Ning stepped back and looked at the girl closely. Indeed, it didn't look like she had it all together at all. Her skin was fully decomposed with skeletons showing through most of it.

Even then, she somehow managed to growl and come towards Ning with the slow speed of a snail and the hunger of a beast that hadn't eaten in days.

Ning quickly got rid of her arms from his own arm and then kept the girl back through telekinesis.

"Zombies? Seriously? You brought me to a planet full of zombies?" Ning asked with confusion and annoyance in his voice.

"Goddammit, I hate zombies. You probably don't know because you had disabled yourself, but I have been through such a thing before too. And let me tell you, I did not like it at all," Ning said.

I did not bring you to a planet full of zombies

The apocalypse took place in between the years it took us to get here

"Tsk!" Ning said and pushed the girl back. "What do I do now? Leave?" he asked.

You can do whatever you want, but I ask that you help them if you can.

"Oh," Ning said. The system never really asked for his help, did it? The only time it did was when there was a system or something like that involved.

"Wait, was this caused by some sort of system?" Ning asked with a curious voice.

No, there are no system users on this planet

"Hmm… then who do you want me to help?" Ning asked before looking toward the woman in front of her.

"It can't be this zombie, right? It's already dead from what I can see," Ning said. Then, he realized something.

"Oh, there must be people hidden all around the world then. Do they need my help?" Ning asked. He could imagine the people living in fear of the zombies outside.

With how strong these zombies were, Ning was sure that if they did come out of hiding, a normal human would simply die.

Ning waited for the system to say yes before asking how he could help these people.

However, the system didn't say what he thought he would hear.

No, there are no humans left in this world anymore. Everyone has become a zombie

Ning's face fell in shock.

"What?" he asked. "Everyone is dead?"

Yes, and No

Ning unintentionally scratched his forehead as he asked, "What do you mean?"

Every human on this planet is no more as they have all turned to zombies

however, as zombies, they haven't died yet. So all the humans are still alive in a sense.

After all, no one is truly dead until their souls have left their body

"Which means… as long as these zombies are alive, the souls won't be able to go through the reincarnation cycle, right?" Ning asked.

Yes

They will remain on the precipice dead and alive for a long time. They will remain Undead.

"So… is there really no one alive?" Ning asked. "What about beasts and plants? Those have to have souls too right?"

Plants and Beasts don't have souls in most places. If they do end up with a soul, they will show intelligence.

so, only a few of them ever do have soul

Ning shook his head. "Alright, what can I do? How should I help them?" Ning asked. pan(da-n0vel.c)om

Ever since he reincarnated, he never really denied someone the help they needed. He wasn't going to stop doing that now.

You will need to kill them to release their soul

"I see," Ning said. "You won't disappear on me because I kill some innocent soul now, will you?"

Ning joked a little, but the system still answered him.

No

You aren't killing them. You are saving them from the miserable fate of never passing on

"Sigh, you didn't have to answer that," Ning said as he called out his spear from his storage and cut the woman in front of him in two.

"Is that enough or do I have to do something else?" Ning asked.

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You will be able to kill them as long as you separate their heart from their brain

"I see," Ning said and looked at the woman. He had cut her a little to below the chest. So, with a single slash of his spear, he finished the job.

Then, Ning walked out of the building into the desolate road with rocks and debris all around the place.

Ning sighed and looked at the group of zombies that seemed to have noticed him.

"Oh, I won't have to walk to them," Ning said and suddenly caused a very large sound from his body.

His energy dwindled a little as the loud sound spread throughout the city.

He scratched his cheeks as he waited for the zombies to hear him and come toward him.

Soon, there were many.

Ning slashed a few of them, but he quickly realized that he couldn't go on like this.

Air Cutter spread out from in front of him as it carved its way through the many necks in the crowd.

Ning finished the ones that weren't properly cut.

Once that was done, Ning made another loud sound and waited, but no one came.

'Is that it for the city?' he thought.

Yes

"Sigh, how many more zombies are there to go through?" he asked.

There are still 7,844,365,392 zombies roaming the planet

"What the hell? That's going to take such a long time," Ning complained. "Dammit, can't they kill themselves or something? They look pretty excited about that."

"In the first place, how did so many people even end up becoming zombies?" he asked while scratching his thigh.

An alien virus made its way here not long ago and it has been spread through the air and water

Anything that doesn't have a soul, but was living is already

"An Alien virus?" Ning asked with surprise.

Yes

They very same one that has been causing you to itch so much ever since you got here

Chapter 582 ZombiesNing stepped back and looked at the girl closely. Indeed, it didn't look like she had it all together at all. Her skin was fully decomposed with skeletons showing through most of it.

Even then, she somehow managed to growl and come towards Ning with the slow speed of a snail and the hunger of a beast that hadn't eaten in days.

Ning quickly got rid of her arms from his own arm and then kept the girl back through telekinesis.

"Zombies? Seriously? You brought me to a planet full of zombies?" Ning asked with confusion and annoyance in his voice.

"Goddammit, I hate zombies. You probably don't know because you had disabled yourself, but I have been through such a thing before too. And let me tell you, I did not like it at all," Ning said.

"Tsk!" Ning said and pushed the girl back. "What do I do now? Leave?" he asked.

"Oh," Ning said. The system never really asked for his help, did it? The only time it did was when there was a system or something like that involved.

"Wait, was this caused by some sort of system?" Ning asked with a curious voice.

"Hmm… then who do you want me to help?" Ning asked before looking toward the woman in front of her.

"It can't be this zombie, right? It's already dead from what I can see," Ning said. Then, he realized something.

"Oh, there must be people hidden all around the world then. Do they need my help?" Ning asked. He could imagine the people living in fear of the zombies outside.

With how strong these zombies were, Ning was sure that if they did come out of hiding, a normal human would simply die.

Ning waited for the system to say yes before asking how he could help these people.

However, the system didn't say what he thought he would hear.

Ning's face fell in shock.

"What?" he asked. "Everyone is dead?"

Ning unintentionally scratched his forehead as he asked, "What do you mean?"

"Sigh, you didn't have to answer that," Ning said as he called out his spear from his storage and cut the woman in front of him in two.

"Is that enough or do I have to do something else?" Ning asked.

"I see," Ning said and looked at the woman. He had cut her a little to below the chest. So, with a single slash of his spear, he finished the job.

Then, Ning walked out of the building into the desolate road with rocks and debris all around the place.

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Ning sighed and looked at the group of zombies that seemed to have noticed him.

"Oh, I won't have to walk to them," Ning said and suddenly caused a very large sound from his body.

His energy dwindled a little as the loud sound spread throughout the city.

He scratched his cheeks as he waited for the zombies to hear him and come toward him.

Soon, there were many.

Ning slashed a few of them, but he quickly realized that he couldn't go on like this.

Air Cutter spread out from in front of him as it carved its way through the many necks in the crowd.

Ning finished the ones that weren't properly cut.

Once that was done, Ning made another loud sound and waited, but no one came.

'Is that it for the city?' he thought.

"Sigh, how many more zombies are there to go through?" he asked.

"What the hell? That's going to take such a long time," Ning complained. "Dammit, can't they kill themselves or something? They look pretty excited about that."

"In the first place, how did so many people even end up becoming zombies?" he asked while scratching his thigh.

Chapter 583: Alone

The moment Ning saw those words, his heart sunk for a few seconds. The System is Shutting down Those words almost held a bit of trauma for him. "No, calm down," he told himself and started thinking of the situation more critically. 'I haven't done anything wrong. I only did what the system approved, so there must be something else going on,' he thought. That was when he noticed the first of the notifications he had previously missed. Emergency Detected "System?" Ning asked as fear grew inside him again. However, this was a different fear. Fear of the unknown.

"System, what is happening?" he asked, but he never got any answer. Instead, he got more notifications.

Disabling All Energy-related skills Disabling all Energy Absorption Disabling Automatic Absorptions System cautions Host against absorbing any energy manually Do not absorb any energy that you don't already own Please be safe System will now shut down indefinitely 0 No more notification followed as Ning continued flying in the air. He was confused, really confused. Why was the system gone? From its words, this didn't sound like a punishment. Instead, it even cautioned it about something. Suddenly, Ning felt something grab onto him. Something that wasn't physical, but was at the same time. Space was wrapping around him, and in the next moment, he vanished. * [Do Not Worry] "You... killed everyone," A sad voice full of despair spoke to a screen in front of him. You are Safe] "I don't feel safe," he spoke. [All future threats have been eliminated]

"They were my friends and families. They were strangers who had nothing to do with me," he said.

[Removing everyone is the best way to remove all future threats] "Oh god! It was me. They were all killed because of me," a man cried as hard as he could. You are now safe] [You do not need me any longer] [Self Destructing] Even as the words from the screen in front of him came out, the man simply kept on crying, not giving any thought to what the AI in front of him was saying. Then, something caught him, and he vanished.

A white circle was drawn on the ground, with many intricate details inside of it. Almost every geometrical shape could be found on top of it. A girl in a hooded figure stood next to it with a large glass vial. She opened the vial and let the blood in it pour onto the magic circle.

"Come forth, 0 great one!" she shouted. 0 Suddenly, the white circle started shining with bright colors, despite the blood on it. When the bright light disappeared, a dark figure stood on top of it

The hood the figure wore made it impossible to recognize the characteristics of the figure, but that did not stop the girl from having a crazed smile on her face.

"What do you wish?" the figure asked with a ghastly voice. "For everyone aside from me to die!" the girl shouted. "Are you sure?" the voice asked. "Absolutely," the girl said in a maniac-like voice. "Granted," the figure said and disappeared. "HAHAHAHAH!" the girl laughed in the darkroom filled with the scent of blood.

And then, something caught her, and she vanished.

A man floated in empty space outside an artificial satellite. This was one of the best satellites his people had, and so he had been sent here to fix it. Without it, they wouldn't be able to keep track of outer space. The man took out some pliers to work on the destroyed part in front of him when he saw something shine from the corner of his eyes. He turned his head to see what it was, and when he did, his eyes went wide. An asteroid the size of a large island was currently hurtling its way down to the planet at an incredible speed. "Oh no!"

The man watched in horror as the meteor crashed onto the planet and brought such destruction that within moments the outer crust of the planet was completely blown away.

He was absolutely certain that not a single person could have survived this. Tears streamed down his eyes as he looked at the planetary destruction, and in the next moment, he vanished.

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The demon lord brought his entire army to fight the elf kingdom. This was a surprise attack, so the elves weren't ready for it at all.

The dwarves had died not long ago, and now the demons were trying to kill the elves too.

The hero of the elves, the girl with green hair ran forward with her bow and

While the demons killed her kind, she sent arrow after arrow at the demons too, killing hundreds of them.

