The First Store System

After appearing, instead of checking on his surroundings, Aakesh hurriedly checked his head.

The next moment, a disappointed expression appeared on Aakesh’s face as he found nothing but air where Lily was comfortably sitting before the space crack sucked them in.

“Hey, system, be sure to protect Lily,” Aakesh told the system. He was confident in its ability and trusted nothing more than the system, but since Lily’s life was at stake here, he said such to make him feel better.

[Host, you don’t have to worry. Lily is safely protected in the care of the system. If you want, I can share every detail about her with you.]

The next moment, the system’s mechanical and emotionless response rang inside Aakesh’s head.

“No,” Aakesh refused.

Even previously, when they had gotten separated after entering the portal, Aakesh hadn’t checked up on what Lily was doing even once. Since there was the system protecting her, he didn’t feel like snooping on her.

Since Aakesh didn’t have to worry about Lily, he finally decided to check up on his surroundings.

Aakesh wanted to see the marvel the ruler had created from the similar composition of elements used in the creation of an ordinary world.

As Aakesh looked around him, he couldn’t help but look in surprise as he found nothing but stairs going upward.

No matter in what direction Aakesh looked, he found that side to be the first step.

Since there was nothing else but stairs, Aakesh decided to check it.

Aakesh didn’t think of changing his direction as he decided to walk the stairs from his front.

The first step of the stairs was only a few hundred meters away from him, so Aakesh thought it wouldn’t take long, even with all the restrictions on him.

Aakesh couldn’t be any more wrong as just when he had taken a step forward, and his front foot had landed on the ground, the ground suddenly threw his feet, resulting in Aakesh getting thrown several meters backward.

“Eh!” Aakesh couldn’t help but exclaim in surprise as he wasn’t the one that made him halt from the throw, but he just automatically stopped.

Aakesh could sense that the journey to the steps wasn’t going to be easy as he was now even more distance away from the stairs.

Aakesh then turned around and looked in all his directions. As expected, the stairs had moved backward, maintaining the same distance no matter in which direction Aakesh focused.

Aakesh then looked at the ground and attempted to see through it, using the skill Energy Overseer.

Aakesh had never used the skill before today, and today he had used it twice in only the span of a few minutes.

When Aakesh activated the skill and looked at the ground, he found nothing except the element of earth.

A conjecture appeared in Aakesh’s head, and he then decided to test it.

Aakesh raised his right foot to take a step forward, and just when he was about to touch the ground, Aakesh noticed the change of scene through his skill.

Aakesh could see that the number of grey-colored light dots had slightly moved away from each other.

Aakesh expressionlessly put his right foot down, and as Aakesh had expected, the sudden force threw him back again. This time, the distance was twice that before, moving Aakesh further from the stairs.

After seeing his conjecture proven right, Aakesh started thinking of ways to move forward.

When Aakesh’s foot was about to touch the ground, the element of the earth would move slightly away from each other, resulting in the hard rock surface becoming a rubber, which would then throw Aakesh back.

Aakesh could now use the same amount of strength in his legs to match the elasticity of the ground so that it wouldn’t reflect him. But the situation wasn’t so simple, especially after Aakesh got thrown back the second time.

During the second time, the rubbery ground had thrown Aakesh twice the amount of distance back in comparison with when Aakesh got thrown for the first time, which didn’t make sense. According to the amount of strength, Aakesh had used in his right foot, the knockback he got should’ve been half a meter, not around sixteen meters.

Aakesh then decided to test it again as he used only enough strength for the rubbery surface to throw him one-fourth of a meter.

The skill was still active as Aakesh noticed that the element of the earth moved the same distance again.

“Thud!”

Aakesh’s foot touched the ground, and soon a crashing sound rang in the area.

Just as Aakesh’s foot had touched the ground, an unprecedented amount of force had thrown Aakesh backward. This time, Aakesh even failed to stabilize himself as he fell to the ground.

He then noticed the amount of distance he had moved away from his previous spot.

The distance by which Aakesh got thrown back in his third step was around sixty-four meters, the four times the amount of distance when Aakesh had taken the second step.

Aakesh could clearly see a pattern here, but he still couldn’t find the reason behind the increase in pattern.

When Aakesh first appeared in this unknown place, he was around 250 meters away from the first step of the stairs, but now that Aakesh had taken three steps, he was now more than 300 meters away from the stairs.

Aakesh, this time, decided to match the amount of strength with the elasticity, so he stood up from the ground and raised his right foot.

Aakesh’s face stayed expressionless as he got thrown back around five hundred and twelve meters this time.

Fortunately for Aakesh, he succeeded in not crashing to the ground this time, despite the force being several times greater than the last time.

Aakesh then looked at the ground again as he witnessed the element that had moved away were now coming closer.

Aakesh suddenly had an idea as he took a step forward.

This time Aakesh clearly felt things. When he had landed his foot, the ground had gotten hard, but when it was half footed, the rubbery slope returned and threw Aakesh backward.

Unfortunately for Aakesh, he failed in not crashing to the ground this time as his body landed on the land with a loud sound.

***

A/N: This is nonsense. Please don’t consider it as actual science.