Part 24 — Network Authority (Soul-Bound System Update)
The moment the Genesis Exchange went live, the world didn't just react—it synchronized. What began as a single product release inside Babel Tower spread faster than any rumor, faster than any divine decree. Within hours, Fairy Cameras were everywhere. In the hands of adventurers, merchants, nobles, even wandering civilians. Screens lit up across Orario and beyond, messages traveling instantly, voices connecting across distances that once required days to cross.
And at the center of it all—
Haruto.
Inside Babel Tower, the Genesis Exchange had transformed into something far beyond a shop. Lines stretched endlessly, Valis flowed like a river, and the system itself tracked every single transaction in real time. Inventory updated automatically, new units appearing as quickly as they were sold, all controlled effortlessly under Haruto's authority.
Koneko leaned against the wall, watching another wave of customers rush in. "…This is insane. We're not even doing anything and it just keeps going."
Alice responded calmly, her eyes glowing faintly as data streamed through her vision. "Correction. The system is operating at 100% efficiency. Demand exceeds supply by 340%. Market dominance established."
Ais Wallenstein stood slightly apart from the chaos, observing—not the people, not the shop—but Haruto. "…This isn't just influence anymore," she said quietly. "This is control."
Haruto didn't deny it.
He didn't confirm it either.
Because the answer was already visible.
Across the world, Fairy Cameras activated simultaneously. Streams appeared—live Dungeon runs, real-time combat, adventurers sharing strategies, guilds coordinating movements instantly. The Dungeon, once isolated and unpredictable, had become visible, trackable, understandable.
And then—
Another update appeared.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ SYSTEM UPDATE — FAIRY CAMERA BINDING ]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The moment a user purchased a Fairy Camera, a new prompt appeared directly in front of them—visible only to the owner.
"Confirm Ownership — Blood Required."
Confusion spread instantly.
"What does that mean?"
"Blood?"
One adventurer hesitated… then pricked their finger slightly, letting a single drop fall onto the surface of the device.
The reaction was immediate.
The Fairy Camera glowed softly—then dissolved into particles of light before reforming in their hand, now faintly pulsing with their aura.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ SOUL BIND COMPLETE ]
Owner Confirmed
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"…It fused with me…"
"It recognized him…"
"It's bound?!"
The realization spread instantly across the crowd.
Alice confirmed it calmly. "Soul-binding protocol activated. Devices are now non-transferable. Ownership permanently linked to user identity."
Koneko raised an eyebrow. "…So no stealing?"
Haruto answered simply.
"No reselling. No theft. No duplication."
A small pause.
"…No loss."
Because even if destroyed—
The device would return.
Reconstructed.
Bound to its owner.
The system updated again.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ FAIRY CAMERA — SOUL BOUND FEATURES ]
• Requires single drop of blood for activation
• Permanently bound to user
• Cannot be stolen, traded, or duplicated
• Auto-reconstructs if destroyed
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The world froze again.
"That's broken…"
"You can't lose it?!"
"That means permanent access to communication?!"
"This isn't just a device anymore…"
"…It's part of the system."
And that—
Was exactly the point.
The Fairy Cameras weren't just tools.
They were anchors.
Connections.
Nodes in a network that Haruto controlled completely.
The live broadcast upgraded instantly once more, now fully stabilized through soul-bound connections. Feeds became clearer, more reliable, impossible to interrupt. Communication across the world became seamless.
Alice continued analyzing. "Network stability increased to 99.9%. Unauthorized interference probability: near zero."
Koneko smirked slightly. "…You really thought this through."
Haruto didn't respond.
Because to him—
It was obvious.
Ais watched the crowd, then looked back at him. "…You're not just building something…"
A small pause.
"…You're locking it in place."
Haruto met her gaze briefly.
"…Yeah."
Because now—
Even if someone tried to fight back—
They couldn't remove it.
They couldn't replace it.
They couldn't bypass it.
The system continued evolving.
