Chapter 6: The Red Planet

There was twelve silhouettes standing before me. They were lined up side by side and is facing me. I looked at myself and deduced that I also am a silhouette. Two of them walked towards me but one stopped them and instead walked towards me. It offered me its hand. I hesitated, but in the end, I grabbed it. My world was engulfed in darkness.

~~~

I feel my consciousness coming back at me. I remembered that I was in this pitch black world. Was it all a dream? But everything was realistic that I doubt it.

My consciousness completely came back and I opened my eyes.

There was a familiar looking ceiling.

Was what I wanted to say.

But, the truth is, I see the sky or what I think is the sky. The sky is so red that you think you're swimming in a pool of strawberry juice. There are this reddish black clouds and their shapes are odd. Other clouds stretches across the sky that gives the illusion that the whole streak is one whole cloud. I need to stop thinking whenever I wake up from being unconscious that everything was a dream.

I stood up and looked around me. The atmosphere here is certainly red, not because of the red dwarf star in the horizon, but the color of the air itself has a hint of red. The mountains and the land are also red. There was an obvious black circle in the sky, it's the moon! The moon is black but you could clearly see it even though the star is rising in the horizon. I concluded that I am not in anywhere in Earth because of obvious reasons.

Something caught my eye. It was the displays from the Omega System.

I looked at a display and the display is adorned with streaks of blue and green lines and hands of the clock that is turning at the three corners of the display. I call this, the Time display

[You have been recognized by Father Time]

I have been recognized by Father Time? Since when? I pondered and remembered that I saw a glimpse of his appearance back in the realm of Death. I looked at the rest of the displays.

[You have obtained the variable, Time]

[You have received <Wristbands of Time> for obtaining the variable, Time, and Father Time's recognition.]

I was trembling when I saw the variable of Time. I was hesitant to use <Property> on the variable and the item.

In the end, I decided to use it because of curiosity. Curiosity kills the cat. I first hovered my hand of the variable of time.

"<Property>!"

[Variable: Time

Grade: Variable

You have been recognized by Father Time. Father Time has allowed you to use his variable, Time.

You may now be able to control Time as you will with the expense of MP.

You may now be able to use <Wristbands of Time>]

Hmm. It's the same as the variable of Death. I then went to my inventory and hovered to <Wristbands of Time> and used property on it.

====================================

Wristbands of Time (unnamed)

Level: 1

Grade: O

Quality: Variable

Type: Equipment

Hardness: ∞

Durability: ∞/∞

Power: Time

Ability: Records the time whenever the user went through. The user can go back through time or go through time when the user has already went through. Tells time.

Description: The personal equipment of Father Time. He has given this weapon to the Chosen One that possessed Omega.

Available skills using Wristbands of Time:

Rewind - rewinds time on the user's surrounding. (1,000 MP per 1 millisecond)

Back - rewind time of the user. (1,000 MP per 1 millisecond)

Predict - sees future with 100% accuracy. (1,000,000 MP per 1 millisecond into the future)

??? - ???

??? - ???

Note: Going through time will not let the user change position, it will just transfer the user through time, not space.

====================================

I'm glad that the wristbands' abilities are not that overpowered. It uses a lot of MP and I only have 5 points.

I also noticed that the <Wristbands of Time> has the word, unnamed, next to it. The system probably added that it when I renamed Death's Scythe into Shi-Kama Tamashī-Kiru.

Then let's name it! Looks like the system is forcing me to. But I need to think of a good name so Father Time would be pleased also.

...

Wrists... Time... Watch... Clock... I kept thinking and let my imagination play to come up with a good name. Moments later, I thought of something!

"Chrono Brachile." Or Time Bracelet in English, I translated it into Greek.

The system heard my words and showed me a congratulatory display. I wonder what rewards I would get.

[Congratulations. You have successfully renamed <Wristbands of Time>. Father Time was genuinely pleased. He was reminded of his offspring, Chronos.]

...

I waited for several minutes in hopes to receive certain rewards from naming <Chrono Brachile>.

"That's it?" As if the system heard my protest, the system displayed my rewards.

[Conditions have been met. You have pleased both Death and Father Time in a short amount of time. You have received the title, Time Holder. You have unlocked an ability for <Shi-Kama Tamashī-Kiru>, Decompose. You have unlocked an ability for <Chrono Brachile>, Next. You have unlocked a unique ability, Decay.]

That was a lot to take in. I had an epiphany reading the congratulatory display. What is the relationship of Death and Father Time? Why is Father Time at the realm of Death? Shouldn't Father Time have a realm of his own? I had this questions when I noticed that the conditions I have met is pleasing both of them.

Anyways, I looked at the three abilities and checked it. "<Property>"

====================================

Decompose - steals the soul of the living target and decomposes the material body of the soul into a lifeless corpse or an empty shell using non-existent insects. (1,000 MP)

===

Next - sends the target forwards through time. (1,000,000 MP per 1 millisecond)

===

Decay (Death and Time exclusive joint ability) - decays the target with a ratio of 100,000 years per 1 second. (10x10^11 MP per second)

====================================

What?! That's too OP! Am I walking towards the path of becoming overpowered? This is too much! But nonetheless, the MP usage is astronomical! I can't use them the way I am now.

