"When did I get asleep? I can't believe I actually did that in a place like this, fortunately I have already cleared the whole floor." Opening his eyes, Ling Xu could see the panel of the tutorial mission in front of him. His eyes took very fast the information it had as they opened wide.
Seeing the time, Ling Xu knew that the time of the tutorial was about to end. He remained on the floor while feeling a little bit more energetic after sleeping and recovering.
Time continued to go down as just a few seconds remained.
[Tutorial Mission ends in 3 seconds.]
[Tutorial Mission ends in 2 seconds.]
[Tutorial Mission ends in 1 second.]
As the time reached cero, Ling Xu felt something and when he opened his eyes he saw himself in the same place he was before being forced into the tutorial.
He couldn't help but feel strange at his surroundings appearing in the hallway of his apartment's floor.
He even saw his neighbor in front of him feeling moved and remembering how sudden it was when they were forced into the tutorial mission.
"I'm glad to see you here, I thought you were dead or something happened to you."
"Why would you think that?" Ling Xu asked with a question mark on his face.
"Because I didn't see you in the tutorial and there were only five people that had survived. After grouping with three of them I found out that they all knew each other and that they lived in the apartment below."
"That makes sense, after all I was the closest to you when we entered so if you met them you would probably have thought that I was there too."
"That's exactly it, when I descended with one of them to the second floor and found his friends I was in shock when they started talking as if they knew each other. But everything became clear after we talked about where we were last time."
"Then it makes sense for you to think that I had died, but fortunately I haven't. Also, I think that we shared the same tutorial as mine also had five people remaining when it ended."
"That's great news, I can't believe you survived all on your own!" He flattered him genuinely as he couldn't think how hard it must have been for him to be all on his own.
Ling Xu became quite shocked after being told that he could have met his neighbor but he thanked himself he didn't as he wouldn't have been able to take all the rewards.
"That may also explain why I saw some footprints on the ground on the second floor, if I hadn't gone fast enough I would have probably met him there." He thought about the foot prints he had seen after coming out from lizard cave after killing the adult copper lizard.
Ling Xu thought about his neighbor and his group's speed of advancing and realized that he had actually gone way faster all on his own. That's because while he had broken through his realm the others were still on the first level fighting and gaining experience slowly.
It also probably means that their luck with their initial skills wasn't as great as his or even the man he had to kill. Ling Xu had already forgotten its name after reading it only once on the confirmation of his kill.
Feeling the aura from his neighbor, Ling Xu realized that he didn't manage to advance to the second stage of the Blood Qi realm even after being there for three hours. That was probably related to the fact that his mastery over the Basic Blood Circulation technique was way above his, making his speed of refining his muscles and body surpass him several times.
Ling Xu talked with him a bit more as he got the information of how much it to officially start practicing the Basic Blood Circulation technique as they had all gotten the same basic cultivation technique.
For Mr. Sun, it took him around half an hour to be able to connect with his blood qi and to start refining his muscles, but this process was too slow as his control over it was the bare minimum. And it seems it was almost the same for the rest as they all took around five minutes more or less than him.
"Do you think those who died in the mission actually died?" Ling Xu asked, curious about the destiny of the man who sneak attacked him.
"I don't know but it is also possible that dying there doesn't mean dying in real life, but I will soon find out as there was one guy from the group I was with that had died before I had the chance to meet him."
They talked for a few more minutes before parting ways as they both were eager to see their rewards from the tutorial mission. Although Ling Xu had already gotten rewards, those were only because he had cleared the third floor with its difficulty raised.
Ling Xu entered his apartment and realized that he didn't tell his neighbor much about his own experience. "I have to be careful about what I say in case I bring too much attention, I may be stronger than Mr. Sun and the rest of the survivors in my tutorial but that doesn't mean that I am the strongest or that I can even face a big group of people while being alone."
Entering his apartment he almost shed a tear thinking about all the time he had been here after moving away from his town. He went to his sofa and sat on it while he checked the messages from the system.
[You have survived the tutorial mission!]
[Do you want to receive your rewards based on your performance?]
Ling Xu affirmed to the question from the system with full expectancy.
[You have received 10 Blood Tempering Pills (medium quality first grade).]
[You have been given the choice to choose between a Random Skill (high grade) and a Random Technique.]
"Amazing, I already want to know what these pills are for. But first I have to decided if I want another skill or a technique." Wondering which option was better, he thought about his cultivation techniques.
