Mimou
patreon
Chapter 195 : Watchers
🕑 Added 2025-02-04 13:44:09 +0000 UTC« Chapter-194 | Index | Chapter-196 »
‘So these orbs mostly hold Soul Power...’
For a moment, the temptation to steal one crossed his mind, but he quickly dismissed the idea. Instead, he followed the orb back to the center of the planet.
‘The thread of Soul Power is exactly like the one linking my character to my real body... Can I learn how to recreate that on my own?’
Sora watched intently as the central orb fed the smaller orbs with Soul Power, sending them to various locations on the planet’s surface. The process repeated endlessly—dozens of times, hundreds of times, thousands of times. Each iteration was the same, yet Sora couldn’t look away. The weight of the knowledge he was glimpsing felt unprecedented.
After observing for what felt like an eternity, Sora decided it was time to stop watching and start practicing.
He focused on [Soulcraft], one of the few skills he could still use in his astral form. However, he was aware of the limitations of his current state.
‘The amount of Soul Power in my astral form is pitifully low,’ he thought, frustrated. The overwhelming majority of his Soul Power was stored in his real body and around his Soul Palace, far out of reach.
Undeterred, Sora attempted to extract the equivalent of a single Soul Pearl’s worth of Soul Power from his astral form.
‘Focus. I can do this.’
He concentrated, carefully drawing the energy out. But as soon as he did, the Soul Power dissipated, fading into the surrounding void. To his dismay, he even saw a portion of it being absorbed by the central orb.
‘Can’t succeed on my first try, I guess,’ he thought, shaking his head.
Determined to find a solution, Sora distanced himself from the central orb, hoping that reducing its influence would make it easier to control his Soul Power. He returned to the planet’s surface and repeated the experiment, but the result was the same. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t maintain control over his Soul Power in his astral form.
‘I’m stuck,’ he thought, sighing in frustration. ‘Without my body, I can’t do anything meaningful with Soul Power.’
Reluctantly, Sora returned to the central orb, his mind racing with possibilities. But this time, something felt different. As he approached, he noticed a faint but unmistakable attraction pulling him toward the orb. Focusing his attention, he saw a thin thread of Soul Power forming, linking him to the massive sphere.
At the same time, he saw one of the smaller orb exploding in the distance...
‘Why did that orb explode ? And what’s this?’ he wondered, puzzled. ‘Why is there a connection between me and the orb now?’
Sora remained still, letting the strange sensation sink in. He focused on the changes occurring within him, carefully analyzing the changes in himself.
‘My soul… It’s being nourished. I feel like I'm continuously absorbing [Soul Pearls]...’
Slowly but surely, his Soul Level was increasing. The process was gradual, but the feeling was unmistakable.
'Did I find a cheat?' he wondered. He then moved his focus to look for other side-effects.
At first, he thought the orb was simply feeding him Soul Power, but as he examined the link further, he noticed something else.
It was similar to [Soul Link], but entirely one-sided. Sora could feel the flow of energy, but unlike his connection with Kara, where power was exchanged between both parties, this time…
‘I’m sending absolutely nothing back. Is this a different kind of link? Or am I too weak in this relation to send anything back?’
‘Then why am I connected in the first place?’
As he concentrated, another sensation emerged, creeping into his mind.
Information.
Bits and pieces of data.
Not memories, not thoughts of his own, but structured commands, foreign knowledge slipping into his consciousness.
Sora’s astral body tensed.
‘Am I… being mind-controlled?’
The idea of losing his free will—of becoming a part of the system—was terrifying. His instincts screamed at him to sever the link, to escape before it was too late.
But then, something unexpected happened.
A pulse of [Soul Power] surged into him. His astral form's Soul Power reserves skyrocketed in an instant, expanding to a level higher than a few soul pearls.
'This feeling... I can feel that the amount I've just received from the main orb vastly surpasses the continuous influx I'm getting... Maybe three hundred soul pearls?'
And along with it, came what he felt was a command.