Another update spread across every device.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ SYSTEM UPDATE — FAIRY CAMERA V2 ]
Features Unlocked:
• Party Link (Shared Vision)
• Auto Mapping (Dungeon Layout Recording)
• Combat Replay
• Stat Overlay Display
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The world reacted instantly.
"…This is too much…"
"We can see everything…"
"There's no secrets left…"
The Dungeon—once unknown—was becoming data.
Controlled.
Optimized.
And Haruto—
Controlled all of it.
The leaderboard updated again, now fully integrated into every soul-bound device.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ GLOBAL LEADERBOARD — NETWORK LINKED ]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Rank #1 — Haruto
Title: Origin of the System (Black Genesis)
Level: ???
Floor Reached: 60
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Rank #2 — Ais Wallenstein
Title: Sword Princess
Level: 68 → Updating…
Floor Reached: 60
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Now—everyone could see it.
Anytime. Anywhere.
And still—
Rank #1 didn't move.
Ais stepped forward slightly. "…When are we going back?"
Koneko added, "…Yeah… we kinda stopped mid-run."
Alice spoke calmly. "Deeper floors remain unexplored. System projections indicate exponential scaling beyond Floor 60."
Haruto looked out from Babel Tower, beyond the city, beyond the Dungeon itself.
"…Soon."
A pause.
"…Not yet."
Because now—
There was something more important.
Control.
Not just of the Dungeon.
But of the world connected to it.
And then—
A new notification appeared.
Not public.
Not broadcasted.
Only visible to Haruto.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ ADMINISTRATOR ALERT ]
External System Detected
Origin: Unknown
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
For the first time—
Something outside his control appeared.
Haruto's eyes sharpened slightly.
"…So it finally noticed."
Alice turned instantly. "Unknown variable detected?"
He didn't answer immediately.
But his expression—
Changed.
Just slightly.
"…Looks like we're not the only ones playing."
And somewhere far beyond the Dungeon—
Beyond the system—
Something else—
Had just connected to the network.
---
Part 24 ends HERE
Part 25 Starts here :D
---
Part 25 — System Override (World Reaction)
The moment the Administrator Alert appeared—
Something changed.
Not in the world.
Not in the Dungeon.
But in Haruto.
He didn't move. Didn't speak. But the air around him shifted, subtle yet absolute, like reality itself was waiting for his decision.
Alice reacted instantly, her eyes glowing brighter as streams of data flooded her vision. "External system attempting passive integration. No direct interference yet. Observing behavior detected."
Koneko frowned. "…So something's watching us?"
Ais Wallenstein narrowed her eyes slightly. "…Can it interfere?"
Haruto looked at the system notification again.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ ADMINISTRATOR ALERT ]
External System Detected
Status: Observing / Probing
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"…Yeah," he said quietly. "…It can."
That was enough.
Because that meant—it didn't belong.
And anything that didn't belong—didn't stay.
Across Orario, Fairy Cameras flickered slightly. At first, it was small—barely noticeable. A slight distortion in streams. A half-second delay in communication. But then it spread.
Inside taverns, adventurers paused mid-conversation.
"…Did your screen just glitch?"
In the Guild, staff turned sharply toward their monitors.
"Signal instability detected—this isn't normal!"
On the streets, civilians stared at their devices as the light flickered unnaturally.
"…What's happening?"
Even the gods, watching from above, felt it.
A presence.
Something foreign.
Something that didn't belong to this world.
Back in Babel Tower—
Haruto raised his hand slightly.
"…You shouldn't have connected."
The moment he said that—
The system moved.
Not outward.
But inward.
Locking. Sealing. Tracing.
Alice's voice became sharper, faster. "Foreign system located. Attempting to disengage. Escape probability—declining."
The unknown system reacted instantly.
Across the entire Fairy Camera network—
Everything glitched.
This time—everyone saw it.
Streams froze.
Voices cut out.
Screens distorted violently.
Across Orario—panic spread.
"The network is collapsing?!"
"No—something's attacking it!"
Inside Babel Tower, merchants backed away. Adventurers reached for weapons instinctively.
