[Ding!]
Just as Luo Ning lay on the ground, ready to give up, a sharp ring echoed in his mind.
Suddenly, a blue screen materialized in front of him. Before he could react, a flood of information surged into his head.
"Freedom System? Is this a cheat awakening?! You took forever!"
Luo Ning recognized this as his cheat arriving, but couldn't help but groan about the timing.
Three years to get an account, and another three for activation?
There was no time to complain. He grasped the system's function.
It was simple, with two parts. One was a lottery draw, offering anything and everything. The other was freedom points. True to the system's name, he earned points for doing things he considered "free." These points could enhance him and his abilities, and even contribute to getting more lottery draws, though those draws required a separate progress bar to fill.
In short, doing things he felt were free granted points and built progress towards a lottery draw. Right now, the blue screen displayed zero points, one lottery draw, and an empty progress bar. Once full, the bar would reset, awarding him another draw.
And, of course, only he could see this screen.
"This system is super easy to understand, perfect! Let's see what we get with a lottery pull, maybe something good will happen."
Luo Ning's situation was rock bottom, there was nowhere to go but up. Even if he lost the lottery, things couldn't get any worse.
The one free lottery draw was used, and a message popped in Luo Ning's head:
[Holy Letter V: The Visionary, with Reiatsu]
"Holy Letter V: The Visionary? Isn't that Gremmy Thoumeaux? What luck!"
Luo Ning thrummed with excitement after receiving the power. It couldn't have come at a better time.
This ability even included something called Reiatsu, the basic energy in the world of Soul Reapers, kind of like this world's Conqueror's Haki, but way stronger in every way.
Of course, the most important thing was the Visionary ability itself.
This ability let him use Reiatsu to make his fantasies real. It wasn't all-powerful, of course.
But any limitations could be fixed with free points. With enough of them, the ability could be perfected.
For now, just getting this power felt like winning the lottery.
Snapping out of his surprise, Luo Ning used the power. As Reiatsu flowed, his injuries vanished in a blink, and the pain disappeared completely.
This was the visionary ability in action: he'd imagined his injuries gone, and it happened.
Fully healed, Luo Ning sat up straight.
"Hey, you're awake? Giving up already?"
A nearby prisoner, accustomed to Luo Ning's silence, stammered in surprise.
But what happened next left him speechless. A key materialized in Luo Ning's hand, fitting perfectly into the cuffs before they clattered to the floor.
"What... what just happened? Where'd that key come from?"
The prisoner who saw this scene exclaimed, attracting the attention of the others.
In that instant, all the prisoners in the cell noticed the handcuffs lying in front of Luo Ning and Luo Ning himself flexing his wrists.
This was the power of a visionary. Through sheer imagination, he could conjure a life and the universe, let alone a key for a handcuffs. Of course, Luo Ning wasn't strong enough for that yet. But for him, a key was child's play.
With the cuffs gone, Luo Ning earned 100 freedom points.
"So, doing what I think is free gets me freedom points," he muttered, recalling the information.