Genesis Gaming Cafe

On top of the gaming cafe, I decided to give the MC a starting power system that he is already familiar with, you'll understand what I mean after a bit of reading in this chapter. As for what power system, he'll be a cultivator from those Chinese novels and such.

Warning though, my knowledge when it comes to both Genshin Impact, as well as just cultivation and stuff in general, is surface level at best. So, if I make any errors, please have mercy on my soul!

I may also make a few things up, so yeah.

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Xian Yu was no stranger to reincarnation, after all, he had recently just gone through the Cycle of Reincarnation before ending up here in this new world. Though, he had to admit, being in a world where cultivators weren't abundant was quite the sight.

However, it wasn't unwelcomed.

After all, with power came arrogance, and that was the case with the majority of cultivators. After gaining significant power, their egos and arrogance would grow as well, understandable but incredibly irritating.

In any case, Xian Yu was a young man who looked to be no older than twenty, with a lean yet sculpted physique along with a gentle and handsome appearance. With slightly pale skin, it contrasted well with his smooth black hair and sharp golden-orange eyes.

His clothing was simple but looked to be incredibly high-end material, consisting of a white t-shirt with a golden coiling dragon design on the right half of the shirt. He also had on a pair of black sleek long pants and a pair of black tall boots with golden soles that rose higher at the ankles.

At this very moment, he could be seen simply sitting inside what looked to be a modernized building, legs kicked up onto the front desk as he was shuffling through what looked to be a strange deck of cards with a small smile on his face.

"Let's get some music in here. System, help me out, would ya?" Xian Yu voiced simply as he raised one hand before snapping his fingers. As soon as he did, the room seemed to be blasting with music that wasn't too loud nor too soft. "Persona? Not bad!"

The song that played was called Mass Destruction, a personal favorite theme of his from Persona 3. It had been a very very long time since he last played the game, but he could honestly remember every single thing.

After a few moments, Xian Yu put down the cards before raising one hand and clenching his fist a few times. As he did, a small frown slowly formed on his face. "Hmm... I feel pretty uncomfortable being so weak, I should start cultivating soon..."

*DING*

"After today's over..." Xian Yu interrupted himself as he heard the dinging of the entrance sound. With a snap of his fingers, the music immediately stopped. Looking up, he saw a young girl around fifteen or so entering the building. "Welcome to the Genesis Gaming Cafe!"

"Hello!"

The person that walked in was a young girl with blackish-blue hair that was styled into a bob-like fashion style, along with a pair of golden eyes and fair skin. However, what caught his attention the most was the object hanging from the girl's waist.

'Interesting, I feel a mildly strong fire elemental force radiating off of that object, wonder what it is...' Xian Yu thought to himself with curiosity, though he hid it well behind his smile. 'Heh, I guess this world must have some interesting things after all.'

The girl herself also caught his interest, from what he could tell from her Qi, despite not being a cultivator, she probably had power equivalent to that of a cultivator who had reached the late stages of the second realm, otherwise known as the Foundation Realm.

"I'm sorry for just walking in, but my name's Xiangling!" The girl introduced herself as she quickly skipped her way over to the front desk. She then looked around with clear curiosity on her face. "You said this place is a... gaming cafe? I don't know what that is, but it looks amazing!"

Looking around at the modern-style building as well as the strange array of gaming desks all suited up with high-end black computers with constantly changing neon LEDs, Xiangling felt rather overwhelmed at all of the unfamiliar things in the room.

"Thanks for the compliment. My name is Xian Yu, the owner here."

"Xian Yu, huh?" Xiangling repeated the name as she looked curiously at the male in question. She had definitely not ever seen him before, his appearance definitely would've stood out if she had. "Once again, sorry for just walking in. I noticed that you opened this place up next to our restaurant, so I just wanted to come by and welcome you!"

"Really? It's much appreciated." Xian Yu nodded with a smile as he got up from the desk before extending his hand forwards for a shake, which Xiangling accepted with her own smile. "Then I hope for a good relationship between our places."

"Of course! Whenever you can, you should come by for a meal! I promise you that you'll love eating our great food!"

"I'll take your word for it, I'll definitely visit at some point then. In the meantime though, would you like to give my shop's business a little try?"

