partnership to leave. Everyone beside Lily was very happy to leave even though they didn''t get the partnership because of what they just saw. After they all left, the CEO of the company signed the contract and also left. At the same time that they left, sirens of police cars were heard. A couple of police cars stopped in front of the corporation. From the front police car, a young female officer stepped out and with a couple more officers, they went into the corporation. When Levi heard that there were police in the corporation, he came own to check what was happening. "We need to take a person by the name of Dan for investigation." Seeing that the police were after Dan, Levi went up to get Dan. "Can I ask what this investigation is about?" "There is a report saying that you broke Mr. Benton''s arms and legs." "I have no clue what you are talking about. I wouldn''t do such a thing." "To prove your innocence, can you come to the police station for an investigation?" "Of course." As Dan got on the car with some of the officers he had already started to think of some plans. While Dan was still on the car he asked, "Can you tell me who filed the report against me?" "It was Mr. Benton himself." "Ok." ''Guess breaking someone''s arms and legs still doesn''t cut it. Next time, I might need to go a little further.'' Dan didn''t know but Levi was worried that Dan would be locked up and he might be implicated if Dan got into prison so he had already called the headquarters and had told them of the predicament. When Sofia heard about it, it was already an hour or so since Dan was taken by the police so she quickly left the office with some lawyers and started to go to the police station. As Dan was in the station, Benton whose arms and legs that Dan had broken was being wheelchaired into the station by someone. When he saw Dan, he screamed, "Yes. This is the person. He was the one who broke my arms and legs.. Quickly put him into prison." Chapter 65 - Liar? "Do you have any evidence that it was me who broke your arms and legs?" "Yes, so many people saw it when you broke my arms and legs." "Where are the people who saw it?" "They aren''t here but I can call them." "Go ahead and call, I will listen." The person behind Benton quickly took out a phone and started to call someone. "Hello, Benton. Why did you call?" "I am at the police station with Dan. Tell the officers that you saw him break my arms and legs." "Sorry, Benton but I have no clue what you are talking about." "How could you say that? You clearly saw him do it." ''Benton, I don''t know you much at all and from what Mr. Levi said, Dan seems to be from the headquarters and they can close my company very quickly. I am not going to risk that for you.'' Very quickly, the person on the other side ended the call. Benton stuttered, "You, you paid him to deny that you broke my arms and legs." "Mr. Benton, please don''t accuse me of such things. I don''t even know the person who you called." "I don''t believe that you could have paid off every person in the meeting." Looking at the person behind him, Benton told him to call other people from the meeting but he got the same result every time. Benton gave up hope and was about to give up but Dan wasn''t about to let it rest like that after he was called into the police station. While no one was looking, Dan stealthily took out one of the healing pills. When Benton was about to speak, Dan quickly shoved the pill into Benton''s mouth and Benton swallowed the pill. The police officers around took out their guns and pointed it at Dan. Benton quickly used his hands to push away Dan''s hands. "He is trying to kill me, quickly put him in jail." Realizing that the police officers were looking at him strangely and had dropped their guns, he was a little shocked. "Why are you putting down your guns? He tried to kill me." The female officer said, "Mr.. Benton, you should look at where your arms are at." Chapter 66 - Frame Up "What!? How is this possible?" "You see officers, he was trying to frame me." "No, Don''t believe him. My arm really was broken." "Then how come you can still move your arm?" "I don''t know. It must have been him. He made me swallow a pill just now." "You are still continuing to lie. Can you name a pill that can heal a person''s arm in a second?" "No." "See, if such a pill doesn''t exist then how could I have a pill that could heal your broken arm in a second?" Just as Dan finished saying that another officer came into the room followed by Sofia and her lawyers. "I heard that you guys investigating one of my employees for breaking someone''s arm and legs?" "Yes that was the case but we have already determined that Mr. Benton here was just trying to frame Dan." ''How did that happen? I was told that Dan really did break someone''s arms and legs.'' "Well ok then. Can I take my employee out of here?" "Yes." After Dan got into the car with Sofia, he asked "Can I sue him for framing me?" Rolling her eyes and chuckling a little, she replied, "I don''t think he was the one doing the framing." "Yeah, whatever. So can I?" "I am not a