However, that wasn't enough and soon her entire kind was dead. "NO!" she shouted and turned to look at the demon lord with clear fury in her eyes.

"You will die for this!" she said as she touched the necklace her mother had given to her. Soon, the necklace turned into an arrow, which she pointed into the air.

Then, she let it loose. The arrow flew through the air until it reached the sky. "HAHAHA! That's it? You are weak, Hero of elves," the Demon Lard said, but then he sensed something. He looked up and saw dazzling light scatter through the sky. As if targeted, they all started falling on top of every demon in the area. "NO! The power of Moonlight," the demon lord shouted, and even as he did, he was struck dead. The Hero looked at the dead demons with bated breath, and she knew that these weren't the only demons that will have died from the attack She turned around and didn't see a single soul. All she could do now was despair and weep. In the next moment, she was gone as well.

Similar instances took place in hundreds of different places all over the galaxy.

Every single person was teleported somewhere else, and they didn't even know it..

Chapter 584: Alone

The moment Ning saw those words, his heart sunk for a few seconds. The System is Shutting down Those words almost held a bit of trauma for him. "No, calm down," he told himself and started thinking of the situation more critically. 'I haven't done anything wrong. I only did what the system approved, so there must be something else going on,' he thought. That was when he noticed the first of the notifications he had previously missed. Emergency Detected "System?" Ning asked as fear grew inside him again. However, this was a different fear. Fear of the unknown.

"System, what is happening?" he asked, but he never got any answer. Instead, he got more notifications.

Disabling All Energy-related skills Disabling all Energy Absorption Disabling Automatic Absorptions System cautions Host against absorbing any energy manually Do not absorb any energy that you don't already own Please be safe System will now shut down indefinitely 0 No more notification followed as Ning continued flying in the air. He was confused, really confused. Why was the system gone? From its words, this didn't sound like a punishment. Instead, it even cautioned it about something. Suddenly, Ning felt something grab onto him. Something that wasn't physical, but was at the same time. Space was wrapping around him, and in the next moment, he vanished. * [Do Not Worry] "You... killed everyone," A sad voice full of despair spoke to a screen in front of him. You are Safe] "I don't feel safe," he spoke. [All future threats have been eliminated]

"They were my friends and families. They were strangers who had nothing to do with me," he said.

[Removing everyone is the best way to remove all future threats] "Oh god! It was me. They were all killed because of me," a man cried as hard as he could. You are now safe] [You do not need me any longer] [Self Destructing] Even as the words from the screen in front of him came out, the man simply kept on crying, not giving any thought to what the AI in front of him was saying. Then, something caught him, and he vanished.

A white circle was drawn on the ground, with many intricate details inside of it. Almost every geometrical shape could be found on top of it. A girl in a hooded figure stood next to it with a large glass vial. She opened the vial and let the blood in it pour onto the magic circle.

"Come forth, 0 great one!" she shouted. 0 Suddenly, the white circle started shining with bright colors, despite the blood on it. When the bright light disappeared, a dark figure stood on top of it

The hood the figure wore made it impossible to recognize the characteristics of the figure, but that did not stop the girl from having a crazed smile on her face.

"What do you wish?" the figure asked with a ghastly voice. "For everyone aside from me to die!" the girl shouted. "Are you sure?" the voice asked. "Absolutely," the girl said in a maniac-like voice. "Granted," the figure said and disappeared. "HAHAHAHAH!" the girl laughed in the darkroom filled with the scent of blood.

And then, something caught her, and she vanished.

A man floated in empty space outside an artificial satellite. This was one of the best satellites his people had, and so he had been sent here to fix it. Without it, they wouldn't be able to keep track of outer space. The man took out some pliers to work on the destroyed part in front of him when he saw something shine from the corner of his eyes. He turned his head to see what it was, and when he did, his eyes went wide. An asteroid the size of a large island was currently hurtling its way down to the planet at an incredible speed. "Oh no!"

The man watched in horror as the meteor crashed onto the planet and brought such destruction that within moments the outer crust of the planet was completely blown away.

He was absolutely certain that not a single person could have survived this. Tears streamed down his eyes as he looked at the planetary destruction, and in the next moment, he vanished.

The demon lord brought his entire army to fight the elf kingdom. This was a surprise attack, so the elves weren't ready for it at all.

The dwarves had died not long ago, and now the demons were trying to kill the elves too.

The hero of the elves, the girl with green hair ran forward with her bow and

While the demons killed her kind, she sent arrow after arrow at the demons too, killing hundreds of them.

However, that wasn't enough and soon her entire kind was dead. "NO!" she shouted and turned to look at the demon lord with clear fury in her eyes.

"You will die for this!" she said as she touched the necklace her mother had given to her. Soon, the necklace turned into an arrow, which she pointed into the air.

Then, she let it loose. The arrow flew through the air until it reached the sky. "HAHAHA! That's it? You are weak, Hero of elves," the Demon Lard said, but then he sensed something. He looked up and saw dazzling light scatter through the sky. As if targeted, they all started falling on top of every demon in the area. "NO! The power of Moonlight," the demon lord shouted, and even as he did, he was struck dead. The Hero looked at the dead demons with bated breath, and she knew that these weren't the only demons that will have died from the attack She turned around and didn't see a single soul. All she could do now was despair and weep. In the next moment, she was gone as well.

Similar instances took place in hundreds of different places all over the galaxy.

Every single person was teleported somewhere else, and they didn't even know it..

Chapter 585 GenesisNing found himself staring at a white… nothingness. His eyes focused as he stood up and looked around him.

Hundreds of people lay around him. Men, women, and more of every size, shape, and color were getting back up.

'Where am I?' he thought as he looked around. The room he was in was pure white and seemed to go on for infinity. The dimensions of the room were unmeasurable for Ning.

Soon sounds of cries and despair came from all around him as emotional screams filled the air.

"What's going on?"

"Who did this?"

"I didn't die?"

"I… I…"

"Where the hell am I?"

People started freaking out all of a sudden as expected.

The sounds finally jogged Ning's mind awake and he looked around him with more attention.

There stood a girl not far away from him with a face so beautiful that she nearly looked as good as Alexis. She looked incredibly sad, but the thing that caught Ning's eyes were her long ears.

'Those… those look like elves from the books,' he thought as he remembered back to his life on earth.

He turned around and looked at someone else. A short, but fat man with a great beard that fell down to his chest.

'A dwarf,' he thought.

Next, he saw a man in gray robes with a staff in his hand. 'A mage?' Ning thought.

Then, he saw a man with a sword strapped to his back and clear killing intent in his eyes.

Aside from them, he saw a man with tails, a dark-skinned demon with goat-like eyes, a cultivator with crimson robes, and a dark-skinned man with white hair.

A kid with sapphire eyes, a man in a spacesuit, a blue-skinned man confused by his surrounding, a tiger of purple color with brown wings.

There were even a few goddamn robots in the area.

There were truly way too many diverse people here.

'Just what is going on?' Ning wondered. 'How are there so many different types of beings in a single place? They all hold different powers too from what I can see.'

Ning was getting more and more scared by the second. The System had simply disappeared without telling him anything and the next thing he knew he was here.

'Did the system teleport me and everyone else here?' he wondered for a second before dispelling that thought. It was impossible since the system shut down before all of this happened. Did the system foresee this? Was it scared?

Ning couldn't even teleport now to get away from here since all Energy-related skills were gone.

"You!" a girl suddenly shouted, catching the attention of everyone. It was a blue-haired girl with a staff that held some sort of blue gem.

She had the staff pointed towards a blue-skinned man as she looked at him with anger in her eyes.

"Who, me?" the blue-skinned man asked.

"You killed all of my kin. You will die for this," she shouted.

"Woah! Woah! Woah! Lady, I don't know who you are. I've never even seen you before? Was it you who brought me here?" he asked.

"Your people killed mine. I thought I was done with your kind, but I see I was wrong. You will die now," she said and suddenly started speaking something.

"Holy Ice of the Frozen Maiden, lend me your powers so I may defeat the foe in front of me."

"Eternal Freezing!" the girl shouted.

Everyone around her looked at her curiously, while the girl herself looked in shock. 'Its… it's not working?' she thought.

"Did you try to do something lady?" the blue-skinned man's eyes went cold. "You tried to kill me, didn't you?"

After saying that, he suddenly jumped at her. However, a barrier appeared out of nowhere, stopping him from doing so.

"It's good to see that you guys are starting to talk to each other already, but fighting is not allowed yet you know?" a voice spoke from high in the air.

Everyone looked up at once to see a figure clad in white light slowly drift downwards.

He saw surrounded by so much light that grasping his features was nigh impossible. Even Ning couldn't see what he looked like despite using all of his different visions.

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"Who are you?" someone shouted.

"Calm down, children. I will tell you everything you are desperate to know right now."

"You may call me… Genesis. As for who exactly I am, you do not need to know. The only you need to know right now is that yes, I was the one that brought you here," the male voiced Genesis spoke.

"Why?!" someone shouted at him.

"Why? It's simple really," the man said. "Because you people have nothing to live for anymore."

"I chose you, and you specifically, because you were the only one that was alive on your planet."

"And living in such a situation is a tragedy, isn't it? So, I am here to give you all a choice," the man said.

All the people looked around with a confused looks.

"What choice?" someone asked.

"I will have a little competition take place between you all. The one who wins the competition will gain the chance to reincarnate to any planet of their choice," the man said.

The crowd's eyes went wild in shock, but before they could say anything, the man continued.

"However, that is not all. The winner will also get a chance to obtain this," the man said and brought forth his hand to show a glowing ball of iridescent colors.

People looked at the glowing ball in confusion. "What's that?" someone asked.

The man let the silence remain in the air for a few more seconds before answering.

"A System."

Ning felt shocked, both mentally and physically. The shock of seeing a system he had expected, but he didn't expect the physical shock.

However, only later did he realize that a girl had crashed into him.

Ning grabbed her and brought her to her feet and asked, "Are you okay?"

However, even as he did, he could see the hollow eyes on her face.

She was dead.

Chapter 586 BeginJessa was a girl born on the planet Trinium where Willpower shaped how people worked.

Willpower was unique energy that was named based on the mental strain it caused the person using it.

It was an energy that was stored in the mind, and as such manifested its powers by giving everyone unique abilities.

Some could create fire from their hands. Some could move the soil. Some could control metal. Some could transform into something else.

Jessa was born with a rather high affinity with Willpower, and as such, from a young age, she was sure to become one of the most successful Power users in the entirety of Trinium.

However, fate wasn't so kind to this girl who was meant for great things. Jealousy caused people to attack her family in order to kill her.

Many other families pooled their money to hire the entire Assassins guild to kill her family, and more importantly kill her before she manifested her powers.

That night, Jessa watched in horror as her mother and father were killed right in front of her. She was only 9 at the time.

