What happened to the explosion just now? The ship should have exploded and shattered to pieces under the destructive force of his attack.

He quickly left the cabin and looked around for any sign of damage. He was surprised to see himself coming from the second cabin. He glanced at the two cabins by his sides and at the saloon. Everything remained as it was except for the first cabin. Either the bunk had moved to the second cabin or the first cabin had replaced the second cabin.

At that moment, he heard a movement outside the ship. He ran to the cockpit and looked through the glass wall. The big, black silencer had appeared again from under the ship and was pointing westward.

A missile escaped from the tip of the silencer. It was tiny at first but it grew bigger a hundred times as it propelled through the air.

It disappeared inside the clouds and out of Abdin's sight. The next thing he heard was a bang, a deafening explosion. The missile had hit the target.

But... what was the target?

There was another movement from the cabins. When he came out of the cockpit, the bunk was already back to the first cabin and the desk to the second cabin.

He then realized there was a trick to it. The cabin arrangements might as well be a trick of controlling the ship. But why couldn't he leave?

He went to the hatch and tried again. It wouldn't move.

He didn't want to attack the ship again. The missile just now had probably wiped out an entire village. Another scenario like that could only worsen the situation for the humans below.

But he needed to get out before it was too late.

He debated only for a moment before transforming into a bigger bolt of lightning. With vengeance, he launched himself at the hatch door.

Shortly afterward, he found himself on the bunk. For the second time.

Now it was in the third cabin. Or rather the first cabin had replaced the third.

The ship shot another missile eastwards in retaliation.

Was there any relationship between the target of the ship and his line of attack inside the ship?

He had targeted the roof the first time, and the ship had reacted by sending a missile toward the west. And now that he attacked the hatch door, the ship had shot eastward.

The ship couldn't be this easy to control. Were the invaders being sloppy? They must have expected the possibility of someone hijacking their ship, and using it against them.

He took a step back and targeted different parts of the ship.

After seven trials, he realized his hypothesis was wrong. The ship didn't attack the same target twice even when Abdin targeted the same place inside the ship.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

The ship suddenly began to glow, and a child's voice full of glee spoke, "Ha... I have gotten the number of souls I need now, so I shall be the first to ascend."

Abdin grabbed his sword and looked around. There was no one on the ship. The voice seemed to be coming from within the wooden hulk.

Was the ship alive?

Suddenly there was movement behind him and he took a swipe without even turning around.

It was no man. A table carrying fruits and clean water in a transparent cup had appeared. It wasn't there a second ago.

Suddenly the ship was flying toward the sky and gaining more altitude.

Abdin went all out. He targeted the closest wall and struck using increasingly more powerful skills. His only fear was his rapidly decreasing cultivation.

Thunderclap, sword strike, man-eating puppet...

He used all of them. In the end, nothing worked.

After an hour of this one-sided battle, Abdin was forced to sit back, panting.

The ship's hulk looked unscathed and its pace hadn't been affected. It didn't even notice him since it wasn't sending any missiles anymore.

Abdin felt offended but there was nothing he could do but wait.

Eventually, he lost sight of the clouds. It was now dark and he couldn't even see the Earth anymore. All he could see was a round ball of something which was his planet.

The ship's pace hadn't slowed. And as they traveled, the planet became smaller and far away.

Hours later, the ship reached an empty and dark space. The temperature was markedly lower and it carried a scent of loneliness in it.

A great distance away, the planet they had just left behind was sitting peacefully. And unlike his current position, his planet gave off a beautiful glow and warmth.

Should he end the loop now? It had become unbelievably dangerous. Some things might hurt him even with the loop.

However, he so much wanted to see what would happen next.

He had already dedicated this loop to uncovering Silver Mask and Nànata's plot. At this point, he could be said to have succeeded. But there was more to it than what they were saying. And he was close to finding it out.

Should he take the risk?

He seated himself in the cockpit. It was common knowledge that time flow was different in space. It could be faster or slower than on Earth. His short stay there could be equal to many days on Earth, or it might just be a split second.

Abdin had no way of knowing the truth at the moment.

He sat down there for a long time. No sunlight or moon. Nothing except the endless darkness. His Ayrid wristwatch indicated that he had been there for six months. It could be longer or shorter, the watch was being affected by the environment as well.

He didn't feel like he was there for months. There was this feeling of stillness in his mind and body, probably from the ship's gloomy atmosphere and the pressure from the lonely space that couldn't stop glaring at him.

Time passed slowly.

One day, he heard a sound outside the ship. When he looked through the glass, he saw a fleet of ships approaching them. It was the same ship as the one he was in.

His heart pounded in his chest. He moved away from the glass to a more inconspicuous spot.

Would the crew of the other ships speak to him when they came near?

And what would happen if they found out he wasn't one of them?

And if they communicated with the ship and made it throw him out, his body would instantly explode. The body, even that of a cultivator, had no strength to survive outside in space - all the legends that Abdin read about ancient cultivators confirmed it.

The fleet got closer. The leading ship beeped at him.

He understood that this could be a secret code between them - to beep when you were closer or to perform some signal when you were beeped at. Abdin didn't know what he ought to do.

He sat there unwilling to make any move.

A moment later when the fleet arrived, the voice of the ship spoke again, this time in a language foreign even to him.

The ship that beeped at them earlier replied in the same language.

They took some time exchanging words before his ship roared out with laughter. Their voices carried human emotions and even happiness.

Abdin sat motionless and listened, hoping to pick something, but to no avail. Fortunately, their conversation didn't end with throwing him out of the ship.

From that day, ships always came to them. He eventually lost count of the numbers.

Months later, they stopped coming but then another planet approached.