Chapter 123

The Successor (2)

The simulation had predicted over 12 billion cycles of reincarnation.

I couldn't understand its meaning, but ironically, I understood it at the same time.

I vividly remembered my life as Choi Seung-Hyun.

-Active Mana: 9/9

-Potential Mana: 1

If there was a mission to be cleared with that body, and if that was an arduous destiny, wouldn't it have been challenging to achieve it with Choi Seung-Hyun's body?

The chance to succeed must have been that slim.

I asked, suppressing the fear of not wanting to know the answer.

"How many times have I repeated my life as Choi Seung-Hyun before I possessed this body?"

The spirit replied in a monotonous mental wave.

- The Successor has experienced an average of 3,000 repetitions from a single reincarnation.

The figure that made me dizzy.

That meant I repeated my life about 3,000 times every time I was rebirthed as a new entity.

"But didn't you say that my life before this, when I was born as a Roco-something, I only had 1,400 repetitions?"

- 'Roco-Gerös,' which took place just before the life as 'Choi Seung-Hyun,' was an exceptional case. As the successor mentioned, his life had only been repeated 1,453 times. It was because all conditions were favorable, and the capability of the reincarnated being was outstanding. On the other hand-

I felt nervous since I could guess what her next words would be.

- Choi Seung-Hyun's life was also an exceptional case beyond the average, but the approach was different. You have repeated that life more than 10,000 times and still failed to achieve your destiny.

Ten thousand times.

If that was true-

Should I say it's fortunate that all of those memories had been forgotten?

It reached the point where it could be considered lucky that the complete retention of memory that [The Successor's Eyes] guaranteed could not be activated after death.

As if she read my mind, she continued.

- [The Successor's Eye] remembers and retains everything seen by the eyes and does not forget anything you saw in that life until you die. The key and most important memory of it is deposited deep into the unconscious and passed on to the next cycle. The most significant advantage of infinite repetition is that the Successor repeats that life unconsciously and makes the right choice.

That meant that in Choi Seung-Hyun's life, or even in the life I was living right at that moment, I was making the optimal choices.

But then...

"No, wait. You said that I make the most efficient choices! Then why did I trust Angelica in the past life?!"

It was the worst mistake that I had committed in my previous life!

- It was during the first cycle that the parasitic being appeared in Choi Seung-Hyun's life. An extreme butterfly effect had been created because of a future-telling being's future that lived in the same period as him. Even if you had made a different future from the previous life, it was repeatedly twisted in the wrong direction because of the future seer's presence.

When referring to a future seer... There was only one I could think of.

It was talking about Han-Seol.

When I thought about it, I realized Angelica wasn't present in the future that Han-Seol saw.

It was because that was a future where the original Seo Jin-Wook had turned into a demonic king.

Even if those minuscule factors changed a bit, it significantly differed the way things flowed.

- But Choi Seung-Hyun had no fighting capability. He could not stand the events and waves of byways that the seer created every cycle. Even if she was removed from the beginning through other means, Choi Seung-Hyun was so weak that he failed for another reason anyway.

I could imagine instances wherein my past life had indefinitely repeated.

- In the case of the last cycle, it seemed lucky that she had disappeared early on. Still, the parasitic entity horribly attacked you even though you had a superior defense skill against brainwashing.

Although Han-Seol disappeared from the stage since Angelica kidnapped her-

That time, she died because of Angelica.

- In the end, the countless aggregate of experiences in your subconsciousness determined that destiny couldn't be achieved in that manner. New methods such as 'possession' being utilized in the recent cycle were prepared for such cases.

There was still a critical explanation missing in there.

But before I dug into that, I decided to ask about the keyword that bothered me.

"What in the world does that word 'destiny' mean?"

The spirit replied as if it had been waiting.

- You must know of the Sebrarian Empire, right?

Indeed.

The great empire that many species wandered for, desiring the remnants that were nothing but fragments of it.

The mysterious group took pride in their superior technologies that no civilization at the time could imitate.

-Didn't you ever find it strange?

"...?"

- The reason why no other species today can even imitate the technology of a civilization that existed way back in the past?

"Because the system is involved?"

-That is correct. Then what is the system?

I wouldn't know.

I silently stared, waiting for an answer.

- The Sebrarian Empire fell in the ultimate war.

It was a piece of information that I already knew.

- At the moment when all life forms of all dimensions faced destruction, the Emperor of the Empire thought he could not just stand by and watch the great civilization get entirely wiped out. They decided they had to leave seeds- a 'successor' who would inherit their knowledge and power to rebuild the empire.

"...'

- But even if they wanted to evacuate them to another dimension, there was no other dimension left. If that were possible, the people would have been evacuated first.

It matched the content that I read from the [Door of Hope]'s description.

- Hence, the Emperor decided that if no other place made evacuation possible, he would evacuate them to another timeline.

What?

- However, as material time travel accompanied by matter and volume required tremendous resources, it did not fit the picture that the Emperor was drawing. The Emperor evacuated only the soul of the successor to back into the past.

"Wait, that's a bit different from the knowledge that other species living in the same timeline know..."

- Yes, indeed. They are all wrong. Although the system explanation describes Sebrarian Empire in the past tense, the exact timeframe is not mentioned.

That was indeed the case.

