The old man started to mutter to himself.

  "Damn anime characters..."

  "..."

  After awhile... they arrived at the port. Tian walked with his hands behind his back. He leapt off his ship and Anon followed suit.

  "Despite your suicidal goal. It isn't trivial to find a gateway. Luckily, you met me!"

  "But I warn you. These 'gateways' aren't permanent."

  "It is likely to be a one way trip. Are you prepared?"

  Anon spoke:

  "I have no attachments to this world..."

  Anon looked into his storage space and thought it might be a good idea to prepare supplies. But he didn't feel like getting a job for a few years to collect resources.

  If he did indeed enter a new world from this. He would just work there for resources. That made more sense to him!

  Anon then asked how exactly Tian planned on finding a gateway...

  "Oh, that?"

  "It is an ancient method of divining the heavens!"

  Tian took out his phone and pulled up an app.

  "There is one sighted about 100 kilometers away from our location..."

  "...This is your method?"

  "The times have changed!" Tian coughed and showed Anon the location.

  "This area is pretty rural. You'll probably have to go on foot."

  Anon shrugged. He took out his phone and still found that he didn't have any signal!

  "How do you have a signal here?"

  Tian laughed.

  "Ancient secrets! Ancient secrets!"

  "... Ok."

  Anon grabbed Tian by the neck as if he was a child. He supported their entire body with animaxiom. He then started to run in the correct direction as he focused on their phone.

  The old man was shocked stupid! Why was he being handled like a small animal? You can't just grab the elderly by the neck and how was he even maintaining his running form while doing this? It looked ridiculous!

  After about 45 minutes of running.

  Anon arrived at the gateway.

  "You... don't plan on taking me with you. Right?"

  Anon dropped Tian and walked towards the gateway!

  The old man shook his head. It looked like Anon wasn't joking at all!

  Anon entered the gateway...

  Anon knew that walking into the gateway might be deadly. He was unsure how his 'timeless' body would react to having his life force siphoned off.

  Even without his 'timelessness'. He had already unlocked his fourth seal 'deification'. His body wasn't even composed of cells anymore. It was like the body of a demigod. Most of his organs had merged together. Besides the brain, his blood, and heart. He was nothing like a human at all.

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  His blood had even become golden!

  Thanks to 'deification'. Anon didn't even have lungs anymore. Or what humans would consider lungs. He could breathe in the void! His eyes could see without light! It was a completely unscientific body!

  As Anon stepped into the gateway. He soon felt something weird.

  His 'concentration' was going into hyperdrive!

  "I see..."

  "It not only ages those quicker. But the inside saps away stamina and energy..."

  Anon smiled.

  "If I wasn't 'me'. No one would even be able to survive in this environment for long." Anon couldn't tell how fast he was aging. But his body was quickly becoming decades older every few minutes.

  But unfortunately, or fortunately. He looked exactly the same! Even when his body had aged centuries. It was completely timeless!

  He continued to walk endlessly into the aurora of colors. But after 20 hours of walking. He stopped.

  "There have been no changes in the environment this entire time. If I stay here for a few more hours. Even going back in time won't be able to allow me to escape."

  "Do I stop here?"

  Anon thought about the worst case scenario.

  "Fuck it! If I get trapped for a few years..."

  "I'll be fine!"

  Anon would soon come to regret this decision.

  He walked nonstop for a few months.

  A few years...

  Decades...

  There was eventually a change in the environment. The vibrant colors had long vanished. He was just standing in a black void. The ground below his feet had disappeared and was a thin layer of liquid.

  He had actually fallen through this liquid. But even his deified body was unable to maintain itself. It was much stronger and weirder then acid.

  Luckily, he had long learned how to sustain walking on water. He didn't bother shielding his body.

  397,999 points.

  That was the amount of energy he had stored in his body beforehand. Anon had long passed the point of return. Even if he used 'anima leap'. He would still be trapped.

  And so the years continued to go on...

  Thanks to recovering animaxiom at the rate he was using it. The reserves in his body stayed at the same level.

  Anon had been conscious for thousands of years in his domain. A few decades in this space isolated from everything couldn't shake him.

  He was actually enjoying this process.

  But then something unexpected happened.

  The area he reached in the gateway collapsed! Anon went back in time a few minutes and tried to walk in a different direction.

  DEATH!

  He tried another way...

  DEATH!

  All paths forward led to death.

  "You really want to push me?"

  Anon laughed.

  He then covered his entire body in animaxiom! He charged forward through the collapse in space. His entire body was torn one second and then he used 'anima revive' in the next second.

  Completely recovering!

  He died dozens of times in the span of a few seconds.

  The delicate balance of animaxiom he had sustained was thrown out of whack. His reserves in his body were being tapped into.

  396125

  395999

  395777

  395665...

  Anon continued to charge forward. He felt the pressure on his body only increase the further he got. He had already died a few times in his test. His animaxiom in his soul was only at 70% and was not recovering!

  It was a real 'do' or 'die' situation...

  A few hours of constantly dying was experienced. But he saw a light in the distance finally! It was as if he was swimming in tar. His every step was painful and slow.

  He was no longer running.

  He was crawling forward. His entire body reinforced with an insane amount of animaxiom.

  96,545 points!

  He leapt out of the exit right as the gateway closed.

  "Phew!"

  Anon felt a little dizzy. That had required quite a bit of effort.

  But things weren't good! His body had been tampered with by spatial fluctuations for too long. Everything seemed normal and he found himself in wilderness.

  But as he walked towards a tree to relax for awhile.

  He walked right through it!

  "I haven't escaped the gateway..."

  "My physical body has entered a sort of superposition state!"

  Anon was in ecstasy!

  "My axiom state!"

  Anon hadn't unlocked his axiom state. But he felt incomparably close to it from existing in this state. A few days went by and he couldn't figure how to enter this world.

  He was like a ghost. Trapped on the other side.

  Anon found that he could phase through the ground and all matter. He couldn't interact with anything. He was like a phantom.

  He floated in the sky and tried to escape this phantom state.

  A silver aura started to cover Anon's body. Cracks started to appear all around his environment. Then it was like glass shattering as his hair turned white for a few milliseconds.

  His eyes had turned white.

  His blindfold vanished...

  But this state only lasted for a instant.

  Anima Transmit

  Anon tapped into a power quite incredible deep within. He directly crossed the barrier over reality and entered this new world.

  He started to fall from the sky and landed on the ground.

  "I'm finally free!"

  Anon laughed like a madman.