lawyer but I am pretty sure that you can''t unless you can prove that he either damaged your reputation or he caused you to lose money. You should still ask a lawyer though." "That is stupid." "Yeah, but you can''t do much about it." "Well, whatever. I have a better way to solve this." "Ok." "That aside, what are you going to do about Levi?" "I haven''t decided. I will just let you handle it but no matter what punish him a little bit." "Got it." After that, they just decided to go to the corporation to finish both of their work especially Sofia because she just left most of her work. After Dan went back into the corporation, he held a meeting. "As you can see, I am fine. The police have decided that Mr. Benton was trying to frame me but we can''t do anything about it legally even though he tried to frame me so let''s see what projects his company has." Some of the people in the company thought, ''Tried to frame you? How can you say that with a straight face?'' Chapter 67 - Do You Want To Take The Gamble? "Mr. Benton''s company is a pretty decent company worth about 100 million dollars." "If we were to try to take down his company, how long would it take?" "It would just take a couple of days. You don''t need to worry about it. We will have it done." "Ok. Now on the next agenda, we have Mr. Levi''s punishment for working with others to try to unfairly get a company the project. Anyone have suggestions?" After a while, Dan decided to punish Levi by making it so that he went down one position in the company. It had been a couple of days since the last meeting and Mr. Benton''s company had filed for bankruptcy. Dan had also started to get bored of working in the branch corporation. "Can I come back to the main corporation?" "Why?" "It''s boring." "You haven''t completed the project yet." "It''s going fine and the fact is you sent me there to make sure that no one got the project unfairly." ''Which really backfired on you.'' "Ok, you can come back to the corporation." [Congrulations, you have gotten a total of 500 UP points] ''Oh, some of the things in the system store get bought.'' ''Does getting 500 UP points change anything?'' [Maybe?] ''What do you mean maybe?'' [For getting up to 500 UP points for the first time, the system asks you a question] [Do you want to take a gamble] ''What do I gamble?'' [All 500 of your UP points for a chance to change the world] ''Change the world?'' [Yes. A chance to change the world.] ''How much would the world change?'' [It depends on your luck] [It could be a huge change, a small change or a gradual change] ''500 UP points for a chance to change the world plus the word gamble. I am not so optimistic about the chances.'' ''What are the chances that the changes will actually happen?'' [0.01%] ''You are crazy. What is with that chance? If I take the gamble, it is basically me wasting my UP points.'' ''My answer is no.'' [Please take into account the fact that it will take you about 600 days for you to level up at your current rate pace and then what about the next level] ''I can go to other worlds.'' [True but it costs 10,000 UP points and after that, it will keep doubling] [I will ask one more time] [Do you want to take the gamble?] Chapter 68 - The Changes ''When you put it that way, it makes it seem like I have no choice.'' ''I will take the Gamble'' [Alright] A wheel came before Dan and started to spin. The wheel was 99.99% red and 0.01% green. [Please say ''stop'' to stop the wheel from spinning] The wheel stopped spinning ad when it stopped. the arrow was pointing towards the green area'' [Congrulations on changing the world] [It has been randomly decided that the world will be changed gradually] Another wheel came up which had 3 colors, red, green, and grey which were equally divided on the wheel. The system asked Dan to spin the wheel one more time. ''Can I ask what this spin is for?'' [This spin is picking if the change will be helpful, harmful or it could be both] As Dan stopped the wheel from spinning, the arrow landed in the grey area [The changes are as follows] [1) Spirit energy goes up by half a point making it go from 0.5 to 1] [2) Monsters with spirit energy will randomly spawn in the forests] [3) New herbs will start spawning in the forests] ''Is that all? I thought that there would be more changes'' [You got the gradual change so it isn''t too much in the beginning] [Do you want to tell the people with the system about the new changes?] ''Sure, it doesn''t matter too much to me and the more UP points they get, the more likely they are to spend it meaning I would get more UP points.'' [Ding, New Quest] [Quest: Invistiagate] [Invistigate the 2 of the 4 old men that you have added to the store system] [Time Limit: 1 month] [Reward: 500 UP points] [failure: -500 UP points] ''I thought that I would get a quest to kill new monsters or gather the new herbs, not get investigate two of the old men'' Just as Dan was thinking that. Sofia and the 4 old men were surprised when they got the notification from the Store System. They all thought, ''The world is changing and I need to be able to