7: cultivation

Ning had been in the rock for two days; after the first day, there were no more thunderstorms, which meant he could bask in the sun from morning till night.

He had unlocked one-way vision and could now see things clearly in the distance. His vision itself wasn't as good as he hoped. It was clear about ten meters in front of him, but after that, it became blurry.

According to the system, his vision would improve once the shop unlocked, and he would be able to see farther by investing energy, which was his only comfort now.

Looking south, he vaguely saw an outline he believed to be the South Continent. Everywhere else was just a vast blue ocean. Interestingly, since he had unlocked rotational movement, he could see everything from any position on his body at a sharp angle and in any direction, and he could see everywhere.

He could clearly see things in the water, with half his vision in the water and half in the air. He could even look at the sun now without flinching like a human.

The world he was in now, the one the system called Kumiya Planet, was no different from Earth, except that it was countless times larger.

The process of waiting for energy to rise made him bored, so he decided to sleep a little longer when suddenly, he heard something flying in the air. He tried to look up but found himself staring at the sun, so he couldn't clearly see what was flying.

"Are there planes and helicopters in this world too?" he wondered. He waited for the object to fly past the sun so he could see it clearly.

When it finally appeared, he saw two very small figures flying towards him.

"Is that a bird? No, is that a plane?" He was shocked when he finally made out what it was.

"It's a man!!" If he still had a chin now, it would surely have dropped to the ground. "Wait! Humans flying in this world? What's going on?"

The flying humans flew past him, heading towards the South Continent. However, just as they were about to reach land, a giant tentacle suddenly emerged from the sea, grabbing one of the flying humans.

Ning was too far away to see exactly what happened, but he only saw flashes of light, no less bright than the sun, and humans flying in and out of the giant beast's grasp, continuously severing its tentacles.

Although he couldn't see, he was sure these people must have been using fire.

"How did they fly? And use fire? Is it magic?" He couldn't figure it out. After a while, the battle seemed to end, and the humans won. One of the humans pulled the entire giant sea octopus out of the water, and it disappeared as soon as it was out.

"What? Why did it disappear? What happened?" Things were getting more and more confusing for him.

"Hey, System. Is there magic in this world?" he asked.

"No. This is a cultivation world, not a magic world."

"Cultivation?" He thought for a moment. "Like those popular stories on Earth?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Uh... System, I haven't read those books. Can you tell me what cultivation is exactly?" he asked.

"Cultivation is the process by which intelligent life constantly strengthens itself for longevity, even immortality."

"That... sounds great. I think those people were using fire. Is that something cultivators can do?" he asked.

"Cultivators can utilize a form of energy called 'Qi' to unleash different abilities, and this energy is abundant on Kumiya Planet."

"More cultivation knowledge is available in the shop."

"Hmm... I guess I'll have to wait until the shop unlocks. I wonder when it will unlock. Honestly, the next unlock seems a bit useless." He checked his status again, read the next unlock, and showed his disgust for it.

His next unlock was "Emotions." While emotions themselves weren't bad, having to unlock them and have them take the place of other more useful senses made him feel it was useless.

"Well, I guess I no longer need to mimic my emotions; I can truly feel them." He wasn't far from unlocking emotions. Just a few more hours of sun exposure, and he would unlock it.

"Qi, you said that's a form of energy. Is there Qi on Earth too?" he asked.

"No. Qi is a rare form of energy that exists on only a very small number of planets."

"Oh, rare? How many planets in total have Qi?" he asked.

"Infinite."

"Huh? Infinite? I thought you said Qi was rare. If Qi is rare, how can an infinite number of planets have Qi?" he asked, confused.

"There are far more planets without Qi than with Qi."

"Hmm... How many planets are there in the universe?" he decided to ask.

"There are 68,180,268,153,211 planets with life in the universe."

"That many?? Wait a minute, but didn't you say countless of them have Qi? Why are you contradicting yourself now?" The system's answers were becoming increasingly confusing.

"The planets in a universe are countable, but the number of universes is infinite."

"Yours is just one of them."

"Ah," he finally understood. "So the multiverse theory is correct?"

"Yes."

"Can I visit other universes?" he asked.

"Traveling from one universe to another requires energy equivalent to 10 supermassive black holes."

"Ah, hahaha," he began to laugh reluctantly. "I guess I'll stick to unlocking emotions for now. I want to know how I'll feel when I hear that."

And so, he spent a few more hours in the sun until he heard a notification.

"Congratulations. You have unlocked Emotions."