“I don't think it matters much,” May commented when she learned that they would have the privilege of choosing their rooms and dormitories for the new year.

  Cloud Academy had twenty buildings where students could live. The four young geniuses of their generation had a map of the academy in front of them.

  “I'll take a single room on the fourth floor of the House of Fire,” said Yifan Wu briefly. He said it without hesitation, so he must have known what he wanted from the start.

  Zu Chen took a single room in the House of Wind, and Peng Chen took a double room, also in the House of Fire same as Yifan. The twins also had no problem choosing. May, however, was slightly surprised that they decided to live in different buildings.

  “You took a double?” May was surprised.

  It seemed to her, in the end, that everyone would prefer to live alone. It made her wonder a little.

  “Yes, I'm going to live with my childhood friend. His name is Ma Long, I'm sure you'll like him,” he said.

  May fell into thought. The rest knew where they wanted to live from the beginning, but she was seeing the layout of the student houses for the first time.

  But May didn't even know how these student residences differed from each other. Did it even matter? Apart from the map, they had nothing else to help them choose.

  “Hmm... Maybe the House of Earth? It's in the middle, so I'll be the same distance from everywhere...” She said to herself uncertainly.

  “The House of Earth? I don't recommend it,” Peng Chen said. “It's true that you'll be close to everything, but... It's really noisy there, with everyone passing by from early in the morning. It's better to be on the east side.”

  May sighed with relief that Peng had stayed with her and hadn't left like the other two. If she had to choose for herself, she would probably choose the worst dormitory.

  “Hmm, then maybe I should go to the same House as you... the House of Fire?” May asked. Her reasoning was simple: if Peng chose it, it must be a good place.

  Peng Chen just frowned. “Only boys can live there, May...”

  She felt slightly embarrassed and cleared her throat awkwardly.

  But in my defense, nothing on this map indicates a division by gender... How was I supposed to know that such a division even existed?! No one bothered to inform me about it.

  “Oh... Then maybe I'll live in the same house as your sister, it's right next door!” She said cheerfully, hoping that the third time would be the charm.

  Peng looked at the room list. After a moment, however, he frowned, and May sighed when she saw his expression, even before he uttered his first words.

  “Hmm, unfortunately, it looks like there are no single rooms left. After all, they are the most desirable rooms. The older students have taken them all, and Zu took the single room that was vacant...”

  “Ugh... In that case, what's left for me?” She asked, having lost all hope of finding anything. She hoped that Peng would simply tell her what to choose.

  “How about the House of Grass? There are three single rooms available there, and the location isn't too bad either...”

  May shrugged and chose it, trusting Peng Chen.

  Fortunately, that was the last thing they had to do that day. Elder An informed them that they were now officially students of Cloud Academy.

  Then they had to go back down to the bottom. Even though it took a while, going down was much faster than going up. They were greeted by horse-drawn carriages that would take them to Cloud Academy shortly after they arrived at the bottom.

  They left for the academy, and although the journey took some time, they managed to arrive before sunset. The academy seemed quite abandoned at the moment, which was probably due to the fact that the academic year had not yet begun.

  Despite its name, Cloud Academy was actually a huge complex of many buildings, resembling a small city within a city rather than a single university building. The complex was so large that it would probably take nearly an hour to cross it on horseback.

  May received the keys to her room. After chatting with Peng Chen for a while, she soon went to her room to unpack. Her belongings had already been sent here by the Yun estate.

  She entered her room on the second floor. It was a good size, much larger than her room at Eastern Court. The floor was made of white wood and the walls were tiled with bricks. She even had her own private bathroom!

  It paid off to have the privilege of choosing a room.

  It was a premium, top-of-the-line room. May sat down on the bed and lay down. Unfortunately, it was quite hard, but at least the sheets were clean.

  “Hmm, what's that?”

  She noticed something on her desk. She stood up and picked up something golden.

  “A gold card, huh...”

  She remembered that quite some time ago, Elder Wo Shi Hao had promised her a Gold Sect Card if she rejected Elder Ze Yun.

  So she kept her promise... But how did she already know which room I was in?

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  The Gold Sect Card allowed for many things. It could only be obtained for merits to the sect. With it, she could ask the sect for resources or even to kill someone. However, May had no idea how to use this card.

  Holding it in her hand, she examined it closely. It was not made of real gold, but it was certainly no less impressive. Intricate runes were engraved on it to prevent counterfeiting. The patterns twisted in all directions, and on the main side of the card was Mount Junlin, the most important symbol of the sect. It was certainly beautifully made.

