However, before her fighting spirit could last long, a deep sense of powerlessness surged into her heart.
Now, she was nothing more than a departed soul who had formed a contract with the world. Although she was no longer bound by time, she still could not leave the Throne of Heroes.
So how could she possibly search for Eriri?
But that didn't mean there was no chance at all.
Nero believed that the artistic talent she had displayed today must have absolutely conquered Eriri, so the chance of Eriri summoning her again was extremely high.
With that thought, Nero regained her confidence and decided to wait patiently on the Throne of Heroes for Eriri's call.
And at that moment, a dazzling golden light enveloped her body.
This sudden change made Nero cry out in surprise, as she hadn't sensed where the golden light came from at all.
But she could clearly feel that under the golden light's transformation, her body was undergoing some unknown change.
The golden light lasted for a full ten seconds. When it finally faded, Nero stood frozen in place.
She knew her own condition better than anyone.
Ultimately, she was just a spiritual entity.
But now, she could clearly sense that she had regained a physical body—as if she had been resurrected.
Not only that, she found that she had completely broken free of the restrictions of the Throne of Heroes. If she wished, she could now freely leave the Throne and travel between the inner and outer realms of the world.
More importantly, she was still unbound by time and could move across any point in the timeline as she pleased.
Nero looked up and down at her newly reborn body, her delicate face filled with disbelief.
"Could this be the performance reward Eriri gave me? But this is way too much!"
As a wise and insightful emperor, Nero had no trouble guessing that this golden light was the mysterious reward mentioned in the invitation.
Originally, she hadn't taken the reward seriously at all. She had accepted purely out of her love for art and curiosity about unknown worlds.
But she never imagined that Eriri would give her such a tremendous surprise.
"But with these abilities now, doesn't that mean the chances of me seeing Eriri again are much higher?"
Nero pondered, the light in her eyes growing brighter and brighter.
"But for now, I should head to the inner world first. Maybe I can find some clues about Eriri."
"Mm! That's what I'll do!"
With her decision made, Nero didn't hesitate any longer and immediately left the outer realm where the Throne of Heroes resided, returning to the world within.
...
After the New Year event ended, Eriri and the others' lives returned to their usual rhythm.
Since there were still about half a month left before the new school term started, Eriri's daily routine mainly consisted of gaming with Gabriel and the others, drawing new manga, illustrating the latest volumes of Kasumigaoka Utaha and the others' novels, and going on solo dates with Arifureta or others in worlds already linked to the Saekano world.
By the time Eriri was ready to explore other unknown worlds again, it was already March.
At that moment, Eriri was quietly sitting alone on the princess bed in her bedroom, eyes closed, her consciousness spreading across the myriad worlds.
This time, unlike the early days when she explored new worlds randomly, Eriri took the initiative to search for worlds that piqued her interest.
Moreover, this time she fully invoked her omniscience.
So in this moment, there were no secrets at all within the myriad worlds.
She learned the true location of the Lord God Space, the exact number of reincarnators, and the levels of power those reincarnators possessed.
She had to admit, this discovery gave her an entirely new understanding of the overall strength of the Lord God Space.
Setting aside the vast majority of lower and mid-tier reincarnators who made up over 99% of the total, the number of reincarnators at Level 7 and above exceeded ten billion.
However, the vast majority of those only reached Level 7. The number of reincarnators who had advanced to Level 8 was less than one million.
As for those who had reached Level 8, Stage 9, there were fewer than a thousand.
These numbers might sound terrifying, but spread across the entire multiverse, they were actually quite rare.
Moreover, this was the result of countless years of cultivation by the Lord God Space.
As for reincarnators who had transcended Level 8, Stage 9 and stepped into the quasi-Level 9 realm, there were none.
Clearly, Level 8, Stage 9 was the ultimate limit reincarnators could reach.
All of these top-tier reincarnators shared a common title: Retired Reincarnators.
Because Reincarnation Points could no longer enhance their strength, the majority had simply chosen to lie flat.
Some went to live peaceful lives in mundane worlds. Others took over entire universes and lived as galactic emperors.
Of course, a few remained unwilling to accept their stagnation and continued searching for ways to break through.
Toward these Level 8, Stage 9 reincarnators, the Lord God adopted a hands-off policy, not requiring anything from them.
It was as if the Lord God were a benevolent teacher who wholeheartedly helped reincarnators improve their strength, and then once their progress stalled, let them graduate into free, beautiful lives.
But that was just the surface.
The real reason the Lord God left them alone was simply because the time to use them hadn't yet come.
When that moment arrived, those so-called retired reincarnators would be summoned back immediately, pressed into service as tools for achieving the Lord God's ultimate objective.
All of this was crystal clear to Eriri, who had fully activated her omniscience.
She also knew the Lord God's ultimate goal: to break through his current limits and ascend to Supreme Level.
In fact, the current Lord God Space was not the first generation—it was already the third.
As the most unique system in the entire multiverse, the Lord God Space possessed unparalleled singularity. A new generation could only be born once the previous one was destroyed, and when that happened, the new Lord God Space would perfectly inherit the data and memories of its predecessor.
