Chapter 945 - This is bad (Patreon)

I shut off the memory as quickly as possible, with the world around us disappearing as if someone were shutting off the lights in a huge hangar. It starts at the edge first, and then, with increasing speed, moves towards the center. There is even a distinct echo of heavy mechanical thumps through the darkness as the lights switch off and parts of the memory fade away.

In the end, it is only me and Nerdthaniel sitting on manabloc chairs and facing each other. What surrounds us is a pitch black darkness and a single cone of light falling from straight above us, creating a perfect circle of light around us.

"This is bad," he says.

"Very fucking bad," I agree with him.

He adjusts his wizard hat a few times before he pulls it off and holds it in his hands, squeezing the brim as he thinks deeply over it.

"We have always hypothesized about the exact limits of the system and its sensory penetration into your consciousness. Can it observe our active cognitive processes? Can it read the deep synaptic architecture of our memories? Does it understand our very beings more than we do?" he mutters.

"I think it cannot," I say.

"I counter that with the fact that the system perfectly replicated every being for use in the tutorial."

"If you are right, then this conversation does not even make sense, and we could drop it right here. It would mean that the system is observing what we are doing and recording us since we are part of the system as well," I counter.

"That is correct. One day, even we ourselves might be reused for the purpose of the tutorial and turned into its natives. If that is correct, then the system knows this as well as all the memories of the Demigod, as it replicated it for the floor."

"Yes, but then the question is if that woman did fail in whatever she was doing? Did the gods fix it afterwards? Was the fact about the flaw in the barrier to the World of Gods already exploited, meaning that this information is old and not applicable anymore?"

As I talk, Nerdthaniel keeps nodding, as he seems to agree with me. Then, at some point, he puts his hat back on his head.

"But," he says.

"But," I agree.

"If the information still applies, if the bits of information about the importance of the world of the gods we got from Ruby are correct, and if the Celestial Boundary is truly unbreakable." He begins, and I continue.

"Then, if someone learns we have a hint of information about how to get through, we are royally fucked. By royally, I really mean royally. Imagine Pride appearing on the first floor of the tutorial and personally hunting down the Phantom Goblin, that level of fucked. Lissandra finding out that there is a guy from Easy Difficulty who took pictures of her ass during the tournament. SUCH level of fucked."

Nerdthaniel stares at me for a few moments, blinking and likely showing off his active state pupils, before shaking his head.

"But damn, it would be nice to sell the information. People would drool over it for sure. I want to sell it to the system shop or to a Ruler or two. Maybe for a billion or a trillion shards, even if I do not know what we could buy with it. A shitload of pristine items? Would that amount of shards in our bank account unlock a platinum shop membership and allow us to buy something better? Well, whatever." I give up and stare at my submind, who stayed quiet during my rant.

Nerdthaniel speaks as if nothing happened. "If the system knows, and if the information applies, then it would mean that it is highly possible that more people know. But in such a case, it does not make sense. There are beings in the system that would already use the information to break the Celestial Boundary and to restart the system war, even if only for better rewards from the system. There are surely enough people willing to do that. The system itself should logically be inclined toward that as well, not wanting to allow the gods to make further preparations," he says.

I nod multiple times in agreement. I also think the system would not wait. After all, and this information was thrown at me by Kindness the other day, it is highly possible that due to the Timeless Void’s part in the creation of the Celestial Boundary, World of Gods is experiencing time dilation. Likely nothing too extreme, given a scale that is probably too vast for even a godking to handle. But still…

Simply put, it means more time passes for them than for us, allowing them to grow stronger and prepare for a renewed war, and they’ve probably been at it for quite a while already.

That information was thrown at me as if it were nothing, despite how earthshaking this revelation is. Just thinking about it for longer than one second reveals how genuinely terrifying this is. Just how much time has passed for the gods already? What are they preparing under the barrier surrounding their world?

Ever since the Ruler of Sloth located the World of Gods, there are most likely dozens of the most powerful people and organizations in the universe trying to break the Celestial Boundary. I cannot even fathom the reward likely placed for breaking it. And the Ruler of Sloth probably also got a nice reward or two for locating the place.

All this information is something that, as a mere attendee, I likely should not have, though I do not regret learning it. How could I?

However, knowing this just gives me a reason to worry about the things I can't do anything about. Human mind is just like that.

But the worst part of it is how powerless I feel about this all.

The second system war itself could happen in a year, maybe in ten, or maybe in a hundred. That level of time scale is nothing to the beings that will have the biggest say in the war. Even though it's unknown when it will start, or who will start it, it feels inevitable.

