The Cocoon's consciousness? Or the agent of End?
Ryan didn't answer. He simply stared at the white silhouette, making no moves and showing no hostility.
This meeting was either entirely unexpected or exactly as he'd imagined. After the initial confusion, Ryan actually calmed down upon seeing this thing.
It was inevitable. The moment he truly stepped onto the Path was during the Third Herrscher period. That phrase, 'Outsider,' was still vivid in his memory, and he often spent his free time analyzing the content of those four simple words over the years.
It was undoubtedly a question, and it certainly wasn't spoken by the Third Herrscher, because ever since then, he had been targeted.
"Cocoon of End?"
"Not exactly, but you may treat it as such, as this relationship is difficult to describe in human linguistics. Would you like me to elaborate in approximately three thousand five hundred words?"
So polite. It even asks for my opinion.
Ryan raised an eyebrow but shook his head. "No need. It's enough that I understand the relationship. And after more than four years, we finally meet."
"You don't seem very surprised?"
"It's the inevitable outcome. I'm only surprised by your form of existence." Ryan thoroughly sized up the opponent and tentatively asked, "You're more agile than I imagined. You also use adjectives and colloquialisms quite well. You remind me of an old acquaintance."
"Yes. Since communication is necessary, characters, dialogue, and appearance are all indispensable. At the very least, this is more efficient." The white silhouette bowed for the second time, making Ryan's sense of déjà vu even stronger.
So you left a part of Calis's personality, huh? That makes sense. Talking with a mouth is better than indescribable mental communication. It's done me a favor, too.
Ryan showed a sly smile. It would be very troublesome to confront an indescribable entity, but at least the current white silhouette was understandable. It was useless now, but it might come in handy later.
This was also within his expectations. Or rather, he had been waiting for this moment for over four years.
"Do you want to negotiate, or are you stalling for time?"
"There is no concept of time here, nor is there such a thing as stalling." The white silhouette was very honest. It paused before speaking in a slightly elegant tone, "You are a special existence. In human terms, you are qualified to negotiate with me, provided, of course, that it does not interfere with my mission."
As expected. I knew I didn't get the qualification to meet It for nothing. It even created a personality for this moment and is adopting a very low posture.
The other party wasn't concealing anything, and Ryan roughly understood the weight of the term 'Outsider'—no, the weight of the Aeon.
This was a higher-dimensional existence that had even caused a bug in the Cocoon of End. Out of rationality, It had to create a personality to converse.
'It doesn't know what the Path is, but that connection definitely can't deceive this administrator. Is It afraid of drawing Akivili over?'
Ryan immediately had many speculations. In other words, he had a big shot backing him up, though that Aeon wouldn't likely interrupt its Trailblazer journey to come help.
Can I bluff It a little? Even with a personality, this thing can't be inferred with human thinking, but I can try a bit.
Ryan quickly formed an idea and said with a faint smile, "If you knew this, why didn't you talk to me sooner? You almost killed me many times over the years."
"So you hold hatred?"
"Yes, a deep, bloody grudge."
"Please believe that my mission does not include the option of contact or combat with an 'Outsider.' The only connection is that you obstructed the path to fulfilling my mission, forcing me to take hostile actions. Subjectively, of course, I would not do anything to you, as this is not on my record."
The white silhouette neither flipped the table nor showed distress. It simply spread its hands. "I do not possess the emotion of hatred. The current conversation is established based on your qualification, and you have only just now obtained this qualification."
It seemed somewhat puzzled. If Ryan could have reached It sooner, this scene would have begun earlier. How could It be blamed?
Damn it, so the difficult obstacles were aimed at me!
Ryan understood. He confirmed that he couldn't use human thinking to infer Its actions. The Cocoon didn't even have the concept of life and death. How could it be susceptible to threats? It simply failed one program and moved to the next, inherently representing infinite possibilities.
Moreover, inferring from Its words, if he had done nothing, It would have simply treated him as air? Because the Cocoon's creator didn't record him, It didn't know what to do with him?
Ryan was a little dumbfounded but quickly snapped back to reality. That was impossible. He wouldn't have gotten this far without confronting End. Would It isolate him when restarting civilization?
"As for the aggressive actions taken against you before, do I need to apologize?"
"No need. You wouldn't change even if you did apologize." Ryan waved his hand lightly and then frowned. "Get to the point. What do you want to negotiate?"
This was the matter he was most curious about, and the only blank space in the 'Star Era' plan.
Without excessive embellishment, the white silhouette bowed once more. "I would like to ask you to leave. Pass through here, and you can go anywhere you wish."
