Chapter 157 – Act of self-preservation
"U.G.Y.- kun." Sounded the cold hard voice full of fury as if coming from hell, making the temperature in the room go below zero in an instant. The plush bear dropped the control on the floor from surprise turning around with a startle as his eyes went wide.
"You playing games here means you already solved the issue, right?" Asked Yuko, coming down from the roof on the string, behind the window, from where she silently spied on him after pretending that she left. She lowered her body watching Ugy with an intense gaze searing hot with anger.
"You think I am stupid enough to not understand when you, little plush bastard, lie to me?" Spoke spider woman, her voice sounding like a devil's wrath, almost breathing out mist with every word.
Ugy gulped looking around as if searching for a place to run to.
"You stay there until I enter or you will regret it." Commanded Yuko with her voice going even deeper in tone making Ugy shiver.
"Hold it, hold it. Let me explain." Said Ugy as the spider nightmare entered the house.
"Explain? I just gave you a chance before. Now it's too late!" Said Yuko stretching her hand to grab his plush head.
"I know what's wrong with the user, but there is nothing I can do at this point. It all depends on him!" The words burst out of Ugy's mouth stopping the furious spider's advance.
"Alright." Said Yuko, stepping back and plunging down on the couch. "Explain."
"He is at the crucial point of his system development called a bottleneck. Every human when they level their system is progressing gradually, studying their ability and trying to find new ways to implement it. But there is a point when this progress stops as there is nothing more to improve. At this point, the systems and humans possessing them should evolve. Then they would be able to advance gradually again. But to make that leap all humans have to gain full comprehension of themselves and their power. They should understand what needs to be improved inside them. This would give their system a direction in which it would evolve." Started to explain Ugy.
"Alright, so why is he unconscious?" Asked Yuko, agreeing to listen further.
"Well, the last step is most crucial in the bottleneck passing. When they've gained an understanding of what needs to be improved, human subconsciousness would momentarily gain restricted access to The Great Library. The system would find necessary information data and evolve."
"Um, um." Voiced Yuko nodding. "And…?" She pushed him to continue with a slight smile on her lips.
"Khe-khem…" Coughed Ugy feeling uncomfortable from her strange smile. "As I was saying… Normally humans would gain access with Subconsciousness. In their conscious mind, however, they would not even realize it. But for systems such as Seer or…me, users have a free pass into their subconsciousness. Meaning they would be able to gaze into The Great Library with their consciousness." Continued to say Ugy.
"I see. I see." Nodded Yuko. "But…" she said, not finishing her words.
"But?" Asked Ugy as if not understanding.
"But…" Said Yuko. "And now you going to explain why he got stuck there alone while you are here, right?" She said, raising an eyebrow.
"Oh. That. Well…Yeah, something went wrong apparently so he…never reached The Great Library." Said Ugy his eyes jumping from side to side.
"But there is nothing to worry about!" He exclaimed seeing how Yuko bent forward to stand up. "Look at it this way. The Great Library gives information from what it has recorded through eons of world existence. But at the times before its creation, humans passed their bottlenecks and advanced without relying on the Great Library. People just found their own way. And it can still be done the old-school way. He can still find a way and come back. Well, it'll just take a bit of time. So no need to worry." Added Ugy.
"See, Ugy-kun. You can be quite eloquent when you want. You could have explained everything from the get-go." Said Yuko standing up from the couch. "Alright. We will just have to wait patiently." She said turning away to walk out of the house.
"Is that what you thought, I would say?" She then added turning to look back with a wicked smile at the Plush Bear that was breathing out in relief.
"I...I explained everything." Said Ugy, stepping back from Yuko.
"Is that so?" Asked Spider Lady. "How about the part where you know the DAMN WELL WHAT WENT WRONG AND WHY HE IS STUCK SOMEWHERE!" Said Yuko her voice growing in volume with every word.
"How about telling what did you do to fuck him up this time!" She added advancing toward the plush bear as if a wolf circling around an exhausted prey. She stepped with her spider legs on the floor so hard her legs were piercing through the wood, making Ugy gulp.