[SYSTEM COMMAND RECEIVED]
╬⟦Ϟ⤜⤏𐍉⨀ 𖤐⤫⟧
Execution Directive: *⟦ 𝕬𝖘𝖘𝖎𝖌𝖓 ⤫⤫⤫ * Level ⤫⤫⤫ Lair ⟧
⟦ 𖤐 𝔏𝔬𝔠𝔞𝔱𝔦𝔬𝔫: Demon ⤫⤫⤫ ⟧
Confirmation Required ⟦ 𝕾𝖙𝖆𝖇𝖎𝖑𝖎𝖟𝖆𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓 ⤫⤫⤫ 𝖗𝖊𝖘𝖔𝖚𝖗𝖈𝖊𝖘 ⟧
Estimated Energy Allocation: ⟦ ⤫⤫⤫ 𝖘𝖔𝖚𝖑 𝖈𝖔𝖓𝖘𝖚𝖒𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓 𝖗𝖊𝖖𝖚𝖎𝖗𝖊𝖉 ⤫⤫⤫ ⟧
Initialization ⟦ 𝕻𝖗𝖎𝖔𝖗𝖎𝖙𝖞: ⤫⤫⤫ ⟧
Command Override: ⟦ 𝕬𝖉𝖒𝖎𝖓 𝖑𝖊𝖛𝖊𝖑 ⤫⤫⤫ 𝕻𝖊𝖗𝖒𝖎𝖘𝖘𝖎𝖔𝖓 𝕽𝖊𝖖𝖚𝖎𝖗𝖊𝖉 ⟧
A system panel appeared before him, the text filled with what he first considered gibberish. Strange symbols flickered in and out of existence, changing between patterns.
‘I can get a vague idea of what it’s saying…’
It was an instruction.
'Create a Level 250 Dungeon named the Dragon Lair. And it's located in the Demon Kingdom. How am supposed to do that ?'
But then, he noticed something even more shocking.
‘I can ignore it.’
The realization sent a wave of relief through him. He had assumed, at first, that he had been assimilated into the system.
‘I've kept my freedom... What am I exactly now ? Have I become a rebellious satellite of the main orb? Won't they notice this?’
He had no idea how or why, but somehow, he had gained access to the system’s inner workings.
And if he could ignore the orders…
‘ If I become stronger just by absorbing this thing's energy, won't I be the strongest in not time ? I really need to find a way to hide this...’
Sora focused, mimicking the smaller orbs. He experimented, shaping soul power into dungeons, dungeon tokens, and basic items. His first attempts were lacking, but soon, he created functional dungeon cores.
The more he practiced, the more he understood. But time was running out. Even after thousands of bursts of soul power and missions, he had only managed to create a few dungeons and items.
The world had taken shape, the missing pieces finding their place.
‘Please give me little more time. Just a little more time… Teach me for a little longer' He hoped.
Frustration built as he realized he had barely scratched the surface. The mother orb had sent countless creation requests—some he couldn’t even begin to decipher.
He had started calling it the mother orb instinctively. It had been feeding him, teaching him, showing him a side of the system no player was meant to see.
And yet, just as he was beginning to gain proficiency in his understanding of soul power, the update was nearing completion.
Returning to his body's position, he thought, 'I guess I should be happy with what I received. But maybe I'll have another chance during the next update.'
---------------------------------------------------
In a distant place, a group of people focused intently on orbs of various sizes, each displaying an endless stream of graphs, statistics, and intricate sets of data.
One of them suddenly stiffened.
His silver eyes flicked across the text on his personal orb, scanning the numbers again to make sure he hadn’t misread them.
‘Wait... Did I see that right? At some point, there were 33 Sub-Orbs? Then it went back to 32… How is that possible? Sub-Orbs can break, so the number can go below 32, but having an additional orb shouldn’t be possible. Was there a bug with the Mother Orb?’
His fingers shook, hovering above the interface as he hesitated.
He quickly accessed the system logs, tracing the anomaly frame by frame, line by line. His expression didn’t change, but he noticed it. Something was off.
'I was right. There was an additional orb at some point.' He smiled, proud of his ability to see things most people missed.
'To think the council wanted to reduce the budget allocated to Watchers because we were deemed useless. They're the only useless people around here, leeching off our tax money without showing any work for it.'
After locking his Watcher Orb session, he tapped the side of his glasses. A soft click confirmed that the image had been saved.
Straightening, he turned away from the console, ignored his colleagues gazes and exited the room.
As he walked down the halls, his white robes swayed slightly with each step. The man's silver hair shook as he walked. On his back, two small wings were folded on his back. They weren’t big enough to fly, but they still twitched a little whenever he was deep in thought.
He wasn’t sure what had happened, but he knew one thing.
A new Sub-Orb had appeared where it shouldn’t have. And then, just as suddenly… it had vanished.
Taking a deep breath, he knocked on his supervisor’s door and stepped inside.
« Chapter-194 | Index | Chapter-196 »