"I have nowhere I wish to go." Ryan gently shook his head.
"Then create one. You are different from Him. If you are willing, you can create a new worldline, one that you like."
Without any coaxing, the white silhouette made its request. Then Ryan's eyes widened slightly, and he felt a real sense of the illusory.
He woke up in bed in the early morning, opening his eyes to see Pardofelis asleep, curled up on his blanket. The door was pushed open, and Hua, holding a frying pan, poked her head in, then shook her head in distress. She grabbed Pardofelis by the ear and dragged her out.
This was a shared villa, rented by over a dozen men and women from various professions. As a corporate drone in a software company, he got along well with everyone.
There was no Honkai energy, no apocalypse, only a light-comedy style of romantic daily life. The worldline was unfolding. Ryan, sitting on his bed, only needed to think about how to slack off today and guess the color of the stockings worn by his colleague, Mobius, at the company.
He got up, washed up, ate breakfast, and then dropped off Pardo and Rin at school. On the way, he ran into Sakura, who was dressed in a black business suit, rushing to deliver a bento box. They walked side-by-side, sharing an ambiguous smile.
Harmonious, happy, relaxed, and full of hope.
Then, these newly unfolded scenes were constrained into nothingness.
"You used the Authority of Sentience on me!?" Ryan straightened his back, radiating killing intent.
Those scenes were indeed attractive and fulfilled all his fantasies as a shut-in: being surrounded by beautiful girls of various personalities, with a bit of a love triangle at most, and no danger to his life.
It was only an hour or two from the moment he woke up, but his five senses were real, his emotions vivid, and his thoughts smooth, almost as if it were reality.
"I apologize. I merely displayed the desires in your heart. This does not count as an aggressive act." The white silhouette spread its hands again and said somewhat innocently, "You could have broken free at any moment, yet you experienced it for several hours."
Still very honest—so honest that Ryan couldn't even argue.
He had been on high alert from the moment he saw End, afraid of being ambushed. So, the Authority of Sentience had been exposed the moment it was deployed, and he could have constrained it at any time.
But, as the white silhouette said, this was precisely the desire in his heart, and he had unconsciously enjoyed it for a while.
"But it's an illusion."
"No, you can turn it into reality. Simply pass through this space. You are different from Calis. He had only obsession without power, but you possess both."
It couldn't be called coaxing. Ryan subconsciously looked up. This vast white space seemed boundless, but it also appeared to have an edge. Turning it into reality was very possible. Could anyone say that the Pure Love Archbishop's struggle was entirely futile?
"Then what is your bargaining chip?"
"Me? I have already pointed out the way for you."
"I mean, what will happen to Earth?"
"It will, of course, be restarted. The mission must continue." The white silhouette still spoke with a perplexed tone and pointed behind It. "On the Imaginary Tree, there are countless Moths of the Fire-Chaser. Every coincidence extends in a different direction. An existence as high-dimensional as yourself shouldn't dwell on such issues."
Every leaf was real and equal. There was never a concept of 'uniqueness,' which is why higher-dimensional beings rarely bother to intervene in anything.
Ryan stared at It and slowly shook his head. "That's the truth, but I choose to refuse."
"Why? You shouldn't be confident in defeating me. Why risk falling to the ground to fight this to the end? Is it for the memories in your mind? Even someone as obsessed as Calis understood that by touching the Imaginary Tree, he could create reality." It grew increasingly puzzled, as if It had encountered a bug.
Ryan's choice completely violated rationality. He was looking forward to that kind of reality just now, wasn't he? Then all he had to do was use his ability to create one. Fighting It to the death would yield no benefit whatsoever.
"Because the ideal future must be created with one's own hands."
"Exactly. I'm asking you to go create it. There will be no obstruction whatsoever. The risk of touching the Imaginary Tree should be smaller than fighting me."
Ryan closed his mouth. It wasn't that he doubted the white silhouette or ran out of words, but that he felt he shouldn't have held any expectations from the beginning.
It was very polite, but like the Herrschers, It always analyzed the world with probability and rationality and could never understand human emotions, because that too could be created. On the Imaginary Tree, 'creation' was a simple act.
Time, appearance, memory, soul—everything could be unique and molded according to one's own ideas.
"I have no interest in doing such a grand thing, because I am not a high-dimensional being at all."
"Then what are you?"
Ryan clenched his fist in front of his chest and spoke deliberately, word for word: "Just a ordinary person. Even though it's filled with regrets and cruelty, this memory is the only one of its kind to me. The people who have walked with me until now are the most precious treasures, far more real than any worldline I could create."
