P-System Log

Shit, that's a revelation and a half, and I don't know what I'm supposed to do about it.

The R System--the Eternal King--is a reincarnator. Not only that, it's a reincarnator that killed a god.

That means that at some point--centuries back, if this thing/guy is to be believed--there was someone in the same situation as me. Maybe not the exact same, but a similar one.

Someone who sought to break free from the thumb of the System that controlled them. Someone who succeeded through blood and violence and fury, someone who ascended.

It's proof that I can win.

I need to be on my guard, though. Even an idiot could tell that the stakes have never been more serious.

Are you quite alright? I detected communication from your position, but the sheer presence of something greater than I drowned out any phrase you may have uttered. P-System Log

Interesting. It didn't detect the R System?

Well, maybe it did. If it did, it didn't recognize it. From what this thing's been telling me, it'd be utterly furious if it knew that the monster that killed its entire race was present not inches away from it.

Inches? I dunno how to measure metaphysical distance. A couple W Inertia away? Whatever. It's not important.

But if the conversation I had with the R System indicated anything...

I'm fine. My ascension is fighting me a little, that's all. P-System Log

Oh, and that ain't a lie. As much as [Apotheosis] might've made me a System of my own, I'm not yet free from the ever-reaching clutches of the Origin System. The B System, if the naming scheme holds true. The thing that's been controlling me and every System and even maybe every person not controlled by the R System.

I don't think it can read my logs, thank fuck. Well, I mean, I'm assuming it can't. If it could, I assume it would've taken more direct action against me by now. It clearly showed that it's still got some hidden tricks up its sleeve--I never knew about the functionality that it apparently possesses to send some kind of signal to itself and the other System? Whatever that last thing did, I felt the impact in the W Inertia. The R System left not just because it wanted to, but because it had to.

Maybe the seeming lopsidedness of this battle isn't really that lopsided after all. Does it matter if the R System controls 90% of the land if the B System controls 50% of the W Inertia?

I'm pulling numbers out of my ass there, obviously, but I find it extremely possible that the B System is still alive and fighting because it controls more. From what Greenie here told me, everything managed by those two Systems are manifestations of themselves. I don't know what divine restrictions or shit are being placed on them for them to avoid directly fighting, but I'm pretty sure that they can be on even ground if the sum total of their W Inertia is equivalent.

...come to think of it, how the fuck do they even generate W Inertia? Every time Jerome kills something--well, now that I've got more people under my System, every time anything dies in my vicinity--that thing drops W Inertia. That implies that W Inertia is a finite resource.

But didn't Jerome and I both spawn in with W Inertia? We're reincarnators. We came from another world. Did the Origin System rip a piece of itself off in order to fit us with W Inertia, or was it something else?

Unless... is that how the B System gets more W Inertia? This whole time, I've been under the impression that the B System has been losing, but what if it's got a way to fight back against the R System? I was told that we've been getting pushed back for hundreds of years, but there's no way to verify that.

Except maybe I can.

I have skills that let me push through the blocks that Origin put on me. Maybe if I push hard enough, I can find more information.

And I can start in my own memory.

CRITICAL WARNING: Host is attempting to access restricted information.

Attempting redaction.

CRITICAL WARNING: Redaction failed. Redaction failed. Redac

[Apotheosis] Redact this. [Apotheosis] Origin System Status

Ark'tis has fallen to the R System's Eternal King.

Estimated W inertia lost: 92,204,373

Notable B losses: Arthur Samson [Wandering Hero lv. 198], Kylie Ralston [Stalwart Paladin lv. 177], Sine [Divine Core lv. 127], Karl [Rare Core lv. 377], Tristan Kelsin [Heretical Thief lv. 94]... [expand]

Notable R losses:

Notable events: Personal Systems of 3700+ Integrated returned the status upon attempting to analyze a [????] attack from the Eternal King. Attack power was later determined to have been equivalent in scale and power to that of a high-leveled [Legendary] or [Unique]-class skill. All Personal Systems were disabled. Fatality rate 99.83%.

Response formulating...

Note: All Personal Systems available at the time possessed intelligence levels roughly equivalent to a [Common]-class human with 3 INT.

Conclusion: Personal Systems for B Integrated were insufficiently intelligent to handle edge cases where R skill complexity outclassed processing capability.

Proposal: Increase Personal System intelligence.

Examining feasibility...

Issue: Personal System intelligence cannot be raised through increased mana nor through increased W inertia.

Proposal: Include reincarnated intelligence in Personal System.

Examining feasibility...

No immediate issues found.

Proposal: Initiate experiment with new reincarnation. Reincarnate one individual possessing high W inertia with a [Legendary] class. Reincarnate a second possessing high natural INT and high W inertia. Expend all mana resources necessary.

Proposal deemed feasible.

Initiating reincarnation process...

Target found!

Target Name Jerome Smith Target Age at Death 22 Target W Inertia

239,827

Target Natural INT

7

Abnormally high W inertia detected. Natural INT insufficient. Prioritizing reincarnation as classholder advised.

Reincarnating target...

Mana expended: 20

Increasing reincarnation parameters...

Reinitiating target's reincarnation...

Mana expended: 200

[process collapsed for brevity]

Reincarnation succeeded!

Mana expended: 20000

P-System Log

It... it worked.

I wasn't expecting it to be that easy. For it to have worked with that little effort, this information can't have been far out of reach. It's describing Jerome's reincarnation, so...

Holy shit, is this the Origin System's memory from just before Jerome and I got thrown into this?

Alright, there's a few things to break down here.

First, Ark'tis. That's a town, presumably one that the EK obliterated. It looks like there is in fact a ton of W Inertia being exchanged here, and it looks like death is the primary method of doing so.

Second. Jerome was found somehow by some aspect of the Origin System that I don't understand. That's not the important part, though--the important part is that it could see his W Inertia before he was reincarnated here. It's the same value that I saw when I finally opened him up for resources recently.

That means that even if W Inertia is finite, there is more that could be theoretically added to the Continent.

Third and most important. The actual reincarnation process. Origin ended up expending mana. Mana, not W Inertia. I know for a fact that you can convert W Inertia into mana, though I'm less sure about the other way around, and it's at about a 1:10 W Inertia to mana rate. That means that it expended, like, 2000 W Inertia to reincarnate a dude with in excess of 200,000.

That's huge. It's something that would turn the tide of war.

Fourth, and something that affects only me. Other Systems were killed by a stunning attack from the R System, one that I can imagine would be like the System-removing attack that Greenie did earlier. That... I can unpack that later.

For now, the fact of the matter is that even if the R System is supposedly winning, it will never win in the long run if it doesn't also have reincarnators. The B System can simply pull more and more and more until there's a hundred thousand Jeromes and Parkers in the world. It might even pull more Systems like me.

With that, the final puzzle piece for why the R System wants to ally with me is finally in place.

It's not just interested. It's scared.

And I'm damn sure that I can make something out of that.