The Aurora of Reason
Clad in a faint golden radiance, Reason—not a Humanity Clone, but Reason—moved her creaking, blood-soaked body and danced, holding her invisible, transparent heart.
The main body had lost her humanity.
She had literally discarded reason and free will, trapped within the Status Window and the framework of the game, becoming a [character] who thought of herself as a [player]. Perhaps it was because of the Red Star the elder had spoken of—the one that granted and protected her innate talent.
But a single word from the friendly NPC San Gi-yeon, and the faintest scrap of conscience—guilt, lingering like a corpse—had revived the Humanity Clones and pressed that conscience into their hands. Yet that, too, had been another form of escape.
A child's escape, committed because she was far too terrified to hold that conscience herself.
Like a clumsy child who hides only her head under a curtain or a blanket and believes that if she can't see herself, no one else can see her either—in that pathetic act of flight, the Humanity Clones had been too powerless to raise their voices.
Spiritual energy gradually concentrated within the spear strikes that whirled like a dance. A golden aura of spiritual energy bloomed, and the angel that had been trying to push through the dark-violet turbid current was flung back.
What did it matter if this world was a game or reality?
We were alive, breathing, and thinking either way.
Golden radiance poured from the spear of the heart, now fully enveloped in spiritual energy, scattering the dark-violet turbid current as it spread and consumed the surroundings. At the same time, a rumbling of thunder began to roll across the sky.
Unlike the main body, who was a cultivator, Reason had no divine sense powered by spiritual energy—so she tracked the approaching angel on the minimap as her golden spear strikes whirled like a dance, flinging the angel even farther away once more.
That was why I was Reason.
I—we—would become Reason and raise the lantern.
If the golden lantern called Reason burned bright through day and night, forever—wouldn't the main body become a person too?
From the sky, tearing through the dark-violet turbid current, a pillar of light far too thick and vivid to be mere lightning came crashing down toward Reason.
This was not a Heavenly Tribulation—that which could mean a cultivator's death and end, or a new step forward. Had it been a Heavenly Tribulation, this body—already short on Slaughter Tribulation energy and battered beyond recognition—would have simply evaporated.
What this was… was Transcendence.
The act of a Mortal gaining enlightenment, taking a single step forward, and receiving Heaven's support.
The body belonged to a cultivator, and its master—the main body—was a cultivator as well. But the one currently holding the reins of that body was Reason, a mere Mortal. Had there even been a Golden Core present, this would have been a Heavenly Tribulation rather than support—but Hee-a's act of stuffing the Golden Core into the Mental World had made this possible.
The Humanity Clones watching this debated whether Heaven had suffered a system error or simply made some bureaucratic mistake—but that discussion was left behind.
The body that had been battered beyond recognition recovered in an instant, and Reason's spirit expanded under Heaven's power. Under Heaven's blessing—bestowed upon a Mortal who had attained enlightenment in a body with barely any lifespan left—Reason ascended to a higher realm.
Reason's body was not that of a Mortal but a cultivator's—and one that had received an absurdly crude stat boost from an innate talent. Heaven's power was consumed at a mad rate, which was why the pillar of light had risen so visibly.
Ordinarily, this power would merely perform what was called Bone-Changing and Fetus-Shedding on a Mortal's body—transforming it to be like a child's body and mind, slightly extending lifespan and restoring health, and that would be the end of it.
On top of that, Hee-a had begun training as a child, becoming a cultivator before her body could even grow—locking her physical state in place. There had never been any need to transform body and mind in the first place.
And so Heaven's support was consumed entirely in elevating Reason's enlightenment.
Holding a heart that had fully taken the form of a golden spear, Reason raised it with her eyes closed.
An aurora bloomed from the tip of the spear.
The angel collapsed weakly to the ground.
The dark-violet turbid current, the wings stained purple, the tentacles and eyeballs clinging to its body—all of it vanished completely, wiped clean.
Far in the distance, the dark-violet tentacles that had been hiding and controlling it were torn apart by the aurora and crumbled away. Only then did the angel—a puppet of the Upper Realm dispatched to the Lower Realm—truly look at the small girl.
In the small girl who stood gazing blankly at the sky with spear in hand, there was no Golden Core, no spiritual root—nothing could be sensed.
Not a cultivator but a Mortal. A moving speck of dust. Material to be picked up and used like a decently shaped pebble found by chance.
But look at the spear in the small girl's hand, and the spiritual aura blooming from it.
