Rain fell.
The city teemed with people and traffic.
Xu Yuan stood in the rain, watching a street corner not far away.
A young man stood in the downpour, looking lost.
It was his younger self.
His College Entrance Examination results had been disappointing. He had yet to enter professional gaming and was at the most bewildering point in his life.
Why had he appeared at this moment?
Xu Yuan watched himself.
His younger self walked slowly through the rain, letting it soak him to the skin, unable to find a way forward in life.
So...
Xu Yuan looked up instinctively.
A blurred circle of light hovered motionless above his head.
Use.
The word surfaced in Xu Yuan's mind.
He suddenly understood what a Crown truly was.
A Crown was a power of dominion, meant to take one thing or Rule in the Universe and put it wholly to use.
It was the Universe's Authority.
When humans completed a ritual, the Universe granted them that Authority, with a Crown as proof.
But...
"Using" the Universe's own Authority was, for all living beings, a test.
The Authority you chose would determine the Fate you bore.
His first Crown, Time Prison, for instance, was one he had chosen only after the Demon-Suppressing Heavenly Venerable's warning had driven him to think with all his might.
Every tactic he used now revolved around Time Prison.
He had to move back and forth through time, searching for a chance to survive.
Only then did he have any hope of living.
Then...
What about now?
Xu Yuan looked at the young man he had once been, drenched by the rain, and countless thoughts rose within him.
...I really am lost.
Those lights gathered into one vague Crown after another, revealing the powers each possessed.
Some could