Alex walked into his room and felt it a bit weird to be here during the nighttime. The only time he hadn't left the house at night was when he had the Blood essence enter him and had fallen unconscious for over 12 hours.
"Well, it's not like something different is going to happen tonight either," he said as he chuckled to himself remembering, or rather not remembering, how each night of cultivation went.
He sat down on the bed and closed his eyes. Abruptly, he opened them again. "It's been so long that I nearly forgot," he said as he took out a small pink flower from his storage bags, the Spirit Cleansing Lily.
"I can't forget about increasing my Spiritual Sea," he thought as he closed his eyes and started to cultivate. Slowly, he fell into a trance and fell asleep.
Early in the morning, just a few minutes past 6 am, Alex opened his eyes. He looked down at the flower and realized it was not there. He smiled. He sent out his Spiritual Sense and his smile went even wider as he realized that the Spiritual sea had grown once more.
It was now 3 times as wide as the first time he unlocked it. "So, it will last a long while, if I don't over-extend it right? Actually, it should be pretty much forever." He was happy thinking about this fact.
'Alright, let's leave.' He then logged out.
He woke up and took off his helmet. He looked at the helmet, thinking this was the last time he would be using this. 'Well, I should stop being lazy and go buy my own,' he thought.
He freshened up and got back. He changed into a different set of clothes and made sure nothing of his was left behind. After he was all set, he was ready to leave… except,
"Why is she not picking up? Is she still in the game?" Alex wasn't able to get a hold of his cousin, without whom, he wouldn't get the address. He called a few times and decided to wait for her to call back.
Time slowly passed by and it was 7 am now. The roommates slowly started logging out of the game and saw the Alex was all packed.
"Are you ready to leave already?" Matt asked.
"Yes. Oh yeah, Eric, here's your helmet. Thank you so much for letting me use this. You can't imagine how much this meant to me." He handed the helmet back to Eric who just smiled and said, "Don't worry about it."
TRING TRING
Suddenly, his phone started ringing. He looked at the screen and it was his cousin Hannah. He picked up and could immediately hear the loud voice from the other side.
"Alex? I'm so sorry. I was busy answering some important emails and I lost the track of time. Also, just my luck that my damn phone was on silent for some reason. Anyway, are you prepared to leave? I will text you the location now," she bombarded his ear with a whole bunch of things.
"Okay, sister. You don't have to worry about it. Just send me the location info and I will be on my way," he said.
"Alright. Let me do that real quick. Call me when you are near okay?" she said and ended the call before she could even hear a reply.
Alex looked at the phone and just shook his head.
"Was that your cousin you are going to stay with?" asked Logan.
"Yeah. She will send me the location soon and I will have to leave," he said.
TING
The location info arrived. "Alright, I should leave now. She will be waiting for now." Alex started to get up to leave.
"Wait, let us escort you to the gate." The three of them stood up too.
"You guys don't have to," Alex tried to refuse but they wouldn't budge.
"It's just the gate. Besides, we have to leave for breakfast right now anyway," Matt said.
Unable to refuse anymore, Alex let them follow along. At the gate of the university, Alex stopped a cab and got on it. "See you guys in class," he waved the 3 goodbyes and finally left.
In 10 minutes or so, he reached the location mentioned in the message. He paid the cab driver and got off. He looked around but couldn't see his cousin at all. "This is the right place, right?" he thought as he started calling her once again.
"Sister, I'm here," he said.
"So fast. Wait, let me get down." She ended the call. Alex looked at the tall building in front of him. The building was mostly gray in color and was similar in height to the other buildings around it. A height of over 10 floors. 'Oh my god. She lives in such a tall building.' He was quite surprised.
Within a minute, Hannah came out of the door. "Ah, you're finally here. Vinny left a few days ago, so I've been bored all alone in the apartment. C'mon, let's go in." She made him follow her.
They got into an elevator and Hannah pressed button 11. Alex was surprised. "You live on the 11th floor, Sister?" he asked.
"Yeah. That was the only floor available to us when we moved in." She said.
"Wait, the whole floor is just for you?" Alex asked in surprise.
"It was meant for four different people, but now it's just me, i guess. oh, and you too now." Hannah chuckled a bit.
"How much does the rent cost here then?" he asked. He didn't know anything about renting places and could only wonder.
"Well, the monthly rent is around $10,000. The location is very populated, so it just costs a lot. I had to pay $2500 before, but ever since the other girls left, I have been stuck with it all." Her reply shocked Alex. $10000 dollars was a lot of money.
'I will be broke in 2 months if I had to start paying for the rent,' he thought.
DING
Finally, the door of the elevator opened and revealed what lied beyond it.