But Haruto—
Didn't move.
Because it was already over.
The interface appeared before him.
Deeper than anything else.
Absolute control.
A single command.
[ DELETE ]
The moment it activated—
Everything stopped.
Not just the network.
Not just the system.
The entire city—paused.
For a fraction of a second—
Every Fairy Camera in Orario went completely dark.
Black.
Silent.
Disconnected.
People froze.
"…It's gone…"
"…The connection—"
And then—
It returned.
Perfectly.
Instantly.
Clearer than before.
Stronger than before.
As if nothing had ever happened.
But the system—
Updated.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ EXTERNAL SYSTEM STATUS ]
— NOT FOUND —
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Inside the Guild—silence.
"…It's gone…"
"…Just like that?"
"No trace… no residue…"
On the streets—people looked around, confused, uneasy.
"…Did we all just feel that?"
"That pressure…"
"It disappeared…"
Inside Babel Tower—
Alice spoke calmly. "External system fully erased. No residual data."
Koneko blinked. "…That's it?"
Haruto lowered his hand.
"…Yeah."
Like it was nothing.
But the reaction—
Wasn't nothing.
Because across all of Orario—
Everyone had felt it.
Not seen it.
Not understood it.
But felt it.
Something had entered their world.
And then—
It was gone.
Erased.
Without a fight.
Without resistance.
Without a trace.
Ais Wallenstein stared at Haruto, her grip tightening slightly on her sword.
"…So anything outside your system…" she said quietly.
Haruto glanced at her.
"…Doesn't stay."
That answer spread—without words.
Through actions.
Through fear.
Through realization.
Because now—
There was no "outside."
Not anymore.
The system updated one final time.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ ADMINISTRATOR STATUS UPDATE ]
All External Interference: Eliminated
System Integrity: Absolute
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
And this time—
It wasn't hidden.
It appeared across every Fairy Camera.
Every screen.
Every user.
A global message.
The entire city saw it.
Silence followed.
Heavy.
Unavoidable.
Because now they understood.
This wasn't just a system anymore.
This wasn't just a tool.
This wasn't even just power.
This was something else entirely.
Something above everything they knew.
Inside Babel Tower, Haruto turned away like nothing had happened.
"…Now we can go back."
Koneko smirked slightly. "…Finally."
Alice nodded. "All variables stabilized."
Ais Wallenstein stepped forward, her eyes sharper than ever. "…Good."
Because now—
There were no distractions.
No interference.
No unknowns.
Only the Dungeon.
And as they began moving again—
Descending once more toward the depths—
The people of Orario didn't cheer.
Didn't speak.
Didn't celebrate.
They watched.
Because now they knew—
The one at Rank #1—
Wasn't just the strongest.
He was something far beyond that.
And there was nothing in their world—
That could oppose him.
---
Part 25 Ends here
Part 26 Starts HERE :D
--
Part 26 — Establishment (Wealth and Territory)
The descent stopped—not because they couldn't go further, but because there was no need to rush anymore.
After the complete erasure of the unknown system, the Dungeon felt… quiet. Not weaker. Not submissive.
But aware.
And that awareness followed them all the way back to the surface.
When Haruto and his party returned to Orario again, the reaction was completely different from before. This time, there was no confusion. No hesitation.
Only certainty.
The moment they stepped out of the Dungeon, every Fairy Camera nearby shifted—automatically locking onto them. The live broadcast activated instantly, streams stabilizing as the entire world tuned in without delay.
"…They're back."
"After that… thing…"
"That system message… it was real…"
The memory of it hadn't faded.
If anything—
It had settled deeper.
Because now everyone understood.
What Haruto controlled—
Was absolute.
Koneko stretched lightly as they walked forward. "…So what now? Back to grinding?"
Haruto shook his head once.
"…No."
A small pause.
"…We sell first."
Alice nodded immediately. "Inventory currently at 87% capacity. High-value items detected. Optimal action: liquidation."
Ais Wallenstein glanced at him. "…You're going to convert everything?"
"…Yeah."
