Fortunately, this torture didn’t continue forever. When the last memory from his brain was copied and distilled, the small holographic figure in his mind finally opened its eyes. This signified that he had become aware of his ego.
His ego is his identity and it is what drives him. Now that he knows this, the illusion can’t bind him anymore. So the illusion of his memories then broke apart.
What appeared before him after he escaped the illusion of his memories was a world of darkness. Everything was dark and empty around him. But there was a bright screen in front of him that was showing the world beyond the darkness.
When he looked through this screen, he saw his hands. They felt attached to his body, and he could control them, but they looked very far away from him when looking at them through the screen.
In the physical world, he was moving his hands around and looking at them. He was looking at his hands in wonder and awe. This was because his hands had become strangers to him.
It wasn’t only his hand that had become strange. His whole body had also become unfamiliar to him. The real him was in a world of darkness and was controlling what appeared to be a set of tools to do things for him in the physical world.
These changes were far more than physical. They were mostly psychological. The way he sees himself and what he identifies as a part of himself has changed now.
But he wasn’t afraid of these sudden changes. This is because, from now on, he will know who he is regardless of the changes to his body.
As memories of his past settled and collapsed into a single truth, he saw himself in his past life always struggling day and night in the rat race called life. He was a wage slave working harder than most people, but still too close to financial ruin if he so much as lost his job for a few months.
Life had been set for him. He was to finish college, get a job, work there for half of his life, have a family, have kids, retire, and die. He was not satisfied with this.
Even then, as a lowly wheel in the machine of life, he yearned for more. He believed that there had to be more to life than working 9 to 5. But his hopes and aspirations were cut short when he died young.
Then he was reborn in this world as a slave. He was told right from when he was a baby that his purpose in life was to serve the Rein Family. He was told that his destiny was to live and die at the whims of his masters.
Such a life was even more unacceptable for him. He didn’t want to live a life that was poorer than his previous one, and he didn’t want the matter of his life and death to be decided by another person.
He wanted far more than slavery could ever offer him. The unfulfilled yearning of his past life was added to his aspirations for this life to create a greater yearning. That yearning has now combined with everything he has done and achieved so far to create a single truth of who he is.
So understanding dawned on him, and he said, "So that’s how it is. I aspire to greatness. I fight for total freedom. I want to be carefree."
"I want to be free and I want to be happy. I despise rules and I want to be able to do whatever I want. This is because I am Loki the unshackled."
The tiny man in his Mind Palace shone with light that illuminated his mind and dispersed any darkness and uncertainty about who he is and who he aims to become.
So his voice was full of confidence as he stood up and said, "I am Loki the unshackled. I will be free to feel what I want, like what I want, and what I want. Not even the cycle of life and death will be able to stop me. That is my destiny."
This declaration eliminated the slight disconnection between his body and mind. Instructions from his mind began to flow freely to and from his body. It made him feel whole and completely.
This realization made him say in awe, "So this is what is meant when it is said that we are a culmination of our experience. We are not our physical appearance at all."
"In fact, it can be said that we are trapped in the body. The body is just a vessel that we pilot."
"In the past, I could never pinpoint where my consciousness was in my body. But now I know where it is without a doubt. What a novel experience."
As he said this, he pushed his internal energy into his Mind Palace. All of the energy that he sent to the Mind Palace went into the tiny holographic figure. So much energy caused it to expand in size.
But as the tiny holographic figure expanded, his body began to rise from the ground. He hadn’t become lighter, though. He was levitating because something was pulling him up.
The more energy that he pushed into that tiny figure, the higher he rose into the air. It was as if he had a hot air balloon in his head. By blowing hot air into the balloon, he can fly.
His eyes lit up with understanding, and he said, "So this is how rank 4 cultivators fly. How interesting. It is as if I am a puffer fish."
"But how does it work? Is my mind interfering with gravity somehow, or is it just bending space around me?"
"All of that energy that I am consuming to fly surely must be doing something, right? It must be producing some kind of force. But what force is it?"
He continued to test this ability and realized that he could control how fast he could fly and what direction to fly through the movements of the tiny figure in his mind.
Or it could be said that the tiny figure is his mind. So just like he is piloting his body through his mind, he can also control how to fly with just a thought.
He tested the flying for a while, but the limited space in the room limited how far he could take this newfound ability. So he decided to go outside and test it more.
He immediately went outside after making this decision. Then he soared into the air.
He was wearing his armor, but he wasn’t using it to fly at all. Everything was done with a single thought. The ability to fly felt more like he had an organ within his head that he could control and use to give himself uplift.
The only problem was that the speed of flying was slower than the speed of using his body to run. It wasn’t a big problem since being able to fly is still way better than not being able to fly.
After flying around for nearly 30 minutes, he decided that he wanted more. To be specific, he wanted more action, and he wanted to see how well the flying ability would fare in a fight.
So sent a message to Amelia, saying, "I am ready."
Then he took a look at his stats through the Power Identification Ability.
Age: 34 Years 4 Months /77 Years 9 Months.
Race: Human
Energy Quantity: 184,320 × 5 = 921,600 >> 368,640 × 5 = 1,843,200
Energy Density: (12)(12)(12)(12)(12) >> (13)(13)(13)(13)(13)
Energy Rank: 3 >> 4.
Energy Threads: 90 + 90 + 90 + 90 + 90 = 450
Body: 4
Soul: 3.0
Mind: 3.0
Will: 5(60%) >> 5(90%)
Skill: 250% >> 301%.
CORE METAC:
1. Fenrir (Divine): Power Identification. Tracking. Seal. Devouring. Siphon. Shifting Armor (Life Ability).
2. Rewind. Sword Heart. Telepathy. Telekinesis. Reversal.
This sight made him whistle and say, "Eleven years of my life have gone by just to advance to rank 4. I hope I won’t have to spend so much time advancing to rank 5."
Then he clenched his hands and felt the strength in them. The strength he felt made him say, "I can’t believe that I am a middle-aged man now. I don’t feel it at all. I feel stronger than ever."
"It is probably because of the enhancement of the Dao Status. Or maybe the fact that my body is metallic bears the credit for why I am not slowing down with age."
After admiring his body, he looked at his stats again and said, "Right now, I have less than 43 years in this lifetime to become a divine being. If I spend another 11 years advancing to rank 5, that will mean I will only have 32 years to become a divine being. Can I make it in that time?"
In response to his question, he shook his head and said, "I don’t know. But I know that my Dao Heart will definitely reach rank 6 before I reach the end of my lifespan. When that happens, there will surely be pleasant changes."