Chapter 246

That afternoon…

A person came looking for me.

Polaris Balwin Barrington. A girl shorter than me, who’s already on the petite side.

“Did you fight with Victoria?”

Without any preamble, she shot me a sharp glare and an even sharper question.

“No. We didn’t fight.”

We really didn’t fight. Sure, I pushed Victoria a bit, but it wasn’t anything that could be classified as actual combat.

After hearing my answer, Polaris crossed her arms and stared at me intently before letting out a long sigh.

“Yeah, you’re not lying. So what’s the problem?”

This was the same question I had asked Victoria during lunch. She avoided answering, saying something vague about “things happening.”

Seeing this, Polaris decided not to press further and backed off.

So I don’t know the reason… But actually, I do.

Victoria hadn’t told Polaris, but she had confided in her parents. She said it was too hard for me to point out paths I myself hadn’t walked.

No kidding.

I never told her to go save people or forgive her enemies. In fact, I encouraged her to kill her enemies actively—if only to absorb their warmth through the process!

Anyway, I spent a moment thinking about how much to reveal.

There’s what I should know, what I can deduce… It’s like putting together pieces of a puzzle while juggling timelines.

Time is flexible here. Though I can’t stop or reverse time, speeding it up or slowing it down? Totally possible.

Imagine different worlds with their own Harvesting Systems. Let’s call them World A and World B.

When one second passes in World A, a whole week could pass in World B. You can adjust these speeds between worlds.

The catch? From my perspective, everything still appears at normal speed. While I can manipulate time across worlds, my personal experience remains locked at 1x.

So I use loopholes. Think in World B, then bring those thoughts back to World A. What feels like a second becomes a week.

Though technically, I could ping-pong ideas between worlds, it feels less like slow motion and more like jumping between videos—it gets messy.

If I were smarter, I might handle all this better. But even deep thinking from someone dull doesn’t yield great results.

Finally, I gave my answer.

“It’s because I sensed that I’m a monster.”

That explanation covers everything. My disconnects with others, including Victoria, start and end here.

“Huh… right. You’re not human, are you.”

Polaris understood immediately; she’d seen similar situations before.

“But didn’t Victoria know this better than anyone?”

Polaris glanced toward where Victoria had been sitting. By now, Victoria had already left the classroom.

Today’s event was supposed to be a simple orientation session to help students bond within their classes and form cliques—basically, politics disguised as introductions.

Unlike Victoria and me, who joined mid-semester, this kind of thing happened during the first semester too.

Contrary to the idealized Academy in stories, this place isn’t equal. Since Victoria lacks factional power, she remains independent—but if she wanted to climb higher, she’d have to choose sides.

She doesn’t want to.

So when Polaris asks if Victoria knows enough about me…

“I guess she didn’t.”

Polaris gives me an annoyed look but shakes her head, seemingly giving up.

“Don’t overthink it. Just go talk to her.”

“You want me to approach her?”

“Why? Are you tired of her now?”

Hmm…

While I don’t hate her entirely, negative feelings outweigh positive ones. Plus, she sees me as some iron-willed monster.

Denying that image would cost me too much. To her, I’m the self-righteous guy pushing moral superiority onto others—an annoying presence.

People often avoid overly righteous individuals.

“Sure, you’re morally upright, but your presence suffocates me. Please stay away.”

Exactly.

She won’t bother digging deeper into who I truly am.

Because she’s already made up her mind.

“Will Victoria run away?”

At my question, Polaris smirked.

“Yeah, got it. I’ll find her. See you after the weekend!”

“No need to go that far…”

But Polaris misunderstood my words, humming a little tune as she exited the classroom.

As doubts crept into my mind…

It’ll probably be fine.

Since I also lack reasons to join groups or mingle, I slipped out of the classroom too.

Outside the building, there’s a fountain and plenty of cars parked nearby.

Some vehicles head toward buildings near the main gate.

Honestly, riding these seems extravagant, but luxury belongs in places like this.

Cars symbolize power here.

Occasionally, you’ll see modifications—add-ons that deviate from original designs. These likely indicate removal or modification of old power systems.

I’ve heard the original system converts magic power into kinetic energy, leaving behind a distinct sensation.

Like the sound of engines in faded memories.

When people sense this, they gather to destroy it. Thanks to media propaganda, machines using such devices are universally branded as evil.

People here aren’t accustomed to vast amounts of information.

They resemble primitive societies handling small bits of data.

Sorting through information is a skill gained only after certain thresholds are crossed.

Safety rules written in blood apply here too.

It’s not that people here are stupid.

Few understand the consequences of manipulating information.

Even in information-saturated societies, once people latch onto initial pieces of info, they cling tightly to them as truth.

Even if proven false, revising accepted facts proves difficult.

Instead, humans desperately hold onto the first thing they grasp. It’s biological.

Humans resist deprivation fiercely but succumb easily to excess.

Life has always been about scarcity.

This applies to food and information alike.

With scarce info, we reason and deduce. With overwhelming info, we cling desperately to the first thing we hear.

In worlds with limited media, controlling said media makes deception inevitable.

Advanced internet-based societies exploit this differently, but Third and Fourth Worlds haven’t reached that stage yet.

Looking at the cars made my thoughts wander.

Walking past the main gate, I turned left and wandered home, pondering how to spend the empty hours ahead since tomorrow’s a weekend.

***

The Fourth World is doing well, just like the Third.

Here, unlike Bell, we haven’t named our presence yet.

Though Jeber calls me the Purple God, that’s more of a title than a name.

For convenience, I slightly adjusted the flow of time.

While only a day passed in the Third World, a week went by here.

Much happened.

Jeber began experimenting, turning other species into Harvesting Systems.

Starting with pets (like cats and dogs), moving to riding animals (like horses and camels), and finally livestock (like pigs and chickens).

Through this, I learned a lot.

Most healthy animals ignored the contract incantation. Only those starving or gravely injured responded.

Cooking meat from harvesting systems resulted in tough, inedible textures.

Otherwise, most showed abilities slightly enhanced compared to humans.

The most interesting experiment came next.

Insects.

Yep, we tried turning insects into harvesters. They possess light too, after all.

99.9% didn’t respond, even when severely injured.

But 0.1% did.

And every single insect that signed exploded instantly upon receiving light.

It felt familiar.

Long ago, when I inserted light into humans underwater…

They exploded too.

Ugh…

Even squeezing out the bare minimum caused explosions. Whether this is impossible or something I’ll grow into remains unclear.

The light vanished completely in the explosion, yielding negligible warmth.

How negligible?

If humans count as humans, lower-intelligence animals might as well be viruses.

That’s why I hunt humans primarily.

Still, experimenting with various creatures provided valuable insights.

The Fourth World is great.

Getting summoned by someone like you was pure luck, Jeber Ibn Heideka.

Keep the experiments coming!

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