Sage's inner struggle was something Raymond didn't know about, nor did he have the time to care.
Whatever she ultimately decided didn't matter much—Even if she ran off and told this world's Professor X everything, it wasn't something worth worrying over now.
In this world, concepts like the multiverse, extradimensional realms, and parallel worlds weren't exactly unheard of.
Raymond's real secrets were the system itself, and the knowledge he had of this world as a "reader."
Not the fact that his sub-personalities came from parallel worlds.
That was why he could just sit back and watch Professor X's sub-personality and Sage make their little pact.
Right now, his attention was focused on the Wish Journey function.
"…Not many options," he thought, glancing at his remaining 600+ Universal Points.
He realized he might have overestimated his choices earlier.
He had planned to start with some easier wishes, use them to get familiar with the process and rules, and then move on to more challenging ones to "harvest wool."
What he had overlooked was that simply activating a wish required a good chunk of points—
Meaning he didn't actually have much choice to begin with.
"Guess I'll use Kuro's wish to test the system…" Raymond decided.
Kuro's wish only cost 50 points to start—perfect for experimentation.
Even if there was no gain, the loss was minimal.
Once he decided, he glanced at his watch and blinked and reopened them.
Noticing the watch's second hand had barely moved, he murmured to himself:
"The time ratio's like Immersive Mode—time inside moves fast and only an instant passes outside.
But… this time it's not a simulated world?"
His expression shifted slightly.
He had assumed the Wish Journey would work like Immersive Mode—A hyper-realistic illusion crafted by the system, existing only to serve him.
But once he started Kuro's wish, he realized it was different.
When he entered that world, the system automatically transmitted some basic rules to him.
Rule One: Every Wish Journey world is a real, existing world. If you fail to complete the wish the first time and exit, reopening it will not reset the world—Instead, it continues from the point where you left off.
Rule Two: If you are killed, you will automatically exit the Wish Journey. Reopening it will bring you back to the moment before your death.
Which meant—If you had no solution to a deadly situation, then reopening the wish would just get you killed all over again.
There were five or six such foundational rules in total, giving him a fairly detailed picture of how the Wish Journey worked.
And most importantly—When he entered a Wish Journey, he would take the place of that sub-personality's original self in that world's timeline.
In other words—when he opened Kuro's wish, he directly replaced Kuro from that point in that world's history.
And from then on, things would keep moving along that world's timeline until the wish was fully completed.
"Shame I can't use this for training…" Raymond sighed with a trace of regret.
On paper, with the time difference between worlds, he could theoretically start a Wish Journey and then simply not complete it—Just stay in that world to improve his strength.
When he returned, it would be like Immersive Mode—his gains would carry over.
But the system had already closed that loophole.
The basic rules clearly stated it wouldn't work, and each Wish Journey came with a time limit.
Of course, if he just wanted to learn something specific in that world, he could still bring back the knowledge.
But the time limit made that far less valuable.
"Alright… time to actually complete a wish and see how it plays out."
This time, his focus shifted to the Deadshot sub-personality's wish.
He'd already recalled Deadshot earlier—just for this moment.
300 Universal Points.
That was still within what he could afford right now.
"Activate!"
When Raymond opened his eyes again, he found himself aboard a military transport plane in mid-flight.
Sharing the space with him were several odd-looking individuals and a group of obvious career soldiers.
One glance, and he had a pretty good guess about his situation.
At the same time, the system fed him the time limit for this wish—one month.
Meaning that no matter what, after a month he'd be pulled out.
If he hadn't completed the wish, he'd have to pay another 300 points to re-enter.
"Floyd… you didn't mention you were in prison," Raymond remarked in his head.
"Heh, not exactly something I brag about every day…" Deadshot chuckled sheepishly.
"What's the situation? Give me the rundown," Raymond asked casually.
From Kuro's Wish Journey, he already knew that the entry point matched the end of the sub-personality's last memory of their original world.
So Deadshot should be very familiar with this moment.
"Nothing complicated," Deadshot explained. "I got caught by a certain stinking bat, got thrown in jail, and then this nasty woman named Amanda stuck a nano-bomb in me. She's using it to make me work with this little squad…"
As the story unfolded, Raymond realized it matched the early setup of the Suicide Squad movie pretty closely.
Of course, some details were bound to differ, but the general outline was the same.
"Got it. But I should warn you—when I complete your wish, your version of 'you' in this world is going to vanish… like you never existed."
"So if you've got anything to settle, you'd better think about that now."
That was another of the system's basic rules, and he figured Deadshot should know.
"I see… give me a little time to think about how to handle that," Deadshot replied.
"Sure," Raymond said without concern.
While the two conversed in his mind, the man who looked like the squad's military leader suddenly barked:
"You worthless punks, wake the hell up! This is not nap time!"
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