Deadline Is Raining in the Status Window - Chapter 232
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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What? What are you talking about? I’m the one who set Sunbird up as a returner, and wrote an entire novel imagining all sorts of scenarios—Sunbird going mad from repeating his regression a thousand times to save Sera, and so on. What happens to my position?
When I pressed him about it, asking if there wasn’t some grand epic of Sunbird repeating his regression a thousand times and losing his mind to save Sera, the man simply sipped his tea and said he lacked the mental fortitude to endure such a bloodbath.
“I am merely one of more than a thousand possibilities.”
“What?”
“The person controlling from the center exists in a different timeline.”
“What now?”
I let out a vacant sound.
“I shall explain from here on! If you have questions, raise your hand and ask!”
Sunbird dragged over a portable blackboard as if conducting a lecture, armed himself with chalk, and pushed his glasses up with a sharp motion. Did everyone in our Club suffer from some disease that would kill them if they didn’t dress the part before starting? Reina with those strange red glasses giving tutoring sessions, and now Sunbird explaining things like a top-tier instructor with his specialty of throwing chalk—it was all the same.
“We are all the same person, but we have each experienced different things within our respective possibilities. Those experiences are shared. By the original ‘me’ who processes everything centrally.”
“So… that original you, the one doing the processing… that’s your true body?”
“I wouldn’t call it a true body exactly… it has been corrupted. That person is Aten Polat, and I am also Aten Polat. The difference is that he holds the final decision-making authority, and while his possibility will certainly disappear with a hundred percent probability, I am likely to remain until the very end as the confirmed reality.”
“Wow, I don’t understand any of this.”
“It’s an old story… or rather, a story from the future.”
Sunbird drew a diagram beautifully like a top-tier instructor. When Sera peeked over and asked if she could listen too, the man smiled prettily and said she could listen all she wanted since she wouldn’t understand it anyway.
This bastard’s objectivity about Sera is remarkable, considering how much he loves her.
“Two years from now, the King of Ten Thousand Demons will have made an appearance.”
“Sunbird! I have a question! What is the King of Ten Thousand Demons?”
“Only Evan Laef may ask questions.”
“Understood!”
So that’s why he said Sera could listen—she wouldn’t understand with all the jargon he’d be throwing around.
Anyway, it seems Sunbird became the King of Ten Thousand Demons after graduating from the Academy. I leveled up pretty quickly myself.
“Having perfected the movement skill and obtained a new Legendary skill called ‘Thousand-Fold Possibility,’ the King of Ten Thousand Demons could absolutely ensure humanity’s annihilation. ‘Thousand-Fold Possibility’ derives a thousand possibilities from a starting point and confirms the most ideal future. Among the anticipated futures, several would inevitably result in humanity’s complete extinction.”
“That skill is ridiculously broken.”
“Do you understand? The King of Ten Thousand Demons had to annihilate humanity because of his time limit. But among a thousand possibilities, there was not a single one—not even one—where he could save Sera and clear his time limit!”
Ah, this is similar to the love and despair story about Sunbird I’d imagined. When Sunbird was the King of Ten Thousand Demons back then, he couldn’t choose any of the thousand futures, and the Demon Kings who knew of his power, along with Mother Goddess, kept pestering him to decide quickly—it was chaos. In the end, what Sunbird chose was.
“So the King of Ten Thousand Demons decided to flee to the past, to a time when even Mother Goddess did not exist.”
“In the end, he chose to run away. Isn’t he ashamed?”
“I stripped the Demon Kings of their power for my plan and even extorted some of Mother Goddess’s strength. It was a perilous journey.”
“The ultimate selfish bastard.”
The Sunbird who was the King of Ten Thousand Demons stole the Demon Kings’ power and sacrificed Mother Goddess to hide in the past for his own desires. The current Sunbird doesn’t seem capable of such things. Just what kind of growth process does Sunbird go through to become such an audacious bastard?
“Regardless of what you say, my love for Sera is genuine!”
“Yes! I love you too, Sunbird!”
Sera and Sunbird confidently declared their feelings, then confidently grew embarrassed. The man who seemed to be living quite well these days circled Evan Laef’s figure on the diagram and threw chalk around with flourishes. He really did look like a top-tier instructor.
“The future closest to the ideal of the King of Ten Thousand Demons hiding in the past and casting his skill is precisely us! We must quickly achieve humanity’s annihilation and then appeal to confirm our reality!”
