Why do you sound like my mother?

The four players introduced themselves to the shopkeeper, another old man, also dressed in a similar austere robe. This one was looked like a medicinal shop and had a lot of pill bottles and such.

Bret chuckled inwardly and waited. In the meantime, he tried to see if there was a call button to contact Jack.

It was not necessary that everyone from the same location had to spawn nearby so he wondered which part of the game world was his friend currently in.

"Huh? There is no call function?"

While Bret fiddled with things on his status screen, no loud bangs or thuds sounded and the group of four still continued to chat harmoniously with the shopkeeper.

He looked up and blinked at this shocking scene.

"Wait a second…"

"This…"

"Fuck me!"

The four players walked out and Bret quickly asked them. "Dudes, that guy didn't kick you out?"

Three of the four ignored him, but the short guy on the back answered. "Huh? Why will he kick us out? Oh! You should first join a sect and then do the quests."

"Ah! I see. I see." Bret nodded. He watched their backs as the four of them walked away and suddenly felt a chill creep on his back.

So he turned around, only to find the old man once again glaring at him. "Alright. Alright. I am leaving. Sheesh!"

Bret walked around the market square with the various shops and he could see the unusual numbers of players gathered, crowding at the center around a huge thick banyan tree.

"Let me check it out. I guess I can also look at the tutorial now." He shrugged and walked over to the bustling crowd.

In the middle of the crowd, there was another old man.

"Heh. Every single NPC in this game is an old fart?" Bret chuckled at his own comment and then stood at the back of the crowd, trying to peer in.

This old man had long flowing white hair and there was an aura of nobility about him, which made him stand out even in this crowd.

Bret looked at the man from top to bottom and when his eyes reached the bottom, he saw that the old guy was in fact floating!

His eyes immediately widened in surprise. "Heh. I wonder when I can fly."

Since the game was ultra realistic, everyone particularly looked forward to this aspect.

Almost everyone including Bret was staring at the geezer with a twinkle in their eyes as if he was a young eighteen year old busty beauty.

"Ahem. Listen up brats. This recruitment event is only going to last for 2 hours. Form a line and one by one move forward to fill up the evaluation form."

The crowd immediately moved and started squeezing together to form a neat line. Looking at the unusually bigger crowd, the elder decided to add a few words.

"Our Profound Sect is an ancient and glorious sect. It doesn't matter if you are rich or poor, as long as you are talented, our sect will welcome you with open arms."

"But you need to be talented. Our minimum requirement is earth grade. So don't aimlessly stand here and waste both of our time."

"If you don't have at least an earth grade physique or bloodline or spirit, you can keep walking."

"Those who have a special physique or a bloodline or a spirit, come out to the front of the queue. I can take a special look at your evaluation."

The old man's words instantly created a stir and everyone started busily discussing amongst themselves.

Bret, on the other hand, had an unsightly expression on his face. He checked his status again and again, but he didn't seem to be having any of the things that the old man had mentioned.

"What the hell?" Just as he was wondering why he had drawn such a shitty straw, he heard a couple of players loudly discussing near him.

"Hey, this is not the only sect recruitment. My friend mentioned that the Phoenix Sect was better than this one."

"Better? How?"

"There was a gorgeous beauty recruiting? It has to be better right?"

The two laughed together and Bret's mood was also a little better. "That's right. This shouldn't be the only sect. Wait, sects are like guilds right?"

He walked out of the queue and flipped over the blinking tutorial option. He turned around to see that not many people had walked out and had an uneasy filling stir at the bottom of his heart.

"Everyone has an earth grade something or what? Nah. How could that be possible?"

He shook his head and looked at the tutorial, while simultaneously also walking towards the Phoenix Sect recruitment. After all, it was better to be recruited by a beauty than by a greying old fart.

[Soul Cultivation Tutorial]

[Congratulations on entering the world of Soul Cultivation]

[In this world, anything is possible as long as you desire it enough. You can move mountains, crush them, and flip them. You can cross oceans, fly towards heaven and even shatter the moral world. Only your desire and imagination are the limit.]

[....

