Shin rushed to the house as fast as he could. He was worried about his mother hurting Rika sohow, but he had no idea just how much damage had already been done.
The mont he arrived, he pushed the door open, only to find Etozawa waiting for him.
Shin blinked in shock as he recognized the familiar face. After all, Etozawa was another playable character, the one who possessed the Hypnosis System.
But before Shin could react, a faint fla appeared right in front of his eyes. His instincts scread at him to look away, but he couldn’t.
’User, we have a problem!’ Lilel shouted inside his mind. Maybe because their minds were connected, Lilel also felt dizzy. ’I think I’m losing control.’
’I know. This guy is dangerous, we can’t resist completely, but we need to focus on not letting him take control’ Shin replied, forcing himself to stay focused. If he concentrated hard enough, he could partially resist the hypnotic effect. ’Can you do sothing?’
’I’ll try to analyze his power!’ Lilel answered, quickly attempting to grasp the situation, but she could barely move.
They really had been taken by surprise. The situation was much worse than Shin expected, and he had no counterasure.
For now, all he could do was girth his teeth and try to resist. His mind raced looking for a way out of that shit, but in the end... none of that was necessary.
Out of nowhere, Ana appeared.
She stepped forward without hesitation and blew out the small fla. The fire was extinguished imdiately. And just like that, the effect vanished.
Etozawa blinked in shock, completely unable to understand what had just happened. Ana was supposed to be under his control.
So how...? Why had she betrayed him?
The answer was simple, she had never been fully controlled to begin with. Ana was far more resistant to his power than the average person.
Still, she had been cautious. She wasn’t sure she could resist him a second ti, especially if he used his ability properly. And without fully understanding the situation, she had chosen to stay quiet at first, pretending nothing was wrong.
Then, when Minako stepped away, Ana seized her chance.
Etozawa was careless and easy to manipulate. With a few complints and her charms as a girl were enough. All she did was act like a sweet, impressed girl, and he started talking about his powers.
Pretending she just wanted to know things, so she could help him avoid another mistake, she learned sothing crucial: the hypnosis could be disrupted if the fla was extinguished before the effect fully took hold.
Then she got ready to act as soon as possible, and save Shin.
"So, my lord, are you alright? Is your mind okay?" Ana asked quickly, turning toward Shin.
"I’m fine. Don’t worry," Shin replied.
Even so, sothing felt off.
His mind was still slightly clouded, he was still under the lingering effects of Etozawa’s power. He knew he was still in danger.
Understanding the situation, Shin moved so fast that Etozawa didn’t even have ti to speak.
In an instant, Shin closed the distance and grabbed him by the throat, lifting him slightly off the ground, cutting off any chance of him using his ability again.
Even though Shin was still slightly under his influence, Etozawa needed to speak his commands out loud. But with his throat being crushed, not a single word could co out properly.
Etozawa’s eyes widened in panic, his hands instinctively grabbing at Shin’s wrist.
Shin’s gaze remained cold.
His mind raced.
In the ga, other playable characters existed in the world. They could be found, even interacted with. But they acted just like NPCs.
And most importantly, when a playable character wasn’t selected, they lost their system.
For example, when playing as Shin, it wasn’t unusual to run into Etozawa by chance, since he lived in Japan. But in those encounters, Etozawa would just be an ordinary boy, completely powerless.
There was even a side quest during the tutorial where you could et all the playable characters. It was a lighthearted mini-quest, with no real danger.
Shin’s grip tightened slightly. This shouldn’t be possible. Etozawa shouldn’t have his power.
But he did, and this probability altered the natural flow of things. That was the reason behind Minako returning earlier than Shin expected. And that was the reason for him being taken by surprise.
"So the world really has changed that much," Shin muttered under his breath.
Etozawa coughed, struggling to breathe, his face turning pale. Shin looked at him, that could be useful, the Hypnosis System was probably the most powerful system ever.
However he was also far too dangerous. Once he evolved, he could easily take control of Shin’s allies, or even ss up with his mind and mories.
It was best to kill him.
Etozawa’s eyes trembled, feeling the grip getting stronger. In a futile act of resistance, his hands clawed at Shin’s wrist, desperately trying to loosen the grip crushing his throat.
His legs kicked weakly, his body struggling for air, but it was useless.
Shin tightened his grip without hesitation. Etozawa’s vision blurred and his consciousness began to slip.
Etozawa’s body jerked, then quickly began to lose strength. His hands slid weakly down Shin’s arm, unable to hold on. His eyes started to roll back as his body went limp.
