Chapter 77: "She is the old model, I am the latest model"
Just as he stepped forward to try his sword against it, the [Void] disappeared. The floating Diana dropped to her knees, huffing and puffing from exhaustion.
Color slowly returned to the region, but the ground, the buildings, and the structures within a 500-meter radius were gone for good.
As Diana forced herself back up, Arthur wanted to attack her, but a sudden violet glow enveloped his body, making him stop. He might manage to kill Diana now, but he would likely die trying.
This teleportation circle was the only way for him to safely leave together with the others.
...
As Sara activated the massive magic circle, a violet glow appeared on her and everyone in the city, except Diana.
Besides, Diana probably wouldn’t want to come with them anyway, considering where they were going.
This was Sara’s master plan.
The Lens over her left eye activated, calculating how to make the magic circle slip past the city’s defenses, allowing them to mass-teleport out despite the restrictions.
It was incredibly risky, but much like the divine skill Arthur had used when he first entered the city, the array’s defense against humans depended on the strength of the City Ruler.
If a monster or a Devil tried the same thing, the System would take over, making a mass teleportation like this completely impossible.
But since it was targeting humans, a magical loophole like what Sara was currently exploiting could actually be done...
She had already figured out it was Arthur who had caused the commotion yesterday, giving her a lot more confidence. After all, she was using a very powerful Divine Artifact as the spell’s anchor.
As for the Class Awakening Divine Artifact back in the Academy, they would unfortunately have to abandon it. It couldn’t be helped...
As the violet glow intensified, everyone in the Desert City felt their bodies grow light, pulled toward somewhere far, yet somehow close...
...
Diana looked at him with a sneer. "So this was your and Sara’s grand plan? To cowardly escape?" she mocked, trying to rile Arthur up.
But Arthur was not stupid, most of the time, at least. "Yes," he replied simply, not saying another word.
Diana then taunted, "What will you do if this teleportation is just another one of our traps?"
Arthur didn’t respond. He fully understood it might be a trap within a trap, but if he went around distrusting anything and everything just because of his past experiences and prejudice, he might hesitate at a critical moment, causing irreversible damage.
Indecisiveness was a fatal sin. Arthur knew that from bitter experience.
As the violet glow reached its peak, he and everyone else in the city instantly teleported away to the Dream City.
He had to bitterly admit that, unlike himself who had been drunk on past glory and utterly useless when the time actually came, Sara had actually managed to save the people of her city.
...
In the Dream City
Sara’s Soul Projection started to burn. Unlike in the Desert City, where she had her magical lens, the divine chessboard and other people to share the burden, here she had no such luxury.
So, she used her own Soul Projection as the anchor, burning it permanently to forcefully summon the receiving teleportation circle.
A massive violet magic circle formed and started expanding.
As she burned her soul, the Dream City’s defense arrays frantically tried to stop it, but they couldn’t suppress someone literally burning their own existence for raw power. The teleportation circle completely overpowered the city’s array as her projection started to grow faint.
Just before the Soul Projection could disperse, the citizens from the Desert City started appearing in the Dream City uninvited.
When Sara’s main physical body finally materialized, she quickly took over control of the spell just as the Soul Projection dissipated into nothingness.
Unbearable pain permeated her soul as she desperately struggled to keep the magic circle active.
The Soul Projection she had just sacrificed was lost forever; it was the heavy price she had to pay to save those people.
Just as the final person teleported through, she immediately disabled the magic circle.
Looking up from the ground, she saw Zora standing before her with a cold face. It was already a miracle the City Ruler didn’t just finish her off on sight for breaching her defenses.
Zora glared down at her and demanded only one word: "Explain."
....
Night’s POV
In his room, Night’s eyes snapped wide open in the dark. He was physically shaking, his breath coming in rapid, panicked gasps.
Night heard Sara’s worried voice beside him. "Are you alright?"
Night was not alright. Because of the lingering memories transferred from Levi Rose, he had just realized a horrifying truth: he was really just a 7-year-old lab experiment with no genuine past of his own.
Not knowing what else to do with this soul-crushing revelation, he did what any normal 7-year-old kid would do...
He cried.
...
Back in the City Square
After Sara explained exactly what she did and why to Zora...
Surprisingly, Zora didn’t violently rebuke her. She just stood there with a thoughtful expression.
Then, Zora received a message on her communication device.
Immediately, she looked down at Sara and said, "You take a rest." She then teleported away.
Sara looked relieved. Arthur had probably just explained to Zora what had happened in the Desert City.
She could feel the searing pain in her soul slowly fade away, but the destruction of a Soul Projection would cause irreversible damage to her future cultivation potential.
Sighing heavily, she asked Blade telepathically where they were meeting and then teleported directly to Night’s room.
...