A spear forged from the heart, and the primordial energy of heaven and earth linked through enlightenment—the two had become one, and the small girl shone beautifully with golden radiance.
"Confirmed. This unit's defeat."
With a clunk, it opened its puppet body and carefully drew out its power source—its core. Having died once already, every restriction the Upper Realm had placed upon it had vanished, making this possible.
"Acknowledged. To the victor, everything of this unit."
That was all it had seen and learned in the Upper Realm. Even though it had broken free of every shackle and become truly free, the angel still chose of its own free will to abandon what little lifespan remained—carefully lifting the core with both crumbling arms.
Because it had been eroded by the dark violet, the core glowed with a faint blue light. One by one, the angel disconnected the power linkages binding the core to itself, then rested the core upon both hands—and even as its consciousness slowly faded, it recalled the radiance of that beautiful aurora from moments ago.
And so the angel closed its eyes, content.
The Golden Core had grown.
Slaughter Tribulation energy hadn't increased at all, but spiritual energy had surged massively, her level had skyrocketed, and in a single instant she'd jumped from mid-stage Golden Core to late-stage—and for some reason, her Mental stat had ballooned again too.
"So what the hell was that, seriously."
What the fuck was that. She waved a spear around going whoosh-whoosh, the angel got bounced, spiritual energy fell from the sky, an aurora flashed from the spear, and then—
The Abyss screams and flees at full power!
—with that message, the angel turned green, pulled out its own power source, handed it over, and just died.
Am I the only one who doesn't understand this situation right now?
A Humanity Clone naming itself? Sure, that could happen.
A Humanity Clone casually whoosh-whooshing a raid boss monster I couldn't even beat? So the Humanity Clones are way better at manual combat than me!
None of that was the important part right now!
"Answer me! Open the damn door! Seong-ah! Yu I-seong!"
The Humanity Clone that had locked itself inside—no, the one that had gone and named itself Reason, and then even taken my surname to call itself Yu I-seong—had grabbed the angel's drop item, the power source, and bolted straight into the interior!!!!!
Of course Hee-a's eyes rolled back. Because from the item filter, accompanied by a celebratory alarm loud enough to blow out her eardrums, had burst an item radiating a dazzling light that was neither gold nor black-silver—but a crimson radiance!
Meaning the item that had just dropped wasn't Legendary, wasn't Ancient—it was a Mythic-grade item.
The first Mythic-grade item to ever drop!!!
I didn't know what level the item was, but just by rarity and value alone, Legendary gear might as well be trash rags next to it—and she just snagged it and ran into the interior?!
"I won't take it, just show me! At least show me the options, please?!"
Grrr! Even when I tried to force open the Golden Core's interior and snatch it out, they resisted. With Slaughter Tribulation energy decreased and spiritual energy increased, I—specialized in Slaughter Tribulation control—couldn't break through the absolute defense of the Humanity Clones who directly manipulated spiritual energy inside the Golden Core!
"Ah, seriously, why are you guys like this?! Reading thoughts?"
Because it looks fun!
Isn't this just trolling?
"Pfft, lol, serves you right."
"Hey! Thought, that leaked out of your mouth! No, fuck! If it weren't happening to me, this would actually be a funny situation?!"
And on top of everything, the fact that I couldn't even read Yu I-seong's thoughts was even more infuriating. What the fuck—I heard she learned spear arts from the elder. Did she gain some kind of enlightenment?
What, she already had?! For real?
How the hell did I not know?
What, so she'd already transcended back then and that's why I couldn't read her thoughts. In that case, naming herself wasn't entirely wrong—but honestly, names are something family gives you, right? In this case, shouldn't I be the one giving it?
"But the main body's nickname sense is trash."
"More precisely, I don't want to get a name from the main body because it'd feel like a parent-child thing."
"Family with the main body? Blech."
The peanut gallery was getting loud.
"Seong-ah! Please! Just show me the options! For real!"
You want to watch me go insane?!
No, how do you just snatch a Mythic item the moment it drops?! While everyone is watching! And then go on a sit-in protest?! Don't fucking mess with me!
There seemed to have been some important facts, but because of one Mythic item they'd all turned into trivialities, and right now the only thought I had was that I was going to go insane from curiosity about that Mythic item!!!!!!
"KYAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!"
In a corner of the map that had been reduced to ruins, Yu Hee lay sprawled on the ground, screaming and thrashing her arms and legs like a madwoman.
Permanently decreases a random stat by 1.
At the indifferent system message that rose as if mocking her, Yu Hee could only let out a helpless scream.