adapt to this quickly.'' Sofia quickly came to Dan''s room and knocked on his door. "Yes, what is it?" Chapter 69 - Tomorrow "You received the notification about the monsters right?" "Yes." "Then what are you waiting for? Let''s go hunting and get some exp." "I am waiting for it to be morning." "Oh, yeah. I was a little too excited. I need to level up." "Why do you want to level up so badly?" "I feel like the world is changing and I also want to be ahead of other cultivators that the system has added so that they can''t hurt me." "Ok, do you have anything to do tomorrow?" "I can postpone a couple of stuff for the morning." "Ok, then let''s go hunting tomorrow." After Sofia left, dan asked the system, ''What can the new herbs do?'' [It is helpful for making new pills and some of them can improve the effects of your current pills] [if you see a herb that can improve your current pills then you will automatically know about it but for the other herbs, you will have to figure out what pills you can make with it] ''Ok, that''s actually helpful.'' The next morning when Sofia and Dan were eating breakfast, Dan asked, "Have you ever killed an animal before." "No." "What! If you haven''t even killed a regular animal before, how do you expect to kill a mutated one?" "You can teach me." ''Ok, now that I think about it, before the first time I killed a mutated animal, I hadn''t killed a regular one either but at that time, I was hunting with other cultivators.'' "I haven''t killed an animal before but I know how to use a gun." "Where did you learn that?" "One of my uncles is from the military. He taught me how to use one." "Do you have one with you?" "I only have a handgun with me. It''s in my room. Let me go get it." After Sofia came back with 2 handguns she asked, "Do you need one?" "I don''t know how to use a gun." "Then what are you going to use?" "My hands." "I know that you are strong but can you really kill those mutated animals with your hands?" "Let me ask you a question. How many HP do you have?" "10 HP but I also have the bracelet that gives me a +4 defense." "Guess how many strength I have." "15 or 20?" Chapter 70 - Hunting "My strength is over 400." "What!? Doesn''t that mean that even if my HP was 40 times higher and I didn''t have my bracelet, you could still kill me?" "Yes." ''Now that I think about it, Since my strength is higher than my HP doesn''t that mean that if I were to meet someone of my level and if either of us hit one another, wouldn''t we die instantly.'' [No, the amount of upgrade in your states depends on your cultivation technique and your talent so not everyone would have the strength that is higher than their health.] ''That''s news to me. I thought that everyone had the same stats each level but I guess that this explanation makes sense but is my current stats for my level good.'' [figure that out yourself] "Dan, what are you thinking about?" "Nothing. How much EXP do you have?" "Only 30. I need another 70 exp to level up to level 2." "Ok. Let''s go to the Ron forest." "Should we take anything else?" "Not really though you should wear clothes that would let you blend into the forest." "Alright fine, let me change." After Dan and Sofia got to the forest, they saw a river with a lot of fish swimming in it. There were large trees. The colors of the leaves in the tree were different from usual. Some of the leaves were green like most trees but some were red while others were orange and many other colors. Once Sofia and Dan went inside the forest, they saw that the sunlight was being blocked by the leaves which covered most of the sky but they could still see because as a cultivator, their sense had increased. As they kept walking, Dan sensed a mutated animal near them. As they got closer, they saw that it was a brown bear. Unlike the usual brown bears, this one was a lot taller than normal bears. It was about 10 feet which were a little less than double the height of an average male. For the first creature, Dan held back and attacked. Before the bear could react, Dan had managed to injure the bear very severely making it a lot easier for Sofia to kill the bear. Chapter 71 - Max Dan had managed to hurt all of the bear''s legs so that it couldn''t move and so Sofia could kill the bear without worrying about the bear attacking her. After Sofia killed the bear, she got a notification. {Congrulations for your first kill} {For your first kill, you will receive an extra 10 UP points} {For killing the mutated bear, you get +5 exp and +0.1 UP points} Dan did the same for 3 more mutated creatures. After that, Dan decided to only injure the animal''s legs a little bit so that the mutated animals could only still move but a little bit slower and she killed 5 more animals like that. Sofia reached level 2 after killing 5 more animals without any help from Dan. {Congrulations for leveling up} {Name: Sofia} {Level: 2} ->{Qi Gathering Stage 2} {HP: 25/100} {Exp: 0/200} {UP points: 35} {Strength: 13 +3 (Braclet) = 16 } {Stamina: 13} {Agility: 13 + 1 (Braclet) = 16} {Defense: 4 (Braclet)} ''Well ok, so she managed to get +3 in