"What's the use of these when I can't use them anyway, huh?! Why give it to me?!" I inwardly cursed the system for giving me too much power.

Then, I got nothing else to do. I remembered that <Chrono Brachile> is an equipment. I therefore equipped it in my wrists. The look of the bracelet is futuristic and certain alien symbols and numbers are running on the surface of the bracelet. Good thing there are Earth numbers in here where I can read them.

The time seem to be... 300:1327? Maybe that's the time in this planet. I am also not sure if this reads as hour and minutes but I'm gonna go ahead and say that's the case. I also have no idea of the time ratio in this planet.

I then decided to walked around to see any civilization. I went through the red mountains, red valleys, and red plains. Throughout my journey, I didn't see any water sources such as rivers and lakes. Maybe I'm in a planet where water doesn't exist, but there are huge long streaks of clouds in the sky. Unless, those are not clouds.

I walked for hours, probably days. I figured out that there are 6060 minutes in 1 hour in this planet. As to how many hours in a day, I still haven't figured it out as I have only passed at hour 322.

A few minutes later, I spotted a kingdom that is covered by a huge transparent dome. I quickened my pace and arrived at the towering gate of the kingdom.

I used <Property> on the gate to show me some information.

[Bolaños Kingdom]

That's it? Seems that property cannot show too much about some things.

Moments later, a guard that looked like a human from Earth approached me with an odd looking gauntlets with a few more guards.

"Halt! State your name and your purpose." The guard called out to me.

"Uhm... My name is Philip and I was lost in the plains and stumbled to this kingdom." I uttered while looking at the guard with an exhausted expression.

"Really? What an odd name. Can you show me your guild card?" The same guard uttered.

"Guild card?" I subconsciously uttered as I didn't expect to hear such a clichè words from games and anime from this different world. Wait, that does makes sense!

"You don't have a guild card? Where did you come from?!" The guards became tense when they thought that I don't have a guild card.

"Uhm... Ah... I just woke up in the middle of the mountains several hours ago." I came up with an excuse.

For some reason, the guards became more tense and started to approach me closer. I subconsciously took a step back when suddenly, my whole being was shaken by a presence and I unconsciously tensed up in return.

"Boys, what's going on here?"

A man with a long spiky hair a bang hanging from his scalp came out of the gate. Seeing him had bells ringing on my head and my eyes start to shake.

"Captain!"

The guards knelt down with the presence of what seemed to be the captain.

"Stand."

The captain commanded the guards to stand and the guards began their report.

"Captain, we have a very suspicious individual here that says he was lost and stumbled upon here. He is also stating strange language as we asked him nicely. He also seem to not have a guild card." The main guard reported to the captain with utmost loyalty and not leaving out any details.

Strange language? Me? What's strange about what I just said?

"Hmm... Very well, I'll take it from here boys. Go back to your stations now."

"Yes captain!"

The guards left the scene obediently and entered their stations. Only the captain and I are left.

The captain kept staring at me for several seconds. It was awkward, I don't know if I should start a conversation or keep quiet. Then, moment later, the captain sighed.

"So, you're new hear in the kingdom huh? Come, follow me, I will show you around and show you where to obtain a guild card."

"Uhm, okay." I obediently followed the captain because I keep feeling a strange yet familiar pressure emanating from him.

The sky changed to blue, similar to Earth, as soon as I walked inside the gate. I looked up and saw that the dome is responsible for this change. The ground is also not colored red. It looks like they teraformed this place so that the red soil is nowhere to be found. Oddly enough, there are white clouds overlooking beneath the dome.

We walked around and for a long time. The captain introduced me to lots of recommended restaurants and places that are good for sightseeing. There are also those infamous hot springs and inns. I felt nostalgic when I was training in Japan with the sword. I missed the onsen.

He also showed me the kingdom square where a huge statue of the king is displayed at the middle. The king almost resembled the captain right beside me. The similarities are uncanny.

"Hey, captain. I never got to know your name. May I know of it?" I asked the captain with respect.

"Haha! No need for honorifics. My name is Jacob Bolaños." The captain laughed before introducing himself.

I opened my eyes wide when I heard his name.

"Are you the king's son?"

The captain turned serious while staring at me intensely and changed his tone to a deeper one.

"How did you know that? I haven't told you what kingdom this is nor the king's name."

I stepped on a landmine. I worked my brain to the hardest to come up with an excuse. But suddenly, the captain, or Jacob, changed his tone.

"Well, maybe you heard from one of the residents when I'm not looking. Anyways, let's get you a guild card so you won't get in trouble." The captain addressed to me with his usual tone of voice.

I dodged a bullet right there. Good thing Jacob didn't suspect me or anything. But I know I must not let my guard down around him. I also need to avoid accessing the Omega System before I confirm whether other people can see the displays that are being displayed in front of my eyes.

After a long walk, we arrived almost to the main gate leading to the main castle. The distance from here to the entrance gate is huge!

We stopped in front of a big building adorned with white and gold motifs as if resembling the typical guild headquarters from games and anime. So typical.

I avoided on using <Property> to identify the name of the building to avoid being caught.

We stepped in the building and what I saw surprised me.