The five of them set off to find a way into the museum. It was still raining, which didn't make their journey any easier. Paul's plan was to get inside without much effort. He didn't care if the museum's alarm went off because in a few minutes, chaos would be spreading throughout the city, and no one would worry about a break-in.
He found a window on the first floor and broke it with the flashlight he had brought with him.
"Whoa, are we really doing this? Have you thought this through, Paul?" Hannes asked, shocked by his brother's behavior.
"Yes, and you will all soon understand that what I'm doing here is for all our best interests," Paul replied with a determined voice.
"Max and Justin, you stay here and make sure no one comes in. Don't mess around, and if you notice anything strange, come in and find me or the others, but don't do anything stupid!"
"Thore, you'll stay inside by the window and make sure those two don't mess around. If anything happens, call me!"
"No problem," Thore replied, still confused by everything that had happened but focused on his task.
"Hannes, you look for the alarm system. If you can't find anything, come back to Thore. We'll meet back at this window in 20 minutes, and all of you, don't mess around!"
Paul gave everyone a task, not because he essentially needed their help, but to keep them busy and away from unnecessary danger.
Once everything was settled, Paul went off to find what he had come for.
He suspected that the artifact he was looking for was probably a kind of genie in a bottle or something similar, as that seemed the most plausible to him. The artifact should also be noticeable, as the guard in his last life must have found it for a reason.
So, a young boy was seen running through the museum halls, looking for a genie in a bottle that, if what [the Judge] said was true, would grant him three wishes.
After a few minutes of seemingly pointless running, just as Paul began to have slight doubts, it appeared.
Unassuming, yet noticeable, it stood there: a wish lamp. It had an entire room to itself and stood in the middle of the room on a waist-high stone pedestal. The pedestal had a golden plaque with the inscription "Aladdin's Wish Lamp."
"That's it, without a doubt," Paul thought. How he knew, he didn't know himself. He just had a feeling, one he could hardly describe. Excitement and respect were probably the closest feelings.
Paul couldn't shake the feeling of wanting to touch the wish lamp. As if drawn to it, he stepped closer and closer until his hand finally touched the lamp.
As if by magic, the world around Paul changed. He was no longer in the dark, large museum room but in a completely white space, where it seemed neither width nor length mattered, and as if the room had no beginning or end. The only thing that existed with him in the room was a figure. At first glance, one would think it was a giant, as this figure was at least 4 meters tall.
"I am the genie of the lamp 'Dschinni' and I can grant you 3 wishes. The rules are simple:
1. I can't kill anyone for you,
2. I can't bring anyone back to life, and lastly,
3. You can't wish for more wishes," the Dschinni said in a calm and somewhat high-pitched voice, not quite matching his appearance.
The first thing Paul had to ask was: "Can I write my wishes on a piece of paper and then wish for everything on that paper to come true?" Paul had wondered about this since he first heard the story of Aladdin.
"No, that falls under the third rule. It's almost the same!" the genie replied with a seemingly annoyed voice. But deep down, the genie was relieved that the human in front of him had asked first instead of making the wish, as he knew he would have had to fulfill it otherwise.
"Okay, now that that's cleared up, what do you wish for, human child?"
Paul came prepared. He had thought everything through and came to the following conclusion:
"My first wish is to have the best cultivation method that exists or has existed at some point"
"Your wish is my command, nothing easier than that."
"Okay, and my second wish is to have the best cultivation talent possible. If there was a best, then mine should be twice or even four times as good."
"Yes, we can do that too," the genie replied, now a bit more worried, as this combination alone could eventually make this human equal to the gods, if not surpass them. This boy was wishing for better talent than the best that existed.
"Good, and my third wish is to have my own system, where I can level up, have an inventory to store items of all kinds, and I want to be able to exchange money for system points, with which I can buy everything no matter what, be it attribute points or just items. The prices should be cheap, and there should be no limits to the items I can buy. And if the item doesn't exist yet, it should be created by the system. Then it should also..."
Paul gave the genie instructions and more instructions on how his system should look until he finally finished after an hour and a half. The genie replied:
"Even though those are many requirements, I have remembered all of them even if they are a little absurd. So yes, your wish is my command. Now you just need to receive your wishes, and your body will be slightly altered. It will only pinch a little, so don't be alarmed," the genie said with an amused look on his face. 'That's for making me listen to your chatter for an hour and a half,' the genie thought.
Paul didn't think much of the genie's words. A moment later, however, he knew what he was talking about and why he was grinning so nastily. An indescribable pain overcame him. His whole body screamed in pain. His heart, his head, his chest, everything felt like it was being crushed, healed, and then crushed again, hundreds of times and Paul was screaming like a little Girl.
10 minutes later, the pain suddenly stopped, as if nothing had happened.
'That was a terribly strange feeling,' Paul thought.
"You call that a little pinch? That felt more like a hellish punishment," Paul shouted at the genie, visibly not amused by the joke the genie had played.
"Those were your wishes, human. And now go, I want to finally have my peace!" the genie shouted with his still too high-pitched voice for his appearance.
With this sentence from the genie, the surroundings around Paul changed again, and he was back in the museum room with his hand on the wish lamp.
"So he really told the truth," Paul said, relieved that he had done the first and by far the most important phase to overcome this apocalypse