Epoch of Twilight

The main impact of the lizard was that everyone now tended to avoid looking Luo Yuan in the eye. They were afraid of him, but also respected him. During lunch, Luo Yuan had asked Ning Xiaoran where her hometown was, and she had stood up abruptly and answered anxiously. Luo Yuan had felt strange and he had turned to Huo Dong, the cheerleader among the group. He had also acted weird, which had made Luo Yuan lose any interest in talking to him. In fact, the impact of that incident was actually much greater than Luo Yuan could imagine.

Although the lizard looked quite pitiful with one of its forelimbs severely injured and a big wound on its chest, its giant size still scared everyone away. Even though they were just looking at it from afar, their legs still went numb. They pictured themselves fighting the lizard in their dreams, and most of the time they had nightmares.

Apparently, Luo Yuan was scarier than the lizard, because he was the one who had defeated it. Everyone knew he was the one who had made the wounds on its body, and no one could relax standing beside such a crazy, reckless man.

Up to that point, everyone had thought that Luo Yuan was just strong. They had never seen him fight. They had only ever seen him kill a person. Most of the battles were taken over by Wang Shishi, and many of them actually thought Wang Shishi was more powerful than Luo Yuan. After all, he only killed humans while Wang Shishi killed mutants.

It was a common phenomenon among the women, and they would usually gossip and argue about it. However, the arguments had stopped ever since the lizard had gotten there. Luo Yuan lay down on the deck chair outside after lunch. He had closed his eyes slightly and was enjoying the warm sunshine, feeling a little sleepy. He was still thinking about the issue of Determination and future development.

The system did not provide much information about Determination, except for a few messages. He sensed that Determination would grow stronger in time and even override all the other properties. However, his main concern was that he didn’t know how to develop his Determination power. It was too slow for him to upgrade by using the system as every single level required double the amount of the previous level’s experience value. However, his physical strength could not cope with the growth and slowed down his upgrade.

He was able to fight blue level animals even though he was at Level 6. Up until now he had been powerful enough to fight blue rank animals, even when he had upgraded to Level 7. He had no confidence that he could fight dark blue rank animals though. Self-training seemed to be the only strategy he could try. His Flexibility had to be the most important property in upgrading his Determination. Maybe Sensory Perception would be beneficial to the upgrade too.

He realized that Sensitivity was very important as well as the stronger the Sensitivity, the easier he could defeat mutants. Sometimes, it was difficult for the naked eye to catch the attacks of mutants, and he needed assistance from Sensitivity to make a decision. Of course, Dexterity was also very important as it helped him escape when he could not defeat a mutant. Physique was very important for escaping as it would not work if he was weak. If his energy level was high, it would generate an explosive motion in a short distance.

Luo Yuan felt a slight headache and stopped thinking. All the properties seemed to be important. Basically, he could only neglect Intelligence because he knew it would only be useful in peaceful times. During such a chaotic period, the useful properties would be those able to enhance him or help him fight.

“Damn it! Just forget about it! I better think of how to upgrade my Determination.” Luo Yuan threw away his cigarette and enjoyed his rest, closing his eyes and rocking the deck chair.

The lizard immediately stood up when it saw Luo Yuan fall asleep. It began to wander around the place carefully and run around happily. Not getting any response from Luo Yuan, it started running further and roaring, the animals nearby responding to it. Luo Yuan opened his eyes slightly and looked at the lizard’s strange actions. He guessed that it was trying to mark its territory.

The roars lasted for almost half an hour before they stopped. The smaller mutants in the district were in trouble as the starved lizard began to hunt for food. Even though one of its legs was gone, that did not affect its hunting abilities. In ancient times, when a dinosaur got injured on the legs, it could only wait for death. However, that was not the case with those mutants as there were huge differences created by the biological evolution of the living organisms.

Besides, there were only white level animals in the districts, which was two levels lower than the lizard. Most of the weaker mutants had already fallen to the ground when they saw the lizard heading their way. Even if they wanted to escape, they would just simply run without direction and crush into rocks.

The lizard was not fussy about food as it has been starved for quite a while. Basically, it stuffed everything it saw into its mouth, even the poisonous animals. It spent about two hours filling its stomach until its tummy looked like a big ball.

That was the advantage of claiming a territory. Basically, it did not need to worry about food or the risk of food hunting. The self-defense concept of herbivores did not apply to carnivores. A pride of lions only hunted on their specific territory. If another male lion happened to pass by, then it had to expect a battle and get ready for it.