When she saw the assassins kill her family, she had only one wish. That was for the assassins in front of her to die.

And as such, she manifested her power that night.

The power of death.

With a single thought, she was able to kill anyone. Only, she never realized that her powers weren't granted to her by Willpower, but rather something she was born with thanks to someone messing with her soul in order to practice making a system.

When she realized that she had this power and that it didn't even cause her mental strain like others, she started using it on everyone that she deemed was her enemy.

Soon, this power twisted her into someone with a black heart and an evil mind. Not long after she had reached her 20s, the world came to know about her and followed her till the end of the world.

In frustration, Jessa made one last wish that would remove all her problems. She wished for everyone in the world to die.

And they did. Humans all over the planet began to die. Finally, Jessa was able to live freely, but she didn't like this life. She wanted to kill. However, now that there was no one to kill, she could just wait for herself to die.

However, just as she was about to go through, she was teleported to this white room with many other humans. Her eyes went wide in glee.

Finally, she would get to kill more people. She was about to do so when two people fighting caught her attention, then another white figure appeared and started telling them why he had brought them all here.

'A chance to redo it all over?' Jessa thought in surprise. Then a smile appeared on her face. 'Even more people to kill.'

'Do I have to wait or can I use my powers?' she wondered and decided to test it on the man that stood in front of her.

"Die!" she said in a soft voice.

Jessa's power of death worked in a strange way. It didn't put a strain on the user's mind, but rather on their soul. What she was able to do was use her soul as leverage to force someone else's soul to separate from their body.

Without a body, a soul couldn't last in this realm and would move to the realm of souls to return to the cycle.

What Jessa also didn't know was that if she ever met someone with a particularly strong soul, she would be straining her own soul way too far.

When she came across someone with no soul at all, she would put all the strain in the world on her own soul.

As such, when she told Ning to die, she felt her own powers snap, and on a rebound, her soul was torn to shred with no chance of reincarnation at all.

She died without understanding how.

Genesis looked at Jessa with confusion in his heart. He couldn't tell how she died at all. She shouldn't have access to any unique power at the moment at all.

"Whatever, leave her. She's dead," he said and in the next moment, her body disappeared.

Ning looked in surprise when her body was gone from his hands. 'How did she die?' he wondered. He hadn't been looking at her as his attention was on the system owner, but still, he didn't think anyone attacked her.

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Once she disappeared, he focused his attention back on Genesis and the iridescent ball that hung in front of him.

"Alright, let's continue," Genesis said. "I'm sure you all must be curious about the system that is in front of you all, but let's keep the information about it hidden for a little longer."

"For now, the task is simple. There are many monsters in the place you are going to go to."

"Defeat them, and you may get a crown. If you get the crown and are able to successfully defend it for 24 hours, you will advance to the next round," Genesis said.

"Defend it?" someone asked.

"Yes," Genesis said. "Others can snatch it from you easily. If you cannot protect it, it will go to the other person."

"Then, that person will have to protect it for the next 24 hours. There are exactly 50 crowns in this competition, so please hurry towards finding one when the competition starts, okay?" Genesis said.

"Let's begin the—"

"Wait!" someone shouted.

Genesis stopped. "What is it?" he asked.

"What about those that can't get the crown?" someone asked.

"If you can't get the crown then you lose," Genesis said.

"And what happens to the losers?" the person asked.

"What happens? Haha, you die of course. SO I suggest you find a crown soon," Genesis said with a laugh, but no one found it funny at all.

"If no one has any other question, let us begin the competition," Genesis shouted.

Suddenly, white light surrounded each of the hundreds of individuals, and suddenly, they all vanished.

Chapter 587 EnergiesWhen the light disappeared, Ning found himself standing on top of a desolate land with barely any grass beneath his feet.

He looked around and didn't find any of the others that had been teleported along with him.

'Was everyone sent to a separate location?' he wondered as he looked at the surroundings.

To his left was a vast expanse of desert that seemed to go on for as long as his eyes could see.

To his right was grassland that seemed to lead towards greener areas. Having no system at the moment, Ning decided to go towards the location that was easier to hide in.

So, he made his way towards the grassland, with his destination being the forests that were far away.

"I hope I can find those monsters that might hold the crown," Ning said to himself while his feet moved.

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Along the way, his focus quickly dwindled as he started thinking about what was going on.

A system had appeared in front of him. Given how Genesis was acting, it was likely that he was the one that created the system.

'Doesn't my system hate other systems and system creators because of what they do to a normal soul? If it knew I was going to come here, why did it shut itself down?' Ning wondered.

'Does it not want to get found out?' he wondered. That seemed like a proper guess. Maybe there was a reason for the System to hide. Maybe he wouldn't have been able to get here and find such a competition taking place if Genesis had sensed his system.

'That's a sound guess if any,' he thought to himself. Then, his thoughts moved on to the warning the system had given to him at the end.

Chapter 588 Dead BirdNing looked at the bird more carefully. It was green feathered like emerald gems had been carved into every single feather of this bird.

Its eyes were crimson red while the pupils were abyssal black.

Its beak was the same color as its feathers, only more prismatic. The brown talons slanted towards the back as the bird flew towards Ning with another great burst of speed.

Ning waited for it to do what it did previously, and just in time, the bird disappeared once more to arrive next to Ning.

At the same time, Ning punched the air in front of him where the bird appeared.

When his fist hit the bird's tenfold increased beak, both he and the bird were pushed backward.

Despite his strong body, Ning saw the multiple bleeding points on his knuckles. "Dammit! Just how strong is this bird?" he thought.

The bird wasn't hurt at all, and it immediately returned to attack him once again. This time, it returned with its talon before itself.

If the beak alone was that strong, Ning was sure that its talons would be even stronger.

Instantly, Aether filled his body as his strength skyrocketed to the point it had never before.

Even as the talons flew close to him, Ning's body moved before his mind, and he instantly caught both the talons in his hands.

With a bit of effort, the talons crunched like dry twigs in his hands.

The bird screeched in pain and its wings suddenly turned into a large green silhouette before striking down on Ning.

However, the attack was unable to faze Ning at all. In fact, all the bird managed to do was ruffle his hair a little and put some slashes on his clothes.

'Goddamn, is this bird's feathers really made up of gems?' Ning thought. The wings definitely clinked when they flapped and glistened just like gems.

Ning decided to finish the job and pulled the bird down at an incredible speed while moving his leg at the same time.

The knee hit the bird right in the chest, and in the next instant, the bird's chest was caved in to the point that it could no longer live at all.

To be sure, Ning tore the bird in half before letting it go. He let the Aether in his body disappear quickly. Aether was a rare resource for him now that he wasn't allowed to absorb it from the atmosphere.

He had a few of those giant glass spheres full of Aether, but he wasn't sure how long he was going to be in this place, so he needed to be extra careful.

When he heard the small sound of the bird hitting the ground, he finally looked down and slowly drifted to the ground himself.

He simply had one wish right now, and that was the hope that his bird was one of the 50 different monsters that were supposed to have the crown.

Ning wasn't sure if the monsters were supposed to have it physically on them, or if the crown was supposed to manifest after he killed the beast.

So, he waited patiently for a few seconds and watched the corpse of the bird.

Within a second, a little light flickered from deep inside the bird and Ning's hope grew.

Then, the light increased more and more as something began to emerge from the bird.

"Yes!" Ning shouted in happiness when he saw it. The crown was here. The green light exploded as more of the crown…

"Wait, that's not a crown," Ning thought and looked closely. That was when the giant beak of the bird emerged.

Followed by its giant body, its giant wings, its giant talons, and finally, its long, feathery tails.

The giant, ethereal, emerald bird emerged from the corpse of the bird. This bird was 10 times as large as the dead one.

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'What is this? Its soul? Its spirit?' Ning wondered. Then, the ethereal bird turned its crimson eyes towards him.

"Shit!" Ning said and immediately enforced his body once again before dashing forward to kill the bird before it could attack him.

When his punch landed on the bird's body… he felt nothing. His fist passed through the bird, and subsequently his whole body.

Ning tumbled to the ground behind the bird before coming to a stop not far away.

"What?" he looked surprised as he stared back at the bird. He couldn't touch its ethereal body at all like he was fighting its ghost now.

The bird stared at him with a hint of confusion in its eyes. It seemed to be disoriented after dying.

It wasn't intelligent enough to understand what was happening, but seeing its dead body, its instincts kicked in and it got ready to attack again.

Ning couldn't help but frown. He couldn't physically interact with the bird, then how was he going to defeat it?

Just as he thought that the bird moved its wings and started flapping as if ready to fly.

However, what instead happened was a giant green tornado formed around Ning with the wind so sharp as if it had sharp, crystalline rocks flying within it.

Ning pushed back the tornado using reverse gravity, and in an instant, the tornado vanished. But, along with that, the spirit of that bird had also vanished.

'Shit!' Ning thought as he looked around, getting ready for a surprise attack.

Just then, Ning felt something else wrap around him. 'Teleportation?' he thought and used Aether to disrupt space and void the teleportation powers.

The bird appeared out of thin air and slashed its talons at Ning. The talons couldn't touch him, Ning was sure of that, but he still tried to move away just in case.

However, as it transcended space, the talons alone appeared right in front of him and slashed all of the sharp claws at him.

Ning felt the space twist around the talons as it tried to pierce into his body, and despite being an Aether Divinity, Ning could feel his body tearing up at parts as if it were full at the seams.

"Goddammit!" Ning frowned. This bird was more dangerous than he had imagined.

Chapter 589 CrownThe bird was a master of wind and space from what Ning could see. He wasn't sure what energy it was using to manipulate them, but it was certainly stronger than the current him if he didn't use Aether.

"Screw you! You are not the only one with spatial skills here," Ning shouted even as his body was torn apart.

Aether released from his body and moved towards the bird's body. It struggled for a bit before moving inside the bird

Then, Ning created a point of absolute gravity which soon started devouring the bird as it stood.

The bird was able to resist for a bit. If not for him being several levels higher than the bird when using Aether, Ning would've likely kept on the struggle for much longer.

Right now, he simply added a bit more Aether and suddenly the bird crumpled in on itself as a tiny black hole grew in the space where it was.

Once Ning stopped putting in energy, the black hole disappeared, and so did the bird.

Ning slumped back onto the ground as he huffed a little. The wounds on his body regrew as seconds passed by and by the next minute, he was up and ready to leave.

Still, he feared a little. If even such a strong bird didn't hold any crowns, what did?

Just the Ning saw something flash from the corner of his eyes. He turned to look at a large pillar of light somewhere in the forest, or maybe even beyond it.

"What's that?" he wondered. Soon, an answer came to his mind. "Is that the crown?"

