Healing System

"I'm not giving up my balls."

The old man facepalmed. "You just hear what you want to hear, is that right?"

Michael shrugged. "It seemed too tense. Plus, you're the one who's joking."

"I'm not joking," the old man affirmed. "In order to achieve a permanent solution, you'd need to give up soup. I know it might be difficult, but it's not impossible."

"You're really not kidding?" Michael's brows twitched. "You do realize how ridiculous this sounds? Soup? Why the fuck is soup a prerequisite to me gaining full control over my body?"

"You'd be surprised," the old man chuckled. "Soup's more than just soup in your case. It's tied to the corruption inside you."

Michael stared at him like he'd grown a second head. "So you're telling me some cursed chicken broth is messing with my life?"

"Not just chicken. All kinds. The ingredients react with the residue left from your last awakening. It's subtle, but it builds up."

Michael leaned back, arms crossed. "So what's next? I give up sandwiches too?"

"Only if they're soaked in soup."

Michael snorted. "You're serious about this."

"As serious as I can be."

Michael rubbed his temples. "Fine. No soup. But if I start seeing hallucinations of floating bowls begging me to take a sip, I'm blaming you."

"I'll take that risk," the old man said with a smirk. "Now get out of my shop, I have business to attend to."

Michael raised a brow and glanced around the empty shop. "You sure?"

The old man didn't even reply as he simply got back to knitting.

Therefore, Michael took his chance to get out of this strange place.

The city was still as lively as ever, or at least, that's what it seemed like from over here. After all, that Gala thingy was going.

People were dancing with each other, each one with massive smiles on their faces.

In the distance, he could see several carriages being ridden by people dressed in ridiculous clothing. From what Michael remembered, those types of uniforms usually meant they were nobles.

A noble hierarchy in this day and age? Damn, Michael thought, whistling.

Since his party was out elsewhere, Michael had no choice but to go about his day solo.

Therefore, he walked out of the alleyway and onto the bustling streets.

The moment he did, he was almost hit by a carriage that practically flew past him.

Yet as he got a better glance at it, he realized the carriage looked like some sort of red dragon.

In fact, there were a couple dozen more carriages just like that scattered all around the city.

Despite their great speed, not a single person was hit.

Hmm... this is pretty interesting. It reminds me of some of the festivals I had seen on Earth. But it's been a while since then... Michael thought with a warm smile.

Thinking of home made him realize how close he actually was to it.

With his chaos, he could teleport over there. It was just slightly weaker than the God core, and if he were to combine the two, then Michael felt like he'd be unstoppable.

Or that was the initial idea. But he wanted to wait for a bit longer, as he had all the time in the world.

In fact, Kevin and Elizabeth were off somewhere as well, and he felt like they were in danger.

So one of the things on his agenda was to find them.

But that comes later... Michael trailed off, spotting a hotdog stand.

And like the eager person he was, he immediately dashed toward it, summoned some fake ores, and bought two hotdogs.

This time, he had given the hotdog merchant some gold bar he made. It had temporary effects, or so it seemed.

Yet the more Michael stared at it from a distance, the realer it felt.

Therefore, Michael furrowed his brows, downed the two hotdogs, and decided to try something out.

That certain something was none other than making another gold bar.

It took him only a few moments, and as the gold bar appeared in his hands, he inspected it.

It didn't take him long to figure out that what he was holding was an actual gold bar now, almost as if he manifested it into existence.

Alchemy...? Is this the Chaos affinity's doing? Michael pondered with an excited look.

By complete accident, he had figured out there were many other possibilities he could do with his new affinity.

But it was still a bit weird since it didn't feel that much different from Light, Darkness, or Origin.

If anything, it felt closest to Origin, just a bit purer.

Nonetheless, he had no time to debate his metallurgy skills as he headed for the next stand.

This time, it was a burger stand, which he bought with some gold.

Then right after, a chicken stand, ice cream stand, bacon stand. Any kind of stand he could find.

And within the hour, Michael realized he had given out nearly a ton of gold.

Granted, he wasn't losing anything. But it seemed like he might accidentally crash the economy of this place.

Not that I give a shit though, Michael snickered, strolling through the streets.

After a couple more minutes, he arrived at one end of this so-called Gala, and just as he thought to turn around and retry every single cuisine, he suddenly heard a muffled scream in the alleyway beside him.

Michael sighed. He wasn't really surprised that someone would be attempting to assault somebody during a crowded festival like this.

Nonetheless, since he was right here, he would step in and help.

Michael took a deep breath, and in the next moment vanished, reappearing right at the source of the scream.

And to his utter shock, no one was being assaulted.

Well... not really.

"Who's a bad boy?" a woman said, whipping some fat man below her feet.

"I-I... huh? Who's that?" the man suddenly shot up, looking at Michael with a shocked gaze.

All the while, Michael was stunned.

Who the fuck does BDSM in an alleyway?

"Don't mind me. I didn't see anything. In fact, I'm blind and deaf," Michael said as he promptly turned around and was prepared to leave.

Yet before he could even take a step, the fat man placed a hand over Michael's shoulder, causing him to halt in place.

"N-Now now... why don't we have a little chat?" the man muttered, turning to the woman. "Whip him too!"

Michael sighed. He simply sent a wave of mana coursing through his body, and then into the fat man's body.

Immediately, the man took his hand off and started morphing into a completely different being.

Or so it seemed. But in reality, Michael merely burned the fat man's calories with his chaos. And just his calories, so nothing should've gone wrong.

Therefore, after just a few more seconds, the man reopened his eyes.

His body was just as skinny and toned as Michael's. But of course, his face was still ugly.

However, the woman in the black get-up and whip didn't pay attention to his face. Instead, her gaze traveled down to his body as she licked her lips.

"You've leveled up, Simon."

"Sophia..."

I'm getting the fuck out of here, Michael decided, and while their attention was drawn to their own horniness, Michael simply dashed away, reappearing on the street.

And of course, the same screams from earlier resounded again.

Fucking weirdos, Michael thought with a chuckle as he proceeded to walk down the street again.

He tried the same food, and even some new foods he had missed earlier.

Nonetheless, it was boring, but at the same time, it was sort of fun.

He hadn't had many chances to go out and do nothing like this, so it just felt liberating.

At the same time, he was growing stronger, and he could feel it.

The Chaos affinity seemed to absorb the mana from the air passively. In that sense, so long as he was next to people, he'd be able to grow considerably stronger with each passing moment.

Or, if he fought a lot, trained a lot as well. It would just swing by faster.

However, Michael had also realized something.

Do I really need to become a god to beat the other gods?

So far, he had jumped up from Tier 3 to Tier 18 in less than a week. It was unheard of, and he was basically one of the strongest beings in his universe.

Then again, there were multiple other universes, and if he had to guess, people were much stronger there than they were here.

It was safe to assume that as long as he found more shortcuts, he would be able to simply beat the gods with sheer power alone.

Michael whistled as he looked at the sky that had gotten darker.

But then he looked at what was in his hands.

Soup.

He had forgotten that he wasn't allowed to eat it now.

Eh... well shit. Michael chuckled and tossed it away before glancing off in the distance.

There were more people in alleyways, and unlike the last group, these people weren't playing BDSM.

Therefore, with steady steps, Michael decided to help them out.