I attained immortality in the real world.

Chapter 2 Virtual Metaverse
The great undertaking of becoming an immortal.

Riding the wind, they departed, attaining enlightenment and ascending to heaven.

From the time of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, how many chosen ones have wasted their prime years in pursuit of profound truths and enlightenment?

However, the cultivation of immortality that this second great-uncle spoke of was not the same as that cultivation of immortality in novels, where one absorbs the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to become a superhuman with supernatural powers. Real-world cultivators possess no supernatural powers whatsoever; they can't even conjure a small fireball, let alone move mountains and fill seas or pluck stars from the sky.

Cultivating immortality is not much different from the Taoist priests who used to cultivate in the mountains and make a living by incense money and performing rituals. The only difference is that they do not live in the mountains.

Therefore, cultivating immortality is at most a hobby, not a special identity. Chen Jing has never taken it to heart. He just didn't expect that his second great-uncle's dying words would be about the great cause of becoming an immortal.

"Becoming an immortal?! What era are we living in that people still cultivate immortality?"

"Grand Uncle, you sent me a dimensional pod. Do you perhaps want me to indulge in illusions and experience the thrill of being an immortal?"

"In the illusory cosmic realm, it's not hard to find Xianxia-style games, but I reckon if you want to become an immortal—you'll probably have to spend money."

Chen Jing sighed inwardly. In this day and age, people still pursued immortality cultivation. It felt like a ridiculous idea for a mountain village to become emperor.

I carefully put away my second great-uncle Chen Feng's will. I never expected that the older generation was so discreet and could leave behind such a rich legacy.

But as a staunch materialist, he had no ambition to become an immortal. Compared to achieving immortality, he was far more interested in this windfall—the legally inherited dimensional capsule—which meant he could embrace the pace of the times.

The tall man glanced at the old house and tentatively asked, "Mr. Chen Jing, where is the Dimensional Pod installed? Does it need to be relocated?"

The old houses in the old town are full of the marks of time, which is indeed not a good match for high-end equipment like the Yuanjie Capsule. However, not long ago, Lucheng upgraded the wiring inside and outside the old town to eliminate fire hazards, which is sufficient to support the operation of the Yuanjie Capsule.

Adhering to the principle of "if it works, it's good enough," Chen Jing turned around and surveyed the room: "Just install it in the bedroom. If there's no room, we'll dismantle the bed!"

The two Tianyuan Group employees said nothing more, went inside to measure the dimensions, check the wiring, and ensure that everything was working properly.

Soon, the dimensional pod at the entrance was moved to the bedroom and connected to several wrist-thick cables. Two Tianyuan Group employees, one in charge of hardware and the other in charge of software debugging, worked together seamlessly and spent half a day completing the final debugging to successfully connect the driver to the illusory dimensional world.

"........."

It was nearly dusk when Chen Jing pushed open the wooden door to his bedroom.

A dark, metallic-toned dimensional capsule immediately comes into view.

Resembling a hibernation pod in appearance, its outer shell is composed of high-strength composite metal and a large piece of special reinforced glass. The only decorative pattern is printed in the center, a faint ink-wash painting of a mirage dragon, its shimmering light like fireflies, exuding a beauty that blends mythology and technology.

The bedroom, which was not large to begin with, is now completely filled with just a simple wooden bed and a dimensional capsule device.

"You can put job hunting aside for now. Anyway, I can't get into any respectable company, and the mediocre companies can only solve my survival problem."

"Now, with the Metaverse Pod, things are very different. You can easily make a living by playing any popular game."

Logically, before using the Metaverse Capsule, you need to log in to the Tianyuan official website with the Metaverse Capsule model number and complete the basic beginner tutorial step by step.

However, Chen Jing had experience using the Metaverse Pod, so he skipped this step without hesitation and placed the identity chip in the Metaverse Pod's sensing area.

With a 'click', the hatch of the dimensional pod opened, accompanied by a cold, mechanical sound.

[Model: Mirage II]

[ID: TX922838068]

[The Mirage Dragon's body is normal, the Tianyuan System is operating normally, and the dimensional connection is normal.]

[Please enter the Metaverse Capsule as soon as possible, bind your fingerprint and iris scan, scan your body data, and generate a unique and authentic Metaverse account.] Chen Jing slowly walked into the Metaverse Capsule and followed the voice instructions step by step.

As a dark red laser scanned the entire scene from top to bottom, the real-world image gradually blurred.

The scenery before my eyes transformed into an endless, deep void, where a game character appeared, whose appearance, figure, and build were similar to mine.

You can't pinch their faces!

You can't change your body shape either!!

Virtual reality games can create countless virtual characters, but only the characters in the metaverse are unique.

If we consider all virtual reality spaces as a single world, then the Metaverse is the core plane connecting all the heavens, the tentacles of real humanity reaching into the illusory, and therefore must maintain a state of reality that approximates reality.

"The Metaverse, humanity's information universe, I've arrived!!"

As the camera zoomed in, the real body and the fictional character overlapped, and Chen Jing's consciousness was instantly absorbed into the game character he had created.

With a thought, one can control a character as if controlling one's own body.

[Identity creation complete!]

[Coming soon to the Metaverse.]

[Descent Location: Longhua Region, Lucheng, Linggang Town, Xiaotuanshan.]

As soon as the mechanical voice faded, Chen Jing's vision suddenly went white, and he saw a bright blue star appear in the void, which was the second world of humanity: the Metaverse.

The Metaverse is a one-to-one replica of Earth, but after being modified by successive virtual players, its terrain and landforms have long been unrecognizable.

The image gradually zooms in, the planet magnifies at a speed visible to the naked eye, and mountains, rivers, and cities come into view one after another.

"…………"

Yuanjie, Xiaotuan Mountain, Lucheng.

A hill only a hundred meters high, covered with reddish-brown dove-shaped stones.

The mountaintop is roughly circular, with a barren patch of land planted with peach trees that bear no flowers, no leaves, and no fruit.

This is where my second great-uncle Chen Feng lives in the present world; even the house built on the mountaintop is exactly the same.

The only difference is that in the present world, Xiaotuan Mountain is full of dead trees, while here there is a thousand-year-old peach tree with roots like a dragon, dense branches and leaves, and an incomparably vigorous vitality.

Chen Jing arrived just as the sun was shining through the dappled sunlight under the shade of the ancient peach tree.

Seeing the scenery from my childhood again evokes a touch of sadness: "A person's life is as fleeting as a plant's autumn; this ancient peach tree, which has stood for a thousand years, can only exist in the mortal realm."

Having said that, he casually plucked a jade-green peach leaf, and seeing the distinct veins on the leaf, he exclaimed in amazement at the incredibly high level of realism of the Mirage Dragon's two-star dimensional capsule.

After observing for a moment, he took a peach leaf that had been picked and reattached it to the peach branch in a very unscientific way.

My gaze was fixed on the upper right corner of my field of vision, where there was a striking blood-red countdown: 01:58:22.

Chen Jing cared a lot about it, because countdowns can give people the psychological suggestion that something will happen once the countdown ends.

(End of this chapter)