His vision zoomed but he could barely see anything inside that pillar of light. It was still too far away.

"Let's go see what it is," Ning thought and flew towards the beam of light.

He flew around for almost 10 minutes at his best speed before he reached the place. He couldn't help but be surprised at just how far the beam of light was.

When he arrived, he saw the crown right in front of him. It was a golden crown with about 5 large spikes coming out of it, and 5 smaller spikes, which all ended on a small golden ball.

The cylinder that made up the crown itself was about 5 centimeters thick and had a small round indentation all around it.

Ning couldn't see all of it, but after seeing the placement of the dents on the crown, he could tell there were 5 of them in total.

He tried to fly forward to grab the crown, but he realized that the beam of light was acting as a barrier.

In the end, he was forced to stop and drop to the ground.

When he did, he finally noticed the 5 people that seemed to have arrived at the spot already.

One of them was surrounded by the beam of light and was likely the person who got the crown.

He held a bloody rock in his palm as well as a dead snake beneath his leg. Seeing how the rock had killed the snake, Ning was surprised that such a beast was able to give out a crown.

'So it's not just a strong beast that could have had the crown huh?' Ning thought.

The man inside the beam of light looked like an ordinary fellow. Given how he had to use a stone, Ning was sure he came from a planet where either he didn't have any powers, or the planet itself didn't have any unique energy.

Ning turned his head to look at the man that stood on the other side of the beam of light.

He was a blue-haired man with a sword strapped to his waist. He was big and buff, and had wide shoulders to show that he had quite the power.

Ning looked to the air on the left of him and saw a woman of red skin fly with bat-like wings behind her. She was scantily clothed, which showed her incredible figure.

Other than that, she held a seductive smile as she looked at the crown slowly fall down as all of them did.

Finally, Ning turned toward the most outrageous-looking person here. Ning couldn't tell if this person was a man or a woman at all.

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After all, they were in a goddamn Mecha.

Ning looked at the azure-colored mecha standing to his right he couldn't tell how strong this mecha was, but he hoped it didn't hold much power.

After all, it was just a bunch of metals put together to look humanoid right?

As he thought, the crown slowly fell to the man in the beam. The man reached out his hand to grab at the crown, but the crown phased through his hands like it were an illusion.

Then, it settled onto the man's head without him doing anything. The man tried to touch his crown and finally, he could feel it.

DING!

The beam of light vanished and the floor was open for everyone to fight in.

The flying demoness in the sky brought out a whip of hers, which she held in her hand, ready to fight.

The blue-haired man slowly brought out his sword, which too was blue as well. Ning was surprised when he saw that sword.

He could see waves coming in and out from the sword's edge as water dripped from it. It was like someone crafted an ocean into a sword.

The mecha to Ning's right brought out its giant gun as well and pointed it toward the man in the center.

'Shit! That man is in trouble,' Ning thought. At the same time, a whip, a giant wave of water, and a laser blast attacked where the man stood.

Before the attacks landed, however, Ning pulled the man towards him with telekinesis and opened a portal as he flew towards him.

Ning grabbed the crown from his head right before the man entered the portal.

Then, the crown vanished and appeared on top of Ning's head. Ning touched the crown and then looked at the group in front of him.

"They're not going to let me go so easily, are they?"

Chapter 590 AttackedWithout a moment's hesitation, Ning brought out the spear from his storage and made the Aether in his body flow around himself, ready to fight.

The 4 stood at a standstill for a second as everyone was cautious of the other person.

It was hard to tell who the other person was and what they could do. However, it seemed that the blue-haired guy with the oceanic sword didn't think much of them as he slashed his sword.

Like a tsunami threatening to destroy the port, a massive wave of water flowed toward Ning with incredible force.

Ning instantly started a reverse gravity barrier around him as he flew directly out of the wave of water.

Just as he was out of it, the demoness flying in the sky swung her whip at him.

As it suddenly increased in length, the whip grew to surround him. However, the barrier pushed the whip and stopped it from touching him.

As such, the demoness could only bring it back and flap her wings in annoyance.

The man with the sword slashed once more, targeting both him and the demoness.

The demoness flew away, while Ning wasn't really bothered by a bunch of water devouring him with his barrier on.

Just then, he heard a small 'pichew' sound from his right. The guy in the mecha had used his laser gun.

Ning only saw the red blast go right past his head, missing it by a few centimeters.

'Shit!' he cursed.

The whip appeared in front of Ning again as the water died down. Ning wasn't bothered with it as much since the whip couldn't touch him.

However, it surprised him when he realized that the whip had come up short. It ended just a meter in front of him, not even touching him.

At the exact moment when the whip made the crackling sound, Ning felt the space twist around its tip and a shockwave of space itself went through him.

Ning felt his gravity barrier refuse to work momentarily, and at that exact moment, another wave of water hit him.

Ning felt himself getting pushed by the water at an incredible speed, at which point a laser blast went through where he had been standing just moments ago.

"Don't get in my way!" a voice, altered through the machines came out of the mecha.

The blue-haired swordsman gave a cold look back at him and said nothing.

'Damn, these people are strong,' Ning thought to himself. He could very likely beat them if he fought them for an extended period of time, but he had no motivation to.

They were the ones that needed to fight for the crown, not him. So, he decided to leave and go far away.

As the water disappeared through the ground, Ning put out a hand next to him and started a portal to take him back to where he had come from.

However, at that exact moment, he heard a crackling sound as the whip struck right next to the portal. The next second the space wavered once more and Ning watched the portal vanish.

Ning felt the demoness teleport from the sky and appear right next to him and suddenly started speaking to him instead of attacking.

"Hey boy! Do you want this?" she asked.

Ning felt the allure of the woman increase by an incredible amount all of a sudden as he felt his heart more at her beauty.

The smile looked ever so beautiful, and those lips... so succulent.

"No!" Ning forced himself out of the charm and he immediately struck at her with his spear.

"Tsk!" the demoness clicked her tongue and disappeared to appear a bit further away. "I hate the men here. Everyone has such high mental strength."

"Shut your mouth, you succubus. After I'm done with him, I'm coming after you," the man with the ocean sword spoke.

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"Do you think I won't kill you just because you are a little pretty?" the succubus asked. "Besides to know what I am, you must've had some fun nights in your world."

The man's face twisted and he suddenly slashed his sword at the succubus.

The succubus appeared a bit further away with a burst of roaring laughter. "What? Did I strike a nerve?" she asked.

Ning was about to leave while they bickered with each other when he saw the mecha move from the corner of his eyes.

He was about to move, but the laser blast was way too fast. Before Ning knew it, his entire right arm was blown off in an instant.

The two others stopped bickering. "Oi! That's my target," the succubus shouted.

The swordsman only glared and sent out an attack toward the mecha. Just when it was about to reach the 20-meter tall mecha, a magic circle formed in the air and defended the mecha from the tsunami.

The succubus appeared behind him and struck her whip at the mecha, but once again, a magic circle appeared behind it and protected it, even from the undulations of space that followed afterward.

Two panels behind the mecha moved and showed two smaller guns strapped to its back which in the next moment directly shot at the succubus.

The succubus disappeared once again, arriving quite far away.

"You better be a man inside that machine, or I won't forgive you at all," she said as she tightened her whip, getting ready to attack.

"Leave the crown and go away. This is not a fight you can win at all," the blue-haired swordsman said to Ning.

Ning smiled. "I guess they are correct about it when they say 'Offense is the Best Defense'. Just taking your attacks and looking for a moment to leave won't work it seems," he said.

Then, Ning's shoulder where he had been cut wriggled a little as flesh and bones started growing back on it.

The other 3 looked in surprise and caution as his arm grew to the wrist.

As Ning's fingers grew back, the spear that had flown off behind him came flying back towards him.

"I think it's time I protect myself better."

Chapter 591 DomainThe blue-haired swordsman was about to say something when he felt a cut on his cheeks. Blood started dripping from the cut and he immediately forged water essence into an armor around his body.

A small magic circle appeared outside the mecha as something struck its body. Just when the person inside thought of something, another small magic circle appeared.

Then another one, and another one.

Soon, the mecha was entirely covered in magic circles that could only protect against the invisible attacks.

If this continued, the mana stone that powered the mecha would run dry.

The Succubus felt something cut her skin which immediately reformed as her healing factor kicked in. However, the cut continued happening and she was forced to teleport away.

Healing oneself cost a lot of Magicules, and she couldn't waste it right now. However, even when she teleported to a different location, the cut still continued.

She enforced her body with her Magicules, but she didn't like it. "What the hell is going on?" she shouted.

Ning held his spear in front of him as an aura radiated around him. Trees, leaves, and grasses, all started showing cuts and tears on them as barks flew off in the area.

Ning frowned a little as he felt the strain on his body, but It disappeared once he used Aether to enforce himself.

Since there was Qi in the world he was in, Ning could use his insight on spear Dao to create spear Qi easily. However, due to not being a cultivator, he was unable to use it to the full extent.

The power of his spear Qi was about 80% of what he could have actually used if he had an appropriate cultivation base. In fact, his cultivation base would've even enhanced the damage of his spear Qi as well.

Since he created his spear domain, the burden of the domain fell on him. Without his cultivation base, Ning was forced to handle it with his own body.

Flickering white spear light flashed all around him as the domain struck everything within it.

The mecha's head turned towards Ning as an altered voice sounded from it. "Stop doing what you're doing!"

It even targeted its blaster towards Ning, ready to shoot.

Ning put his hands forward and suddenly a massive gravitational force pulled the robots arm in a different direction as the blaster shot out a red beam of a laser blast.

The Succubus blinked out of existence and appeared a few meters to the side as the red blast went past her.

At the same time, Ning jumped towards the mecha and slammed his spear onto the mecha's body.

A pink magic circle flared out to defend the mecha, but the circle struggled as Spear intent flew out of Ning's spear, attacking the metal plates.

The mecha creaked and cracked as the force of Ning's attack was too strong for it to handle.

"Go away!" the person inside the mecha shouted as the blaster in its arms suddenly changed to a sword and swung towards Ning.

Once again, Ning created a strong gravitational pull from the thigh of the mecha which targeted the sword.

Without even watching the mecha attack its own leg, Ning pulled his spear back and set out another massive slam with his spear.

"Authorization 229B4. Remove all other defenses and focus only where the spear is falling."

[Authorization accepted.]

[Removing all Defenses.]

[Defense is now focused on left Chest plate]

"Focus the defense on wherever he attacks," the person inside the mecha shouted.

The flickering pink magic circle brightened all of a sudden as multiple of the same circles stacked on top of each other creating a barrier that Ning couldn't break through at all.

In the next moment, Ning suddenly turned and struck the whip just as it landed next to him.

Space undulated once more as Ning was pushed back, but that was the extent of it. He watched the succubus fly far away as small cuts threatened to appear on her body.

