CHAPTER 85: A WORLD WAITING TO BE EXPLORED (BONUS CHAPTER)

"Welcome back, sir," Lucy said immediately Liam appeared in the wasteland.

"How are you, Lucy? Are you done with your training?" Liam asked, as he took his seat.

"Yes. I’m done with my training. I also went through reinforced training to integrate both language and knowledge seamlessly," Lucy replied.

"Ohhh... Perfect," Liam smiled, nodding in satisfaction. "Now, show me what you’ve learnt."

He was really impressed that Lucy went out on her way to reinforce her trainings. It shows how fast she’s learning and how badly she wants to be of assistance to him.

Lucy immediately did as Liam said, as she showed off what she had achieved with her knowledge scaffolding training.

***

Hours later, Liam was done with the test and Lucy had already started the next stage of her training.

This stage of the training will build more on her technical and professional knowledge base, and hardens Lucy’s ability to reason technically and factually.

"Now that’s out of the way. Time to allocate those attribute points," Liam said to himself.

System, status.

[Host: Liam Scott]

[Age: 18]

[Lifespan: 220 Years]

[System Level: 2]

[Strength: 37]

[Agility: 36]

[Stamina: 37]

[Attribute Points: 0»»50]

[System Points: 0]

[Skills: Pro-level Vehicular Operation, World-Class Etiquette, World-Class Culinary Arts, Formless Combat Doctrine, Perfect Memory, Universal Linguistics]

[System Function(s): Sign-in, System Store, Dimensional Space]

***

"50 Attribute Points. That’s quite a lot," Liam muttered in a low voice.

He allocated 17 points each to his Strength and Stamina, and 16 to his Agility.

And Liam felt that familiar warm energy. It originated from his chest area as always and spread through his body like tiny streams.

And Liam also felt it more vividly; the increase in his strength. His body felt even stronger than before and he felt that he could really smash through a concrete wall.

This time, it wasn’t an illusionary feeling but there was this strange confidence in his strength.

Not only that but Liam also felt that his body has been even lighter and that with his current Agility stat, he would be able to dodge bullets at any angle.

And he felt his body brimming with what he would call boundless energy. He really felt that he could go for days without resting, and he won’t feel tired one bit.

But he would still need to watch out for mental fatigue.

"All these strength and no way to test it out," Liam sighed, feeling a bit down.

He really wish there was actually a way for him to test out his strength and get an idea of exactly how strong he is, and not base it off the vague feeling he gets each time.

He was thinking of that and he suddenly thought of something, and he felt it was actually a good idea.

Yeah, I can definitely do that. The system said that the Dimensional Space is actually a pocket realm the size of Earth. I can test my strength by exploring the place.

Where he currently stood was the plains and all around him, he could see nothing but endless flat stretches of desert-like ground, dry, and tinted in shades of ochre.

But Liam felt that the reason his sight was filled with this was because the space was massive, and that if he tours the place, he might find mountains, ranges, valleys, cliffs, plateaus and the rest — but barren versions of them.

Since this whole space belongs to him, he might as well tour it. Besides, who knows? He might find some good spots that can be useful in the future.

Also, he doesn’t need to worry about encountering danger as this was a place given to him by the system.

"Ok, then. Off I go," Liam said, as he got up from the chair.

He looked at the ground beneath his feet — the dry, ochre tinted desert-like ground — and he smiled.

I wonder how far the plain stretches?, he thought to himself, as he thought a deep breath, filling his nose with the space’s air.

The air was breathable — thanks to the system — but still, thin and dry. It was almost "sterile" in sensation.

The dim gray-orange skies above him — if that’s what it’s actually is — has no sun or moon, or any visible celestial body. It was just a hazy twilight glow that keeps everything visible but muted.

If Liam hadn’t seen the endless starry void the first time he stepped into the Dimensional Space, he would have thought there was nothing beyond those muted skies.

