Ning tried to use the Yin-to-Heat conversion technique but quickly realized that it wasn't working as well as he had hoped. He stopped after gaining a bit over a million energy, while at the same time losing nearly all of it.
'I'm not in a solid object, am I?' he thought. The darkness gave him no clue through a visual medium, but the fact that it was dark and he could feel himself floating a little started hint him that he might've been in the water.
Since he was in the water, energy was extremely detrimental to him since most water molecules left the bottom of the ocean once it got sufficiently hot. So, he had to first look for a proper body to inhabit.
He had enough energy to switch bodies, the only thing remaining was to actually find a body.
'System, can you help me locate a body?' he asked.
<Everything around you is just water>
'So, no target for me, huh,' he said. He decided to think of other methods. Of the various methods he could think of, all required either teleporting or finding a body before teleporting.
'God, I am bad at this stuff,' he thought. 'Where am I supposed to find a bod— Wait a second, my body. I have my body. I can use that right?' he thought. But then he thought against it.
He currently had around 20,000 energy, which was nowhere enough to teleport. And if he couldn't teleport the moment he got into his body, the sheer pressure at the bottom of the ocean would wreck his body.
That would just be a waste of energy and time he spent to get that body. 'What else do I have?' he decided to check. He looked through the interdimensional storage and found something quite useful in the first 2 seconds of looking.
'That should work. System, get ready to transfer me to it, okay? No questions asked,' he ordered.
<Confirmed>
'Alright, come out,' he thought about pulling the object from inside of him and suddenly, he felt the water undulate in front of him. As soon as that happened, his consciousness shifted.
'Finally, I got a body,' he thought. Only then, he started using the Yin to Heat conversion technique. The dense yin energy at the bottom of the ocean immediately stuck to Ning as it filled his energy up to cap at once. The remaining Yin simply gathered there and started giving off a red glow.
Deep in the darkness, Ning could see color giving off of his body. The body he inhabited, which was the bloodred spear.
'Alright, teleport me to this place 90 km away,' he ordered.
<Confirmed>
Without a single question, the system immediately teleported him to the land that it had mentioned before.
It was nighttime, but Ning could see with his Night Vision I. He started looking around and saw that he was inside a jungle, not dissimilar to the island that was next to the island where Hyesi lived.
'I should go back there once I gather more energy,' he thought. 'Although, this looks like that same island… is it?' he asked the system.
<No>
'Are you sure? Cause I think I remember this exact vegetation on that island. It must be the same one," Ning said.
<The vegetation would have changed by now>
'Changed? Why would it have cha— Did I sleep for more than just a few days?' he asked.
<Host had overused his mental strength and went over critical point>
<System put the host in a comatose state to save his mind>
'I… was in a coma? I do remember you telling me that, however…,' he trailed off. Suddenly, remembering the system's words once again, he asked, 'how long was I in a coma for? The people at the village must've been waiting for me to return for weeks if not months,' he said.
<You have been in a coma for over 164 years>
Shock. That was the only emotion Ning felt when he heard the words '164 years'. That was not a period of time a normal human could fathom.
Ning was speechless for a long while. He wasn't speechless because he had tons of many thoughts running across his head and he could not choose what to say.
He was speechless because he didn't really comprehend what the system had just said.
164 years. That was nearly twice if not thrice the lifetime of a normal human back on earth. And he had just spent the same amount in a comatose state.
'That's not true right?' he asked, but got no response back. 'Bu-But why? How?' he started to ask angrily.
'So… is there no one waiting for me back at the island? Everyone I knew… Hyesi, Belini, Hasini, the chief, and the others… are they all dead?' he couldn't help but ask.
From Ning's perspective, he had just decided to save the villagers by burning the snake alive. He had then found himself in the dark and decided to come here using his spear. And yet, to suddenly learn that it had been 164 years since then, he couldn't understand his own emotions.
Was this Shock? Surprise? Despair? Sadness? Grief? Anxiety? Sympathy? Amazement? Melancholy? Fear? Anger? Depression?
It felt like it was all, and yet at the same time, it was none. However, whatever it was, thanks to the system, either for a good or bad reason, was amplified.
He could feel every single emotion clearly, but when he tried to see the overall emotion, it was just a gray mixture of all. Whatever he did feel, made him feel horrible.
'I… I didn't even get to say my farewells,' he thought. He thought he knew how much he cared for them, but he was only now realizing the extent of his care.
Understanding that he would never again see the people he cared out, a massive wave of sadness struck him and the only thing he could do was wail out and cry.
Ning cried, and he cried for a long time. The system did nothing whatsoever to stop him, giving him ample time to show his sadness, for that was the only way to move forward after a loss.
After an inordinate amount of time had passed, Ning finally stopped crying and calmed himself to say a single word, 'Goodbye.'