Zaun looks up , sensing that Ordo wasn't going to come down with only his hand and reaches for his eye ' I'll give that some help ' he burns his eyes and replaces it with a mini sun as the smoke rose .
The hand grasps the outer black shield as the cross section ignites and tries to push Ordo down ' It wasn't that dangerous as I thought ' Ordo's sight enchantments fade as its energy was burned by the hand and saw smoke converging at the back of the hand .
An eye attached itself to the back of the palm and stared directly at the sun as magic circles and codes formed in the iris . The reflection of the sun on the pupil grows brighter and brighter as the iris starts to soak up the light of the sun and teeth appear around the pupil .
Ordo felt a sudden increase in heat as the hand started to burn and the cross section was burning like a rocket's engine with the eye's help ' It's not enough ' the teeth started to close in and "ate" the sun's reflection .
A sudden rise of flames erupted from the hand and broke Ordo's shield . It slams on Ordo and starts pushing them down ' I hope this is good enough ' Zaun's desire corruption peaks and the leftover glitching code starts to align with each other to fulfill Zaun's desire .
" What exactly does he want that he's destroying an entire world system and world ? " Naul asked and Rein checks her data while also looking into the desire corrupted code " I'm not sure , but it's something . Cause it looks a bit familiar "
Naul suddenly takes the screen " Let me see that " he quickly reads what the code was coming into " Oh no , it's from that suicidal system " " Really ? " Rein takes a look at the code as Naul recounts about the destructive society that was built on suicide bombers and propaganda that teaches them to sacrifice themselves so that they can serve the country and a history about glorifying death like dying in the battlefield or being buried under a mountain with a house inside .
" Maybe Zaun saw it while I was trying to hide it " Naul said and the code stops glitching . The countdown started , Zaun released his foot and jumped into the sky as the monsters were left behind and started killing each other and gathering more of the black rain to grow in size .
Ordo was falling with the hand pushing them down , the eye devouring as many reflections of the sun to fuel the rocket hand's fuel consumption . Ordo tries to pry it off and even desires it , but the desire corruption surrounding Zaun's hand was keeping it away .
But after getting in the range of the explosion , they suddenly received alerts " Nononono " Zaun appeared above them with their flaming fist and a blue star occupying his empty eye socket " Down you go "
Zaun punched with his flame hand , sending all of the flames to Ordo as he was left with no more flames to support him . A giant black shadow emerged from Zaun and clenched its fists together and slammed down on Zaun , breaking his account down .
But the account breaking into pieces allowed for the filter and disguise that his sisters put on him to break too , as he thought and acted in quick succession ' I want to fight with all my strength ' his desire corrupted the account as it glitches and Zaun reaches out to the hourglass he had learned to use and turned it around .
His body's time reversed and the force of the attack was returned to the monster , breaking their fists ' Oh , I think I found a better way to attack ' he manifested the world's hourglass and prepared to find the point of its destruction .
' But the real question is how do I use this ? ' a massive fist falls from the sky , smashing him down , breaking his account again ' I should probably take care of that massive thing up there '
He turned the hourglass again , but before the force was reverse returned to the beast . Zaun grasped the force , turning it into an hourglass and flinging it toward the beast's head .
As the glass broke , the force erupted outward instead of hitting the beast ' So that's what would happen ' he tried thinking of a way to mess with the direction , but since this was his first time using it , he needed to think " I don't want to think that much "
He punched the air and turned the hourglass to feel his punch back ' Oh , I understand now ' the black beast dropped their fist and Zaun quickly turned the time back as the fist hit itself and bled black rain .
The rain fell and turned to a smaller beast and attacked Zaun ' I bettter get used to this kind of power , but since all it does is reverse time and move it forward . I would need to get extra creative '
...
The three siblings looked at Zaun's fight from different places , with Ceil remaining close to the battlefield , Rein at the streaming room and Naul beside the systems , focusing on Ekins while they make edits on the hourglass .