Simple.
Direct.
Efficient.
As they entered Babel Tower again, the reaction spread instantly. The Genesis Exchange was already overflowing—but the moment Haruto walked in, the entire space shifted. The system prioritized him automatically, opening access beyond what normal users could even perceive.
A new interface appeared.
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[ ADMINISTRATOR INVENTORY ACCESS ]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Items from Floors 50–60 appeared in bulk.
Elite drops.
Boss materials.
Rare cores.
All categorized.
All evaluated instantly.
Koneko blinked slightly. "…That's a lot."
Alice confirmed calmly. "Estimated total value: 12,800,000 Valis."
The number alone—
Shook the entire floor.
"…Twelve million?!"
"That's more than some familias make in months!"
Haruto didn't react.
"…Sell."
The system executed instantly.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ BULK SALE COMPLETE ]
Valis +12,800,000
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The number updated again.
And again.
Because of bonuses.
Because of rarity scaling.
Because of system optimization.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Final Total: 15,400,000 Valis
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Silence filled the Genesis Exchange.
Because now—
It wasn't just power.
It was wealth.
Overwhelming.
Unmatched.
Koneko whistled slightly. "…Okay… that's ridiculous."
Ais didn't speak—but her eyes sharpened.
Because this—
Was another gap.
Another level she hadn't reached yet.
Haruto closed the interface.
"…Next."
Koneko tilted her head. "…Next?"
"…We need a base."
Alice immediately understood. "Residential acquisition recommended. Strategic positioning required."
And just like that—
They moved.
Outside Babel Tower, Orario felt different now. The streets were more organized, more active, more alive—but also more cautious. People moved, talked, lived—but their eyes always drifted back to one place.
Or one person.
Haruto walked through the city calmly, his presence naturally parting the crowd as if the space itself adjusted for him.
"…Where?" Koneko asked.
Haruto didn't answer immediately.
His gaze scanned the city.
Locations.
Structures.
Positions.
Then—
He chose.
A large estate near the upper district—close enough to Babel Tower for convenience, far enough for control. Elevated, isolated, secure.
Perfect.
"…That one."
The system responded instantly.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ PROPERTY AVAILABLE ]
Type: High-Class Estate
Location: Upper District — Orario
Price: 9,000,000 Valis
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Koneko blinked. "…That's expensive."
Haruto didn't hesitate.
"…Buy."
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ PURCHASE COMPLETE ]
Valis -9,000,000
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Just like that—
It was his.
The gates opened automatically.
The property recognized its new owner.
And the moment Haruto stepped inside—
The system expanded.
Not just as a house.
But as territory.
Alice's voice confirmed it instantly. "Domain integration in progress."
A faint pulse spread across the estate.
Invisible to most—
But absolute.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ NEW ZONE ESTABLISHED ]
Name: Genesis Domain
Authority: Haruto (Administrator)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Koneko looked around, impressed despite herself. "…Okay… this is nice."
Ais stepped forward slowly, scanning everything—the structure, the space, the flow.
"…This isn't just a house."
Haruto nodded slightly.
"…Yeah."
Because it wasn't.
It was a base.
A center.
A controlled space inside the world.
Alice continued. "Full system access available within domain. Security: Absolute. External interference: Impossible."
After what just happened—
That statement carried weight.
Haruto walked further inside, looking out across the estate.
Then he stopped.
"…We'll operate from here."
Simple.
Final.
Koneko smirked. "…Not bad, King."
Ais stood beside him, her gaze steady.
"…I'll get stronger here."
Not a promise.
A declaration.
Alice stood quietly behind them, already optimizing, already adjusting, already expanding.
And outside—
Orario continued to move.
But now—
It had a center.
A place where everything connected.
The Dungeon.
The system.
The network.
The power.
All of it—
Linked to one point.
As the leaderboard remained unchanged.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Rank #1 — Haruto
Title: Origin of the System (Black Genesis)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
But now—
That wasn't the only thing he owned.
Because he didn't just control the system anymore.
He had established his place inside the world itself.