"Your shop? A gaming cafe... right?" Xiangling voiced with a hint of uncertainty in her tone. She was honestly not familiar at all with what that is, so she wasn't really sure how to answer... "I know what a cafe is, but what do you mean by a gaming cafe? Like playing hide and seek or something?"

"Hehehe~, no. It's much more than that." Xian Yu couldn't help but chuckle a bit as he heard the response. This world wasn't a modern one like his own, so naturally the idea of something like an internet cafe was completely foreign to them. "My games are a bit special, they all take place in virtual reality."

"Virtual... reality? What?"

"It's confusing, so don't worry about trying to understand the specifics. To put it as simply as possible though, you can say that it's a virtually-simulated world, a fake world." This didn't help Xiangling in the slightest as she just tilted her head at Xian Yu. "You'll know what I mean after trying it. You can think of this as the start of both of our stores' relationship."

"I see, okay then! What do I do?"

"First off, we'll have to get you a membership card. It's nothing too complicated." Xian Yu then pointed towards what looked to be a large screen displaying text just behind his desk. "This screen displays some basic information about my shop, please have a read."

Xiangling tilted her head up as she began reading the board curiously.

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『Gaming Cafe Rules/Info』

● Membership Cost - 5,000 Mora [1 Game Trial Pass and 6 free playtime hours after sign-up]

● Playtime Charge - 2,000/hr

● Customers can only play for 6 hours per day

● The cafe will only be open from 6am to 10pm every day

● Those who commit any hostile and/or questionable actions against both the owner, as well as the store's employees and customers, will be punished accordingly

● Committing one punishable action will result in a warning, committing two will result in direct punishment one way or another, and committing three will result in a severe punishment and a permanent ban from the cafe

● Any issues regarding other customers and/or the products of the store, please inquire about them with the owner

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All of the information was quite basic, though Xiangling was a bit confused about the punishments. She could only assume that they'd be things like getting fined a certain amount of Mora, the owner didn't look to possess a Vision either, so she doubted it'd be any kind of physical punishment.

"As you can see, the cost to sign up for a membership is 5,000 Mora." Xian Yu spoke up after waiting patiently for a bit. "I hope that the price is acceptable to you, I don't mind refunding it if you are displeased with the store's products, just as long as it is within twenty-four hours."

For someone like Xiangling, one of if not the most popular chefs in all of Liyue, her reputation spreads even to other nations. Considering how popular her family's restaurant was that it could be compared to the likes of the Liuli Pavilion and the Xinyue Kiosk, her wealth was much higher compared to the average citizen.

After some help from Xian Yu, Xiangling managed to get her membership card details all figured out. The process was very simple, she just needed to answer a few simple questions, such as what her name was, date of birth, and also her place of residence.

Once all of that was done, Xiangling watched as Xian Yu raised his right hand before what looked to be white particles began to gather and condensed just above his palm. Xiangling widened her eyes as the particles condensed before forming a delicate black and gold card that hovered above Xian Yu's hand.

"This is your membership card." Xian Yu stated as he held it towards Xiangling, who carefully took hold of it before looking at it from multiple angles with a curious look on her face. "If you choose to continue doing business here, that'll be a very convenient little tool. So, don't lose it."

"Wow, this is really interesting!"

Xiangling looked at the back of the card to see that it had the letters 'GGC' printed onto it in gold with a very fancy but readable font. However, the main meat of the card was the front where all of her information was seen, and to her surprise, even her picture was there in the corner!

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『GGC Membership』

● Name: Xiangling

● Date of Birth: November 2nd

● Place of Residence: Liyue Harbor - [Nation: Liyue]

● GGC Tokens: 0

● Recharged Mora: 0

.

"Wow, how did you get my picture?" Xiangling couldn't help but ask as she put her face closer to get a better look at the small picture of her smiling self on the card. "It's so high quality as well! Even those kameras from Fontaine can't compare to it!"

"It's just a small thing." Xian Yu chuckled as he began walking over to one of the computers within the store. Xiangling quickly followed after him. "Every person that joins gets a free pass, meaning they can experience one of our games for free for a period of three days. After that, if you wish to continue playing, you'll have to buy the game itself. You also get an entire six hours free of playtime upon sign up."

"I see, that's a very smart way of gaining interest..."

While Xiangling wasn't the greatest when it came to the business mind, she too had thought of ways to get customers to go to her restaurant in the past. She could understand the advantage of the method Xian Yu was using.

