121 This world is flawed

" ... "

" ... "

" what did we lose ? " muttered Rachel confused as several thoughts flashed through our mind

As if he saw through her mind the man chuckled as he released her arm

" you've lost a lot " muttered the man softly before he continued " but in my opinion, the most important thing that you've lost is your vitality " said the man as he looked her up and down

" my vitality? " asked Rachel as she started to wonder if the man was crazy, she clearly had vitality, if not how could she be alive

" let me explain " said the man as he pulled her to a bench and took a seat

" for the first 24 years, 11 months and 29 days of your life you had vitality, but on your 25th birthday, you traded all your vitality for time. This has advantages and disadvantages " explained the man

" such as? " asked Rachel not realizing that she was no longer struggling and that she forgot about her son

" advantage such as you stop aging, disadvantage such as you can long longer grow.....don't believe me? " asked the man as he noticed her disbelief

Rachel slowly nodded her head

" have you exercised in the past 25 years? " asked the man as she looked her up and down

" I haven't exercised in 22 years? " said Rachel after a few seconds

" why did you stop? " asked the man as a small smile found it's way unto the corner of his lips

" because I never gained weight even if I stopped working out for months " said Rachel as if it was completely normal

" have you lost weight in the past 22 years? " asked the man as the smile on his face grew confusing Rachel who eventually shook her head

" so for 25 years you didn't gain nor lose any weight and you don't find that strange ? " asked the man, the teasing look in his eyes caused her to feel embarrassed for some reason as she shook her head

" as long as you're alive you'll experience some kind of growth, how could 25 years past and you never grow ? If you no longer grow, you're no longer...." said the man

He didn't finish his sentence but the meaning was clear

" so you're trying to say that we're all dead? " asked Rachel as she started to feel like everything she knew didn't make much sense

" no I'm saying, on your 25th birthday, your body stopped running on vitality and was maintained by time. Meaning however you were before you 25th birthday is how you'll be until you die " explained the man causing Rachel to freeze as she processed his words

Her gaze once again falling unto her arm

" so whenever there's no time to maintain us anymore, we die or better yet, we resume dying as we were already dead " muttered Rachel softly which caused the man to laugh which annoyed her

" what's so funny don't you have the same problem? " asked Rachel irritably

" before I met you, I had 50,000 years to live " said the man

" so? are you trying to show off? " asked Rachel as she internally wondered why she was acting like this

Only to pause as she looked at the arm that was placed before her

49, 999

Rachel frowned as she looked at her arm, clearly seeing the century, when she was about to call out the man's lie, he grabbed her arm and she watched in shock as her time increased once more

This isn't what caused her shock

49,998

" this is the power of vitality " said the man as he took back his arm " unlike the people on this planet, I didn't trade my vitality for time. But for some reason, I get the best of both worlds, not only did my aging stop, I can still experience growth " explained the man

" because of the purity of my vitality, 1 of my years is equivalent to 100 of yours "

" wouldn't that mean you could live for nearly 5 million years with your current time? " asked Rachel in shock

Imagine having the same amount of something as everyone else but yours was 100 times more valuable

" is growth the only benefit of vitality? " as Rachel after she calmed herself

" no " said the man with a shake of the head " 100 years of vitality, allows you to heal small wounds and recover from larger ones, 500 years of vitality allows you to recover from most non fatal injuries, what do you think 1 billion years of vitality would do? " asked the man before he started laughing

Before Rachel could reply, she heard a worries shout from the side

Glancing towards the sound she found her son running towards her with a worried expression which made her embarrassed as she completely forgot about him

When she was about to say goodbye to her saviour, she found that he was already a distance away

" what about your time? " asked Rachel as she looked at the 2 centuries on her arm

" keep it as a gift for keeping me company " said the man without bothering to turn around, causing the look on her face to grow complicated

" what's your name? " shouted Rachel as the man turned the corner

" Michael... "