The Turning Point, How it Began (OPTIONAL READ)

As the title clearly states, it's not necessary to read this chapter to understand the story and any of its gears. I'm putting this chapter into the auxiliary volume to make it clear. IT ISN'T A PROLOGUE.

I recommend to read it only after you understand the story from the main release chapters.

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"Well...?"

A young adult scrolled down the page he was visualizing on his computer's screen. His face had traces of exhaustion and he constantly sighed.

"Hey, did you find it?" a silver-haired man came close to him and asked while also looking at the screen. He had beautiful blue eyes, but his face was extremely asymmetric.

"There are too many sand files... Those Archsites are difficult to explore..." Ash answered with a hand massaging his temples, "Why the fuck did I choose to work in this field? I would do better being a pro gamer."

"Bah!" the silver-haired man sneered and said, "It's too late to repent, I want this file in my paste before the end of the day." He then went away.

"Yes, sir!" Ash sighed and continued his search as he silently cursed, "Damn you, Red."

After a while, he finally found the file he searched for almost the whole day, by using old binary language. Its name was written in old English, but Ash had no difficulty translating it.

"A review of modern eastern culture, by Hugh Smith," Ash muttered with raised eyebrows, "Well, what a find. I thought it would be some kind of scientific file but it is literary, just to my taste."

He proceeded to copy the file to his own online space and then to his superiors'. After that, he yawned deeply with small tears in his eyes.

He stretched his body while getting up from his seat and looked outside the building's window.

He could see the dead gray "forest" outside, full of tall buildings and lots of vehicles going everywhere, flying or not.

"I want to see some green..." he muttered and sighed with an indescribable feeling in his heart.

"Yo! Want some chicken? My old man invited you lot of scum to his new restaurant," Tiago, Ash's old friend, invited as both exited the building where they work. He was tall and had a strong build, but his face was as ugly as a mix of ugly things.

Looking at the sky, full of stars and as clear as pure water, Ash shook his head and refused, "I'm tired, I wish nothing more than my bed."

"If you change your mind, call me," Tiago clicked his tongue, apparently not surprised, and went away with some of their coworkers.

Ash, however, didn't go to his home. Instead, he stooped by an inconspicuous pub nearby. It was on a narrow alley and had a rather ancient design. The owner said she was a fan of old England culture.

Ash didn't care much about the visuals, but more about the drinks.

"Man, I can't get enough of this. Hey, can't you teach me?" Ash asked the owner as he drank a mouthful of wine.

The owner was a slender woman with pitch-black hair and gray eyes. She didn't disclose her real name and instead liked to be called Cloud.

She had an indifferent expression on her face and didn't even look at Ash as she said, "I'm tired of hearing it, give up on getting a reaction from my face."

"Hehehe, I just like to see this indifferent reaction of yours," Ash laughed and said with a meaningful expression, "Of course, even if I learn, it's not like I can do it by myself.

"I can't imagine how difficult it is to manually produce this kind of marvelous wine. Only a very intelligent and competent person can do it, and on top of that, the person has to be beautiful enough to make the wine taste so good."

"Your ways of flirting need serious development," Cloud sighed and massaged her temples as she looked around, the pub only had Ash and her inside, "If it continues, I will have to close the pub."

"Don't worry too much, you have someone you can rely on, right!?" Ash said as he drank more, he had been "drunk" for a while, his hazy eyes said all, but a mischievous light was flickering on them.

"You say too much shit when you drink," Cloud said and closed her eyes with a hand supporting her head, "If you said that thing while sober, perhaps I would give you a chance."

"Puh! Hahahaha!" After hearing it, Ash began to laugh hard.

"There's no way I would say this kind of thing while sober," he said with slightly curved eyes, "Since only by being drunk I can hear your terrible jokes...

"And... I'm quite sure you are not the least bit interested in me," he finished with a grin, looking directly into Cloud's eyes, "I don't have a single bit of chance with you."

"I wonder if you really want something from me," Cloud said with a fake smile.

