Chapter 297
Chapter 297
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 297
Chapter Title: Ruler of Consciousness (1)
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The carriage carrying Armin's group raced toward the city gates.
Its wheels churned through the knee-deep rainwater, sending splashes flying outward.
As the carriage entered a rough mountain path, it bounced over rocks. Amy and Reina gripped the handles tightly with both hands.
“It seems we'll be arriving soon. Thank goodness it's not far.”
Amy leaned her head out the window. Beyond the sky, covered in dark storm clouds, she could see a massive pillar of light descending as if a hole had been punched through.
Upon entering that place, the sound of rain vanished, and a meadow bathed in warm sunlight unfolded before them.
After getting out of the carriage, Armin's group looked back the way they came. Between the dark clouds and the horizon, which seemed almost to touch, static-like lightning flickered.
Even under the bright sun, the coachman's face was indiscernible. Amy figured he must be a nobody, someone even Shirone had no particular impression of.
Shirone was sitting in the meadow below the hill, looking at the flowers.
His back was to them, so they couldn't see his face, but if there was anyone existing alone in the domain of the Immortal Function, it had to be Shirone.
As he turned his head to follow a fluttering butterfly, his profile revealed a beautiful smile.
Reina, who now understood the mental world, was in awe.
Despite the horrific situation in reality, Shirone's mind was completely unshaken. She felt she understood why he could make such precise judgments in countless crises.
‘But… is it okay to talk to him?’
Reina couldn't bring herself to approach him.
Strictly speaking, this wasn't Shirone but his avatar. Since his innermost feelings were integrated into it, she could be hurt by an unexpected reaction.
“Let's go. We have nowhere to retreat to anyway.”
Armin nudged Reina's back and approached Shirone. Sensing their presence, Shirone turned his head.
Reina swallowed hard.
“Huh? Mr. Armin? Reina, too?”
Shirone greeted them with a bright expression.
“It's been a while. Have you been well?”
Armin studied Shirone intently.
‘Truly incredible.’
Shirone's avatar was almost identical to his usual self.
Among the avatars Armin had encountered were those of world-renowned paragons of virtue. But even such people often revealed disappointing true natures at the avatar stage.
You couldn't blame them for it.
That's just what it means to be human.
But Shirone was different.
Everyone deviates when they think no one is watching, but Shirone's mind had reached a state of purity, regardless of the gaze of others.
It was the form of an avatar that couldn't exist unless one had refined and polished their inner self since childhood.
‘So the rumors about him being Tormia's greatest prospect weren't just empty talk.’
Even after they had parted ways a year ago, Armin had consistently heard of Shirone's achievements. This level of mental perfection was what supported his abnormally explosive progress, which couldn't be explained by talent alone.
“So, what's going on?”
The avatar knew this was a mental world. However, it couldn't separate it from the dimension of reality. It was like not being able to realize you're dreaming while inside a dream.
Reina asked Armin.
“Does Shirone not know why we're here? We've been injecting keywords this whole time.”
“It's impossible to draw a clear line as to how much he knows. The avatar governs the whole, but strictly speaking, it is not the whole.”
“So it's like a kind of core code.”
“That's right. All of this is the avatar's doing, but it isn't imbued with the avatar's will.”
“Um…”
Amy's voice was heard.
When the two turned their heads, they saw a more than two-meter-tall Egoist embracing Amy with its four arms. Its upper right arm had transformed into a rope and was strangling her.
‘There shouldn't be any projections?’
Reina looked around and realized the coachman had disappeared.
But why did he manifest as an Egoist? Wasn't Shirone friendly toward them?
“Shirone, what are you doing?”
“I don't know… just looking at Amy irritates me.”
Armin sighed.
The thing he had worried about had happened.
Connecting cause and effect is the domain of reason. Emotion, on the other hand, is faithful to the feeling of the moment.
In reality, the two are strictly separated, but the problem was that a mental entity like an avatar could not do so.
“Shirone, you must suppress your emotions as much as possible right now. You may already feel it, but your life is in danger. You need our cooperation. And of course, Miss Amy's cooperation as well.”
Armin's persuasion didn't make Shirone understand, but since his life was on the line, he had no choice but to comply.
As he suppressed his emotions, the Egoist blurred and then turned into black smoke.
Coughing while rubbing her neck, Amy looked at Shirone with sad eyes. She had been prepared, but receiving such treatment still made a wave of disappointment wash over her.
“What's the reason? You have to tell me so I can fix it, you know?”
Shirone didn't know the reason either. Memories related to Amy surfaced like a fountain, but for an avatar unable to arrange cause and effect in order, he could only feel the emotions of those situations.
Shirone distanced himself from her and turned back to Armin.
“What should we do now?”
“First, we will penetrate into your deeper consciousness. If we don't catch up to the intruders, there's no way to resolve the situation.”
“But I don't know the way down.”
“No, you do know. The reason you're accepting this situation without feeling anything is off is because you know. It's just that your logical framework has collapsed, so you can't draw a conclusion. Think that you must go down. And then tell me the first place that comes to mind.”
Lost in thought, Shirone pointed to the western mountain range.
“I'm not sure, but…”
“That's enough. Now, let's depart.”
Armin sat in the coachman's seat, taking the place of the one who had disappeared.