all of her attributes which is lower than mine when I became level 2 but she got more HP than me.'' ''If I were to compare just the tow of our attributes, mine doesn''t seem to be average but I will need to know the attributes of more people to be sure.'' It was time to go to the office so Dan and Sofia started to get out of the forest, they met Mr. Max who was one of the people Dan had added to the system. "Oh, Sofia. Why are you in the forest?" "No reason, I am just here to get some fresh air. What about you Mr. Max?" "I am the same but I have heard that there are some mutated animals in the forests so you should be careful." "Of course, you should be careful too." As they were talking, Dan sensed that Mr. Max had also gotten to level 2. The only reason that Sofia nor Max had realized that both of them were cultivators was because of the fact that they hadn''t tried to sense the other person thinking that they were just regular people. Dan whispered to Sofia, "Mr. Max seems to be a level 2 cultivator as well. He probably came to the forest to kill the mutated animals to level up." Chapter 72 - Talking A Lot Sofia whispered back, "Should we tell him?" "I think we should. He will probably figure it out in a while anyway." "What are you guys whispering about?" Sofia answered, "We were wondering if you came to the forest to kill the mutated animals to get exp." "You guys know? Do you guys have the system as well?" "Yes." "Your bodyguard too?" "Yes, and he got it long before us." "What level is he in?" "I don''t know his actual level but he said that he is above level 5 and at the very least, he is above level 2 because I still can''t tell what his level is." "The two of you do know that I have ears right?" Coughing a little, Max replies, "Of course, of course." Dan asked, "How did you manage to kill the mutated animals by yourself?" Max pointed to his rifle and replied, "I used to be in the army and my shotting skills weren''t too bad." "Are you two going to continue hunting?" "No, we are going back. I have to work at the company." "Ok, I was about to head back too, how about we go back together." Sofia said, "I am fine with that." As they went back, Dan asked max a lot of questions and managed to get a fair bit of information about him. "What do you do?" "I manage a real estate company. I think you already met my son, Issac when we were in the meeting." "Yes, he seemed like a nice person." "I tried to make sure that he wasn''t too spoiled." "Oh, that''s great. How did you do that?" "Well, unlike most rich kids, I made sure to not give him things worth too much when he was still young." "After he got a bit older, I gave him allowances for doing good things but I also made sure that after that point on, he would have to buy most of the things that he wanted with his own money." "One time when he was about 13 years old, he wanted certain brand clothes but he didn''t have enough money for it so he asked me if I could buy it for him." Chapter 73 - Conversation "He probably thought that I wouldn''t buy it for him but to his surprise, I agreed but on the condition that he pays the money back to me with interest. That was his first business dealing." ''Well, books aren''t lying to me. People do talk a lot when they are very proud of something now, I just need to make him spill more details.'' "What happened after that?" "Well, after taking a pretty good amount of time to pay e back, he decided to ask me how to make a lot of money." "That was the time when I introduced him to real estate." "After that, he slowly learned more in my company until he opened up his own real estate company." "Did your wife agree with the way you made Issac learn about real estate?" "We argued about it for a bit but she slowly understood my point and she went along with it." "She seems understanding. How did you meet her?" "It was in a business convention. I remember that I went there to give a speech and she was also there to give a speech." "We started to talk. At first, it was only about business but after a while, we started to talk about other things such as our lives, dreams, and families." "Speaking of dreams, do you still have a dream that you haven''t accomplished?" "Yes, I haven''t managed to skydive." "Why not? You have more than enough money to skydive." "Money isn''t the problem. The problem is the fact that I am scared of heights." "When did you start to get scared of heights?" "I don''t really remember." They kept on talking like this until they managed to get back to the parking area where they decided to split ways. Handing Dan a number, Max said, "You have been a nice person to talk to. This is my private number, you can call me if you need any help in the future." "Ok, thank you. Don''t go back on your word." "No worries there, If I can, I will do my best to help you in the future." After that, Dan and Sofia went into Sofia''s car and she started to ask Dan a couple of questions. Chapter 74 - Updates To The Store System "Why did you ask him so many questions?" "The only people I know who have the system are you and Max so I thought that