Epoch of Twilight

Wang Shishi dropped the phone on the floor. She hesitated before she said, “Brother Luo, are... are you immortal?”

“What do you mean by immortal? Have you met anyone who is immortal?” Luo Yuan asked curiously. He thought Wang Shishi might have seen someone with that kind of power.

Although he seemed to be able to focus his Determination on his body and gather his energy on his sword without any intensive training, he knew that that was actually because of the assistance of the system, which had implanted some memories and experience inside him. It was only a matter of time before he could fully master it, considering he already had the memories in his mind. A combat player would be a very good example of that. Even if a player fell sick for a long time and became very weak, they could get back into shape when they recovered, as long as they had not suffered any memory loss.

Wang Shishi acted like Luo Yuan was an alien. She twitched her lips and said, “How could you not know about the immortals? Have you never read an online novel before? There are several types of immortals. They practice to use their energy, strengthen their fundamental skills, and gather all their energy and upgrade it. They also... They live forever. They can visit both heaven and hell, and kill anybody in just the blink of an eye.”

She was waving her hands bossily while she talked. Luo Yuan was stunned and did not know how to reply. Apparently, Wang Shishi did not want to let it go as she kept looking at Luo Yuan and asking, “Brother Luo, are you really an immortal? Could you help me try to join you?”

Luo Yuan was stunned. He wondered whether she had studied so much that she could no longer differentiate between reality and fairy tales. He was about to explain, but suddenly he changed his mind and said, “Wait! Shishi, could you try your power? Try to lift the vase in the corner!”

The vase which had been made during the time between the Ming and Qing Dynasty was about a child’s height and around 10kg in weight. It was an invaluable antique during peaceful times, but it was worth nothing now. It had to be worth less than a bottle of water. Wang Shishi was confused, but she followed his instructions. She tried to focus her attention. She could handle it very well. She had never stopped practicing. The vase floated into the air silently after a few seconds.

“Now use your concentration to break the vase!” Luo Yuan said.

Wang Shishi was trying not to get distracted. She just nodded. She had never thought of using her concentration that way. She looked at the vase for a long time, and it began to shake vigorously. Although the ceramic looked fragile, it was actually quite hard to break. Even a young adult could not break it with their bare hands. It was definitely tough for Wang Shishi’s limited concentration power.

No matter how hard she tried, she could not break it. Wang Shishi clenched her fists tightly while her face turned bright red. Her eyes were as big as the eyes of a goldfish. She was staring at the vase in the air like it was the man who had killed her family.

“Could she accidentally hurt herself?” Huang Jiahui looked worried as she saw Wang Shishi trying her best.

Luo Yuan waved at Huang Jiahui, signaling her not to distract Wang Shishi. Her eyes were getting shinier. The best way to gather the power of concentration was to accumulate emotions of hatred and anger. Wang Shishi had discovered it all by herself. Her face seemed to be bleeding and she was biting on her cheeks to endure the pain, but she did not see any sign of the vase breaking.

Just as Luo Yuan was about to tell her to stop, the vase produced a cracking sound. Both of them noticed several cracks on the surface of the vase, which only increased in number, until suddenly the vase exploded. Pieces of ceramic fell on the thick carpet. Luo Yuan noticed that all the broken pieces were the same size. Apparently, the way Wang Shishi applied her concentration power was very balanced. He was amazed by that. This power was beyond Wang Shishi’s limits. It was almost powerful enough to break an 100 kg object.

Luo Yuan took a deep breath. If Wang Shishi could master this power properly, she could even defeat him, considering he weighed only around 80 kg. It would not even be a tough battle as she could easily lift him up into the air. His physique would be useless against her concentration power. In some ways, it seemed to be quite easy to gather the power of Determination, but he did not actually feel that Wang Shishi was talented enough to achieve that. Was Determination perhaps similar to the power of concentration? Or was it just related to it?

Wang Shishi was spinning before she slumped down on the carpet. She seemed to be dizzy. After a while, she asked excitedly, “Master, do I have what it takes to be an immortal?”

Luo Yuan kept shaking his head while he laughed.

Wang Shishi looked disappointed as she said, “Brother Luo, wasn’t it a test?”

“You think too much. I’ve told you, that’s the effect of Determination,” Luo Yuan said, “Didn’t you notice that your Determination enhanced your power?”

Wang Shishi seemed to recall something as she said uncertainly, "I think so. Sometimes I can move heavier objects when I stare at them longer or when I’m feeling furious. Is that considered Determination?"

“It’s not that simple. You’re still new, but you could try to meditate to overcome your desires,” Luo Yuan advised her.

"Do you mean like yoga? I’ve registered for a yoga class before. I heard that some Indians could even float in the air once they reached a certain level of yoga." Wang Shishi said excitedly.

