'Crap, what's with this timing!' Simon inwardly exclaimed when the door very nearly collided with his face.

Without a sliver of hesitation, he dashed into the washroom, before gently closing the door. He did all of this without making a sound, utilizing his decades of experience to do so.

Then, as he hid in the washroom, he heard a smooth and confident voice from outside the door.

"Sir, I have awakened! Are you by any chance in this house right now?"

Simon sighed in relief, upon realizing that Jake didn't notice him. But he was also rather startled by his voice. After all, it was nothing like what he previously sounded like.

"I'm in the bathroom next to you. Go do me a favor and grab me some clean clothes. I don't care how you do it!" he quickly said as he sat in the bathroom awkwardly.

Thump!

Immediately, he could hear the sound of flesh hitting wood.

"Thank you for your benevolence sir! I will forever serve you to the best of my abilities! I never thought that I would live to see the day where I am healthy again, your methods truly are impressive and worthy of praise!" Jake said emotionally with his forehead seemingly glued to the floor.

With a determined tone, Jake continued, "I, Jake, swear to serve you as loyally as one possibly can! Be it my life, my skills, or my well being, they all are in your hands. If I ever renege on my oath, then the system itself shall strike me down!"

'Uh…'

Hearing this, Simon had to admit that he was surprised for a brief moment...

After all, he had scored himself a loyal and unmatched genius, just like that!

A swear to the system was akin to speaking the truth itself. If one truly reneged on the oath, one would surely face the system's repercussions. As a result, it could definitely be considered reliable.

It has to be known that no typical figure could bear corrupted essence as easily as Jake. His will was without a doubt impressive, and his talent was likewise peerless.

In fact, even in his previous world, Jake would probably be known as an unfathomable genius who was blessed by the heavens. People like him would even blast through their star core progressions like they were tofu, and were capable of making several breakthroughs in a single decade.

These results could only be brought about through a combination of both talent, and willpower!

The edges of Simon's mouth curled upwards into a smile as he came to a sudden realization.

'Hahaha, this is simply too easy, I can just pick up all the poor geniuses who are afflicted with corrupted essence!' Simon thought excitedly.

He couldn't help but to imagine the scene where countless geniuses studied under him… It was sure to be a grand sight.

In his previous life, those who were afflicted with corrupted essence were highly sought out. After all, if they were cured, they would naturally be great mages with wills of steel, as those who had a strong resolve were more likely to progress further on the path of a mage.

However, in this world, there was no competition to grab up these geniuses... To Simon, this was akin to finding an untouched gold mine!

But after just a moment, Simon snapped out of his thoughts and responded to Jake.

"Good. I will take you under my wing and teach you the ways of magic. Make sure to practice diligently, for the path of a mage is not easy in the slightest!" Simon said, with a profound and mysterious voice. At this moment, his demeanor was completely different than normal, and he sounded like an old master who stepped up to instruct a junior.

But after a moment, he then continued awkwardly, losing all semblance of suavity in the process. "Alright, go and get me some clothes already!"

Thump! Thump!

Jake knowtowed a few more times, before heading off.

...

A few grueling minutes later...

Simon was sitting on the bathtub when he finally heard footsteps approaching the washroom.

'Took long enough… My *ss is hurting' he grumbled inwardly.

"Sir, I have brought clothes to you made of sewn grass. For now, that's all that I could achieve." a muffled voice said, from outside the door.

"Alright, open the door by a crack and toss the clothes inside!" Simon instructed with a nod. He had expected this much, and was not fazed for needing to wear clothes made of grass.

Then, the door slowly opened by a fraction and a set of clothes was thrown in, before the door closed again.

After putting on the grass clothes, Simon was satisfied, and headed outside of the room.

Upon exiting the room, Jake, who was off to the side, respectfully bowed.

'Woah...' Simon was slightly startled.

Jake's demeanor had gone through an earth-shattering transformation since the last time that he saw him.

Rather than timid and shaky, he looked sturdy, and fierce. Not to mention, he was somehow no longer as scrawny as before!

Clearly, his body had regained some vigor after cleansing itself of the corrupted essence, as Simon had also recently healed many of the man's internal injuries.

Simon waved a hand amicably, as he spoke.

"No need to be so formal. You're now my disciple! Go eat some food; recovering from corrupted mana definitely drained you. It should be ready by the time you get down."

With that wave of his hand, Simon summoned a portion of crops that were stored outside and prepared them for consumption.

Jake was not a dull man and he noticed the flicker outside the window, so he understood in an instant and thanked Simon profusely before going down.

'Right, I haven't finished checking my house. I suppose I have to do so before I get my system notifications.' Simon thought as he headed down the stairs.

Last time, he only received the system notifications after he had fully checked out his island core and island. Naturally, since he had yet to receive his system notifications this time around, his next course of action was clear.

'On to the basement!'

...

After reaching the base floor, he opened a trapdoor that was in the corner of the kitchen and jumped straight down the passageway that resided beneath the trapdoor, forgoing the ladder completely.

Thump.

Upon landing on the stone floor, which was a couple meters deep, he took a look around.

Magical candles that could last indefinitely lined the walls of stone, giving the basement a gloomy medieval vibe. Along the edges of the room, piles of neatly stacked resources could also be seen. Clearly, this basement was meant for storage, and the system had generously moved the resources that once laid within the cabin inside.

