When Kai was challenging the trials, the world was in chaos!
The moment the game was open every professional gamer and different kinds of people flooded the game and immediately started improving their cultivation stages to grow stronger, while some explored the world for information and completed early quests for a head start.
This was a chance for everyone in the world to change their lives! No one is willing to lose it!
The rich arranged for their players to get stronger and raise the prestige of their companies as they constantly bought almost every item put for auction, while the poor saw this as a chance and hunted for rare items to sell and gain enormous amounts of wealth.
A special company named as NexusTrade was jointly set up by the biggest companies in the world to trade in-game items for real life money. In just a short span of a few hours NexusTrade's servers have crossed 10 million visits and over a hundred thousand requests to for setting up items for sale.
It has easily become the most profitable company in the entire history of earth!!!
Inside the game in an open field. A group of people stood together as they held their weapons and aimed it at the creatures in front of them.
"Inferno Knight on your left!!!" A feminine voice shouted.
A tall, muscular and broad-shouldered young man with red hair and swordlike eyebrows and various handsome features on his face turned to look at his side.
A giant 2-meter-long brown colored chameleon jumped at him, a dangerously giant sand storm followed behind it, capable of completely restricting their vision!
The young man moved his hands towards his waist. An antique like sword sheath hung there containing a sword, he wrapped his hands around the handle and with a swift motion unsheathed it.
A crimson arc followed the flaming red sword's trail. The body of the chameleon split into two! The area of contact still burned the corpse till there was nothing left except a shiny smooth spherical crystal.
Gasps of awe, respect, hate and jealousy resounded in the crowd.
"I-I-Inferno Knight y-y-you broke through to the 5th Core Formation Stage already??!!" An astonished and disbelieving voice questioned.
Inferno Knight without replying smirked at the person who questioned and walked towards the non-existing corpse of the chameleon and picked up the transparent crystal.
"No matter how much Inferno Knight or in fact any one of us grow it clearly doesn't matter!" A young man said in a matter-of-fact tone as he glanced towards a direction with affection laced eyes.
Inferno Knight looked at the group and he could see many young men with the same bewitched look in their eyes and young women with the jealous and hateful expression.
He traced the way they looked and he himself couldn't help but smile bitterly as he looked at the figure standing a few meters in front.
A young woman with a slender and elegant figure. Her steps graceful yet commanding in every motion. Her every curve flowed with a natural allure, as if she were crafted by the stars themselves. Her figure was basked in the moonlight as her sparkling silver hair proudly flaunted its beauty.
She looked at the moon with her golden twin sun like gleaming eyes, radiant and mesmerizing, as if holding the warmth of dawn and the mystery of twilight. Yet it showed no emotion as it gazed at the moon motionlessly.
Contrary to her noble look she stood on top of a small mountain corpses of different beasts like a cold-hearted killer. Her hands were stained red by the blood as the silver blade in her hand turned red with the amount of blood on it.
She averted her gaze from the moon as she jerked the bloodied sword to remove the blood. She walked towards a corpse and cut open their forehead with her sword and retrieved a transparent crystal similar to the chameleon's.
She repeated the process with the other corpses as the crowd helplessly watched.
These were the mana cores of the beast they killed!
"Who would have thought Moonlight Dancer, the ice-cold queen would have already broken through to the 9th Core Formation Stage! She killed almost all the beats before we could even realize what was going on!" A young man said as he looked the spectacular in front of him.
"*Sigh* Forget about her God Slayer, she is not someone we can compete against." God Slayer turned to look at who spoke only to find Inferno Knight walking towards him while shaking his head.
He himself couldn't help but sigh out of pity for himself and the others in his group. He looked at the beauty in front of him with admiration and more so… envy.
After an unknown amount of time, in a small and ordinary room with just a chair and a bed. A young man lied on a jade bed, suddenly his eyes trembled slightly before they finally slowly opened.
The young man was none other than Kai!
Kai looks around him as he sees Lillith sitting on a chair beside her, seemingly asleep. He smiles before silently standing up, not disturbing the sleeping beauty and looking around the room. There was nothing noteworthy… or maybe there was nothing at all! He then noticed the notifications.
[Host has formed a Mana Core]
[Host has broken through the shackles of Mortality]
[Host has reached the 1st Core Formation Stage]
[Host has reached the 2nd Core Formation Stage]
[Host has reached the 3rd Core Formation Stage]
...
...
[Host has reached the 9th Core Formation Stage]
[Learnt Stellar Pulse Ascension Cultivation Technique]
[Grade: Emperor]
[Description: Allows the user to passively attract and absorb the surrounding mana. While actively doing so could create a small whirlwind depending upon the area. The effects will grow as the mana core grows stronger]
[Effects: Passive - +10 mana every second; Active – +150 mana every 5 seconds]
[Requirements: None]
"Woah… that's one hell of a difference from the previous basic technique I got." Kai giggled with excitement. His conquest of becoming the strongest is now one step closer.
"I wonder how high this emperor grade is... From the old man's name and even the powerful sounding word 'emperor' it should be pretty high up there." Kai thought.
"Status Open." Kai spoke.
[Name: Kai]
[Gender: Male]
[Race: Human]
[Physique: Primordial Origin Physique]
[Mana Core Cultivation Stage: 9th Core Formation Stage]
[Mana Capacity: 6500/6500]
[Physical Strength: 102]
[Physical Defense: 120]
[Agility: 94]
[Stamina: 114]
[Mental Strength: 148]
[Mental Defense: 160]
[Soul Strength: 454]
"9th Core Formation Stage... I have no idea what that means, but good!!" Kai said.
With a big smile Kai nodded with satisfaction.
The next moment the space in front of him distorted as old man Hanxian. At least that's what he liked to call him in his mind, magically appeared. He looked at Kai with a profound and mysterious gaze.
"Old- Senior, what happened? Why am I here?" Kai asked.
A vein bulged on the old man's forehead. "Did you really forget what happened?" Old man Hanxian questioned.
"Yes, the last thing I remember is you saying that I passed the trial." Kai said as he started thinking hard to remember.
"*Sigh* You lost consciousness after completing the trial, I made this temporary room and moved you here so you could rest, that's all."
"As for your world spirit friend, I can't see or hear her so I don't know what she is doing. But I made a chair for her anyway as I thought she might want to stay with you." Old man Hanxian replied.
"Hoh~ How thoughtful of you." Kai said with a big smile to which old man Hanxian rolled his eyes.
Kai grinned happily about passing the trial which made old man Hanxian frown.
'How did he comprehend the entire technique in a few hours that I spent an entire decade comprehending and walk around casually like it's nothing!!!' He cursed the heavens and complained in his heart.
"Forget about that! Let's start with the next tri-" He was interrupted midway.
"S-s-s-seni-o-or, how long have I been asleep for?" Kai asked as his body continuously trembled with fear, small beads of sweat started forming on his forehead.
Old man Hanxian raised an eyebrow on his sudden strange behavior. Completely forgetting about his rude behavior, he answered. "It's been about 6 to 7 hours."
Kai's body shuddered hearing the words.
'AAHH, Arya's going to kill me for not leaving the game sooner!!' He inwardly screamed.
"Old man, I will see you after a while!" Kai hurriedly spoke and then without waiting, internally he shouted. 'LOG OUT!!' The next second Kai's figure disappeared.
"Hey! Who are you calling ol-" The old man's mouth suddenly stopped moving. He walked off the room without saying anything with a nonchalant look contrary to his angry expression just seconds ago, as if nothing ever happened.