Cui Xuefeng shuffled through his contacts and began the process of dropping out of school. They required a doctor's official sign-off that he'd lost his memories. They also suggested that he only take time off, as opposed to dropping out. He didn't know why anyone would need to go to school when the world was ending. Not to mention the education they had on Earth. Most of it wasn't useful outside of Earth. Maybe for connections?
He reached out to his overseer. He could go to the doctor, but he figured they could take advantage of one another while they were still testing the waters. He could get his doctor's note and they would have an excuse to poke at him. He received a message from his overseer after he put Cui Baozhai to bed. It was a date, time, and room number. He assumed the room number was in the association building. His overseer worked fast.
Cui Xuefeng spent the rest of the night exploring his room and the rest of the house. He may be able to see many things from his mana sense, but it also left out a lot.
For instance, this world had many objects that were not yet mana-saturated. He hadn't been around such objects in a long time. In a way, they were more valuable in that they did not have mana. They were more difficult to sense the purpose of. If he had a bow and arrow made of unsaturated items, he may be able to hit someone who could originally catch a bullet. Of course, this only pertained to the worlds that have already become far used to mana in their daily life.
Pictures could not be looked at with his mana, either. With finesse like his he could get a grasp on the ink on a printed page. He could sense the letters printed in the ink because it was slightly uplifted off the paper. It was even easier if it was written down by hand. Although this takes time and concentration. It would be slower than a normal person's reading speed. However, pictures were different.
He spent a lot of time with the albums. It was more time than he required to look through them. With a quick look, he could memorize a montage. But he was trying to stimulate his memories. He took his time so that he could pick each image apart. A jacket worn in one picture was removed in the next, paired with sweat and the bottles sitting around told him it was a hot day. A gesture or expression showed discomfort. The rare moments of joy and excitement captured right at the moment. How pictures became more sparse as time went on.
They showed a history that may forever be gone from his memories. His mother slowly becoming sickly. An unknown self who becomes withdrawn and obsessed. A shy sister who became frightened and learned to fake a laugh. He absorbed everything.
The picture books took up most of his night. Then he continued picking things up, looking at them, and putting them back into position. He didn't move anything to cater to his liking. He left everything where it was.
It was dawn by the time he'd finished. He tidied up and cooked a meal. Yesterday, they'd agreed that she would return to school today. He promised to take her directly to the gates. She confirmed it numerous times before she finally fell asleep last night. He made sure to discreetly check when she had to be there and how long it took her to get ready.
Cui Baozhai giggled when he kissed her head.
"Go get dressed. Breakfast is finishing up."
"Gege made me food again?" She jumped up to get ready.
He walked her to school. His mother told him that she'd excused her for the last couple of days with the teacher already, so he didn't enter. He just saw her off at the gate. He did a quick sweep of the grounds while he was at it.
"Pick me up, too?"
"Good."
She smiled, "Good luck today, Gege!"
He nodded, "Good."
"Bye-bye!"
He waved at her until her back disappeared into the building. He opened his phone.
Me:07:36:49 [There is a gate in her school. I'm going to check its danger. According to mana: another small realm, lots of water, minimal life signatures, minimal air, acceptable pressure, time speed .4. Will resolve danger if life signatures are singular. Expected return within 1 hour Earth time, or before school lets out if anomalies occur or danger is much higher than presumed. Will close if able.]
He blurred his perception and stood to the side. He waited for school to start. The overseer didn't give a reply. They must be watching his performance. Once fewer students were meandering around he walked around the building. At the west side of the building just outside the wall he stepped into the gutter and bent over. His head was about waist high when he went through.
Water washed over him. His breath would have been pushed out of him if he hadn't prepared ahead of time. He spread out his mana sensing. It was just as he'd sensed. It was a small realm of nearly 3 million cubic kilometers. There didn't seem to be any complex life forms. If there was any land he would see Ediacaran plants. Unfortunately, there was no sea bed bottom here.
He hated such realms. Not because it was desolate--in fact, it was quite beautiful in its simplicity--but because his appearance will affect the natives' evolution, more so than in worlds that already have complex life. Even if he blocked everything else out from his body, there would still be trace amounts of mana left behind. Luckily, he had hundreds of years of practice hiding his traces and keeping them minimal. However, when he blew up the crack traces would seep through. Just having a crack in the realm meant there was already seepage.
Also, those who don't know what they are doing can easily get lost and drown in such places. In this realm, there is no air even if you swim upward all your life. Because there isn't anything above the water. The realm is only in the water, the rest of the world this realm belongs to has been cut off from it.
That also means the life forms floating around inside may starve to death. Or if one of those school kids trips in, they would be lost forever.
Cui Xuefeng wandered around to make sure nothing had camouflaged itself. He found an energy drink can on the tentacle of a jellyfish. A few kilometers of water were slightly different surrounding it. It was the remainder of the dispersed energy drink. He used his mana to filter and condense it. A half-full can was put into his inventory.
He checked the other life forms, but only the one in his hands was injured. He didn't see any signs of change if it drank anything. Even if there were, it may not be noticeable yet. He also found a few other pieces of trash and more contaminated water. It was all cleaned and sent inside his inventory.
There were no dangerous life forms, and he had now cleaned up the realm, so he went back. He was dry when he came out thanks to the water-guarding barrier he'd put up before entry. As he stepped out his ears popped and his bones cracked. He stretched.
There was a car waiting for him. He knew it was for him because the driver had mana and was staring up and down the road near the crack with the engine on.
Cui Xuefeng opened the door and slid in. He removed his presence blurring.
The driver was startled. He stared in the rear-view mirror with shock. One hand was in a chip bag.
"... grabbed one of her bouncing bunnies. Her mouth…" The audiobook continued, clueless to the awkwardness in the car.
Cui Xuefeng kindly reached forward and clicked it off.