"Who knows?" Ash laughed and paid the bill, "Sometimes, just talking to a beautiful woman can relieve some pent-up stress and I find it fun to talk uselessly with you."

"Well, I'm happy with your money, so I guess it's a win-win..." Cloud grinned and bid farewell.

After getting home, he took a bath and then went straight to his bed.

"Oh, right!" Ash remembered something just before falling asleep. He took his smartphone out of his pocket and accessed his online private space.

"A review of modern eastern culture, by Hugh Smith... It's incomplete, huh? There's only the part about the literary culture."

After yawning, he fell into a deep sleep.

...

["Refine Essence and transform it into Qi."

"...don't know what is Qi?

"It's the universe's breath, some call it energy."

"You also don't know what Essence is... Are you that stupid?

"Essence is the life you see with your eyes, your body in a crudely exact term."

"Don't confound it with Qi, if your intelligence allows... Now, pay attention to the way I kill that Butt-Head! I'm awesome!"]

In his room, Ash was reading a novel on his phone before getting up. The sun was giving him its light through a small gap in the window.

"Another boring shit..." Ash muttered and "closed" the book he was reading, it was another one with shitty writing.

He got up and went prepare for another common, boring day. For him, the only happy thing about that day was that it was finally the weekend and he didn't have to go see his superior's ugly face.

After doing his morning routine, he went back to his room and accessed his virtual reality private space through his Virtual Reality Helmet, which was marketed with the name "Mirror of Dreams."

"Damn, what should I do today?" he muttered to himself, "Should I play that generic MMORPG or try finding a decent book?

"Hmm? Oh, that's right, I almost forgot about that fossil file..."

His virtual avatar entered his virtual house, which was located on a flying island, and opened a white paste on the table.

The paste was very strange. Although it was very thin, it seemed to contain an infinite amount of paper.

After finding what he wanted, he teleported outside and sat on a chair with a direct vision of the ocean beneath the island.

"He wrote about cultivation novels? What an even rarer find..." Ash muttered and continued reading.

[There are many ways in which cultivation can be portrayed. But the most common is the progressive accumulation of magical energy, frequently called Qi, and using it to transform life itself and gain supernatural powers...

...It has an ancient inspiration, the cultivation of the so-called Three Treasures: Shen, Qi, and Jing. The cultivation of those things, according to the ancient Chinese, can bring long life, and in extreme citations, immortality.

I spent many days working and researching this kind of superstition, and finally concluded that it has a small tinge of truth!

Of course, it's impossible to be immortal or gain supernatural powers... But those so-called Three Treasures can be viewed as abstractions of modern knowledge.

Shen, for example, means spirit or a higher dimension being to them, but it can be viewed as the mind.

Qi to them means Breath/Energy of the universe, but it can be viewed as the energy as science understands, nothing magical.

Jing to them means Essence, but it can simply be viewed as the Body.

If you understand those Three Treasures with a scientific mind and replace old terms with new ones, you can see some truth in the fact that "cultivating" them can bring good health.

A good mind (Shen) can guide the available energy (Qi) in the environment to better nourish the body (Jing), and thus bring good health. A well-nourished Jing accommodates more Qi and uses it to nourish the Shen.]

"Well, that's rather interesting knowledge... It did take me a long time to understand those damn treasures, so much mentioned in the novels, it could have been much easier if I had this," Ash thought to himself and suddenly remembered the book he read just some time ago, it also mentioned the three treasures, but he stopped reading it because of the bad and edgy writing.

He then made a gesture with his hand and a smartphone identical to the one he had in reality appeared.

"Let me see... it's in the first chapter..." he muttered as he accessed the book again on the phone, the info dump was the first thing one could read.

[Five Realms of Basic Cultivation:

#Tempering Stage (Not a Realm, but a necessary process to begin cultivation.)

-Refine Essence to transform it into Qi.

-Refine Qi to transform it into Spirit.

#Reverting Yin-Yang (Not a Realm, but a necessary process to advance to the next Realm.)

