"So, what do you want to do now?" Nigel asked Ning.
Ning thought for a bit and couldn't help but feel empty inside. "I don't know," he said. "I can't think of anything that I should be or could be doing right now other than being with my family that I haven't been with for a long time."
Nigel nodded. "You do have to do that, but what about after that?" she asked.
"I… really don't know," Ning said. "Is there anything I can be doing?"
Nigel shrugged. "That's for you to decide," she said. "Myself, I like to go find more women to be in my harem. I spend a few hundred thousand years with them, and then I'm done for a while before I move on to find another one. Do you think you can do that?"
"A harem?" Ning asked. "No, certainly not. I have a wife, and I'm happy with her. I also found out I have a daughter now, so that's fun too."
"Well, congratulations," Nigel said. "Although, in that case, I can't really help you much. You will have to find out what you like and what drives you forward on your own."
Ning nodded. Still, it was hard to imagine a future where he would be going across the cosmos when he would have a wife and daughter back home.
"By the way, how long have you been a host for, if you don't mind me asking."
"Hmm, I don't remember actually," she said. "It's been so long after all. System, how long ago did I get my system?"
The system gave her an answer and Nigel raised an eyebrow slightly in surprise. "Ooh, it's been 16 Billion years already. That's a long time, isn't it?" she asked jokingly.
Ning's eyes went wide when he heard that. "16 Billion?" he couldn't help but ask. How long was that even? He hadn't spent a single million years alive, and this girl had spent 16 billion years already.
"Oh right, I can give you one suggestion that will make it a lot more fun to travel the various planets," she said. "Forget about the unique energy on the planet before you go there, and don't ask the system for anything. The mystery and adventure of learning the magic itself are quite fun."
Ning thought for a moment and nodded. He could see how that would be fun.
"Also, another thing is to remove all of your memories from time to time and only keep the essential ones. That way, you don't get bogged down by nostalgia and a sense of loss when you remember everyone you've ever loved and had to leave behind is most likely dead."
Ning thought for a moment and felt his heart skip a beat when he realized what she meant. "No…" he said silently.
He remembered Anya, Hyesi, Aegis, and everyone else he had left behind on Gionia. His original plan had included him going back to them after he had taken care of everything on earth. There, he would gain enough energy and bring Gionia into his inner world as well.
A Star, Earth, and Gionia were the three things he had intended to keep in his Inner World. However, he had missed the chance for the last one.
And he had missed it by 42 Million years.
It had been so long. Were they still okay? Were they still alive?
It was such a long time that the entire solar system could've been destroyed in that amount of time and a new planet would be in its initial stage.
"What's wrong?" Nigel asked when she saw the look on his face, one that was filled with sorrow.
"I had people I left behind in the other Universe, it's been 42 Million years since I left them," he said.
"Well, that's happened, my friend. It is our life, there's nothing you can do about it. There is a chance they are still alive, but I'm not sure you can go back to the other universe at all. You don't have the energy for it," she said.
"The Universes were colliding, is it over?" Ning asked.
"I don't know about any such events in this Universe," Nigel said. "I came here not long ago after all."
Ning quickly asked his system and found out that the colliding Universes had indeed drifted apart so much that every single wormhole had disappeared over 40 million years ago.
Ning was saddened by the knowledge. If he wanted to go back, he would require a lot of energy with a lot of Space stones.
If he didn't have space stones, then he would require enough energy that could power a Super Massive Black Hole.
"Have you tried asking the system about them?" she asked.
Ning shook his head, but he simply didn't want to know. There was a chance that they were alive, but there was also a good chance that they were dead.
An Immortal God would still die if they had to survive in the vacuum of space after their world was destroyed. Ning didn't want to learn about that at all.
"Do you want to forget about them?" Nigel asked. "Remove their memories from your mind and be done with this sorrow?"
"No," Ning said. "I would rather live in the false hope of them still being alive than forget about them."
"Sure," Nigel said. "I was just suggesting anyway. After all, I've done it many times."
"Don't you feel guilty just forgetting about them?" Ning asked.
"Guilty? Certainly not," Nigel said. "Why would I feel guilty when I don't even remember who I removed from my memories."
Ning didn't say anything. He couldn't judge what a person who had lived billions of years must have had to go through, the guilt they would hold, the pain they would suffer.
He was in no position to call her anything other than what she was. A survivor. She was someone who would continue living however she could, even if it meant removing part of herself so it didn't drag her down.
