Looks like getting hit by a car is indeed the key to unlocking a cheat code, even if it wasn't a dump truck.
Just kidding~!
"But usually, protagonists who get a big break transmigrate… Okay, this counts as transmigration, but why didn't my main body cross over?"
Their voices overlapped, the two figures locking eyes.
Soul completion pushed Hakuto's soul beyond a certain threshold, granting him partial insight into the mysterious space and the full context of events.
First, the nature, origin, and duration of the mysterious space were unknown.
The only certainty was that it existed in a higher dimension beyond mortal perception or intellect.
Second, the space's core currently resided within Hakuto's soul.
He wasn't just hit by a car—he was struck by this mysterious space.
Literally, a direct hit to his soul!
When the space collided with his soul, it "copied" it countless times, scattering those copies across infinite multiverses.
Hakuto got it instantly!
This was straight out of some sci-fi doctor's script!
But then came the problem.
"The symptoms of a Duke virus shouldn't look like this, right?"
Hakuto's words blended perfectly with the girl's clear, ethereal voice.
Staring at her jade-like, snow-white figure, Hakuto focused, and a black skirt appeared on her, covering the stunning view.
A black-and-white checkered headscarf hid the crystal on her forehead.
Staring any longer would be trouble!
The girl exhaled softly, easing her complex, heated emotions.
Clearly, she and Hakuto were one and the same—completely, utterly one person!
What was going on?
Hakuto and the girl raised their brows, puzzled, then continued absorbing information from the space, hoping for answers.
Luckily, they soon found the reason.
After the space "copied" his soul countless times, the remaining "kinetic energy" shattered parts of Hakuto's "core soul."
Hakuto didn't know how many copies were made, but his core soul was broken into two or three fragments.
These fragments, along with the copied souls, scattered across the multiverse. One landed in a world, entering a pregnant woman's womb per that world's rules.
Thus, the girl was born.
The universe has been infinitely splitting since its birth. With near-infinite possibilities, worlds depicted in human films and anime could—no, must—exist!
With enough monkeys, one will eventually type out Shakespeare!
So, the existence of a fantasy work in the real world matching the girl's reality didn't shock Hakuto.
Elemental Gelade, an old classic on Hakuto's watchlist.
In a distant world lived a race as mysterious as the wind, with voices as soothing as celestial melodies, powers as legendary as ancient tales, hearts as pure as the sky, and faces as beautiful as art.
Born of the wind, bound to the sky…
Mysterious yet radiant, gentle yet strong, they were the Edel Raids, beings who could fuse with humans to become powerful weapons.
Edel Raids were nearly indistinguishable from humans. The only marker was their "Pledging Stone," the radiant emerald crystal on the girl's forehead, akin to a human's heart.
The stone's color, position, and shape varied by individual.
Through a "Pledge" with a human, they transformed into living weapons, fighting alongside their partner.
An Edel Raid could only pledge to one human, the bond lasting until one's life ended or the Pledging Stone was destroyed.
Among them, a rare few were revered as the strongest and most noble—the Seven Shichikouhouju.
Over eons, the Shichikouhouju dwindled—some vanished, others hid, fading into legend. Until one girl emerged.
Among the Shichikouhouju, the Mezzaluna clan was among the elite, and she was their final bloodline.
Her name was…
"Reverie Metherlence."
Gazing at the girl before him, carved from jade and beautiful as a dream, Hakuto couldn't help but speak her name aloud.
"Can I form a Pledge with myself?" Reverie extended her delicate hand to Hakuto.
Hakuto gently grasped it, the soft, tender sensation making it hard to let go.
He could clearly sense the terrifying power within her Pledging Stone, his widened eyes brimming with surprise. "It actually works!?"
When an Edel Raid forms a Pledge with a human, their power hinges on two factors.
The first is the Edel Raid's lineage.
Reverie, of the Metherlence clan representing "wind," was the final bloodline of her kind. Calling her the strongest wind-attribute Edel Raid in her world wouldn't be an exaggeration.
The second, more critical factor is the bond between the Edel Raid and their Pledging partner.
Even with an exceptional lineage, a weak bond limits her power, and an extremely low bond can dissolve the Pledge entirely.
