CHAPTER 5

"… a large parrot fish was discovered at the reefs of city A; it was reported by local fishermen when they caught it..."

"These types of news keep popping up lately, I don't know what's going on with these animals. It's not weird if the news reports are reported with a few years gap but now it keeps being reported every single day." Mr. David leaned on the counter while complaining.

It was 3:00 pm in the afternoon and the there were no costumers in the restaurant. The restaurant is only busy when meal time comes and the employees have a lot of free time after rush hours.

Alex was sitting on the chair listening on the news, he agreed to what Mr. David said. The world is getting weirder everyday since the first mutation reported. The authorities are also baffled by these phenomena but they need to appease the public and spouted a bunch of nonsense.

He hardly believed in those reasons, ever since he got the system, his worldview has changed. He also suspected if the recent number of humungous animals reported is because of the system. But he doesn't have sufficient evidence to prove this claim. His gut feeling told him that it is true.

"…the parrot fish caught was reported to be 10 feet in size and 6 feet wide…"

"Woah! That's the largest one ever reported yet. 10 feet! That's taller than our restaurant. That fish must be really delicious!" The Arthur exclaimed. He was recently hired, in the past Felix was the one who wash the dishes and sometimes Alex but due to the restaurant getting more diners, he can't handle the workload. So, Mr. David hired another employee. In total, there are 3 employees under Mr. David.

"You brat! You only think of eating." Mr. David knocked him to his senses. The dishwasher is only a part-timer, he was 15 years old and studied at the near high school. He works at night during school days and whole day during weekends. Today is Saturday so he is here.

"Of course, I would think of eating since I'm still growing—" Mr. David glared at him and he shut his mouth. He still has to cherish his free meals during working hours.

"Don't be too harsh on him boss, he is still young so it's normal to eat more." Felix said with a soft smile. He walked near Arthur and whispered: "Don't listen to him, you can still have your meals."

"What are you whispering there like a devil Felix?"

"Nothing, just little Arthur here thinks that the food you cook are delicious." Felix gave Arthur a glance.

Before Arthur could reply the door opened and a customer walked in. Felix got back behind the counter and entertained the customer.

He glanced at Alex and found him staring at the female reporter in the television listening intently. The screen switched frames and the news was replaced by advertisement.

"Big bro..." Arthur choked up the remaining words when he saw Alex got up and entered the kitchen.

"Sigh, Big bro Alex is still an ice block." He felt bored and remained sitting watching a female celebrity endorsing a perfume.

…

It's almost midnight when Alex got out of work. He sat on his bike and rode on the quiet street. There is hardly a night life on the outskirts. People turn in early and rest for another day of work tomorrow. The moonlight gently covers the street and houses in blue hue as the cicadas' chirp in the night.

He arrived and home, parked the bike near the door and entered the house. The past few months passed by in peace and he lived the days in monotonous routine: he wakes up, cultivates, works and at the end of the day go home and sleep.

He receives salary every month, enough to support himself and everyday necessity. He also saves some for future emergency. His life is on the right track. Except for those disturbing news reports, everything seems cool and fine.

But today is an exception, after cultivating perseveringly everyday in the past few months he is going to have his major breakthrough after midnight. Of course, he can sleep and breakthrough tomorrow morning but he can't wait to know what is the next realm after UNRANKED.

Because of his curiosity towards cultivation, he has been searching about it in the internet and stumbled upon a few light novels. He read all of them and grasp the idea behind it. To other people it's just some stories for leisure but it is a valuable information for him.

Aside from what is written in the system panel everything else is a mystery about it.

'STATUS'

NAME: ALEX DORTON

AGE: 17

RACE: HUMAN

CULTIVATION: LEVEL 9: 89/90 EXP (UNRANKED)

CULTIVATION TECHNIQUE: HARMONY CHAPTERS I

SKILLS: BIND

PHYSIQUE: FLORAE'S BLESSING

Aside from the last random generated quest last time, the system has not given him any in the past few months. That's why it took him until now to be in the pinnacle of UNRANKED realm.

He looked at his phone and noticed that it's already past midnight. He immediately got to the forest and sat on his usual place.

He calmed his mind and in a few moments a strand of qi entered his meridians and immediately guided it to its cultivation pathways like what he always does every cultivation session.

After an hour of waiting, he finished refining the qi and settled in his dantian but he did not relax because this is where the crucial point comes.

His dantian is full of numerous strands of qi but they are scattered. According to the Harmony Chapters I the first realm of cultivation is accumulation. You just need to gather strands of qi until you reach the peak of the first stage. After that you need to guide the numerous strands of qi to the center of the dantian and spin it until it forms a ball of vortex. After forming the vortex until it becomes stable, that's the sign that you have broken through from the first stage.

He gently controlled a single strand of qi and moved it in a circular motion. After it stabilized, he starts with the others. He repeated the same procedure again and again until one last strand of qi is left.

He slowly guided it and nervously moved it in a circular motion, it was successful. He let out a sigh of relief. His job is already finished. And after that he just needs to wait.

After last strand qi joined the vortex, it suddenly spun faster and compressed into a ball of qi. The color of a strand of qi is usually a faint blue hue but because it is condensed of several strand of qi it become deep blue like the ocean depths.

He suddenly felt bloated just like the minor breakthroughs before but this time it's more pronounced. As it came into climax it suddenly deflated and he felt something broke in him and a comfortable and relaxed sensation enveloped him.

He let out a foul breath of air and opened his eyes. Something major has changed in him, he felt several times stronger before and his body is light. He clenched his hands and felt the strength and vigor. It felt like he broke the shackles of being mortal.

He stands up but he felt nauseous and fell on the ground.

His last thought was that he never felt as grateful as before that Sunday was his day off.