Chapter 4389: Ways I

Noah remained connected to Riya, the singularity above the Isolated Civilization blazing blue-gold brilliance that painted vast swathes of existence in enhanced authority.

But his consciousness had turned inward, sensing the continuing transformations coursing through his being as Primus Mana fundamentally restructured what he was at the deepest levels.

Five Principles now resided within him...Perpetual Harvest, Cheating Architect, Primus Ascension, Mana Supremacy, and Arcana Infinitum.

Each one representing capabilities that others could not imagine, tools that could elevate him and his Civilization toward heights that should have been impossible.

And yet, as he felt the weight of these capabilities settling into his completed Heart, a thought emerged.

If I possess these capabilities...these Principles that can rapidly elevate myself and my Civilization by tens of Quintillions, if I have all this even before achieving THE distinction...

How ridiculous must THE Dead Order actually be?

WAA!

The question spiraled through his consciousness.

THE Living Paradox. THE Living Emotive. THE Creature. Beings who already carry that distinction, who operate at scales I’m still heading towards.

If my Principles allow systematic elevation of entire Civilizations, what can beings with THE distinction accomplish? What grander tools do they possess that make my capabilities look quaint by comparison?

"..."

It was a heavy thought.

He thought of Kael and the forty-seven other Seed Members. He had given them his Way of Mana and then left them isolated for millions of subjective years.

And they had reached 50 Quintillion. Built a sophisticated Civilization. Developed techniques and systems that exceeded his own somewhat.

That was just a few dozen beings following his Way of Existence!

So what about THE Living Paradox, who has been pioneering the Way of Paradox for eons? Who controls Principles at levels I do not know? Who leads a Civilization that’s had uncounted ages to refine their approach?

His eyes flashed with a chilly, tyrannical light!

What has the Civilization of Paradox become in that time?

The implications cascaded through his mind!

Since Aethelgard...since they became serious about enacting their Civilization, about building THE Loom, what grand things have they accomplished?

Inside THE Loom, protected and isolated with resources, with multiple THE-level entities guiding development...

How grand has the Way of Paradox become? The Civilization of Emotive? The systems and techniques and principles they’ve refined?

Noah’s perception swept across his own Isolated Civilization...millions of beings, sophisticated systems, Repository of Formed Authority, the Bastion of Mana, all built through desperate necessity and infinite resources.

And they only had a fraction of the time that THE Loom’s inhabitants have possessed. Only a fraction of the guidance!

His tyrannical heart pulsed with uncomfortable realization.

I don’t know.

I don’t know what they’ve accomplished. Don’t know what capabilities they possess. Don’t know what tools they’ve developed that might make even my Five Principles seem inadequate.

But this knowledge...

His consciousness focused with laser intensity.

This knowledge would be the key to understanding why I could possibly fail.

Riya saw the light of Mana dimming in her future perception even after everything they had accomplished.

This had to be rectified!

He needed to understand the true scope of what beings with THE distinction can accomplish when they’ve had eons to refine their Civilizations!

His eyes blazed with blue-gold light as the singularity above continued pulsing.

One more thing to add to the endless list of problems requiring impossible solutions...

—

Far from the Wandering Territories.

On the other side of The Veil.

In the Lands of The Dead where existence itself operated under fundamentally different rules.

"I DEFY, THEREFORE I EXIST!"

The words boomed across dimensional boundaries, stretching through gaps and Tears of Existence with force.

"I REFUSE LIMITATIONS, THEREFORE I TRANSCEND!"

They echoed across vast distances, reaching territories that should have been impossible to access from the living side of The Veil.

"I CULTIVATE INFINITY, THEREFORE... I NEED NOT FEAR THE END!"

The declarations reached even into a Cryptland...a vast necropolis-city where Prime Dead Early Creatures congregated in numbers that would have terrified most living beings.

Countless Dead Existences raised their heads in astonishment, their empty eye sockets blazing with confused curiosity at words spoken with such tyrannical certainty that they penetrated even here.

None of them recognized the voice.

But one being did.

A being whose existence had traversed unfathomably far to even reach this distance where Dead Early Creatures were abundant...in territory that should have been impossible for a Living Existence to survive in, let alone explore.

But he was not a normal Existence!

The Great Usurper.

The Master of the Idle Gaming System.

His formless existence rippled with recognition as Noah’s voice echoed across The Veil.

Since the moment a Tear of Existence had allowed his Idle Existence to leak into the other side of The Veil, things had unfolded in shocking ways.

At that initial moments of crossover, grand prompts had bloomed before his awareness as more and more of his Existence permeated across The Lands of The Dead

|Your Idle Existence has extended sufficiently into the Lands of The Dead to achieve fundamental understanding of local operational parameters.|

|The Way of Order covers all of this side of The Veil. All of the Lands of The Dead operate under unified authority structure emanating from THE Dead Order herself.|

|Your Idle Existence, due to its passive nature and evolutionary adaptations, has fully integrated with the landscape you have covered, being no different to the structure of existence itself.|

|Exposure to the pervasive Way of Order has triggered unprecedented evolution of your existential framework.|

|So long as you maintain idle expansion with no active interference or conscious manipulation, you will remain indistinguishable from the surrounding existence itself.|

|Mechanism: Your passive spread mimics natural expansion of the environment. To local existences, you are the environment, no different from ambient space, atmospheric conditions, or background authority.|

|Effect: Detection becomes functionally impossible.|

|WARNING: Any active action breaks this camouflage immediately.|

...!

Indistinguishable.

The Great Usurper had almost not believed the prompts when they first appeared.

Nothing would be able to sense him? A Duke had detected him in the Spirit Folds and nearly killed him for the intrusion.

The Lands of The Dead contained beings millions of times more powerful than that Duke.

And yet they wouldn’t sense him?

He had been skeptical.

Profoundly skeptical!

But he had remained Idle...that was his nature, after all. His existence continued spreading in its formless state, expanding across the dead territories without conscious direction.

And shockingly, the speed at which he progressed seemed to accelerate exponentially.

He spread across regions filled with aimless Dead Existences. Passed through territories where undead entities congregated in vast numbers. Eventually reached this Cryptland where Early Creatures were abundant...powerful beings whose individual complexity would have crushed him if they’d noticed his presence.

And yet...

None sense me.

It was astonishing. Legitimately reality-defying.

Because his Idle Existence had become fundamentally indistinguishable from the surrounding environment, he was perceived...or rather, not perceived, the same way ambient existence was perceived.

It was akin to a normal human smelling air. To them, it was just air...could be windy, calm, cold, hot, but it remained air regardless. Nothing remarkable. Nothing requiring specific attention.

At this moment, to the Dead Early Creatures and any other existence in these lands, they would truly not be able to sense any difference in their surroundings because nothing had inherently changed from their perspective.

His presence was as unremarkable as the space between spaces.

My Idle Existence... seems to be slightly powerful?

...!

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