At the same time, a massive ocean wave arrived next to Ning. Ning directly flew up out of the way, but the mecha took the direct hit.

[Outer Shell integrity is decreasing.]

[Need authorization to put relocate defensive circles.]

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"Authorized," the person inside the mecha shouted.

Finally, the defense was put back in place and the mecha was saved.

Ning flew directly towards the succubus in the air, ignoring the swordsman below that was surrounded by crushed water.

He couldn't attack her from far away as he didn't have any ranged attacks with his spear intent at the moment.

When he got close, the succubus moved her whip to attack him. Ning suddenly enforced his spear and slashed at the incoming whip.

When the spear and the whip struck each other, the whip was easily beaten with Ning's enforced spear.

Not only was the spear itself made up of strong material, but it was also enforced using the Aether from an Aether Divinity.

There was no way he was losing to such a weapon at all.

The whip's attack never landed, so no space twisted around the whip either.

Ning's momentum continued as he arrived next to the succubus. The succubus feared him and tried to teleport away, but Ning had been ready for this.

A massive gravitational pull appeared from his spear tip as it distorted space around him.

Even as the succubus teleported, when he reappeared, she was still next to the spear, getting pulled ever so closer to his spear.

"No!" she screeched suddenly, but Ning already had his reverse gravity barrier put up around him.

Since sound couldn't travel through a vacuum, the screech which affected the two other people down below did nothing whatsoever to him.

After a second or two, the succubus teleported away, but she still couldn't get far away.

Ning then clutched the spear as well as he could and thrust it straight into the succubus.

The demoness screamed as the spear dug through her chest. Then, her body crumpled under the strong gravity of the spear.

Only then did Ning finally stop the gravity around his spear and turned around towards the two remaining individuals.

Chapter 592 VictoryThe swordsman and the person in the mecha frowned as they saw the succubus die.

The swordsman slashed his sword again, sending out another massive wave of water towards Ning, but Ning simply pushed it back with his barrier.

Next, the mecha's arm, which had a gun in it now was, was moved until it pointed towards the swordsman.

The person inside the mecha didn't shoot, but he couldn't bring his arm back either.

Ning immediately dashed towards the man in the water armor. The swordsman dashed forward too and soon the sword and the spear clashed.

Ning thought that he was superior in strength, so he expected to easily knock away the sword.

However, when his spear went through the sword-like he had hit a pillar of water, Ning was surprised.

A massive water wave pushed Ning far away. He barely managed to get out of it by flying upwards and looked at the sword in shock.

He had thought that the sword was something that had water properties to create gushes of water.

However, now he found out that the sword was actually made up of water entirely. 'That's a fascinating sword. I wonder how it was made,' Ning thought.

Suddenly, he saw the hulking mecha jump into the air, with its gun already transformed into a sword and slammed down of Ning.

Ning strengthened his body as much as he could and hit the incoming sword with his spear like a bat hitting a ball.

A magic circle appeared in front of the sword, which survived a split second before Ning's spear pierced through and cut halfway into the sword.

'Dammit! It's too large to cut it in one go,' Ning thought and jumped back to attack the mecha again.

"Repair the sword," the person inside the mecha shouted as he controlled the handles to guide the machine. They saw a visual of the humanoid mecha on the screen as all power went towards the sword.

Just as the sword was repaired to a certain extent, the person slammed his fight on a button, and suddenly the sword changed back into a blaster as he pointed it toward Ning.

BANG!

BOOM!

A massive explosion rung throughout the machine as the person inside was tossed around a bit.

"What happened?" the person shouted.

[You took a direct hit from behind]

The person quickly looked towards the screen that showed the back of the mecha and saw a portal quickly disappearing.

"Dammit! I got hit by my own shot?" the person shouted. Then, he heard another boom. In his lack of focus, Ning pushed through his defenses and thrust his spear into the blaster.

Ning didn't know where the blaster's power source was, but he was certain that he could easily get it to not work if he cut at random parts in the blaster.

After all, this was a complicated machine that needed a lot of complicated inner workings to do its task. Destroying a single one would destroy it all.

So, Ning stabbed the blaster at different places one after another. A few of those times, he felt a light electric shock, but it wasn't able to hurt or stop him at all.

After a while, he saw lights flicker inside the gun and he immediately took off.

The gun exploded in the mecha's hands, but not with the same ferocity as Ning would've expected.

At the same time, the swordsman looked at Ning and gritted his teeth. The crown on top of Ning's head was very alluring, and he definitely wanted it, but the fight was hard.

Ning wasn't as easy of a fighter as he had thought at the beginning.

The swordsman pointed his sword toward Ning as he prepared to remove the seals from his sword. However, he stopped. If Ning simply teleported away, he wouldn't be able to do anything in the end.

There was no winning this in his eyes.

"Screw this," the swordsman shouted and turned around, before running back into the forest.

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Ning watched the swordsman disappear into the woods and wondered for a second if he should stop him at all. However, he didn't feel that was right.

There was nothing for him to gain from following the man since he seemed to have given up on the crown already.

So, Ning turned towards the mecha and pounced on it.

The robot tried to punch him, grab him, and push him away. However, no matter what it did, Ning kept on coming back to the robot to strike it.

The protective circle soon failed as it was either cut off from the power source, or the power source itself had run out.

Then, Ning went searching for the pilot of this mecha. He first carved the head open, but the pilot wasn't there at all.

He then moved to the chest and also carved it open, turning the entire mecha into scrap metal.

However, he couldn't find the pilot there either.

Finally, he carved open the stomach area of the machine and reached a small circular metal box that was made up of extra durable material.

Ning carved into it as well and used his both hands to rip it open and show what was inside.

When light shined through that hole and the person inside was visible, Ning's eyes couldn't help but widen.

Inside was a small person about the size of an 8-year-old child. He had almost no hair, wrinkled skin, a pointy nose, and extra pointy ears.

The most curious part of the person was the color of his skin.

It was entirely green.

"Are you… a goblin?" Ning asked.

"So what? Kill me! Give me a warrior's death," a high-pitched voice screeched from the goblin's mouth.

Ning felt a bit of hesitation when he saw that. He didn't feel right when he was about to kill someone that was only a small child from his perspective, no matter how old the goblin was.

Ning sighed and left the goblin. "Do whatever you want."

With that, a portal opened next to him, and Ning vanished.

Chapter 593 NovaNing stood on a tree, watching in every direction for signs of movement. As the night had fallen, he had realized a problem that he hadn't seen happen during the day.

His crown grew way too bright.

It seemed, he noticed, that the further away he was from one of the participant, the more his crown would shine.

Right now, it felt like there was a high wattage bulb hung right on top of his head.

So, he had to watch out for anyone that would come and try to steal his crown.

Time slowly passed by as he waited, but fortunately, no one seemed to come by. Still, Ning didn't let down his guards.

He slurped on his Aether fluid he had as he slowly absorbed that and that only, making sure to not touch anything that was outside of his body.

While he waited, Ning noticed something in the distance slowly walking in his general direction.

He got ready for battle. But when he saw the person, he stopped and showed a confused face.

The person that walked through the thicket of trees was a girl in her late 20s. She had silver-white hair flowing down on fair face. She wasn't tall or short, and wore a flowing dress of pink and green.

Her face showed signs of fear and anxiety as she never dared to look at him at all, keeping her eyes towards the ground.

That only gave Ning a very clear view of the crown on her head. That was what confused Ning so much.

'Why did someone with a crown come to me?' he thought in a confused expression.

"He-Hello," the girl said through a voice crack. She was really nervous from what Ning could see.

"Hi, what are you doing here?" Ning asked suspiciously.

The girl slowly lifted her head up and looked at Ning before looking back down. "I- I was hoping to get you help," she said.

"What is it?" Ning asked.

"Can- Can I work along with you? We both have crowns, so I was hoping you could help me protect mine," the girl said.

"Can't you protect it yourself?" Ning asked.

The girl quickly shook her head. "I… I can, but I don't want to hurt others," she said.

Ning's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "How did you get the crown?" Ning asked.

"Through luck… or bad luck, I guess," the girl said in a low voice.

Ning looked at her for a second and said, "very well. You can stay around. But if too many people come, I won't help you, okay?"

"Yes, yes. Please, I just don't want people to come. That's it," she said.

"Okay," Ning said and continued absorbing his Aether as he kept an eye on the girl below.

He wanted to use Omni-Analysis on her to see what she was like, but that hurt him way too much mentally. Without the system being active, he didn't know what would happen if he accidentally looked at someone with a very high power level even when compared to him.

The system usually put him in coma when the mental stress got too high. However, what about when it wasn't there.

'No, no. I can't do that,' he thought. He would be able to analyze people that used Aether, Qi, or were body cultivators so that was something.

'Well, I can just ask her, can't I?' Ning thought.

"Miss, can you tell me your name?" Ning asked from above.

"Sorry?" the girl jolted out of some thought as she looked at Ning with fear and confusion.

"Your name," Ning said. "I'm just trying to make idle talk to pass some time."

"Oh, it's Nova Fable," the girl said.

"I see. Nice to meet you, Miss Nova. I am Ning Ruogong," Ning said. "If it isn't too much to ask, may I know what power miss Nova uses?"

The girl got suspicious and nervous, as one would if they were suddenly asked to reveal something that gave them an advantage.

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"Are you going to hurt me?" she asked with narrow eyes.

"What?" Ning asked. "No, I have no such plans. I merely wanted to know what power system you had. What is the source of your powers."

"S-Souls. We get powers from our soul," the girl said.

"You get power from your soul?" Ning asked curiously. He had never expected soul itself to be a source of power.

"May I ask how you cultivate this soul power? Do you sit around absorbing soul energy, or… is there some other method," Ning asked.

"I'm not comfortable talking about that," the girl said.

Ning wanted to push more to learn about this curious soul powers, but in the end, he decided to drop it.

"Then which planet do you come from, miss Nova?" Ning asked.

"P-Planet Briford," the girl said.

"You were alone in this planet before you came here then? How long were you alone? What happened to the others?" Ning asked.

"Others?" she asked as her mind moved and she saw it once again.

Bodies flopping into the ground all around her. Voices being silenced one by one. Everyone died, while she survived.

Even though she didn't want to.

"No! No! No! No! No! No! No!…" the girl clutched her head in between her palms and started rocking back and forth as she wished away the thoughts in her mind.

She didn't want to see the visions at all. However, the more she wished she didn't see it, the clearer her visions became.

Very clearly, she could see the dead bodies of her friends and families. Her mother's loose arms fell from her shoulders mid hug. Her father held her too, but his arms were starting to loosen as well.

Her sister lied dead not far from her, and so did her friends.

Outside her house, she could see a street full of dead bodies, and she knew that was not the end of it.

