CHAPTER 20: COMPARISON

Leaving the man’s corpse to rot over the building’s cracked top, Lucian decided to head downstairs.

Walking down the floors, Lucian’s mind seemed to have drifted into a world of its own. Even though his body moved continuously, his eyes didn’t follow his footsteps.

’First infinity... then transcendence... and now Infinite Qi... I just can’t get my head around these things... maybe it’s because it’s only been 3 days, but for some reason, they make me feel exhilarated yet stressed at the same time.’ He shook his head involuntarily.

"Well, there’s no point in stressing about something that can’t be changed." He raised his head and sharpened his gaze.

’System, show me my status.’ Unlike before, Lucian decided not to say it out loud this time. It was both a test and an experiment since, in reality, it’d be troublesome for him to declare each of his commands out loud for the system to respond.

In critical situations such as life-and-death fights, such a small variable could take one’s life in an instant. Since declaring your next weapon would only alert the enemy further.

Surprisingly, his test came out successful, as a system window materialized in front of his eyes almost immediately.

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———————————————————

[#~System Notification~#]

———————————————————

[Understood.]

[Fetching host’s status...]

---

With that, a new system screen appeared over the previous one.

---

———————————————————

[#~Status~#]

———————————————————

[Name - Lucian Cross]

[Alias] - Hollow

[Title] - [The First Achiever]

[Race] - Human

[Talent] - ???

***

[Level] - 2

[Exp] - 0/150

***

[Element of Creation] - Infinity

└ [Traits] - [Transcendence (F)]

***

[Unique Authority] - Infinite Qi

└ [State] - Sealed

└ [Traits] - [• Perfect Qi Flow], [• Mana Conversion], [• Environmental Qi Absorption]

[• Current Qi Absorption rate - 0.01 Qi / 5 sec]

***

[Stats]

└ [HP] - 250/250

└ [Stamina] - 200/200

└ [Qi] - 0.01/1.00

***

[Attributes]

└ [Strength] - 20

└ [Agility] - 21

└ [Vitality] - 20

└ [Intelligence] - 25

└ [Endurance] - 20

[Current Unassigned Points] - 6

***

[Skills]

└ [Passive] - [Indomitable Will (F)], [Perception (F)]

└ [Active] - [None]

***

[Techniques]

└ [White Rank: Whispering Breeze Method]

***

[Inventory]

└ [E-rank Mana Stone] (x1)

└ [Novice-rank Full Armor Set] (x1)

***

[Equipment]

└ [Weapons] - Novice Daggers (Pair)

└ [Armor] - None

***

[Current Tasks] - [Task #3: Cultivating Qi for the First Time!]

└ [Progress] - Ongoing

---

Staring at the system screen with a rather straight face, Lucian ran his mouth silently.

Although silent, one could easily read his lips as "What the fuck?"

It was a reasonable response. Especially so if one were to be smacked with a gigantic blob of words on their face under the false name of help.

"But that aside," he looked towards the screen again, "my stats are quite something... Although I am a bit skeptical about the whole concept of attributes right now, I just can’t get my head around the current situation... The level and attributes just don’t add up!"

It was a valid concern, since within the book he wrote, stats were a topic of war. To maintain an environment of fair play, Lucian had decided to limit the number of attributes one could gain upon leveling up to 3.

Any player who leveled up would receive a total of 3 unassigned attributes that they could use to give their overall strengths a touch of uniqueness.

As such, with average attributes of 5 at the beginning, one could only reach the foothold of 8 upon reaching level two. However, Lucian, on the other hand, stood at the average of 21 attributes with a total of 6 unassigned ones.

In simple language, Lucian had become a man with attributes that rivaled a level 10 at just level 2. And not just that, but a man who possessed the highest-graded element of creation, a pair of unique passive skills, a unique title, a unique trait, a unique authority, and, to top it off, a unique system of his own.

With just that much, he could have already become the strongest individual in the world. But still, something seemed to be making his subconsciousness uncomfortable.

"There’s still 14 hours left until the completion of the synchronization... It would be better for me to prepare well enough since no one knows the future. Prevention is better than cure, isn’t it?" He smirked, staring at the contents of his inventory, more specifically, the mana stone.

"In normal cases, one is strictly prohibited from attempting to intake the raw, concentrated energies such as mana stones, as they spike their energy levels in an instant. Which, even in the slightest, could lead to energy deviation."

"Although this would’ve been even worse for me since the coherent traits of both Mana and Qi—even though they share a common origin—make them incompatible. It was to the point that one could call their presence hostile to each other."

After walking down several stories, Lucian had finally arrived at the ground floor. There, he decided to put an end to his words, as any more sounds would simply attract more flies like the one he had just beheaded on the roof.

But to deal with that, he had already thought of a plan. A plan that may work better than any other.

"In an apocalypse where humans’ existence is at risk, and the only ones they could ask to protect them are themselves, which place would become completely useless in times when the laws of the jungle are applied in real life?" He slowly began walking in the opposite direction to the exit.

After a while, he came across a small door at the very end of the corridor. Without a second thought, he pushed open the door.

As he did so, he noticed a dry, salty smell in the air. The room was dark, and hardly anything could be seen, but just by its smell, Lucian was sure of it.

"The place where no one enters? It has to be the Archive Room!"