How to Cultivate a Game

"From now on, I shall be known as the Lurker, a name befitting my magnificent self!"

These were the words he first spoke as his consciousness gradually returned to the physical world. Shedding his crocodilian self, he had become Lurker, a representation of himself he found most becoming. Names possessed profound powers since ancient times. It was not simply having an identity, but having the 'right' to exist. And to express this right was the privilege of the strong.

"I exist! Look at me! I was here, and thus I exist!"

Dark green hair like the algae found in the gaps of rocks extended below his waist. The mass that once dominated the creek had now been condensed to a godly sculpted body. No longer was his eye wounded and in pain. Instead, it was replaced by gem-like reptilian golden eyes.

Lurker was his name, a crocodilian humanoid beast in the 5th stage!

Using his control over his beastly transformation, he summoned his hide to cover himself. His thick reptilian hide slithered into his skin as if robes draped over his body. Lurker looked heroic, like a true warrior, with his rough and stylish robe with patterns of a crocodile's back.

"Interesting, was this what humans called a sense of shame? I felt uncomfortable without clothes, huh? Or maybe it was just the wind since I was now a furless ape?"

Lurker spoke to himself in a monologue, feeling the impressive changes throughout his body. Standing above the creek's waters as if it were solid ground, he clenched and unclenched his fist.

"Since I was a hatchling, I thought too little of humans. In fact, as I grew up, my contempt for them also grew. What was so good with those furless apes? They didn't have jaws as I do. A hide, any claws, they got nothing. But why did the heavens favor them so much? They have the best talents, the best survivability, and the strongest individuals. It was unfair!"

At the end of his monologue, he gazed unto the little bunny, the funny little one as he calls it.

"It was because, humans were the original race," With these words, Lurker vanished, only to reappear at Bi Yuan's side holding Xiang Ya already by her neck. "I learned it in an ancient text. Anyway, the small details wouldn't matter."

With a single burst of qi, Lurker crushed Xiang Ya's throat, dooming the female cultivator to death.

"What should you say, funny little one? I just freed you from your slaver. I would appreciate your eternal gratitude."

Lurker walked closer to the little bunny, slight ripples in the water were made, his face an inch closer to her.

"How about you join me and together, let's find out what being 'human' meant?"

~~~

"Fuk KYU!"

Bi Yuan cursed in a chirping strange way, but the message got across just fine as she wielded her Fork of Perforation in an attempt to stab Lurker's eye once more.

Lurker thought that the little bunny was under a spirit contract with the female cultivator. (But it was a misunderstanding). He thought highly of the rabbit in front of him. It had the abilities and guts, a very tempting subordinate Lurker wouldn't want to miss.

"Sigh," Saddened, Lurker bounced off Bi Yuan's attack gently. "You were quite loyal, huh? You made me want you as my subordinate more."

By killing the female cultivator, Lurker hoped to turn the rabbit into his subordinate.

DENSE JADE ENCLOSURE!

Heavy qi surrounded Bi Yuan, steadily caging her in place. She could hardly breathe as her body was bound by a mysterious force.

"I must work plenty hard to gain your loyalty, funny little one."

"Kyu!" With a look of determination, Bi Yuan stabbed herself with the Fork of Perforation. "KYUUU!"

"…"

Lurker watched in shock as the little bunny showed impressive loyalty even to its last. The bunny brought plenty of surprises for Lurker. Committing suicide was one thing, but doing so for the sake of its master was entirely a different story.

Rabbits alone have a very slim chance of achieving the 1st stage of cultivation. Lurker theorized that the little bunny's contractor must have taken care of its beast companion very well, thus explaining its loyalty and impressive cultivation.

"Maybe it was a pet..." Lurker imagined a little white fur ball playfully interacting with a human. He only heard it from hearsay, and he thought it was just a rumor. It was ridiculous to learn that it was possible to domesticate beasts and make them into pets.

Perhaps, the little bunny was the cultivator's pet, and because of nurturing from herbs, the pet rose and entered the first stage of cultivation. "I should find my own pet then... I could study how to be human at the same time this way." He had just the sick thought of turning a human into a pet.

But Lurker got it all wrong. Bi Yuan was not a pet but a person of her own.

~WHOOSH

The sound of the wind cooly passed by.

"Achoo~!" Someone suddenly sneezed beside Lurker.

It was only now that Lurker noticed the odd silhouette that seemed to blend with the surroundings. In the creek's shallow waters, standing on top of a floating lotus leaf was a stranger.

"Amitabha…" No, it wasn't any stranger, but a monk. Not just any monk, but... the Mindless Monk.

~~~

I snickered.

After polishing the Mindless Monk repeatedly, new ideas continued to pop off from me. I installed a few animation packages on the Mindless Monk, and I just made the said monk sneeze. It was fun but barely usable. The biggest weakness of my Mindless Monk was that it lacked a means of communication.

Meaning that I could not communicate with my Mindless Monk which was detrimental to recruiting players. The reason was it took a lot of energy and space... I had to choose between fighting ability and communication. I could not force to do both, because my puppet would end up with mediocre survivability. In the end, I prioritized fighting ability. I compromised with the method of communication through recorded dialogues. I should be able to fix it in the future.

The Mindless was a way for me to safely recruit players from far away, but it was by no means disposable.

"This was my first test drive with its combat ability... MINDLESS MONK! LET'S DO THIS!"

I was like a kid by my enthusiasm alone, and I sure hoped Luker would be a sufficient punching bag for me.

~~~

"Amitabha…" A typical greeting of a monk, but Lurker wasn't convinced. What kind of monk would sneak and watch the slaughter of weaklings whom he could have saved?

Lurker knew better. He might not look like it being the brusque beast he was, but by his own biased standards, he saw himself as someone who was fairly knowledgeable and cultured though not exactly educated.

"What were you doing here?" With a probing question, Lurker used his Spiritual Sense as subtly as possible to get an estimate of the sudden arrival's cultivation.

To Lurker's surprise, he could not detect any cultivation at all. Not even a trace of qi! Even ghosts have qi, so the monk was quite a bizarre puzzle to Lurker. If it was a stealth technique, that would be understandable, but reason told him that it was impossible to be able to hide one's qi to the point of appearing qi-less. Even a lifeless stone stone would have qi.

If the monk was using any stealth technique at all, that would be quite unbelievable.

"I said," Lurker felt unnerved for a moment. "What were you doing here?"

"…"

The monk's silence made Lurker more unnerved. He could only think that the monk must be an evil monk cultivator. But for a second thought, that might not be the case either. Lurker made a daring move as he removed his restraints over the control of his own qi.

Lurker decided to be more provocative as he openly used his Spiritual Sense to the maximum.

"What was this!?" He uttered in surprise.

"…" No matter what emotion Lurker would display, the monk would only have one answer... that was silence.

"You… Why were you so weak?" Despite the other's lack of reaction, Lurker could not help himself but verbalize what he was seeing through his Spiritual Sense. 

"Not even a Dantian and the qi was just faintly stronger than a mortal. There wasn't any concealing technique. This was odd... Were you even human?" Lurker was losing his sanity thus the paranoia. Although he took it into consideration that the monk must be hiding his cultivation, Lurker decided to be just done with it.

Lurker reckoned that the monk must be playing tricks against him.

"The way you looked at me, I didn't like it." With his palm over his forehead and covering his eyes, Lurker made a nasty smile as he made the qi in his surroundings boil with his increasing bloodlust. From the gaps in his fingers, an eerie glow could be observed from Lurker's eyes. They were the eyes of a predator eager to hunt his prey!