Shin watched him coldly, his expression unchanged. Just a little more. That was all it would take.
He had already made his decision.
Then Lilel’s voice rang sharply in his mind.
’Wait! Don’t kill him yet!’
Shin didn’t loosen his grip, but he paused slightly. ’Why?’ he asked.
’This is a rare opportunity,’ Lilel replied quickly, her voice filled with excitent. ’’I want to run an experint.’
’Okay,’ Shin said as he slightly loosened his grip, a cruel smile playing on his lips. ’What do you want to do?’
’Do you rember what happened when Seraphina killed those system users?’ Lilel asked.
Shin vaguely recalled it. Lilel had explained sothing about it back then. On that occasion, she had confird one of her theories: when a system user killed another, the killer would absorb the victim’s system.
It made sense with what Shin knew from the ga. After all, the fastest way to level up a system was by killing other users. By doing so, you would receive half of all the experience they had accumulated in their lifeti.
’However, I have a question. What do you think will happen if you kill a system user?’ Lilel continued.
Since Shin was still only a Chosen and had not yet entered the Tower, his system was incomplete.
As for what would happen... he already knew part of the answer. In the ga, killing another system user during the tutorial didn’t grant any experience. After all, during the tutorial, experience wasn’t even a defined concept yet.
Shin’s leveling up ca from vague factors, such as how dominant he beca, how much the won around him admired him, how much sex he had, how much girl wanted to obey him and more. There were no clear or asurable trics.
’In other words, an incomplete system is possibly incapable of absorbing other systems. But what happens to his system when he dies if you don’t absorb it?’ Lilel asked, clearly intrigued.
There was no way to know for sure. But it was a rare opportunity to better understand the nature of systems.
However, Lilel was still feeling slightly dizzy. She needed a few seconds to recover, and more importantly, she needed to focus to properly observe Etozawa’s system and analyze what would happen.
"Did sothing happen?" Ana asked, concerned as she watched Shin silently hold the man for an extended mont.
"Don’t worry. Everything will be fine," Shin replied calmly. "Can you go upstairs and make sure Rika is okay? Tomoko won’t do anything to you, even under hypnosis. And if my mother tries anything... feel free to beat her up."
"Leave it to ," Ana said with a confident smile before quickly heading upstairs.
A short while after the blonde girl left the room, Lilel spoke again.
’I’m ready.’
Shin didn’t hesitate.
His fingers tightened once more around Etozawa’s neck. A few seconds later, the man’s body went completely limp before collapsing lifelessly onto the floor.
But what Lilel was observing was sothing entirely different.
She shifted her perception, focusing solely on the mana and energy around them.
The first thing she noticed was Etozawa’s life energy dissipating. That vital energy had been connected to a glowing blue sphere, and when his life ended, that connection snapped.
The small fairy imdiately deduced that the sphere was, in so way, his system.
Once detached from its forr owner, the sphere slowly drifted toward Shin. However, when it ca into contact with the blue sphere inside him, the two failed to rge, as if sothing was fundantally incompatible.
As expected, an incomplete system user could not absorb another system.
The sphere remained suspended in place. But then Lilel noticed sothing else. Its glow was slowly fading.
At first, she thought the system might simply dissipate on its own, but that wasn’t quite right. Upon closer observation, she realized the light wasn’t disappearing. It was spreading.
Fragnts of that energy were being distributed across a vast radius, hundreds of kiloters.
The system was being redistributed.
Not to just anyone, but to specific individuals, people between sixteen and eighteen years old who had not yet undergone their awakening. Perhaps this redistribution would influence their future, increasing their chances of awakening in the coming years.
Lilel’s eyes widened. She couldn’t let that energy scatter like that.
Moving quickly, she approached the remnants of the system and forcibly pulled the escaping energy back, preventing it from dispersing too far.
Then she tried to analyze it.
That’s when the pain hit.
It was overwhelming. It felt as if her entire body was being burned from the inside out.
No... It wasn’t just a feeling. Her body was being burned by the sheer intensity of the energy. She realized she had, at most, twenty seconds before her body would be completely destroyed.
The pain was unbearable, enough to break anyone. Besides, even if they could revive, most people wouldn’t be crazy enough to die just to test out an idea. Especially not if death would be the most painful possible.
But Lilel wasn’t normal.
Even as her form began to destabilize under the strain, her expression sharpened with determination.
She decided to continue.
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