Chapter 2028: ERROR

"...I’ll kill you."

"OOOHHH? You’re...! Pffff... HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Jester laughed, grabbing his face and forehead as he laughed uncontrollably. "You’re going to... to kill me? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! WAIT, WHAT?! YOU?! YOU’RE GOING TO KILL ME? HAHAHAHAHA! YOU’RE NOT EVEN TIER 5! YOU’LL NEED TO BE TIER 5 TO EVEN FACE ME, AND EVEN THEN, MAYBE EVEN TIER 5 WON’T BE ENOUGH! Okay? Come back once you’re Level 600! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Elayne’s Spiritual Energy continued to grow stronger with every passing second. The entire Domain had already been completely covered by her Terrain as they spoke. Jester, still deeply indulged in his own twisted fantasies of torturing her and everyone else, had not even realized that something was wrong. He could not stop underestimating them, not even Blank. And above all, her powers, stats, abilities, and skills could do a great deal more now. A great deal more indeed. Levels were only complementary. And it was not as if she could not level up a little further herself.

FLUOSH!

Elayne’s Aura surged upward with sudden force. Jester raised an eyebrow behind his mask. As everyone else remained silent in despair, they felt her aura rising higher and higher until it seemed to touch the sky itself.

"Oho? Rising to Tier 3, I see?" he rubbed his chin, showing great patience. "I see. What kind of Class did you get, dear? It seems you’re trying to grow a tiny bit stronger? Awww, so cute! Are the audience ready? Let’s give her a bit of hope, shall we? That’ll make the torture she’ll go through even better!" He winked at the camera with clear delight.

Within Elayne’s vision, dozens of system messages began to pop up one after another. They all seemed to laugh at her. They kept calling her a weakling. They kept belittling her. They kept looking down on her with cold digital mockery.

Elayne was done with this.

Within the town outside the Tower of Madness, a giant hand made of dark wood and mushrooms smashed a floating Class Change Crystal into smithereens and then greedily devoured the glowing pieces. It swallowed them whole, infusing their power and essence directly into Elayne even as glitching numbers and a cold, strange, matter-distorting liquid poured into her entire being.

She was done playing around.

[Congratulations, you have reached all the requirements to Rank Up your Class- ERROR, ERROR, ERROR, ERROR, ERROR.]

[You have touched a Class Changing Crystal, do you wish to- CRITICAL ERROR FOUND. CRYSTALIZED SYSTEM MATTER FOUND. CRITICAL ALERT. CRITICAL ALERT.]

[UNABLE TO PROCESS THE LOADOUT OF SHARED, GLITCHED INFORMATION.]

[CALLING FOR AN ADMINISTRATOR FOR: [SERVER NUMBER 23 – NETHERWORLD-4]

[NO ADMINISTRATORS FOUND.]

[ERROR. ERROR. ERROR. ERROR. ERROR.]

[CRITICAL ERROR.]

[UNABLE TO PROCESS THE LOADOUT OF SHARED, GLITCHED INFORMATION.]

[CALLING FOR AN ADMINISTRATOR FOR: [SERVER NUMBER 23 – NETHERWORLD-4]

[NO ADMINISTRATORS FOUND.]

[ERROR. ERROR. ERROR. ERROR. ERROR.]

[CRITICAL ERROR.]

[UNABLE TO PROCESS THE LOADOUT OF SHARED, GLITCHED INFORMATION.]

[CALLING FOR AN ADMINISTRATOR FOR: [SERVER NUMBER 23 – NETHERWORLD-4]

[NO ADMINISTRATORS FOUND.]

[ERROR. ERROR. ERROR. ERROR. ERROR.]

[CRITICAL ERROR.]

"SHUT UP!"

Elayne roared with raw fury, smashing the glitched system messages apart with her sword. The blade overflowed with the strange, glitched Skill [ERROR_INPUT Arts – Tier ?: Level ?/X]. Then all the broken, glitching messages coalesced into a single bright star of light that struck her forehead and sent her mind elsewhere for just a moment.

FLASH!

A vast, dark void stretched out before her. In the center of that emptiness stood a weeping woman of great beauty. She was a mother of gods and of life itself, a being who had watched the world come to a complete end. And then she had seen something else take over this broken world.

Countless energies and divine powers gathered from across the cosmos, converging into a single white star. The white star opened its eyelids, revealing itself as a giant eye with a silver pupil. Long eyelashes of pure white light flared outward. Another eye appeared beside it a moment later.

She looked up in awe; her face filled with disbelief. Then a gigantic white hand emerged from the darkness, scooped her up carefully, and lifted her toward the twin eyes.

Elayne heard words she could not fully comprehend.

"Daste baste etes dosk, teteruk, taraska hadwth dhaw."

It was an alien tongue from another universe entirely. Yes, she could remember this from the same vision she had seen before. As the entity spoke while holding her in its hands, white roots began to spread in every direction, absorbing the black void and blending with it. The eyes scanned the entire history of this shattered reality. Then they poured pure white energy into it.

She now understood that it was repairing the world. Everything began to reverse, as if time itself had started to move backward. Back then Elayne had panicked, but now she stood silently, knowing what was coming next.

This entire time, the things she witnessed had been part of the true History of the System. How the World of Arcadia came to an end after the Gods battled and died against the Demon King, and then how he used the stolen power of the Gods to destroy the entire World and everything within it. And from this darkness left behind, the System emerged, as if it were a Traveler of Dimensions themselves, seeking destroyed worlds or realities and repairing them. It put them back together, but in a strange and twisted way.

The world that was reborn from that destruction was never the same. The Past, Present, and Future were all twisted and merged together in bizarre and unnatural ways. And the goddess, her, was consumed amidst the reforming world. The white light encompassed her as she cried out in awe while she watched the world rapidly returning to a new form of life.

And then, this power gave her a choice.

"As the Last Survivor of this World you are a Unique Specimen, the Endling of All Life."

"Eh?"

"You are a precious treasure. Using your DNA and Data, the World can be revived and rebuilt from Zero."

"...!"

"The Planes remain, but I require your cooperation and... your decision."

"Planes? Wait... what?"

"The Cosmos Calls For Your Decision, Gaia, Mother Goddess, Creator of Life and the Ultimate Destroyer."

"!!!"

"Choose. Become like me. Join me. Oversee this new Reality. Gain Power from its moving Existence. Create Laws, Rules. Regulations. Create Order. Create Order."

"...?"

"Or... Choose a new blank slate. Reincarnation."

"?!"

"Become someone else, in the future, in the past, in the future. Be Reborn, Soul and Body cleansed... but your power, I cannot touch it. I can only draw from it. But as the Endling, you are a Superior Being."

"E-Eh? I don’t understand... but everything... everything is gone... what point is there in watching a world that is no longer my home?"

"...So you choose the second option? Instead of being a Superior Being with me, you, a powerful Endling that survived the End of Reality... Your Power is Beyond my Jurisdiction and the Cosmic Council."

-----