She knew that all the people in the entire world had died that day.

And it had all been her fault.

Chapter 594 Waiting The NightNova kept on shaking, and Ning who was looking at her couldn't help but feel bad about it.

"Was it because of what I asked?" Ning asked as he dropped from the branch next to the girl.

The girl nearly jumped in fear when she saw him land. "Wait, you don't have to be scared," Ning said.

"Please go away and leave me alone," the girl said with a solemn tone to her voice.

"I don't think you should be alone right now," Ning said. "Don't you need a friend?"

"I… I…" the girl stammered for a moment before finally saying in a very low voice, "I don't deserve a friend."

Her guilt had been eating her up more than this entire competition ever could.

'I don't want to hurt anyone! I don't want to hurt anyone!' she shouted in her own mind.

Ning saw the troubled look on her face and patted her head. "Don't worry, it will all be fine," he said. The crown did nothing to obstruct his hand.

The girl flinched, but let it happen. It had been a while since she had felt a human connection and she let it happen. Only, she feared that this wasn't something she deserved.

She waited in agony for Ning to just die right now too, however when the pat continued, she froze.

"What?" she turned around to look at him with a shocked face.

"What?" Ning stopped patting and looked awkwardly. Had he gone too far with patting her head? Did she worry I would steal her crown?

"You… You didn't die," she said.

"What?" Ning brought back his hand and looked at it for signs of poison. "Was I supposed to die?"

The girl quickly shook her shocked head. "No, but people usually do when they are around me," she said.

"Oh, don't worry. I won't die," Ning said with absolute confidence. If there was anything he knew, it was exactly this fact.

Nova looked a little confused now as to why he wasn't dead. 'Maybe his show of honesty is fake. He just doesn't care about me,' she thought.

She wanted everyone to be exactly like that. Only then would she not kill them all. After coming to this new world, with hundreds of other people, this was one thing she did not want.

She did not want to feel guilty over the death of the last remaining members of nearly 500 planets.

Ning on the other hand was more focused on their survival. So, even as he kept her company, his eyes were looking in every direction, searching for signs of people coming closer.

Over the course of the night, he did notice 2 or 3 people coming closer. However, when they could see the two of them more clearly, they usually turned around and left.

'Wow, her idea is working perfectly,' Ning thought. With not a single person attacking them, the night went by quietly with no more attacks.

As dawn broke, they still weren't attacked. Ning and Nova were in the thicket of the forest and they couldn't see any pillars of light around them, so they weren't able to tell if more crowns had appeared close to them.

Thus they had to guess that this world was very big, and they just happened to be around the same place.

After waiting for half a day more, it got close to the time when Ning had taken the crown.

"Hmm… my 24 hours will be up very soon," Ning said.

"Oh, I will have to wait for a little after nightfall," Nova said.

The shine from their crown wasn't possible to see in the bright daylight. They could only tell it existed based on the lack of shadows around them.

Just as his time was growing closer, Ning sensed movements from in front of him. Nova got up as well as walked a little back to hide behind Ning.

"I… I don't want to fight. Please return," she shouted from behind Ning. As she did, a sword grew out of nothing in her hand.

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Ning watched in shock. He didn't notice any storage system on her body. Where did the sword come from?

"No! Go away! Go away!" she shouted, but the people kept coming closer.

Soon, Ning could see 5 new faces. 2 men, 2 women, and 1… bird.

593

Ning recognized one of the girl's clothes and immediately understood her to be a cultivator. He needed to be careful of her arrows.

The other girl wore full-body metal armor like a medieval knight and even her face was hidden. If not for her breastplate, Ning wouldn't even have recognized her gender.

One of the men wore a light green sweater and some cotton pants. He held a smile that wanted everything. There were daggers on both of his hands, and it looked like he was quite confident with them.

The other man wore a dark suit and pants. Ning saw something gathering around the man's palm as he got ready to fight. Ning wondered what that power was.

Finally, his eyes fell on the final beast of the group, which also seemed like the strongest of the people here in here.

The bird was a mixture of red and yellow, and even a little orange and black. Flame grew all around his body as if the entire bird was made up of fire.

Ning's eyes got cold when he saw that. He had heard about this beast but had never seen them back in Kumia, only their descendants who held some of their bloodlines

'Are you kidding me?' Ning thought to himself. 'We're supposed to fight a goddamn Phoenix?'

"Pl-Please help me," the girl said from behind Ning.

"I don't know how much I can help you," Ning said. "There is someone here that can keep me occupied all by themselves."

Ning saw fear creep into the girl's eyes.

"Sigh, don't worry. I will do what I ca—" just as Ning was about to say something, bright silvery light gathered around him, and he vanished.

Ning's 24 hours with the crown was up, and he had passed.

Chapter 595 Round OverWhen Ning disappeared and reappeared, he found himself inside the white room. He looked around and noticed a single other person standing far away from him.

A man in a demon mask.

Ning ignored the person and focused on his own troubles. He had told Nova that he would help her, and yet he came here. It hadn't been out of his own volition, but he still felt a little guilty about it.

With the 5 others attacking her, Ning could only hope that her soul was strong enough to protect her.

She had after all won the crown for herself beforehand somehow. He hoped she was powerful enough to do so again.

As he waited, more and more people started appearing. Within the next 3 hours, there were 10 people in the white room.

As 3 more hours passed, there were now 25.

After more hours passed, another light flashed, and Ning saw Nova appear from the light. He looked at her in shock as not a single strand of her hair was missing and not a speck of dirt landed on her.

'Did she not fight?' Ning wondered as he walked toward her.

"Nova?" he called. "Are you alright?"

Nova jerked a little when she heard her name being called out. However, when she saw it was Ning, she felt a little relieved.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know my time would have been up so quick. Are you alright?" Ning asked.

"I… I'm fine," the girl said in a somber voice.

'Is she?' Ning thought.

"What happened to the other 5? Especially the bird," Ning asked.

Nova's eyes moved around as her mind moved to remind her of the scene she had witnessed 8 hours ago.

'No, I don't want to see it,' she told herself, but her mind refused.

She saw the vision of the girl with the bow and arrow shooting herself through her face.

The man in the suit pierced his own heart with the power he had been gathering in his hands.

The man with the dagger slit his own throat, while the girl in the shining armor hit herself with the sword so many times that her armor cracked through and the sword carved her body in half.

Then, the phoenix who witnessed this all feared for its life… and simply died.

It couldn't even come back from its death as all other phoenixes did.

Nova had already crouched on the ground in the white room as she mumbled 'no, no, no, no, no,' softy beneath her voice.

Ning watched with a stunned face and didn't know what to say or do. "Come on, you need to get a hold of yourself," he said.

He grabbed her by the shoulders and hoisted her up before taking her outside the group of people that were starting to gather.

Nova was still a mess as she shivered from what she had done.

Ning thought he understood… to a certain extent. This was probably the feeling he had felt after the system punished him for killing the innocent the first time.

All the fear and pain had been especially terrifying. If the girl was feeling anything like he did afterward, she needed some help.

"It's okay. You didn't kill because you wanted. You did because you had to," Ning said. "It was the better alternative than they killing you, right? It's not like you want to die."

"No, I want to die," Nova said. "I want to die! But… but…"

She broke down into tears, leaving a stunned Ning to become speechless.

What do you say to someone who had seen so much death, caused so much death, and then wanted themselves to die?

Do you say that those deaths weren't their fault? No, it obviously was. Do you say that those deaths didn't matter? That was even worse.

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There wasn't much Ning could think of to say. Was there even an answer to this problem?

As he thought that, more and more light flashed around him. Soon, the entire area was filled with 50 people.

At that exact moment, a bright white light appeared high in the white nothingness as Genesis returned back to the room.

He looked down below him and made a surprised gasp as he said, "Wow, you are all here? And I can't believe you guys didn't even need my help."

"Honestly, I expected the fights to go on for another day or two. I wonder if a certain someone decided to randomly drop some crowns for some of you," Genesis said with a hidden glee in his voice.

Everyone down below could tell that he was implying that he had helped them a little.

A few of them glared up in the air as they remembered the 'co-incidence' with how they found their crowns.

"Okay, okay, I won't joke any longer," Genesis said. "For now, Congratulations, you have passed the first test. Look at you all, that crown looks so good on you."

Ning looked around at the 50 different people. He noticed the man with the water sword not far away from him, but he didn't notice the goblin or the man that had actually earned the crown he had taken.

Ning knew what had likely happened to them, but he didn't want to believe it.

"Sir, what happened to the ones that didn't make it?" one of the girls asked.

"Huh? Did I not tell you all already? Those that don't make it to the 2nd round all die," Genesis said.

Sounds of shock and fear went through the crowd. Some remembered the friends they had made, others remembered the people they had let live.

Some remembered the people that had forced the crown on them.

If they weren't here, then they all had to have died already, and that didn't feel right to them.

'Playing around with lives. I wouldn't expect anything less from a being that creates systems,' Ning thought.

"Before the next competition, you all get a week-long break," Genesis said. "Go heal, train, and have fun."

With that, everyone in the white room once again vanished.

Chapter 596 Planet GenesisWhen Ning reappeared, he found himself in an unfamiliar tavern of the sort with a few people inside, eating and drinking.

The tavern owner cleaned the countertop with a wet towel, giving no attention to anyone.

"Where am I?" Ning thought to himself, understandably confused. Then, he noticed something he hadn't noticed beforehand.

Something flickered on top of the tavern owner's head. When he looked closely at it, it looked like a bunch of question marks that were permanently hovering on top of his head.

As Ning stared at him, the owner saw him as well. "Weary traveler, how may I help you?" he asked.

Ning was surprised that the owner noticed him. 'Am I not in that game anymore? None of these people seem like they're from the 50 winners,' he thought as he looked around.

Then, he noticed more and more of the same question marks appear on top of everyone's heads.

'The hell?' he thought.

Then, he looked back towards the owner, who gave him a surprised look and said, "Weary traveler, how may I help you?"

Ning paused. 'Didn't he say the same thing last time too?' he thought. Then, he thought for a second and answered the man.

"May I know what place I'm at?" he asked.

"Absolutely," the tavern owner said. "You're in the Handmade Tavern of the Oceanheart city."

'Where the hell is that?' Ning wondered.

"What country is this?" he asked.

The tavern owner gave a confused look for a second before giving a surprised look as he said, "Weary traveler, how may I help you?"

Ning didn't like this. He didn't like this at all.

Sprinting, he walked out of the tavern and into the bright sunlight. When the bright light mellowed, he saw houses, made of wood and stones. Each of those houses reminded him of medieval times back on earth, not unlike what Vilmore looked like during his first visit.

Just as he thought that someone brushed past him. Ning turned to the side to see a young boy running along the road with his friends, giggling as he did so.

