It had already been an hour since Akim started walking around.
He had gone in one direction, then another, then another, just to test if anything would appear....
But no matter where he turned, it was the same.
Dirt.
Endless, flat dirt that stretched as far as his light could reach.
He hadn't even seen a single pebble.
There were no plants or even hills....
Just one endless, flat, dead world.
At first he thought maybe he hadn't walked far enough.
Maybe, just maybe, if he pushed himself, there would be something ahead... an ocean, a mountain, even a ditch.
But now, after an hour of silence and steps that felt like they were getting him nowhere, he realized the truth.
This place was empty...
Too empty.
Akim stopped walking and exhaled.
'…Yeah, that's kinda terrifying.'
He held the glowing ball of light lower, closer to the ground.
The dirt reflected dull shadows across his shoes, the only proof he wasn't floating in an endless void.
'…Alright. Exploration can wait. I should test what I've actually got first.'
His gaze fell on the system window again.
[Intelligent Design] was locked.
He couldn't use it as of yet, but that was fine.
He wasn't about to start designing some crazy monster from scratch anyway.
Instead, his eyes turned toward the other skill.
[Spark of Life].
The name alone made his heart thump.
He focused.
As the owner of the skill, he could vaguely feel its limits...
It was small—ridiculously small.
He could only affect a patch of ground smaller than his palm.
'…The range is quite small.' Akim thought, shaking his head.
But even so, a smile tugged at his lips.
'But it's a start.'
The excitement bubbling in his chest reminded him of the first time he opened a science kit as a kid.
The kind of thrill where you knew something tiny and fragile might just become something bigger.
After all, what was more exciting than watching yourself get stronger and better?
Akim crouched, pressing his hand lightly against the dirt.
At first nothing happened, but then... he felt it.
There seemed to be a change within the ground.
He vaguely sensed it... not with his eyes, but with a sense deeper than sight.
His mind brushed against tiny, microscopic shapes wriggling into existence.
They weren't even visible, but he could feel them... the faintest feeling of something alive.
For a moment, wonder filled his chest.
His creatures... His first creations!
They were weak, unstable, but they were his.
Fucking awesome!
Then, just seconds later… silence.
The pulse faded. The spark flickered out.
Gone.
"…Eh?" Akim blinked.
'That's it?'
It was over before it even began...
The tiny organisms he had felt were already dead.
He rubbed his cheek.
'…Well, that was anticlimactic.'
But before he could sulk further, new words flickered before his eyes.
[Your understanding of "Death" is being developed...]
[Your understanding of "Life" is being developed...]
'Oh.'
Akim tilted his head.
'So even failure counts, huh?'
A grin spread across his face.
'Interesting. Let's do it again.'
He pressed his hand to the dirt and used [Spark of Life] once more.
The same sensation returned.
Molecules, cells, fragments of things wriggling in blind instinct.
They pushed into existence, struggled for a second… and died again.
Another message blinked.
[Your understanding of "Death" is being developed...]
[Your understanding of "Life" is being developed...]
Again.
And again.
Minutes passed.
Then an hour.
Then two.
Akim lost track of time as he repeated the process over and over.
Every attempt ended the same way... death within seconds.
The longest any of his creations had lasted was a pitiful two minutes before collapsing.
After another hour of experiments, Akim slumped down onto the dirt, staring at the faint glow of the ball of light hovering above his palm.
His face was a mixture of exhaustion and wonder.
It was disappointing, yes, but not useless.
[Your understanding of "Death" is being developed...]
[Your understanding of "Life" is being developed...]
The messages kept repeating in his vision every time one of those little sparks came and went.
And the more he repeated it, the more he could feel something changing inside him.
He raised his hand and pinched his fingers lightly.
'It feels like I can kill an ant without even touching it... like just willing its life to stop would be enough.'
The thought sent a shiver down his spine.
Creepy, yes—but also proof.
Proof that he had gained a power that was completely supernatural.
Death wasn't just a concept to him anymore!
It was something he could feel, touch, and maybe even use...
His eyes drifted to the panel again.
[Primordial] : The more complex the concepts in your world become, the stronger you become.
'This should be the skill that's helping me develop these powers...'
Akim thought, rubbing his chin.
'If life and death are concepts... then the more I create and the more I understand, the more I'll grow. The system wants me to build complexity, not just random scraps of existence. If life gets deeper, if death gets clearer, if growth, decay, time, and evolution all take root... then I'll become stronger too.'
He let out a soft laugh, half nervous, half excited.
'A god that learns by watching his own creations crawl and die... That's kind of dark when you put it like that.'
Still, it made sense.
[Primordial] didn't seem to be about flashy powers but was instead about accumulation.
Building a whole system of rules and truths, and in return, those truths would become his strength.
'If that's the case, then maybe I've been approaching this the wrong way. Instead of just summoning single sparks and watching them die, I should start thinking of how to keep them alive, even if only a little longer.'
His eyes narrowed at the dirt.
The faint glow of his light ball revealed nothing but barren soil as far as the eye could see...
A dead world with no air, no water, no sky... just endless emptiness.
'Of course they're dying. What kind of idiot tries to make life without giving it something to live in?'
'Ah right, me.'
Akim clenched his fist.
This was the first time he truly felt pure excitement once again.
These sparks needed the basics first... the ground, the rules, the environment.
Without that, they'd always fail.
His gaze shifted back to his ability list.
[Genesis] : The ability of creation and destruction. (Level 1)
'I wonder if I can make something a bit more complex but not as complicated as an iphone. Man, I'm seriously not fit for world creation, I don't know shit about my science subjects...'
'But if I can make something with it, maybe I can give my sparks a chance...'
He thought, comforting himself.
After all, he was suddenly transported in a place with endless darkness and dirt even though he was just teaching kids how to skateboard awhile ago.
Who says he'd have to adhere to science strictly to create something?
Taking a deep breath, Akim stood up and raised his hand to the void.
He closed his eyes and imagined something simple, something small but necessary.
'Water. Just a drop.'
The air around his palm trembled.
A faint ripple spread out, and with a soft pop, a single droplet of clear liquid appeared, hovering in front of him.
Akim's eyes widened.
'Water works!'
But before he could celebrate, the drop fell into the dirt and sank instantly, vanishing without a trace.
His lips twitched.
'...Figures.'
Still, it was a start.
He could feel the strain in his body just from making that single drop.
His current [Genesis] was weak... Level 1 barely scratched the surface of creation.
But it gave him an idea.
'If I can keep pushing [Spark of Life] while also using [Genesis] to shape an environment, then eventually something will stick. And if something sticks... that'll be my first real step as a god.'
Me becoming a god...
Fucking hilarious! haha!