Ning was currently zipping through the space, pelleted by objects that floated in it.
He had thought space was a vacuum, but he soon found out it was not. Even space was full of microparticles, dust, and gases that managed to escape the gravity of stars.
So, if not for his Star Strengthening technique, Ning would currently be filled to the brim with minor cuts and bruises from the impact of those objects.
He looked ahead of him at the vast emptiness of the space. It was so dark out here that he could barely see his hands most of the time.
It was only when he used his vision skill that he could see things properly.
The moment he activated them, the space burst into a spectrum of glorious light that spanned from red to blue. Some starts were moving toward him, some were moving further away.
Even his own body was getting stronger by a negligible amount from the star's radiation even this far out.
Given how long he would have to be out here, Ning was sure that would add up to something significant.
The closest star to the sun of Vilmore was about 12 Lightyears away. That was to say, to reach the next inhabited planet, Ning would have to travel the distance that even light would take 12 years.
And he was nowhere near to being a fraction of the speed as fast.
At the speed Ning was moving through the void, it would take him exactly 20,000 years to reach the planet.
Ning so desperately wanted to just sleep for that duration of time, but there was a reason he couldn't just switch to an ordinary object and sleep.
In fact, there was 2 minor reason, that added up to be a very important reason.
The first reason was that if he changed to something else, say even something strong as a diamond, being relentlessly pelleted by the particles would soon deform even diamond.
A diamond may be hard, but it wasn't indestructible.
That was one of the very reasons why Ning had gone with a body that regenerated, rather than one that was durable from the start.
Of course, if Ning did take damage as even a diamond, he could use some energy to fix it.
But that was where the 2nd problem came in.
If he was pelleted by outer dust and particles and was even the least bit destroyed, he would lose energy proportionally, unlike a living body that never lost energy no matter the damage.
If you paired losing energy, with needing the energy to get fixed, you would soon end up with no energy at all.
And that was the biggest problem. Because without Energy, Ning couldn't speed himself up faster and would soon come to a nearly staggering halt.
When that happened, he could only wish to reach the planet in this lifetime, not to mention Ely and the others.
So, he had to give up some semblance of sanity, and stick to being awake half the time during the entire 20 thousand years it would take him to reach the next planet.
Ning was worried about many things, but the 20 thousand years was something he wouldn't worry about at all.
According to the system, since he was so far away from anything of mass, the time he experienced would be hundreds if not thousands of times faster than what he would experience next to any planet or celestial body of mass.
Meaning he could fly for 20 thousand years in the void, and it would only have been less than 20 years in Kumia.
So, he was free to take his time. Not to mention, if he did speed up, he would reach the next place faster.
So, Ning continued his journey as if nothing bothered him and flew off as fast as he could.
From time to time, he would realize that from the kinetic energy of striking the particles, his energy had increased a bit. As soon as that happened, he would put every single bit of energy into his flight skill to move as fast as he could.
At one point, Ning even reached 0.002% of the speed of light. That made his travel so much faster.
Ning slept most of the time, and it was the system that controlled his body when he did.
Ning had given his system full control over the navigation. It was almost as if their position was changed.
The system was now the User, and he was the one being used.
Ning felt amazing having not to navigate through the vast space. Because he didn't know what exactly was out there.
At the speed he was going, he couldn't maneuver out of the way in time if he came across an asteroid as well.
The system, however, preemptively diverted his path by the slightest angle such that when he reached the spot where they would crash, he would be almost a kilometer away from the object.
Ning opened his eyes from one of his regular sleep that seemed to last for ages. He wasn't sure if he was actually going to sleep, or simply losing consciousness from the sheer boredom.
Immediately, he put all of the energy he had gathered in this time into his speed and propelled him forward again.
'System, how far along am i?' he asked.
<You are about 300 years away>
'300?' Ning thought. 'That was quite close.'
Ning looked at the star in the distance and recognized the most bright one. It glowed with a red hue that surprised Ning a little.
'A red star?' he thought. 'Is that the one where I am headed?'
<Yes>
'Isn't a red star a dying star?' he asked. As far as he knew, a blue star was a newly formed star, an orange one was a star in its middle stages, and a red star was one at its end.
<yes>
Ning thought for a second. 'Well, if the system says there are lives then who am I to care,' he thought.
