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The System, or as he called himself, Michael, sat down over the void black hole. His body still looked very weak and frail. I noticed many cracks over his body, as if he were made of thin glass. Each error seed to have broken through this body, perhaps the presentation of his soul, the core of the System itself being him.
"Are you okay?" I asked him, caressing his wounds.
"I might heal over ti… Or not." He coughed. "This is… My soul, as bare as it can be. However, from what I rember… My power, mories, and Soul's True Strength have all been Sealed. So It's not as if I can do much, even with my soul exposed."
"Is there a way to heal you?" I wondered, looking at him. For the first ti ever, I actually felt pity for this asshole that always treated like shit.
"I… Perhaps, but you'll need to spend the precious System Points you can only earn by killing foes or leveling up. Are you sure you want to spend them?" He wondered, looking tired. "You don't need to halt your growth to heal . It's not like you owe anything, and I've been a real asshole to you, even though you had no fault in my situation…"
"Yeah you're a pretty annoying asshole, but you're still the System that has been with since I reincarnated in this world. Even when I wasn't a ghost, you were still there, right?" I asked him. "So stop being so annoying and let heal you. How do I do this?"
"Simply… think about it." He sighed. His eyes seed slightly shy as he didn't want to look into my eyes. "And it will work."
I gently touched his wounds, and it worked. The System Points started to be spent over ti. The cracks disappeared as my fingers released a gray and white light. It felt as if I was stitching back together his wounds, second after second, until he fully recovered.
Ding!
[You've exchanged 14.000.000 System Points to heal the wounds in the [System's Core].]
[The [System Core] has fully recovered its functions.]
"Well that cost way more than I imagined! Fourteen million?!" I complained. "Well, I still have around 79 million but even then, that's so expensive!"
"I told you that you should have simply kept your points. They're precious, both to create your Unique Undead and also to upgrade and learn Skills, alongside your Class and Subclass…" Michael sighed. "You're truly hopeless, helping soone that treated you like shit. You're dumb, aren't you? A very dumb girl."
"Is this how you're going to treat after I saved your ass?!" I complained, about to smack his face. However, I was stopped by his eyes full of lancholy.
"Thanks…" He whispered silently. "I always thought you wouldn't care, or that you only saw as your tool. I wouldn't even bla you. The Unique Skill you acquired was simply the Manifestation of your Soul becoming a Player. And because it happened while you had no body, and your soul jumped many floors, the accumulation of Mana through all of these worlds gave birth to the powerful Unique Skills you acquired. However, at the end, what decides what Skills you get or not wasn't just your Wishes, but the Tower."
"The damn Tower…" I muttered. "Does it have so sort of consciousness of its own? What exactly is the Tower? Not just a bridge between Worlds, right?"
"I… Don't have too many mories about that, but I do know that the Tower does has intelligence. It can make decisions of its own. But those that truly control it are Administrators." He spoke.
"Administrators…" As Michael said that word, I rembered the ssage I saw once he tried digging through his mories. "[Justice's Brightest Light] rings any bells?"
"Perhaps too many." He sighed. "That suffix… You see, Administrators take on many suffixes. Titles to hide their true nas. Gabriel… I rember that bastard taking that title. I don't rember how exactly everything went. But I used to be with him, and many others. In a world nad as Eden."
"Eden?" I asked. "Like… the Garden of Eden?"
"It might be related." He nodded. "It is a Heavenly World, and the strongest amongst all other Worlds connected to the Tower. It is all the way to the last Floor."
"How many Floors does this damn Tower has?" I wondered.
"One hundred, and Eden sits at the top, at the hundredth floor. It is where the rumors about your wishes coming true originated from." Michael said. "In a way, you are granted such a thing once you step into the Tower. Your greatest wish, your talent, and what you want to beco, your dreams, materialize. Every person that enters the Tower gains a Skill or Unique Skill. This is the key for their growth. So neglect it foolishly, thinking it is an useless power, but those that smartly embrace it- Ugh…! They can ascend further…"
"But why ascend?" I asked. "If there is no such thing as a Wish…"
"I never said there wasn't one. I only said… you kind of get half of it once you enter." Coughed Michael. "But… What's in the throne of the World of Eden… The ultimate challenge of the Tower. The One…"
"…The One?" I asked.
Suddenly, it felt like things clicked slightly. The One, was that… just God? The monotheistic God of all things? The single one, The One and Only. God and nothing else. No na, just God. The one that governs Eden, a world with Angels and Archangels.
"Is that God?" I asked.
"…I don't know." He sighed. "I don't rember anymore… I… It is so frustrating. I fear if we try to recover more mories, the damage I'll take beco even more severe."
"Then what can we do?!" I asked.
Michael suddenly held my hands, as he smiled back at . His brilliant silver eyes shining with so sort of confidence, as if he knew for way longer than I thought.
"Climb the Tower, Maria." He whispered to . "Grow Stronger… Evolve. The System will Evolve with you. And so your other Unique Skills. Especially [Goddess], the Unique Skill you have yet to unlock. Its power could bring you to heights nobody has reached before. You have to climb the Tower… If you want to find out the truth about it, get a wish… And end this… This cycle of competition and annihilation of worlds."
To climb the Tower… That was never really my intention. I want to just live peacefully. But I guess that even after I do everything I want in this world. Threats and dangers will keep pouring from other worlds, isn't it?
"Do you promise that I will find the truth, and that the wish can be anything I want?" I asked him with sincerity.
"…I have to be honest with you, I can't promise you that." He sighed. "But there's sothing within , sothing that tells that… you will never find the peace you want if you don't do anything, Maria. There are threats out there that will continue coming to this world. And unless you do your best to climb the Tower and finally reach the end of all of this. There will never be an end."
"…" I sighed. "I'll think about it. But maybe… Just maybe, I will do that. But right now, I can't really think too well. Goodnight, Michael."
"Goodnight, Maria."
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