Evolving My Undead Legion In A Game-Like World

Chapter 1073: New World

After another brief silence, the dark elf snorted.

"…You're both weird."

Without another word, darkness gathered beneath her feet. Her figure melted into the surrounding shadows before disappearing into the forest at high speed. Within moments, even her presence could no longer be sensed.

Silence returned. Only Lily, the young man, the Forest Wolf, and the Horned Bull remained.

Lily studied him quietly. Compared to how calmly he had subdued the Dark Elf, his attitude toward her seemed strangely different. He wasn't relaxed. If anything, he appeared wary.

She subconsciously shifted her body to adjust her posture.

Crunch.

The young man's reaction was immediate. He took one equally measured step backward. At the same time, he instinctively raised his ordinary-looking sword into a guarded stance.

Lily blinked.

"…Huh?"

She hadn't expected that.

The young man spoke before she could ask anything.

"I know you're powerful." His eyes remained fixed on her every movement. "But I bear no malice toward you."

"…"

"I don't want to fight. I only wanted to ask a few questions."

Lily looked down at the sword he continued holding between them. Though her cousin and Jester had warned her to be very wary of strangers, since this young man seemed to bear no malice and could only give her a slight sense of threat, Lily wasn't in any hurry to leave.

For one thing, this was the second person she had seen in this unfamiliar space, and the only one who was at least willing to talk.

"What do you want to know?" she asked.

"Are you an awakener as well? The system, before dragging me here, seemed to have called me that, so I'm assuming you're the same as me."

"Yes. I'm an awakener."

Lily was a bit confused by the youth. Though he spoke intelligently, he seemed severely ignorant compared to her, for some reason. Seeing that Lily was willing to answer his question, the youth had a brief look of excitement cross his face before he forcefully calmed his emotions down.

"This realm thing, is it like another term for planets?"

"Planets?"

Lily was stunned. To think someone would mention such an old-era term. According to history, this had once been the name for a world, back when humans could use machines to reach space.

But after the apocalypse descended, people started calling planets realms, and only the strong, or those with technology far superior to what had existed in the olden age, could reach space again.

Though confused, Lily still answered the young man.

"Yes, realms are like planets, but nobody uses that term anymore."

"Nobody uses that term anymore?"

The young man was visibly confused for a moment before he seemed to understand something. But before he could ask another question, Lily beat him to it.

"At first I was confused, and I'm still not sure, but hearing apocalypse and planet from you, I can't help but have some assumptions. Is it possible that…"

At this point Lily seemed to hesitate.

"Is it possible that your world is a newly initiated realm?"

Upon hearing her question, the youth in front of her was visibly taken aback.

The young man remained silent for several seconds. His grip around the sword unconsciously tightened.

"…Newly initiated realm?"

He repeated the unfamiliar phrase slowly, as though tasting each word.

Lily nodded.

"It means a realm where the Origin Will has only recently descended."

This was something Lily had learned after borrowing Michael's account on the Supers Association forum that morning.

The young man lowered his head slightly.

Lily looked at him carefully. The more she observed him, the stranger he seemed.

Finally, the youth raised his head again.

"…Answer one more question for me."

Lily nodded cautiously.

"What?"

He looked directly into her eyes.

"So… your world really isn't facing an apocalypse?"

"No." Lily answered honestly. "It isn't."

The young man frowned.

"No monsters appearing everywhere?"

"No."

"No cities collapsing?"

"No."

"No people dying from monsters that appeared out of strange cracks?"

"…No."

His expression grew even more complicated.

Lily couldn't help asking, "When did the Origin Will descend in your world?"

The young man blinked.

"The Origin Will?"

Lily pointed upward.

Understanding immediately appeared on his face.

"…Ah. So that's what it's called. I've always called it the system. It just made so much sense to follow the terms in novels."

He thought for a moment before answering.

"About two months ago."

"…Two months?"

Lily froze. Her eyes widened.

"Only… two months?"

The young man nodded.

"Yes. My world changed a year ago, but this system, no, the Origin Will, only appeared two months ago. I got mine five days ago."

He spoke calmly.

Lily remained speechless.

Two months. Only two months.

Seeing Lily's stunned expression, the young man asked another question.

"…Why are you surprised?"

Lily slowly answered.

"Because…" She hesitated before continuing. "…our world has had the Origin Will for almost three hundred years."

Silence.

The forest itself seemed to freeze.

"…Three…" The young man's lips moved slightly. "…hundred?"

Lily nodded.

"Yes. The apocalypse happened centuries ago. Our ancestors survived it. The Federation was established afterward. The world gradually recovered, and if you're powerful enough, you can even visit other realms, or planets, as you call them."

The young man stood completely still.

Three hundred years.

His mind instinctively began calculating. He slowly let out a long breath.

"…I understand now."

Lily tilted her head.

"What?"

He looked at her before speaking quietly. Then, for the first time since they had met, a faint smile appeared on his face.

"…Thank you."

Lily blinked.

"…For what?"

"For answering. I've been wondering whether Earth was simply unlucky." His eyes drifted toward the gray sky. "Now I know we're truly just unlucky."

Lily remained silent. Despite the calm expression on his face, she could hear the exhaustion hidden beneath those words.

At this point she could understand what was going on.

This Earth. This Earth seemed to be in the same situation Aurora had faced more than three hundred years ago, and this youth was from there.