The giant lizard was so bloated, its wound had cracked open again. Blood was dripping down from the wound but the lizard did not seem to care. It lay down in the bushes near the villa and began to snore. Both the beast and its master relaxed till the evening. Luo Yuan had not managed to figure out anything, even though he had spent the whole afternoon thinking about it. Determination was the evolution of spirit, so it would be useless if he used the wrong method.

Later that night, Luo Yuan told the girls about his concern. He actually thought Huang Jiahui would not have any good ideas, but he was wrong. She easily solved his problem by saying, "It’s easy, just do something you’re not willing to do. For example, quit smoking!”

She was actually joking, she did not think Luo Yuan would really do that. She knew quitting smoking was really tough for men as her father still had not managed to quit, even though her mother had been arguing with him about it for more than 10 years.

Luo Yuan nodded seriously, surprising her. He said, “Anything else?”

“Take a cold shower during winter!” Wang Shishi joined their conversation.

"Not a good idea," Luo Yuan said. A cold shower was not challenging enough, and therefore could not train his Determination. Besides, winter those days was a lot like summer.

“Give up alcohol?” Wang Shishi asked.

“Have you ever even seen me drink?” Luo Yuan laughed.

“No. Oh! How about quitting sex?” Wang Shishi suddenly said.

The room became silent. Luo Yuan felt Huang Jiahui secretly pinch his arm and quickly said, "That’s a necessity, next!"

"Watch a horror movie in the dark!" Wang Shishi said excitedly. She liked to watch horror movies, but she always covered her eyes until the end of the movie once she heard a weird sound.

“Fear!” Luo Yuan whispered to himself, feeling inspired. Wang Shishi had unknowingly given him a hint. Determination was the action or ability to overcome fear, to do something one was not willing or brave enough to do. Fighting one’s fears could upgrade Determination faster than quitting smoking which would take a long period of time.

“What’s wrong? You’re acting a bit strange,” Huang Jiahui said doubtfully. She thought Luo Yuan was acting weird, which made her feel insecure.

“I’m fine, don’t think too much.” Luo Yuan thought it would be good for both of them to understand the importance of Determination so he said, “I just realized that Determination is something magical. It can help make things come true.”

Luo Yuan looked at the confused expression on Huang Jiahui’s face and said jokingly, “For example, if I want the room to be bright, there will be light!”

“You ain’t God, stop joking and go to sleep.” Huang Jiahui could not take it anymore.

“Brother Luo is going to be God!” Wang Shishi shouted, kicking the blanket on the bed.

“Fine, but don’t be shocked later.” Luo Yuan was a little mad. He took a deep breath and calmed himself instantly. Then he focused his attention and released a volume of energy strong enough to move all the objects in the room.

Huang Jiahui and Wang Shishi were stunned. They could not believe what they were seeing.

They heard Luo Yuan talking loudly to his energy.

“I said, I want light!”

The last word was still lingering in the air when a bright light appeared in the dark and slowly lightened up every single corner of the room. It looked as bright as during daytime.

Huang Jiahui and Wang Shishi found it unbelievable. The scene felt similar to the arrival of God. The brightness lasted for about 30 seconds until Luo Yuan had consumed half his Determination. Then it slowly became darker until it eventually faded away.

The room was silent. After a while, Huang Jiahui asked, “It was some kind of magic trick, right? Where are the props?”

“Brother Luo, was it just magic?” Wang Shishi had thought it was real and felt slightly disappointed.

Luo Yuan had been shocked by his power as well. He had not expected the light to appear. Although it had only lasted for 30 seconds and had not damaged anything in the room, it had amazed him more than the time he had seen the Zhanmadao shine.

“Let me check it out and find the props.” Wang Shishi thought he had admitted to it being a trick as he had not said anything to contradict them. She took his phone to use the flashlight and jumped down from the bed to search.

“Shishi, you don’t need to search, you won’t find anything. It was the power of Determination!” Luo Yuan stopped her as he recovered from the shock. Then he stretched out his finger and drew in the air. There was a small light on his fingertip, getting brighter and brighter until it formed a ball of light.

Huang Jiahui extended her hand idly and tried to touch the light unconsciously, as if she wanted to feel it. “How come I can’t feel the warmth?”

“Oh, you want some heat? That can be arranged.” Luo Yuan said, doing his best to maintain the calmness inside his soul.

She had just finished her words when she felt the light heat up. The temperature rose rapidly until flames appeared on the surface of the light ball. Even though she did not have any direct contact, she could still feel the heat. What amazed her was that Luo Yuan was not affected by it at all. He still looked perfectly calm. Huang Jiahui did not notice the thin layer of Determination preventing the heat from hurting her.