Everything is illusory, everything is real. He didn't deny the reality of starting a new worldline on the Imaginary Tree, nor did he deny his longing for an ideal life, but how should he put it?
Since he had the power to reconstruct the future, why not try to push a little harder:
"I will make this moment unique and fulfill the wishes of everyone other than myself!"
Memories? The wishes of others? Are these things really important?
End wasn't quite sure. When time itself became meaningless, so-called memory and emotion would also become incomprehensible things. Why consider the wishes of others? When one could walk in Imaginary Space and possess a concept akin to immortality, weren't others just momentary fragments in the river of time?
The confusion persisted, but the man's fighting spirit in front of It was real, making the confusion meaningless.
"Perhaps you could wait a little. After I've restarted the world, you can consider it carefully?"
Very rational. If It had a choice, It wouldn't want to be my enemy. It's still wary of the person behind me.
Ryan finally understood. From the perspective of the Cocoon of End, there was truly no need to fight him to the death. After all, there was absolutely no benefit in doing so, and it might even affect the mission of the next era.
"You want to trap me?"
"Subjectively, no, but objectively, I must do so." The white silhouette saw Ryan raise his hand and felt an invisible force compressing It.
But the constraint was like sweeping through light and shadow, with no tangible feedback. It still stood there, tilting Its round head.
"No physical body to begin with?" Ryan put down his hand, having already realized this was a mere illusion.
"I said I am merely a phantom created for the convenience of communication. The way out is behind me. You can leave at any time. I inherently lack the ability to obstruct you."
Ryan took a deep breath, once again realizing the formidable nature of the Cocoon of End. This thing harbored neither benevolence nor malice, yet It could always make the outcome favor Its own development.
The threads of fate. Much more effective than Aponia's Precepts.
"Without a doubt, you are something that can be called a 'God.' I am not within this world's destiny, yet I can be influenced by you time and time again."
"That is your advantage. The arrogant people on a certain planet once truly thought they could defeat me by borrowing the power of the 'Sea.'" The white silhouette spread Its hands and said gently, "So I gave a gentle push and let them destroy themselves with that arrogance."
"And the cowardly people on a certain planet truly thought they could survive by hiding in the 'Sea.' I imagine those stray dogs are having a very tough time now."
"Oh, I also recall the reckless people on a certain planet..."
The little person slowly recounted, causing cold sweat to break out on Ryan's back. He realized he had simplified one problem:
"How many planets in the solar system have you actually plagued!?"
"In human terms, it should be the nine planets, which is why I particularly cherish Earth. In the beginning, I extinguished danger in the bud, but later I found that it's necessary to give civilization more patience."
The tone was very calm, as if speaking of a trivial matter, yet every word was filled with the lives of billions of beings.
"Those struggles, those confrontations, are all recorded by me, giving rise to different coping mechanisms. The human description should be omniscience and omnipotence?" The white silhouette gently tilted Its head and turned to the side, making a gesture of invitation.
"For your own sake, please leave."
...
Ryan's eye twitched slightly. He felt that he had continuously overestimated End, yet he still underestimated the other party. He was momentarily dazed.
Plaguing the entire solar system, undergoing countless restarts—how many times has It witnessed attempts at self-salvation? And is your test a complete joke? Who burns down the exam room eight times?
Ryan desperately hoped the other party was bragging, but this thing had no facial features, so he couldn't see any sign of deception. Subconsciously, he also felt that End had no need to lie to him. This repeated persuasion was already full of goodwill, practically spelling out the point:
You have a big shot behind you. For his sake, I advise you not to get involved in this.
Should he really leave? But what about Elysia and the others? Has no one really used his plan before? Which is more important: dignity or survival?
Ryan felt his mind was a mess. He was thinking too much, like the life flashing before a person's eyes before death. Gradually, his mind was filled with images of the gifts Elysia gave him, the little moments of life they shared together.
I am not a passerby. I have long become a participant in this civilization. So what if It has countless experiences of destroying civilizations? So what if It is omniscient and omnipotent?
Those are all the known, and I am the unknown.
"If I were to feel timid, I wouldn't have come in the first place, so—" Ryan slightly raised his head, the hand hidden behind his back clenched into a fist. "My answer is absolutely not! And you can't trap me!"
This time, Ryan's kite was linked by an invisible thread, not drifting aimlessly in the air.
It was like an anchoring point, giving time and space a point of reference, and then following this thread to transmit his thoughts.
"Vil-V, fire on me, and you—" Ryan issued the command without hesitation, then stared at the 'Cocoon' that was close at hand, his eyes wide, a grin splitting his face, and roared at End:
"Get off your divine throne!"