11: Thanks

Ning looked to his right, and it was pitch black. His left was pitch black, and so were the front and back. The entire room had no gaps for light to penetrate.

Ning panicked for a moment, wondering if he was going to be trapped here forever? The panic made him unable to think clearly. After a minute or two, the panic slowly dissipated, and he finally started to use his brain.

"Hmm... no way, someone must come here for various weapons and armors, right? I'll just have to wait until then."

An hour passed, and no one came. Another hour passed, and still no one came. Three hours passed, and Ning finally had enough of waiting. During this time, he realized that in the dark room, he neither gained nor lost energy.

Ning looked at the ground he was touching, "Can I swap bodies with it?" he wondered. "Hey, System. Can I swap bodies with the ground to go outside?" he asked.

<Negative>

<You cannot swap bodies with the ground itself>

<You can only swap bodies with a piece of dirt on the ground>

<The ground is not considered a single entity, so you would have to switch bodies multiple times to leave this room>

The System was not stingy with answers when the question was not about something that was about to be unlocked or something he could get from the Shop. "So the ground is a no-go, huh? Then what should I do?" He thought for a while and came up with an idea.

"Hey, System. I'm going to sleep. Wake me up when the door opens, okay?" He said before passing out.

Suddenly, a half-finished notification sound from the System startled him awake again. He immediately looked towards the door, only to see a crack open, letting much-needed light into the room.

Then, the door fully opened, and two middle-aged men walked in. These two men wore grey-blue robes with black belts tied around their waists.

After they walked in, they made way for three teenagers to enter. These three looked no older than 18 and wore the same clothes as the two men, except they had white belts instead of black ones.

The two men said something Ning couldn't understand, and the three teenagers nodded, walking towards the weapons lining the walls.

Of the three, two were young men, and the last was a young woman. The young woman happened to walk towards him and started looking through the weapons around him. She picked up a weapon, spun it around, felt its weight, and then put it down.

She did the same with the other weapons. When she reached him, she also picked him up, and suddenly the two men said something that made the woman immediately gasp and put him down.

"No, no! System, swap my body with whatever I'm touching right now." He screamed internally.

Suddenly, he felt his entire consciousness shift bodies as he found it hard to adapt to the change in his body structure. "Where am I?" he wondered. He could never see the object he inhabited, so where he was now was a real problem for him.

He suddenly started to feel something; something smooth all over his body, and, he could feel two large bumps. "Uh..." If he had a face now, one could clearly see his face turn from white to red. "No way!!" He started looking around in all directions and finally realized that he was now wearing the girl's robe.

Some naughty thoughts began to surface in his mind. "Should I peek? No! But maybe just a little peek. It wouldn't hurt, right?" His curiosity got the better of him, and he slowly shifted his gaze to peek. Unfortunately, or fortunately, it was dark inside the lady's robe, so he couldn't see anything.

"Ah..." He was disappointed. "Wait! Don't be like that. You're not a pervert." He also chastised himself for feeling disappointed. His emotions were amplified now, making them hard to control.

The girl continued to search for weapons in the room while Ning found it hard to concentrate as his body was feeling everything around him. Finally, the lady stopped at a slender sword. The sword itself had a blue hilt, and the scabbard was also dark blue.

The lady looked at it for a while and nodded internally without saying anything. "No more!!" Ning cried out internally. "System, switch body with the scabbard."

<Confirmed>

Once again, he felt his consciousness tilt forward, leaving the robe and entering the scabbard. "God, this is so distracting." He muttered to himself.

The girl and the other two young people walked out, followed by the two middle-aged men. "Ah, finally out! I'm out. I was scared for no reason just now." He thought to himself. He smiled, remembering how panicked he had been a few minutes ago.

"Oh, right, System, how long did I sleep this time?" he asked.

<You were unconscious for 6 months, 14 days, and 5 hours>

"What? I was unconscious for so long? Does that mean no one entered that room for half a year? What kind of room was that anyway?" He was confused. Suddenly, he felt a chill all over his body. He looked back outside, and the sight before him shocked him.

Snowflakes were falling from the sky, the ground was covered in white snow, everything was white, the sides of the buildings were covered in frost, snow accumulated on the rooftops, and black smoke rose from the buildings.

"Snow..." He was surprised. This was the first time he had seen snow. He had always lived in a place where it didn't snow in winter, and he had only seen it on TV.

Finally, he saw it in real life for the first time and was incredibly happy. He understood that snow meant he wouldn't be able to get any Heat Energy from the sun, but he didn't care. Just seeing the snow was enough for him.

"Thank you, System. If you hadn't brought me here, I probably wouldn't have seen such a beautiful sight in my entire life."

<System confirms your gratitude>