I Level Up By Scamming (Indefinite Hiatus)

Soft light penetrated Eric's eyelids and woke him up from a comfortable sleep. He twisted and turned in bed for a while before a long yawn escaped his mouth and his eyelids started twitching. He blinked a couple times to adjust to the light and slowly opened his eyes.

The first thing Eric saw was a wooden ceiling shaped like a pyramid without its base. It looked like something you would see in a medieval or ancient building. This was clearly different from the usual white ceiling from which water seemed to always seep through and the fan that gave more noise than wind, at his house.

As he sat up and his reached for the floor with his legs, Eric noticed something and looked down. His legs seemed shorter and they barely even touched the ground. Confused by his situation, he instinctively raised his hand to hold his head when he noticed that his hands also seemed smaller.

'What happened? Am I lucid dreaming or something?' Eric blinked a couple more times and opened his eyes again to try to snap out of whatever he was experiencing.

To his surprise and misfortune however, nothing had changed. Eric took a look around him and what he saw was shocking beyond belief. His computer desk was missing, his closet was replaced by a more primitive looking wooden closet and so was his nightstand.

Instead of a desk lamp there was an old looking lantern and his mobile phone was nowhere to be found. The mirror looked different and there was a bookshelf with ancient looking books in it along with a desk donning an incense stick holder with a bunch of scrolls lying around.

Everything around him looked like something you would find in a set for a movie or TV show based in ancient times. There were no light bulbs or tube lights and barely anything made of metal was found in his periphery. Eric was at a loss for words.

He kept looking around the room a bit more until his gaze fell on the mirror once again. Now that he was fully awake, his attention fell on the person the mirror displayed.

'Who… what happened to me!?!?' Eric cried inside his mind looking at the young child he saw reflected in the mirror.

The figure he saw had short brown hair and glowing, light brown eyes. He was a child roughly 11 to 12 years old and was quite tall for his age. He was neither fat nor skinny and was quite good looking.

Eric was reluctant to believe what he saw so he tested the mirror. He lifted his hand and saw the image in the mirror do the same, just with the other hand. He then repeated the same gesture with his other hand and the reflected image still followed him correctly. Eric didn't care how stupid he looked doing this and once he was sure he fell back on the bed.

A 24 year old employee at a firm which barely paid him enough was now a pre-pubescent boy in an ancient world that lacked any sort of technology.

'Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!' Eric cursed to himself, squirming in bed out of frustration. He had no idea why or how he had got here and neither did he have a clue on how to return back.

His normal life was far from what he wanted, but at least he had modern technology at his disposal. In such a place he had nothing to relieve himself from the stress of work, not to mention that he had become a child.

As restlessness filled Eric's mind, he heard a 'ding' sound and a translucent floating screen appeared right in front of him.

[User detected. Transferring body's memories to user…]

Eric read the text that appeared on the floating screen and before he had the chance to react, the text updated.

[Transfer successful.]

As soon as Eric read this message, he felt a sensation like none other. His head felt like it was being pierced over and over, along with a headache so intense that it made him feel like it would explode. Eric was in so much pain that he couldn't even scream.

Along with this pain, a huge wave of information suddenly flooded into his brain. He started seeing the memories and knowledge of the previous owner of this body, who was, coincidentally, also called Eric Tyler play out like a movie inside of his head.

By the time this process finished, Eric's body was completely drenched in sweat and he was lying on the bed, gasping for air.

Suddenly, a voice started echoing through his ears. He could here a man speaking, with a slightly maniacal and playful tone to his voice, unlike the previous robotic, mechanical voice.

[Welcome Eric Tyler.

You have been transmigrated to a world of cultivation and magical beasts! Interesting, isn't it? Compared to your previous life, there is danger around every corner over here; but with that danger, there are ample rewards as well.

Worry not, however, as this is just a game; with only you as the Player while everyone else is an NPC.

Even though you are the only Player here, everyone else is a real human as well… just not a Player. This isn't your average game, you see?

You don't understand this now, do you? Don't worry, you won't… for now at least.

Reach the apex of this world in order to clear this game and open the pathway to the true world; where you will meet yours truly and find out how and why you ended up here.

In order to reach the highest level of strength in this game, I have bestowed upon you this System, which will be your supreme aid in reaching the peak!

Once again, I will remind you. This is but a game; a tutorial you must complete before reaching the true world! That is where your journey shall really begin…]

His mind hurt after being invaded by eleven years of memory and now he felt an indescribable feeling after hearing this welcome message.

He felt sense of fear envelop his heart, but it was a fear unlike anything else. He felt… small; not physically or mentally, he felt like a tiny little fish, insignificant and powerless in the face of the endless and mighty ocean.

He didn't understand most of what those words meant, but he could feel it. He could feel they meant something; something he didn't deserve to know yet. He felt the voice echo all over his body and give him goosebumps. It wasn't a frightening voice, neither were the words it spoke rather terrifying; but somehow, he could feel it.

Whoever had welcomed him was a being of unimaginable power: someone Eric had never met before and would never expect to meet in his entire life.

He felt his heart ache and reluctantly let go of these thoughts and calmed himself. The voice told him that he wouldn't understand what he meant, which he believed and decided to put aside indefinitely.

'Let's think about that once I reach the peak of this world. For now, my current situation is more important.'

Eric started reviewing the new information his brain had received.

He now knew where he was and what this world was. Though he slept back on Earth the previous night, Eric had woken up in a different world: a game world, a world of cultivation like those in fantasy novels.

The people in this world had three different 'paths' of cultivation.

The first and most popular path was the path of the 'soul', also known as cultivating the dantian; wherein cultivators absorbed the qi in their dantian and used it to use various cultivation techniques.

The second was the path of the 'body', also known as cultivating the meridians; wherein cultivators absorbed qi in their physical body to refine and upgrade their bodies to use various martial arts.

The third and the rarest path to be practiced was the path of the 'mind' also known as cultivating the mental energy; wherein cultivators would absorb qi in their sea of consciousness, also known as mental sphere and use mental skills.

He also came to know about his current identity and situation. He was the son of Blake Tyler, the leader of the 'Roaring Dragon' mercenary group. Blake Tyler was a dual cultivator of the soul and body paths and was immensely powerful, both in terms of his individual strength and his mercenary group's image and connections.

As his son, the previous Eric lived a pretty lavish lifestyle, at least according to the technological advancements of this world. He didn't ever focus on cultivation and just lazed around and relaxed, but not to the point where he became a classic jerk rich kid who was a giant pain in the ass for everyone.

He was pretty much like Eric on earth: neither exceptional nor disappointing; he was blandly mediocre.

Now that Eric Tyler from Earth had taken over this body, he had made up his mind to cultivate and train hard.

In his previous life he was pathetically average; now that he had been given a second chance he would gladly accept it, not to mention that it was a world of cultivation which he had read about in novels. In such a world, he could become a deity like existence.

Moreover, he felt a natural urge to comply to what that voice had told him: to reach the peak of this world!

Eric slowly adapted to his current situation and started getting used to his new body.

He also eventually got over the initial feeling of being overwhelmed by the man's voice and after a while was back to his normal state. He didn't feel like a fish anymore, he had the desire to become a shark; who raced across the vast oceans as if it were his home and to devour any weak creatures that stood in his path.

As he had this sort of an 'awakening' in his personality, a 'ding' sound like the previous one resounded in his mind.

Another floating screen appeared which Eric assumed was his system: another thing he read about in novels which main characters have often.

Eric felt smug about how he was practically a main character of a fantasy novel, but the smile vanished from his face almost instantly once he read the text on the screen.

'What is this!?!?' he internally exclaimed.