## **Chapter 10: Companion Egg**
*(From the novel "I Became the Gamer Who Controls Reality")*
Tanish Verma was practicing his fist techniques on the training field, each movement sharp and deliberate. Yet, every few seconds, his gaze wandered toward Vivaan Sharma, who sat casually under a large banyan tree, eyes fixed on his phone.
For nearly an hour, Tanish had been drenched in sweat from his drills, while Vivaan hadn't moved an inch—completely engrossed in his mysterious mobile game.
"It's really unfair to compare," Tanish muttered bitterly, throwing another punch into the air. "We train till our muscles ache, and that guy just sits there gaming like a king."
Over the past few days of group training, Tanish had learned something surprising—Vivaan's reputation as the top genius of **Guide High Institute** wasn't just because of his natural talent in cultivation.
At first, Tanish had believed that cultivation was like rowing upstream—stop for a moment, and you fall behind. No human could stay sharp without constant practice. A single day of rest could dull one's sense of distance and timing during battle.
But Vivaan… was different.
Once he learned something, he seemed to absorb it completely. Even if he didn't practice it for days, his performance in combat was still flawless—smooth, precise, and terrifyingly efficient.
Whenever the four of them trained together, Vivaan was fully cooperative and brilliant. But the moment personal training began, he would wander off to a quiet spot, pull out his phone, and start gaming.
If it weren't for his unmatched performance during team drills, Tanish might have lectured him already—maybe even dragged him to the ground for a lesson on discipline. But now, all he could do was glare enviously at the lazy genius under the tree while he punched the air in frustration.
"Where are you looking, Tanish? Focus. Your movements are all wrong," said **Rohit Nanda**, walking up with his usual calm expression.
Tanish sighed, glancing again toward Vivaan, who was still tapping away at his screen. "Man, if I had even half his talent, life would be so easy. Cultivation is miserable… who wouldn't rather just play games all day?"
Rohit chuckled quietly. "Do you really think Vivaan's just playing games all day?"
"Of course! He's glued to that phone every chance he gets," Tanish replied, confused.
Rohit shook his head. "We only see him at school. We have no idea what he does after class."
"You're saying he trains secretly at home?" Tanish raised an eyebrow, skeptical.
"There's no such thing as free success," Rohit said seriously. "Vivaan might seem laid-back, but deep down, he's proud—too proud to stay weak. Remember how badly he lost to **Reva Rathore**? Even if there were reasons for his defeat, he probably couldn't accept it. Someone like him wouldn't just sit idle. I'm sure he trains harder than any of us, just not where people can see it. The gaming might just be an act."
Tanish frowned. "Then why keep pretending? Wouldn't it make more sense to train openly instead of wasting time?"
Rohit gave a sly smile. "Think about it. If everyone thinks you're washed up, but you suddenly top the city rankings during the upcoming combat trials… wouldn't it feel incredible to silence every single one of them?"
Tanish's eyes widened. "You mean he's pretending to be a slacker on purpose? Damn… that's wickedly smart!"
Rohit quickly clamped his hand over Tanish's mouth. "Shh! Don't shout. Do you want him to hear?"
While the two whispered conspiratorially, Vivaan was completely unaware of their theories—or perhaps, he simply didn't care.
To him, gaming *was* training.
Inside the mysterious phone, his in-game avatar was practically another version of himself. Every battle, every movement, every strike he made in the game translated into real combat experience and muscle memory.
So while others spent hours sweating on the field, Vivaan was leveling up both mentally and physically through his strange digital battlefield.
"Mutated Vigor Ant," Vivaan muttered with focus, watching a red ant appear on the screen.
He'd slain over a dozen of these mutated creatures in the past few days. Apart from the first one, which had dropped a few **Skill Crystals**, the rest yielded nothing valuable—just low-quality drops.
Even rare crystals with values around nine were getting harder to find.
Now, Vivaan wasn't even excited anymore when one appeared. Calm and precise, he guided his blood-colored avatar forward, unleashed two **Vigor Divine Fist** strikes, and shattered the ant into pieces.
*Ding!*
A familiar sound echoed. Something had dropped.
Vivaan blinked. Normally, he wouldn't have cared—low-tier crystals weren't useful anymore. But this time, the item name was… different.
The usual word "Crystal" wasn't there.
> **Killed Mutated Vigor Ant. Discovered Companion Egg.**
The system notification flashed across the bottom of the screen. For a moment, Vivaan just stared, frozen. Then excitement surged through him.
A **Companion Egg**!
That meant he finally had a chance to obtain a **Companion Beast**—a true living manifestation of power.
But that was rare. Extremely rare.
At the **Mortal Stage**, almost no one could get one. Typically, only **Legendary Stage** cultivators possessed Companion Beasts—symbols of strength and status that made ordinary people stop and stare in awe.
Even among the elite, obtaining one wasn't easy.
Dimensional creatures below the Legendary Stage almost never dropped Companion Eggs. And even when they did, the eggs required an immense amount of **Primordial Energy**—something only high-level cultivators could provide—to hatch them.
That meant even if a Mortal cultivator somehow got a Companion Egg, it was practically useless to them.
And transferring a Companion Beast between masters? Nearly impossible. The bond between the beast and its owner was bound by life itself. Forcing a transfer required paying an enormous, often fatal price.
In a small city like **Guide City**, Vivaan had never seen a Mortal cultivator with a Companion Beast before.
On-screen, the Companion Egg appeared, roughly the size of the avatar's fist. It shimmered a soft milky white, its surface smooth and slightly translucent. Inside, faint red lights pulsed gently, giving it an aura both mysterious and beautiful.
Vivaan's heart pounded as he guided the blood-colored avatar to pick it up.
The moment the avatar's fingers touched the egg, Vivaan felt a sudden jolt—like an electric pulse running straight through his body.
He gasped softly. His **Primordial Energy** was being drained rapidly, sucked from his core into the phone.
Inside the game, his avatar's energy bar plummeted from **9 → 0** in an instant.
The entire screen seemed to flash with a strange glow.
Vivaan stared, wide-eyed. "What the hell is happening...?"
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