-Refine Spirit to return to the Void.

-Refine the Void to merge with the Dao.

-Mahayana (Also called Dao Fruit, the last Realm before ascending to a higher world.)

After reaching the peak of the last Realm, one can transform into an Immortal Heavenly Being, being able to use the vitality of the world to live as long as possible.]

"Yup, this shit sure continues a bit confusing..." He laughed after reading.

There are too many confusing terms in ancient Chinese (Mandarin) and ancient English, mainly because of the variations brought by the long time. The only reason he was able to read those ancient books was that his profession was all about old virtual things.

He not only is good at ancient English but also even older English known as Original English. He knows only some terms of ancient Chinese and thus needs to research a lot to understand certain things.

Xiantian, for example, might be badly translated as Immortal Heaven(ly). But the right translation, in this case, is Innate. By reaching Great Perfection in the cultivation of those five Realms (just mentioned), one can become an Innate Being, not an Immortal Heavenly Being.

That novel was translated into ancient English many centuries before, and even at that time translators already had difficulties in translation from ancient Chinese.

After reading a bit of the novel, he lost interest again and returned to "A Review of modern eastern culture."

He passed the rest of the day reading and surprisingly learned a few things he never understood or know about.

"I learned a few new things today, I wonder if I'm finally prepared to start writing a cultivation novel..." he thought to himself and quit his virtual private space.

After quitting, he ate some buns in the kitchen and returned to his room.

"Should I bring some elements of reality along the cultivation system?" he suddenly had an idea, "Like the Ether and Gene Nourishment?"

He had a generic understanding of those things since he choose to avoid them, and his job had nothing to do with them, so he decided to do some research.

Ash then made a phone call to someone who would be able to give him pointers.

"Hey Jin, all gold?" Ash greeted his friend on the phone.

"Yo! It has been ages since you called me!" Jin cheerfully said, "I'm fine gold, and you?"

"I'm fine! I need some pointers from you, do you have some free time today or tomorrow?" Ash asked.

"You are the same ol' ASH'OLE, huh!? Why do you only call me when you need something?"

"Don't be such a brat, you know I don't like to start shit chat," Ash clicked his tongue and said, "Do you have time or not?"

"I have a lot of distant relatives at home today and tomorrow for a birthday, I don't."

"Then, can you send me some serious and complete content about Ether and Gene Nourishing? I need knowledge about them, and the free info that can be found on the internet is not very good, you know."

"Huh? Since when are you interested in those things?" Jin asked with a surprised tone.

"I'm planning to write a book and need some sweet info," Ash answered.

"Well, I still have some books and files from my time at the academy. I will send them to you but be careful, you don't have public permission to read some of the things written on them, you know how things work. And don't try anything crazy with what you end up learning!"

"Thanks, dude, just send them through the old channels, it's safer," Ash thanked him, "Don't worry about obvious things, I know what I should not do, and it's not like it is cursed forbidden knowledge either."

"Okay then, hanging~"

After ending the call, Ash waited for a while and accessed his virtual space again, the material he asked for was already there.

"The Dangers and Opportunities Lurking By," and "Introduction to Gene and Ether Interactions." Those are the two books he was sent. The first talked about the history of humankind after the discovery of the Ether and its impact on society, while the latter was rather clear about what it talked about.

Writing a book was easy but writing a good one wasn't. He knew he would spend a lot of time on it, but he was rather happy doing it. After all, no more cultivation novels were being written and only online fossils remain...

"Since no one does it, I will be the one to satiate my thirst," he muttered as he started his studies, not caring about the passage of time.

In his free time at home, he wrote. In his free time at work, he wrote. In his free time between his home and his work, he wrote.

A few months later, after a lot of brainstorming, brainwriting and self-doubting...

"Well, I guess that's about it..." Ash muttered with a satisfied expression.

