Alex started reading the translated book. As he read on, he realized that it wasn't as easy as he had expected it to be. He didn't have the same talent as the in-game character and thus failed to remember much of the 5000 words the first time through.

Once he was done, he once again started to read the book from the start. He had to read it over and over to understand what was being told throughout the book.

"No wonder the people would rather just click the 'Learn' button. If your talent is like this, I assume it will take forever for them to learn anything,

" Alex thought.

After 7 or 8 times of fully reading the book, did he finally understand what the book was trying to say? It spoke of a way to pull in Qi from the surroundings and introduce it to your body.

He sat cross-legged in a lotus position and couldn't wait to start cultivating. Unlike in the game, he couldn't just start to breathe slowly and hope the method worked. He would have to actively do..

"Here goes nothing,

" he thought and took a deep breath. Then, he started to do what he felt was moving something along his 'meridians'. He felt a tingling sensation in his body, but couldn't tell if that was because he felt excited or he was genuinely taking in Qi.

After a while, he thought he felt something weird with his body. He happily thought he had succeeded, but turned out it was just a placebo effect.

Just because he wanted it to be true, he saw results in places there were none. He 'cultivated' for another 15 to 20 minutes, only to realize how stupid he was being.

"Is it really possible that I am overthinking it all and this is all a coincidence?

" Alex wondered. Nothing he did was working. There was 0 evidence proving his claims.

"Oh, Sister said something about those conspiracy theorists. I should check it out,

" he thought and opened his laptop.

He searched through the internet to find information about these people that believed the game to be a real word. Unfortunately, it really turned out to be a bunch of conspiracy theorists.

They barely gave any evidence towards their claims and all they kept on saying was stuff like 'don't believe them' or 'stop being a sheep', and also the most repeated one of all, 'think for yourself.'

Alex was severely disappointed. He was back to square one where he had a theory of the game being real, but no way to prove it. He had minor evidence, but nothing concrete that could explain anything in full.

The only thing that could possibly explain was—

"The chip,

" His eyes shined as he thought of it.

"I didn't find any information regarding similar formations, but that doesn't mean I won't be able to find information if I read about formations themselves.

"

He immediately went back into the capsule and logged in to the game. The fog was still the same and would likely stay that way until the formation was broken or it naturally ended.

With nothing else to do, he sat down in a lotus position and started thinking of the various stuff he read about formations till now.

He started to understand how formations worked. Until now, he had read many books about formations but hadn't stopped a single moment to try and understand what they meant. Today was going to be his first major step towards learning about formations.

There were 3 things required when making a formation. The design of the formation, the metal that is used to make the design, and the source of energy to run the formation.

The design of the formation was the actual image of the formation, made using lines that could do different things depending on what the metal used to carve was made out of, and what sort of energy was being passed along.

The designs themselves were simple lines that were connected to each other using the different points at which they met. For example, one could use 5 formation flags and have a formation where the shape was a pentagon and have its function be something.

The same formation flags could be used to make a pentagram, and its function would be something else.

Of course, formations were not this simple. You couldn't change how it looked and have it function in a certain manner. It also needed an appropriate formation flag or a metal plate on top of which it would be drawn.

These were things that were made by artifact masters. Depending on the metal in use, there would be different results.

Lastly, the thing required to run the whole thing was the energy. Most of the time, it was just a simple spirit stone, but other times, it could be rare materials or monster cores.

"A metal plate, with the formation lines carved on it. The first two requirements certainly are there,

" Alex thought when he remembered the chip.

"As for the energy… could it be the connection to the wall that we have to plug the helmet too?

" he wondered. After all, as long as an energy source was there, a formation should be able to function quite properly.

"Am I… right?

" he started thinking.

In the end, no matter what he thought, he couldn't deny the fact that there were just too many coincidences for him to ignore.

Still, he decided to ignore it all for now. Ning learned what he could about the formations until it was dark again and logged out.

He had classes tomorrow, so he decided to make sure he had done all of his homework and stuff. Also, he had been working the whole day today, so he was incredibly hungry and needed to eat as well.

So, he went to the kitchen and prepared a delicious meal for himself. Hannah wasn't going to wake up until tomorrow morning, so he only prepared it for himself.

After that, he logged back into the game.