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[ Hmm... This Great One's calculations appear to be incorrect. ]
"Oh, shit. Really?" Ulric remarked casually as he dusted off his cloak. "And you couldn't have crashed us into someplace nicer?"
Standing atop a cliff, they were surrounded by kilometers upon kilometers of verdant forests, lush and brimming with life, if the distant roars echoing below were any indication. It was like gazing upon a vast green sea. At first, the sight was pleasant, but as the moments passed, it began to remind Ulric of the endless chaos and void they had traversed to reach this place. Only to discover that the so‑called all‑knowing, ultra‑intelligent, conceptual, semi‑symbiotic life‑form known as the System had miscalculated their route from the very beginning.
[ I can hear you, you know? And it's not entirely my fault. When we were thrown out of that imploded Godverse, I had no choice but to use all my remaining power to escape the negative karma that would have attached to us. That would have been far worse. ]
"Yet I still don't understand why I had to reappear in mid-air and fall a hundred meters." Ulric's irritation was obvious.
[ … ]
"…"
[ I'm not apologizing. ]
Ulric threw a fist through seemingly empty air. Nothing visible was struck, but the cry of pain that followed said otherwise.
[ How are you able to touch me?! Arsehole! ]
"Shut up. That barely hurt. I always take the brunt of the damage anyway."
[ Bleh! ]
A vein twitched on Ulric's forehead. With a sigh, he looked around and asked, "Where even are we?"
[ An ancient Godverse. Mad Snail's dominion. ]
Hearing the familiar name, Ulric's eyes widened. Mad Snail was the pen name of the author who had written Tales of Demons and Gods, a novel he had read in passing many years ago. To Ulric's understanding, not all fictional stories were truly fictional. Many were fragments of knowledge scattered across the vast creation, absorbed by fortunate individuals who unknowingly reconstructed those memories and mistook them for imagination. Though most retellings were inaccurate, they still preserved the core essence of their origins.
Whether the Mad Snail he remembered and the Mad Snail the System referred to were one and the same remained uncertain.
"Are we in the novel's origin?"
[ Yup. Based on the reality lines, the version of Tales of Demons and Gods you know is fairly new. Mad Snail apparently fought an invading force, won, integrated the remnants, and went into slumber. Not sure about that last part. ]
"It doesn't matter." Ulric shook his head. "Someone like Mad Snail won't care about us. He might notice we arrived, but unless we do something stupid, we will be fine. This Godverse sits in a ruptured versecluster. Wanderers aren't rare here."
Realistically, a being at Mad Snail's level wouldn't care about their presence. They were just passing through. Once the System fully refueled, they would be gone.
Feeling the cold air, Ulric asked, "Are we near Glory City? Devil Forest? Eternal Forest?"
[ We're at the southern end of the continent. ]
"How long to reach Glory City?"
[ Years. Or never, if you don't start cultivating soon. ]
Ulric frowned. Though he had escaped the implosion of the other Godverse, he had not emerged unscathed. It was he who forced both himself and the System beyond that collapsing realm, allowing the latter to gather enough power to propel them away—at the cost of countless wounds carved into his very existence. If not for his nearly invincible foundation and the System's support, he would have long since collapsed into a newborn Godplanet. While death was not his fate here, he faced the prospect of remaining motionless for an unknowable span of time.
Since entering Mad Snail's territory, it was only proper that they abide, at least partially, by its rules. After all, who would welcome a guest incapable of observing even the simplest manners and conduct?
That said, Ulric had not originated from a world bound by a rigid power system. He merely traveled into such places, and as for obeying their laws? He never needed to. Not because of sheer strength, but because he and the System together were too elusive and cunning to be suppressed. In their current state, however, they understood the necessity of restraint.
Cracks formed on Ulric's skin and were quickly mended by golden light. He was adapting fully to this Godverse's laws.
"You done?"
[ Yeah. It feels weird, honestly. Anyway, I'm going to upload all the necessary knowledge before I enter hibernation. ]
A brief chime echoed in Ulric's mind as he received a world's worth of information.
[ Find the relics scattered in this spatial-temporal region. Tear them apart and rebuild the generator we used in the early days. ]
The System reminded him as it began entering hibernation.
Ulric chuckled. Looked like he would handle everything alone for now. Gazing north, his eyes glimmered with interest.
"Glory City, here I come. And anyone who opposes me, pray for a peaceful death."
[ Damn, you're edgy. ]
"Shut up, clanker. Why aren't you asleep yet?" Ulric snapped. "Didn't you always say every second counts?"
[ Uh… well, I took too much damage during the Godverse implosion. Hibernating to conserve power drains more energy than staying awake. ]
"…"
[ … ]
"…"
Silence fell. Ulric stared at the System intensely. It was about to speak when he cut it off.
"What do you mean you took too much damage? I bore the brunt of the implosion!" Ulric roared.
[ I did half the work! I suffered too! ]
"Did you even activate the armor feature we stole from that Versemaster? We spent so much time infiltrating his place, and you didn't even use the thing we came for!"
Their entire infiltration of a hostile, closed-off Godverse had one purpose: steal a fragment of a hyper-advanced external firewall belonging to an ancient system life-form, allowing System to integrate it and improve their traversal abilities.
