Chapter 251
Chapter 251
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 251
Chapter Title: System Operation (4)
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An Overflow, in reality, wasn't that big of a deal.
To the untrained eye, it might seem like the mark of a peculiar genius, but the Royal Magic Academy was teeming with children just like that.
It was a world where talent meant you had to stand out from the crowd, then claw your way through fierce competition just to earn the title of genius.
Regardless, having accepted the task, she couldn't afford to be careless. Olina approached Dante with the same smile that had charmed countless students.
“Hello? You must be Dante.”
Dante didn't even lift his head, let alone answer. Olina gazed down at his gray hair, the color of a storm cloud. Thinking this wouldn't be easy, she sat down across from Dante, bringing herself to his eye level.
Still, the boy only stared at the grassy ground.
‘What is he looking at?’
Olina lowered her head as well, following his gaze.
It was just ordinary grass. No sign of buried treasure, no hint of a hidden corpse.
With patience, she followed his focus until a tiny detail, hidden within the scenery, revealed itself.
A line of ants.
‘Is he interested in insects?’
Olina asked Dante.
“Do you like ants?”
“…”
As expected, there was no reply. But Olina didn't press him.
Having mentored students ranging from four-year-olds to adults over thirty, she knew how to handle these situations.
“I can't stand ants. They're so creepy. And when they get inside, they chew up all the expensive furniture.”
Olina went on, rambling about nothing in particular.
“When I was little, I saw a bunch of ants swarming a dead earthworm. Ugh. Ever since then, ants have scared me. You know that feeling, like ants are crawling all over your body…?”
“They aren't ants.”
Dante spoke for the first time.
A triumphant smile touched Olina's lips.
She didn't know what awakening had triggered his Overflow, but he was still just a child. Now that he'd started talking, he wouldn't be able to stop himself from revealing everything.
“I'm watching the channel.”
“Channel?”
Dante pointed to one of the ants moving through the blades of grass.
“This one is ant 1011001. That's the name I gave it. Its patrol radius is four meters. It's a scout, confirming the territory along the perimeter.”
Olina observed it carefully.
Despite being given the name 1011001, she couldn't see anything that distinguished it from the others.
Dante pointed to an ant climbing a bent blade of grass.
“This ant is 1010111. It moves vertically. Its role is to climb grass and collect moisture. 1010101 here is the same, and so is 1101001.”
Olina was baffled. She couldn't tell if he had actually memorized the names of the ants or if he was just making them up on the spot to mess with her.
“The ants all serve a single purpose. When they come together, they activate the whole. That's the channel.”
If Dante could truly read this channel—not just seeing forms but perceiving flows—then it was just barely possible he could distinguish them by name.
But was it really possible?
Strictly speaking, everything in the world is a channel.
If he could deconstruct ant society into units of information, then there was nothing in the world he couldn't analyze.
As her eyes adjusted to the scene, Olina's vision began to swarm with ants.
She now realized the four-meter radius was practically a field of ants.
A shiver ran down her spine, but her curiosity about Dante outweighed her revulsion.
“So, you're saying you can read the channel?”
Dante looked up. For the first time, Olina saw his face.
He was a beautiful child. One of his eyes was bruised a dark blue, as if he'd been beaten up by his classmates.
“That must have hurt a lot.”
“It's okay. I don't have to go to school anymore.”
Most teachers would have tried to console the boy and send him back to school. Even without bringing up the empty platitudes of social skills, common sense dictated she should tell him not to run away, to stand up and fight.
But Olina didn't try to persuade him. This boy was special. Her archmage's intuition told her so.
“Why don't you get along with the other children? I heard you didn't say a single word to them.”
“If nothing can be conveyed, it's the same as not speaking at all. There was no reason to talk, so I didn't.”
Dante recalled the memory, his face twisting in disgust.
“The other kids talk too much. But it's just noise. Ants are different. They have a single purpose. Even an ant that seems to have no purpose is, by its very nature, supporting another.”
Olina was now certain it was an Overflow.
Delve deep enough into anything, and you'll discover a world that defies common sense.
Dante had entered that world too early.
“This ant is 1010110, and it just follows 1010111. But it's a very important job. Because it's a channel. If no one follows 1010111, then nothing gets conveyed. If you look closely, most ants exist only to maintain the channel. The ants that do truly special jobs are very few. Can you tell the difference?”
Olina shook her head with an awkward smile.
No matter how skilled a mage she was, she couldn't possibly distinguish the roles of every member of the ant kingdom.
“If you watch all day, you realize something interesting. All the channels are connected. For example, this ant 1111 just follows the ant in front to maintain the channel. But surprisingly, it's involved in almost every channel. If this ant wasn't here…”
Dante lowered his index finger and crushed number 1111. Olina frowned. But a moment later, she sensed a change in the ant society and her eyes widened in realization.
The line of ants collapsed, scattering in every direction. A line expanding into a plane meant the channel had lost all meaning.
The boy watched the ant kingdom collapse, his eyes shining. He wore a smile so pure it was chilling.
