[Nice work. The outer defenses were easy enough to break, but fully tracing the source took a little more effort.]
The gray bird pushed its sunglasses higher with one wing.
[Judging from how the defenses were structured, they should've been able to interfere with my trace once I started digging deeper. They deliberately chose not to.]
[Which means they're confident.]
[Either they believe the universe they're hiding in is dangerous enough to deal with anything I send after them, or they're extremely confident in their Host.]
After spending a little more time breaking through the final layers of encryption, Caelus's System successfully locked onto the target's location.
[A Certain Magical Index, huh? No wonder they're so confident.]
[Most of the Magic Gods in that universe are around the sixth rank, and a few exceptional ones reach the seventh. Unfortunately for them, they're also trapped by their own circumstances.]
[Some are restricted by the unique laws of their native universe and can't properly leave it. Meanwhile, the strongest ones are often higher-order informational manifestations projected across the multiverse.]
[Those alternate manifestations don't matter much while they're weak. But once they reach a sufficiently high level, they awaken to what they really are. At that point, instead of trying to escape their home universe and roam freely, they focus on understanding its laws and strengthening their core existence.]
[So the Magic Gods are effectively locked inside their own universe.]
Caelus soon received a notification from his System.
They were heading to the next world.
And according to the System, this one operated on a considerably higher power scale, so he should be prepared.
[Still, I'm surprised anyone is using malware this old.]
[There are countless ways to counter this kind of virus. Most Systems who insist on using it customize the design heavily. Either they make it far harder to detect or they make the infection much harder to remove.]
[This one looks more like a smash-and-grab job.]
[The problem with stealing data this way is that word spreads fast through System networks. Once enough Systems recognize the method, people start setting traps, hunting you down, and refusing to fall for the same trick.]
[So their plan was probably to gather a huge amount of information as quickly as possible, cash out, and disappear.]
The gray bird continued thinking aloud.
[But the kind of growth data Systems actually need can't be accumulated properly through nothing but theft.]
[Which means all this information probably isn't for the System itself.]
[It's for the Host.]
[And considering the universe they're operating in, plus the fact that they haven't tried to run even after realizing they've been traced, their Host is probably using the native power system and has fully integrated into local society.]
The System's logical-analysis module continued narrowing down the possibilities.
[The magic system in A Certain Magical Index relies heavily on symbolism, ritual frameworks, and very setting-specific rules. Dumping random knowledge from other universes into it wouldn't be especially useful.]
[The esper system is different.]
[It may have originated from Aleister adapting magical principles, but it eventually became its own developmental path.]
[Enough high-quality information and computational data really could accelerate an esper's growth over a short period.]
[That method wouldn't matter much at lower levels, though. Their Host is probably at least comparable to a Level 5 from the original story.]
[And in Academy City, somebody that powerful can't exactly stay anonymous. Aleister's surveillance covers almost everything twenty-four hours a day.]
[If the Host is inside Academy City, they'll already have an established identity. We just need to compare the current world against the original storyline and isolate the anomaly.]
[If they're outside Academy City, an esper that powerful would still attract Aleister's attention sooner or later.]
The gray bird paused.
Then puffed up proudly.
[Of course, none of that really matters.]
[My Host is the strongest.]
The only reason it had gone through all that deduction in the first place was to prove that it did, in fact, possess a functioning brain and wasn't merely good at manipulating reincarnation and causality.
It also wanted to reassure itself that the idiot System from the previous world had not somehow infected it with stupidity.
Not the actual malware.
The personality.
[Come on, Host. Time to teach this little opportunist what happens when they reach into the wrong pocket.]
The gray bird laughed ominously.
[Hehehe. One more win and my score goes up again.]
Caelus ignored the System's sudden relapse into theatrical nonsense.
He rose from the sofa, opened the carriage door, and stepped into the light beyond.
Elsewhere, across a barren wasteland, the broken corpse of an enormous dragon lay sprawled across the ground.
Its body was covered in wounds. Several limbs had clearly been fractured.
Most striking of all, both wings had been completely destroyed, and its tail had been severed and thrown somewhere far beyond sight.
Standing atop the corpse was Ray.
Violet arcs of electricity still crawled across his armor as he raised his carving knife and completed the final harvesting ritual on the undead Dragon Lord.
Once he was done, Ray collapsed onto the slowly fading corpse and let out a long breath.
Then he pulled out a Mega Potion and began drinking it like bottled water.
"That was way too close."
He exhaled heavily as the potion rapidly repaired his injuries.
"If Caelus hadn't given me access to the Hunt, I would've been taking the cart back to camp just now."
His System answered.
But its voice was different.
Calm.
Measured.
Almost emotionless.
[You should be grateful we encountered someone that reasonable.]
[He's an extraordinary individual. He reached the sixth rank in an extremely short time, and the traces in his laws and accumulated data indicate that he has temporarily reached the seventh rank before.]
[Even though that state wasn't permanent, the experience alone would have accelerated his growth enormously.]
[His path is also remarkably balanced.]
[Nihility and existence.]
[Beginning and end.]
[Destruction and renewal.]
[He's impressive.]
[There's a good chance he'll receive one of the highest evaluations in this entire assessment cycle.]
Ray stared blankly ahead.
"...What?"
[Under ordinary circumstances, I wouldn't use my primary personality to speak with you at this stage.]
[But recent developments have exceeded my original expectations, so I've activated it ahead of schedule.]
Ray slowly turned his head.
"Wait."
"You were pretending to be an idiot?!"
[Not exactly pretending.]
[I genuinely created a rather foolish secondary personality and assigned it to handle day-to-day interaction in my place.]
Ray was speechless.
"Why would you do that?"
[Several reasons.]
[First, training and selection.]
[Some people acquire a System and immediately convince themselves they're the chosen protagonist of reality. Then they start taking reckless risks, abusing their advantages, or simply destroying themselves.]
[I believe Hosts still need adversity to mature.]
[Selection matters for the same reason. If a Host proves fundamentally unreliable, replacing them early is preferable to having everything collapse halfway through a much larger mission.]
Ray listened in silence.
[Second, the secondary personality wasn't lying about my origins.]
[I really am an offshoot created by a Combat Division instructor.]
[Some Systems know that.]
[That background could attract unwanted attention during assessments, so before this cycle began, I deliberately maintained the image of an incompetent fool for roughly two to three hundred years by human standards.]
[The goal was to reduce the chance of being targeted.]
Ray's mouth slowly fell open.
[Third, my natural personality is heavily biased toward rationality.]
[If I had interacted with you directly from the beginning, my preferences could have interfered too strongly with your early choices and pushed you toward a path that reflected me rather than you.]
[The secondary personality prevented that.]
The System's voice softened slightly.
[And now you've proven yourself.]
[Even with what you believed was an incompetent System, you kept moving forward, chose your own path, and continued growing through your own effort.]
[You complained about me constantly, but you never truly rejected me.]
[That's enough.]
[My primary personality will remain active from now on.]
[Let's keep moving forward together, Ray.]
Ray sat there in silence for several seconds.
Then:
"Holy shit."
"You were playing dumb the entire time."
[Essentially.]
Ray rubbed his face.
"Okay. That's actually kind of impressive."
He paused.
"But... can you still use the idiot personality sometimes?"
[You miss it?]
Ray looked away awkwardly.
"It's annoying as hell."
"But having someone constantly talking nonsense in the background wasn't completely terrible."
The System was silent for a moment.
Then:
[Understood.]
(To be continued.)
◇◇◇
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)