I should try to investigate him a little bit." "Ok, Ask me if you need help." "Alright, thanks." After Dan and Sofia got to the headquarters, they heard a lot of murmuring. Sofia called her secretary in the office. "What is everyone talking about?" "It is the monster attack." "Monster attack? What''s that?" "There are a lot of mutated animals coming out of the forests around the world and attacking people in villages and cities." "Most of them have been killed by the police and regular people using guns but in some cases where there were a lot of animals, the military had to be called for help." ''Ok, I didn''t really think of that happening.'' A couple of days goes by just like that before the system notifies Dan. [Due to a large number of deaths and the changing of the world before it''s expected time, the system will pick random people with talents to practice cultivation from all over the world.] [As the Basic Cultivation Book is the property of the host, everyone picked by the system will be given a downgraded version of the cultivation book] [Item Name: Basic Cultivation Book (Downgraded Version)] [1xp/hour] ''Ok, that really won''t affect the new cultivators much for now since the at max you can only get 1xp per hour without other items'' [Since this is an emergency, all new cultivators will automatically be upgraded to level 1] ''You can do that?'' [Of course] ''Then can you level me up too?'' [No] ''Fine, either way, I wasn''t expecting a yes.'' [Due to there being cultivators not part of the Store System, the Store System will also be updated] [From now on, only cultivators can be added to the Store System.] ''Can those cultivators who aren''t part of the system still get UP points when they aren''t part of the system?'' [Yes, but they won''t know that they have them until they join the Store System] [From now on, you will also be able to see the UP points of cultivators if you are near them] Chapter 75 - Mission Function ''Any other changes that I should know about?'' [Yes, a new function has been added to the Store System] ''What is the function?'' [As an administrator, you can now give out missions and rewards for completing the missions] ''I have nothing important that I can give out so for now, this might as well be useless.'' ''Actually, pills are very useful and even though everyone who currently has the system can buy UP points, they still cost a lot of money.'' [Hint: People won''t be able to buy UP points in a while] ''Hey system, can you add a couple of quests for me.'' All of the people who had the store system got a notification as soon as Dan launched the first mission. {New Mission function is unlocked} {From now on, there will be missions posted by the administrator that the users can complete to get rewards} {New mission from the administrator} {Mission Name: Save the People} {Mission description: With the outbreak of the mutated animals, there are a lot of people dying. Your mission is to save the people who might get killed by the mutated animals} {Mission: Save 1,000 people} {Reward: 1 Healing pill and 1 Spirit Gathering pill} ''Can we work with other people?'' {Yes, you can work with other people but the rewards will only be distributed to those who have access to the system} ''How does the system determine who gets the reward?'' {If you decide to work with others, you can decide if you want equal shares of the reward or if you want to share the reward based on your contribution to the mission which will be determined by the system.} {There will be other ways to distribute the rewards coming in the future.} {Any questions?} ''No.'' {Another mission has been posted by the adminstrator} {Mission Name: Kill the Mutated Animalls} {Mission Description: There are a lot of mutated animals around the world causing havoc. You are to kill the mutated animals} {Mission: Kill 1,000 mutated animals} {Note: Only the person who gets the kill will have their kill count increased for the mission} {Reward: 1 Healing pill and 1 Spirit Gathering pill} Chapter 76 - World News As those missions got added, countries around the world also started warning their people about the new mutated animals. Those same countries from around the world also started to investigate the reason for the mutation of animals after all who knew if these mutations would start to affect humans as well. Lastly, most countries warned their people to keep out of forests and other areas where there aren''t a lot of people. Even though that happened, some people decided to not follow those warnings and a couple of days later, some people had died but most came back alive as those mutated animals could still be killed by normal guns as of now. A couple of days later, another news came out. This news was about the countries around the world working together to find out the cause of the mutation and stop it. If those mutated animals started to get stronger, then who knows when even guns would become useless and at that time, the power that humans had around the world might stop. All of the best researchers from around the world started to get moved to one of four laboratories to study the animals and many mutated animals that the military had gotten their hands on when defending the people also started to be shipped to one of those four laboratories. There were four laboratories instead of one because even though there was a lot of confusion about the mutated animals, the four major superpowers around the world still didn''t want to work together. They were still thinking of getting the most benefits for themselves even with all of these changes that were happening. Chapter 77 - Jason In one of those powerful countries, a man had just woken up and was getting ready but then he received a random message {congratulations on getting a system!