Lord Shadow

Chapter 2106: Upgrading I

The explosion is even silent.

Almost like there was no sound to it

Most of the time, when his energy is released, especially when that energy is released unconsciously, there would be an explosion of energy

And it exploded everything in the vicinity, exploding things into a thousand pieces or throwing anything around them a hundred miles away

But this time, the way this energy emanated out is more like an atom disintegrator.

It sweeps everything around him and no matter how tough the mineral is, how powerful the iron and ores inside these minerals, it was like it encountered something it could not withstand even for a moment

It disintegrated like it was melted by some divine acid.

Like its own atoms dissolve and turn to nothing.

If there is energy in it, it turns into a different form and merged with the world

Azief body itself is now absorbing the energy of the world and in just one second, the ten kilometre radius from his body had exhausted all energy in that radius.

It was like the energy around this ten kilometre radius become barren.

Every second, every moment, more and more energy is absorbed and wherever this absorbing power comes, it strips bare the energy making the area scarce with energy of heaven and earth

Azief body is now floating and he is no longer sitting cross legged. Instead he is now floating in the air like he is slowly flying up. He is standing up in the air but his eyes, his eyes is shining golden blue

And he doesn’t seem to realize that he is flying. Instead, right now, Azief is focused only on his Inner Universe

Right now, he is at the Energy Gathering stage.

This is the first stage in the system level up. It is where you could class up.

Azief had long forgotten how it was he felt like this.

At the time, he still remember the feeling of fear of being thrusted into a new world and at the same time feeling the exhilaration of being stronger

He was faster than any athletes, and stronger.

That feeling at the first time is terrifying but also ....exhilarating

The new world was terrifying but it was almost something that he secretly had hoped for.

For the world to be destroyed and to be restarted again

Not because he think he would survive it.

Some people who want restart civilization or be in a zombie apocalypse all think that way because they believe they would be one of the survivors and not one of the zombies.

They all think that they were going to be the badass wielding machetes and machineguns gunning down the zombies instead of being the zombies being gunned down by the heroes

But Azief did not have such delusion. He simply want the world to change. Because he could not see hope in that world.

People who thinks they are free but are actually slaves

Some chains are more visible than others.

But was he the person who cares that much about chains in other people necks?

Did he have such a perspective back then in 2012?

No.

he simply wanted the world to be.....interesting. the more you know about the world the more you see it is the same old story

it is a story about power, about greed. Only some managed to mask it better than others and some are not even bothered to pretend.

Good people, inquisitive people, those who wanted to seek truth are either ridiculed, stopped or being hindered

And some seek truth but in the end is also burdened by a dogmatic belief. Some are more open minded and some are too open minded that they do see the threat of certain things

Science become so advanced that humans are not prepared for it. The science is advanced by the soul and the mindset of humans itself did not change.

So, there is only greed and evil. There was nothing interesting. The more things changed, the more they stayed the same

The dragon slayers become the evil dragon, the revolutionaries become the very same people they killed, the good become the very evil they warned against

And the people suffers.

But was he the kind of guy who was thinking of this stuff in 2012? No, he was just bored. Bored because of the world. Bored of his suffering. Bored of this feeling of not progressing. Of not knowing what is the right path

Uncertainty, chaos, the feeling of a normal person. He wanted to see the world. But he did not have the courage to go out of his comfort zone

He wanted to explore but the world has already all been explored.

In his time, there was no longer any exploration.

People have given up going to the Moon. And going to Mars is a stupid proposition for that era.

After all, at that time they have no magic. Just the logistical constraint of creating settlement of Mars made it a braindead idea

Or maybe the government have some powerful technological advancement that would make it easier.

When he thinks about exploration, he did not think about exploration of science, or archaeological exploration.

Not because he didn’t want to but because he simply lacks the prerequisite of trying to explore those kind of things

The exploration he was thinking about is the kind of exploration of the past where one would sail the world or ride their horses and go on an adventure to see the world.

He wanted to see if there is another mountain beyond that mountain, whether there is an unknown continent hiding itself.

Whether there were more sunken continent in the world.

It felt like the world had already exhausted all of these exploration. And everything is vulgar and barbaric.

However, it was not like Azief cares that much about those things. He simply wanted the world to be interesting

Azief then suddenly understand why he is thinking about all of this now that he is back in the Energy Gathering realm

"It is forcing me to see myself" Was he really sad when the world change? Or was he secretly excited.

Was there fear?

Yes, there is a lot of things to fear.

Was there danger?

Almost infinite.

And was it sad?

Seeing those people dead.

Seeing people he knew dead.

No.....not that much.

Azief at that time was numb.

He did not have many friends.

And even with his family he was not that close.

Was what he said to Sofia his true heart or was it just a way to convince himself and Sofia?

Truth be told, now that he thinks about it....he might just have said those words just to make Sofia have something to look forward to

But there is also his own ambition

People he knew, he felt sad about.

But not grief.

Not the kind of grief that is inconsolable.

Then he thinks again about how he surpasses the memories of him killing his own family.

Was it because he was sad that eh surpassed those memories?

Or was it just because he found it shameful

That he is a man who cares very much about reputation? That the feeling of guilt itself....he had seen it as some kind of weakness of character?

His heart could not lie

And he answer it. Not to anyone else. But to himself and then he found that his heart feels a bit lighter.

"It is not a confessional. It is acknowledgement" If this was before, Azief might deny a certain part of himself. The ugly part of him. The evil part of him

But, he needs to acknowledge it. Acknowledging it, understanding it, made him able to grow.

And he had grown enough to understand this

And then his body changes again.

His energy rises again and he felt that same sensation. It is a sensation he had long forgotten

Because it felt like a lifetime ago when he was at this realm

This time it is the Body Refining stage.

From dust to ashes, from ashes, reborn to be solid again. And now, he felt that familiar feeling.

And then he remembers all of those moment. The meeting with Sofia. Meeting with Sina. And then Loki. And that monster they met.

And then almost immediately, he passes through this hurdle. This hurdle is nothing but human connection

And he now break through to Pillar Forming realm. At that time, the system announce many functions. Ironically enough, Azief never had the time to use this function enough

At that time, there is the World Orb Shop, Hall of Fame and many other features. But he never had a way to access it

Because he did not use it and now even though there is Hall of Fame, everyone is very much become smarter and all of them knows how to hide their names and identity.

Hall of Fame is more like a hit list than a Hall of Fame.

And the system also did not work properly for him. Since he follows the path of perfection, the system goes haywire.

after all, the system itself is not some magical stats.

It is just a simple representation of your power and abilities and once it breach the parameter of the system, it could not work properly.

Well, it is not quite fair to simply said that the system is merely a representation of one stat. It is more than that

But in his case, the system is not very relevant.

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