By allowing his newcomers to experience his store's products before making them pay a heavy sum, he can arouse the person's interest and incite them into buying the product in full if they want to continue using it. Not only that, it was a way to prevent people from complaining.

If the person is not satisfied with the store, the owner had already said he'd be willing to refund them within a twenty-four-hour period. This way, all complaints can be thrown out of the window since the customer wouldn't have lost anything. If anything, they gained something by being able to play for free.

Curiously, Xiangling watched as Xian Yu began navigating through the computer after turning it on. She had seen machines in the form of ruin guards, but anything else than she was honestly completely clueless in that regard.

"Boss Xian Yu, what are these token things on the card? And why does it say I have no mora?"

"The tokens are a bit more complicated, so you don't need to know about that yet. As for the mora, the card you hold is in a way a portable bank. You can give me any amount of mora and I can put it into that card, then you can take it out whenever you wish."

"Really?!" Xiangling blinked at the explanation before looking down at the card in her hands with a look of disbelief. Just looking at the card, it looked fancy, and that was it. "Boss Xian Yu, are you an Adeptus?"

"Adeptus? What's that?"

"You... You don't know what an Adeptus is?" Xiangling asked with a quiet voice. Xian Yu just blinked at her before shaking his head. "Does that mean you're not from Liyue? Everyone in Liyue knows what the Adepti are one way or another!"

"I'm not from Liyue, I'm from somewhere incredibly far away. So, I can't really say I know what these beings you call Adepti are..."

"I see, I just figured since your name is similar to those of people from Liyue." Xiangling nodded her head after hearing Xian Yu's explanation. "Which of the nations are you from, Boss Xian Yu? Other than Liyue, I can't think of any others with names like yours..."

"I'm not from any of the nations. I'm actually from outside of this continent, from a place called China."

"Oh, that means you came from the Dark Sea!"

While Xiangling's knowledge of the matter wasn't the greatest, she did have some idea about the Dark Sea. Essentially, it was anywhere that wasn't the Teyvat continent, and close to nothing at all was known about what lay outside.

Learning that Xian Yu was supposedly from this place, Xiangling was extremely curious to ask him about it. Mainly because she was interested in learning if there were any interesting new ingredients she could use for future dishes...

"Alright, everything ready for you." Before Xiangling could ask anything else, Xian Yu spoke as he looked down at Xiangling. Xiangling walked closer before looking at the screen, she could see two glowing words on the screen. "Sit down and put this visor on over your eyes, then you'll understand what I mean by virtual reality."

"Beat Saber...?" Xiangling tilted her head as she read the words. Taking hold of the black visor Xian Yu handed to her, she slowly sat down in the chair. "Wow, this is really comfy! So, I just need to put this on...?"

Looking at the device in her hands, Xiangling raised it up to her eyes before she felt them connecting themselves comfortably but securely onto her face. Xiangling could still blink comfortably, but everything was just black in colour.

"What do I do now?"

"Just say 'Virtual Dive Start'."

"Okay... Virtual Dive Start?"

As soon as those words left her mouth, Xiangling could only widen her eyes considerably as her vision was covered by countless strands of data that flowed in every direction. It didn't take long before she found herself standing instead of sitting.

Looking around in a bit of a panic, Xiangling could see that she was now standing in a rather dark world tinted in blue. Looking closely, she could see tiny white particles floating around the entire space, although they were very far away from her.

"Wh-What is this?!" Xiangling looked down to see that she was still indeed in her own body, and pinching her arm gently, she could feel her skin. Everything seemed fine. "Boss Xian Yu? Are you there? What is happening?!"

『Xian Yu: Calm down, Xiangling. I'm right here』

"Eh? I can't see you..."

『Xian Yu: Of course not, I'm still in the shop. You too are still in the shop, it's your mind that has been moved into this virtual space. This is what I meant by virtual reality, a fake world where your consciousness is currently roaming』

"So... this isn't real? I'm not real?" Xiangling couldn't help but mutter in disbelief as she once again pinched herself. No matter what she did, she felt completely as if she was really in her normal body. She could feel her own body heat, breath, and more, none of it felt fake! "B-Boss Xian Yu, this is incredible!"

『Xian Yu: Glad you like it. Prepare yourself though』

"Eh, for what?"

『Xian Yu: For the music, cause we're about to turn it up to eleven!』