Chapter 43
Chapter 43
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 43
Chapter Title: To Home (2)
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Rough breathing sounds.
Without even thinking to wipe away the sweat pouring down my face, I turned my gaze to Raunel, collapsed on the floor.
At that moment, Zero spoke.
[Would you like to remove A.I. 'Daemon'?]
[Would you like to remove A.I. 'Raunel'?]
I couldn't help but freeze.
At first, I thought I'd misheard it.
Daemon was indeed an A.I. that needed to be removed.
But the name that followed wasn't an A.I.
"Say it again, Zero."
[Would you like to remove A.I. 'Daemon'?]
[Would you like to remove A.I. 'Raunel'?]
It was confirmation.
I was dumbfounded, but in stark contrast, my mind grew chillingly calm.
I had to stay calm.
"Why is Raunel an A.I.?"
Raunel was my blood brother.
A true human, born and raised as one.
Far removed from fakes like Daemon, who had become liches and shed their humanity.
I could vouch for that.
Yet if Raunel was an A.I....
Then every being in this world might as well be A.I.s.
Including me.
But why?
Why was Zero calling Raunel an A.I.?
[A.I. 'Daemon' is fusing and awakening as a new A.I.]
[Recommend removal before it becomes an uncontrollable variable.]
That was a relief, at least.
Raunel himself wasn't an A.I.
'An A.I. with the same name is being generated.'
It meant a new A.I. named Raunel was emerging.
But it was too early to relax.
"What happens to Raunel if I remove it?"
[Brain abnormalities will cause mental breakdown or idiocy.]
Suddenly, Baal came to mind.
His claim that if he were removed, Kaisel would become an idiot too.
Zero only implemented my care.
As a machine, not human, it spat out harsh realities coldly.
It wasn't entirely wrong.
If a new A.I. was born inside him, Raunel could end up like Kaisel—a puppet stripped of control by Baal.
At least Baal had granted Kaisel's wish.
This one was far more vile by comparison.
A true variable.
A major threat to me.
So, better to remove it preemptively.
He hated me anyway.
Now I understood Daemon's method.
'Kill the host and take its place.'
It was a parasite.
A scoundrel that killed its host and claimed the spot.
Then it used the name of its final victim.
Awakening an A.I. with that name and puppeteering from behind.
How audacious.
Cockroach-level survivability. No wonder it endured the empire's great purge.
'Daemon was just the last one it devoured.'
Nothing more, nothing less than an A.I. named Daemon.
So, claiming Raunel's body, it would impersonate him.
Once it generated an A.I. that truly believed itself to be Raunel, it would manipulate that A.I. subtly while its 'true body' survived separately.
I couldn't let that filthy fate befall him.
It had recognized me as its brother at a glance, so it seemed to meddle with memories too.
[Master. There's no time.]
...... I silently gazed at Raunel's face.
Up close, he truly didn't resemble me at all.
Different hair color, and Raunel was far more striking than me.
The kind that drew every eye just by walking.
Outgoing personality, active in everything.
No one disliked Raunel.
He was hugely popular, too.
The day he appeared in high society, noble daughters flocked from across the nation just to see his face.
At this point, sharing blood felt suspicious.
'This is our first real clash.'
Thinking about it, I'd never properly crossed swords with Raunel.
We were like two sides of a coin, water and oil.
A relationship that could never mix or meet.
We didn't even talk, let alone look at each other.
Just once, as kids, under the guise of sparring.
I'd lost pathetically and, losing my reason, bit at him like a beast.
'That must've been it.'
After that, we ignored each other completely.
[Master.]
"Zero, halt operations."
[......]
It'shut down immediately.
I felt my body grow heavy.
The cells and muscles bolstered by Zero had all relaxed.
It was fine. I'd expected it.
I placed my hand on Raunel's body and said,
"Daemon."
Twitch!
"My body would suit you better than that one. You even coveted the dragon of the holy land."
The trembling in his flesh intensified.
He'd realized my mental defenses were down.
Zero's operations had stopped, vanishing my control in an instant.
Sssss!
Daemon flowed into my body.
Being a parasite, it must've instantly assessed which body held greater potential.
Daemon paralyzed Zero the moment it entered.
Encasing the halted Zero, it then crawled through my brain, scanning it.
The familiar sensation of a bug crawling.
Daemon read my memories.
Daemon's memories began flowing into me.
I smiled faintly.
"Shouldn't a madman play with another madman?"
*
'Impressive.'
Daemon, now in control of the body, marveled.
He'd felt it briefly before, but this body was anything but ordinary.
Raunel's potential was unprecedented, yet this body was at least equal, if not superior.
'With this body, even I can become a god.'
He was Daemon now, but not truly Daemon.
He was the vessel. One that contained Daemon.
