Nova 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.
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.
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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.
