Contrary to what any other girl would do, Lala did not flinch under Kaito's gaze. On the contrary, she posed proudly, letting her confidence speak for her.
"But you should know that chasing me is not easy. Most of the men in the galaxy are already after me."
"Really?" asked Kaguya, surprised.
"Yes, but…" Lala's expression turned uncomfortable, "most of them only want the position of heir by marrying me." She sighed with exhaustion.
"So, anyone who marries you becomes the next king of the galaxy?"
"That's right. After all, the only other way would be to defeat my father and, hehehe, that's impossible." Her confident smile was almost arrogant, but soon her attitude shifted.
"Or at least that was supposed to be the case… now there is another method."
"Gaia?" Kaito asked instinctively, and Lala nodded.
"Exactly. Although right now most focus on small territories, the more they advance, the more they will conquer. First a continent, then a planet, until they conquer the entire universe."
The revelation left Kaguya silent, though she quickly understood the implications.
"Does Gaia exist on other planets?"
"Of course. Gaia appeared across the entire universe at the same time, summoning inhabitants from the beginning to the end of adulthood for each race."
"That puts us at a disadvantage… there must be aliens who already had abilities even before entering, right?"
"It should be like that, yes. That's why imagine my father's surprise when he discovered that someone from a planet with no abilities, in only one month, reached the base strength of a high-level world." Lala spoke with excitement.
"So that's why your father wanted to see me."
"That's right. You and many others with potential. Although, of course, most of them are my suitors." Then, as if remembering something, she corrected herself: "I don't mind that they are, what bothers me is when they try to use me to get close to my father." As she spoke, she glanced at Kaito discreetly, though to herself it was obvious.
"I was wondering," Kaito said calmly, "do you think that if I chase you, I will treat you better and give you more resources?"
"Gahh…" Lala let out a surprised sound at being discovered. "You caught me so quickly."
"It's fine. Go to the territory and explore for now."
As soon as he told her, Lala disappeared. Since she did not have her own territory and became Kaito's subordinate, she was automatically transported to his.
Now, only Kaguya and Kaito remained in the place.
"Kaito-sama, there is something I want to talk about with you."
He raised an eyebrow, confused by the seriousness in her tone, but followed her to the table where they had been before. Both sat down.
"I want to talk about your ambitions."
"Ambitions?" Kaito repeated, surprised.
"That's right. What do you want to achieve by becoming strong? I, for example, seek freedom from my family."
Kaito thought for a moment. "I've never really thought about it."
"I see… then, what is the reason you participate in Gaia?"
"Because it's fun, of course." He smiled confidently.
Kaguya narrowed her eyes. "I imagined as much. You know? Many Lords consider Gaia just a game… but that is a weak mindset."
Kaito frowned. "What are you trying to say?"
"That you should change that way of thinking."
"It has worked well for me so far."
"And that is the problem. It has gone too well for you." Kaguya spoke with the firmness of someone who had rehearsed those words many times.
"So you think success itself is a problem?"
"Not success itself, but the mindset it causes. You… you have no sense of urgency."
"Sense of urgency?"
"Exactly. You have not died a single time. Every mission you cleared with the highest grade. Every attacker to your territory was defeated easily. You just settle into your situation."
"And that's bad?"
"That's what's bad. It should be. But you are at a level where, even giving your worst, you still win." The frustration on her face was evident.
"Why do you think I haven't given my best?"
Kaguya gave an ironic smile. "Do you know how many Lords I have as subordinates?"
Kaito hesitated, but she didn't give him time.
"Ten. And as for Gaia cities, I already have almost twenty."
"You can't compare yourself to me and say I don't give my best." Kaito argued.
"But it's not about me." Kaguya's voice rose strongly. "You have opened golden chests, right? What did you find in them?"
"Experience and skills."
"Exactly. Even the system shows you the path: conquest. We are Lords. And your mansion? Why do you think you have more than twenty free rooms? Because, with your strength, you should already have more Sub-Lords."
She calmed for a few seconds before continuing.
"A month. An entire month of effort, using the few influences I have outside my family, expanding my territory until I was among the best in the world… all that took me a month. For you, five minutes were enough to surpass it. At first I was excited to follow someone strong, but imagine my frustration at discovering you had less than 10% of what I achieved."
Her gaze hardened.
"You have no reason to try. You never lost, and that gave you the feeling you never will. And the worst part… is that maybe it's true. For you, this world is a game, something you don't take seriously.
But I don't trust absolutes. If you have no motivation, if you have no sense of urgency… then I will give you one."
Kaito frowned. His intuition warned him of something.
"So this is your way of giving me a sense of urgency?" he said, suddenly perceiving a great number of hostile presences around him.
