MIGHT AS WELL BE OP Chapter 890: Suicide

As soon as Aaaninja spoke, every gaze in the vicinity snapped toward him. A heavy silence filled the air for a moment as the group scrutinized his posture and searched for any shifts in his aura. After a second of observation, Aura Nova was the first to break the quiet.

“Where did the Dragon go?” she inquired with a steady voice, her blue eyes locked onto Aaaninja.

“He departed,” Aaaninja answered simply. His tone was flat, offering no additional details or fluff.

“Hoo…” Lucian made a soft sound of intrigue, his face remaining as relaxed as ever. “What was his business?” he asked calmly before flashing a smirk. “Don’t tell me he pulled you aside just to confess his love.”

Lucian’s tone was mocking, yet a hint of real curiosity lay beneath the jest. During the opening chapters of Might As Well Be OP, the Author had included so many gay jokes that commenters frequently accused him of being gay himself. Even Anthony had been branded with that label by the readership, solely because the Author hadn’t provided him with a girlfriend early in the narrative.

Even Lucian had once wondered if the rumors were true. Why were there so many jokes of that nature? This wasn't a BL novel or a manhwa, yet the recurring gags continued to baffle the audience.

Aaaninja gave Lucian a peculiar look for a second, his rainbow-hued, clock-like eyes narrowing. He eventually shook his head in response.

“He has the Time affinity,” Aaaninja stated. “He has been stuck at a bottleneck for several centuries and required my assistance.”

The group nodded, finding the explanation reasonable. Encountering a wall in one's Cultivation was a standard occurrence. Indeed, it was the primary reason the Galaxy granted its denizens such immense lifespans. Progress was notoriously difficult, and stagnation could last for decades, centuries, or even thousands of years.

Aaaninja was no stranger to such plateaus. Stagnation was exactly why Zachary had pushed him to join the Starborn Tournament, a path that eventually led him to his True Enlightenment.

“Damn…” Lucian whispered to himself.

“What now?” Aaaninja asked, preparing himself for another one of Lucian's crude remarks.

“I was just reflecting,” Lucian said, his grin fading slightly. “If I ever hit a bottleneck and stayed stuck for hundreds of years… I might just kill myself.”

The group went still at his comment. A strange hush fell over them before several people nodded in agreement. While bottlenecks were normal, the idea of being trapped for centuries was alien to them. Since the oldest person there was barely over three hundred years old, such a long period of stagnation felt impossible to grasp.

“Even though the Dragon was stuck for centuries,” Aaaninja added, “that only applies to his Time magic. His advancement in space magic and other skills could be described as… incredibly slow.”

“What is the longest you’ve ever been stuck before a breakthrough?” Aura Nova suddenly questioned. She turned her blue eyes toward Vega, who was hovering nearby with her arms crossed.

Vega gave a casual shrug. “I have never encountered a wall in my life,” she claimed bluntly.

Aura Nova’s attention then shifted to Kingsley. Though she remained silent, the intent behind her gaze was obvious. Kingsley paused, debating how to answer. Did the time between his failed awakening and the moment the universe granted him power count as a bottleneck? Ever since he gained his ridiculous talent, he had never experienced stagnation.

After a moment of reflection, he answered truthfully, “The same for me. I’ve never had one.”

Aura Nova then looked at Anthony, posing the question without words.

Anthony merely smiled. “Is there even a point in asking?” he replied. His voice was full of confidence, though it lacked any hint of arrogance or conceit.

“My mistake,” Aura Nova joked, shaking her head slightly.

“Don’t bother looking my way,” Lucian interrupted before Aura Nova could speak. “I’ve never hit a wall or a barrier either,” he declared with pride.

His confidence was well-founded. Lucian’s copy ability was so broken that training his powers was unnecessary. As he grew more powerful, every technique and skill he had ever copied automatically reached an insane level of proficiency.

The only things Lucian needed to focus on were his Cultivation and traveling between planets to find new powers to steal. If he could copy Cultivation ranks directly, he would have done so in a heartbeat.

“I experienced it once,” Aaaninja spoke up, his expression remaining neutral. “It lasted for two weeks.”

Even though everyone else claimed they had never faced a bottleneck, Aaaninja saw no reason to lie. His confidence wasn't so weak that he needed to invent fake achievements. After all, in this group, only Anthony had ever actually beaten him.

“And you?” Vega asked, looking toward Aura Nova.

Aura Nova’s blue eyes sparkled as she replied, “None. My broken abilities make such things impossible.”

‘I wonder if her Omniedit can actually surpass Quantum Manipulation,’ Anthony thought to himself. By this point, his mastery over Quantum Manipulation had reached a terrifyingly high level.

“So… did you give him the help he wanted?” Kingsley asked, bringing the focus back to Aaaninja.

“There was no reason to refuse,” Aaaninja answered calmly.

“Did you demand a price?” Anthony asked.

Aaaninja shook his head. “I received nothing. Assisting him didn't cost me anything.”

“I don’t get why people phrase it that way,” Lucian teased, shaking his head. “As if saying no to the Dragon would somehow result in a loss for you.”

Anthony gave a small laugh. “True, but it doesn't really matter.”

“Do you want to trade information, then?” Aura Nova asked Aaaninja. She was certain he held a massive amount of data, both from his home Celestial planet and from the many others he had dominated.

Aura Nova simply desired an exchange. Even though her home, Dusk Planet, was weak, her Omniedit power allowed her to decode and master the information behind everything she saw. The reality tears she had mended earlier were proof of her skill.

At this moment, it was likely that no one understood those phenomena better than she did.

Aaaninja looked at her for a moment before shaking his head. “I don't think I require any information,” he said. “Unless your mastery over Time exceeds my own.”

Aura Nova nodded, choosing not to push the matter. While she could use Omniedit to manipulate Time, she wasn't certain if she could actually command it better than Aaaninja… but she intended to find out soon enough.