'Hm, not bad, this is roughly 800 cubic meters of storage space.' Simon thought with a nod upon seeing this room.

It was enough to suit his needs for now, which was to store his spoilable items.

However, that was not to say that it was sufficient for his needs in the long term. After all, he didn't wish to leave the rest of his resources to be laying about on his island if he could help it.

After checking out the basement, Simon headed back up the ladder, and finally stepped out of the island core and onto the island.

Now, he could see that the island expanded by an entire 25 meters in each direction, totalling at a diameter of 125 meters.

Simon whistled upon seeing his island's growth. With this much land, his rate of collecting resources would multiply. But similarly, the amount of work needed to manage the island would increase as well...

'Hmm, I heard there are refugee airships that come randomly. It seems that I'll start a town here soon.' he thought while inspecting his newly expanded island. After all, he naturally needed more manpower to fully exploit the resources of his island.

At this point, the system notifications finally rang in Simon's mind.

[Island Core leveled up to Lv. 2, rewarding 500 xp, island rose by 10,000 meters]

[Island leveled up to Lv. 3, island rose by 10,000 meters]

[Unlocked: Shop Lv. 3]

[Unlocked: Forums]

[Unlocked: Hall of Glory]

[Unlocked: Minion System]

[Achievement Unlocked [The First] (I): First player to reach level 3. Rewarding 1x (B-Tier)[Minion], and adding this achievement to the Hall of Glory. Would you like to publicize your name?]

Simon paused and took a deep breath while taking it all in; four new icons appeared in his vision, all at once, while the sounds of several system notifications resounded in his mind.

'Awesome! I've unlocked so much crap and even got an achievement? That's what I'm talking about!' Simon thought joyfully, chuckling upon hearing all the benefits that he had just received.

He first decided to hide his name for the announcement. He wasn't quite ready to reveal himself to the world, after all.

As the saying went, the nail that sticks out gets hammered down. If he rashly decided to show off while lacking enough strength to back himself up, he was just begging to be eliminated from the competition.

'Hide my name.'

Afterwards, another system notification sounded in his ears. This time, the system notification not only sounded in his ears, but in the ears of billions of gamers worldwide as well.

[An anonymous player has achieved the [The First] (I) achievement by being the first to level their island to level 3. 1x (B-Tier)[Worker] was rewarded, and this achievement will be added to the Hall of Glory!]

-----

On a particular island, far away from Simon…

A somewhat chubby, but charming looking man was busy harvesting his crops, which looked utterly sad. These crops were riddled with holes, and were wilted and shrivelled.

Without a doubt, they were deader than dead!

"F*ck! This sh*t is impossible to grow man, what the f*ck?!" the man exclaimed in exasperation, while scrunching his nose at the dreadful smell.

This man was actually Simon's best bro, Kenny!

He regretfully pulled out the plants that he had poured his efforts into, and threw them off his island...

But in the middle of doing so, he suddenly received a system notification that made him feel faint.

[An anonymous player has achieved the [The First] (I) achievement by being the first to level their island to level 3. 1x (B-Tier)[Minion] was rewarded, and this achievement will be added to the Hall of Glory!]

"..."

He was speechless for a moment, before snapping out of his shock.

"Are you f*cking kidding me?!?! How is that possible! What have I been doing my whole life? Some guy just casually levels up to level 3? Is it a cheater?!" he shouted out in despair, upon hearing this bizarre sequence of words that the system transmitted to him.

Kenny was understandably shocked! After all, many reputable experts had reached a consensus that it would take even the fastest people at least a few days to achieve island level 3.

This piece of information had somewhat comforted Kenny, who was putting his all into the game and still struggling!

In fact, he even sneakily pulled off an all nighter to best a certain someone in a certain competition...

However, this sudden announcement by the system felt like a slap to his face; the experts were all wrong... Some crazy b*stard had really gotten level 3 within the first day!

Eventually, he could only sigh and continued "farming".

"Man… Those kinds of people who can get level 3 this early are simply out of my reach. I'll never interact with those types of figures in my lifetime so I don't have to worry about it! Let me just focus on beating Simon to level 3..." he muttered, in an attempt to comfort himself.

Though if he were to know the truth, he might have just fainted on the spot.

-----

Meanwhile, on the web…

P1 {Level 3 my *ss! Did this guy manage to dig up some steroids on his island or something?! Why can't I get this luck!}

P2 {Seriously, it's not humanly possible unless he had some sort of cheat! I have a friend in a research school, and he tells me that his professors even suspect that it's illegitimate!}

P3 {Can anyone find this person? I'm willing to pay 1,000,000 F-Creds for a location!}

P4 {Only 1 million? Who are you kidding! Someone is even offering 5 million!}

P3 {F*ck, I meant 6 million! 1 million was just a slip of the finger, don't worry about it!}

...

The entire gaming community was in an uproar, and many highly influential figures and corporations were hoping to find this mysterious figure. In fact, many news stations and websites had even reported this situation.

To the public, such a situation induced their envy and respect.

However, the implications of this event to those who knew of the importance of Island Ascension Online were considerably more substantial. After all, this meant that someone had either found a way to obtain XP at ridiculous speeds or that someone was an extremely powerful mage already. Be it the former or the latter, the consequences of such a thing would be worthy of notice.

But alas, the perpetrator himself was completely unaware of the massive uproar that he had caused…