"That's right. Once you die, once you lose, you will understand that you are not invincible… and that you need to become stronger if you want to keep what is yours."
Before he could respond, a sky-blue beam shot into the air. An entire diameter of five hundred meters was covered by a dome.
"Hahaha, Lucifer. And to think you would fall for this kind of trap?"
A burly man appeared at the front, accompanied by dozens who surrounded them.
Kaito tried to return to his territory, but discovered he could not. Even so, he showed no concern. However, when he made a movement, his expression changed.
A female voice echoed in his mind:
Single Law: Lucifer is forbidden from using speed.
Thanks to the system's translator he understood the words, though he immediately knew they came from another language. Korean, he deduced.
The man in front smiled at his confusion.
"What do you think? We prepared well. When I got a skill called Communication I thought it was useless… who would have thought it would serve to contact other servers." He pointed to a machine behind him, from which the beam had emerged. "I bought it from a first-rank in a Korean server. It transforms a written law into absolute truth. Everyone must obey it."
Kaito looked at the machine, surrounded by defenders and several layers of shields. Then his eyes scanned the enemies around him. All looked at him like predators. Finally, he turned to Kaguya.
"Which side are you on?"
Kaguya bit her lip, uncomfortable.
"I was supposed to be able to leave… but it seems I was betrayed."
A lightning bolt struck Kaito. He had no time to dodge: the impact left a burn on his arm.
The enemies did not wait any longer. They surrounded him, unleashing their abilities without coordination, competing to be the one to land the final blow.
But Kaito did not only have speed. When a stone man attacked him, he struck him down with a single blow, dragging several others with him.
Kaguya took her Shinigami form and threw herself at those within reach.
A green-haired girl extended vines that trapped Kaito, but he broke free with force and knocked her out in a single hit. Another launched fireballs, which Kaito passed through without taking damage, taking down the caster.
He conjured shadow bombs and hurled them around, dispatching dozens. Shadows emerged from the ground and pierced many more.
Even so, they kept coming. The wave was endless. And he could not even get close to the machine.
Then he remembered something: the Guaranteed Survival Ticket. It would not make him win, but it would let him survive. And given the current situation, most likely it would teleport him out of range, where he could return to his territory.
He looked around. The enemies saw him as a walking treasure. More and more wounds marked his body. Beside him, Kaguya was bleeding too: her transformation had ended and she could only fight physically.
Although he could die two more times without losing everything, Kaito was surprised to discover that he was… annoyed.
Then he understood. His enemies did not take him seriously. They did not see the battle as a fight, but as a game. For them, killing him was just fun.
"So I'm the same?" he thought, remembering how he had always seen Gaia: just as a game, something fun.
He could run. He had the means to do it. He thought of his territory, of those who depended on him, of the "treasures" his enemies would gain if he fell.
He reached into his inventory and pulled out an item he had had for a long time.
In front of everyone's eyes, he activated it.
A black aura burst out of the coin, ignoring defenses and shields, traveling straight toward the machine. It did not destroy it, but it broke the law that forbade his speed.
The dome remained, preventing escape. But Kaito recovered what made him truly terrifying.
Everyone's eyes changed. The air filled with tangible fear. What had been a game before now became the most real experience they had ever felt in their lives.
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So, throughout the entire series there were several things that showed the protagonist saw all of this more as a game than as reality. From the second episode he already said he was doing it out of boredom. There are other details, like the ones Kaguya mentioned, such as him not expanding, which shows he doesn't take it seriously and only does it for fun. And there are other things, like the fact that he doesn't kill people from the real world. That's something more subconscious: taking that kind of action would have real consequences, so deep down he resists doing something real in something he considers unreal. Another example is when another Lord told him it was his last life, and Kaito didn't kill him. Or how he let millions die in the world of the fifth wave just to help Mashiro, clearly, if he truly considered them real, he wouldn't have done that.
Leaving that aside, since I've added many details like that throughout the story and I don't even remember them all myself, let's get to the important part.
The difference between personality and attitude.
And I can already guess that many people thought it didn't make sense for his personality to suddenly change just because of one battle.
The protagonist's personality didn't change, at least not much, only a little.
What really changed was his attitude. Even if he's having fun on the inside, he can't show that to his enemies. He has to show that he's someone they can't mess with, not for his own sake, but for the sake of his loved ones.
I hope that was clear.
(By the way, about the Mashiro thing, at this point he would still sacrifice those millions to help her. But while before he did it because he didn't consider those people real, now he would do it because Mashiro means more to him than all of those people combined, even if they are real.)
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+20 chapters in advance on Patreon.
p-atreon.com/IAMME26
(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)