Laying on the cold, stone floor in an unknown location was a figure in the form of a normal-looking individual. The individual appeared confused and in pain. Seemingly, with a correlation between the two.

“Where am I? Was I not breaking through?”

Samuel continued to think to the best of his abilities, but no matter how hard he tried, he could not remember what happened after sitting down in the Universe Under a Microscope formation. All that came from his attempts was a pain inflicted upon his very being, as if what he wanted to know was taboo and forbidden. Thinking along the lines of 'maybe the time sphere will enhance my recollection’, he uttered ‘gowla’, only to be met with nothing. He did not enter the time sphere as intended, nor did anything else happen. There was nothing, as only the crippling silence present in the dark room responded to his call.

“Huh? Gowla. Gowla. GOWLA! What the fuck is going on? Why am I not entering the time sphere? Gowla! I don’t understand!”

Samuel was close to tears. Had he lost his talent upon breaking through to the Enlightenment stage? Wait, the Enlightenment stage!

“Why can I not sense the presence of the Universal Strand in my body? The core is also gone, as is all the energy present in my cells. No, no, this cannot be! Have I lost my cultivation?”

He was spiraling, but before he could continue to do so, someone unlocked and entered through the door to his room.

“So, you are awake now, huh? Good. Nothing we can do with you sleeping. Come with me; you are to be interrogated this instant.”

Before Samuel could react or formulate any form of response, he was lifted to his feet and dragged like some ragdoll out of the room, towards the end of the dimly lit hall he found himself in.

“Where is this, and what have you done to me? Why are you going to interrogate me?”

“Shut up, cretin! Be silent unless spoken to. This is not my interrogation; it is yours. You are the one who has questions to answer, understood?”

With a tightened grip on his wrists and a stern look on his face, the man tried to make Samuel understand the situation he was in. Not long after this tiny lecture, they arrived in a room consisting of nothing but four walls, the floor, the ceiling, a desk, and finally a brightly lit white sphere sitting on it. There were no chairs or anything else in the room, except for air, of course.

“Stand here with your hand always touching the sphere on the table. If I see you take your hand off, I will have to punish you. One finger for the first punishment, two for the second, the entire hand for the third, your arm for the fourth, and if you commit five offenses, I take your head off your shoulders. Do you understand?”

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“Yeah. Yes, I understand.”

Samuel no longer dared to do anything he had not been told to, purely because of the seriousness of the interrogator, as he named him. Questions were still stuck in his mind, unable to escape. Questions like where he was, why he was there, what was happening, etc. were all running rampant, yet going unanswered because of his lack of information.

“Let us begin then. Hand on the sphere, now! What is your name?”

“Samuel.”

“Full name. Personal, maiden, and family names; no tricks. This is the Guarantor of Truth, and it does exactly as its name implies: inform me whether you are being truthful or not. The same punishment applies to this as with always having your hand on it. If you lie, you lose body parts.”

“I don’t remember my maiden and family names. I might not even have them.”

“Truth. Odd, but still the truth. Where do you come from? Empire, country, region, and city.”

“I am not from any empire, as far as I know, nor any country you will have heard of. I think this question is a waste of your time.”

“I decide what is a waste and what is not. Now, answer the question within ten seconds, or you know what will happen. 10, 9, 8…”

“I am from England, with the region being Greater London and the city being London.”

“Truth. I have indeed never heard of these places, but a thorough investigation will ensue as soon as we are done here. What was your purpose in visiting the Lokola Empire?”

“The what empire? I have never heard of it!”

“Truth. How come you are here if you have never heard about it?”

“I don’t know. The last thing I remember was that I was cultivating somewhere, which was not here. When I opened my eyes, I was in that cell.”

“I think you might be suppressing your memories to avoid telling the truth, so I will refresh it for you. A giant spatial tear appeared in the heart of the Imperial Palace, from which you came crashing out, fully unscathed. Half the palace is now in ruins because of you. So, tell me again why you are here in the Lokola empire.”

“I did what? Wait, I still don’t know how I ended up here, and I would never cause havoc without good reason. I know for a fact I have never interacted with anyone from this empire; there would be no way for me to form a grudge against you.”

"Obisoulsy, you are not the one with the grudge against us; the person who sent you here and protected your body is. Do you think you are that powerful, boy? Hahahah!”

Laughter filled the room instantly. laughter so intense, dust started falling from the ceiling because of the rumble. At the same time, Samuel found his ears to be ringing and aching like never before. ‘How can his laughter be so powerful? NO! His laughter is not what is powerful; it is I who am weak. I have lost my cultivation. But how? How can that be? I just suddenly went from breaking through to the Enlightenment stage to not having any cultivation at all? Did someone powerful interfere? The Heavens or that…who am I thinking about? My greatest enemy, who took eve… What did he take?”

Samuel found a void where there had previously been a great deal of hatred. He had forgotten why he possessed that hatred, however. ‘I don’t understand anything that is happening!’ As he was feeling incredibly nervous about his situation of not remembering a lot of seemingly vital details and having his cultivation removed, the laughter stopped.

“No person at the Mortal stage has ever made me laugh this hard, boy! Now tell me who sent you here.”

“I don’t know who sent me here. I have no clue. A lot of things don’t seem to match up…”

His voice trailed off as he understood why he could not enter the time sphere. His cultivation had reset, removing his talent as well. It was reset, not crippled. This is a feat that no one can achieve; it is impossible. As such, Samuel came to the conclusion that time must have reset. He was oblivious to how or why, but he knew it for a fact. The only question he was stuck with, however, was why he was not at the Mountain of Transcendence but rather here. This did not conform with the previous script at all!

Samuel was spiraling at the thought of being imprisoned before unlocking his talent. Without it, he was nothing but a speck of dust, incapable of protecting himself!

Ding!

[Congratulations on unlocking the System of the Worthy!]

Being so stunned he could not think properly, Samuel blurted out loud, “What the fuck is wrong with this script? All of this is wrong!”