Chapter 12: He's not that bad

As soon as the egg came in contact with Christopher's hands, it shook slightly and it felt like a hallucination. But it was a reaction that couldn't go unnoticed and was mistaken for something else by Christopher.

"Hey brat, what just happened?" Chiffu looked at Christopher with a weird expression on his face. Just to be exchanged with an innocent look from Christopher.

"Sorry I don't get your question, you just gave me the egg and I collected it. Did I do something wrong or should I have bent down on a knee before collecting it?" Christopher blinked innocently.

"Whatever, it must have been a hallucination." Chiffu quickly concluded he felt his mind must have been playing tricks on him and he would never admit a young man with such mediocre strength would have talent more than not just him but his ancestors.

Christopher's hanging heart was put at ease.

"This man must look down on me." He thought as he walked directly to place the egg in the cart.

Soon enough they had finished up with stuffing the cart with all the treasures they could lay their hands upon.

While all this was going on, Christopher's head was speedily calculating. He was thinking of different ways he could hijack the egg without raising suspicion from even his teammates.

On normal occasions, he wouldn't be greedy, but he felt this Chiffu didn't deserve his loyalty in any form.

"Now that everything is in place, let's get moving before we get caught by that old man." Chiffu double-checked the treasures to see whether they were all intact and then surveyed the environment cautiously inadvertently making Christopher and the rest see how much he feared the main forces of the Zulu village.

"You seem to be scared of the clan chief, with your strength wouldn't you be able to face him?" Christopher couldn't understand why a man who was feared to be on par with the clan chief would act this cautiously and he also stylishly wanted to know the strength of this Zulu village.

"Do you think you are smart enough to know the strength of my Zulu village by using words in such a way just to extract information from me?"

"Anyways, forget it, it would only be of no good to you since you would never have the strength to face my Zulu village."

"I can say that I can fight the clan chief and remain even or I might even prevail, but I won't be the one to lead my clan to destruction, especially with my sword." Chiffu waved his hand inadvertently revealing how little he thought of Chris and his group.

"Although you've done a lot of shitty things just under the space of 12 hours but I must say you have a bit of loyalty in you." Christopher complimented wanting to squeeze his way through Chiffu's mind to make their fate better.

"All is stupidity." Valerie rolled her eyes at Chiffu as she murmured in a voice not clear to him but the others understood. We can just call it a "world-to-world instinct thing."

"What did you say?" Chiffu frowned.

"Nothing," Valerie said quickly.

"No, not you, I meant him" he pointed at Christopher as he gave him a weird look.

Christopher quickly repeated the exact words he said with a frown, not noticing anything wrong with it.

"12 hours?" Chiffu repeated, wanting to be sure about what he just heard.

"Yes, what about it, even if I exaggerated a bit and we haven't used up to that, we have at least used 7 hours since we met." Christopher clarified and made sure he stressed the word AT LEAST.

"7 hours?" Chiffu asked again.

"Hmmm," Chris simply nodded this time around.

"According to my knowledge, we've only spent a bit over an hour, so how do you calculate your time?" Chiffu rubbed his chin expecting answers not just from Chris but from all of them because he saw they all agreed with his timing.

"You must have been so focused on acquiring this egg that you weren't time-conscious." Christopher pointed out, he felt what he said had to be right.

"That's true, you must haven't been time-conscious." Victony and Scott interjected almost at the same time.

"Don't tell me what I know, go out and look at the sky, isn't it the same way you met it at the village square?" Chiffu was frustrated by what they were saying, but he was just as confused as he was frustrated.

Christopher dashed outside and looked at the sky just to exclaim in surprise, drawing the others to come and behold the wonders themselves.

They hadn't noticed before that the sun seemed to have been the same all this while since they landed on the village square.

Time seemed to be slower here.

"Why would you guys be so excited about what happens every day, are you guys from the cave?" Chiffu was a bit confused about why these lads and lasses would be so excited about the usual change in time.

Christopher, Sarah, and Valerie exchanged glances and after a few seconds, they came to a decision where Valerie spoke the outcome.

"We weren't lying when we said we were dragged into this world by a strange portal, first we thought we were transferred somewhere random on Earth, but the longer we stayed here, the more things appeared stranger."

"And then we noticed the slowness of time thanks to you, and it cleared our doubts completely that we are no longer on earth." Christopher and the rest nodded their heads slightly in affirmation of what Valerie said.

"Earth?" Chiffu rubbed his chin as they didn't know what he was thinking.

"Hmm, I've never heard of such a world before, although here in Plavox, our village, and some others are isolated from the other worlds because of how trashy they believe we are, so we lack information on what happens in the outside world."

Chiffu didn't want to admit that he and his people were trash, that's why he phrased his words in such a manner then he paused and looked at their faces before he said with a smug.

"I am the only one who has access to the outside world in all ten abandoned villages, through the aid of a treasure I stumbled upon because of how competent I am, this treasure allows me to pass through the Enigma rift without hindrance." Chiffu placed his hands on his waist in a heroic manner, only for Christopher to pour a bucket of cold water on him with a question.

"The only thing that sounds cool in all that you said is this Enigma rift thing, although it has a cool name, why would passing through it be like a lifetime achievement." Christopher stared at him innocently wanting to find out what exactly was so special about this rift.

"Hmph, we'll be passing through it anyways, how lucky are you to be able to pass through it on your first encounter." Chiffu snorted

"Besides, you guys should start moving, before we get surrounded here, and you can tell me about this place you call Earth on our way," Chiffu said as he started walking away and signaled for them to follow him.

Christopher and the others exchanged glances and nodded at each other, they just agreed to tell him the truth about what happened on earth and brought them here, perhaps they could find answers.

They quickly rushed to their carts, pushed them, and quickly followed Chiffu who made them feel safer beside him. Especially with his strength and considering the dangers lurking around them.

They walked miles through the forest, and along the way, Chiffu fought beasts and paralyzed them for Christopher and the others to hit the final strikes.

This caused Christopher and the others to grow stronger so speedily that Christopher crawled quickly to level 10 Sarah entered level 9, and Valerie level 8, the rest were level 7 below that even Evangeline became a level 6.

This caused them to look at Chiffu in a different light, he wasn't all that bad and they felt he had some hidden reasons for being a traitor.

Along the way, they told Chiffu about what happened on Earth. What he told them was not different from what they knew, except for the part where the Earth would expand after a while.

That would be its evolution and it's for the earth to keep pace with the evolution of its inhabitants or else someday it'll get destroyed by an attack from someone within and it would cease to exist.

The humans would have to strive harder to remain at the top of the food chain, or else they'd be at the bottom and would be mere slaves as other creatures would start to gain intelligence, and firearms created pre-apocalypse would be deemed useless.

Soon enough, they came out of the forest and what welcomed them was a desert that stretched beyond their sight all around.

"L-look, what's that?" Khan one of the survivors pointed to the left and exclaimed in fear. They all turned in that direction and saw a dark cloud moving toward them at a fast pace.