Chapter 1998 Time here is frozen. "Uggghhh…" Nux groaned as he once again returned to the surface. The sand reversed whatever 'damage' had happened to him as he stood up again, his eyes staring at the ocean in front of him. The moment his 'powers' disappeared, the second wave that appeared crushed him almost instantly. He tried resisting, but he was helpless. In the end, his body was pushed back to the shore. Nux, however, did notice one good thing. Since he was inside the water longer than before, the amount of water he had absorbed was higher than before. It also meant the power he now had was stronger. Just as he thought about it, a Gate appeared behind him. The Temple was tempting him to go away yet again, this time with the power stronger than before. Of course, Nux didn't care. His mind was still thinking of a way to clear the trial and… he did have a way. So without further ado, Nux walked forward, entering the water without wasting more time. Once again, he swam as he controlled the water inside his body. Since his powers had gotten stronger, his control had gotten smoother as well. Not that it mattered to him — his control was already next to perfect. The only good thing that came out of it was that he now didn't need to use as much 'power' as he did before to deal with the river's aging or regressing, meaning his powers would last even longer, probably until he crossed the river and reached the end. As he thought about it, the first wave came. Once again, Nux allowed it to engulf him. His body was divided into parts, and once again, Nux dealt with it the same way he did before. He returned to the surface, and this time, since he had more water in his body and better control, his powers were still there. So he continued to swim. The second wave came, but Nux survived. He returned to the surface and saw the third wave approaching, and he survived that as well. Now, however, the water ran out again. With his powers gone, the fourth wave drowned him. He returned to the shore, and the sand healed his body again. He realized that his body had now absorbed even more water. Yes, his power grew even stronger. The Gate appeared again, telling him to leave. But now, there was no reason to. Nux had found a way out. This place took his powers, but at the same time, it was also giving him a new set of powers — powers he could strengthen through his own efforts. It was a trial fair for all, a trial where everyone had the same, equal start. It was quite idealistic, but to Nux, it was fun. Now that he had found a way to increase his powers, that was what he was going to do. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚 The system seemed clear now — the more time he spent in the water, the more powerful he became. The more powerful he becomes, the closer he gets to the end. All he needed to do was to continue trying, again and again, until he finally reached the end and cleared the trial. It was a simple brute-force method, something that Nux didn't hate. As he stretched his body, Nux entered the water again. The first wave, just like always, was no problem. The same was true for the second, third, fourth, and fifth. On the sixth wave, however, the water ran out, and Nux was pushed back to the shore, stronger than before. He grinned and jumped into the water again, clearing all six waves as he moved forward. The closer he got to the end, the stronger the waves and the more frequent they got, dividing Nux's body into thousands of 'parts,' with each part aging differently and needing a different flow of energy to be stabilized. It was something that would overwhelm anyone's mind, but to Nux, this didn't seem like a problem. His body was acting on its own — he just needed to swim and get close to the end. The eighth wave came, then the ninth, the tenth, and once again, at the eleventh wave, Nux failed and returned to the shore again. The Gate appeared, telling him to leave, but he didn't. The now-stronger Nux returned to the water. This time, he cleared fourteen waves before failing. On the next run, he managed to clear sixteen waves. Then seventeen. Eighteen, nineteen, twenty… All the way to ninety-nine and… In the most recent run, he cleared the hundredth wave. Yes, it took about two hundred tries. The waves divided his body into a million parts; Nux had to move energy through almost all the pores inside his body to survive, and that was exactly what he did. And now… The end was finally in front of him now, barely three meters away. Nux also didn't see any more waves forming to stop him, so he decided to use this chance to increase his speed and race toward the shore. And he succeeded. His hand was now 1 cm away from the shore. Even if a wave was generated now, it wouldn't be able to stop him. The trial was over. It should be over. But then suddenly… Nux's finger, which was about a centimetre away from the shore, froze. It couldn't move. 'Huh…?' Nux frowned. He tried using force, but no matter what he did, his finger didn't budge. Then finally, he noticed something. The last 1 cm that he had to cross… The water in this region was… not moving. Its ripples were frozen, just like his finger — almost as if… 'Time here is frozen.' And since time was frozen… movement here was impossible. 'How the fuck…' Nux cursed again, his mind thinking of ways to cross the frozen zone, but nothing came to his mind. To make things worse, another wave was formed and engulfed him. This time, however, it couldn't push him down since his finger was stuck in the frozen zone. Of course, Nux still had to use his 'energy' to avoid perishing, and soon, his energy ran out. As it did, another wave appeared and engulfed his body again. This time, for some reason, his finger was released from the frozen zone, and his body, once again, returned to the shore, where it all had begun. Once again, he had failed to clear the trial.