Mosaic Robe

After logging out of Cultivation Era, Jiang Liu only grew angrier the more he thought about it. The game's plot kept replaying in his mind, and the aftereffects were so strong that even the Essence Gathering Art, which had been running continuously, stalled.

"Whew."

Jiang Liu let out a long breath, venting some of the frustration in his heart. He reached over and patted Li Dongze, who was sitting beside him, on the shoulder. "How many stages of the story have you cleared?"

Li Dongze was still immersed in Cultivation Era. Hearing the voice beside him, he turned to Jiang Liu with a grin. "How did you know I made it to 1-4?"

With a first top-up and a magic artifact, he had cleared four stages in a row and officially entered Qi Refining Layer 1. He was practically floating now.

Then do you know I made it to 1-7?

Jiang Liu ignored his smug expression and asked quietly, "Were you also born in Tongmu Village on the Crimson Serpent Divine Continent?"

"Yeah."

Li Dongze asked in confusion, "Why?"

"Nothing."

Jiang Liu shook his head, feeling both disappointed and relieved. The plot scenes had been too realistic, making him wonder whether they truly existed somewhere.

Luckily, they did not. Every player's character was born in Tongmu Village. How could that tiny broken-down village possibly hold so many people?

Good thing it was fake, good thing it was fake. It was just a pity that the City Lord's daughter would have to die tens of billions of times.

"Do you know what magic artifact I got from my first top-up?"

Li Dongze said mysteriously. He could no longer restrain his urge to show off.

"What did you get?"

Jiang Liu asked curiously.

"Watch closely. I'm syncing with my game character!"

Li Dongze straightened up. Three seconds later, his aura suddenly changed, and an almost imperceptible sense of pressure spread from him.

"See that? Did you see that?"

Li Dongze sprang onto the desk and spun around in front of Jiang Liu. His face was full of excitement as he said, "A magic robe! It's a magic robe!"

"Hahahaha, this magic robe is so cool!"

Jiang Liu froze for a moment, his expression becoming extremely strange. Amused, he said, "Is your magic robe called Mosaic?"

"What?"

Li Dongze paused slightly and instinctively lowered his head. In an instant, he froze as if struck by lightning. His face flushed bright red as he shouted furiously, "Fuck, I ran into a bug!"

His jacket and jeans had vanished, replaced by a vast expanse of white mosaic pixels. One could vaguely make out that it was a white long-robed magic garment.

Except it was currently the mosaic version.

The other students were also drawn over by Li Dongze's commotion. The moment they looked over, they burst out laughing.

"Hahahaha, Brother Ze, did you put mosaic pixels on yourself?"

"That's possible? Even the equipment has bugs?"

"Can you even wear that robe outside? You should take it off."

"Luckily, at least your face didn't turn into mosaic pixels."

Li Dongze's face turned green. He had just laughed at Jiang Liu for getting stuck in a bug and being unable to enter the game, but in the blink of an eye, it was his turn.

"Head Teacher, what do I do?"

He turned a pleading gaze toward the Head Teacher.

The Head Teacher remained calm. "It's normal for a newly opened server to have a few bugs. It'll probably be fixed soon."

As soon as he finished speaking, Chen Ke added, analyzing the situation coolly, "This is a texture bug. The texture on that magic artifact failed to load. It's only a low-grade magic artifact, insignificant in such a massive game project. The programmers will most likely be too lazy to fix it."

Li Dongze: "."

Li Dongze sat back down on the desk with a dead look on his face, all his previous pride gone. Filled with anger, he could not help cursing, "This trash game!"

The other students also realized that Cultivation Era seemed awfully unreliable.

The server had only been open for a few hours, yet among a class of over thirty students, two had already encountered bugs.

Could this game even be played?

It could still be played. What choice did they have? It was a cultivation game.

Cultivation Era's server had opened during the first class in the afternoon. A few hours passed, and the day vanished in the blink of an eye. The dismissal bell rang.

"After school, stop playing games, reading, and sleeping."

The Head Teacher instructed them, "Spend more time cultivating. Everyone is starting from the same line. The longer you cultivate, the faster your realm will improve."

"If you don't use your entertainment and sleep time to cultivate, how can you even talk about cultivating immortality?"

"Day after day, little by little—I believe all of you will successfully ascend!"

The Head Teacher was truly afraid they would go wild after school, so he ladled out one bowl of motivational soup after another.

It was no wonder he was worried. Sitting in meditation for several hours straight was enough to make even him impatient, much less the students.

Jiang Liu had originally planned to go straight home as well, but the moment he stepped out of the school gates, Li Dongze called out to him. "Jiang Liu, want to play a few rounds at the internet café?"

Jiang Liu: "?????"

Was that thing something you played at an internet café?

Both of them were gaming enthusiasts with mediocre grades, often frequenting internet cafés after school. Generous and easygoing, Li Dongze would often treat him to internet fees and drinks. Their relationship was genuinely good.

"You're not going home to meditate and cultivate?"

Jiang Liu asked him.

"I can't sit still anymore."

Li Dongze waved a hand dismissively. "That lousy Essence Gathering Art only cultivates enough for a few Qi Refining Pills in a whole day. Do you think I care about that little amount?"

"Keep me company for a while. I'll make it up to you with a few Qi Refining Pills afterward!"

That was the arrogance of someone from a wealthy family. Others were dirt poor when the server opened, but he was a God-Tier Player. Naturally, he was different, even getting ahead in cultivation.

"No need. Let's go."

Jiang Liu thought, You might not care about that little amount, but do you think I, with my 0.1 discount, don't?

I ate over a hundred Qi Refining Pills today alone!

The two of them eagerly slipped into the internet café. The place, which was usually packed, was completely empty today. The owner was cultivating behind the counter and looked surprised to see them.

Were they really so addicted to gaming that they would not even cultivate immortality?

After playing for over two hours, Jiang Liu returned home.

The moment he entered, he spotted a stack of cash on the living room coffee table. After picking it up and counting it, he found ten thousand yuan. A bad feeling immediately rose in his heart.

"Grandpa, where did the money on the table come from?"

Although this was a parallel world, nothing had changed except for Cultivation Era. His parents were still dead, his grandmother had passed away long ago, and he and his Grandpa still depended on each other.

Just like a game protagonist.

More than ten seconds later, an elderly man with a stooped back, white hair, and a face full of wrinkles emerged from the room. He beamed at Jiang Liu. "Liu Liu, it was like picking up money today!"

"This afternoon, someone came to our house to buy stones. I was wondering what he meant, but that person said a whole bunch of things and taught me a whole bunch of things. In the end, I still didn't see what kind of stones they were."

"Tell me, is something wrong with my brain? Why did it start playing movies by itself?"

Jiang Liu: "."

Jiang Liu's heart turned cold after hearing that. The five Spirit Stones from the sign-in reward had been swindled away!

Well, it was not exactly a scam. They had bought them at market price, so even calling the police would not help.

But that still would not do! He had been waiting to use them!

Jiang Liu had originally planned to borrow his Grandpa's Spirit Stones and bring his Grandpa along on the path of cultivation.

Who would have thought someone would be so crafty as to target an old man?

How shameless!