[NR] Chapter 263 - Realization Crystallization (Patreon)

“In fact!”, Jason laughs, “In fact, the fact so few things use Energy is proof that the System actively works against it. Of course, the System can’t tell people not to use it. Otherwise everyone and their uncle would give Energy a try.”

“Anyway, through that purity I have observed my body as a void. Unless something is actively trying to view inside my body, there isn’t anything except the threads. The thing is, I don’t just believe this about my body, but rather all travellers. In fact, to start I thought this was true for everyone in NeoRealm. Now though, I’ve refined my ideas on this. The realization came over me slowly, but now that I am here saying this all it has crystalized for me.”

“Every creature that the System personally creates will share this quirk. So for the most part travellers and pop up quest bosses. Why? Because the System is strategically lazy. No matter how powerful the System is, it is not infinitely powerful. There is a limit and even if the System is less then a single percent towards that limit, it has already put in place things that will save the System later on.”

“For me though, it gave me a way in. A way to push forward in a different direction from anyone. My inner void gives me several special things that I won’t be going over, but this stretches beyond itself. Some of my skills are even affected by it.”

Gregor sighs, “Yeah, this is well beyond anything I’ve worked with in the past. While enchantment is my focus, all of these observation tools that I’ve squirreled away have led to several strange cases arriving on my door to be observed. Don’t get me wrong, your nonsense isn’t the strangest. Your situation is however unique in ways that I don’t have other things to compare it to.”

Gregor places his thumb on his lips, chin resting on the rest of the hand with the fingers curled into a loose fist. He hums a few bars to himself as he thinks over something.

Jason just stands to the side. He had honestly dropped more on this guy he just met than any other person. It honestly was a relief to get it off his chest.

Gregor drops his hand to his side as he shakes his head. “What you have told me is amazing. Simply astounding, and it provides me with information that is worth more than anything else you could give me. However. However, you still haven’t told me what you were doing with your pinky. We got a bit off topic.”

Jason laughs, “We did get a bit sidetracked. In fact, we didn’t even talk about the threads, which are the basis for why we wanted to investigate my pinky in the first place. This will come a little closer to my cultivation and core than I would want to say.”

“The first thing to understand is that my cultivation makes use of Energy as threads. Yes, I took this from the threads, but I went further. My threads are smaller than the System wants to handle. Or rather, smaller than it wants people to mess with.”

“The threads you find in people are big. Not because it has to be that way, but because each thread is exactly that, a thread. And threads are made up of smaller strings. My cultivation uses those smaller strings. So of course, like an idiot, I used my strings to poke at the threads in my pinky.”

“I wasn’t completely an idiot though, because I started on the pinky. A good choice on my part as the thread started to unravel. The only thing that stopped it was the ^@%&$. The #%^$. There is a $&^#$@. Welp, I guess we’ve found the first thing I can’t tell you. Anyway, suffice to say the fraying was stopped.”

“Now the important part I finished once we got here. Using my strings, I re-spun the frayed thread in my pinky. Then, of course, because bad decisions are one of the constants in the universe, I undid all my work only to spin the thread back into shape again. Repeat that again a few times until I got the string in my pinky to look exactly like the rest of System threads in my body. All the work was worth it since you scanned it and couldn’t tell the difference.”

“This leads me to my final goal. I want to &#@^%&$. For each thread I @#^%$&*. Meh, increment the counter for things I can’t tell you. Looks like I’ve started to touch on the Systems bottom line. I don’t think it can stop me though. Especially once I really get started. It will however take a lot of work, if only because I need to excessively boost my Energy pool.”

Gregor rubs his ears, “Oh Founder Fox, I wish the System would silence stuff it doesn’t want others to hear. That nonsense always just causes the worst ear aches. Though I guess that is sort of the point. Classic operant conditioning.”

Jason nods, “If the only downside of saying stuff you shouldn’t was silence, that would make people push the boundaries. Though I assume there are penalties if someone tries to use this offensively.”

Gregor laughs, “You better believe it. And the System gets quite creative with the punishments as well. Now I did get a feel for what you intend to do. Luckily, even though the System could judge me for my thoughts, it chooses not to. As long as I say nothing about what I learned, I will be perfectly fine.”

Jason shakes his head, “I actually feel the System is unable to really read any sapient’s thoughts. At least the deepest thoughts. Sure, if you’re screaming your thoughts to the world, the System will know. You however don’t seem quite like the type of person who would do that. In fact, I bet anyone that has gone through training to prevent telepathic snooping will be quite frustrating for the System.”