Alchemy

Alex opened his eyes and slowly felt the helmet as he pulled it off. He had logged out a little early because he didn't know what to do in the game any longer and decided to leave. 

He tried to stand up quickly and hit his head. "Ow," he looked at what he had just hit and said in realization, "Oh, that's right. I'm not in my room." This made him feel a little sad and started to miss home. 

Seeing that the others were still in the game as it was still quite a bit away from the 7 pm they said they would log out at, he decided to call his parents and tell them he had settled. 

"Did you message your cousin?" his father asked from the other side. 

"Oh, I forgot. I will message her right now," said Alex. After ending the call with his parents, he sent his cousin a simple message. 

<I have arrived at the university and am settled in dorm room>

Soon, his three roommates logged out as well, and they went to the cafeteria to have dinner. 

"So, how did you like the game?" Matt asked from the side curiously. 

"It was good. I mean, I didn't like that you have to meditate around forever just to level up, but the realistic senses make up for it more than enough." 

"Oh, that? You will get used to it," Logan said from the side. "Everyone complains about the slow leveling at first. But you will soon find why that is at an appropriate speed." 

Eric chimed in from the side saying, "Deva Corp did earn over 2 billion dollars just in the first month of release of Eternal Cultivation. That should tell you how good that game is." 

  Matt said, "You will soon get used to it. Although I think it's better if you drop your ideas of this being a game. This is another world that Deva Corp has made for us to live in. They do say, You don't play Eternal Cultivation, you live it."

That statement struck Alex in a way he hadn't expected it to. 'So I should just stop caring leveling up and just enjoy the world, huh? Guess I can do that.'

Together they went back to their room. Alex was about to go to the bathroom when he saw every one of them putting their helmets back on. 

"You guys are going to play again?" he asked.

Matt laughed and said, "We play every moment of waking and sleeping hour. It's just that fun." 

"Sleeping hours? Do you guys play instead of sleeping? Isn't that bad for your health?"

Logan said from his bed, " No, we sleep. But the VR helmet makes it so that we can play even when asleep. You should try it today." 

Eric added, "You should play it too. Maybe you can earn enough money to buy your own headset."

"Earn money? How?" Alex questioned. 'They must be joking with me right?' he thought.

"Oh, you can earn money by converting in-game currencies to dollars. We make some good bucks, enough for our monthly pocket change" said Logan. "Alright, we are logging in, you should go too, Alex." All 3 of them logged in afterward. 

"Me? Earn money with the game?" that concept was quite funny to him. A kid who barely played any video games could never earn money from it. 

He quickly freshened up and went back to his bed. He saw that his phone had a notification and checked it. 

<You came? Alright. I will meet you tomorrow. Wait for my message>

His cousin, Hannah, had replied. He put down his phone and put on the helmet. Before he knew it, he was back in the game.

He opened his eyes in the room in the tavern. As soon as he did, he heard the rumbling of his stomach. 

"I can get hungry as well?" 

Thankfully, he was already at a tavern, so he walked down to the ground floor and ordered himself a bowl of stew. It cost him about silver, but he didn't care for the money right now. 

He listened to the conversations of different people in the tavern and came to a  piece of information that interested him. Hong Wu sect was holding an entrance exam tomorrow.

During dinner, the 3 guys told him that he should find a sect as fast as possible. 'If they are really taking a test, then I should try it as well.' He thought. 

He walked to the people who were talking about this and asked, "Hello, can you tell me where this examination is taking place exactly?" 

"I would suggest you don't bother, brother. Hong Wu Sect is an alchemy sect, so they are very hard to get into. But, if you still want to know, it will take place at around 8 am in the Hong Wu Sect." 

'Alchemy?' he was confused as he had never heard that term before. 'I should check what it is tomorrow morning.' 

He went back to his room after eating the food and thought, "It's already so late at night. So, I probably shouldn't go out, right? Why don't I take this chance to cultivate instead."

He sat cross-legged in the bed and started to meditate. Slowly, he started getting drowsy, and before he knew it, he had lost consciousness and entered a trance-like state. 

<Sun God's Divine Yang Body increasing cultivation speed by 500%>

<Starry sky Qi Absorption method's Night bonus increasing cultivation speed by 200%>

<Obtained 200 Qi>

<Obtained 200 Qi>

<Obtained 200 Qi>

.

.

.

Alex suddenly woke up. He didn't realize when he had fallen asleep in the game, but by the time he was awake, it was already 6 AM in the morning. 

"Where am I?" he got confused for a second before he realized that he was still in the game. "But, I fell asleep, how am I still in the game?" he was confused. After he stopped thinking about it, he logged out.