Below that is a progress bar stuck at 0%.
Below the progress bar is a button labeled "Upgrade."
It's a simple, even crude, design.
Ethan clicks the top button, "Select Technique," and a single option appears in the list: "Basic Mana Cultivation Technique."
Ethan pauses, furrowing his brow.
"The phone came from Earth, but does it have a game that uses this world's techniques?"
He selects the technique. The previously static silhouette shifts position slightly and assumes the exact pose that the technique says is most effective for cultivation.
The progress bar slowly begins to fill. It likely symbolizes the cultivation cycle—the time it takes for mana to flow through the entire body, completing a cycle.
Realizing that filling the progress bar will take about 10 minutes, Ethan shifts his attention to the "Upgrade" option.
Clicking the button brings up a window with a single option: "Increase number of silhouettes," with 1000p written at the end, likely the price.
But how does one earn those points?
In the corner of the upgrade screen, there is a wallet symbol with a smaller symbol drawn at the bottom of the wallet.
After clicking it, a new window opens outside the previous one and a balance screen appears with a big zero.
Below, it says, "One small mana stone equals one point."
"A mana stone?" How do I get mana stones in this game? Do I get a little bit every time the progress bar fills up? Based on how idle games usually work, that's how it would be. But that'll take a while, so what do I do in the meantime?"
Ethan thinks for a moment, then, influenced by the game's theme, decides to practice the basic mana cultivation technique himself.
He sits cross-legged with his hands resting on his knees. He is relaxed with a straight spine and loose shoulders. He begins to breathe slowly, inhaling through his nose and exhaling through his mouth.
Soon, he begins to guide the mana entering his lungs to other areas of his body as the technique teaches.
He slowly directs the thread of mana through various invisible channels throughout his body, strengthening everything along its path.
If he had more talent, the mana would pass through his body faster, shortening the time between each cycle.
But with his mediocre talent, this speed is the best he can manage.
If he had money to spare, he could spend it on mana stones, which contain more concentrated mana than the mana in the air his lungs draw in during cultivation.
However, he has neither the money nor the strength to hunt beasts and obtain their mana stones. So, he has to settle for training slowly.
After several minutes of guiding the mana, just as he was about to finish a cycle, a slight sensation of coolness washed over him, almost breaking his concentration.
He knows this sensation. It's what you feel when you finish a cycle. But he hadn't finished yet.
Maintaining his focus, he finishes the cycle shortly after, and once again, the refreshing sensation takes hold.
He snapped out of his trance and inspected his body, realizing his senses hadn't been wrong.
He had just experienced two sensations of a complete cycle, even though he hadn't finished one of them yet.
As he looked at his phone, he had an idea of what might have happened.
Without waiting, he opened the app again and saw that the progress bar was barely moving.
As he watched it fill up, he realized that it would take just as long as it would take him to complete a cycle.
Judging by the time that had already passed, the progress bar should have finished filling up around the time he had felt the first sensation of coolness.
"Could that be it?"
To conduct an experiment, he stops training and spends the next 10 minutes staring at his phone screen in anticipation.
Finally, after ten minutes, the progress bar fills up, and the refreshing sensation takes over his body again.
He was right—whenever the game finishes loading the progress bar, he feels as though he has completed a cultivation cycle himself.
"This phone...cultivates for me?"
The idea of having a phone that farms for him 24/7 makes him smile from ear to ear.
Of course, it seems to respect his talent, so it's not overpowered, but it's still a huge help.
Few people have more than a few hours a day for cultivation.
But with this phone, it's as if he were cultivating for 24 hours straight every day.
Moreover, if he adds his standard time cultivating normally, he would have at least 30 hours of cultivation per day.
It would be as if he gained five days of cultivation with every passing day.
Currently, he has five times his normal daily cultivation speed.
This speed compensates for his lack of talent, making him just as good as Sam, who actually has decent talent.
Turning back to the upgrade window, his eyes light up.
If he gets his hands on mana stones, he can add more silhouettes and increase his cultivation speed even further.
But where can he find mana stones?
He's broke, and a mana stone is too expensive for him to buy with his salary.
He's also not sure if increasing the number of silhouettes will boost his cultivation speed, so he doesn't want to spend the money his parents left him.
Deciding to figure it out later, he turns his attention back to his phone and remembers he has another app.
He returns to the home screen and opens the second app, where a silhouette fights alone.
Just like the previous one, the window flashes with the game's name, "Idle Training," and fades out for a few moments before opening again.
With a very similar design, the silhouette stands in the center of the screen as if waiting for a command.
At the top is the option to select training.
Below that is the progress bar and the upgrade option.
However, there is a new button in this app.
Next to the upgrade button is "Martial Arts Training."
When clicked, a new window appears with the option labeled "Select Martial Art."
This game seems to focus on the physical aspect of the body for both physical and combat training.
Returning to the previous window, he clicks to select the training.
This time, there are two options:
The first, Basic Training.
It's the kind of training we do in school to strengthen the body.
It's nothing special and is more for keeping the body from getting lazy, just like any gym workout on Earth.
The second option, however, is "Basic Body Forging Technique."
Ethan's eyes light up the moment he reads the name.
Passively training with this technique for 24 hours a day is even better than practicing the cultivation technique.
At least for now.
The Basic Body Forging Technique trains the body and puts strain on it.
You can't train for many hours a day with it.
With a lot of effort, you might be able to train for two hours a day at most.
However, people like him who study and work have very little free time.
They have to choose which technique to use.
Since he didn't have much hope of making further progress with the technique, he hadn't trained in a long time.
But now? He can now train for 24 hours a day without feeling fatigued while doing other things.
On his best days, he could manage two hours of training.
In theory, this means that training through the game increases its effectiveness by 12 times.
If he manages to buy a new silhouette for this training, it will improve even more.
After selecting the Basic Body Forging Technique option, the silhouette begins to move.
With slow but powerful movements, the silhouette performs various movements that strengthen the body's foundation and enhance talent.
Ethan then switches to the "Martial Arts Training" option.
Without delay, he clicks the first button: "Select Martial Art."
More options appear.
None of them catch his eye.
They are just basic fighting styles that use various weapons:
There are swords, spears, axes, bows and arrows, firearms, and even unarmed combat.
They were all developed by the country and are just the basics.
But it's better than nothing.
He chooses the unarmed version.
For those who can't afford a weapon, it's the best and only option.
After making his selection, the silhouette begins to move, performing the same movements
Ethan remembers from training at school.
Excited by the treasure in his hands, Ethan checks his phone and continues training for the rest of the night instead of trying to sleep.