A Decision

I hovered around the earth's stratosphere and looked around for my mortal clone. Well, he was a cultivator, but in my eyes you'd have to be above the Body Integration realm to no longer be considered a mortal. However, whether or not anyone was truly immortal, in every definition of the word, was up for debate.

My divine sense landed in San Diego, California. I was a sophomore at one of the colleges here, similar to my "previous" life. I soared along the west coast, passing the familiar sights of koreatown in Los Angeles, then Irvine which some high school acquaintances attended, and finally the overpriced dorm which I cohabited with a fellow Chinese. He wasn't a Canadian citizen like I was but rather a direct immigrant from the homeland, and was my main source on matters within the country.

I shared my senses with my earthly body, finding myself in an oddly familiar position; tucked away in bed and struggling to wake up. A terrible grogginess which I had not experienced for eons struck my consciousness, which I almost failed to suppress. I ripped my phone from the outlet and narrowed my eyes.

4pm.

This fucking bastard.

I scratched my head for a moment before recalling the passcode and seeing the 13 missed calls from my mother.

You know what, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. You're a fucking bastard as well! If someone doesn't answer your calls, it means they're busy!

After almost forgetting to brush my teeth, I stumbled into our shared kitchen and fumbled around in the fridge for some eggs, dialing up my parents in the process. It's never too late to have breakfast, especially American diner-style omelets. I honestly thought these things were terrible, but the nostalgia made it worth eating.

As I was dicing up some garlic and warming up the pan with olive oil, my mother finally picked up.

"Yuwen, you woke up?" My mother asked in a slightly hurried and accented Chinese. It was good to see her face again after so long, especially with the new perspective of an ancient being. It was less obvious to me back then, but the wrinkles on her face that had been concealed by layers of makeup were obvious to a more observant eye.

"Mhm," I mumbled, scorching my hands with hot oil as water from the chopping board landed in the pan.

"About what you said yesterday, are you really going to transfer schools?" There was some doubt in her eyes, as if she almost couldn't believe that I would be decisive enough to go through with it.

If it wasn't obvious, my indecisive character on earth didn't believe in himself enough to go on the path of a cultivator, so he chose what he thought was the easier path by becoming a software engineer. He really couldn't be blamed though, one of the most common tests for joining a sect was immense willpower.

Now, with my interference, he would be veering right back to the path of defying heaven.

"People in college change paths all the time. Remember when I told you about the historian who became a firefighter?" I explained with a knowing tone.

"Is this about your grades again? Just because you're not doing well in software engineering doesn't mean you have to give up."

I clicked my tongue. "It really isn't about giving up. We've already invested a lot into this in the first place, and I've done the paperwork. I want to live longer and have more time to decide my path instead of being stuck as a programmer for the rest of my life."

She pursed her lips. "But you haven't been working as hard as the first-rate applicants. You'll probably only get an acceptance from the second-rate state colleges. I'm just worried that-"

I cut her off indignantly. "So what if I only get into a second-rate college? Isn't that where I am right now, paying these ridiculous out-of-state tuition just for some online classes for a terrible degree? Do you think I have the face to tell this to my friends from high school?"

My mother sighed. "Very well. Since it's the first time you've really done something out of your own initiative, I'll accept it. But, just tell me this, Yuwen. You'll try your best to avoid the mistakes of the past. Mother didn't raise you well, but you're your own person and have to fix these problems yourself. The cultivation schools are even more competitive than your private high school, so this will be especially tough for someone like you."

"Mhm. I do." I pried my eyes away from the screen and poured the eggs in.

It was at this moment that my father forced his wall into the voice call. "Yuwen, good morning!"

I "hmm"ed again. I knew this would grate my mother's nerves, but I didn't care.

He didn't wait for me to respond before continuing. "This son of mine, he's really changing his career in the middle of college. If you had just cultivated diligently in high school, we wouldn't be dealing with all of this. Where was your motivation when I took you to those sword fighting lessons?"

"Ah, but the sword is just a weapon for romantics. A weapon like the spear is more suited for me," I smirked.

I could almost sense the temperature in the room elevate, though we were separated by an entire continent.

Frowning, I snapped. "Anyways, you're the one who always tells me about those college dropouts who became billionaires. Don't blame me for trying!"

