Playing Waterbending (Avatar: Last Aibender SI)

After a long nap, I woke up and reviewed some mathematical calculations I had done the previous day, just to make sure my brain was functioning normally.

Thankfully, it was still fine.

I knew I'd be in an awkward situation when I eventually met Toph and Katara, but since it seemed to be normal in this reality, you know what they say: "When in Rome, do as the Romans do." When you're in Alabama... well, I'm not sure. I just know the memes.

Anyway, back to my romantic life. There was nothing I could do about it now. Just accept it and move on.

I decided to focus on what I could control and not waste time thinking about things beyond my control.

So, I continued grinding, accumulating experience points and leveling up what I could.

I concentrated on reading fiction and wisdom books that didn't teach specific skills, occasionally reading up on medicine.

I had to say that learning how to read quickly came in handy.

I didn't need to reread books over and over to memorize them. Simply finishing a book would grant me experience points, which was enough for me. And if the book was related to a skill, I would instantly master its content.

This library was a cheat code.

After about six hours, I had gained around a hundred thousand experience points, purely through accumulation.

I knew this was a bit broken, but I wasn't complaining.

It might be slower than hunting beasts, but it was more consistent, especially considering the endless number of books here.

"I guess I should figure out how to come back here…" I muttered to myself.

A figure approached me.

It was Wang.

He asked if I had a minute—or a few hours—to spare, and I agreed to exchange knowledge.

He led me to a table, handed me a pen and paper, and asked me if I had any extra knowledge to share.

I tried to talk to him about basic arithmetic, to which he replied that he already knew it. That's when I knew I had to level up my game.

So, I asked him if he knew how to sum the numbers between 1 and 9999. He said it was possible, but it would take a long time, and there was a high chance of making an error because of the process's length.

I then showed him a modern method and gave him the result instantly.

He doubted me, so he had to count himself. I must say, his face was priceless when he filled a dozen pages and got the same result I did. He even rechecked it. When I explained the logic behind the method, he gladly accepted it.

'I guess all those all-nighters I pulled in my previous life weren't a waste. Man, to this day, I'm still wondering what use imaginary numbers have,' I thought. But the answer was obvious. 'Nothing. The only thing that matters in this world is power, and that's the end of the story.'

After talking more with Wang, he left me to continue my studies, gladly.

I had asked him for some food, for me and the girls. So, he sent some of his foxes to the spirit world to grab us something to eat.

Afterward, we were called to a large hall.

We sat there, the three of us, with foxes serving food.

"They're cute," Katara commented, looking at one of the foxes. "I want to pet him."

"They're intelligent creatures. They may take offense to that," I advised, speaking as casually as possible while pretending not to have overheard any private conversation.

The fox went to Katara and let her pet him.

Then, the fox moved away.

I extended my hand toward it, trying to pet it.

But it barked at my hand and threatened to bite it.

Katara covered her mouth with her hand and giggled.

"I guess you're more of an owl person," she said.

"Well, at least I can pet someone," I replied, extending my hand toward Toph, who was sitting next to me. The table wasn't large, so we weren't far apart. I also wanted to test the waters—see if they were serious about their last conversation, or if I had misheard something.

Toph, short enough that her legs didn't touch the ground, didn't have her extra senses activated. My patting her on the head caught her by surprise. She blinked, her cheeks turned a bit red.

"Woah…" she yelped, taken aback. But she didn't push my hand away.

Katara exhaled a long breath and said, "You're supposed to pat me, you know."

"Are you jealous?" I asked, teasing.

"Maybe," she matched my tone.

I extended my hand to her and patted them both.

Now, the girls weren't stupid. I had never attempted to do this before with both of them. So, they must have realized that I had overheard their conversation when they thought I was asleep.

"Ryuk, there's something about you…" Toph started.

"What?" I asked.

"Somehow, I'm sitting next to you, yet I can't feel your presence until you touch me," she said.

"Oh. I've been practicing sneaking up lately."

"No. I have hyper-senses. I can feel ants crawling from miles away. I can even hear sounds that people don't usually hear. But you seem invisible." She lowered herself in her chair enough for her feet to touch the ground.

"Never mind. You're really here. For a second, I thought you became a ghost," she said.

"I don't know, maybe because this place is in the spiritual realm," I said, retracting my hand. "Anyway, I'm pretty hungry."

I didn't have a good explanation for my stealth skill, other than calling it a natural talent or blaming it on the spiritual place.

But it was nice to know that even someone with hyper-senses couldn't find me.

With bloodbending and flying power in my hands, I'd be a nightmare assassin to someone like Toph.

We got to eat the spiritual food, which was quite similar to real food but different.

It was vegan, for sure. But I couldn't complain—it was flavorful and sweet.

The girls seemed to enjoy the food more than I did. Toph liked it, but only to a normal degree. As for Katara, she seemed to be having the best meal of her life.

I guess it made sense, considering she was used to the South Pole diet. That sweet fruit sugar must taste sweeter to her than to anyone else in this world.

'Now that I think about it, during our travels together, we ate more meat than fruit.'

After the meal, I gave Katara a small kiss on the lips before patting Toph on the head. I excused myself to continue my study.

I would have loved to try for some sex, or maybe even a threesome if I were having the luckiest day of my life. But I figured the owl would take offense to that, and I didn't want the spirit of knowledge getting mad at me.

After dealing with the world outside, I planned to return to this library and finish every book to squeeze out every last experience point.

It wasn't out of pure love for the experience points. I just despised the situation the universe had put me in. If I had the chance to reach the max level, I was going to take it—even if there was no war.

I started strolling around, looking for the section on the Fire Nation. I wanted to find some historical information to figure out the date of the comet's arrival.

I had originally planned to read books about Chi and spiritual energy, but I figured it was better to gather the intel I needed first.

When I arrived at the Fire Nation section, it was burned to ashes.

I clenched my teeth, knowing exactly who had done this.

He was called Admiral Zhao—or Commander Zhao, I wasn't sure.

But what I did know was that he had messed with potential experience... my rightful experience points.

I decided to calm down and visit another section to read books on predictions. You know, there are those who like to put their predictions in books and boast about their mathematical abilities—like trying to figure out when an eclipse would happen or when the stars would align.

I figured that section would have predictions about the Sozin Comet, since it was the reason the Fire Nation dominated the world. It was more important than knowing when the moon and the sun would align.

When I reached that section, it, too, was burned.

"Son of a bitch!" I cursed, knowing exactly who was responsible.

"Please refrain from cursing. You're above that petty human," Wang's voice echoed.

He appeared from the shadows of the library.

"How could you let him go after what he's done?!" I said, genuinely angry.

It had been a long time since I wanted to beat someone up this badly.

"It's unfortunate that he escaped," Wang said. "But I'd snatch his soul and throw him into the mist of lost souls if I ever get my hands on him."

"How about a deal?" I looked at Wang. Maybe this could work out to my advantage