"Yel, do you wanna sleep over tonight?" Yin asked.
Yel thought about his home. He doubted his parents would care. "Sure, why not."
"Dad, Yel's staying over tonight," Yin called to upstairs.
"No problem," his dad shouted back. "Tell him to not scream."
That night, Yel didn't sleep. Instead, he sat on the bed and cultivated. Gathering Spirit Energy from the surroundings, he felt the energy in his veins strengthen as the night passed.
In the morning, he breathed out slowly and opened his eyes. That instant, a flash flickered in his eyes, but subsided the next instant.
Yel shook his body and got off the bed. He felt refreshed even with no sleep. Cultivating had better effects than sleep.
He felt his power — it was significantly stronger. The whole night he turned on speed mode and became a human black hole. If any cultivator walks by, they will find Yin's mansion to be completely depleted of natural Spirit Energy.
It wasn't a permanent deplete; Yel expected the energy to be back after his daily 6 hours of Awaken.
Yel walked out of his room and saw Yin yawning as he walked out of his room, still in pyjamas.
"Good morning," Yel said.
"Huff… Good… mor… huff… ning…" Yin stammered through yawns.
Then he left to get changed.
Yel, who had spent the night in his normal clothes, did not have that problem.
"I'll see you in Awaken," Yel called out.
He decided to walk to school a bit early and to get some fresh air.
On the way, his phone buzzed. It was a message from Jill.
-Jill: Yel, the school said that we don't need to go to class anymore, we can just go to any capsule in the school.
-Yel: Oh that's nice.
-Jill: We are all going to school early today to find a good spot.
-Yel: Should I speed up?
-Jill: Yeah, I'm at school already, I'll see you at the front entrance.
Zoom.
Yel was there at the front entrance. He waited for a bit and saw Jill jogging towards him.
"Brooo," Jill complained. "I literally just sent the message and you're already here."
"You told me to speed up," Yel shrugged.
"Where should we go?" Jill asked for Yel's opinion.
"That one big maths classroom?" Yel suggested. "It's the biggest classroom in the school."
So they went there. Not surprisingly, there were at least 40 capsules in the room.
"Woohoo!" Yel cheered. "Plenty of capsules here. AJU NICE!" (Insert BGM "Aju Nice" by SVT)
Soon, more people rocked up in the classroom after Jill messaged in the group chat.
Lee walked in with Rin, waving at Yel and Jill.
"Hello," Lee said. "Haven't seen you guys since yesterday after parting."
"Hi," Yel said. "Did you advance class?"
Lee nodded. "I'm a tank and Rin's a mage."
"Tank?" Jill questioned. "I thought your INT stat was higher."
"Nope, my STA was highest," Lee laughed.
Then, Tairitsu and Hikari walked in, followed by Jin. They were from the Region Sun, near the Region Xia. Tairitsu was the best artist in the world, having her art selected for the background image for Awaken II.
Hikari was another smart guy in Yel's friend group and also Tairitsu's boyfriend. They are the lovebirds every friend group ought to have.
"They are both supports, so we can get some quality buffs," Jill whispered to Yel.
Jin was Rin's best friend. Jill told Yel that her talent wasn't a top tier talent and she had some difficulties levelling up.
"The party's all here now," Lee said. "So let's decide who the party leader is."
"Youuuuuu!" Rin said to Lee.
"Let's go for democracy," Lee shook his head and suggested.
Yel smirked, "Democracy? Are you mad?"
Lee scrunched his eyebrows, "What's your suggestion then?"
"Times changed," Yel said. "It's a world of power."