} "Hu, What the hell is this?" Unlike most people, Jason hadn''t ever read any novels with systems in them and thus he didn''t really know anything about systems and their functions. The system had to explain everything including how it could make him very powerful. "I am already very powerful. There are very few people who can go up against me, why would I need you?" {Oh, then can you stop a bullet?} "No but.." {How about the more powerful mutants that are going to start coming?} "Well... Wait, how do you know that there are more powerful mutants that are going to be coming?" "Are the mutated animals your doing?" {Well no but trust me, if you don''t get stronger only DEATH will await you!} "Ahh fine, what do I need to do in order to get stronger?" {Well that didn''t take much convincing} {You can start by making an account} {Please select your username} "Why would I need a username?" {In order to talk with other users of the system} "There are others?" {Well, you didn''t think you were the only ''special'' one, did you?} "Of course not" {Then please select your username} "Just use my name, Jason" {That username is avilable} {Username has been set} {Ok now you can start buying things from the store, trade money for UP points, or start killing mutants to get UP points} "What are UP points?" {It is the currency used by the system} "Fine let''s see, how much money is required to trade for UP points." Chapter 78 - Preparation For The Hunt {$100,000 for 1 UP point} "What the hell!?!? That''s too much." {It isn''t too much when it can potentially save your life} "But still..." {So want to top up?} "This feels like in-app purchases." "Let me see, how many UP points can I get by killing mutated beasts?" {It depends on the level of the beast that you manage to kill} "So how much for level 1 beasts?" {I will let you figure that out on your own} "Alright. Do you have any other function?" {Yes, but don''t worry about it. You will unlock them later} Jason went out of his room and said to one of the workers there, tell everyone in the house to get ready to hunt down some mutated beasts. As soon as that order was passed down, some people started whispering, "Why do you think that the boss wants to hunt down some mutated beasts?" Another person replied, "Maybe the boss wants to help the people near the forests." "Haha stop jocking, the boss helping people while gaining nothing in return, he would never do something like that." "Maybe he is changing his mind." "Bro are you alright in the head? Should I call the ambulance, you might need it." "Alright alright, I am just saying that it could be a possibility. I mean even animals are being mutated at such an absurd rate. Anything could happen." "Even when the world is ending, the boss probably wouldn''t help people without gaining anything in return. Now start getting prepared for the hunt." Chapter 79 - Start Of The Hunt Jason and his gang all went to the forest to start their hunt. They had to kill off some animals near the forest border, which usually wouldn''t be there. They were probably running away from the mutated animals. This at least meant that they were going in the right direction. Finally, after about half an hour of walking, they managed to find a mutated animal, which they knew mostly because it didn''t look normal. This mutated animal was a deer almost twice the size of the average deers, black in color, and its horn which looked like it was faintly glowing. Jason signaled his men to get ready to shoot but one of them managed to break a fallen branch of a tree making noise and startling the deer which slowly looked towards Joson and his men. It quickly sprinted towards Jason and his gang. As it ran towards them headfirst, its horn hit some of the trees in the path of the deer and Jason but instead of the tree stopping the deer, the tree just fell down. "Shoot!!!" Jason shouted as he aimed his own gun towards the deer. Everyone started shooting but shockingly, the deer sensing the danger of the bullets used its large horns to stop most of the bullets. Some of the bullets hit the body of the deer but it was seemingly unphased and kept running towards Jason and his gang. "Keep shooting!!" People right in front of the deer, like Jason started shooting at the deer''s feet which people on the side started shooting on the deer''s side where the deer couldn''t use its horn to block the bullets.