Liam smiled and took his first step, walking in a random direction. He walked more than a hundred steps first but nothing new came into sight. It was just the same endless stretch of desert.

He realised that walking won’t cut it and he picked up the pace, as he started jogging slowly.

"Let’s see how fast I am with my current Agility stat," Liam said as he broke into a blitzing sprint.

Liam didn’t hold back as he pushed his speed to the limit. And he broke through the thin air with a sharp, hollow whooshing sound as he displaced the air around his body with his movements.

***

Liam shot across the wasteland like a blur, his strides devouring the barren ground beneath him.

At first, he was exhilarated as every muscle sang with boundless energy, every breath came clean and effortless.

His body no longer felt like flesh and bone but like a finely tuned machine, each step hammering the ground with flawless rhythm.

The thin, sterile air hissed past his ears, growing into a rushing roar as his speed built higher and higher.

A hollow whoosh... whoosh... whoosh echoed in the empty plain, the only sound in this silent world.

Dust trailed behind him like ghostly ribbons, rising briefly before falling back into the ochre soil.

"God..." he muttered between strides, a fierce grin splitting his face. "This... this feels incredible!"

Even after running at his full speed for so long, Liam didn’t feel any pain, neither the burning sensation in lungs, or leaden legs. Instead, the more he pushed himself, the lighter he felt.

His body blurred against the wasteland, faster than any race car he had ever seen. If anyone were here to watch, they would swear he was no longer a boy running, but a streak of living lightning.

And yet no matter how much distance he had covered, nothing changed.

The horizon remained stubbornly the same — endless flat ochre ground and the dim gray-orange sky.

Minutes turned into hours in the Dimensional Space, yet Liam saw nothing new.

His Perfect Memory made it worse because he knew he wasn’t imagining things. Every rock, every crack in the dusty plain repeated in an agonizing sameness.

The excitement began to ebb, replaced with a simmering frustration.

"Seriously...?" Liam growled through clenched teeth as he ran, his voice snatched away by the wind of his own speed. "I’ve been going for hours. At this pace, I should’ve crossed New York... and it’s still just wasteland?!"

Still, he didn’t stop. His pride wouldn’t let him. He needed to know if the space truly held variety, or if it was just a cruelly endless sandbox.

So he pushed harder. For another hour, his body tore across the plains, feet pounding with near-sonic force.

Then... something changed.

The monotony ahead flickered, like a mirage. At first, Liam thought his eyes were playing tricks on him. But as the horizon swelled closer, he saw it: a dark line cutting through the wasteland, splitting the ochre flatness like a scar.

A mountain? He slowed slightly, squinting against the glowless sky.

"It’s not... a mountain," he muttered under his breath.

The closer he got, the clearer the shape became. It wasn’t rising upwards, it was sinking downwards.

A vast depression stretched across the land, its edges sloping steeply into a jagged "V."

"A valley," Liam realized, his voice carrying a note of awe.

He finally came to a halt at its entrance. The silence of the space hit him again. It was sudden, absolute and was broken only by the fading echoes of his sprint.

His chest rose and fell, but not from exhaustion. He wasn’t tired in the slightest; it was just the adrenaline simmering through him.

Before him, the valley yawned wide. Its walls were steep, sheer cliffs of cracked ochre stone that plunged into shadow.

Jagged rock formations jutted out like the teeth of some long-dead beast, sharp and menacing.

The floor of the valley was hidden in gloom, the dim orange-gray light unable to pierce fully into its depths. What little he could see was uneven and broken — ridges, boulders, and what might have been dry channels, like rivers that had never known water.

The air here felt... heavier. Still sterile, still breathable, but with a faint edge.

Liam stood there for a long moment, staring into the chasm, and he smiled.

"So there is more to this place," he whispered.

The wasteland had given him his first change of scenery. The plains weren’t endless after all.

And if this valley existed... what else lay hidden in the Dimensional Space?

He felt a thrill stir in his chest. This wasn’t an empty sandbox. Rather, it was a world waiting to be explored.