"Alright! Alright! You are right! But I did it to save us all." Said Ugy, lifting his hands in surrender.
Yuko stopped her advance looking at him with a questioning face. "Save us from what?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.
"The Archive! The Librarian of the Great Library. The keeper of the all-knowing Akashic Record." Said Ugy.
"Explain." Said Yuko just one word standing still while gazing at the plush bear.
"I had to stop the user from going there for two reasons." Said Ugy lifting his hand but remembering he had no fingers raised a second hand.
"First problem, - is that guide function. Every system is installed inside a human with a Guide post-program inside. Its function is to connect human subconsciousness to The Great Library in times of need as I said. But it is also a snitch that gives away information about the systems the moment he connects with the Library." Said Ugy. "In other words, it would snitch on me having consciousness, snitch on me peeking into the records whenever I want it. And we can only imagine what consequence this would have for me and the user." Explained Ugy.
"So I had to get rid of it. Right now the Great Library gets skimming info of me and my functionality. It knows what I want it to know. It knows that I function fine and as long as it's this way we are all safe." Said Ugy.
"Wouldn't the Archive get suspicious if you never connect with the Library?" Asked Yuko.
"Not really. It is not forbidden to go your own way and never search for information in the records of the Library. It has been done many times in different periods and different worlds. This is not such a rare occurrence to attract special attention." Said Ugy.
"Still, if you got rid of the guide, that means you could have adjusted it to not upload information or make it give false information, right?" Said, Yuko thoughtfully.
"And this is where the second reason for my action comes in." Answered Ugy. "The reason is that it heavily concerns the both of us. You and me. It is a matter of survival for the two of us." Said Ugy surprising Yuko.
"What do you mean?" She asked, still not believing the plush bear's words.
"As I said before, when a human connects with the Great Library, the system downloads a suitable information package and evolves with it. But what would happen if that data package would patch up the mistakes that the troubleshooting process made and erased my conscience turning me back to a soulless program? Would it consider you a mistake needing to be erased as well?" Explained Ugy with a grave voice.
"Oh shit." Said Yuko sitting back on the couch. "If you evolve with data from The Great Library we might get erased?" She muttered.
"Exactly." Confirmed Ugy. "This was an act of self-preservation."
"So you decided to let him find his path to evolution without letting him connect with the Great Library."
"Yes." Said Ugy.
"But why not explain it to Noah? I am sure he would have agreed with you." Asked Yuko.
"That's not my fault. I was really going to, but… How was I to know we would get to all this mess where we would meet all the conditions that need to be met to take a leap?" Said Ugy throwing up his hands in frustration and jumping back onto his armchair. "I barely managed to shut up that snitch guide in the nick of time. When was I supposed to explain it all to the user." Added Ugy with a complaining voice.
"What conditions?" Asked Yuko.
"Gaining enough divine energy." Said Ugy. "That is a main prerequisite for evolution."
"Divine energy? But I thought it was only awakened by the top powerhouses at the 90th level." Said Yuko.
"It's not entirely right. Some people can freely use it as they see fit at those levels as it is in abundance within their bodies by then. But it is because they can hold in so much of it with no consequence is why they have it in abundance." Said Ugy.
"Why can powerhouses have it and others can't? They all have the same human body, right?" Asked Yuko
"Wrong. Their bodies evolved to hold it. Imagine that the Saintess known as the top human powerhouse is 100% of our goal. She can perform miracles of planetary proportion with divine energy in her possession. But any normal person that would try to hold so much power would simply burn in white flames. So systems are made in such a way that you gain a slight amount of divine energy that your body can barely hold together without killing you and perform a small miracle, evolving just a little bit. Then you gain more energy and evolve a bit more. And so on and so on, until your body can finally hold as much as Saintess." Explained Ugy
"That's how leveling is going. When humans level up from level 1 to about level 10 they reach 100% of their capability and face the limit of their body. Think for yourself. How much stronger can you get with just muscle training? Would you be able to lift a house or a ship? No. But some people can do a lot more than that. Because their systems allow humans to gain strength far beyond their limits. How? When they evolve and gain level 11 it is not the same as leveling 1 level from 10 to 11. It is an entirely new scale where 11 can be looked at as the 1st level of 1 time evolved body. The power output at level 11 is in an entirely new division from what you were able to do at level 10."