" He is deviating from the script " Ceil said " Why did you guys even bother asking Zaun ? " Naul asked with a tone that showed he was tired of what was happening and Rein argued .
" We thought the programs we set for him were enough . I never thought he could use his desires to corrupt the program that easily " " Do you think we can just say that Zaun was something we need to get rid of ? " Ceil asked .
" Aren't you supposed to know ? " Naul asked " No , but Rein would " " No , at this point , I don't even know anymore , because there are so many memories in Ordo . It's hard to predict what they will do and there's also some weird thing that's going on with Ordo's desires "
The two grew curious about what Rein mentions " What's wrong with Ordo's desires ? Isn't their main personality being greedy but not being aware of it and masking it as desire to satisfy Welt ? " Naul asked and Rein shook her head .
" No , but it is growing weird . You know how Ekins had told us a lot about the admins and how they function ? " they all recall how becoming a system's admin basically deconstructs the admin to suit the system more .
" Ekins said that admins slowly become less and less of the cultural identity they were raised into , which includes the tradition they are born into , the gender identity , the propaganda they consume because it's not about a country but the whole world " Ceil said .
" Yes exactly , admins slowly lose their past identity the more they spend time with the system . Ekins described it as departing from your origins and forgetting all about it . Because it was not the way admins should be thinking of . While there are some thoughts that match what admins should think of . They were much more , how do I say this "
Rein dug around her dictionary to get the word " Progressive ? " " Yes , that's the one . Basically , you don't think one gender or race is superior based on tradition , but support that thought with proof , evidence and science . "
" So what does that have to do with Ordo ? " Naul asked " Not a lot , but there are some things that are clearly affecting Ordo and one of them was the lie that Welt told them "
" You mean the one about being the main source of system resources ? " Ceil asked " Yes , that one , they seem to have tried to convinced themself as much as they can , but eventually that perspective and self-identity start to dig deep "
" Like desire corruption deep ? " " Honestly , even more " Rein moved the camera close to Ceil , made a firewall around them and Naul did the same " I think Ordo is turning back to their first playthrough self "
Ceil's eyes widened while Naul worried that there could be someone more greedy " But how ? " Ceil asked " I don't know , I just assume because the first playthrough was the closest thing to being the main source of the system resource . "
Rein sent a reference for only them to see " At that time , Welt was still like a baby who hadn't gained a conscious thought yet , so maybe they had kept Ordo as a source of reward points because of Welt's nature as The Reward that desired more ? "
" Then we'd better regress them one way or another " Ceil said and they looked at the fight .
...
Zaun turns several hourglasses as the giant monster felt like it hit a wall due to getting hit by the same force it exerted . The rewinding attack continued from there as the giant monster's time reversed , unkilling the other monsters as it swipes its hand , undoing the absorption of smaller monsters which Zaun swiftly kills with his flames .
Finally , the last one dies and the whole battlefield was clouded in a black mist " Uh oh " the countdown hit zero as the planet exploded with Ordo in the center . Zaun formed a shield and manifested one hourglass for the explosion .
The explosion reached around Zaun and he strengthened his eyes to see that Ordo was still deep inside the center . He couldn't help but make the biggest smile , feeling Ordo's rage .
Zaun could almost hear the damage he had dealt to Ordo as smoke was allowed to enter his shield , returning his hand with the light-eating eye attached " How do you like that ? "
' I had taken Mom's random inspiration about the eyes devouring light ' Zaun thought while thinking how his mom comes up with crazy ideas , but also praising himself because he managed to realize the idea .
" YOU BURNED ALL MY REWARDS " Ordo's desire corruption peaked as it reflected on the program attached to their skills ' I want it back , I want it back . I worked so hard getting them . '
" I want a rematch " Zaun felt his hourglass turn and saw a straight line of code turn the hourglass ' not on my watch ' he raised his light eater reflecting the point of explosion to it as time rewinds .