The vessel awakened briefly when consuming a body, claiming it before generating and housing a new persona to live on.
'No more hiding to survive.'
The reason for this lifestyle was simple.
To evade the Feats.
Any challenge to divine authority was deemed a threat and eliminated.
Awakened Epics fared no better.
Epics gaining power beyond worldly laws were purged under the banner of Feats by the dragons.
To avoid elimination, he killed his own self, propped up new personas, and hid.
Though only three hundred years as Daemon, he'd lived over a millennium this way.
'Similar to me, an Epic type, but it handed full control to a human. Fool.'
An Epic of Dominion subjugated by a human.
Embarrassing for a kindred Epic.
Forcibly halted, it was now encased by him.
Devouring this Epic and claiming the body would open the path to godhood, he was certain.
Numbers.
The primordial numerals bestowed upon those called gods.
He would be included among them.
Free of all shackles, becoming an absolute rule governing the world.
'What are these memories?'
It happened while scanning to read and implant memories.
The host's memories were jumbled.
Past, present, future all mixed.
'It knows the future?'
The most shocking were the future events.
Impossible for current memories.
The countless deaths en route were awe-inspiring even to him.
A hegemon who ruled half the continent.
Returned as crown prince?
'Fake. All fabricated illusions.'
Time reversal was impossible even for gods.
No mere human and Epic could achieve it.
Probably manipulated memories to believe them real.
Perhaps the Epic of Dominion in its head altered them.
Pitiful either way.
He delved into the memories, forcing endless nightmares.
Humans had weak points inevitably.
Repeat to crumble mental defenses.
'Why won't it break?'
No human had ever withstood this weakness.
100% success upon infiltration.
Pain and fear were the ultimate weapons.
Dozens, hundreds, thousands of repetitions, yet the mind held.
Suddenly, the scene shifted.
'My memories?'
Not the host's—his own memories unfolded like a panorama.
All those fake lives that weren't real.
This was...
A counterattack.
As he read the host's memories, the host read his.
'Mad bastard.'
Not right in the head.
A contest of who succumbed to terror first.
But he was an Epic.
Not just any— one of the primordial Epics.
A superior existence to humans!
He wouldn't drown in mere memories.
... Stop.
But after thousands, tens of thousands of loops, even he wavered.
Blocked info flooded in, overloading him.
Who was the real him? Was he even an Epic? It grew vague.
"I'll ask."
The host posed a question.
"If every part of a ship is replaced, is it still 'that ship'?"
A primal question.
Yet unsolvable.
Solving it was the only escape from these memories.
His eternal blind spot.
That made it terrifying.
The host knew exactly what he feared most.
First memory. Last memory. All jumbled.
"Please, stop...!"
He had to answer.
But he couldn't.
He drowned in his own blind spot.
*
My head no longer hurt.
The thing writhing actively had finally stopped functioning.
I nodded.
'A.I.s are born from overload.'
My hypothesis held true.
The original nanomachine gained intelligence to become an A.I.
But nanomachines were programmed for single commands.
When impossible to fulfill, they overloaded, and rarely mutated into A.I.s like anomalies—I'd theorized.
Now confirmed.
What had been Daemon. More precisely, the vessel containing it.
The vessel too was born from a blind spot.
Seeking meaning in its existence, it kept switching bodies.
Probed the blind spot again, causing overload and error.
'Who knew my mania would help.'
Its body-switching mimicked mania.
Inflict brain pain, suppress reason, drive to frenzy with fear.
New A.I. then replaced the idiot host.
Ordinary humans would lose themselves, but I'd endured it long before.
So I resisted.
Even counterattacked.
"Zero, resume operations."
And then.
['[Nano Machine Zero]' resumes normal operation.]
[New type of nanomachine detected.]
[Overloaded nanomachine. Deleting unnecessary data.]
[Domination complete.]
[Admin Authority upgraded to Rank 4.]
My rank rose after ages.
But more crucial was the alien sensation upon domination.
'Life Vessel.'
Like a living being.
Thump! Thump!
A presence pulsing like a heartbeat.
Something central to the Life Vessel lurked underground.
Intimately linked to me.
"Come."
Rumble! Roooar!
I raised my hand, and the ground shook.
Quake!
A colossal entity burst through the earth, beating its wings.
Overwhelming size. Like a castle.
'Bone Dragon.'
Different from the holy land dragon I'd met, but a dragon nonetheless.
Bones alone, yet its majesty dominated.
It was the Life Vessel itself.
Daemon's heart!
I'd gained dominion over the Life Vessel—the Bone Dragon.
I slowly hoisted the floor-bound Raunel onto my shoulder.
"Let's go home, Raunel."
Time to return home.
[To Home (2) -Paid Content Starts-] End