"Hmm… what is this?" his parents didn't realize what was sent to them so they opened it up on their old smartphone. "Why is the text so small? Wait for a second, let me get my glasses," his father said and left the room, leaving his mother with the phone.
She didn't know how to zoom the picture either, so she just waited for her husband to come back with his glasses. He returned in less than a minute with a large, string-tied spectacle on his face.
"Let's see then, what is this?" he looked at the text, but the only thing that he immediately saw was a number around 380,000. "What is this number?" he asked.
"Look carefully, father," Alex said.
"Alright," his father said as he looked at the picture a bit more. It didn't take him more than a second to realize he had missed a crucial symbol from the number when he read it beforehand. He had missed the $ sign.
"This— This can't be true," he said as his hands started shaking and he nearly dropped the phone. Alex's mother hurriedly grabbed the phone and started scolding, "stop acting like an old man and hold the phone properly. What are you doing shaking like that suddenly?"
"But honey… L-look at that. Look at what our son just sent us," Alex's father said in a shaky voice and handed her his glasses.
"What? What did he send us?" she said as she took the glasses and put them on. It didn't take long before she started shaking too.
"A-Alex. What is this?" she asked.
"That is what I earned from the game, Mom," he said.
"But..but how? How do games pay so much? You aren't lying, right? You didn't get into any shady business, right son?" she asked.
Alex wholeheartedly chuckled. "No mom, it's all from the game. In fact, sister Hannah makes more than me," he said.
"Oh, lord! These children are going to earn more in a month than we did in our lifetime," his father's voice came from behind.
"So, father. You said something about payment for the tractor or something. How much do you need?" he asked.
"It's an installment system. I need about 600$ a month for 4 years to pay off for the new tractor," his father said.
"Hmm… so, about 30 thousand? How about I send you guys 50 thousand today. I will wire it into your guy's bank. Buy yourself something good with the remaining money," Alex said.
"No, son. You earned that money. You keep it yourself. So, you keep it for yourself. We will manage on our own. Just seeing our son grow so much is more than enough for us," his father said.
"Don't say that father. I wouldn't be here if not for you. I will send you the money today. I don't have much need for it. You guys might as well put it to good use," he said. "Besides, I can earn more if I needed to."
"I-is that really true, son?" his mother asked. She had tears on her face.
"Yes, mom. You can finally buy that solar-powered water heater you have wanted for so long," he said.
"Oh," his mother chuckled. "You know about that too? I thought I kept that to myself quite well," she said.
"Yes mom," Alex said.
The parents-son talked for a little longer before ending their talk. Alex then opened his account once more to transfer 50 thousand of his money to his parents for their needs. He felt no hesitation there whatsoever.
In fact, he felt proud of himself. Pride in what he had done to help his parents further. Proud of what he had become.
He looked at the time and realized that it was almost 8 pm, so he quickly walked out to go to the kitchen.
"Oh, hey sister. You are done with your food?" he asked.
"Yeah," Hannah said as she looked back from the sink. She was just done washing her plates. "What took you so long? I even waited for you for almost half an hour."
"Oh, I called my parents and we talked for a lot longer than I had expected to," he said.
"What? You called Aunt and Uncle and didn't let me talk to them? What kind of stupid little brother are you?" she said.
Alex laughed and said, "I told them about the money I earned. I doubt they would be interested in anything else after that."
"Oh, so they know you make 25 thousand dollars now? I haven't told my parents yet," she said.
"You probably should. Also, it's not 25 thousand anymore sisters. I made an additional 360 thousand dollars yesterday," he said.
"Wait, you did what?" Hannah was surprised. "I thought you didn't have that high of cultivation base. How did you earn so much? Did you follow me and got married to someone too?" she asked.
"Haha, no. I got lucky and found a very special flower called Spirit Cleansing Lily that allows you to unlock Spiritual Sense before even entering Saint realm," he said.
"What? There is a flower-like that? What do you do with it? Eat it? Make a pill with it? Some sort of soup? Or use it in a formation?" she asked many questions.
"No, you just cultivate with it," Alex said. "As long as you hold it with you while you cultivate, you will unlock spiritual sense," he said.
"Oh, I don't know if such a thing will even work for me," Hannah said.
"Why not? You just have to cultva— Oh, that's right. You don't have a cultivation method. Well, I don't know what to do about that. Maybe it works? Who knows. Either way, if you ever get your hands on them, use them. That is if you haven't already reached Saint realm by then," Alex said.
Hannah left Alex behind and went back to her room, while Alex finished eating what was prepared today. After washing the dishes, he too went back to his room and logged into the game once more.