Xuan woke up feeling heavy. He looked around and found himself back in his room.
He tried to touch his head, but found the VR headset on his head, and placed it on his side.
*yawn*
He rubbed his eyes and yawned, as he looked at the clock on the desk, beside the bed.
"It's already 6?! Looks like the time in the game and the time in the real-world move in unison." When he got up, he noticed his phone on the desk and looked at the notifications.
"What? 23 missed calls? Mom?" He panicked and immediately called her back.
The call went by, it kept ringing… until the last ring, someone picked up.
"Hello?"
A female voice sounded from the other side, which he didn't recognize at all.
He then slowly asked, "umm… Mom?" didn't know what to say, he looked at the screen to check the number again.
"oh! it's you, Xuan?" The female voice looked cheerful.
"Yes, who you might be? And where is my mom?" He went to the point and asked her.
The female voice from another side stopped for a few seconds before answering.
"Xuan, it's me, your Aunt Zhenya, don't you recognize my voice anymore?"
She said and paused, before speaking again, "your mother is in the hospital."
Hearing that Xuan's eyes widened, he got furious and looked out of the window.
"What happened to her?! which hospital is it?!" he got furious thinking about his mother.
Small drops of sweat started to build up as he listened to her.
"It's the city hospital, come here and we will talk later," she said and hung up the call.
Xuan Immediately rushed out of the room and walked down the stairs, while looking at his phone. He quickly put on his shoes and went out of the house
As he got out of his house, he didn't even lock the door and started to run.
"Oh no! I have a bad feeling about this… please mom be safe." he looked around for a taxi, around the block, but could not find any. "shit! Where did all these fucking Taxis go?"
He opened the GPS on his phone to track a cab. "What no cab is available here? What the hell is wrong with this today?"
He stood there grabbing his hair in frustration, while his thoughts were running wild. Suddenly he clapped his hands together, as an idea hit his mind. "that's right, the old bus stop!"
He remembered that the old bus stop was always full of people. so it might be easy to find a taxi.
The old bus station was just 30 minutes walk from there, so he started to run.
It took him around 10 minutes to arrive at the bus stop. He looked around, and fortunately, he found a taxi.
He got in the taxi and instructed the driver, while he kept looking at his phone.
As he arrived at the hospital, he dashed towards the reception, while looking around.
"Hello, how can I help you?" the receptionist was a beautiful woman, she looked at him with a smile and asked.
Xuan couldn't care less about her, as he was desperate to know about his mother.
"Xuan! here!"
Suddenly a voice came from behind, making him turn.
He looked at a woman standing behind him with a smile. "Aunt Xu…"
The woman approached him and put her hand on his shoulders. "Come on, that's the room."
She pointed at a room near the reception.
"What happened to her?" he asked as anxiety built up.
She sighed and then started to explain. "She was doing her usual chores when she suddenly fainted. The neighbor spotted her and called an ambulance."
Xuan felt relief when he heard that she just fainted, nothing else. There could be many factors for fainting, and she does all the chores herself, so there's no surprise if she just fainted from fatigue.
As he was thinking about that, the door opened, and the doctor came out.
"Doctor, what happened to her?" Xuan asked the doctor.
Another female doctor came out of the room, she had a dissatisfied smile on her face.
"Are you her relative?" the doctor asked, looking at Xuan with disdain.
"Yes, she is my mother, what happens to her? Is she alright?" Xuan asked, as his heart was pounding very fast.
"She… has liver cancer." the first doctor said and turned back to the room.
Xuan looked at him with wide eyes. His phone almost slipped from his hands.
"W-What? Liver cancer? But how?" he asked with panic all written over his face.
The other doctor sighed and started to explain, "this is because of alcohol. her liver certainly can't hold out her life for another year. She must be treated in six months for good results."
The doctor finished saying and then started to walk.
"W-wait doctor! " Xuan called out again, as they turned.
"How much will the treatment cost? And will she be alright, after the treatment?"
Xuan asked while being desperate to rush Inside the room and see his mother.
The doctor smiled, and said, "of course, she will recover after the treatment. And the cost will be around five hundred thousand dollars."
Hearing that, Xuan's jaw dropped. He gritted his teeth in frustration and turned to the room.
His heart started pounding very hard. He turned the doorknob and opened the door.
His eyes fell on a woman lying on the bed.
He slowly approached her, while eyes were closed.
As he approached her his hands were trembling, as her eyes opened, she looked at Xuan.
"Xuan? It's you, my son?" she asked as narrowed her eyes to look at his face clearly.
Xuan's eyes watered as he looked at her mother like that.
She was his only family in this world. She raised him all by herself. As a single mother, the struggles she went through to raise a son are praiseworthy
She had always supported him and taken care of him.
She gave birth to him when she was in college. and her partner did not support her either. so she had to drop out of college to take care of him.
She was still in her mid-thirties and only started to live after he moved out.
Remembering her gentle smile, and her warm touch, Xuan couldn't but wrap his hands around her.
"Mom…"
He said and started to cry on her shoulders.
"what happened, Xuan? why are you crying?" she said and patted his back trying to calm him down, which worked like magic and he calmed down and wiped his tears.
"Is it something severe? am I going to…" she didn't finish her words, as Xuan interrupted.
"don't worry mother, the doctor said you will be alright after the treatment," he said trying to smile, but a teardrop escaped from her eyes.
"Xuan…" she didn't know what to say, so she hugged him back.
After a few moments of talk, Xuan left the room and went out.
When he looked at his aunt still waiting there, he approached her and started to explain everything to her.
"five hundred dollars?!" Aunt Xu exclaimed in surprise.
She looked at him with a meaningful look.
