Chapter 3: Sensing Qi

Eric was back in his room and he sat down on his bed, placing the scroll next to him. He had hidden the scroll for the Basic Soul Cultivation Method in his clothes and sneaked past his mother who was working in the kitchen.

Now that he was alone, Eric thought about the Scam System and a screen appeared in front of him

'As expected, it is thought based,' smiled Eric as he read the words on the screen.

[User has successfully completed the task within the time limit.

Scam System has been unlocked.]

As he finished reading this, the screen fizzled out and a larger, branched screen made of three separate windows started forming. Eric was fascinated by the process and he inspected the unlocked Scam System.

[Greetings, Eric Tyler, you have been officially chosen as the user of the Scam System.]

[Introduction:

The Scam System is a system that helps the user by giving him rewards for successful scams. The more the user scams other people, the more he levels up in the Scam System. Leveling up with provide the user with rewards that will help him in cultivation or even other aspects, such as unlocking more features of the Scam System.

Other than leveling up, there are also more methods for receiving reward.

The Scam System will assign the user quests which will give rewards upon completion. These quests will be based on various factors such as the user's situation, the user's personal goals, challenges received from others and more.

With diligent cultivation and the help of the Scam System, user Eric Tyler can reach the peak of the world easily.]

Eric was pleased and continued examining the Scam System. Leveling Up, Quests, multiple interfaces and such were very game like and made Eric believe why this world was called a game. He was finally starting to understand more about this game-real world hybrid.

The first thing he checked was his profile.

[User Profile

Personal Information

Name: Eric Tyler

Age: 11

Date of Birth: October 27

Cultivation Level

Soul: Not a cultivator

Body: Not a cultivator

Mind: Not a cultivator]

There was nothing much to be shown in his profile which he didn't already know so he continued with the other parts of the Scam System.

He then decided to check out the Level Up Interface.

[Scam Level: 0

0/100 Experience Points

The user will gain experience points for every successful scam and lose experience points when he fails and gets caught while trying to scam someone.]

There wasn't much in the Level Up Interface either.

Finally, Eric looked at the last feature available to him at the moment: the Quest Log.

[Quest Log

Current Quest: Get to Scam Level 1

Task: Get to Scam Level 1

Time Limit: None

Completion Reward: ???

Failure Penalty: ???]

Eric saw the quest log and breathed a sigh of relief.

'Thankfully, there isn't a death penalty this time. There also isn't a time limit.'

Eric looked to his side and remembered that he had the Basic Soul Cultivation Method in his possession. With determination in his eyes, he rolled it open and read it.

'The first step to absorb Qi in your dantian is to be able to feel its presence. Qi is the energy of the Heaven and Earth and is therefore present all around you. In order to feel the presence of Qi, sit in a cross legged, meditative posture and rid your mind of any stray thoughts.

Once that is done, start feeling the environment and its energy around you. After a while; the time depending on how focused and talented you are, you will begin to sense Qi. On average, it takes about an hour to first feel Qi, while peerless geniuses can accomplish this feat in almost half the time.'

After reading the first part of the text, there were a few drawings describing the posture in which one should sit.

After reading this, there was nothing left to read on the first part of the scroll. Edward rolled it back up and put it to his side, then took a couple deep breaths to calm his mind.

He sat in the cross legged position and cleared his mind completely. The only thing that remained was determination and focus.

After his mediocre life on Earth, it was like a dream come true to be in a world of cultivation. Usually he may seem aloof and uncaring, but when he put his mind to something, his will could be incredibly resolute and he wouldn't stop until he had achieved his goal.

He started calmly breathing and feeling all that was present around him. The distant sounds of chirping birds, the sunlight illuminating his room and its soft heat making contact with his skin; the gentle breeze of the wind and the rhythmic sound of his own breathing, these were all as clear as the sky to him.

A couple minutes passed while Eric sat in this position calmly and without any thoughts. He didn't know how much time had passed and felt disconnected from his mortal self. Eric felt like he had a sort of connection with the world; he felt like he was a part of it and it was a part of him.

Suddenly, Eric felt warmth surround him and started to sense a sort of presence all around him. This sensation was unlike anything he had known and was an indescribable experience. As Eric was awakened from his trance like state, he heard a ding notification and the Scam System opened a notification window.

[Congratulations! User has sensed Qi and has gotten one step closer to becoming a cultivator.]

Eric's mouth formed a huge grin as he had succeeded in this process relatively fast.

He didn't know how much time had passed, but the environment around him didn't change much, leading him to believe that it hadn't been that long.

Eric stood up from his bed and stretched. He felt refreshed and somehow his perception of his surroundings had also increased. In the midst of evaluating these changes he underwent, Eric noticed a woman with a shocked face standing at his door.

She had long black hair and hazel green eyes. She was slightly short and had a pretty attractive body even though she wasn't that young.

'Oh shit, it's my mother. I better hide this so that she doesn't ask anything and make things difficult,' Eric thought while sneakily pulling his bed sheets over the scroll to hide it from his mother; he didn't want to reveal the system to anyone, at least not yet.

"What happened, mom? Why do you look so baffled?" he asked while smiling and hoping that she hadn't seen the scroll.

As he looked at his mother, the Scam System opened another window showing her profile.

[Name: Jane Tyler

Age: 32

Date of birth: March 12

Cultivation

Soul: Not a cultivator

Body: Not a cultivator

Mind: Not a cultivator]

Jane seemed to regain her consciousness when Eric talked to her and she quickly responded, "Son, I saw you meditating and you got up after roughly two minutes and seemed really happy, did you perhaps sense Qi?"

Her voice was a bit shaky, which was natural for how shocked she was. Her son who never showed much interest in cultivation was meditating with such concentration and he had potentially sensed Qi in merely two minutes: a feat that was unheard of in the history of the entire kingdom.

'Two minutes? Was it that fast? Well, I don't see any reason why my own mother would lie to me,' Eric thought; his memories told him that his parents were both very caring individuals.

"Yes, I sensed Qi but I don't know why it took me only two minutes." Eric replied with a clueless expression on his face; he really didn't know why it had only taken him such a meager amount of time.

While Eric was a bit confused, Jane was overwhelmed by a storm of different emotions. First she was proud of her son because of the concentration he showed while cultivating, then she was shocked and confused about the marginally low amount of time it took him to initially sense Qi.

She had just come to tell him that the breakfast was ready and didn't expect such a situation to arise.

"Well, we should wait for your father to come home. As a cultivator, he should know more than us." Jane said as she remembered her original motive to come here, "ah, I almost forgot why I came here! Come with me son, the breakfast is ready."

Eric's body's memories reminded him of how delicious Jane's food was and he diverted his attention towards the breakfast and followed her out of his room.