Luo Yuan had heard about it before as well and had also seen it on Baidu. However, he was not sure whether the images had been edited by photoshop, or it had been some kind of magic trick. Anyway, he did not believe it. Just as he was about to tell her that those rumors were fake, he recalled the mysterious power of Determination. He suddenly felt uncertain. It was actually possible to achieve such a thing if someone had a very strong Determination. It could even be an easy task for Wang Shishi if she was willing to practice with discipline.

He encouraged her by saying, “As long as you can master focusing your Determination, you can also fly at a lower altitude, not just float in the air.”

Wang Shishi was so excited, she could not wait to start meditating.

Huang Jiahui felt awkward and depressed listening to their conversation. She could not join their discussion every time they talked about superpowers. She felt left out.

“When can I be one of them, an evolutionary survivor?” she thought excitedly as she grabbed her blanket tight.

Luo Yuan noticed that something was wrong with Huang Jiahui. He knew what she was thinking, so he told her, “Actually, you can do it as well. Everyone can focus their Determination, but normal people usually need more time to master it. Your Determination is stronger than Wang Shishi’s, though. You could do what I did just now once you focus your concentration power.”

It was obvious that this was meant to comfort her. If it was that easy, there would have been more people with superpowers. There had been no such reports, though.

However, Huang Jiahui was still tempted to try, and she sought advice from Wang Shishi about meditation. The two of them kept talking excitedly before they began to conduct some experiments. They stayed up the whole night, only stopping when Luo Yuan suggested to sleep in another room. The next morning, Luo Yuan walked towards the bushes where the lizard had slept the previous night.

The lizard sensed the movement and immediately opened its eyes. It quickly got up from the ground when it realized that Luo Yuan was standing beside it. Luo Yuan was shocked to find a huge change in the physical condition of the lizard. The wound on its chest was healing and the scars on its body were fading. Its injured leg was recovering as well, but he was not as sure about that.

He quickly switched on the status panel and realized that the lizard had gone from a severely injured state to a weak state in only one night. Hence, it would be possible for its leg to recover after only a few days. He was really amazed by its recovery speed. The 17-point Physique of the lizard was really scary. It seemed that most of its wounds would heal as long as it did not die right away.

Leg injury aside, Luo Yuan found that the lizard looked well compared to the previous day, when he had just met it. Initially, he had been worried about whether the lizard would attack Huang Jiahui and the rest of them. Now, that seemed like an unnecessary worry. He quickly jumped on its back and tapped it hard to order it, “Go!”

The lizard finally remembered some signs and instructions after going through some ‘intensive training’ with Luo Yuan the previous day. It moved naturally forward, obeying his order. There had been many mutants around the area when the lizard had marked its territory, thus he did not have to worry about searching for them.

Besides wanting to make up for his loss, Luo Yuan also wanted to use his Determination as an experiment. The lizard had grown smarter. After taking a few wrong turns, it now knew where its master wanted to go.

However, it only walked for a minute before it began to feel frustrated. They suddenly heard a high-pitch sound that sounded like a warning. The fights over territory were always cruel. The lizard would have escaped last time, but now it was walking forward forcefully after being frightened by Luo Yuan. It moved at a very slow pace, though. A rumbling sound came from far away. It sounded like a giant beast was rushing towards them.

Luo Yuan jumped down from the lizard and checked their surroundings. He realized they were on the commercial street near his district. There used to be many small shops there before, but now almost all the buildings had collapsed. He chose a building that looked well-maintained and cut off the grill. He went up to its third floor and hid near a window.

"Beep!" The system sent him a mission again. He had already gotten used to their frequency.

“E Level Mission, Kill a Giant Hedgehog. Duration: Three days. Accept/Decline?”

Luo Yuan accepted it silently. He took a deep breath and gathered all his energy as he waited for the beast. The lizard looked towards the direction where Luo Yuan had run, and then slowly stepped back. It did not intend to fight at all. The street was damaged once again when the beast rushed there. Luo Yuan peeped from the building and quickly returned to his hiding place to avoid being spotted by the beast. The beast though was too busy to bother with Luo Yuan. It only cared about the lizard that had entered its territory. It roared angrily at it.

It was a black beast with a fat body and a small head. Its scalp was gone and had been replaced by something that looked like thorns. There were many intersected iron teeth inside its mouth and two white fangs outside it. Saliva was dripping down from its mouth. It had a pair of blue eyes and looked terribly disgusting. The worst thing was its fur though, which looked like a bunch of lances vertically projecting out of its body. When Luo Yuan related it to the name provided by the system, he realized that the beast’s fur was not for display purposes only.