My Infinite Cultivation System-Chapter 103: Copying her talent

The silence that followed Nysera’s departure was heavier than any attack that had been exchanged between the two rival groups earlier.

No one moved at first. No one spoke.

Every member of Alex’s newly assembled team remained locked in place, their instincts still screaming warnings that their conscious minds were struggling to fully process. The very air around them had become thick with unseen danger that had not yet decided whether to strike or withdraw.

She had been there. And then she was not.

But the cold she brought with her lingered like frost on exposed skin, an invisible weight that pressed against their senses long after her physical form had vanished from sight.

---

Jaros was the first to exhale.

The massive titan’s shoulders relaxed only slightly, his metallic skin still holding tension in a way that suggested he remained ready to move at any moment. His fists, which had unconsciously clenched during the encounter, slowly uncurled.

"She is Star realm," he said quietly. "At least Star realm."

His voice carried no uncertainty, only the grim acceptance of someone who had encountered enough powerful beings to recognize when he was outmatched.

"At least," Sarah echoed.

Her eyes remained fixed on the space where Nysera had been standing, as though she expected the woman to reappear at any moment. Her divination senses were still recalibrating, still trying to understand what had just happened.

"I could not see anything," she continued. "Not her future. Not her limit. Not even a glimpse of what she might do next. There was simply... nothing. As though she exists outside the framework that my talent can perceive, just like him.", she pointed at Alex.

That admission made the others exchange uneasy glances.

Sarah’s divination was one of their most reliable assets. If it could not penetrate Nysera’s presence, then they were navigating blind.

Daniel’s fingers, which had been twitching rapidly throughout the encounter, finally stilled.

He had been analyzing the woman’s movements from the moment she appeared, his analytical mind working through every detail he had observed. The conclusion he had reached was not one he enjoyed sharing.

"The way she moved," he said slowly. "It was not teleportation. It was not spatial displacement. There was no energy signature, no dimensional fold, no distortion that any of my talents could detect. She simply... existed in a different position. As though reality skipped a frame and she was the only thing that moved between them."

Mira nodded slowly, her twin senses having registered something similar.

"It was like watching a recording where someone edited out the intervening moments," she added. "Except there was no edit. She just was there, and then she was somewhere else, and nothing in between existed."

Leto, standing beside his sister, remained silent but his expression confirmed her assessment.

---

Alex stood where he had been throughout the entire encounter.

His posture remained relaxed. His breathing was steady. To anyone watching, he appeared completely unaffected by the appearance of a Star Level predator who had openly declared her desire to devour him.

[Name: Sofia Haris.

Talent: Soul Snatcher(Genesis)

Rank: Star Level Five.

Note: She can snatch the soul of any being up to two realms higher than herself. The absorption grants her permanent enhancement. There is no theoretical upper limit to the strength she can accumulate. At maximum potential, she could consume souls up to the multiversal level.]

That was terrifying.

That was also exactly what he wanted.

Alex kept his expression perfectly neutral as the group slowly began to relax around him. He noted their reactions with clinical detachment.

Jaros had moved to protect him instinctively. Ares’s earlier hostility had transformed into something closer to grudging respect mixed with wariness. Sarah was calculating, always calculating, her eyes moving between him and the space where Nysera had stood as though trying to solve an equation with too many unknown variables.

They were useful. He would need them for what was coming.

But they were not the priority.

Then he stepped forward.

His hands clasped behind his back. His posture straight. His expression calm and scholarly, the same expression he had worn when he first arrived among the observers.

He walked until he stood infront of her. Then he turned his head and looked directly into her eyes.

She looked back.

For a moment, neither spoke.

Then her lips curved. It was not quite a smile. It was something sharper, something that recognized the audacity of what he had just done and found it amusing rather than offensive.

"You are an interesting creature," Alex said.

His voice was level. Unimpressed. As though standing beside a Star Level predator who had openly declared her desire to devour him was the most ordinary thing in the world.

