novelraw Chapter 224
Chapter 224
“Of course.”
Neril asked,
“Hero System?”
“We created our own ‘laws of the world’. We first built the cornerstone, which was the core law, and then we slowly constructed the Hero System in a way that would benefit humanity.”
“You are saying we made that?”
“Strictly speaking, Mr. Mide laid the entire foundation. We only added the details.”
“……!”
In that moment, Trail slapped his knee.
“I see! Now it finally makes sense.”
“What, what does?” “The levels were way too straightforward. ‘A little famous’, ‘quite famous’, ‘immensely famous’, ‘chosen by the world’. Seriously.”
“…….”
“Just from the naming sense alone… no, never mind.”
Trail noticed the looks from the party members who didn’t yet know about my naming sense, and closed his mouth.
Only Bion was snickering.
“I begged him to fix it, but he absolutely insisted.”
“That’s not the point right now.”
“Yes. I know you would love to change the topic.”
“I’m being serious. I’m trying to get rid of the Hero System, and you are telling me I am the one who created it?”
Bion straightened her posture.
“Our task was the permanence and prosperity of humanity. But if the accumulation of negative energy kept growing unchecked, eventually another being like the Primordial Demon King might appear. No, if we did nothing, one would appear.”
“…….”
“Once it happens, it’s too late. That’s why you came up with the idea. Instead of letting the energy build up endlessly, it’s better to release the pressure from time to time.”
“So you created the existence known as the Demon King…”
“And we created the Hero System meant to kill the Demon King.”
Her expression dimmed slightly as she continued.
“Mr. Mide’s intention originally ended there, but I added one more element. That a hero who slays the Demon King would be gifted the world’s embrace and sent to a new world.”
“…….”
“When a hero slays the Demon King, the negative energy concentrated in the Demon King’s core disperses and disappears. Instead of wasting that massive energy source, I decided we should use it to create a new world.”
“I knew it. My personality would never pick building new worlds.”
“Yes. Mr. Mide only cared about preventing humanity from going extinct. But I wanted humanity to spread and advance. Although…”
She looked a bit sulky.
“Although we fought a lot over that difference.”
Neril cut in with a strangely smug expression.
“With Mide’s personality, he would hate bothersome, effort-heavy tasks like that. You must not know Mide very well.”
“I have seen him far longer than you, Neril.”
“Same difference. I was at that research lab too.”
“But you don’t remember…”
“Which proves my point. You knew him for longer and still didn’t understand his personality.”
Bion clamped her mouth shut.
But soon she snapped back with an irritated face.
“That annoying winner’s smirk of yours never changes.”
“Aha. So I was winning even back then?”
“……Let’s get back on topic.”
“Gladly.”
What are they even talking about?
At that moment, Offense spoke.
“By ‘topic’, you mean the time when the Research Lab started falling apart, right?”
“Why do you assume it fell apart?”
“Because out of the 300 people who were there, not a single one remains now. Only you.”
“…….”
“Impelium, Serad, Grade, Lepia, Leon. And finally the six of us. All disappeared from the lab in the end. Something serious must have happened.”
Bion sighed.
“Offense, you were just as annoying back then.”
“Was I?”
“Ahaha. Offense, were you like that even then?”
“Yes. Almost as much as Serein.”
“Why me…”
“Anyway, you are right. Something big happened. Something we never imagined.”
Tak.
She brought up the screen window again.
“Aktion appeared.”
It happened around the 180,000-year mark.
A full assembly was being held.
Three hundred people sat together, each speaking passionately into the mic in front of them.
At the highest seat of the meeting room, Mide spoke.
“Everyone, calm down. What matters now isn’t assigning blame.”
“No, we must assign blame.”
One of the researchers, who had practically worshipped Mide, burst out,
“As of today, remove Bion from her position!”
“Right, right!”
“Mide warned us! He said gifting heroes new worlds was dangerous!”
“Yeah, he clearly said a corrupted hero might appear.”
“Bion opposed Mide under the pretext of ‘spreading humanity across the universe’. In the end, she added her own rule to the Hero System.”
Mide frowned.
They were pointing fingers at Bion, who had worked with them for 180,000 years to maintain the world.
‘They are trying to get on my good side?’
Did they not understand that I hated that sort of behavior the most?
“Sniff…”
Bion sat in her seat like a criminal, head lowered, tears falling.
Mide’s instincts told him:
Those tears aren’t fake, she was truly grieving.
It was she who had suggested and pushed for that rule.
The rule that a hero who defeated the Demon King would be gifted a new world.
Instead of wasting the scattered negative energy, they would use it to spread humanity.
Her intentions hadn’t been evil.
‘But intentions don’t matter now.’
She wiped her tears again and again, thinking:
‘I made an irreversible mistake. I should have listened to Mr. Mide.’
At first, Aktion seemed to govern his new world well.
But even there, a Demon King appeared without fail.
Aktion summoned heroes again and again, countless times, to save his world.
But eventually, it collapsed.
He lost all hope for humanity… and in the end, erased every human in his world.
‘Can we undo the rule now? The one about gifting worlds?’
Impossible.
Because…
At that moment, someone shouted,
“It’s too late to revoke the rule! It’s one of the cornerstone laws created at the very beginning!”
“We know.”
“I…I wasn’t talking to you, Mide! I was talking to Bion!”
“As you can see, she can’t answer right now. Speak calmly, I will respond on her behalf.”
“Hrmm.”
The researcher cleared his throat.
“To revise a core law, we need approval from more than half of all humans, don’t we?”
“…….”
“And putting approval aside, we can’t even reveal to the public that the world runs on this system. Right?”
“…….”
“Aktion even learned how to move between worlds. He will hop bodies and wreak havoc.”
He clicked his tongue.
