"Ah, it is such a nice feeling to see everyone trying their best to survive together. It almost makes me wish I could go down there and take part in this apocalypse as well."

An older lady looked at the system screen in front of her. It showed various locations fighting against waves of monsters and killing each other.

"I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to go down there, Mrs. Aduit. Your body won’t be able to handle too much physical activity at your age."

Mrs. Aduit looked at her assistant with an amused expression. Her knowing eyes made the assistant shiver, though she was already used to that all-knowing look by now.

The assistant coughed to hide her discomfort and noticed that her supervisor was in a good mood. That encouraged her to ask the questions she had been holding back all this time.

"Mrs. Aduit, may I ask you something? Why did you participate in this apocalypse research? Don’t you think it’s too dangerous?"

The assistant waited for the woman to answer, and the older lady hummed thoughtfully as she looked back at her.

"My dear, if you had the chance to obtain anything you desired in life, wouldn’t you take it? For example, if you had lived your life and were nearing the end, but someone told you that you had a chance to reverse your age and live forever—wouldn’t you take it?"

Mrs. Aduit asked, and her assistant looked taken aback by her words.

"Is that the reason you participated in this experiment? Because you wanted to become younger?"

Mrs. Aduit let out a laugh at the younger woman’s questioning tone. Her amusement was genuine, and the assistant felt embarrassed as she listened to her laughter.

It took some time for Mrs. Aduit to calm down, but once she did, she decided to answer her assistant.

"That is one of the main reasons, but not the only one. Do you know how this research started?"

Mrs. Aduit asked, and the younger woman nodded.

"From what I heard, the scanners picked up a strange reading one day from the place where the meteorite collided with Earth, and there was a seed inside it. The researchers planted it, wanting to see what would happen, and then the seed sprouted and grew into a tree-like creature."

The assistant paused to gather her thoughts before continuing.

"After some research, they discovered that the creature possessed mysterious powers that they could influence using current technology. And that is how the system came into being. But that was not enough to stimulate the creature. To accelerate its growth, it needed greater influence over this world. And that is how this project came to be."

Mrs. Aduit did not say much, but the smile on her face was enough to tell the assistant that she was correct.

The assistant looked uncomfortable before asking another question.

"Isn’t this all a little too convenient? And dangerous? How could the investors start a project that could destroy the world just like that?"

Mrs. Aduit gave her assistant a dry look.

"That’s simply human nature. Once people see power, everything else stops mattering to them. Even you, who are complaining right now, are here because you want that power and safety too, aren’t you?"

Mrs. Aduit asked, and the younger woman had no response. After all, she knew Mrs. Aduit was right.

The assistant was here by choice, and she would remain here for as long as she could. Her family’s safety was her highest priority.

"Anyway, that is all in the past. Right now, I’m more interested in the present. More specifically, the rapid changes this creature is going through."

Mrs. Aduit spoke with interest in her voice, and her assistant took a sharp breath.

"What does that mean?"

The assistant asked, and Mrs. Aduit answered with a serious expression.

"Do you know that the system once showed us the fate of this world and what was about to happen? It revealed a path that would grant us the ultimate power we desired. So we followed its instructions and did everything it asked of us. But recently, we can no longer see that same future. It has all been rewritten. Now, no one knows what will happen."

Mrs. Aduit confessed, and her assistant inhaled sharply.

"Then that means—"

"Nothing is certain anymore. We thought we had this creature under control...or at least, that’s what we believed. But it seems we were the ones being manipulated all along. We no longer have any way to control it...not that the investors care."

Mrs. Aduit confessed, and her assistant looked even paler after hearing those words.

"T-Then..."

"What I can say for certain is that this creature is incomplete right now, and it is trying to become whole. I have no way of knowing exactly what that means, but I have a feeling that once it becomes complete, everything will change drastically."

Mrs. Aduit confessed.

__________

"This is..."

Rin heard Mrs. Aduit’s words as he stood beside her. He tried to touch her, but his hand passed right through her body.

His mind reeled after everything he had heard, and he struggled to process it at first—mainly because he did not want to believe any of it.

[Connection has stabilized. Segment #00 will be returned to its original station in 1 minute.]

Rin felt a tugging sensation, and the next thing he knew, he was opening his eyes in his office. His soft bed was beneath him, and he felt disoriented.

The knowledge of what he had seen and heard was still fresh in his mind, and combined with everything he already knew, it felt like he was suffering from whiplash.

"Ugh, was that conversation real? What a messed-up situation."

Somehow, every time Rin learned more about the system or the truth behind the apocalypse, things seemed even more twisted than before.

How could humans start an apocalypse for their own gain? Did that even make sense? But knowing humanity and its greed, it was all too believable.

Rin rubbed his forehead to ease the pain pounding in his head and decided to take a walk to clear his thoughts.

Because of everything that had happened, he forgot that he was still in the middle of Task Eight and got an unpleasant surprise during his walk when a monster attacked him.

But before he could retaliate, someone else stepped in to help him.

Pink hair filled his vision, and he looked up to see Shelly smiling as she stood over the monster’s corpse.