Rain ended his meditation, feeling the last remnants of the blocks in his genetic energy finally dissolve. He stood up swiftly, his gaze drawn to the night sky where the eerie red moon bathed the landscape in an ominous glow. The atmosphere felt thick with tension, yet unsettlingly calm. He walked to the edge of the tower and scanned the surroundings carefully.
Below, the wolves were still gathered on the left side, resting while feasting on sheep carcasses they had dragged in. At the door of the building, Rain spotted Lily and another woman from Helen's team, standing vigilant on guard. Though the immediate danger seemed to have lessened, the looming threat was still palpable in the air.
Rain's thoughts raced. 'This has turned into a waiting game,' he realized. 'Whoever can hold out the longest will win.' He suspected that the Alpha wolf had caught on to their strategy of wearing down the pack, which explained the sudden halt in its attacks. 'The wolf is smarter than I thought,' he mused. It was said that as Radiation Beasts advance in rank, their intelligence grows alongside their power. The C-rank wolf wasn't just a brute; it was calculating.
Rain understood that outsmarting such a cunning adversary would require more than just brute strength. The battle had shifted; it was now a test of endurance, strategy, and timing.
His thoughts turned to Helen. If she hadn't broken through into the True Body Realm, their situation would have been far more precarious. Her advancement had significantly improved their chances of surviving this ordeal. Without her breakthrough, many would likely have been sacrificed before Sky could even attempt to defeat the C-rank wolf. Despite this, the danger still loomed large. As time passed, the domain strengthened the wolves. If one of them broke through to C-rank before they could act, their chances of survival would vanish entirely. The clock was ticking, and they couldn't afford to wait much longer.
Rain's thoughts turned inward as he considered his options. Although he had successfully dissolved the three blocks in his genetic energy, his control was still lacking. He knew that Sky and Helen wouldn't allow him to participate in the upcoming battle with his current strength if it is not necessary, but the desire to contribute meaningfully burned within him. He needed to find a way to increase his strength, and quickly.
There were two paths before him: one was to break through to Middle D-rank, but he quickly dismissed that idea as impossible in such a short time. He realized that after dissolving the three blocks, he hadn't checked the refinement level of his genetic energy. He sent a query to the BIT for an update, and the response came swiftly—0.053.
Rain quickly did the math. At this rate, it would take him 188 days to reach 10% refinement, assuming he could remove four blocks each day. Six months would be enough to reach Middle D-rank, but that timeline was far too long for their current situation. Time was a luxury they didn't have, and Rain needed a solution to increase his strength in a matter of hours—not days or months. The other potential path to boost his power quickly was learning to integrate poison energy with his genetic energy during attacks. But that, too, seemed nearly impossible to achieve in such a short time. Comprehending poison energy was difficult, especially since he hadn't purchased a poison stone, which would have made the process easier. There was a method explained in the beginning chapters of the *Poison Claw Technique*, but even after reading it, Rain hadn't fully understood how to apply it. He had glossed over the details back then, not paying much attention, and now he regretted it.
Frustration gnawed at him. He felt the pressure mounting, knowing that there had to be another way—some angle he hadn't considered yet. His mind raced as he desperately searched for any technique or method that could help him grow stronger in this narrow window of time.
But what?
Time was running out, and the fate of his team—and possibly his own life—hung in the balance. The ticking clock reminded him that every moment spent in frustration was one less chance to change the outcome.
Unable to decide what to do in his frustration, Rain sat down to meditate, hoping to clear his mind. He entered his soul space, letting his thoughts drift as he searched for any path that might enhance his power quickly. Aimlessly, he let his soul power flow outward of his soul space, spreading into the vast black void of his soul space.
Then, something strange happened.
Rain sensed something new—an unfamiliar presence floating above his soul space, like a delicate bubble suspended in the void. It hadn't been there before, or at least he hadn't noticed it. Curious and intrigued, Rain focused his attention on it, unsure of what it might be or what it meant.Yet, he couldn't shake the feeling that this discovery was important.
As Rain extended his soul power toward the floating bubble, he attempted to probe what it was and what might be inside. But he was blocked, unable to penetrate its surface. Undeterred, he surrounded the bubble with his soul power, feeling for any possible entry point. After some time, he noticed a soft light emitting from within the bubble. Intrigued, he followed the light, tracing its path as it led him back into his soul space.
When his soul power finally touched the light, a faint ticking sound echoed in his mind—like the ticking of a clock. In that instant, Rain realized what this was. It was his dream space.
The dream space had always hovered above his soul space, hidden in the vast black void, but until now, Rain had been unable to perceive it. Constructing the clock must have strengthened their connection, making the dream space both visible and accessible to him. With newfound clarity, he allowed his soul power to envelop the dream space bubble, feeling its delicate, ethereal essence as he pulled it toward him, intent on merging it with his soul space.