After many trials and errors, he was finally satisfied with the cultivation system he built for the book. It took a longer time than he expected, but he didn't regret it a single tad, he had a lot of fun researching new things and racking his brains to make a "realistic" cultivation system, though he knew this is not what would make his novel good. He spent basically all of his free time writing and researching.

He even felt a bit scared with the lots of deep explanations he wrote, they are all very systematic and could even trick someone without proper knowledge about Ether and Gene Noursinhing.

Of course, he wouldn't pass all the information to the readers in the form of info dumps, he would gradually explain it according to the needs of the plot, and might even hide some details permanently.

"Now, it's time to figure out the heart of my book..." Ash muttered and quit his virtual space, planning to take a break to avoid burnout.

"Hey Jin, up to a few drinks?" Ash made a phone call to his friend.

"How refreshing of you! Of course, let's meet at a good place!" Jin agreed cheerfully.

A few hours later, with the bright moon hanging high on the clear stellarly sky, they meet each other at Cloud's Pub.

"Yo, bastard. It has been a long while," Jin greeted Ash with a bear hug. He was a big man with a sturdy figure and a rather handsome face, but his cheerful nature contrasted with his "scary" figure.

"Yes. But you know what? I'm happy to meet you personally after so long," Ash laughed and sat beside him, tapping his fingers on the counter a few times.

"What? Do you want me to read your mind?" Cloud asked with a bored face and a hand holding her chin.

"Just bring me what I always ask..." Ash said with a bitter smile, "Why are you always so anti-climatic?"

"I forgot what is it that you 'always ask,' what is it?" Cloud asked without frowning a little bit, her eyes seemed to be looking at the distant void.

"Rice wine," Ash and Jin answered at the same time and Ash laughed, "See? Even Jin remembers and you, the owner and only worker of the pub don't."

"It has been a while, why do you still hang up with this weakling?" Cloud asked while looking at Jin.

"We are all weaklings, you small-minded woman! Or could it be that you won't die?" Jin said with a sneering tone.

"Are you cursing me? Are you angry? Look at your friend, he is actually amused by seeing our conflict," Cloud said and then pointed at Ash with her nose, "He is a weakling not because of anything else, but because his goals are too worthless. He is a coward."

"You..." Jin frowned and then sighed as he asked, "You will never change, huh? Can't you just accept that there are people in this world that dream of a common, comfortable, and short life?"

"Sounds stupid," Cloud answered with a cold face, "Even more so if the person in question had the chance to do better."

"You only know a few things about him," Jin said with a bewildered expression, "Do you always judge people with this kind of shallow understanding

"Heh!" Cloud sneered and then said nothing, just pouring rice wine for both of them.

"Just ignore her," Jin said and looked at Ash.

Indeed, Ash had an amused expression and a mischievous smile.

"Do you like to see people... looking down on you?" Jin asked with a condescending tone.

"Hehe, I just find it funny," Ash answered and drank all the wine in his glass, "You wouldn't understand it, don't ask."

Jin just shook his head and also drank.

"Don't you dare to ask me to pour wine again, I left the bottle there for your hands to use," Cloud suddenly said in an irritable tone.

"Hehe," Ash smirked shamelessly and poured more wine for him and Jin.

They then went on to talk about old times, when they were both high school students and close friends. Cloud simply stayed on the other side of the counter listening with a bored face and time from time glanced at her smartphone.

After they are roughly drunk, Jin asked about the progress of Ash's new book.

"I just roughly finished the magic system, it's still a long way from reaching even minor completion."

"You always liked those kinds of weird old books and... is it called web novels? I didn't even know it existed before you told me about them back then," Jin said with remembrance.

"You always hated reading fiction, have you changed your mind since then?" Ash asked.

"Don't know... I just liked to spend my time on 'real' things. But now..." Jin said with gloomy eyes, "Fiction might really be better than reality."

"Hehe, you finally noticed?" Ash grinned and patted his shoulder with a strong force, perhaps trying to cheer up his friend, "But I guess it's natural for you to have a change of mind, we are still young and have much shit to see..."

"Thanks for your 'encouragement,'" Jin said sarcastically.

