Chapter 0 - Prologue

  "Yo! Grant! C'mon, we're shooting hoops!" Storm's voice rang out towards his friend, Grant, who was walking down the street. Grant ran over to the street hoop after seeing that Storm was with their whole group; Storm, Jax, Pete, and now himself, Grant.

  "Wanna do knockout? It's a great day for it. Bright, but not too sunny." Storm asked.

  "Sure, let's go!" Grant said, with the others all agreeing.

  They all got in a line, Storm grabbing two balls and passing one to Jax, who was behind him, and keeping the other one. Storm crouched, and released the ball, which shot through the air in an arc, swishing through the basket. Storm dashed forward, grabbed the ball, and passed it to Pete, who was behind Jax. Pete gave him a thumbs up while Jax got ready to shoot. But suddenly, as the ball left Jax's arms, a huge rumbling sound echoed across the neighborhood, and the ground started to shake.

  "What the hell?!" Jax yelled out, tripping onto the ground and grazing his knee. The others were also knocked off-balance.

  "I think it's an earthquake! We need to find something sturdy!" Storm yelled. But right after he said that, everyone felt a strange sensation, like being gently pulled upwards, and suddenly, Storm was in a white, black cubical room.

  What... Where did everyone else go? What is happening? Where are mom and dad? Storm had no idea what was going on, and was starting to get nervous. He pulled out his phone, only to see there was no service, so he couldn't call for help. Storm was about to freak out, but then, a blue box with text on it appeared in front of him.

  Am I hallucinating? Lucid Dreaming? Storm thought in confusion. He pinched himself on the arm and whacked his face a few times, but nothing happened, other than him wincing in pain. "What?! I can feel everything, everything looks real, but then, how did I suddenly teleport to this weird room?" Storm muttered to himself. The blue box in the air glowed a little, starting to pulse a blue light.

  Maybe that blue box has some information... Storm thought, starting to read the text.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  [Greetings, mortal. I am the System. Your home planet of Earth, and the other billions of worlds in the Milky Way galaxy, have been inducted into the Xianxia System, or Xiastem, for short. The Xiastem enables people to grow far beyond the limits of what they could do before. You can grow in power and become a legendary cultivator, pursuing any of infinite paths to acquire boundless power. After you finish reading this, you will be brought to your tutorial, where you will be introduced to your new world. It will not be easy, but eventually, you may one day ascend to incredibly powerful heights. Good luck.]

  "Wait, what!? A... system, and cultivation? Ascension? What the heck is going on here? Wait! Hold on - where are my parents? Where did everyone go? Wait!-" But there was no reply, and Storm was whisked away to the tutorial.

  ***

  "Ahh... my head... Everything hurts..." Storm groaned, his head aching. He blinked a few times and saw he was sitting in a grass field, with other people around him. This is probably the tutorial that that 'System' told me about. Didn't it say that this world was a cultivation and system like world... Wait... "NO WAY!" Storm yelled out in excitement, not caring if people gave him weird looks. Even though he still was confused and worried about his family and friends, the sudden realization that he was practically in a game world gave him incredible excitement. "It's just like the novels I read!" Storm muttered. "And if that's the case..." Storm grinned, realizing he could probably use his vast knowledge of these situations due to the fact he had read hundreds of these novels to become 'OP' in this new world.

  Suddenly, after pacing around the grass field for a little, Storm saw another blue screen. He read it eagerly.

  [Tutorial Info:

  Welcome to the Xiastem! This is a new world for you mortals, and will forever change your life! You will need to cultivate and level up to become strong. These are the basics of your new world:

  Levels are of the system, and are how you gain stats and classes to enhance your power, while cultivation is using the divine energy of the natural world. The system quantifies all this power, and you can see it by simply thinking, ‘Stats’

  You will now automatically be able to speak, read, write, and understand the Language of The System, like all other newly integrated people.

  There is also an ‘inventory’ feature, which can hold more the higher your cultivation is. It starts out being able to hold 1 ‘tonne’ of your mass. Think ‘Inventory’ to access it. The system has deposited a cultivation manual into it.

  Finally, once you finish reading this, you will be able to choose a class. Goodbye, and Good luck!]

  Storm blinked.

  And then -

  “What.”