Rain knew that dreams were deeply tied to the soul, and the fact that his dream space existed in the same void as his soul space made perfect sense. As he continued to pull, he watched the dream space draw nearer, slowly but steadily closing the distance between them. With each passing moment, it inched closer, the connection between the two becoming more palpable. Now, just one final pull would merge the dream space with his soul space. Rain gathered his resolve and pulled the dream space closer once more. He waited, expecting something profound to happen, but instead, he watched as the dream space and his soul space began to overlap. The sensation was strange and unsettling, as if two parts of his very being were colliding.
Suddenly, without warning, his consciousness slipped away. In the fleeting moment before everything went dark, a single, chilling thought crossed his mind—'I might have caused my own death.'
The sound of howling wolves broke through his sleep. Rain tossed and turned, covering his ears with his hands, muttering, "Who's making such noise in the morning?" Then, in an instant, reality came rushing back to him. He sat up abruptly, remembering where he was, and hurried to the edge of the tower. Looking down, he saw the wolves, howling and staring toward the building. Relief washed over him as he noticed Damian and Lily guarding the door, still holding the line.
Rain sighed, relieved yet disappointed. He had initially thought the battle had resumed while he slept, worried that he'd miss it even if he couldn't fight. That lingering thought about *sleeping* spurred him to sit down quickly and meditate, re-entering his soul space. As he explored his soul space, nothing appeared drastically different—except that the dream space had disappeared, leaving the soul space feeling complete. The clock from his dream space, however, had now fully integrated into his soul space.
Curious about whether merging the dream space with his soul space had altered his unique abilities, Rain decided to test both. First, he summoned his copy. It appeared just as it had before, identical in form and function, reassuring him that the first ability remained intact.
Next, to test his second ability, Rain glanced at the clock in his soul space, then left, counting a full sixty seconds. When he re-entered his soul space, only a minute and few seconds had passed. The extra time he once enjoyed in his dream space was gone, confirming his suspicion.
He had retained his ability to summon the copy, but the loss of the time advantage weighed heavily on him. That extra time had been invaluable, and its absence felt like a setback.
A pang of sadness struck him as he contemplated the loss. The extra time in his dream space had given him an edge, one he could no longer rely on. He looked up at the sky, still cloaked in the eerie red light of the moon, unchanged by the battle. The sky wouldn't shift back until the C-rank wolf was killed. As Rain thought about time, an answer suddenly popped into his mind—'4:05.'
Rain was puzzled—he hadn't asked the BIT for the time, yet the answer had come to him. He remembered the clock in his soul space and realized the time was the same. To confirm, he thought again, *What time is it?* Once more, the answer came: *4:05.* It was undeniable now—the clock in his soul space was feeding him the time, without any input from the BIT.
Intrigued by this new ability, he focused on the heightened perception he experienced when inside his soul space. To his surprise, he found that he could now control this perception without fully entering his soul space. Emboldened, Rain attempted to extend his perception beyond his body, curious to see how far it could go.
As his awareness stretched outward, he suddenly felt a chilling whisper and prayers he cannot understand what it is saying, be he somehow he understood the meaning urging him to believe in the power of the red moon. The voice promised that through belief, he could gain more strength. Alarmed by the eerie suggestion, Rain swiftly pulled his perception back, remembering that they were still inside a strange, dangerous domain. Whatever influence lay within this realm, it was trying to manipulate him. He couldn't allow it to take hold.
Rain sighed in relief, reminding himself to stay vigilant. The domain's power was pervasive, and any lapse in focus could have devastating consequences. Now, he had to focus on finding a way to quickly increase his strength, both for the immediate battle and for the future.
He realized that his connection to his soul space had strengthened—previously, he needed to pass through a spiritual gate to access it. But now, with just a thought, he could enter his soul space, and even more, he could use its abilities without fully immersing himself in it. His soul power had grown, and this could be the key to unlocking more strength.
Laying down on the tower floor, gazing at the eerie red moon, Rain's mind raced with ideas. He thought about how to use his soul space to help him grow stronger. His thoughts drifted to the stories from his previous life, where protagonists possessed advanced chips that accelerated their growth. In this world, there was already chip technology, and he, too, had one—the BIT.
Could he create something similar within his soul space? He began to imagine how the clock in his soul space could be transformed, evolving into a tool that could analyze, calculate, and guide him in refining his genetic energy more efficiently, similar to the chips in those stories. If he could replicate that concept using his soul space's power, it could provide him the rapid advancement he needed.
The idea sparked hope within him. He sat up, determined to work on this potential solution. This might be his way forward—the fusion of his soul space's abilities with his knowledge of technology. With that, Rain knew he had found a path worth pursuing.