Lone Cultivator In Another World

"Hey, everyone! I'm Michael North and welcome to North Fitness. Today we're going to talk about liquid calories. Ever heard of them? Everything you drink has them, except water.

These calories come from proteins, fats and carbs in the drink. Granted, not all beverages are made equal. Cooking oils are pure fat. Advice: don't drink. Yeah.

But juice and coke have carbs! Those come from sugar. Check any bottle in any store and imagine how much sugar there is. A liter of coke contains up to four or five hundred calories! That's a third of what a slim person needs in a day!

To those people who drink juice, thinking they get vitamins and fructose – think again. Juice is about the same as coke. It's nigh impossible to lose weight if you drink a bottle of it a day!"

…

"'Spectres are elite operatives. Top covert agents. Why send a Spectre – a turian Spectre – on a shakedown run? It doesn't add up.'

'Eh, let's ask him some questions here to get a few clues. Stealth systems!'"

…

Happy with the hundreds and thousands of views his videos got, Michael finally took the time to shoot entries for North Fitness and North Gaming and upload them over the week. Contrary to his selfish expectations, not every view guaranteed him glory points. He was rewarded only if a viewer got real insights and did better on his tests. The latter meant an extra point for Michael.

Several days passed since the incident with the thugs. Everything was back to normal.

Marco hadn't confessed to anything, but it seemed his way of getting Donald's henchmen off the school grounds didn't work when some of them had broken limbs. In the end, security found them and patched up whatever rabbit hole or process they used.

Interrogated thugs didn't give up Donald and only pointed fingers at Marco. Kamyshov's influence was in dire straits after he had used his contacts again, this time to get his son off the hook.

Michael got all that from Jones who called him the following day and excitedly commended him on a job well done. He mentioned that principal Graves was very impressed with Michael's actions but decided not to let the cultivator know so that he wouldn't appear to play favorites.

Now, both Marco and Donald acted like they only had studying on their minds. Their friendship fell apart before it really stuck. Kamyshov's son realized that Donald merely wanted to use him to do his dirty work and have someone to push the blame onto.

Both acted meek and quiet when Michael was nearby. Marco attempted to ask for forgiveness, claiming he didn't know about the hooligan's threats to Anna, but was ignored. He didn't dare come forward to the girl, and that showed exactly how sincere he was, compared to how scared of Michael.

Anna got closer to Old Zhao and spent her days as his official assistant. The man's rough manner didn't strike her as unpleasant, and they hit it off. After introducing them, Michael rarely dropped by. He only knew that Anna ended her days and returned to the dorms before it was too dark.

He still hated Donald for that.

This week, he was busier and spent less time cultivating in favor of working on the YouTube channels and the game. That, together with the 7th star's difficulty, meant Michael was close to a breakthrough but not quite there.

As for the game, its development progressed smoothly.

"Everyone, thank you for coming to our weekly meeting. I won't check attendance," everyone smiled, seated at a round table in some empty classroom. There were four of them, and anyone's absence would have long been noted, "so let's get to it. What is your progress for this week? Sofia?"

"Mm," the girl nodded, "I've finished drawing everything. The birds, pigs and the slingshot are done. I've submitted examples of wood, ice, brick and other structures of various sizes too. Now, I guess I'm waiting for working levels, so I can draw backgrounds?" she looked to Michael for confirmation and continued after his nod, "That's all for me."

"Great! Sofia was very efficient this week, and her object design is superb. I'll let our most hardworking member Dimitri take it from here."

In truth, nothing escaped Michael's control. Everything the girls did, they had to run by him. This meeting served more as a milestone, to gather everyone in a room and devote some time to talking among themselves. The official tone was something the friends adopted because they wanted to sound more grown-up, even in such a childish way.

Dimitri wasn't as open about his work though, and Michael paid attention to his lead programmer's results.

"I've accomplished a lot this week. Materials' resistance, object impermanence, physics' effect on speed and trajectory… Fine," he conceded, noticing the girls were lost. Only Michael presented a serious face which reinforced Dimitri's belief in him, "here's something you'll like."

He put his phone on the table for everyone to see. There, on a field of white, was a cartoonish slingshot with three birds lined up behind it. He pulled on the launcher with his finger, and one of the birds teleported into the noose. With a "screee" the bird flew at a house made of wood, hit a plank and disappeared. The planks hit each other and "poofed" into nothing as well.

"I don't have the pig here yet, I rushed to finish for today," Dimitri explained, his voice rich with pride.

The girls clapped in encouragement. They were happy to see their own work come alive in the game. Anna paid extra attention to the sounds, while Sofia evaluated the artwork.

"I think we can all agree Dimitri's surprise was great. That is important to remember."

Everyone quieted down, expecting a critical point of view.

"But! No, let me first commend Anna on the sounds," his remark prompted a smile, "We took a novel approach and asked younger students to imitate bird sounds on a recording. As you can see, those guys know how to chirp and tweet…"

Realizing a business opportunity, Michael asked suddently, "Is twitter around?"

"Eh? The website?"

"Never mind," he drooped, "I'll think of something else. Back to work. Sounds. Anna, how is the soundtrack?"

"Working on it. I don't have enough experience," she blushed, "but here's what I made so far."

She cued Dimitri to play a recording. It was a short, 15-second demo, and it resembled the famous Angry Birds music to a T.

"I guess it's true what they say," whistled Sofia, "A talented person is talented in everything!"

Everyone laughed at Anna's face torn between haughtiness and embarrassment.

"Next, Sofia. I forgot to tell you, we need a damaged and shattered versions of materials. Also, please cooperate with Dimitri to make a few animations for that moment when the birds get into the slingshot. They can jump, jump with a roll, even fly up there."

"Ha! I knew birds could fly!"

"Yes, but only before we launch them."

"Ooh."

"Now, Dimitri. What can I say? Excellent work. Here's what needs to be done to perfect this level. Add the pigs – that's obvious. Then, preparation animations, background and music aside, there are three more things. One, please insert a damaged state for the objects where they appear broken down. Sofia will draw them soon. Two, keep the birds on the screen. They can still quack so that we see they're alive. Don't scare the kids."

"Sure. I was never happy with their suicidal tendencies."

"And you complained. Loudly," nodded Michael. "Three, there needs to be a screen that appears after the pigs are dead and every object stops moving. That will be the points and stars window. I'll give you a point count spreadsheet later."

Now that they could see an actual level and play, the four teenagers smiled brighter. They could see a future for the game they spent two weeks on. For Dimitri, it was even more important as he had been developing the physics weeks before that. As Anna and Sofia took turns launching the birds on his phone, he looked at Michael with appreciation.

Perhaps there was a person with the talent to unite people behind an idea. Was that what charisma looked like? Magnetism? Vision? His skepticism long gone, Dimitri vowed to keep listening to his friend's instructions until the end. If anyone could earn them money off Angry Birds, it was Michael North.