After 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."
"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."