He at least had the decency to quiet down after that. I was partly thankful that he was really concerned about my wellbeing instead of being genuinely angered. In his college days in China, he witnessed one of his friends from the village being selected for the communist youth cultivator alliance and sent to a cultivation school in the same city where my father studied for his bachelor degree. This friend would often show up to gatherings beaten and bruised after being suppressed by students with better backgrounds. The school of that era was much closer to a bonafide sect of the cultivation world, relying on a harsh meritocracy that was exploited by family connections and wealth.

My mother interjected. "Yuwen, your father is just worried for you. When we were in college, your father had a friend…"

Thanks, mom, but I already did the exposition! Time skip!

"... So your fees at the school for this term are wasted, right?" My mother had a pained expression.

"Haha," I rubbed the back of my head sheepishly, playing with my mushroom omelet with a fork in the other hand. "It can't be helped."

She held back a cough, perhaps bitter that the hundreds of thousands of dollars invested into a premium US education was being dumped halfway.

"Look, if it doesn't work out, I can just apply back to this school again. But I'm not so worried about that. You know these new cultivation colleges are popping up everywhere after many of those older experts broke through. The bar to join is not high and it's common to jump to better schools [1]."

"You joining a new school is exactly what I'm worried about," my mother responded. "Those older masters focused on cultivation won't have any experience running a school. They might be just doing it to get grants from the government."

I smiled. "Don't worry so much, I'll work things out in the end. There's plenty of work for foundation establishment people in security gigs, even if you don't have military training.

She laughed. "Then break through quickly already. Don't focus too much on other people your age with higher cultivation, and work to close the gap between the talented kids. I'll order some medicine from China and transfer a few thousand dollars for you to buy pills, so spend your remaining days in America wisely!"

I nodded quickly, hoping to perform my best imitation of a puppy. "Don't worry about the money. I have just enough left over to buy a set of pills, and I can eat ramen for the next week. Just buy the plane ticket for me so we don't have to deal with the USD exchange rates."

"Aiyah, you shouldn't have to worry about things like food. Mother will take care of it. Just call me when you receive the transfer."

Despite myself, I was a little touched. Who wouldn't be at the thought of receiving thousands of dollars for no effort? Think of all the gacha pulls I could buy. Speaking of gacha, did I really spend enough on that game to create a karmic bond between me and the developer?

With an elated smile I finished my meal and returned to my laptop. With reckless abandon I began to delete every school related file from my computer, from my overdue research essay to the shitty programming take-home final. Alexander the Great? Hashmaps? The student debt crisis? Who cares? This Li Yuwen will become a real cultivator!

Ah, but I won't be doing that just yet. My mortal body was at a bottleneck and required an immense number of pills or some enlightenment. I should spend the rest of my time in the US relearning those fighting games. With enhanced reflexes, surely I could become a master renowned across the world!

---

I give up. All of the global leaderboards for fighting games were occupied by foundation establishment cultivators. The global champion of fucking TETRIS was a golden core old monster. With my meager skill, it would be fortunate for me to even join their ranks. Many esports agencies had entirely segregated baseline human and cultivator leagues.

What the hell is this? Shouldn't you people be detaching yourself from mortal desires? I was starting to regret turning this universe to the logic of the Great Dao. Perhaps I should have just kept the universe as it was, untainted by magic.

But then I wouldn't be able to realize my dream of being a minor character in a fantasy setting. Sigh. It just wasn't right for me to jump into a mortal's body in the cultivation universe and become powerful again from the ground up. I had already done that once, and it's honestly more tedious than anything. This life of mediocrity is the one I was supposed to live through if I never had the ability to move between universes. Perhaps it was best to realize the wishes of my old self and his parents first.

After finishing my dailies in the gacha game I could barely recall how to play, I turned in early for the night. It was hard to think of my experience in the other universe as a journey. I'd spent so much time there that I'd nearly forgotten everything about my past life, and fully considered myself an inhabitant of that world.

Despite that, in this moment, in the body of a weakling, I was no more than a tired man seeking his rest after an (un)productive day.

Father, mother, your son has returned.

[1] Sect hopping is a serious taboo. The author does not encourage fellow daoists to leave their sect unless absolutely necessary.