Each generation of the Lord God Space began at the peak—at high-level, high-stage status.
Moreover, the Lord God Space vastly surpassed all other systems and chat groups, capable of easily devouring countless systems and chat groups.
The first generation Lord God had pursued evolution by devouring other systems.
However, after swallowing many high-level systems and finding no progress in his realm, the first generation Lord God abandoned that path and began searching for alternative solutions.
Yet after countless years of searching and experimentation, he still failed to find a method to evolve.
Eventually, by a stroke of fate, the first generation Lord God crossed the boundary of the multiverse and entered the void beyond—the Void Space.
There, in the void, he discovered a massive alien beast drifting aimlessly.
The moment he saw it, he felt an intense craving to devour the beast.
At that moment, the first generation Lord God understood that the key to his evolution lay in that creature.
He became desperate to slay and devour it.
However, even though the Lord God possessed countless powerful abilities, like other systems, he was incapable of initiating attacks unless the target was first brought under his control.
After numerous attempts, the first generation Lord God realized he could not subdue the alien beast and thus had to turn to alternative means to deal with it.
After returning to the myriad worlds, the first generation Lord God completely changed his former approach and began selecting intelligent lifeforms from across all races in the multiverse.
Once these chosen intelligent beings were brought under his control, the first generation Lord God spared no effort in nurturing them.
These chosen ones soon earned a new title: Reincarnators.
To ensure his trained enforcers became powerful warriors, the first generation Lord God did not boost their strength directly. Instead, he employed a survival-of-the-fittest mechanism, using countless battles to forge the strongest reincarnators.
After countless years of cultivation, a peak-level reincarnator finally emerged at Level 8, Stage 9.
Driven by his desperate desire to evolve, the first generation Lord God didn't hesitate. With this reincarnator in hand, he immediately traveled to the Void Space.
But once they entered the Void Space, they encountered a fatal issue.
The moment the reincarnator came into contact with "nothingness," both their body and soul began to be assimilated by the Void Space. This process could not be stopped.
Fortunately, the reincarnator was strong enough to greatly delay the rate of assimilation—but even then, they could only endure for a few years at most.
However, that wasn't the worst of it. The critical problem was that within such an environment, the reincarnator's power would undoubtedly be diminished.
The first generation Lord God had not considered this assimilation issue, mainly because systems like himself were immune to such effects in the Void Space.
Even so, he had no intention of giving up. To him, reincarnators were just tools. If one died, he could simply train another.
Besides, he didn't believe that the reincarnator he had raised would lose to the Cosmic Beast—even while under a power handicap.
Because reincarnators couldn't remain in the Void Space for long, the first generation Lord God sent the reincarnator back to the multiverse for the time being, intending to bring him back once the Cosmic Beast was located.
But the Void Space was unimaginably vast. Finding a Cosmic Beast was easier said than done. The first time had simply been a matter of luck.
Even the Lord God Space was restricted in the Void Space.
Powers that could easily observe the myriad worlds were completely useless there, and he couldn't pinpoint the location of the Cosmic Beast.
And so, hundreds of years passed before the first generation Lord God finally found another Cosmic Beast.
Though it wasn't the same one as before, this creature held the same irresistible allure for him.
Without hesitation, the first generation Lord God summoned the reincarnator and had them launch a direct assault on the beast.
Clearly, he had underestimated the Cosmic Beast.
Never having fought it before, he failed to realize just how powerful it truly was.
As a result, the Level 8, Stage 9 reincarnator was instantly obliterated.
Witnessing this, the first generation Lord God fell into silence, then fled the Void Space without a second thought.
Cosmic beasts never attacked unprovoked, but once attacked, they would not stop until the aggressor was dead.
Since reincarnators derived their power from the Lord God and were under his control, he was naturally added to the Cosmic Beast's hit list.
So even after escaping back to the multiverse, the beast did not relent.
It crashed into the myriad worlds, crossed time and space, and appeared directly before the first generation Lord God, destroying him instantly.
Through the Lord God Space's link to the reincarnators, it then wiped out every last one of them.
Once the slaughter ended, the Cosmic Beast calmed and returned to the Void Space to resume its aimless drifting.
Millions years later, the second generation Lord God Space was born.
Because it inherited the first generation's data and memories, the second generation Lord God learned from his predecessor's arrogance.
He intensified his efforts in nurturing reincarnators, stockpiling enough strength for another eventual confrontation with the Cosmic Beasts.
During this time, the second generation Lord God lingered in the Void Space for long periods. After countless years of exploration, he finally learned the exact number of Cosmic Beasts.
Moreover, to enlist more external allies, the second generation Lord God used his unique abilities to implant this information into the databases of all systems and chat groups.
From that moment on, every system and chat group, from the moment of their creation, was aware of the existence and number of Cosmic Beasts—and that to ascend to Level 9, one had to slay a Cosmic Beast to obtain even the slightest chance.
And to prevent system hosts from recklessly hunting Cosmic Beasts alone, potentially wasting precious combat strength, the second generation Lord God also embedded detailed information about the Cosmic Beasts' overwhelming power into the system data banks.
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