"I see." Said Yuko, finally understanding the whole situation. "When Noah was redirecting divine energy from the Saintess to break the barrier…"
"He passed through his body a shit load of divine energy when only a small spec of it was enough to initiate his evolution." Finished her words Ugy.
"So how long it would take him to find a path and come back." Asked Yuko.
"That depends on him, but.." Said, Ugy rubbing his chin in thought. "With the Comment Section at his disposal, it will be quite quick. The problem is whether he will understand what is going on and how mighty of a tool the CS is."
"CS?" Said Yuko, her eyes going wide. "You are telling me his evolution depends on the crazies in that comment section?" Said Yuko facepalming. "I just hope you would not evolve to something even weirder than you already are, Ugy." She said standing up from the couch and walking out of the house.
"Hey! I am not a weirdo!" Said Ugy into her back right before she slammed the door shut.
*****
Noah opened his eyes looking around, finding himself sitting in the carriage that was slowly rocking on the bumps as it moved.
"Yuko?" Asked Brianna looking back at him from her seat across from Noah.
"Mmm." Confirmed her identity, Yuko.
"So what did Ugy say?" Asked Bri hopefully.
"He figured out what happened, but the only solution is to wait." Said Yuko seeing worry and concern return to Brianna and Dryads sitting on her both sides.
"But he should be fine. There is no danger." Said Yuko trying to cheer them up at least with this.
"So what is wrong with him?" Asked Samantha sitting at Yuko's side. As she spoke her sister, Lilly, who sat on Samantha's other side leaning with her head on Samantha's shoulder, stirred a bit in her sleep.
Yuko looked at Samantha, then turned to Brianna and Dryads seeing that they wished to hear as well. So Yuko explained about bottleneck and evolution, however, she omitted everything regarding The Great Library, Guide, and Ugy's input into this strange situation, concluding with only saying that because Noah's system is special his approach to the evolution process is greatly different compared to other people.
"Is that so…" Muttered Samantha deep in thought after hearing so much useful information. "There were such secrets to leveling up."
"Oh, right. You are also a human." Said Brianna, turning to Samantha. "How was it for you when you passed stage bottlenecks?" She asked, intrigued.
"Nothing special actually. I just followed the guides written by the Adventurers Guild when I was still in the guild. They taught us to listen to the tips of our system. And be serious in solving missions and tasks given out by the system when the time approaches, no matter how dumb or simple they seem to be." Said Samantha wanting to shrug but remembered the sleeping Lilly leaning onto her shoulder.
"It was nothing special. I did what was needed of me and one day I just leveled up to the next level and that's it." She added, ending the story.
"I see." Said Brianna breathing out a heavy sigh and lowering her eyes. The torture that her sister was through came into her mind, reminding her how different this process goes for monsters.
"Lady Brianna." Said Samantha unsurely. "Are you really sure about it? Taking us in, I mean?"
"You are important to Noah. That I can tell with no doubt. He would be sad if he woke up and finds out, that I Iet you go to face the danger that follows you. You have lost all your possessions, and have nowhere to go. You have no resources to hide from all the enemies that hunt you. In our house, you will be safe, Ms.Wild. Noah would want that." Answered Brianna.
"You know the story behind our previous encounter with him?" Asked Samantha timidly.
"Yes. I am aware of your backstory. But as I said, Noah holds you dear. He would not go to such lengths to help you if it was not so. I am sure he would welcome you with his full heart. However, whether you would be willing to forgive his actions or not depends on your future discussion with him. All I ask of you is to stay in our mansion until he is able to hold that discussion with you."
"We will bring danger to your door." Said Samantha.
"There are more dangers at our door than you have. Would you still dare to come?" Asked Brianna.
Samantha smiled at her slightly and nodded, turning to look into the window, watching in silence as their carriage slowly moved through the night pulled by a bunch of giant spider monsters.
From crazy sect to monster lair. What else this life holds for us? Thought Samantha. But this is the only choice to keep the girls safe. For now.