And teeth grew from the iris and devoured the reflection when the world rewinded to the time of the explosion . Without the explosion , the reversal of time continued and reverted the planet back to its original state , without the planet's core , which is now in Zaun's palms .
As the planet reverts to the time period before the explosion , it starts to freeze when time moves forward due to a lack of a planet's core . Zaun looks at the planet's core , proud of how he has grown this far by fighting in a life-and-death battle .
He felt the ground shake and looked at the hourglass , which had a crack and was tilting back and forth " GIVE IT BACK " Ordo breaks out of the earth and dashes towards Zaun .
Zaun had no choice but to take something from the planet's core and remove a mini hourglass to undo the destruction of one of Ordo's rings . They flicked it towards a direction using it as bait and Ordo went to take it .
' Like a candy to a child ' he took that opportunity and used the planet's explosive power to boost himself away from Ordo to think of a clearer plan than just using the items as bait .
This let his guard down as Ordo appeared behind him and destroyed his account before Zaun could even use the hourglass " Give it back " Ordo demanded , turning the hourglass into code again and rejoice watching the small planet spewed out their items .
" Oh , thank goodness " Ordo looks at the broken account and recalls that there were always some players who gained extra rewards by taking down an error . They were very glad and instantly thought ' I need to go to Welt '
A crack noticeably sounded and Ordo could imagine the joy that Welt would make through the crack . Ordo wondered why they never thought of using the crack that they had entered to find Welt , but right now their minds were too occupied to think deeply .
Upon entering , the whole world , with no sense of the right direction of time due to Ordo's tampering , was left with either freezing or slowly moving backwards in time .
...
" I hacked into that opening that Ordo made . I'm going to keep them from getting too close to Welt while entertaining them " Naul said " No , let me do it " Rein disappeared and Ceil finally understood why Zaun loved to fight .
The amount of growth from that fight was a lot for Zaun and maybe Zaun was getting close to Yuni's level at that point if only Ordo hadn't been so powerful . But then she remembers the headache that Rein had dropped like the bomb about Ordo remembering the past playthroughs and wonders if the past Ordo is going to return .
' If it were just the past Ordo , it would've been fine , since the regression code was going to work , but now Ordo had immunity because of that desire corruption ' she remembers the possibility that others could remember in different ways , rather than being immune .
Just like how a body can always remember muscle memory , the person won't remember unless they perform the movement associated with that memory . Just like how eating your childhood snack gives you Nostalgia .
Ceil suddenly realises the way that Ordo could get their first playthrough memories " Naul , I need to ask , is it possible for an admin to have the imprint of the system code in their being ? You have spent a long time with the admins in our world right ? "
" Well , I think so . Ekins told me a lot about how a system won't bother with carefully raising the admin to think like them , but would use code to brainwash them or maybe they have code embedded in their culture . It's why I keep telling you to wear a firewall even if you were not an admin , but then Mom said our wills are too strong to be influenced by imprinting of code but I wear one just in case "
Ceil recalls how Yuni had walked to the top of the mountain and how she had spent a long time walking through the challenges . Which influenced her thinking " I need your help to make a firewall " Ceil manifested two openings between Naul and the files " Wait , but mom "
" The two systems can handle it , you and me gotta go there . At the very least , we'll drag Zaun out to keep them at bay " " Keep what ? " " Nostalgia , or any memory-related challenge that will recall the past that Ordo might activate " Ceil said and dragged her resisting brother with all her strength .
...
" You did really well handling that , Ordo " Rein said , trying to imitate a businessman's profile " I know , I nearly lost all my things " " Then , can you please wait for a while , Welt has been too busy with the project "
Ordo stopped , recalling Welt's constant avoidance and the truth about preparing for what Welt had to say in front of their face at one point .
" They did " ' Even though they have great mental defenses , they fall when Welt is involved . " Rein hopes that memory was vague enough that Ordo doesn't think about it much , but since they rarely think too deeply . She wonders how much she can get away with grafting false and vague memories into their mind .
