6 A Fundamental Rule

Loki slowly closed his eyes while thinking about the future.

One thing he could confirm, however, was that the current Machi did not seem malicious to him; otherwise, he would have killed her, regardless of her being a future member of the Phantom Troupe.

As he mulled over some thoughts, he slowly drifted to sleep with a piece of coarse linen on top of him.

Sleeping peacefully on the ground, the hammock beside him moved slightly.

"..."

Machi turned over and quietly looked at Loki, who was breathing quietly. Her eyes were calm and no one knew what she was thinking.

**************

The following day Loki was awakened to a smell he had become accustomed to in the past year.

Loki opened his eyes and sat up in his makeshift bed and saw Machi holding a rotting wooden bowl in her hand.

Using a makeshift spoon, she scooped the dark goop from the bowl inside her mouth.

"You're awake?" she said without looking.

"You eat this too, huh…." Loki said as he pointed at the bowl, she was eating in her hand.

"What else would we eat here..?" she said quizzically.

As Machi said this, she scooped more of what seemed to be black sesame seeds into her mouth.

Loki didn't say anything but looked away quietly. He did feel a bit bad for her because she looked incredibly thin with not much fat on her entire body.

Although he wouldn't usually care about things like this, she was the one who helped him, and for that, he owed her a bit.

This kind of food did not look good, did not smell good, and it certainly didn't taste very good. This is his own experience from staying in Meteor City for a year.

"This isn't for you," Machi said, realizing that Loki was looking at her food.

Loki smiled wryly underneath his mask.

"Before I rescued you from the trash I took your clothes and cleaned the blood off. Now that you live in my house, you need to pay a certain price in exchange for food if you want to eat." Machi said before starting to put her bowl down.

"What's the price?" Loki asked calmly. Although he felt he owed her, this did not mean he would be a slave.

"Wait until later. You can follow me to the landfill to find some supplies." Machi said before picking up her bowl and taking another bite.

"I'll get you a set of protective clothing in a while too. Although it is the lowest level, it should help you a bit," she said.

Loki nodded a bit, looking at his stuff and grabbing a little bite to eat. While eating, he was thinking of a way to repay her for her help.

After thinking for a second, however, Loki suddenly paused and smiled slightly.

Then he raised his head and looked towards Machi with one visible eye showing a curious light.

"Um?"

Machi, who was finishing her food, suddenly raised her eyebrows.

She didn't know why but suddenly felt Loki seemed to have a smile under his mask as he looked at her.

"Machi~," Loki said in a faint voice.

He sat up and asked with a strange light in his eye.

"In Meteor City, what is the most important thing to survive?"

Hearing this, Machi didn't think much about replying.

"Survival supplies such as food, weapons, and medicines," she said and paused for a second before adding.

"There is also the will to survive," she said with conviction.

Hearing this, Loki shook his head slightly. Food is indispensable for survival, weapons are essential for surviving a battle with people, and medicines are for medical treatment after fighting or getting injured exploring the garbage piles.

Without these items, it is indeed hard for ordinary people to survive.

The first few were answers he was expecting but hearing her say that the will to survive was necessary made Loki's smile underneath his mask widen a bit.

"You're wrong on one thing… While supplies are good in some cases they can be useless. You say that a person's will to survive is important but you are wrong..." Loki said as his eyes became a bit colder.

Thinking of the past and how much he longed to reach the top. He worked hard but it doesn't matter in some cases.

"While the will to survive is important in Meteor City... It becomes useless in the face of absolute strength..." Loki said lightly.

Hearing his answer, Machi's eyes widened a bit before returning to normal.

"Although a sheer will can help you overcome your circumstances and move forward, you will always be at risk at the end of the day. Risk of running into people like me…" he said as he activated his ability.

Suddenly around Machi a domain of black light unfolded. Seeing this she was confused before seeing something shocking.

Suddenly surrounding her were multiple versions of Loki.

One of the versions of Loki started walking around as he spoke to her.

"Our world follows a very simple fundamental rule."

One of the Loki's said while sitting at the table.

"In this world, there are the strong and the weak… Although you could spend your time gathering supplies such as food, medicine, and weapons… what prevents someone with higher strength from taking them?"

Suddenly behind her, another version of Loki had grabbed her food before she could react. She turned around to see the one who stole her food turning into a mirage as he walked backward.

"Reality is unfair and broken… The larger fist does the talking in this world… So while your idea sounds nice... It's naive." he said in a cynical tone. As the Loki talking faded into nothingness.

Suddenly the other versions all merged into one Loki sitting on the floor with his head resting on his hand.

Suddenly the world around Machi changed, and her eyes dilated. If before she was in her house, she was now in a world of fire surrounded by people who were in seemingly infinite suffering.

Loki was currently creating a full scale living illusory scene. This scene was a new application he had thought of recently. With this he could create a true domain for himself. In this domain all illusions had the ability to inflict pain.

Although this was costly for his nen pool currently this idea gave him a lot of ideas. Being able to unfold a domain to his liking with different effects....

"Seems interesting... Maybe with this I can fix the broken world we call reality..." Loki thought as he looked around with a smile.

Machi however was not smiling. The current scene had left here in a state of shock. The crying and screaming were so real. She felt the heat from the fire near her, and it was hot. In fact, it was burning. She wanted to think this was an illusion but couldn't wake up.

Seeing this Loki stood up and walked towards her with slow steps.

"This is the truth of the world… In our world, only pain, suffering, and futility exist." Loki said while smiling. He thought back to the time when his life fell apart and further affirmed his ideas. Reality had failed... So he would make a new one.

"Only the strong have the right to overwrite this fundamental rule… Only by becoming so strong that all bends to your will do you have the right to choose," he said as he stared at her with his only visible eye.

"Only then will you have the power to fix reality..." Loki finished to himself.

"Power is not will; it is the phenomenon of physically making things happen… No matter how much you may will this to be over… It is ultimately up to my whim." he said with a laugh.

Suddenly the scenes changed to a giant city, bustling with activity. They were now in a a building so tall however, that the people seemed smaller than ants to them. Looking down on them Loki came to an epiphany.

Perhaps this is how those colleges and politicians felt when they looked at him. Loki's eyes suddenly became extremely cold as he turned to stare at Machi.

"Only when you can stand at the peak can you engage in such naivety…" he said with an icy tone. Almost as if to tell her, and himself the consequence of failing to do so.

Machi fell to the floor and was breathing heavily. She couldn't understand what was happening or why it was happening. She closed her eyes to focus on breathing, but when she opened them, everything was back to normal, like it was all a dream.

Looking around, she saw Loki sitting down with a small smile in his one visible eye.

"What just happened?"

There were apparent doubts and some vigilance in her tone.

Although she could take what happened as an attack, she could feel some good will behind it. Almost as if to teach her something.

"You were shown the consequence of naivety…" he said lightly.

"Just as I was shown…" he thought to himself.