"I don't know if I can help you with either. I will go and look, what can I do," she said with a concerned look on her face.
Xuan knew that she really meant it. So he smiled and turned to the receptionist.
After taking care of the paperwork, he spent some time with his mother, before returning to his apartment.
He was so tired that he fell asleep immediately.
…
The next morning, Xuan opened his eyes, seeing the familiar ceiling of his room.
The sun wasn't fully up yet, but the birds started chirping, blooming in the atmosphere, their chirping was soothing to the ear.
Xuan got up with a smile, even though he was feeling very stressed. He took a deep breath and went to the bathroom.
After he finished his daily necessities he sat on the bed, with his phone in his hand.
He was scrolling through social media when he saw a post, which was about a streaming channel on Youtube. He saw a lot of posts on the channel, which were all about the 'path of immortality', the most advanced and popular video game on the planet.
There were a lot of posts of tutorials, and tips. He ignored them because he didn't care about it. He preferred to play the game fair and square and to experience the wilderness with his own abilities.
But his eyes stopped on a particular post. It was saying "get 10 qi gathering pills at only 50000 dollars."
"what? Qi gathering pills? Isn't this…" Xuan remembered the qi gathering pills, from the novel he was reading a while ago.
He then clicked on the post, where he read the description. Which mentioned the game 'path of immortality.'
He frowned and looked through the comment section, which was flooding with comments.
(I need 3, please tell me your location immediately.)
(Qi gathering pills? I need all of them. I am just about to break through the 4th stage of the foundation establishment realm.)
(You can't take all, I need some too, I will pay 5100 dollars each.)
(Oh my god, finally a restock? And only 10? I need more…)
He read the comments with astonishment, as he tapped at the profile and looked at the person's bio.
He was a 19-year-old boy, who created this account almost a year ago, and started to post about the game, around a few months ago.
As he started to stalk his profile, he discovered that the guy had done millions of dollars of business over the past few months.
not only that, but he could also see posts about cultivation methods getting auctioned over the internet.
Xuan started to feel very envious of him. He then slowly scrolled over to see another few similar types of accounts, selling merchandise related to 'path of immortality.'
He saw the cultivation techniques were a lot more overpriced than the pills. They were selling in millions, for each copy. And the sad thing was, people were very enthusiastic to spend millions of dollars on just a game.
But that made sense too, they could literally start their new life there. So that made sense. They were willing to spend millions of money to make their second life better…
Then suddenly a realization hit Xuan. If they could make money like this he could too right? He already had a basic understanding of the cultivation world from the novels he used to read.
He knew about alchemy and pills. But what he did not know was the cultivation techniques. Or the breathing techniques.
So with a determined expression, he decided to log into the game.
He didn't waste any time and pushed the button, as he put the headset on.
He laid there on his bed as the comfort took over his mind and he turned unconscious.
…
Xuan opened his eyes and looked, there were flowers everywhere. Everywhere his eyes went he could see glamorous small flowers twinkling with their bright colors.
When the morning sun showed its mercy on these devoted little believers, the surroundings started to attain colors.
The gentle splash of the Radiance of the sunlight worked wonders when the colorful flowers started to whistle through the pleasant breeze.
Xuan felt his heart beat faster and faster, fully immersed in the scenery in front of his eyes.
He felt all his worries fading away. He looked at the rising sun with a look of resolution.
He felt a lot more energetic and vigorous than yesterday.
Then suddenly a realization hit him. "where am I?"
He carefully looked at his surroundings. As far as his eyes could reach, he saw a vast endless plane filled with flowers.
"Wait, the servers went down yesterday, so what am I doing here? I was on my way to the city…" he pondered for a second before turning his head around to look.
But he couldn't see anything else other than flowers. But just as he was thinking about what to do, a voice interrupted his thoughts
"Hey, You! What are you doing here?"
A lady's voice echoed from his behind, startling him.
He turned around to see, out of nowhere, a woman appeared a few meters behind him.
His eyes fell on her the moment he felt his beat faster.
Her silver-colored hairs were shining from the sunlight, giving it an orange tint. Her fair white skin, and her curvy figure, everything was just too flawless.
But what caught his eyes were her pair of gorgeous eyes. Her dark blue pupils contrasted with her overall body which made them a stunning combination.
He didn't notice but subconsciously he found himself staring at her.
Her face was like a blank sheet, with no written emotions.
When their eyes met, the time slowed down around them, like they were in a 4th dimension, with them being only present, keeping the existence of the moment.
A gust of wind passed by them, breaking the serene atmosphere.
Xuan came back to his senses and broke eye contact.
"What are you doing here? This is my territory!"
The Lady said with a calm yet cold voice, making Him flinch on the spot.
Xuan looked around confused by this mysterious land of beautiful flowers.
"I-I am sorry… I don't know why I am here either, the last thing I remember, I was near the river shore city. and then I opened my eyes and found myself here…" Xuan said and looked at her excellent figure.
He felt really admiration for the designer of this NPC. He felt like he could spend his whole life with a woman like this.
He shook his wild thoughts away and stood still.
The lady stared at him weirdly then spoke, "so you don't know how you got here? and you want me to believe you? Why don't just kill you?"
Although she tried to make it sound it sound vicious, with a straight face it sounded like a joke.
Xuan smiled and thought that she was joking, and tried to get along with the flow.
"you don't believe me? Then what can I do to make you believe me?"
She looked a bit confused by his words, she pondered for a second, then spoke, "put your hands back and kneel there."
He froze there for a second, "what?"
She ignored his words and pointed her hands towards him. suddenly out of nowhere a sword appeared in her hand.
"kneel now! or I will behead you right here."