Bret quickly skipped over the next few lines of nonsense and his eyes fell on the more important details.

[Qi: Energy of the world. Qi can be gathered and assimilated in the body and soul using various cultivation methods. This is the basis for your strength.]

[Cultivation methods: Ancient unique methods to gather and harness the world's energy, Qi. Higher grade cultivation methods are only passed down in a sect, which is a school, or an association or a clan of cultivators.]

[Physique: Body constitution of a cultivator. The different grades of physique are Ordinary, King, Emperor, Saint, Heaven, Divine, and Celestial]

Bret's heart skipped a beat as he gazed at the word ordinary which was at the bottom rung of the ladder.

"Nah. There is no way. An awesome person like me couldn't possibly have such bad luck right?"

He shook his head and since he already reached the other recruitment site, he flipped the tutorial window close.

The Phoenix sect recruitment was in front of a tall pagoda shaped building and just as the two players had been discussing, there was a tall beautiful woman standing there.

Bret instantly forgot his turmoil and ogled at the woman without any restraint. Not only him, but every player in the vicinity which was mostly men were all gawking at the same woman.

She was wearing a simple maroon robe with white lilies on the border and her figure was slender and voluptuous in the right places.

Her facial features as well were exquisite and she was oozing a mesmerizing charm from head to toe like a pure celestial maiden.

Just like the old man, she was also floating above the ground like a goddess. However, unlike the old man, no one dared to crowd around her.

Bret was busily looking at her perfect features that he failed to notice this important point. He didn't even realize that he had walked quite close to her and now was very obviously staring at her.

Hmmm… The sect elder knitted her brows together. Her cherry red lips opened and Bret gulped. "Mortal, don't you want to live?"

Huh? Bret snapped out of his trance and an overwhelming fear once again gripped his body. He felt as if he was being seen through, down to his very soul.

The woman's hazel eyes simmered with a subdued tyrannical power and an aura of dominance overflowed from her. Bret wasn't even able to look directly at her any longer.

He watched her lift her hand and point it at him as if she was about to curse him?

But suddenly, another middle aged man standing near her, whom Bret only just now noticed whispered something in her ears.

The woman loudly harrumphed and put her hand back down. "Useless trash. Absolutely worst talent and you still dare to come here and dawdle?"

The woman was furious and her chest was heaving up and down in anger.

But Bret on the other hand was rather calm. Since she had also retracted her killing intent, he was not under any oppressive pressure.

"You show your face here with this sort of garbage constitution? You are not even fit to stand in front of me? Good for nothing!"

The elder continued to chide him and Bret scratched his head. "Wow." He muttered, his eyes filled with disbelief. He was seemingly very shocked.

Seeing his reaction, the sect elder was satisfied. "Hmph. Scram pest."

"Wow. Uncanny. You sound just like my mother." Bret muttered to himself and turned around to walk away absent-mindedly.

This was not the first time he was scolded by a woman and this would probably not be the last time. So he didn't even put her words in his mind.

He dusted it off and casually walked away.

He no longer even paid attention to the woman behind him who was now red with anger. She was so furious that her beautiful eyes had widened.

In fact, the middle aged man standing next to her had to once again whisper something in her ear and calm her down.

However, her mood was bad for the rest of the day, and the other players who had queued up in front of her for the sect recruitment had to suffer the consequences.

For the next hour, not even one single person got admission into the Phoenix Sect and everyone silently cursed Bret for this misfortune.

The main culprit in question, though, was long gone. He was now loitering the streets of the city. A blue screen flashed in front of him and on it was something similar to a map.

"So I am right now in Qingyan city. Everything else around the city is blacked out. Guess I would have to go to these places in order to reveal more landscape?"

Bret took a look and then sighed loudly.

"So to get quests, I need to cultivate and improve my level or join a sect and have some sort of token, but to do either of these I need some sort of talent."

"However, since I don't have any talent and can't cultivate, the only way I can play this game would be to kill beasts and monsters which once again is impossible with my low stats."

"What the fuck?"

"What is with this bad luck?"

"Did I actually just get trolled by the game?"