A Rather Quiet World

Bai Yu's first reaction was to wonder whether entering the system's training space from here would give him four times the time in the real world (it had been upgraded to four times now, so he often ran short of system training time), or four times the time in this space.

But there was nothing here he could use to measure time. Bai Yu took his Wireless Earphones from inside his clothes and put on some music. A song lasted roughly three minutes, and he remembered the timing of every line of lyrics.

He closed his eyes and quickly entered the System Training Ground.

Hmm, I can still get in. Not bad.

He stayed inside for ten seconds before quickly leaving, but the song playing in his earphones had not even finished its first line.

Bai Yu raised his brows slightly.

"Does this count as exploiting a bug?"

There were still a few things he had yet to confirm, though, such as whether the system would refresh his free training time every day here. He could only wait to find that out.

Bai Yu looked at the girl in the distance... no, the ancient ancestor.

"Great-Grandmother."

But the girl ignored him. She simply kept struggling to carry her bucket as she walked toward an unfinished sand sculpture of a Titan below.

Bai Yu scratched his head. So that was how things stood. Ymir had grown somewhat numb. Thousands of years had passed outside, and who knew how much longer had passed in this mental world? Day and night, she kept herself bound here, building Titans out of sand, shackled generation after generation.

But how did I get in? I don't have the Founder's power or royal blood. I'm just some passerby. There's no way I could get in on my own, unless...

At that thought, Bai Yu narrowed his eyes slightly.

"Great-Grandmother, was it you?"

But she still gave no response. She walked forward numbly, without the slightest light in her eyes. Despair? No, there was not even despair. Only utter lifelessness.

This is a little tricky.

I need to find a way back. I haven't even made the Thunder Spears yet. I don't have royal blood, and she won't pay attention to me.

I need to find some way to wake her up.

What should I do...?

Fortunately, time here ran much more slowly than outside-so much so that the long stretch she spent building a Titan amounted to no more than an instant in the outside world.

All right, I've decided.

As Ymir built a Titan nearby, a book appeared in Bai Yu's hand.

"Great-Grandmother, let me introduce you to this book. It was written by a great man and marked a great step forward for its era. The light of the red star should illuminate your heart, too, and help you understand that we shouldn't live as slaves!"

But even after Bai Yu talked for a long time, Ymir showed no intention of paying him any attention. His mouth had grown dry, and he swished his hand through the water in her bucket, looking a little uncertain.

"Great-Grandmother, is this water safe to drink?"

No response. Well, that was to be expected.

In the end, Bai Yu decided not to drink it. He was afraid he might turn into a Titan afterward, in which case Ming and Xiate might cut him down the moment he got out.

After trying for a long time, Bai Yu still had not received any response from Ymir. She simply kept building the Titan before her.

One thing puzzled him, though: was this sand really that good at sticking together?

He rubbed the ordinary-looking sand between his fingers and felt nothing different about it. Hmm, it must be the water.

Bai Yu let his mind wander.

Suddenly, Bai Yu relaxed and lay spread-eagled on the ground, staring up at the empty sky. The only light came from the "great tree" behind him.

It was the branching spread of Ymir's bloodline.

"Great-Grandmother, you don't have that Spinal Worm anymore, right? The Spinal Worm is in the Founding Titan now. So why are you the only one here? Why aren't any of the people who inherited the Founding Titan here?"

"Are you the origin, or is the Spinal Worm the origin?"

Bai Yu murmured to himself, but these were only idle remarks to pass the time. In truth, he took everything lightly-very, very lightly.

He did not know what mattered, either. Or rather, he had very, very few negative emotions, yet he could still feel the joy and other things in that colorful world.

By all rights, he should have been happy. But...

It was a feeling he could not describe. He seemed to have things he liked, things that made him happy, and things he enjoyed doing. But really, those things only meant something to him compared with doing nothing at all.

Bai Yu had always been like that.

He liked Ming because Ming had things he liked: pearly white hair, burgundy eyes, and a simple yet persistent personality. He also loved the scent of alcohol on him.

He liked Xiate, too, because she was his younger sister, because she was obedient and trusted him-or rather, because she liked him so much.

But he was not some completely rational person, either. It was complicated.

Bai Yu could not quite put it into words. Right now, though, he felt very relaxed, because time here passed so very slowly, and he did not have to worry about finding that ten thousand years had passed once he got out.

He had suddenly started letting his thoughts run wild, and he did not know why.

There was no one to disturb him, either.

Suddenly, he smiled-a truly happy smile.

"Great-Grandmother, let me tell you a story. I don't know how to get out anyway."

"Once upon a time, a very long time ago, there was a mermaid..."

Bai Yu told her a fairy tale from his previous life. He remembered plenty of them, and there were others in the books the system had given him. He did not know which worlds those came from; at any rate, he did not remember them from his previous life.

This place was called Paths. There was no wind, no stars, no moon, no sun...

It was very quiet. Ymir stood before the Titan, continually piling up the grains of sand on the ground. Compared with the size of the Titan's body, her progress was very, very slow. Even if an ordinary person worked without eating or sleeping, building a single Titan would probably take a month in the outside world.

It had always been quiet. But now it was no longer silent. At some point, Bai Yu had lain down beside Ymir, and his soft words drifted through this world. His voice was gentle and peaceful.

He told a story about a mermaid and a prince.

With his eyes closed, Bai Yu told it very slowly, yet he seemed to be enjoying himself. In truth, he was simply savoring something, and the story leaving his lips was only there because he wanted to say something but did not know what to say.

Bai Yu had no particular desire to enter the System Training Ground, either. For the past twelve years, he had entered the Training Ground almost every time he closed his eyes.

Was it exhausting? Of course. Did it hurt? Of course it did.

He simply felt that he ought to do something. All Bai Yu needed to keep going was the slightest desire to do it, and he could persevere forever. He really was a strange person.