Chapter 193 (1/2)

Final Battle (4)

The Administrator looked at the horrible scene as if her spirit had departed.

‘Why the hell are they doing this?!’

Madness.

That was the only plausible explanation. Everyone had gone mad.

– Kyaaaaaa!

– S-save me!

– Invaders from an alien world… W-we can’t hold out. The difference in power is… Argh!

The war on the battlefield was one-sided. Infrastructures collapsed, burned, and smoke rose. Bodies were scattered all over the place. Deafening screams and cries filled the air.

The invaders that developed a superior civilization trampled on the weak without hesitation and used their swords to pierce through their hearts and cut them out.

They then held their prey’s bloody Mana Core in their hands and laughed, causing the Administrator to despair.

‘I didn’t give you those Cores and items to do such a vile act!’

Core and items were objects given to help progress civilizations and protect themselves from monsters. She didn’t mean for them to attack, kill, and extort from each other in that way.

The Administrator had no soul, but she had been around for a long time to attain emotions, and the seed, which had been slowly inflating in her body, eventually blossomed that day.

It was a blood-scented flower.

It produced the most intense feeling she had ever felt since she was created.

It could be expressed as something close to disgust and fear.

‘I can’t leave it like this. I have to change the terms of the contract!’

The Administrator’s powers couldn’t defeat the Awakened beings’ will to slaughter since she couldn’t meddle with free will.

Hence, she changed the terms of the contract instead within the acceptable range by the successor who designed the System.

‘The System will retrieve their Mana Core after they die.’

It was to prevent them from killing each other for the sole purpose of looting Cores. After it was returned posthumously, it was reabsorbed by the engine that operated her.

The Administrator finally felt relieved. Expecting no more ruthless bloodshed and brutal hunting to continue, she encouraged contractors to focus on their original purpose.

‘Your enemy is not the mortal! Stop the Red Gate monsters from invading!’

However, the Gate’s opening frequency was low, and several dimensions’ technology and forces were enough to stop the inhabitants of the void.

Forces with nowhere to release would eventually burst out like a hole in the pocket.

The invaders didn’t stop the invasion.

‘What?! What the hell?’

The Administrator, who couldn’t understand the concept of desire, could decipher their behavior, but it was only natural for them.

The invaders, who developed a palate for looting and colonization, attacked other dimensions for economic reasons instead.

She underestimated their greed.

Even if they couldn’t collect Cores from the heart, it’s not that the number of supplies from the Tower was gone. In other words, even the weak species could continue to get Cores from the Tower as before, and the invaders even sought them. Other natural resources and items were also looting targets.

‘Why are you all so greedy? How much and what more is it that you want?!’

They didn’t need to insist on other methods since they realized how easy it was to loot them.

Distressed, she attempted to restrict interdimensional movement permanently, but since it was against the direction of the successor who created the System, it couldn’t be implemented.

The Spirit had to admit that she had limited means of control over them.

At that moment, someone approached her.

*

There was something that residents of all dimensions rarely questioned.

Was there a true body to the concept called the System? Then where was it?

In fact, there existed a nucleus that became the source of the System, but no mortal had ever witnessed it.

There was a reason for that.

That’s because it wasn’t in the world they lived in.

Instead, it was beyond the Red Gate, in the void.

The successor who created the System explained it to the Administrator.

– This place where the exiled gods reside is the closest place where we can borrow their power. And it’s also the best place to monitor the movements of monsters in the void. Keep a close watch, and if the Red Gate shows signs of opening, you should notify the contracted beings immediately.

The Administrator initially agreed to respond to the situation without question and emotion.

However, since much of her had changed due to time’s passing, she was in despair in the void.

Then she heard a voice.

‘Do you want me to help you?’

The Spirit was aghast.

The successor didn’t throw the nucleus of the System into the void, in the enemy camp, without any countermeasures. He had hidden it thoroughly and spread out a black barrier that isolated it from the surrounding space.

But the voice that spoke to the Administrator had too easily penetrated such shield.

‘No, it wasn’t easy. It took quite a long time. Don’t worry. The monsters here don’t know yet. If they knew, they would be running toward here already.’

The voice rang in the distance. Far beyond the black wall.

‘I also can’t get in there. But I think we can talk. What do you say? Even if it’s just for a second.’

The Spirit had to admit.

How long had it been since she had a conversation like that? Despite her anger and frustration, she was pleased with the situation.

According to the successor’s instructions, instead of talking to the contractors herself, the mechanized System message, or control cognition, was entrusted to it.

The opportunity to exchange words after a long time was like rain sprinkling on dry soil.

‘Who are… You?’

She noticed that it wasn’t her creator, the successor that hasn’t been around for a long time already.

The voice replied calmly.

‘The remains of a deity that dissolved into small pieces.’

‘The god of the mind!’

‘To be precise, we are his traces.’

Incarnations of a species that would later be called Mercadius, the colony gave the Spirit a suggestion.

‘Do you want us to solve it?’

‘… What?’

The fallen incarnations were all too aware of the Spirit’s troubles.

She didn’t know that mental waves and memories were gradually leaking out of the curtain while she was buried in the void for many years.

She wasn’t aware either that the sneaky incarnations came for her due to it.