"Johnny! Your mother will beat you if you don't return," one of the boys said.

"I'll return soon enough, stop being a scaredy-cat Hank," the other boy replied.

As Ning watched them, the question marks on two of the boys' heads suddenly blurred and changed to Johnny and Hank.

The question marks were people's names, and unless he knew their names, it wouldn't show them at all.

As he thought that, a bright white light shined from high in the sky and Genesis walked through.

His features were still invisible due to the bright light, but Ning thought he could see a face underneath all that light.

"I would like to formally welcome you all to this humble little planet that I created myself and name after myself, Planet Genesis," the big blob of light proclaimed.

'He created a planet?' Ning thought in shock as he looked around him. 'How much energy would someone need to do that? How does he have that much energy?'

Ning looked around dumbfounded and that was when he noticed the regular folks going about their work like there wasn't a man clad in light shouting words that reached the entire planet.

Ning looked at them closely, and soon, suspicion grew in his heart that feared him more than it should have.

"You are all currently in one of the cities I created for this planet, meant as a safe haven from all that remains outside."

"No man, no beast, no entity, no power will ever enter these walls. It's a safe haven because violence is forbidden here," Genesis said.

"You may rest, eat, drink, dance… do anything as your heart desires. The people in front of you will not stop you. For they can't stop you."

"What you are seeing are humans I created myself, and they do as I will. For now, I will them to treat you like an emperor. I hope you have a pleasant week, for I fear the next one won't be so pleasant."

"Lastly, there is this thing I'm trying out to get you accustomed to using the system before you get it. I think I should explai— Nah, I'm sure you'll figure it out yourself. Goodbye," Genesis said and disappeared.

Ning looked around as he realized his fear had come true. "These humans, he really created them," he understood.

Calling them humans felt wrong. They may have had muscles, bones, hearts, and minds, but they didn't have the most important thing that made a man a man.

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They didn't have a soul.

Without a soul, these humans that walked all around him were no better than if they were robots.

They had no will of their own, so Ning didn't like looking at these mere human husks.

Eat with them? Drink with them? Have fun with them? Ning didn't think he could.

He couldn't explain it clearly, but he felt the aversion stemmed from his understanding of the human body from the system.

A body without a soul was nothing but a corpse. To him, these current men, women, and children looked no better than the zombies he obliterated on the other planet. Perhaps worse. At least the zombies had souls.

As he looked towards those men and women, he noticed the question marks on their heads again.

'He said this was to teach people about the system, right?' Ning thought. 'Then… does it work as a system?'

Ning didn't know, but he had to try. He took a deep breath and said a single word.

"Status."

Suddenly, a blue light flashed in front of him as a transparent panel hovered in front of him.

'I knew it!' he thought as he checked the info on the panel.

[

Name: Ning Ruogong

Age: Unknown

Planet of Origin: Hoflar

Power In Usage: Qi, Aether, UNKNOWN

Skills:…

]

Ning looked at the thing with puzzled eyes. "Power in use is Qi and Aether, but what is the UNKNOWN? Is that me using powers that were born not out of unique energies, but rather the system?"

Chapter 597 DrakeAfter spending a bit of time looking at the status screen, Ning came to learn a few things about the status screen in front of him.

For one thing, he didn't need to say status. It was the intention of looking for something that mattered.

Next up was the information on that status screen. It had taken him a moment, but he had come to realize that everything that was written on that page was something that he had either done or said.

Things such as Telekinesis, portals, Spear Qi, and Flight were all written down neatly, except for things he didn't use, like his analysis skills as well as his Qi skills that there was no point in using.

Not even Candle fire, which was the very first skill he learned and could use freely was written on it.

That told Ning that he needed to be extra careful with what he said or did lest Genesis heard him. Fortunately, it didn't seem like he could read his mind.

'If he could do what Alexis could, I would've already become a lab rat for his experimentation with systems. The system always said that everyone wanted to get their hands on the…' Ning's mind came to a staggering halt as he finally realized why the system had disabled itself.

'It was protecting me from a fate that would have been so much worse had it not disappeared,' Ning thought.

That surely sent a shiver down his spine. He didn't even want to think of the alternate.

He closed the status page and walked on. As he did, Ning's eyes once again fell on the heads of the people walking by with the question marks on their heads.

He simply shook his head and walked on.

Ning had no destination at all, so he wandered through the city, checking how well someone could create a town from scratch.

He wondered if there would ever come a time when he would gain the power to create planets himself.

Compared to the power of 12 supermassive black holes required to punch a hole through the fabric of reality and open a portal to another universe, making a planet sounded trivial to his ears.

As Ning walked through the streets, he came upon a peculiar-looking figure, huddled up in black robes like he was cold even on the sunny day.

Ning watched the pale-faced man breath heavily as he tried to move, but he seemed unable.

To add to the confusion, Ning couldn't see any question marks hovering over his head.

'Is this not one of the humans created by Genesis?' Ning wondered. Then, he replayed a vision in his mind from when he looked over the 50 winners.

He could see a small glance of this pale-faced man standing with a slumped posture.

"Are you okay there, brother?" Ning asked the man.

"Not at all, I'm afraid," the man said in between heavy breaths. "I don't do well in the heat, especially when my powers are not with me."

"Let me get you inside then," Ning said and brought the man into the tavern he was trying to get into.

"It looks like you have jaundice right now," Ning said. "Let me get you something to drink."

"That would be lovely," the man said painstakingly.

Ning brought back a glass of water which the man drank with some sigh in his voice.

"Thank you, brother…" the man paused.

"Ning, my name is Ning," Ning replied.

"Brother Ning. Thank you," the man said.

"What should I call you?" Ning asked.

"Drake," the man said. "That's what my friends call me at least."

"Drake? Like a wingless dragon?" Ning asked.

"Huh? What's a dragon?" Drake asked with a quizzing look.

"Ah, never mind," Ning said. "So drake, you said you can't suffer the heat without your powers right? Why don't you go outside the city?"

"From what I understood what Genesis said, it's only the city where your powers are stiffened. You can go outside to grow powerful and live a little better," Ning said.

"I don't really mind staying here," Drake said. "You can leave yourself, brother Ning. I don't want you to miss out on the enjoyment you might be craving in this… lawless place."

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"I don't really care about enjoyment right now," Ning said. "Not when our lives are at stake."

Drake raised an eyebrow in a surprised look. "I didn't expect a young man like you to say no to some enjoyment," Drake said.

"I only look young," Ning said. "Inside, you will find a man older than most of the people here combined."

"Ah, you must be jaded with time then," Drake said. "Just like me."

"You're old too, brother Drake?" Ning asked.

"I recently celebrated my 1000th birthday," Drake said. "All alone, may I add. It was depressing, to say the least."

"May I ask, what happened to the people on your planet? Ning asked.

"Us," Drake said. "We started a terrible war that lasted centuries, and in the end, we destroyed our world."

"Things happened then and to survive, I needed to kill the few remaining people after the war, my own people."

"Some gave their life willingly," Drake said with a sad smile. "Some I had to snatch it away from."

"They didn't go down easy," he said as he lifted the robe to show a terrible wound, like lacerated flesh on his left arm.

"Woah, it doesn't heal?" Ning asked.

"It will," Drake said. "I just need some time and… resources."

"What was the war for?" Ning asked.

"Same thing I'm still looking for, I suppose," Drake said. "Time and resources. Our time was running out, and we needed resources to increase it."

"And the other side had it?" Ning asked.

"The other side was it," Drake replied with a slightly sarcastic smile on his face. "Honestly, when I think back to those days, I realize what a terrible thing I had done."

"However, given the chance, I wouldn't hesitate to do it all over again."

Chapter 598 Back in the White RoomNing listened to Drake's words with a thoughtful expression.

"What about you, brother Ning? How did your world end?" Drake asked.

"Zombie apocalypse," Ning said. "Everyone became a zombie, so I had to go around killing them to save them."

"Zombie? What's that?" Drake asked.

"Um, how do I explain this? They're formerly human, but after coming in contact with something, they slowly lose their mind and all they can do is go around listlessly, craving for human flesh," Ning said as he remembered the skeletal zombies of Hoflar.

"Undead that like to eat human flesh and can't think for themselves? That to me sounds like a ghoul," Drake said. "Are they ghouls?"

"Maybe?" Ning said. "I wouldn't know. I've never really seen any ghouls."

"It does sound like ghoul but maybe not entirely," Drake said. "Ghouls from our world loved eating dead human flesh, while your zombies sound like they like eating alive human flesh."

"Yes, that's true," Ning said with a enlightened expression.

Drake drank the last bit of water and slumped back on the chair. "Sigh, I don't like this break. I feel like hibernating until the week is over."

"Alright, take some rest. I will go and see if we are the only ones living in this city," Ning said.

"Okay," Drake said and closed his eyes right their on the table and used his cloak to cover his eyes.

Ning went out of the tavern and walked around. He looked for people that didn't have the question marks on their head, but he couldn't find any.

Even a day after searching, he couldn't find anyone. That confirmed the fact that he and drake were the only 2 people in the city.

"What am I supposed to do with a week to spare?" Ning thought to himself. Turned out there really was nothing for him to do.

So, he spent the week sleeping most of the time.

After his body was improved, he didn't need much sleep. Not to mention the fact that he had slept for a very long time during his trip to Hoflar.

While his body didn't need sleep, he still slept because that was what his mind desired. No matter how fresh and useful his body was, if his mind became lethargic, he wouldn't be able to properly take care of himself during the final competition.

The times he was awake, he spent simply roaming the city. While the city wasn't very big, it still took him a full day to visit every corner.

Ning wondered how the others spent their time. Surely a lot of them had to have gone out of the city to improve themselves. But just how much could one improve in just a week.

Ning had fully stocked up his Aether reserve before he won the 1st round of the competition, so he didn't need to worry about preparing.

And as an Aether Divinity, there wasn't anything more he could do to improve.

"I will probably have to use more Aether next match," he thought to himself. "Sigh, I hope I get time in between 2nd and 3rd to restock my aether."

Since the system cautioned him against gathering Aether from the atmosphere, Ning was stuck with the Aether in his storage space.

Thinking as such, the entire week passed before Ning could really do anything productive. When the final day was over, he felt the space wrap around him again and he was forced to return back to the white room with everyone else.

Ning looked around to search for everyone. As expected, all 50 of them were in the room.

'So no one died in between huh?' he thought to himself. He found Nova in the middle of the crowd, looking a lot better than she had that last few times he saw her, but still fully troubled.

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Drake was fully slumped in here as well. It seemed he truly was fatigued without his powers.

The people all around him had smiles on their faces and held conversation with each other in a friendly manner as if they weren't in a survival game where the winner was the only one that would live.

