Solo Cultivation in the Apocalypse

On a fine pleasant morning. Hitori walked towards a bridge that stood over a river. The water covered both sides of the bridge. Due to the sunny weather today, the sun could be seen directly reflected on the waters of the river. Hitori walked up to the bridge and stood in the middle of it, on its peak. Then he went towards the iron railings of the bridge. The deep river babbled under the bridge, Hitori looked down at the river that flowed vertically downwards. Hitori lifted his hand and kept staring at the wand he held. It was a dark black wand and was eleven inches in length. The wand had a thick bottom and a pointed, slim end. “Thanks,” he turned around, lifted his hand, and watched the wand fly up in the sky. His hood slid down, revealing his dark black hair. His bangs almost covered his eyes, when he stepped back, his hair bounced in the air which revealed his deep blue eyes. Hitori did not bother to snap the wand into two, he threw the wand in the direction of the river’s flow with all of his strength. The wand made an arc and reached its peak before it started to fall. Hitori did not hear the sound of his wand dropping into the river before it drowned away. He stood there, staring at the horizon. He turned around and walked down the bridge. Hitori was surrounded by different shops, Tokyo’s people, and a few houses on his way down the street. He finally reached his destination after a few minutes of a slow walk. He took a deep breath and entered the city Vr-cade. “Welcome,” he looked at his side, a morning fairy welcomed him by bowing her tiny little head. Hitori nodded, he looked up and walked up to the counter. The lady at the counter welcomed Hitori with a smile, “welcome, Hitori-san,” she bowed her head, “the game: Monogatari, I reckon?” Hitori pulled out his card and gave her a nod, “please,” she accepted his card and asked: “For six hours, I presume?” Hitori stared at the beautiful smile for a while. She knew Hitori would ask for the regular six hours because that is the duration of his school hours. Hitori replied, “no, make it two for today,” his unusual reply stunned the woman. She did not expect such a reply. A slight frown appeared on her face and the smile faded, “Oh… sure,” she was taken aback by Hitori’s unusual reply. The lady started checking out Hitori’s game card, “skipping school for only two hours today, sir?” she asked in a teasing tone, she lifted her eyes to look at Hitori while doing her work. Hitori calmly looked at her without saying anything. She smiled once again and processed Hitori’s order. “That will be three-hundred yen, Hitori-san,” she stretched out her hand to hand Hitori his card back. Hitori pulled three hundred yen coins, “I do not know what you are talking about,” he turned halfway after he paid his charge and grabbed his card, “I never skip the school.” Hitori turned around, took a glance at his card to check the console station’s number that was marked on his card, and walked up to the console station that was allotted to him. The counter lady’s mouth dropped open, she was left stunned by the young man’s reply. Still, her smile made its way back to her face. ‘Hitori-san…’ she shook her head. Hitori sat on his chair, he inserted his gaming card into the slot of a magic circle that appeared on the console station. While Hitori made himself comfortable in his seat, a magic circle appeared above his head. A message flashed on the magic screen. A faint magic circle had formed above Hitori’s head. [Inbox +100 messages] His eyes twitched. He opened his inbox that had more than a hundred messages even when it has not been even a single day since he last logged in. He started going through the messages, most of them were: ‘I will kill you!’ or, ‘f**k you, you little cheater!’ or, ‘he is a beta tester! I am sure of it!’ or, ‘damn you! Give my loot back!’ or, ‘You dared to kill me, hand me my equipment back.’ and, ‘you shitty fucker, I want my items back immediately or else I will kill you in your own house.’ Yes, most of them were death threats. Almost more than half of the messages were filled with death threats. You can not blame Hitori for being better than them at gaming. He won the items legally in fair and square battles. He let out a deep sigh. He ignored all of the messages and started to search for a specific someone’s message. He swiped up and swiped till his eyes fell on a message by ‘Daichi the Assassin’ his hands quickly moved up to the screen to open the chatbox. “Yo, my friend, ping me when you are online,” the message read, “let us finish the remaining quests!” Hitori had to log out early yesterday because the new quest he had received would have taken him more than an hour to complete, but he had no more than thirty minutes, so he decided to stop for today. Hitori opened the keyboard, and a screen similar to a keyboard appeared on the table’s corner. He started typing his message, “I am back, let us go,” he waited for his friend to reply. Daichi the Assassin was online so Hitori did not have to wait more than a minute, “Ah, I was waiting for you, Ryu!” “I will meet you in my room.” Hitori texted. “Sure, I will log in now,” Hitori closed the chat window. He leaned back into his chair, closed his eyes, and clicked on the ‘log-in’ option. The logo of the game ‘Monogatari: The Kingdom’s Myth’ appeared in Hitori’s mind. The logo had the game’s name written in bold Kanji letters with castles, and soldiers stood in the background. As Hitori logged in, his consciousness was transmigrated from the real world to the game. The game started to load, and soon, Hitori was transmigrated to the game.