"The difference between Basic Blood Circulation and my skills is that one needs to be practiced for it to have an effect and the other is automatically learned and it doesn't need to be master."
It took him a few minutes to decide as he answered to the system. The next instant he got a small bottle that once he opened he saw blood colored pills and a book that contained his new technique.
"After all, if it needs to be learned it should be stronger than those skills which don't need any practice. It doesn't matter how easy they are to use, it won't bring me future benefits."
"Ring!"
Ling Xu took his phone from his pocket as it had reappeared after coming back from the tutorial.
"It really is the same time as before I was brought into the tutorial!" He said surprised after seeing the hour on his phone.
Putting his rewards inside his spatial storage, Ling Xu decided to answer the call as it was from someone he knew.
"Ling Xu, is it you? How are you doing? Did you enter the tutorial mission too?"
"Lu Xie, it's great to hear you are alright! I was there as I guess the rest of the world was too. How are you?" Ling Xu's face showed concern as he was talking to his one and only friend.
"I'm happy to hear you are alive, I thought you would have died by now or at least would be scared to death crying in your lonely apartment."
"..."
"You haven't lost your humor Lu Xie."
"Did I say anything wrong?"
"..."
Afraid that Lu Xie would make again one of those awful jokes Ling Xu stood quiet.
"Hello? Ling Xu, let's meet and have something to eat."
"Which restaurant do you expect to be open at this moment?"
He asked not expecting any normal person to continue with his daily life after everything that happened.
"What about the old place we always go to? Let me contact the owner and see if it can open today."
"That's fine for me, see you then."
The call ended pretty fast as Ling Xu didn't have anything else to talk about that he couldn't say when they met in person.
Lu Xie also understood why he hung up as he knew his friend's character after knowing each other for the last three years since he started college in Chengdu. He knew that Ling Xu was more of a serious person but he always managed to make him open up and laugh whenever they met.
Lu Xie was his only friend in the city, as Ling Xu didn't have the time to socialize a lot between his intense hours of study and his job.
Fortunately, they clicked pretty fast and Ling Xu liked Lu Xie's humility as he was treated the same as others even though his friend came from an extremely wealthy family.
Ling Xu had already met many third generation chaebol students that came from a high status and he was never treated with a bit of respect. They did that because they were jealous that someone of a poorer background was at the top of the class in grades.
And Lu Xie appreciated Ling Xu's resilience and his sense of responsibility that came after living alone for so many years. He even liked his humor although it took him some time to make him open up and make his own jokes.
After Lu Xie made sure both his parents were still alive he had immediately called Ling Xu, he was very worried as although he looked up to him he knew that Ling Xu had never been of the athletic type.
…
Ling Xu took a very long shower as he took out the tension he had accumulated over his time in the tutorial.
Then he checked his phone looking for news as he found a website made by the government where he could see anything related to the tutorial mission.
The page was very well organized with a lot of information and questions posted by the citizens. There were even the top posts which were those that everyone needed to see so they knew the basic information about the system, the tutorial mission and cultivation.
Seeing the level of detail the website had, Ling Xu searched about some things that he was curious. Although he already knew anything that could be known about the tutorial as he had cleared it completely.
"I died after being pierced by a strange rabbit that had a horn and the next second I appeared in my bed."
"I had the same experience! Although I died when fighting a rabbit bigger than the ferocious ones, I couldn't even last ten minutes before it bit me to death. But then I appeared again at home."
Ling Xu looked at a post that stood out between the ones in the top as there were many people that were discussing how they had died in the tutorial but they still came back to life.
"They actually didn't die in the tutorial and returned at the same time as the rest of us. That's the best that could have happened as now it won't be as chaotic as it would have been if everyone that died had actually died in real life."
Feeling as if something was off Ling Xu remembered something the next second. "Then what about that person that tried to kill me?" He didn't like the idea of leaving someone who had tried to kill him without punishment. After all they never knew that dying in the tutorial didn't mean actually dying.
Still, he forgot about him as he already guessed that he had escaped ever since he appeared an hour ago. After all, Ling Xu may not have recognized him but maybe he remembered him and could guess that they lived in the same building.
And even if that didn't happen, after seeing on the website that they were transported into the tutorial with those nearest to them he would have figured out that he wasn't safe here.
"I want to know more about cultivation techniques and what information there is related to it."