Road to Mastery: A LitRPG Apocalypse

Chapter 253: Slicing Space

Jack sank into his soul world.

The scenery here had changed since he reached the D-Grade. This used to be a field under a blue sky, stretching as far as the eye could see and with a light breeze constantly caressing the grass. Jack found it soothing.

Now, the field, grass, and breeze remained, but there was no sky. He could see straight into space, a black dome interspersed with a thousand tiny stars. Their light was ample, however, and their illumination gentle. Instead of making the grass field hard to see, it only made things clearer, showering the world in a warm light that highlighted the details and made the terrain seem almost romantic.

There were four moons, too; one silver, one dark blue, one green, and one black. They were small and discreet, though noticeably larger than stars, with their multicolored lighting not ruining the view in the slightest.

Copy Jack lay on a hammock between two trees; the only two trees in this expanse. Jack had no idea how Copy Jack knew what a hammock was, or how hed learned to grow trees.

The moment he saw the real Jack appearing, Copy Jack waved lazily from his hammock.

Hey, Jack told him with a smirk. Sorry to interrupt your beauty sleep. Im just here to try out some things. You dont mind, do you?

Copy Jack waved for him to go ahead, then lied back down and closed his eyes.

Jack had a moment of realization. Relaxing on a comfy hammock under the starry sky, swayed gently by the cool breeze That must have felt nice. Torturously nice. If only he didnt have a planet to save. If only he wasnt pushing himself every waking hour.

A pang of yearning crossed Jacks heart, but he suppressed it. Maybe after everything was over.

Turning away from Copy Jack, he sat cross-legged and closed his eyes. His Dao perception spread as a wave, taking in everything in the near vicinity.

This wasnt the real world. It was a terrain inside Jacks soul. The ambient Dao wasnt made up of every concept, but simply of the Dao of the Fist. No matter how far Jack spread his perception, all he saw was purple particles swimming in the air, sparser than in the real world and lacking the innate stability which came with variety.

Here, manipulating the Dao was very easy, because all he had to do was manipulate the thing he knew best: the Fist.

Jack inhaled deeply, then exhaled. The infinite particles followed his movement, swirling like purple wind. He did not start experimenting yet; he only pushed his perception deeper, trying to observe the surrounding space as clearly as possible.

A question had been born in his mind: If everything here was made of Fist, how did space exist?

In the Dao Vision, hed seen clearly that space existed due to the Dao of Space, which in turn comprised of infinite colorless particles bound together. But that was clearly not the case here, as there were no other particles besides his purple ones.

Let alone space; how did even air exist? How was there grass and stars and light?

Jack was surprised that hed never considered this before. He observed his surroundings, looking for the source of this wondrous enigma, and found it quickly.

They were all made of Fist.

He saw particles of Fist swirl around like wind and rooted in place like the earth. He saw them clustering in bright packsthe starsand even connecting to form lifethe trees between which hung Copy Jacks hammock. Surprisingly, even Copy Jack was made of the Dao of Fist, though his structure was far more complicated.

Even Jack himself lacked any other Dao inside his current body, besides the Fist and his Dao Roots.

Be it this world or the real one, everything was a manifestation of the ever-present Dao. However, Jack now understood that a manifestation wasnt determined solely by the nature of its Dao; the structure of that Dao also played a part, as did the way with which it pulsed.

Of course, in the end, Fist could hardly become grass.

This entire world was an illusion; the Dao of the Fist masquerading as everything else, guided by natural laws that Jack didnt even dream of grasping. It was just another of the souls mysterious innate propertieslike the fact that it was inviolable, even to the System. Or maybe it was a result of the Dao Soul hed once ingested.

Jack put these wondrous questions aside and focused on the task at hand. He scoured the air until he pushed everything else away, revealing the pure backgroundspace.

He found endless purple particles bound together, forming a space-like fabric that served as the foil of this entire world. It embodied concepts Jack couldnt grasp yet and gave meaning to distance. Otherwise, his entire soul world would be a single point, which wouldnt be very conduciveconductive to training.

That space here was a manifestation of the Fist had both positive and negative effects. On one hand, manipulating it was easier; on the other, the insights that Jack could gleangleam here wouldnt be perfect. At the end of the day, this was just the Fist masquerading as space. There were bound to be differences between a copy and the real thing.

But, for now, he thought it would suffice. His level of understanding was so elemental that any differences would probably not come into play.

Copy Jack had left his hammock, at some point. He was now squatting on the ground next to Jack, gazing at him with curiosity. Jack kept his eyes closed. He ignored Copy Jack, letting him watch freely, then pushed away the world as he entered deep meditation.

A line of Dao particles emerged from his chest. It was several particles wide, not as thin as it should be, but much better than it had been in the real world. He carefully guided it to sink deeper into space, touching upon its many particles, which were more thinly clustered here than real space.

Without realizing it, Jack pushed his hands outward, moving them in the same gestures hed memorized from the vampire woman.

His line of particles formed into a razor blade, which slowly sank into the gap of space. He felt when it happened; it was a unique sensation, like he was feeling the inside of his mouth for the first time. Like he was touching something he had no business touching.

But wasnt that the point of cultivation?