“All of this is Bion’s fault. I’m not being emotional, I’m stating facts.”
Drip, drip.
Tears fell onto Bion’s hand.
Then Neril’s voice cut through.
“Hey, you.”
“You, you? Neril. Even if you are Sir Mide’s mate…….”
“Why are you bringing up personal stuff here? And you must really think everyone forgot what happened hundreds of thousands of years ago, but I remember you were pretty openly in favor of Bion’s idea too, you know?”
The researcher flinched in shock.
Bion looked up at Neril, who was sitting beside her.
They had fought endlessly with Mide between them, but now she was genuinely defending her.
‘Neril…….’
Then another voice came.
“That’s right. Everything involving the Hero System… no, everything about managing the worlds has always been decided by our votes.”
“I voted against it. Xenia.”
“Shall we check the records? I’m pretty sure back then we switched from anonymous to signed ballots.”
“N-No. No need for that.”
The shriveled researcher immediately shut up.
In Mide’s own memory, over 80 percent had supported Bion’s opinion then.
That’s why even he, as head of the lab, couldn’t refuse it.
Offense spoke.
“Let’s move to something practical. What are we going to do about Aktion? Which world is he in right now?”
“Saberet’s world. The one he got after defeating the Demon King of Arrogance.”
“Tch. A newly created one. With Saberet’s ability, he won’t be able to deal with Aktion. That’s bad.”
“If we help him, maybe…”
Serein shook her head.
“No. Our energy source. We already confirmed it: it can’t be used in other worlds.”
“Ugh.”
“Saberet’s world was created with the negative energy that came from killing the Demon King of Arrogance. If we try to help him with ‘all the negative energy,’ the world itself would collapse.”
The force that runs the worlds in this lab is negative energy.
Using that energy on a world created from a single fraction of it would only destroy the world.
Mide thought for a long time, then spoke.
“We will contact Saberet through the Eye of Omniscience.”
“What? You mean reveal our existence? That won’t get a good reaction.”
True.
The ones who created the system that summons Demon Kings are sitting right here.
No former Hero who fought with their life on the line would welcome that.
“Still, we have to warn him. It’s the least we can do.”
“Ah, understood.”
So Mide contacted Saberet.
The reaction was exactly what they expected.
—You created the Demon King? Why, why on earth!
“We…”
—And Aktion was a Hero just like me? Heh. How amusing.
“……”
—So both I and Aktion were toys rolling around on your palm. Does deceiving people like that make you happy?
Everything that came after was equally miserable.
As the conversation continued, the atmosphere in the conference room only grew heavier.
Bion thought, her face pale.
‘So that’s…… how they take it.’
Saberet even said he sympathized more with Aktion’s feelings.
He even said he would join forces with Aktion himself and cut the communication on his own.
The meeting froze completely and dissolved without resolution.
100 years later.
Everyone in the lab learned that Saberet’s world had been destroyed.
Bion closed the screen window.
And with a face that looked ready to burst into tears, she said:
“After Saberet, Aktion kept going, searching for new worlds. His movements continued for 40,000 years.”
“…….”
“For the reason you just saw on the screen… we couldn’t help any of them. Helping them would have destroyed their worlds.”
“…….”
“Mr. Mide kept trying to warn them, but only a tiny number of Heroes ever listened. And even those Heroes couldn’t stop Aktion.”
Everyone let out the breath they had been holding.
A gesture meaning: let’s just breathe for a moment.
Adwin spoke.
“But those lab people were kind of ridiculous. They made the same choices but pinned it all on Bion noona.”
“I was the one who suggested the idea first. And… are you calling me ‘noona’ too now?”
“I treat everyone equally except Mr. Offense.”
“Can I be included too?”
Neril spoke.
“Is it something to get that depressed over?”
“Huh?”
“It was only Aktion, right? Out of the Hero System that continued for 230,000 years, the only one who fell was Aktion.”
“…….”
“So you can put the tears away. Aktion is at fault, not you.”
“Neril.”
Bion smiled faintly.
“Why do you become so kind at the strangest times?”
“Must be the ease of the victor.”
“That suddenly pisses me off.”
Lisel grinned and joined in, trying to lighten the heavy mood.
“Come to think of it, that means Grade and I have been together since then? I knew it. Not a normal connection.”
“Yes, well. You were annoying every time I saw you though.”
“What about you, Serein? Honestly, I’m most curious about this.”
“Pretty much the same.”
“The same, huh…… unfortunate, Serein.”
Serein exploded.
“What the… are you saying I was single for 230,000 years?”
“Ah. No, no. You did have a fine partner. I meant your personalities were similar.”
“That’s also annoying… anyway, who was my partner?”
“Someone you know very well.”
“……huh? No. You are joking, right?”
“…….”
“Don’t roll your eyes.”
“More importantly, let me tell you why Serein reincarnated as the soul called Pirensha.”
“Don’t change the subject.”
I’m curious about that too.
But thinking she would naturally reveal it soon anyway, Adwin lit up and spoke first.
“Forget Serein for now. What about me? Was I popular?”
“The conversation keeps going weird, but yes, Adwin, you were popular.”
“Oh. Hehe.”
“But you were… a bit free-spirited in your dating habits…”
“…….”
“No, nothing serious.”
Wham.
Xenia punched Adwin on the head.
“What, why?!”
“I knew it from the beginning.”
Only after that whole chaotic outburst did a complete smile return to Bion’s face.
Good to see.
Life at the lab, though I don’t remember it, must have been similar to this.
I straightened my posture and said:
“Will you continue?”
“Yes. After wreaking havoc in world after world for 40,000 years, Aktion finally set his direction toward ‘Mide’s world.’”
“…….”
“When we realized that, you made this declaration.”
“What did I say?”
She closed her eyes gently.
“You said you would abolish the Hero System.”
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