In Night’s Room
As she walked near the bed, the half of her Soul Projection that had stayed behind to guard Night dissolved and merged back into her main body.
Looking at Night crying his eyes out, she didn’t know what had happened in his dream.
But whatever it was, they would just have to deal with it together. The world was currently showing signs of chaos, much like the dark times before the System.
Night, finally done with crying, looked up at Sara with fresh and dried tears staining his face. "I want to go home," he whispered.
Sara didn’t know what to say. Should she really tell a crying kid that his home was completely gone?
After thinking for a moment, she offered a gentle smile. "The old home was too small anyway. Let me search for a new home for us. Didn’t you say you were incredibly rich?"
Night looked at her, puzzled. "Wh... why? What happened? The old home was fine."
Sara moved close to him and gently held his cheeks. "For some complicated reasons, we will have to stay in the Dream City from now on. And here, I have no clout. The truth is, I am practically homeless right now. I was wondering... maybe I could stay at your place? After you buy a nice one, of course."
Night looked at her warily, but slowly nodded and agreed.
"Where can we buy a house around here?" Night asked.
Sara waved her hand. "Don’t worry, I will just buy one in the System Shop. You just need to transfer the cash."
Night blinked. "They sell houses in there, too?"
"You would be surprised. You can buy almost anything in the Shop..." Sara said.
"Anything?" Night repeated.
"Anything..." Sara confirmed.
As she pulled out a wooden chair from her spatial ring and sat down to start browsing digital real estate, Night decided to finally check his new [Dream System].
[Dream System Status]
Name: Nightmare (Night)
Race: Human / Unique Being (Dormant)
Class: Summoner
Profession: Refiner
Level: 20 (EXP: 50/21000)
Energy Value (EV): 14,062 EV
Aspect: [Nightmare]
Titles: [Awakened], [Ambitious Hunter]
Skills:
[Sensitive Nose (Common) (Lvl. 10)], [Beast Instinct (Common) (Lvl. 11)], [Basic Knife Proficiency (Common) (Lvl. 10)], [Pack (Rare) (Lvl. 10)], [Advance Claw Proficiency (Rare) (Lvl. 1)], [Wind Dash (Uncommon) (Lvl. 1)], [Wind Overdrive (Epic) (Lvl. 1)], [Summon (Common) (Summons - 1/1)], [Body Modification (Common) (Lvl. 1)]
Unique Skills: [Nightmare Domain], [Summon Evolution]
Summons: [Eve], [Lilith], [Death], [Lucy], [Sage]
The status screen looked purplish instead of the standard blue color he had before. Aside from that, the interface didn’t look remarkably different, except for the new [Race] section and the fact that it now displayed his Profession.
He had been expecting much more from this new system, like some flashy special feature... this looked a bit too lackluster.
Looking closely at his race, Night thought in confusion, Human? How? Wasn’t I a Artificial Human? What happened... Also, what exactly is this ’Unique Being (Dormant)’?
This fundamental change must be directly related to [Dream]. She gave off an divine feeling to him.
She must have been a Goddess in the past and from what he had seen so far, they seemed to possess mysterious means to make the impossible possible.
Am I a true human like Sara now or a Unique Being like Blade?
Previously, trivial things like race wouldn’t have mattered to him in the slightest. But now that he realized his past was a completely fabricated blank slate, he desperately craved a sense of belonging, even if it was just a simple racial classification.
[Hee.. hee.. Hello, Night.]
(.>﹏<.)
Night looked around in surprise. It was the voice of the crying girl from the legacy.
[No... Not outside... Inside.]
Inside?
He leaned his back comfortably against the wall and closed his eyes. In a moment, his consciousness was pulled inside his soul spaceand he was not expecting what he saw there...
He quickly formed a mental avatar with a single thought and stood directly beside the crying girl.
She screamed, "Aaah!" as she scrambled backward, clearly not expecting someone to just magically appear right next to her.
＼(º □ º l|l)／
Night scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you."
After she finally calmed down, she gently took his hand and said with deep emotion, "Than... thanks for actually believing in me."
(* ॑꒳ ॑* )
Night felt embarrassed. He really didn’t expect her to change moods so suddenly...
Night looked past her and saw the mature woman, [Dream], spreading a beautiful purple fog throughout his soul space, blanketing his dark [Nightmare Domain]. He asked, "How are you two...?"
The girl backed away and pointed dismissively. "Oh, her? She is the old model." Puffing up her small chest proudly, she declared, "I am the latest model!"
ᕙ( ˘▽˘ )ᕗ
He clearly saw [Dream] freeze for a split second before smoothly continuing whatever mystical adjustments she was doing...
He thought to himself, rubbing his chin, She does look a lot older....
Only for [Dream] to immediately pause, slowly turn her head and level a cold glare at him...
Shit! I forgot she can read my thoughts...
( ￣ー￣ );