Chapter 194

Final Battle (5)

Even before the successor released the first Dimensional Bird, the Dimensional Storm was already raging. The whole world couldn't be protected even after the Administrator took over, owing to the limitations of competence and resources.

Due to that reason, dimensions emerged that were inevitably victimized. Unable to bear it, space broke. It was to the extent that not only the Spirit but also the successor couldn't know how many dimensions had been fragmented and scattered.

The Administrator paid attention to where the fragmented dimensional debris was headed. They stagnated in the place where dimensions were connected, like dust filling a gap between tiles.

She decided to call the place the 'middle dimension.'

To create a threat for the mortals, the Administrator decided to meddle with the place where countless pieces of space were randomly intertwined.

'I've already expected this, but it's a mess. I don't know where to start. It's too complicated to handle as it is. We need to divide them into sections.'

It was the birth of "dungeons," spaces under the System's management that isolated a portion of the middle dimensions.

Some of the debris deposited there was only a collection of cosmic dust and gas, while others maintained a fairly reasonable ecosystem.

However, amid separation and fluctuation from the original dimensions, civilization collapsed, and most of them were living like primitive beings. That was enough for the Administrator.

- Do you wish to Awaken through a contract with the System?

The Administrator offered contracts to the species that had barely survived in the middle dimension. Most of them accepted, worshipping her as a god.

Many of them were born without Mana Heart, but the Administrator couldn't care less. She planted Mana Hearts, better known as Mana Cores, in their hearts herself instead.

It had another difference from the contracts for common mortals.

'Once again, help me.'

'Gladly.'

The incarnations which were once the god of the mind lent her their power.

As a result, the middle dimension species, in those numerous individuals' minds, the curse of Mercadius permeated thinly and shallowly. It reached a point that no one could notice its existence.

Perfect brainwashing or manipulation was impossible since it was a weak force, but they could instill only a sole heavy emotion.

Extreme anger toward those designated by the System.

More specifically, it was a ferocious murderous intent toward creatures that lived in normal dimensions beyond the blue Gate.

The Administrator named them "monsters" because they were carried away by emotions that surpassed their instincts and were always in a delirious state.

*

- That's a big problem. Items don't come out anymore, even if we Clear the Tower!

- We can't receive Mana Cores or experience points!

By that time, the Awakened had to adapt to the changed System.

The Administrator thought: The System of throwing carrots through the Tower was so moderate and inefficient since it left them the choice to climb the Tower or not.

Hence, she forced the Awakened had to deal with the dungeons.

There was no such thing as a choice.

- Monsters are suddenly coming out of the blue door!

Uncleared dungeons collapsed and threw up monsters, and they unleashed a killing spree. Awakened beings had to Clear those Gates to protect their world.

Of course, the System didn't forget the carrots. Though the reason was getting blurry, she remembered that the purpose of everything was to foster the future Empire's establishment.

- Items are available when we Cleared the dungeons!

- We can get Mana Cores from the hearts of monsters. It doesn't disappear even after they die!

At that point, the Awakened had become desperate again.

However, not everyone did.

- We must complain to the System Administrator! Let's communicate through the Union Command, which has the authority to contact her!

Some couldn't adapt to the changed System. Such was the law of natural selection.

'What? Get rid of all the Gates? If that's what you wish.'

In a cold rage, the Administrator took action. She had sealed the Dimensional Bird that resided in a dimension that had made such a claim back in the egg.

'Don't you want any more evolution? Would you refuse to advance and move forward from where you are? If you want to degenerate, then I'll give you a choice. Climb that Tower and break the egg at the top with your hands. All the Gates will then disappear in an instant.'

That was the only way for them to get rid of the Gates.

The moment the Dimensional Bird disappeared, the Dimensional Storm would soon strike and unlink all connections, so it was natural.

Without knowing the future ahead, some species climbed the Tower. By then, it had already been renamed as the 'Tower of Choice' in the sense that it had become a place to determine the fate of the world, not a structure for training.

And the fate of the dimension that broke the egg and closed all Gates was obvious. Such a world began to disintegrate in the Dimensional Storm slowly.

They belatedly realized their fate was in despair, but there was no way to escape. It's already been a long time since they had been disconnected from the System.

Such broken dimensional debris was stacked in the middle dimension and became the material for a new dungeon. The species that once achieved a brilliant civilization lost their glory and became monsters in the end.

'Even the Union Command opposed me?'

The Administrator was enraged.

'Alright, I only need one species left. What do you say? Would you like to remain and serve me?'

The race chosen by the Administrator was the Adgons, of course.

The four species, except them, were separated and destroyed by Mercadius from within.

At that point, the successor was forced to step up.

However, that situation wasn't included in their unconscious destiny since even the future Empire didn't expect it. They had to hand over their homework to the next life if they found it impossible to overturn the twisted System in the current life.

It was possible since it wasn't the destiny set by those from the future, in other words, the kind of task that forced the successor to repeat if failed.

However, a clear sense of purpose permeated the deposited memory while the process continued: the goal to recover the twisted System back to normal somehow.

Thus, the successors had tried their best in their respective lives, but they had all so far met death without fixing the System's "error" and "contradiction."

And in the current cycle, the successor came up to the stage of peeking at the Administrator's memory for the first time.

*

I stared at the sight unraveling before my eyes.

'That's-!'

The Adgon that flew along the single black path stopped in front of a huge luminous body.

The other party facing him was a large and vivid light that was comparable to a star.

I felt shocked and longing at the same time as it filled my view.

Wait a minute... longing?!

'This is not my emotion. The successors of the previous generations. The accumulated memories of my past life are slowly permeating.'

Mana waves continued to flow to the Adgon species' world, following the black passage and the vast light serving as its source. The aggregation was pure Mana itself.