They succeeded, but the Godverse began imploding right after integration.
[ It was too complex! I miscalculated! ]
"You couldn't come up with a better excuse? This isn't the first time you miscalculated," Ulric snapped. "Spider prison. Mongol invasion. God Valley. The Backrooms. I lived through all of those canon events because of you! What kind of System are you?"
[ I didn't mean to, okay?! ]
System sulked, but as much as it tried to deny it, ever since Ulric became its host, it had grown increasingly lazy over time. At first, although Ulric was highly intelligent and efficient on his own, he still relied on its support because of the difficulty of the tasks he normally undertook. Eventually, however, through relentless practice and hardship, he reached a near‑perfect state of being that should not have been possible. From then on, he asked for less and less assistance from System.
To avoid feeling like a fraud, System began producing better updates for his sake. These updates consumed vast amounts of energy, forcing it into long and frequent hibernations over the years to recover what was lost. Over time, these hibernations became habitual, and System continued them for no reason other than simply desiring to.
"Why are you so stupid?!"
[ Why are you so mean?! ]
Their bickering eventually stopped.
"System, create a cultivation technique suitable for my soul form and attributes," Ulric said as he cleaned out a cave.
His power had been sealed after adapting to this Godverse. He was barely as strong as a fit pre–Bronze Rank adult. Traveling half a continent like this would be suicide.
[ Alright. Your soul form is the Heavenly Destroyer Soul Form, with matching multiple attributes. Any preferences? ]
Soul forms were one of the cores of any human cultivator's foundation. In the novel, they were best described as traits of the soul realm that, when cultivated, could unleash one's true potential. They were more significant than soul attributes, though leaving them untouched would not necessarily hinder one's cultivation.
Naturally, cultivating both was far more desirable.
That, however, was what the novel depicted. In reality, the difference was immense.
Humans in this region of the trichiliocosm, or more specifically, the human variant found here, followed a unique path of cultivation. While they were capable of integrating with the souls of beasts to strengthen themselves, this was a mere a byproduct of their coexistence, not the true method of cultivation.
The soul realm, with its many traits, was in truth an innate means for a cultivator to manifest the purest form of their soul, an existence born from their interaction with the material world. It was also closely bound to the intricate nature of True Names.
One of its simpler manifestations resembled the zanpakutō shown in Bleach.
Naturally, Ulric would pursue the path of cultivation best suited to his circumstances. Though this path was extraordinarily time‑consuming and resource‑intensive for mortals, and even for lower higher‑dimensional beings, for someone of his caliber the only true challenge lay in further adapting to the laws of this Godverse.
"A technique that gets me as close as possible to utilizing True Names. I should still be able to integrate demon spirits and form a zanpakutō-like weapon," Ulric said.
[ Okay… Done. Sending it now. ]
System transferred the data.
[ What do we call the technique? ]
"Nothing."
[ Nothingness Technique? Hmm… doesn't fit. How about Grand Reversal True Spirit Art? ]
"Sure."
Inherently, System was flawed in ways most beings couldn't imagine, much like other system-based life-forms. Although its race was not predisposed toward chaos or order, it was still an unbearably structured type of creature. A system life-form existed to guide its host toward a chosen goal, and to accomplish that, it built an internal framework that its host was expected to follow, at least partially.
This structure was what allowed even weak or suppressed systems to create miracles. They developed complex but logical webs of data that seeped into reality. When a host completed a designated task, that action merged correlation with causation, enabling the system to access and deliver resources that should not normally be attainable.
This "impossible" feat came from the strange relationship system life-forms had with both lower and higher dimensions, an anomaly that should have been rejected by reality but wasn't, simply because their methods were non-harmful and rarely disruptive.
Because of this, system life-forms were extremely difficult for their hosts to outmaneuver. Ancient systems, especially those that had functioned for the equivalent of decades in 24-hour/365-days a year type of time unit, were nearly impossible to trick. These beings bypassed reality's rigid laws on a daily basis; finding loopholes in their mechanisms was almost impossible unless the system allowed it.
System, however, was different. It drifted somewhere between a system life-form and something else entirely. Having stayed with Ulric longer than it had even existed on its own, it had naturally deviated from its original nature.
[ Alright, logged in. Find a good place and start cultivating. This area isn't safe. ]
Distant and nearby roars of beasts echoed through the wilderness, emphasizing System's warning. Battles like this happened constantly in this overrun world. The only thing that could make the situation worse would be massive hordes of undead. Undead did exist here, but according to System's data, they were nothing like the zombies Ulric was familiar with.
A thought came to Ulric as he walked deeper into the mountain's foliage. What if he created a zombie virus and let it spread? As long as its properties aligned with the natural laws of this Godverse, it should be possible to produce powerful undead. After that, he would simply wait for the horde to reach the region of Glory City. Once the strongest of his creations began their assault, he could step in, slaughter them dramatically, and earn the trust of the people.
Creating a solid backstory wouldn't be difficult. A refugee whose city was destroyed, simple.
Compared to his early years, he was practically a god in mortal skin. These schemes were child's play.
[ Save that idea for later. In a barren world like this, you don't need complex politics. Just walk in. It will be fine. ]
Ulric rolled his eyes and continued walking into the forest.
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