  “I don't need it right now,” she said quietly to herself. “But still, it's better to have it than not to have it...” May said quietly to herself.

  Then she hid it in a safe place and threw herself back on the bed, thinking about her future. She had quite a lot of thoughts on the subject, after all.

  “I have so much to do... Starting my own business, I need to find a master if I want to learn alchemy... Not to mention that I can't neglect my cultivation.” Complained, talking to herself. Hard work was nothing new to her; in her previous life, she had worked like a dog. Ultimately, however, she did not fulfill her dreams, even though she gave her life away.

  Minnie suddenly appeared.

  “You should focus on your business,” she said calmly. “You can take care of everything else with money.”

  May chuckled quietly to herself. She didn't expect anything else from her. She was, after all, just a selfish entity created by a system that was designed to extort as much money as possible from May. It's true that she gave her good advice from now and then, but most of the time she could be ignored. Her goal was not May's well-being, but to obtain more money.

  “You're right. After all, I have a Pay-To-Win system... But I can't put all my eggs in one basket.

  ”Actually, you can, and you should."

  “I thought you'd say something like that...” she said quietly. “You may be right... I have a few other ideas, but I could use a master for that...”

  However, she still had time for that. Rushing never led to anything good, and May understood that very well.

  Even if she somehow managed to create all those products from Earth right away, she would still attract too much attention.

  Slowly and steadily. That was her goal.

  After a moment of rest, she got out of bed. It was time to train. She went outside, asked a few academy employees, and was pointed to the training hall.

  She entered the large building and rented a room for three hours.

  Taking her spear with her, she began to train. In the life of a cultivator, there was no time for rest.

  “As far as I'm concerned, you're overdoing it,” Minnie said suddenly, seeing how hard May was working. “You can achieve the same thing with the system without overexerting yourself... Three hours of training like this would cost you... Hmm... 1,500 [mu]! Focus on making money!”

  May shook her head. “I'm sorry, Minnie, but as the Red Queen said, to stand here, you have to run as fast as you can.”

  “...I don't quite understand, but do what you want. It's none of my business.”

  After three hours, she finished her training. She didn't take a single break. She sighed quietly and wiped the sweat from her forehead.

  She went outside and was about to go to her room to wash up, but as she was leaving the training hall, she unexpectedly saw Peng Chen. She decided to approach him.

  He was in the process of renting a room for training. May overheard him saying that he wanted to rent it for five hours. This was strange in the sense that it would mean he would not finish until after midnight. When he left the receptionist, May decided to take action.

  “Hey, Peng,” she said as she walked closer.

  “May... I see you've finished training?” He said with slight surprise, looking at her closely. It was not difficult to tell that she had just finished training, judging by her appearance and the unpleasant smell. Fortunately, in this world, women were not expected to pay more attention to their appearance than men.

  The world of cultivation was remarkably equal toward both genders. It was one of the areas in which this world was more advanced than Earth.

  “Yes... I somewhat lost track of time.” She answered him with slight embarrassment. She regretted approaching him in such a state. She knew she stank of sweat.

  “I understand, I came here for a similar reason... I have to practice what I received from the Leader during the ceremony...”

  Suddenly, May remembered that Peng had indeed received a mysterious book from the sect leader. No one knew what he had gotten.

  “If you don't mind, can I ask what kind of book it was?” she asked curiously. “You seemed so surprised at the time.”

  The boy laughed. “Haha, you'll find out in due time... Bye for now.”

  “Yeah, bye.” She said, watching the boy walk away.

  She returned to her room and was about to go wash up, but decided to check her current status first.

  She was pleased with her progress, but what hurt her most was the lack of funds. As time went on, her expenses began to rise, while her income remained virtually unchanged. Although Cloud Academy allocates a certain amount of money each month, May knew that it would not be enough. Minnie was right about one thing: she desperately needed as much money as possible.

  After taking a long, hot bath, she returned to her room and this time intended to practice her [Microscopic vision] skill. It was a skill she had created herself, and it was useful.

  Of course, the name was a bit exaggerated, as it lacked the ability of real microscopes from Earth, but May believed that with time and training, it would not be much worse than them.

  She took everyday objects and used her skill on them, zooming in and out. This required a lot of concentration and mental effort.

  Nevertheless, her progress was quite good. At the very beginning, the magnification was not very good, only up to x10. Now, after years of practice, she could use her ability to magnify objects up to thirty times.

  At the current rate, my rate of improvement is increasing... So I should set a goal of a thousand times magnification!

  She knew it was ambitious, but it was good to have lofty goals to strive for.

  I should train as much as possible before the academic year begins... I don't have much time left.