PCJ – Chapter 747 Choice

In the span of a month, Qi Shuo discovered that all his previous gaming experience was completely useless in this game.

He was finally forced to consider spending his ten credit points in the novice village to exchange for the most basic cultivation technique. At first, he thought he could save those ten credits and, using his gaming skills, obtain a better cultivation method. But now it seemed this path was impossible.

Without a certain level of ability, it was impossible to venture beyond the forests surrounding the novice village. The beasts in the mountains were simply too many. One careless step, and he would die under their claws. Perhaps the only thing in Immortal Dream that resembled an actual game was that novices could respawn infinitely. Whenever he was killed by a beast, the next moment he would revive at the novice village’s resurrection point.

Qi Shuo spent his ten credits to exchange for a cultivation method aligned with his attribute—a basic Metal-type Qi-Attracting Technique. After receiving it, he obediently found a spot in the safe zone near the novice village and began to cultivate. Although his spiritual root was only of the lowest grade, his comprehension was not slow. Very soon, he managed to guide metallic spiritual energy into his lower dantian, forming the most basic spiritual vortex.

This surprised Qi Shuo. He hadn’t expected his Qi-Attraction process to be so fast—faster, even, than when he had tested inside the experience hall with a high-grade spiritual root.

Successfully drawing in qi was like having one foot already across the threshold of cultivation. If he could continue and allow the qi to circulate through his meridians in a full cycle, that would mean he had truly entered the path.

Naturally, Qi Shuo knew that the small strand of spiritual energy he had just introduced into his dantian could not possibly complete such a circulation. It would require a large accumulation of spiritual energy to break through the blockages in the meridians. The worse the aptitude, the more blocked the meridians were, and the harder it was to break through. The better the aptitude, the smoother the meridians. For those with heaven-grade roots, their meridians were practically unobstructed—they could complete a small circulation the instant they succeeded in attracting qi.

Qi Shuo couldn’t quite make sense of it. The way this game was structured, it was as if it was forcing everyone to cultivate inside the game. Without cultivation, one couldn’t even leave the novice village. True, the scenery of the novice village was pleasant, and the area was not small, but anyone would get bored staying there too long.

The more he thought, the more inconceivable it seemed. How could a game be designed this way? Technically, it surpassed every other game in the world, yet its mechanics seemed absurd.

Even cultivation had no auto-mode.

Another month passed, until one day Qi Shuo suddenly entered a profound state. It was as if, in that moment, he vanished from the world, yet still existed—an indescribably mysterious sensation.

Time seemed to stop entirely. The world itself seemed to stop. All things in the universe seemed to disappear. That feeling was so ineffable that if anyone could articulate it, that person would be an immortal.

When Qi Shuo woke, he couldn’t explain what he had experienced. But when he examined his dantian, he was shocked to find it had expanded a hundredfold. It brimmed with dense spiritual energy, which now flowed ceaselessly through his meridians. He had formed a small circulation!

“Ah!” Qi Shuo leapt up in joy, but accidentally jumped too high and slammed his head into a thick tree branch.

Crack! The branch, thick as a man’s thigh, broke. With a crash, the huge branch fell, startling the birds into a flurry of wings.

Qi Shuo was dumbfounded. After a month of near-zero progress, his Qi-Attraction had suddenly broken through, directly forming a small circulation.

He couldn’t understand what had happened in that lost span of time.

“Is this still a game?” Qi Shuo muttered doubtfully.

Logging out, he saw that nearly a week had passed inside the game. Yet he had felt no hunger. His game pod was equipped with nutrient fluid sufficient for one week—but in all this time, almost none had been consumed. The thought chilled him. Had he nearly starved to death inside the pod? But then he realized the issue wasn’t with the pod—it was with himself.

He dragged a chair close, only to find it felt feather-light in his hands. With a squeeze, the metal backrest bent out of shape.

“Could it be…?”

Qi Shuo quickly focused his mind on his dantian and was horrified to sense it directly. His dantian was brimming with spiritual energy, and qi circulated ceaselessly in his meridians—this was indeed the small circulation!

The powers from the game had come into reality! Wasn’t this the sort of thing that only happened in novels?

Knock, knock, knock.

A knocking came at his door.

Perplexed, Qi Shuo went to open it. As a gaming recluse, he rarely interacted with others, so who could be visiting him now?

Opening the door, he found three strangers standing there.

“Hello, are you Mr. Qi Shuo?” one of them asked.

“Yes, that’s me.” He didn’t recognize any of them.

“We’re staff from Immortal Dream. I believe Mr. Qi already understands the reason for our visit.”

“I don’t understand.” Qi Shuo’s gaze sharpened, trying to discern their true purpose.

“You displayed abnormal behavior in the game. Well, not exactly abnormal—you were in a meditative state for seven days. Surely you’ve realized that Immortal Dream is not just a game. If this were about making money, Meishan Group has countless ways to do that. But this isn’t about profit. You must have discovered that the game is real. Certain things can be brought into reality—such as your Qi-Attraction and small circulation.”

“What’s your real purpose?” Qi Shuo remained highly wary.

“Purpose? This isn’t the place to explain. Immortal Dream has prepared a place for players like you who’ve broken through unexpectedly. Once you’re there, you’ll know the truth.”

Qi Shuo shook his head. “Not before I know the truth. I won’t go with you.”

“You don’t have to. We don’t need to bring everyone there. That place can’t accommodate too many people. The world’s spiritual energy is extremely scarce—but in some places, it still gathers densely. We respect your choice. But we do hope you’ll keep this secret. We don’t want it spreading.”

Qi Shuo was even more surprised. “You really won’t force me?”

“If you refuse, we’ll treat it as your choice to give up. We have many options—we don’t lack any one individual.” The man smiled.