- The fall of the empire occurred in the future. The successor, whose soul was sent back to the past, is the only one who can consider it as part of the past. To all entities excluding him, it is an event that should occur following the timeline in reverse.

She spoke as if she was going to put the nail in the coffin.

- Sebrarian Empire is an organization that is formed in the far future from this timeline.

*

Why was my unique skill named [The Successor's Eyes]?

Why was I able to secure that much rare Imperial heritage?

It was the moment that the reason was revealed.

It was because I was that successor.

- The destiny is carved deep into your soul just before time travel, aimed to create a butterfly effect resulting in a more substantial empire in the future so that it will be able to avoid the fate of destruction.

She continued the explanation, but there was a part that I couldn't understand.

"But how can a change created by just one individual become that large..."

- It is impossible with a single reincarnation. There is still a long way to go, even if you live a full life every time you reincarnate.

- To build a greater empire in the future, we need to inflection points in each timeline. The Emperor's aides calculated all of them and summarized them as a list of destinies.

When I imagined the scale of it, I felt frightened.

- If the same past is repeated, the Empire that will be built in the future will be ruined just the same. Therefore, your destiny changes every time you reincarnate. I don't know how many different types there are.

My destiny changed every time I reincarnated.

If I died without fulfilling that fate, I repeated living the same life endlessly.

She gave me an example.

The first life of the successor's soul transmitted to the far past lived as a pseudo-sorcerer named 'M'tuba Rei.'

- Your destiny in that life was to discover and spread Mana's existence, away from imitating false magic. You have achieved your destiny after more than 5,700 repetitions of M'tuba Ray's life. It wasn't a bad number for a first-timer.

"..."

- There were three goals to achieve in the life of 'Roco-Gerös,' right before Choi Seung-Hyun. They were of serious difficulties. First, contribute to making more than sixteen dimensions join the main quest. Second, modify the unique skill more than five times to lead the trend of skill modification. Third, calm the internal strife of the Union and prevent the Sixth Interstellar War that existed in the original timeline.

It's sounded like the difficulty was hell itself.

- However, having lived through that life, you succeeded with a minimal number of cycles. It was achieved by schemes and elaborate politics. Above all... You had the necessary strength to accomplish your destiny without dying in the process.

At that point, I couldn't help but ask a question.

"Then in this life, what exactly is my purpose? Choi Seung-Hyun and Seo Jin-Wook altogether, that is."

- I can't give an exact answer to that.

"Even though you know everything, you don't want to answer that? No, before that, what are you?"

- The destiny is settled deep inside your soul, encrypted neatly. Only you can instinctively desire that and put it into action in your unconsciousness. It could be revealed to the 'enemies' if we don't do it that way.

Enemies?

- And I am a helper created by your countless reincarnated entities while living through the past lives. I'm designed to respond to a fraction of the memory deposited in the unconscious of the successor.

The past me that I didn't even recall.... No, it meant that it's an arranged gift by 'myself' for the future me.

She continued.

- Contemplating what your purpose is the most foolish worry. You must already be acting to achieve the objective.

Then for the first time, it smiled brightly.

- Thanks to that, I can't be confident about it, but I can make an inference. What is your current goal?

I answered.

"To protect the Earth from destruction."

She only smiled without replying.

"I see, that is the destiny of this life?"

- I can only tell you that it is most likely. Perhaps the future-designing scholars calculated and determined right before the empire's fall that it is necessary to protect the dimension to construct a stronger empire before the empire's fall.

"Then how did you grasp the fate of the reincarnated creatures in the past... Oh, I see. It's a matter of judgment if you can see the record of what they've accomplished and how they moved on to their next life without repetition."

I nodded momentarily then asked the question that I had put aside a while ago.

"Why did the empire fall?"

She showed signs of hesitation for the first time, then continued.

- The existence they had to face in the final war couldn't be properly defined until the empire's end. Only...

Then, she uttered out a keyword that I hadn't expected.

- Before the full-scale war started, a precursor was discovered in many dimensions: the crows that sing of for them; the one that wanders around the circle of eternity, A cursed wanderer, the one that breeds through spirit than the soul, the prophet of Apocalypse....

Wait, those were all part of a story that I had heard from somewhere....

"Mercadius?"

The name of the species that my lips were most vigilant about leaked out.

She nodded.

- Although they didn't directly lead the empire to the apocalypse, in many dimensions, the species... A countless number of them had been observed wandering. The final war started right after that.

I contemplated for a while before speaking.

"If I ask the system, would they know the answer to it?"

She shook her head.

-The creation wouldn't know what the creator didn't know.

What was that supposed to mean?

-The most crucial part of the story starts from here. The largest reason why the past reincarnated beings purposely left this arrangement is to deliver the message that I will tell you now. Successor, never, to the system... To be more specific, to the ministry spirit and such beings that you face, never reveal to them that you are a successor.

"Why?"

-There is empirical evidence that in all the cycles that attempted to do so from a certain point, they had devastatingly failed. It is presumed that unlike the initial design plan and purpose, a foreign pollutant had mixed inside the system.

That word "design" kept bothering me.

"Who created the system for what reason?"

She spoke with an expression as if what she had been waiting for had finally arrived.

- The system is a creation made by your countless reincarnated entities by joining their forces together... A gift for the new empire in the future.

She continued.

- That was the initial purpose.