Ash laughed, but his face had a melancholic look.

Jin noticed it somewhat and then asked, "Are you really alright? I know it was not a simple choice for you."

"What? Worried about your eccentric friend?" Ash mocked and closed his eyes after a sigh, "I'm just fine, remembering those things is just a bit uncomfortable."

"Your choices are uncomfortable for those who know," Cloud suddenly said.

"You didn't even know him back then," Jin glared at her and said, "What right do you have to judge?"

"I'm not judging, I'm being sincere," Cloud rebuked while tapping the counter with her fingers, "Anyone will feel uncomfortable by knowing those things. To be sincere, when I knew it, I wanted to slap him hard.

"So many people would kill for the opportunities he once had, but he just discarded them like that.

"As if discarding trash!"

"Cloud," Ash interrupted her with a calm voice and expression, "Shut your mouth!" He didn't look at her, but she knew he had an angry look.

"I think you drank too much already," Cloud said with sharp eyes, "Don't you know I'm far from being a 'considerate' person?"

"I don't care," Ash said with a sudden grin, "But I think you get more beautiful when angry, I just wanted to see it."

Cloud suddenly didn't know what to say and just sighed.

"My choices..." Ash muttered, "Are not irrational...

"I don't expect anyone to understand, but I hope those close to me know I'm not a crazy person."

Cloud and Jin exchanged short glances and continued silent.

"At that time," Ash continued to talk about his past, "I was carrying the hopes of many bastards...

"But I suddenly understood many things...

"Those hopes are not about me, but about them. They just wanted me to accomplish something they couldn't, they wanted to use me as a tool to feel accomplishment.

"Those people, are just hypocrisy incarnate. They spoke words of goodness and gentleness, but their nature couldn't be fully hidden. It was about time for me to understand.

"When I got to understand those things, it was then the time for me to make my own choices.

"Who I really am? Who do I want to be? What do I want?"

Cloud and Jin continued to listen with calm expressions. But their hand silently clenched.

"Why do people like power so much? Is it so worthy of our efforts?" Ash continued and shook his head, "The so-called power is the tool to make humans feel as if they are owners of themselves and their fate, pure vanity.

"I didn't want it. I already saw too much shit inside the human's heart, I was tired. I really wanted to vanish," Ash said and then made a small pause, "But killing myself... If I did it, how different would I be from them? It's my vain wish to be different.

"I then decided to cut my ties with my self-proclaimed family and those who called themselves my 'friends,' I called myself an orphan and went on to live a life of mediocrity far away from everything.

"But this life of mediocrity..." Ash began to smile, "Is much better than the 'life' I once lived. And the life they wanted me to live."

"So you don't regret a single bit?" Cloud suddenly asked, her eyes locked on the void.

"How could I? Don't you know how severely I abandoned my surname and rights? It has been ages since I talked with my family and I feel happy like this," Ash answered calmly, "No kind of power could bring me more satisfaction than this life I now live."

"Why are you so sure?" Jin was the one to ask this time.

Ash looked at his friend with a smile.

"Old friend, you went ahead with the path I abandoned. It's too difficult for you to truly understand."

"I don't need to understand," Jin shook his head, "I only need to know you are living well and without regrets."

Ash laughed and said, "I'm happy that in my short life, I found a friend like you. I hope you don't forget me at least for a millennium."

"Don't worry," Jin grinned, "I will take good care of your descendants if you get any, until a millenium later."

"Perhaps a beautiful woman will choose to help me," Ash said while shamelessly looking at Cloud, "Who knows?"

Cloud looked at him with a disgusted expression and said nothing, as if unwilling to waste her time talking.

"Cloud, you probably know one or two beautiful women, right?" Ash then complemented and ignored Cloud's glare.

"Kekeke, your sense of humor is as horrible as always," Jin laughed, "But be careful to not have your head on your feet."

"It might be a good idea to see the world from below," Ash said and continued drinking with him, "I'm bored of seeing everything the same way, every day."