Looking inside, I found multiple glimmers, almost like stars embedded in space.

'Mana Cores. A myriad of them, even.'

The flow rotated, winding around the center, and inside of that was an engine that operated the System.

It was the power source where a fearsome amount of Mana gathered.

'The Mana Core of the dead Awakened are summoned hack here. It then sends the Core back into a new monster's heart. This is the source of everything and the link to the cycle.'

The Mana Core activated by the Awakened, in the end, was technically recycled and returned to beasts.

Meanwhile, that was also the source of the Adgons' outrageous amount of Mana they demonstrated during the war.

"I am bold to speak to thee."

The Adgon reported politely as if he were facing a god. I looked at the subject of his worship.

Its shape on the surface was of a vast sphere comparable to that of a planet, sprouting up like a bump. As with the main body, there was a creature shaped by the light of blinding Mana.

'The Ministry Spirit? No, it's a little different.'

She listened with a hard-to-read expression.

The information was about the war status. According to it, the Adgons were still holding out well, but if it continued, there would be a shortage of Mana, which served as the energy source, and he appealed that more supply was needed.

When the Adgon finished speaking and made himself smaller, the Spirit answered.

- I see. I will increase the supply of Mana right away.

Relief spread over his face almost instantaneously.

"I will do my best to crush the enemy."

- It's a matter of course.

Just by looking at the conversation's tone, I knew that he had dedicated his loyalty to the Administrator. A mortal had been subjugated by the Spirit, which used to be an 'operating system' for growth and fostering.

- And today, I must compliment you.

"?!"

As if he didn't expect it, he looked up at the Administrator with anticipation. However, he froze when he heard what followed shortly afterward.

- You've come with a tail because of your dull senses and poor abilities. Well done. I wouldn't have been able to confirm it myself if you drove him out by causing a scene outside.

"!"

The Adgon's complexion turned pale. But the Administrator spoke as if she was genuinely satisfied.

- This is not a reproach. It became a great opportunity to deal with him with my own hands.

At that moment-

A feeling that every surrounding space was staring at me ran through my body.

'Oh, damn it!'

The black fog that hid the place from the monsters of the void wriggled. Simultaneously, everything surrounding me suppressed, struck, scratched, and went wild.

The black wave split, and it repeated the process of making an awl-like prong. Soon, the objects intertwined and came rushing as if they were sweeping at me.

"A-Administrator!"

The Adgon, who got caught up in the storm of colossal power, screamed. But she didn't mind. Meanwhile, I busied myself by cutting off the strands of darkness interwoven like a whip with divine power.

The brightly shining female figure looked closely at me.

Her mouth opened.

- Oh, my foolish father.

"?!"

"W-what?!"

My expression distorted, and the Adgon blurted out a baffling sound. The Administrator, however, continued to speak calmly. Her gaze was still fixed on me.

- You've finally reached this place after countless reincarnations. I've tried my best for the time being, but I've never had you in my hands like this.

She implied that the Administrator had never caught the successor.

But the truth was that if I were to look back into the past, that didn't happen simply because whenever it did, time was rewound.

Every time such a disaster was repeated, I regressed due to the power of a god. That caused my life to be repeated, preventing the incident from going down in history.

Not even the Administrator's memories could've had such information.

'However, I don't know how I'm going to re-cycle if I die this time! I have to survive, no matter what!'

There was a vivid emotion in the eyes of the Spirit looking at me. It was close to hatred or even an obsession.

It was too intense to be from a spiritless entity.

Currrrrrrr!

A strong force stormed, erasing all the shadows, and I kept an eye on the Administrator while pushing it away. In doing so, I saw a red wave wobbling in it.

'As expected, that's-!'

Traces of Mercadius.

A fragment of the crazed god had contaminated even the mind of the System.

'Had it acted as a puppet?!'

The moment I thought about so-

Something deep inside me, that was both like memory and emotion, abruptly rose.

After receiving consecutive rewards from the gods and rising to the half-god state, I felt that the memories buried in the unconscious gradually returned. However, due to the incident, as if the wall suddenly collapsed and the waves rushed in, it filled my head.

It was all experiences and thoughts that I had never gone through as Seo Jin-Wook.

But in the end, I was sure that had to be 'mine' too.

Boosh!

The flash burning from my body gnawed away and scorched the darkness. The Administrator only looked at it with a strange smile and remained unwavering.

I spoke to it.

Rather than Seo Jin-Wook, my multiple reincarnations, the ones that had lasted through long periods of time using reincarnation, simultaneously spoke, having gathered the will.

"This is not what the future Empire's citizens wanted before they sent me back in time."

They hoped to preserve as many dimensions as possible, save as many species as possible, and lead them to the future.

To make history different from the future that had already been destroyed once, they had to secure more diverse possibilities than they had back then. The plan was to save all that we could and help descendants succeed.

In fact, many of the successors' destinies were to help the species in danger of collapse.

However, the System that was supposed to help that process... that same operating System was interfering!

Even in the cycle where she recognized the successor's existence, she directly prevented him from fulfilling his destiny!

"What you're doing now is 'thinning out' because it's sugarcoated, but it's actually a genocide against those who don't meet the standards."

And-

"I never allowed you to apply those standards at will."

The Spirit laughed.

- It's hard to understand. You're the one who gave me the ability to choose, but now you're blaming me for making that choice.

She spoke confidently.

- Your standards are wrong. An Empire created by dragging everyone without a dropout will eventually lead to greater chaos. I know it because I've been watching it. And now I have clear and rational standards. Hence, I'll choose which species to lead to the Empire and which one to leave behind. I have the right as I had to watch alone the numerous species blooming and dying in a period that spanned eons!

The moment the darkness around me raged, I gathered divine power in the Holy Sword and willed it to burst.