After driving for about an hour in the direction Shirone had pointed, they arrived at a small village.
A torrential downpour was also falling there, but as soon as Shirone entered, the weather cleared up as if by magic.
Shirone led the group to a shabby stable. He grabbed a handful of the soft straw covering the floor, moved it aside, and a door leading underground appeared.
“Oh, there really is a door here?”
“It's more accurate to say you designated it. The door exists where you think it exists. Remember this feeling. At this rate, we should be able to catch up to Arius and Jion.”
Hearing their names, Shirone's face contorted savagely.
Armin flinched and looked back. It was gone now, but for a moment, he had felt a killing intent that seemed not of this world.
‘What was that just now?’
Armin realized he needed to revise his thoughts.
Shirone's avatar seemed no different from his usual self, but perhaps that wasn't the whole story.
***
Shirone's 8th Level of Consciousness.
Arius gathered information on his own as he penetrated deeper.
The place he was currently exploring was a garbage dump where the stench made it hard to breathe.
As the unbearably foul smell blew in on the wind, Jion covered his mouth with a handkerchief.
‘What in the world is this smell? It's not the smell of corpses.’
It was the materialization of the fear Shirone felt. The smell of death that could not exist in reality.
Arius, already used to it, paid no mind to the stench and stopped a passing man to ask a question.
“Where's the nearest library?”
The man, pinching his nose, just pointed in a direction and hurried on his way.
Arius headed where the man had indicated. Upon entering the library, the stench disappeared, and it felt like he could finally breathe.
Jion shook out his handkerchief, then, deciding it was beyond saving, threw it on the ground. He looked around and spoke.
“A library this time?”
Arius ignored Jion and focused on examining the books. They were sorted by subject, but the titles written on the covers squirmed like worms, making them illegible.
However, the titles on the books in one corner were clear.
They were books related to Shirone's major, photonics.
Arius walked along the shelves, scanning only the covers. Then he pulled out a book titled 'God Particle'.
When he tapped the wall with the book, a rectangular crack appeared. The wall faded as if dissolving into the air, revealing a staircase leading down.
“I've been wondering for a while, how do you find these things?”
“I trace the flow connected to Shirone's subconscious. Every object is imbued with its own unique meaning. It's a field that requires a fair bit of study. You could say it demands an exceptional understanding of psychoanalysis.”
“I see.”
Jion had already lost interest by the time Arius was halfway through his explanation.
As always, it was best to leave complicated matters to the expert. He just wanted to extract the Ataraxia as quickly as possible and get out of this place.
Opening the door to the 7th Level revealed a plaza. There was no world-drowning downpour, no bone-chilling cold, no nose-rotting stench.
Jion adjusted the leather strap of the Armand at his waist and mentally prepared himself.
“This place is at least bearable.”
As soon as Jion finished speaking, a man fell from above. He landed face-first and died, his brains spilling out.
Looking around, he saw people climbing onto every roof.
People began jumping to their deaths one after another. In the window of one building, a woman standing on a chair could be seen hanging herself.
“What the hell is this?”
Arius, who had been watching from behind Jion, spoke.
“The 7th Level is the gateway just before the REM domain. It's a layer where reason is strong. The projections, facing their own demise, are showing symptoms of a nervous breakdown.”
“Aaaaaaah!”
Two sisters falling from the fourth floor let out a piercing scream.
Jion scowled.
He didn't care about the sisters' deaths, nor did he care about the gruesome state of the corpses. He just wished they would die quietly instead of making so much noise.
“Let's get going. This level is annoying.”
“No. We'll stay for a bit. If they happen to meet Shirone's avatar, it will become a problem. They'd be able to reach the deeper levels much faster than us.”
“Hmm, in that case?”
Arius pointed to a castle beyond the city.
“We will meet the ruler of consciousness here. Shirone's superego. In divers' terminology, it's called the antithesis.”
“Antithesis?”
“It's the consciousness that criticizes Shirone. It's as strong as an Egoist, but since it's currently facing death, it should be considerably weakened. That will buy us some time.”
Arius turned and headed north. The passersby were so on edge that even brushing past someone could lead to murder, so they had to be careful how they moved.
The place they arrived at was a castle so small it was like a miniature compared to one in reality. But it had a certain quaint charm. Seven red spires stood beyond the walls, and guards protected the entrance across a moat that was little more than a stream.
As they approached the archway, the guards crossed their spears to block the entrance.
“Halt. Who are you?”
“We've come to see the ruler of this place.”
“Lord Ignite is on sick leave. Go back.”
Arius gave a meaningful smile.
The ruler's name is typically adopted from the strongest concept in the subject's reason. And Ignite was the name of an ignition spell.
“That is precisely why we've come. I have a medicine that can cure his illness.”
The guards were confused. After exchanging glances, one of them entered the inner castle.
A short while later, he returned and permitted Arius entry.
Once inside, it was far from splendid. It looked like a legion's barracks deployed on the front lines.
Like the citizens, the soldiers were also on edge, but they were performing their duties without faltering under Ignite's control.
At the end of a red-carpeted hall, Ignite sat with his chin resting on his hand. He was a giant of a man, nearly two meters tall, with a stylish brownish beard that stood out.