Black Bellies

SPLASH

Ning fell into the cold water down below and sunk inside for a while before he started floating upwards. He arrived at the surface and simply floated up there. 

There were no waves, no fishes, no sound. He closed his eyes and felt the sun hit his face at an angle. Slowly, the cold water washed away all of his negative emotions until only Nothing remained. 

The calmness of his heart was something he hadn't felt before. Finally, he started to really think about what had happened. 

The system had temporarily left him for 1 year and 4 months… a total of 16 months. 

"Is that 4 months per innocent person I killed?" he wondered. However, the answer wouldn't come for a long time. He floated there and thought of the other things that had taken place.

He tried to see if it worked, but as expected, he could no longer collect energy at all.