"So we are mostly inclined to think that the system does not know? Do we agree on that?" I ask my submind.

Even after thinking about it for a while already, Nerdthaniel gives himself a few more seconds while I look at the dark space beyond the light falling on us.

"I am more inclined to believe the assumption that the system does not know. We know that this version of the tutorial is not the original, and instead, it is the one the Rulers led by Ruby made, so it is highly likely it is imperfect. While I do not think the system would be unable to see memories due to a lack of resources or processing power, there is a possibility that there are rules holding it back from looking that deep, or it simply cannot reveal what it has seen." he says in the end.

"To me, it sounds like you decided to go with the conclusion that there is a flaw in the Celestial Boundary and that no one knows about it? Be it gods or the system?"

"Or that if someone knows, they are hiding it, while waiting for the right time to use it. If you look at it from our perspective, we also do not know much. We just know there might be a flaw."

“And that is fuck all useful. We just do not have enough memories from the Demigod to learn about the flaw. So the best we can do is to try to track the Demigod outside of the tutorial, hoping it is still alive, and then we have ourselves information I currently have no idea what we would do with,” I say.

“That is correct. Going with that conclusion forces us toward higher precautions, and that is always better than just doing nothing.”

“We have to forget.” I agree with myself.

“Yes,” he says. “The question is how? It might be possible for us to delete that memory entirely, but in that case, there would be nothing we have gained. The way we decide to deal with it also needs to be done now, within our mind. The situation where the system does not see deeper thoughts and the Demigod was just copy-pasted would be perfect for us, but even if that is not the case and the system knows, we need to hide it from others. At least for now, until we are powerful enough.”

“There is a chance that we will be hiding it for so long that the information will become useless.”

“Correct.”

“Yeah,” I sigh. “So how about a submind? One that would hide itself deep inside, even from us, in a way that we would not even know about it?”

“I approve of that solution,” Nerdthaniel agrees.

“Me too!” a third voice says.

There is a loud scraping noise as someone in the darkness drags an object across the floor. It sounds exactly like a metal chair grinding against concrete, and the noise is truly annoying. However, as the figure steps into the light, the dragged object is revealed to be just another manabloc chair.

With the clacking noise of an old, loud, mechanical switch, a new beam shines on us slightly from the side while the original tilts to match the angle. They line up, leaving the three of us in a perfect circle of light.

“Sup, bitches,” the young boy, a kid, says. He is wearing old clothes, and there is a bleached red blanket wrapped around his shoulders as he gives a wide grin.

“Language,” both I and Nerdthaniel say.

In response, he crosses his legs and weaves his fingers together, looking at us over them with a confident smirk. “I am Sneaky, Sneakythaniel Gwyn, the main of the Thaniels, first of our lineage. The most important one. Call me the boss.”

We both watch him as he playfully yet dramatically gives a sigh and brushes some hair off his forehead before giving us an intense gaze.

“And I am tired of this shit. I am overworked, I am not appreciated. Do you two assholes-”

“-Assholethaniel is outside,” Nerdthaniel corrects him.

“-even know how many times a thing like this has happened? I am peacefully resting, hiding information, but then one of us gets an idea to hide something. Like, 'Hey Sneaky, please hide this,' or 'Hey Sneaky, please hide this slightly awkward memory.' 'Hey Sneaky, please hide this information from Adrian and group 4.' 'Hey Sneaky, why the fuck can't I get a tenth skill?'”

He slams his hands against the armrests of the chair. “One hundred sixty nine-”

“Nice.”

“-that is how many times I have been asked that. Then there is Mapthaniel hunting me down! That asshole too forgets about me, but he keeps mapping our body and mind, finding discrepancies, and always ends up looking for me. I wish I could lobotomize him. And what is with the constant 'Sneaky, why the fuck can't I get a tenth skill?' Why? Because I am fucking hiding it, and I pride myself on doing a good fucking job! At least that stopped now that we have nine skills in total, so the lack of getting a new one just comes down to your pathetic level of skill.”

“Our,” Nerdthaniel corrects him.

“Are you mimicking Lissandra?” I ask the boy.

Then we sit there in silence until, like some sort of gangster, Sneaky snaps his fingers. One of the lights disappears, and the second one starts dimming out.

He is gone already as well, in a swirl of his pale red blanket, and from somewhere in the darkness, his fading voice echoes, “I will hide it, of course. So until then, bitches!”

The last thing I hear from him is a laugh that is so forced and loud that it turns into coughing, and then he is gone.

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