Jin knew his friend had a few problems, but he was surprised to see that his depressive ideas were so deeply rooted in his mindset, even though his mood was already stable. But there was little he could do, other than share his sorrows by drinking more and more.

...

Time flowed down the current, and five months passed since Ash and Jin drank to their hearts' content.

Ash was, as usual, doing his work, writing, and waiting for his life to quietly pass. For some, it was mediocre, but he was happy with it.

Cloud's pub was still open to guests, even though it had little to almost no revenue. Ash suspected she was secretly rich, and the pub was just a hobby of hers.

He knew little about her past, and her cold temperament didn't help.

Jin often called him for drinks and didn't talk much about his current life either, but Ash could guess a bit.

Jin was an Etherist with a conceptual power suitable for battle, it was his dream and he was growing within the government. It wouldn't be long before he ascended to a higher mountain and inevitably distanced himself from Ash, so Ash treasured his time with his friend.

Ash made some changes to his novel's cultivation system and divided it into two sub-systems, after being inspired by real-life Ether and Gene technology.

One sub-system was about rising a person's life plane, the "vase for power." The other sub-system was about rising a person's power. In this way, a person has to have a bigger vase first before gaining stronger power.

The two, however, were inseparable from one another. And a person cannot advance his "vase" too much without filling it with enough power, and vice versa.

After finalizing the changes, Ash was greatly marveled by his own creation. It was greatly exaggerated in detail, and he filled lots of pages with it. He wondered how he would pass all the important info to the readers without info dumping them.

Knowing himself, he decided in his heart that this part of the work was done, and he wouldn't waste more of his time with the cultivation system. Otherwise, he might lose more and more time unnecessarily changing things.

After hardening his heart, he began to write about the world's backstory and the novel's plot at the same time.

But an unexpected change in his life interrupted his routine. Someone knocked on his door.

"It had been a very little while... dear nephew," a middle-aged man greeted him, but no familiarity could be felt from his tone.

"What brings you here? Uncle Tom" Ash asked without even offering him to enter his house.

"Your cousin wanted to know you," his uncle answered.

"My cousin?" Ash was bewildered but then noticed a little figure behind his sturdy uncle.

"H-Hello," a little girl greeted him with a trembling tone, she had short black hair and eyes.

"You... Are you little Lin?" Ash asked with a warm smile and squatted to be at the same height as her.

The little girl nodded and said, "Are you my cousin Ash?"

"That's right," Ash admitted, "You were but a baby the last time I saw you... How is your mother?"

"She is well," the little girl smiled.

"Come inside, it's cold outside," Ash invited, "Do you like chocolate cookies? Or do you prefer some salty snack?"

Ignoring Tom, Ash brought the girl inside and gave her lots of snacks, which the girl happily devoured.

"You are just like your mother, she also loves this kind of food," Ash said and caressed the girl's head.

"But mom doesn't eat this..." Lin said a bit confused.

"Yes? I think she changed her taste then," Ash said without thinking much, "It has been a 'little while' since I saw her." He then looked at his uncle, which was still outside of the house while looking at them quietly.

"Why do you want to see me?" Ash then asked.

"Oh, you see!" she cleaned the sides of her mouth and said, "I hear a lot about you from Mom, so I wanted to see you!"

"Yes? Am I as ugly as she described?" Ash laughed.

"N-No! You are not ugly!" the little girl shook her head and rebuked, "I think you are very cool!"

"Hehe, I'm happy to hear that!" Ash grinned with curved eyes.

"But you are also strange," Lin's words pierced Ash's heart, "Mom called you eccentric."

Ash coughed falsely and bitterly cursed his aunt in his heart for telling others strange things about him.

"Why do you think so?" Ash tried his best to keep a 'cool' bearing.

"Why did you run away from home?" Lin asked back with a confused face.

Ash blinked a few times in surprise and sighed heavily. "I never ran away. It was within my freedom to choose how to live."

"But why?" Lin asked again, "Don't you like home?"