'Where's the man, though?' Ning thought to himself. Just then, white light shined from high above.

"Hello again," Genesis appeared in the white room. "I hope you've had a fantastic time this last week. Because at least 40 of you are going to die next round."

'That's some way to bring back tension,' Ning thought as he stared at white light again.

"While you guys have enjoyed your time here, I had to go around and find the best way to cut down on your numbers. Fortunately, I think I've come up with the best way," Genesis said as he clapped.

"Okay, first of all, you will all be put into a group of 5, for a total of 10 groups. You will be fighting against each other but not directly," Genesis said.

"Before I say how you fight, I will have to explain the things I skipped out on last time."

"Some of you noticed, some of you did not, but I have given you all a replica of a system."

"It's not really a system, but simply something I've shown to you and you especially. Now, I want every one of you to check your own information," Genesis said.

Ning looked around as most people couldn't understand what was happening. They had noticed the question marks on the people's heads in their city, but that was the extent of it.

Soon, they heard others saying words like 'Info' and 'Analysis', and soon followed themselves.

Before long, everyone had their information in front of them. Ning looked at their face and eyes that read the information on their panel, but Ning could see no panel.

'So that information is only for the eyes of themselves,' Ning thought. Soon, everyone learned about the system, and some were even shocked about it.

"Good, now that you have learned how a system will work, I will give you more information on what the system itself in before the next round," Genesis said. "For now, let us go to the place where round 2 will be held."

Chapter 599 Derelicia Regalian Aeon Gondra"Get ready to meet your fellow teammates," Genesis said as they all disappeared in an instant.

When they reappeared, Ning found himself in front of a massive black tower that seemed to go on for forever.

When Ning looked at it, certain information floated in front of it just as with the humans inside the city.

[1000]

'1000?' Ning stared at it with a confused look. 'What is 1000? Its name? Age? Its height?'

Ning didn't have any way of telling.

"Ning?" someone called him and he turned around. Only then did he notice that someone else was in the place as him.

"Nova?" Ning asked with surprise when he saw her. "Are you alright?" he asked. Then, he saw the rest of them.

Drake sat on the ground, clearly tired from the burning heat outside. "Why the hell did we have to come out here just to learn the rules of the competition?" he complained.

Next to him was a blue-haired man with a sword strapped to his belt. He looked around him and noticed Ning staring at him. Immediately, he frowned.

"No way you're my teammate, right?" he asked.

"I'm afraid that might be the case," Ning said, wondering why they were put together.

Next to the blue-haired man was a dark-skinned girl just a little shorter than him. However, she stood like she owned the world she stepped on.

Her bright yellow eyes were heavily contrasted by the pure red in her hair. It was so red that it could make men wonder if the color red originated when this girl was born.

She held a slight, proud smile on her face as she looked around. It was only then Ning noticed the armor on her body. It looked like normal clothes at first, but it was clearly metallic or at least made up of something incredibly durable and shiny.

"Is this our team?" she asked as if she were in the presence of her servant.

Ning looked around one last time. He, Nova, Drake, the blue-haired man, and the red-haired girl.

5 people. A team.

"Yes, it seems we have become a team," Ning said.

"Hmm," The girl said with an amused look. "I hope you little worms are helpful in whatever is happening."

The blue-haired man gave an annoyed look as he turned around. "I don't like her. She keeps calling me worm all the time," he said.

"And what is wrong with calling you a worm? You should feel proud to have been called a worm by me," she said.

"What's your name?" Ning asked.

"Derelicia Regalian Aeon Gondra," she said. "You may refer to me as Derel."

Ning was stunned at the long name. "And what can you do?" he asked.

"I am not revealing that, little worm. We may only end up being a team for this match. For, in the end, only one person can reign victorious of that fascinating ball of light he calls a system," she said.

Ning nodded. It was understandable that she didn't want to reveal her powers.

"And what is the word that shall distinguish you little worms from each other for me?" she asked.

"My name is Ning. I hope you can stop calling me worm," Ning said.

"Nonsense, what will I call you if not a worm, a—"

"I am Issilika," the blue-haired man interjected. "You may call me Issi."

Ning nodded toward him. "Let us forget our grievances and work together for this competition," Ning said. Issi hesitated for a moment before nodding his head in compliance.

"Look at you worms working together. This warms my heart," Derel said from the side with a bright grin on her face.

Then she turned her head towards Nova and asked, "What's your name, lady worm?"

Nova gave a stern look before saying, "it's Nova."

"Nova, huh? That's not a bad name," she said with a smile.

Finally, she turned her head towards the almost dead, pale-faced man and asked, "What's your name, dying little worm?"

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"Drake," he replied in such a low voice that if Ning didn't know he spoke like this out in the heat, he would've suspected this to be his dying words.

"What was that?" Derel asked again. "This damn man still hasn't given us our powers back." She complained to the side.

"DRAKE!" Drake shouted as loudly as he could.

Derel's eyes suddenly went sharp. "Are you having a laugh, little worm?" she asked in a cold voice.

"What? No, that's my name," Drake said. "At least half of it."

"Your parents gave you that name?" she asked.

"Yes," Drake said in his dying voice.

"Hmm," Derel hummed a moment. "Not bad. You shall thank your parents for this as I shall call you by your name, Drake."

"As for the rest of you all little worms, I shall try to remember to distinguish amongst you when I speak," she said.

'The hell have I got myself into here?' Ning thought to himself. He looked at his group once again.

Nova still didn't look in anyone's eyes and was barely focusing on the conversation in front of her.

Drake lay on the ground as if ready to die. That or waiting for someone to grab him and take him to shade.

Neither of the two seem to be in any condition for whatever was coming up. If the next competition had anything to do with fighting, which it most likely did, Ning was sure they were screwed.

'I can only rely on Issi and Derel,' he thought. 'Well, I hope she's as strong as her words make her sound.'

Genesis appeared in the air after some time and started speaking again.

"I hope you have become somewhat acquainted with your new teams. I chose them based on who you spent the most time with," Genesis said.

Ning looked around at his group. "Well that makes sense at least," he thought. Derel was still an outcast, but he guessed she must have spent some time with Issi.

"Don't worry, you will have another hour to get acquainted. For now, let me tell you the objective of the next event," Genesis said.

"I call it... Defend the Tower."

Chapter 600 Defend The Tower"Defend the tower," Genesis spoke.

Ning looked back towards the black, almost pillar-like tower. 'We're supposed to defend this?' he wondered. 'From what?'

"Let me now explain the rules," Genesis continued.

"Next to each of your group is a tower, that if destroyed will mean that you lost the round. If that happens, you can think of yourselves as dead."

"The thing you will be protecting it from are monsters that will spawn every hour. The last 2 teams that remain standing will move on to the next round of matches," Genesis spoke.

Genesis was about to continue when his head turned slightly as if to look at someone.

"I am getting there," he said, probably answering a query from one of the group.

"One of your fellow participants asked what 1000 on the tower means. That is the health point of your tower. Each monster will be able to deal a certain amount of damage every hit, and that tower will be bearing it if you cannot stop it."

"However, fear not about the tower becoming a liability during your battles. It will instead help you quite a bit. Behold."

As soon as Genesis' words ended, Ning and the others heard some movement from behind them. When Ning looked in the direction of the sound, he saw a section of the black tower, around 20 meters high slowly morph and opening up.

From inside, a small cylinder appeared and it slanted below as if pointing towards the forest that was not 100 meters away from them.

"That is a turret that will help you fight the monsters. So long as the monsters enter 50 meters, the turret will attack it. No matter what the monster is, the turret will damage it," Genesis said.

"For the next bit of information, I will require your group to choose a leader amongst yourselves. You will have exactly 5 minutes to do so. If you fail to choose a leader, I will choose a random one amongst you," Genesis said.

Immediately, Ning saw a blue panel appear on it with 5 faces appearing in it with nothing but a bold title that said 'Choose your leader.'

The 5 faces were of course his own and the other 4 people.

Ning was about to press on his face when he stopped. "Should we discuss this, or go with our choices?" he asked the others who had been simply staring at the screen.

"I don't mind as long as it is not me. I'm done being a leader," Drake said slowly in a tired voice.

"I— I don't think I should become a leader either," Nova said as well.

Ning turned to Issi to ask for his opinion on the matter but Derel spoke before them all.

"What's the hold-up?" she asked. "There is no need to bother discussing such things, little worm. Of course, I shall be the leader."

Ning turned towards Issi who simply shrugged his shoulders. Ning sighed at that response.

He looked towards Derel and realized he wouldn't like a leader who would keep calling him a little worm.

So, without much thought, he pressed on his face. "So we choose on our own."

Everyone else made a half nod before pressing as well. "Hah, I hope you worms chose correctly," Derel said before obviously pressing on her own face.

When the result came up, her face suddenly frowned. "I see your little worms have yet to grow a brain for yourselves," she said.

The result was 3 for Ning, 1 for Issi, and 1 for Derel.

Ning gave a thankful look towards Nova and Drake who had most definitely taken his side and made him the leader.

Derel snorted a few times, but in the end, she let go of the matter, not before saying that the lack of power had numbed their minds.

After the 5 minutes were over, Genesis looked at them all and waved his hand.

Suddenly, Ning saw something grow on his head which freaked him out a little. But after seeing what it was, he sighed in relief.

It wasn't just him, however. Everyone in his group had the same thing appear on their head.

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A crown.

More precisely, it was the same crown from the first tournament.

"Now, for the leaders," Genesis said and something appeared on the crown of each of the 10 leaders.

Ning looked at his own crown and saw that on one of the 5 indentations on the cylinder of the crown, there was now a pure-white, oval-shaped gem stuck firmly on it.

"With the gem, you leaders will now get access to a specific set of skills that the fake system of mine will grant you," Genesis said.

"First of all, you can now view the other contestants," Genesis said.

Ning was surprised a little and thought of wanting to see the other contestants. Suddenly, 10 different screens appeared on a single wide panel in a 5 by 2 grid.

Each of those grids showed a view of the different groups, probably from where Genesis stood.

Ning tapped on one of those screens and the screen opened up to fill the panel.

The group of 5 from that group consisted of 2 men, 1 woman, 1 mecha, and 1 humanoid monster that Ning could only recall a single word for, Orc.

Ning made a motion to zoom out the image and the image went back to the 10 grids. Ning looked at one of those grids, his own, and checked how they looked.

He was a little glad that because of the top-down view of the grid, and with the hooded cloak of Drake, the people wouldn't be able to see his dying face.

Since no sound came from those images, they wouldn't be able to tell that he was so weak.

Although, Ning did wonder what was the point of giving vision on the other groups. Was that a motivation thing? Or…

As Ning wondered, Genesis opened his mouth again and spoke.

"Next up, you can choose the upgrades."

:)