Chapter 160: IT'S A TREE

The light continued emitting signals, indifferent to Haru’s inability to interpret them. He didn’t understand what he was looking at. And from what he could tell, neither did the others around him.

Every instant, one being disappeared and another appeared, each one staring at the light and remaining motionless, as if they had been placed before something they couldn’t refuse.

Haru had no idea how much time had passed. Here, even the very concept of time seemed unreliable.

Then something happened inside him.

A tiny spark.

It wasn’t born of deduction, discovery, or conscious effort. He hadn’t found any clues or solved any riddles.

Understanding had simply been granted to him, an idea far too small to explain what he was witnessing, but clear enough to change everything.

“The System!?”

The spark grew. The light, the codes, the tree, that impossible place… Everything began to fit together into a certainty he couldn’t explain.

“It’s…”

The word never truly came into existence. Even so, Haru understood.

“It’s the System.”

He wasn’t looking at a representation. It wasn’t an interface, a projection, or a virtual room built to accommodate Gamers.

He was looking at the System itself.

He felt a strange pressure inside his own consciousness, the kind that came from accepting something far too vast for the space available to contain it.

Ever since arriving in this world, the System had been a constant presence. An interface that appeared before his eyes, displayed information, and sometimes offered possibilities he couldn’t explain.

A tool.

A mechanism.

Something one learned to use.

‘But how can a tool have a place like this?’

‘How can something that only displays messages exist above everything I know?’

Then he remembered Chronia’s words.

‘The System is above all.’

He hadn’t fully understood her at the time. Even now, he still didn’t understand everything, but he was beginning to suspect that he’d interpreted her words far too simply.

The thought should have frightened him… Instead, it filled him with wonder.

The tree remained before him, illuminating the impossible space. Trunk. Branches. Multicolored leaves pulsing slowly.

‘A tree.’

Of all the forms something incomprehensible could take, a tree was one of the few the human mind could recognize without effort.

‘Maybe that’s why it seems so natural.’

‘Or maybe the tree doesn’t represent anything at all.’

“Maybe it’s simply the form this place allows me to understand.”

Haru had no way of knowing, and that bothered him.

He tried looking at the beings around him. They were all gazing at the System. And Haru couldn’t hide from any of them.

‘If I’m here…’ The thought advanced slowly. ‘And if everyone here is a Gamer…’

The conclusion arrived before he could stop it.

‘Then they can all see me.’

For the first time in that place, he felt something resembling fear. He wasn’t alone.

He was surrounded by Gamers in a place none of them seemed capable of leaving, standing before an existence none of them seemed capable of understanding. They could all observe him just as he observed them… But thanks to the ‘enchantment’ of this place, their identities were protected. Even from Haru, a defective Gamer. Right?

The codes appeared all at once, no longer fragmented. Complete text filled the space around the tree, as if the leaves had decided to turn into letters.

════════════════════

SYNCHRONIZATION COMPLETE

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• Welcome, the Governed. •

• Those of you gathered here belong to every

region where one of you now walks. •

• It is worth noting that the time you know as “now”

is not the time that governs this

game. The true clock is measured in

Chapters. •

• For now, the first temporal point of reference

for all the Governed is the elite academy known as

Eldrath. •

═════════════════════

‘What does it mean by “the time you know as ‘now’ is not the time that governs this game”?’ Haru read it twice, trying to understand.

He looked at the other beings around him, hundreds, perhaps thousands, each standing motionless before their own version of the same revelation.

While he attended Eldrath Academy, other Gamers could be living in different cities, exploring distant regions, or getting involved in events that would never reach his ears.

They could have completely different stories and never meet. And yet, they were all part of the same game.

‘And why is the System calling us “the Governed”?’

The text continued appearing slowly, as if the System itself were choosing the right pace to avoid breaking those who read it.

[SYSTEM UPDATE: GAMER EXPANSION]

[VERSION 3.5.0]

═════════════════

CHAPTER PROGRESSION

═════════════════

• All the Governed are, without exception, in the

Prologue. No Chapters have begun. •

• Chapter 1 has its own name, visible to all the Governed.

Requirement to begin Chapter 1:

“Eldrath’s classes must begin.” •

══════════════════

◊[Update 3.5.0 — Item One]

∣

◈ The requirements for beginning a Chapter can be

fulfilled ahead of schedule.

◊◈ For example, if a Governed, through their own actions

or direct influence, causes classes to

begin earlier than scheduled, Chapter 1 begins

for everyone at that very moment.

═════════════════

Haru felt his chest tighten. He finally understood the scale of what was happening.

‘Wait.’

He looked at the information displayed by the System again.

After all, it wasn’t that different from the original game. The story didn’t progress continuously, but through Chapters, each associated with specific events. The beginning of classes at Eldrath Academy would mark the end of the Prologue and the start of the first Chapter. Later, other major events would determine the transition to subsequent Chapters, possibly shifting the focus of the narrative to other regions of the world.

It didn’t mean the entire world revolved around the Academy. It meant that, for now, that was where the story began to move forward.

So far, Haru could understand that.

The problem lay in the next piece of information.

Gamers could contribute to fulfilling the requirements and, under certain conditions, force Chapters to advance.

‘Force…’

Haru stared at the word.

To force something meant making it happen before it otherwise would.

‘But how?’

If a Gamer managed to make classes begin tomorrow, what exactly would happen?

Would the System recognize the event and announce the beginning of Chapter 1? Or would the world itself undergo changes to adapt to the new stage of the story?

Haru didn’t know.

And that difference was far more important than it seemed.

If the world worked like the original game, then Chapters were simply a way of organizing events. People would continue living their lives regardless of whatever labels the System assigned to them.

But what if that wasn’t the case?

What if advancing a Chapter didn’t merely acknowledge what was happening, but also changed what was yet to happen?

Haru shuddered. After all, he had no idea how the System treated this world. Until now, he’d simply used its functions, explored the possibilities it offered, and tried to understand the rules governing it.

He’d never had enough reason to question whether the world truly followed the original game or whether the game was merely an incomplete representation of something far greater.

Now, that doubt was becoming impossible to ignore.

‘Force the world into a new phase?’

The person responsible didn’t even need to be particularly powerful. All it would take was a sufficiently well-informed Gamer with the resources and a reason to accelerate events.

‘What would happen to everyone else?’

All Gamers were subject to the same progression. A decision made in one region could affect individuals who didn’t even know the person making it existed.

And what about Haru?

What would happen to his own harem?

Isabela, Kira, Lilithine, Seline…

Yukihime.

His relationships with them didn’t necessarily follow the events of the original game. Some people he’d met had never been part of his plans; others had become important for reasons no script could have predicted.

If the story were forcibly advanced, would those relationships continue developing naturally? Or would the world try to keep up with the events planned for the new Chapter, regardless of what Haru was building?

The System had given him no guarantees.

Haru felt like laughing out of sheer despair.

Because the System had just received a feature that seemed to give Gamers greater control over the world without explaining how far that control extended.

‘What kind of bullshit update is this?’

Haru looked at the luminous tree again.

He found no answers in its branches, its colorful leaves, or the light suspended above its crown.

He had only one way to find out. Watch someone try it, or try it himself.

And at that moment, he desperately wanted to put his hands over his face and rub his temples until all those questions disappeared from his head. But he couldn’t do a single thing except gaze at the luminous tree and let his thoughts pile on top of one another.

Thoughts, doubts, hypotheses…

And not a single answer.

‘What a shitty System…’

Then another notification sound echoed through that mysterious space.

Haru raised his eyes.

‘Huh?’

‘There’s more?’

Of course there was.

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