"I..." Ash was about to answer but stopped, "Do you know what, little girl? Your mother is the eccentric one!"

"Huh?" Lin was caught by surprise, "My mother is not!"

"Yes, she is!" Ash said seriously, "Do you know about her strange habit of secretly looking at other people's nose hair when talking to them?"

"What? She does it?" Lin was curious, her ears instantly perked up, "What more she do?"

"She also likes to curse out loud for no apparent reason when alone," Ash then began to describe lots of dirty secrets, which Lin heard with great attention, forgetting about the previous topics.

After playing around for a few hours, both were interrupted by Tom, who was still calmly outside the house.

"That's right. It seems you can take care of her for a while," he suddenly said, scaring Ash.

"What do you mean?" he asked with a bad premonition.

"Your aunt asked you to take care of Lin for a while," he said plainly, "Certainly there's no problem, right?"

Ash was about to rebuke when he suddenly felt Lin's sparkling eyes which were looking at him, she seemed very eager to stay and cause him "lots of troubles."

'Damn you, Jessy!' Ash cursed in his heart, his aunt knew very well he was weak to little kids.

"Why?" he asked with a long sigh.

"She is about to go on a mission to the outer system," Tom explained, "And she doesn't want to stay with me."

"Heh!" Ash threw him a mocking look but quickly restrained it.

"Well, she is my dear cousin so of course, it's alright for me to take care of her..." he said while caressing Lin's head, "For a 'while.'"

Lin grinned at him, seemingly happy with it.

"But I must say, I have work to do every day," Ash said and looked at Tom, "I can't possibly bring a kid to my workplace, right? What about contracting a temporary caretaker?"

"...Do you even need to work?" Tom asked strangely, "You..."

"Hey, it's not your problem," Ash interrupted him, "Your problem is the money you need to give me to pay the caretaker."

Tom twitched the corners of his mouth and sighed. "Alright, I will give you. Give me your bank account ID."

Ash threw him a small card with his personal info.

"I know of someone trustworthy, so don't worry," Ash said after seeing the money on his account and then joked, "but be careful, I might not give her up if you take too long."

Tom then said a few parting words to his daughter, Lin, and left.

"Uncle, what do you normally do at home?" Lin suddenly asked, "Do you play games?"

"Well, I normally read," Ash answered, "But recently I have been writing as well."

"Ugh..." Lin was immediately dispirited, "Don't you have any video games?"

"I do have one, but it's from my adolescence, so it might look obsolete to you."

"I don't care," Lin shook her head and said, "Cast it on the TV, I want to play."

Ash glared at her and thought, 'This little girl is a tad spoiled, but it's to be expected.'

He went to his room and brought a small cube from inside a chest, it was full of strange lines and seemed extraordinary.

"This is..." Lin's eyes sparked when she saw the cube, "The limited edition of the first generation Deep Immersion Drive. The Arcane Cube!"

"Yup, your mother also has one, right?" Ash nodded and said, "We bought them together when it was launched, it cost all our savings back then.

"But if I sold it now, I would be able to make a small fortune because of its rarity."

He clicked his fingers three times and a digital screen appeared on the wall as if it was a material thing.

"Charge the cube," Ash said, "Yui."

"Yes," a female artificial voice sounded, "Wireless charging connected, the cube has 1% of battery charge. Estimated time to finish the charging is one hour."

"No need to wait, just connect the cube already, Yui."

A cube then appeared on the screen, it was a logo.

"I'm passing basic authority to the User Lin, Yui."

"Okay, please speak anything, Lin," the voice asked, "I need to remember your voice."

"My name is Lin!" Lin said and blushed out of nowhere.

Ash held his laugh and caressed her head while saying, "Remember to always say her name when you finish talking to her."

"I know, my mother also has a version of 'Yui,'" Lin nodded.

"It's cool your mother has a version of me," Yui said.

"See? She always says something when you say her name," Ash laughed and said, "No matter what you say. It might be a bit frustrating sometimes."