The rains had finally stopped as the morning sun shone upon the floating city island.
There was a yellowish haze to the world and as Shenxi stared at the distant skies, he found it to be polluted and hazy. There weren't even clouds in the sky.
A humming sound rang in Shenxi's ears and as he turned to the source, he found Zhang Ling pressing a button on a worn out steel door.
The humming intensified and the door slowly opened.
Shenxi looked up at the run down four-story building with no windows. It was purely a block of metal, standing like scrap among a pile of similar looking blocks around.
"Get in." Zhang Ling instructed and made Shenxi and the red-haired lady walk inside.
A pungent smell made Shenxi's nose twitch and he could feel dampness under his feet.
"Ugh. What is this dumpster? Is this where you live?" The red-haired lady was more vocal as she pinched her nose and complained.
Zhang Ling knitted his brows and walked past the two after the gate was closed.
"Well, sorry for being born in poverty, okay?"
"What's with this passive aggression?" The lady jabbed back.
Zhang Ling didn't have the energy to argue with her and simply led them upstairs to his apartment on the second floor.
It was a tiny room with a bathroom attached. On one side was a small stove which was a narrow counter cluttered with a chopping board, some rusty utensils, and a rack of knives stuck into a wooden block.
Shenxi found the ceiling to possess multiple vents with fans pushing air upwards in them.
The room felt surprisingly cool and he didn't feel suffocated, despite feeling a little claustrophobic as everything was packed.
"What's with these living conditions? Are you perhaps imprisoned?" Shenxi asked as he sat down on a bean bag which the red-haired lady was eyeing.
Zhang Ling opened the mini fridge resting in another corner and grabbed energy drinks. He handed them to his nosy guests and sat on the ground.
Popping open the can, he sighed and said, "I am not imprisoned. This is how the poor ones live in this society. As the day begins, an intense dust storm takes over the city. The living conditions are harsh and we have to stay cooped inside. Of course, this problem is only with remote places like this city."
"You're afraid of some dust?" Shenxi asked, not being able to imagine Zhang Ling's circumstances.
"Yes, I am." Zhang Ling was too tired to deal with them and just agreed.
The red-haired lady took a few sips of her drink called Venom Overdrive(Raw mango flavor) and felt the sparkling bubbles in her throat. It was refreshing.
She turned to Shenxi and replied, "This is no ordinary dust. We all will die if we venture out during the day."
Zhang Ling nodded in agreement, but then looked at the red-haired lady with a confused expression.
"What do you mean by we? Aren't you a goddess? Aren't you supposed to be powerful?"
The red-haired rolled her eyes. "I am super powerful but I have to abide by the laws of this world. If I use my powers, this universe will collapse."
Zhang Ling's eyes twitched as he heard the obvious boasting. "You can make the universe collapse but can't wither through a dust storm?"
"Yes. Since I can't activate my powers to protect myself," the lady nodded.
"What bullshit!" Zhang Ling almost threw his drink. If it wasn't for the fact that he was poor, he really would've done so.
Shenxi looked at the lady with interest. "So you're someone useless like Zhang Ling?"
The straight to the point question made Zhang Ling and the lady both speechless.
Shenxi unknowingly killed two birds with one stone.
"No. Not as useless as this guy, at the very least. I am proficient in firearms and lock picking. I also have a high aptitude for most things and just need to learn them a little to be proficient." The lady commented and tried to distance herself from the useless Zhang Ling.
"What blatant boasting. If I hadn't seen you, I never would've believed that pretty girls can be so full of bullshit." Zhang Ling spat. "If I knew your nature, I never would've made a contract with you!"
At this point, he was just pouring out his resentments.
"Contract?" Shenxi heard something new. "What sort of contract?"
The lady rolled her eyes and said, "He wanted power, and obviously I won't give someone something for free. I made him sign a contract that states he has to make humanity victorious in exchange for power."
"So confusing," even someone with an extremely high comprehension ability like Shenxi failed to grasp what was going on.
"What's so confusing about this?" The lady sipped on some Venom Overdrive, asking calmly.
"Everything feels confusing." Shenxi said honestly. "You, a self-proclaimed goddess saying you cannot survive a storm. That guy claiming he has regressed. And then this whole weird city and surroundings."
From the moment he opened his eyes after his ascension, Shenxi couldn't make heads or heels of anything.
Zhang Ling was the first person he met after walking a few steps in this new world. That dude's first instinct was to pick a fight and get beaten up.
When asked why he did that, he stated that he had regressed and thought he had magical powers that made him super overpowered. It was a power bestowed to him by a goddess.
Next, not even an hour had passed and he met the said goddess Zhang Ling was talking about.
All of this made Shenxi really suspicious. What if these two people were someone trying to dupe him?
But if such was the case, how would the lady know about the existence of the Upper Realm and his system?
Forget that, if she wasn't someone from the Upper Realm, she would never have known his name or be able to recognize him.
This made Shenxi even more confused and suspicious of everything.
The red-haired lady could understand Shenxi's struggles. She gulped the last mouthful of her drink and tossed the can in trash.
"If I prove to you that Zhang Ling can regress, will you be less confused?"
Shenxi thought about it for a second. "If Zhang Ling regresses, I will believe that you gave him that power. But I refuse to believe that you're a goddess."
After all, to be a god meant to be omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent.
Forget these three, if someone could even fulfil one criteria, Shenxi was willing to admit that they were a god.
"Okay." The lady didn't refute and instead turned to Zhang Ling.
Zhang Ling felt a chill run down his spine as he met the goddess's gaze.
He hugged his knees and said nervously, "What do you plan to do…"
With a face devoid of expression, the red-haired woman said in a disturbingly calm, almost offhand tone, "Zhang Ling…"
She plucked a knife from the rack near the stove and let it hover in front of him, the blade gleaming under the dim light.
"…kill yourself."