"Why do we not make a bet. Within two months, we will see who swallows whom. Do you dare?"

He raised his hand. Extended it toward her for a handshake. He just wanted to touch her. He wanted that talent at any cost. But normally touching was out of the question.

So he applied this method.

---

Sofia studied him.

Not his hand. His face. His eyes. She looked at him the way a collector examines a piece that does not quite fit any known category, something that might be worthless or might be priceless and cannot be judged by ordinary standards.

Then her gaze dropped to his extended hand.

Her smile sharpened.

"You are bold," she said softly. "You wish to challenge me, and you offer your hand as though you are greeting an equal."

She tilted her head slightly. The motion was unnaturally fluid, like water finding its level.

"You assume you are worthy to stand opposite me."

Her voice carried no anger. Instead, it sounded genuinely entertained.

"You are not worthy to shake hands with me. If you can rank within the top ten, perhaps then. Until that day, you remain what you appear to be. A newcomer. Untested. Unproven."

She turned away.

The space around her seemed to shiver, and then she was moving. Not walking. Not teleporting. Simply becoming distant in a way that Alex’s spatial senses could not track.

She was leaving.

Alex kept his face still. His hand lowered slowly back to his side. His expression remained calm, scholarly, as though her dismissal had been nothing more than a minor inconvenience.

But inside—

"Damn it. I want that talent."

And she had just told him he was not worthy.

That was unacceptable.

Alex’s spatial senses flared.

Alex smiled.

Then he teleported.

He directly crashed on her butt.

The system notification came instantly.

[Ding! You have copied the Genesis-level talent: "Soul Snatcher"]

Alex almost laughed.

He had appeared directly behind her. One moment, she was walking through the ruins, her group visible in the distance. The next, his hand had made contact—not a grab, not a strike, just a casual brush that could have been accidental.

His palm had connected with her lower back. The curve of it. The fabric of her shadow-clothing shifting beneath his fingers.

His hand had then, unavoidably, due to the angle of teleportation and his forward momentum, continued downward.

And crashed against her butt.

The contact lasted less than a second.

But it was enough.

Alex froze.

Sofia froze.

For one eternal moment, neither of them moved. The distant members of her group had not yet noticed what had happened. The wind had not changed. The world continued as it had before.

But between them, something fundamental had shifted.

Alex straightened.

His hand returned to his back. His expression smoothed into something that might have been scholarly dignity if not for the faint flush creeping up his neck. He cleared his throat once, lightly, the sound of a man who had absolutely intended to do exactly what he had just done and was not at all embarrassed by it.

"Cough cough. I was going somewhere else. I did not see you there."

His voice was perfectly calm. Reasonable. The voice of a man explaining a simple misunderstanding that could have happened to anyone.

Sofia turned.

Very slowly.

Her eyes were no longer half-lidded with casual amusement. They were wide. And in them, Alex saw something that made even his system ping a warning he had never seen before.

Alex did not wait for the recommendation.

He teleported.

He appeared back at the camp, directly behind Jaros, exactly as he had left.

His hands were clasped behind his back. His expression was serene. To anyone looking, he had simply returned from his survey at a leisurely pace, having seen nothing of interest.

The group turned to look at him.

They saw a young man standing with perfect posture, his face betraying nothing, his aura calm and controlled. A scholar who had gone for a walk and returned exactly as he had left.

What they did not see was the system notification still flashing in his vision, the one that confirmed he had just stolen a Genesis talent from a Star Level predator who now had every reason to hunt him down.

What they did not see was the way his heart was beating just slightly faster than normal, or the calculation running behind his calm eyes as he assessed how long it would take her to decide whether to kill him immediately or wait to see what else he might do.

"What a shameless bastard," Ares muttered, shaking his head slowly.

The elf’s earlier respect had apparently been overwritten by sheer disbelief at what he had just witnessed. His hand was pressed against his forehead as though warding off a headache.

"He is going to get us killed the first day he arrives."