Well, it’s complicated, but to put it simply: the future Sunbird who was the King of Ten Thousand Demons didn’t want Sera to die, so he fled to the past with all the power he could muster. In that past, he used the ‘Thousand-Fold Possibility’ skill, seeking a future where Sera lives, Sunbird lives, Mother Goddess’s time limit is resolved, and humanity’s annihilation is roughly achieved.
Judging from Cecilia’s claim that she’s never seen herself become this soft before, Sunbird’s experiences across different realities seem to be shared with his true body. And if the reality that my Sunbird creates becomes confirmed, the Sunbird who was the King of Ten Thousand Demons will disappear. That’s only natural. Once this past is confirmed, the future where Sunbird is the King of Ten Thousand Demons must cease to exist.
A question arose in my mind. If we weren’t chosen, what would happen to everyone?
“If this reality isn’t confirmed, what happens to us? You and me, all the current Demon Kings, everyone.”
“You would cease to exist. Only the single possibility chosen by the King of Ten Thousand Demons would remain, continuing into the future.”
My fusion with Mitchell Neftis, my meeting with Gerth, the entire process of becoming Evan Mitchell Neftis Laef from Evan Laef—all of it would be erased as if it never happened?
“This is quite the predicament.”
“For Mitchell Neftis, it must be troubling indeed. Both the possibility where Mitchell Neftis lived and the possibility where Mitchell Neftis died—both exist.”
“No. In other realities, I as an existence would definitely not exist. I’m a human from the past who merged with Mitchell Neftis’s soul.”
“…Pardon?”
Sunbird, who had thought this was his moment for shocking confessions, sputtered at my shocking revelation. “Pardon?” “What?” “How is that even possible?”—spouting nothing but malfunctioning words, Sunbird grabbed my shoulders and shook me frantically.
“How did you come this far?! And the King of Ten Thousand Demons never gave you this information?!”
“I am also a Demon King. Watch your tongue, Puppet King.”
“My apologies. I got carried away.”
I punched Sunbird in the head, and the man apologized while clutching his throbbing skull.
“But now I understand. The reason the reality I live in diverged from other possibilities—it was because you, someone from a completely separate past rather than our era, interfered.”
The man kept thanking me, saying he was fortunate, that he’d come this far because of me, a special variable, and he grasped my hand and shook it vigorously. Sera’s eyes looking at me grew sharp.
Stop it. If Sera, Sunbird’s guardian, takes revenge on me, what then?
“We’ve already won this battle! If you, Evan, just succeed with the Humanity Supplementation Plan, we can definitely seize the future!”
Sunbird linked arms with me and pointed toward the future. So now that you’ve decided you’re worth keeping alive, you’re finally showing your true colors? Your character seems a bit different?
“S-stay away! Sunbird is my Sunbird, Evan!”
“Sera, are your eyes knotholes? I didn’t grab him—this bird grabbed my shoulder.”
“Please! I’ll apologize for everything that happened before!”
Sera dropped to her knees and dramatically smashed her head to the floor, and Sunbird gasped before kneeling beside her to apologize to me.
“If you’re a separate personality from Mitchell Neftis, then I understand why you were so angry back then. It was as good as having your identity denied…”
Had this crazy flower-and-bird couple finally understood the matter of Evan Laef’s disappearance? Sera apologized without knowing better, but Sunbird’s attitude had definitely changed from before. Unlike then, when he’d said it was fine since I’d returned to being Mitchell, now he acknowledged that he’d buried a person named Evan Laef.
“I belong to Sera, but you, Evan, are my king. Within reason that causes no harm to Sera, command me to do anything.”
“Sunbird! When did you get hired by House Neftis!”
“You can’t leave until you finish your doctorate, Sera. I need to eat too.”
“That’s… well, that’s true, but!”
Sera wept and apologized for being an incompetent crown princess who couldn’t even provide for her household’s living expenses. Sunbird gently took Sera’s hand and said gracefully that everyone has their ups and downs, and while Sera rested, he would earn for them both.
So moved by his graciousness was Sera that she called out “Aten Polat!” and embraced Sunbird. Sunbird nestled into Sera’s arms and chirped in a delicate voice.
Nauseating.
“Sunbird, I’m invoking my authority to punish you. Stop this sentimental act with Sera.”
“No, I don’t want to.”
The man spoke and simultaneously shrieked “Ow!” Sunbird seized my poor foot and rolled frantically left and right across the Carpet Floor.
“My pinky toe! My pinky toe!”
Last time it was canker sores, and now the pain of stubbing his pinky toe in a wardrobe assailed him. The demerit system for refusing orders is really petty. I’m curious how many variations there are and tempted to test them.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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