Olina felt a thrill of dread. The ant Dante had crushed wasn't a soldier, nor was it special in any obvious way.
A system couldn't collapse just from taking out a single ant.
Or so she had always thought. But Dante's action proved her common sense wrong.
The blind spot of an invisible system.
All the variables that would arise from neutralizing 1111 were being calculated inside Dante's head.
Dante clearly understood the ant kingdom's system on a level the ants themselves couldn't possibly comprehend.
Dante looked up at Olina and said with a smile.
“The queen will starve to death.”
Another Sky (1)
Olina took in the sight of Dante, all grown up after eight years, and smiled fondly.
“Dante has an eye for reading channels. And through training, he's honed it to be even stronger.”
With the gate to his Immortal Function closed, Shirone was completely focused on dodging the barrage. A total of eighty-six mansions shifted their structure ceaselessly, leaving him no time to think of anything else.
Dante, on the other hand, had left the fighting to his automatons and was perfectly at ease. He looked as if he could sit down and read a book.
‘Still, I have to return the favor.’
Dante floated above the Pascal magic circle. As he slowly advanced, the hundreds of magic circles connected to Pascal surged toward Shirone at the same speed.
It was as if a vast space was moving in its entirety.
Every time Shirone moved, magic poured out from all directions as if tracking him.
Shirone felt like he was fighting an army. A massive force was tearing through his Spirit Zone, invading his space.
Iruki's face twisted into a grimace.
‘Damn it! How can he use such magic…?’
He couldn't think of any way to counter Dante's system. Shirone hadn't sustained any critical injuries yet, but he couldn't dodge the automated assault forever.
Shirone knew that as well. But he had to try. Besides, it wasn't quite as impossible as Iruki believed.
‘I have no choice but to try.’
Shirone gambled on one possibility and dove into the heart of Pascal. Dante's mansions moved faster, increasing their firepower, but that only made Shirone chain his teleports even more rapidly.
He had to move.
He had to assimilate into Dante's channel.
As time passed, the students began to murmur. It was a subtle shift, impossible to confirm with the naked eye, but they could feel Shirone's movements gradually synchronizing with Dante's system.
Nade shot up and shouted.
“Teleportation! Of course, that's it!”
Iruki, too, grinned in impressed realization.
“Teleportation is, in essence, information. His strategy is to blend into Dante's system and destroy it from within.”
The Icheonbeon bracelet grew hotter. It was proof that Pascal was overloading as it struggled to track Shirone's movements.
Shina confirmed that as Shirone's movements grew more complex, Dante's mental energy gauge was depleting rapidly.
‘Does this mean the match isn't decided yet?’
Alpheas let out a ragged breath, a light shiver of excitement running down his spine.
‘Dante's ability is powerful. But insight is also a fearsome talent that can reach the top of the world.’
In such a short time, Shirone had completely seen through Pascal's weakness. Dante's automatons were perfect, but perfection is not a word that can be applied to a human.
The only error in the flawless Pascal.
It was Dante himself.
“I have to commend Dante for his perfect design. But he's still young. His mental fortitude can't keep up with his technique.”
Olina had to concede the point. It wasn't that she was unaware of Dante's weakness. But could it even be called a weakness?
Youth is not a crime.
Dante would continue to grow, and one day, he would surely reach a level where he could maintain Pascal for extended periods.
But those facts couldn't serve as an excuse. After all, his opponents were in the same position.
More importantly, Dante's stamina was by no means inferior to that of his peers.
Dante's only miscalculation in this duel was that his opponent was Shirone, whose endurance was second to none.
‘Perhaps… they met too soon.’
It was a shame that one of them, Shirone or Dante, would have to bear the burden of defeat.
‘No, it's the same for everyone. There is no such thing as a right time.’
The duel was already underway; there was no turning back time. Besides, a cool-headed analysis still gave Dante a seventy percent chance of victory.
He could only maintain Pascal for about ten more minutes, but it would be impossible for Shirone to survive inside Dante's system for more than five.
Olina said.
“Even so, he won't be able to beat Dante. It's not that I'm underestimating Shirone, but the rarity of their talents is different. Shirone doesn't have the means to destroy Dante's system.”
Alpheas couldn't argue. As far as he could see, Shirone still held no advantage.
And yet, he was the kind of boy who inspired hope.
‘There's something I don't know, isn't there, Shirone?’
Shirone zipped all over the battlefield. He took countless hits while dodging Dante's barrage, but with every price paid for failure, he adapted instantly.
Iruki was the first to realize it.
“He's in. He's perfectly in.”
At first, no one understood. But after ten seconds, the students began to whisper among themselves, their faces filled with astonishment.
On a battlefield raining an infinite barrage of firepower, Shirone moved with complete freedom. It was as if the mansions themselves were parting to make way for him.
Of course, there was no actual link between Shirone's movements and Pascal's, so it was merely an illusion. Still, for such a phenomenon to occur, there was only one explanation.
“Shirone is perfectly reading the automaton's patterns.”