Conversely, a profound emotional resonance can amplify an Edel Raid's power beyond her lineage, potentially even tapping into the legendary "Miracle Power" that transcends limits.
It's called legendary because, in her world's history, only the first Edel Raid and her partner ever reached that state.
But Hakuto and Reverie? They're Pledging with themselves!
What need is there for emotional resonance?
Their baseline is everyone else's ceiling, guaranteed to unleash the full power of a Shichikouhouju's ultimate bloodline!
The problem now was…
"We're not in the same world!"
Hakuto and Reverie facepalmed in perfect sync, their voices overlapping in exasperation.
What good is a Pledge in this mysterious space?
"How do we… wait!"
With Reverie's soul reintegrated, Hakuto's soul power had grown three to four times stronger. When he probed the mysterious space again, the feedback left him stunned.
The mysterious space had a traversal ability!
Be it living beings or objects, anything smaller than Hakuto's "volume" could pass through the space's core to cross worlds.
A human's volume is roughly 0.06 cubic meters—but that's if you squish them into paste.
The space's passage, however, was shaped like Hakuto's "form."
Though Reverie was nearly 500 years old, she looked like a 14- or 15-year-old girl, easily fitting through a passage sized for Hakuto's physique!
By the way, under normal circumstances, a 500-year-old soul merging with a 25-year-old one, even if the latter is the core soul, would tilt the resulting personality toward the older soul.
But Reverie's 500 years were mostly fluff—she'd been asleep for 485 of them!
And since her soul was a fragment of Hakuto's, her personality already diverged from the original Elemental Gelade, retaining some of Hakuto's traits.
Most crucially, the mysterious space's core shielded Hakuto's soul from memory and cognitive overload, preserving his "soul algorithm"—his personality and identity.
Digesting the flood of information, Hakuto's grin widened.
This was the true meaning of the "noble aid" fortune!
The noble was himself!
Excitement surged uncontrollably. Hakuto and Reverie exchanged a glance, their figures vanishing from the space.
…
Butterfly-wing lashes fluttered softly. The girl, like a fairy-tale princess awakening from slumber, slowly opened her eyes to pitch blackness.
Blinking cutely, then wrinkling her petite nose, Reverie felt stifled yet barely able to breathe.
Instinctively, she sat up.
Bang!
"Ow! That hurts!"
Reverie clutched her reddened forehead, then kicked upward with fierce strength. Bright sunlight pierced the darkness, forcing her to squint after centuries without seeing the sun.
The strange dual-body sensation from their shared soul left her briefly disoriented.
It was like someone born with one hand, one leg, and one eye suddenly becoming whole.
The difference in adapting and performing actions was night and day!
But being "herself," Reverie quickly adjusted, though her pale, lovely face remained bewildered.
Where the heck is my home?
My massive home—gone?
Her adorable face was utterly confused as she recalled events before her long sleep.
Ugh, she'd slept too long and forgotten!
Whatever, no point thinking about it!
Reverie rose from the sleep coffin marked with the Shichikouhouju emblem, scanning her surroundings.
It looked like a storage room, with wooden crates stacked together, containing…
"Holy crap!"
Reverie let out a shout wildly at odds with her super-cute appearance.
The crates held gleaming gold coins, sparkling crystals, and an array of weapons—daggers, short swords, spears, and more.
It hit her: this wasn't a storage room—it was a treasure vault!
Of course. She was a top-tier Edel Raid, arguably the world's most valuable treasure. Who'd stick her in a storage closet?
Even without knowing her identity, the ornate malachite-inlaid silver-gray coffin screamed priceless artifact!
Though raised in an isolated Edel Raid village, Reverie had a basic understanding of the world.
A chaotic treasure vault like this usually meant a band of treasure hunters.
Like pirate crews in One Piece, some might lean toward adventurers, but most were ruthless bandits.
Without a Pledge, Edel Raids had no special abilities, just slightly better physicality than humans.
That alone wouldn't let Reverie escape an armed band of treasure hunters.
Nor could she bet on someone recognizing her as a Shichikouhouju.
So…
Reverie grabbed some gold coins and gems from a crate, picked two fine-looking long swords, and slipped back into the coffin, sealing the lid.
If the coins were pure gold, Hakuto could make a small fortune.
If they were an otherworldly metal unknown on Earth, then…