60: Fraud

Fraud

Ning didn't even reach the village before he saw people coming towards him. 'They can see me from so far away, huh?' he thought.2

"Inikaka, are you alright?" The chief was the first person to get to the place and so, he asked him immediately.

"Yes, I am alright. My headache is now gone," Ning said meekly. He was still worried about what the villagers would think about him.

"What happened out there, Inikaka? I thought you would help us fight the demon, but you stood there doing nothing. Instead, you got yourself a headache and we had to bring you back," the chief asked.

"I… " Ning froze. He didn't have anything clever to say right now to get out of the situation, so he simply told them the truth. "I got scared," Ning said.

"Scared? You, Inikaka?" the chief was surprised. The villagers behind him also looked at him with wide eyes.

"Yes, I was scared. I have never been in a fight before, and that was my first time seeing something like that snake with my own human eyes," he said.

The chief spoke up. "But how can you become scared, Inikaka?" the chief asked.

"Why can't I? I'm just a normal person after all," Ning said.

" But, You are an all-powerful god, Inikaka," another villager said.

"No, I'm not all-powerful. I can only do a handful of things at best," Ning said.

"You are still a god though. how can gods not be All-powerful?" a woman asked.

"I told you, I'm not all pow— "

"You are our Sun god. You should be able to easily defeat that demon, Inikaka," another villager said.

"I am too weak rig— "

"Inikaka! Why haven't you gotten rid of that demon already?" a child asked.

Ning was starting to get frustrated.

"I told you gu— "

"We can't defeat the demon by ourselves, Inikaka. If you are waiting for us to defeat the demon by ourselves, please don't and just kill it," an elderly woman said.

His frustration grew evermore.

"I can— "

"Inikaka, You— "

"I AM NOT INIKAKA!!" Ning burst out. "I am not Inikaka. I am just a normal person who has been deceiving you people. I am no god. I am not even a human anymore. I am nothing."

The crowd went silent when they heard this. During the silence, Ning finally realized what he had just spoken. 'Oh no,' he thought. He looked around at the people, including Hyesi, whose eyes had gone from surprise to shock to disbelief.

'F**k, I'm done, aren't I?' he thought. Before anyone could even speak, he vanished from the spot. The villagers couldn't comprehend what had just happened there and were left speechless.

Ning arrived at his potato farm, which was ready to be harvested. He was teleported right near an empty field and so, he just sat down on the ground and then laid there on his back.

'Did that really just happen?' he wondered. He was at just as much disbelief as the villagers if not more. 'Oh my god, I ruined everything, didn't I?' he thought. 'I couldn't even control my emotions, and let my anger and annoyance take the best of me,' he sighed as he thought.

"Oh god, why did I even do that?"

He felt really bad about the whole thing and wanted to do something to take his mind off of the situation right now. So, he started to harvest the potatoes that were ready. He didn't bother using any abilities or skills.

He simply just took a hoe and started digging the potatoes out. He did it as slowly as possible to waste the most amount of time. After he was done digging out all the potatoes, he went on to wash them all. He once again took as long as possible while washing them.

He then proceeded to dig the entire field, putting the remaining potato plant into the dirt to decay and work as fertilizers for later on.

Night came by and the air grew chilly. He gathered up a few dry sticks and laid down next to them. Using Candle Fire, he lit the sticks and stayed there in its warmth. However, the ground he was laying in wasn't warned, nor was it soft.

Due to the irregular gusts of wind at night time, the campfire became unstable, and before Ning could even do anything about it, it extinguished. "Just my luck," he thought.

He tried to stay without the fire for a bit longer, but the coldness was bone-deep and he needed to leave. "Do I just go back? I can't act like nothing happened right? What do I even say?" he started wondering.

But right now was not the time for an answer. He needed a better shelter. "Let's just go back for now," he thought and teleported back.

"Ah, finally," he said as he laid down on the soft ground in his home. Now that he was back, Ning decided to either cultivate or go to sleep depending on what his mood ends up being.

Suddenly, he could hear rustling from the outside.

"Inikaka, are you back?" a voice came from outside.

Ning was startled at first, but then he realized that he recognized that voice. Hesitatingly, he asked, "H-Hyesi? W-W-What are you doing here?"

"Ah, you're finally back, Inikaka. I have been waiting here for you since this morning. I was afraid you weren't going to return today," Hyesi said with a jovial voice.

"Why would you wait for me?" Ning asked, "Also, I told you guys this morning. I'm not Inikaka. I never was. I'm just a fraud, nothing else." Ning was starting to feel dejected again.

"What's a fraud?" Hyesi asked, having never heard of that word before.

"Just someone who takes advantage of other's situations for their own gain. Just like me. I saw that you were struggling and took advantage of you to have you do different things for my own gain. I did all of this just so I could leave the island as soon as possible," Ning said.

Hyesi quietly took the information in, and asked, "Then why haven't you?"

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