Jack ignored the sensation of wrongness and slowly slid his blade backward, along the gap, tearing it open. He suddenly realized that he had no idea if the backside of space existed here; what if he was just cutting his own soul open, effectively suiciding?

Thankfully, that wasnt the case. Sliding his perception through the gap while still holding the blade in place, Jack felt the same counter-intuitive lack of distance. He grabbed a few particles, as few as he could grasp, and pushed them into the gap, attempting to teleport them.

For the first time, Jack experienced the workings of teleportation.

It wasnt easy. Changing the world in any way, including altering your location, always required energy. The concept of distance made that intuitiveif you wanted to change locations, you had to expend energy to physically move from one point to another. Simple and easy.

But now Jack was a big boy cultivator, and he had to work with the real world, not the user interface.

Teleportation similarly required energy, but without the medium of distance. Instead, Jack experienced this demand for energy as an innate resistance on the other side of the fabric. Every possible point in space was just a thought away regardless of distance, but the natural laws demanded he pay a price in energy to move, and that energy was exponentially greater than the energy he would have to use to move there physically, over the fabric of space.

In essence, teleportation saved time at the expense of energy. Finally, Jack realized why Space Walk was so exhausting; moving a mile like this was like moving a thousand miles the normal way.

He pushed the ball of particles into space and teleported it ten feet to the side. The resistance he faced was minimal, as appropriate for such a tiny task.

To his surprise, he succeeded! Hed discovered teleportation!

His eyes snapped open with a full grin on his face, meeting Copy Jacks equally joyful expression.

Do you even know why were happy? he asked, but the copy just laughed. Jack shook his head. Fine. Watch me, Copy Jack. Im about to teleport!

Copy Jack kept his eyes on Jack, slightly narrowed, watching as hed been instructed. Jack stood up and prepared himself. He visualized his Dao razor again, sinking it into space and slowly dragging it around himself, cutting out his three-dimensional outline. Suddenly, he existed within a loose part of the fabric, only separated from the spaceless void by a thought.

His razor sank slightly deeper into the fabric, then pushed out its end. It was made of Dao. Jack used his will to grab and move it, revealing an invisible opening into the void, which he quickly stepped into. He pictured himself arriving a mile in the distance, like Space Walk did.

He appeared only a hundred feet away, wheezing and gasping for energy. He was exhausted. Out of breath. Starving. It felt like every ounce of energy not necessary for his survival had been sucked out of him.

Thankfully, the green moon shone brightly above, and a little bit of energy re-entered his body.

Fuck me, he muttered, still panting heavily. Its so difficult.

The energy expenditure didnt just scale with distance, but also with the cultivators proficiency. A master of space could cross the same distance as Jack with only a fraction of the energy. As proof of that, the System could teleport him one mile away for only around a fourth of his total stamina.

Jack himself moved a hundred feet at the cost of every scrap of energy he possessed.

Plus, the entire process had taken him around ten minutes. The System could do it for him instantly.

It really was a very useful tool.

But it remained a tool. The more aware Jack was of the process, the less he needed the System.

Congratulations! Space Walk I Space Walk II

Space Walk II: Space is a constraint you have learned to escape. By spending a large amount of energy, take a step through the fabric of space to reappear anywhere within a three-mile radius.

Hell yeah! Jack shouted, pumping his fist. The description had remained the same, but the one-mile limitation had been increased to three miles.

On second thought, Jack remembered that, from his experience, the energy requirement of Space Walk didnt change much depending on the distance traveled. Even if he teleported just a few feet, he always spent the energy needed to teleport three miles away. In other words, this upgrade hadnt made the skill easier to use, just increased its range.

Well, whatever, he said with a smile. I earned much more than just a skill upgradeI now understand the basics of the Dao of Space! Maybe the energy adjustment will come at a later tierand, in any case, I will not even need the skill once I grow proficient enough. I will be able to teleport without the Systems assistance, simply by manipulating space. Isnt that awesome, Copy Ja

He paused mid-sentence, noticing that Copy Jacks eyes were closed. He had an expression of utter concentration on his face as his hands reached out, moving in similar patterns to the vampire womanssomething hed copied from Jack himself.

Hey, are you trying to teleport? Jack asked him from a hundred feet away. I applaud the effort, but its

With a pop, Copy Jack stepped into space, disappeared, and reappeared wheezing ten feet behind Jack. Hed traveled a hundred and ten feet.

Jack blinked. Fuck you.

Copy Jack raised a hand to ask for space, then laughed as energy returned to him.

No fair! Jack complained. I spent who knows how long to learn that. Just because youre Fist and space here is Fist, and you benefit from the insights inside my soul, that doesnt make you smarter than me!

Copy Jack just kept laughing and tapping his temple.

Jack rolled his eyes, but he wasnt really mad. He liked Copy Jack; it was part of his soul. If he could easily teleport inside the soul world, that could only benefit Jacksomehow.

Anyway, Jack said, I got to go now. I think Ive spent too long meditating this time, and people will be looking for me. Plus, I could use some rest.

His piled-up exhaustion was finally showing, and it was so intense it made him dizzy. Hed been meditating non-stop fordays? Weeks?

See you, Copy Jack, he said. The copy waved, and Jack reappeared in the real world, where he promptly fell asleep on his cellar floor, snoring soundly.

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