" So please wait , I will bring you a capsule to keep that corpse fresh " Rein said , manifesting a door and leading Ordo into it " Okay " Ordo said without much regard for suspicion .
Rein left something for Ordo to do , which was stacking up cards without making them fall over and promised that she would talk to Welt about squeezing some time for Ordo .
' I'd better make some fake news ' before she could do that , she was pulled in by Ceil " Look at this chart " Rein saw the desire corruption that wasn't released to the code outside but inside .
" Yeah , I know that Ordo is starting to act like their first playthrough self " " Yes I know , but when the desire corruption goes inside , it also reaches for the code in the user or account . And right now , Ordo's desire with the lie being a source made me consider the possibility that they might corrupt a challenge code like Nostalgia or any memory-related challenge to recalling the files of the first playthrough "
Rein looks around the files and asked " Is that why we are here ? " " YES , NOW HELP ME WITH THIS FIREWALL " Naul yelled and Ceil went to assist " You know Ceil , this crazy logic of yours is what ends a relationship because a spouse thinks of what ifs "
" If a spouse doesn't think things thoroughly while doing an action , they will break up " Ceil said while she codes " Can you stop arguing about people and think about the code ? ZAUN , ARE YOU UNDERSTANDING WHAT WE SHOULD DO !? "
Naul yelled to Zaun " Yes , yes " Zaun said with weariness because of his defeat " Oh come on , enough with the suicide depression . You got stronger . Now , hurry up and be motivated so we can keep this firewall up ! Think of it like a battle of willpower or something . Ordo has used desire corruption so much it's grown too goddamn strong "
Zaun knew this was just another way to motivate him , but even so , he knew this wasn't exactly a great motivator because he wasn't going to learn anything .
" Naul , I don't even know how to properly use desire corruption . I had to back my corruption with details " " NO MORE ARGUING " Naul yelled and Rein commented " You act like a traditional mom "
...
While the kids were busy building a firewall , Mir remembers that they also have kids " Sorry Welt , I forgot I had other kids " " I thought you prepared things for them since you didn't seem to bother about them when we mentioned them a while ago "
" I should start keeping track of time , a while ago for us was days ago " Mir commented " You can go check on them , Ekins already got through all of the memories " Welt said " Then I'll just complete the rest of this with you and I'll leave to check on them . I left them a lot of resources to go through "
They continue to follow through Ekins's memories and when the last sand of memory reenters Ekins . They started to wake up " Hnng " Ekins opens their eyes , looking out from the hourglass .
" Oh , that felt weird " Ekins said and getting up to sense the two systems " Great , you're awake . Come with me " Mir takes Ekins before getting them to agree and Welt starts the hourglass of Yuni's memories .
They watched Yuni's birth parents take her away to be sold to the collector who gathers firstborns , wondering if this collector was somewhat similar to the one who sold the hourglass's power in exchange for memories .
' It's better not to think about that right now and think more about the things I can control ' Welt thought and looked at Yuni , wondering how they should introduce themselves .
' No , I'd better just let Yuni go through her memories on her own ' Welt could feel a lot of reward points growing from Yuni , who was raised by the collector to be a proper firstborn that can inherit the position of an heir by giving her and the other firstborns the education necessary to achieve it .
It was a bit different with Yuni , she had already lost her memories before meeting with Welt . So naturally , there was some uncertainty in trying to communicate with Yuni that Welt was feeling .
It was very natural for a system like Welt to feel fear over uncertainty , which was something illogical , as it usually stands for "False Evidence Appearing Real" and because Ekins provided enough feedback , letting the memories flow was the better than going in to interfere with Yuni's life .
But Welt did think of a way to interfere with the memory and one of them was to get in when Yuni started becoming aware of them ' I'll also let Mir know about when their time comes '
Welt thought and they were excited about meeting Yuni again . There was so much that they wanted to tell Yuni "Why did you enjoy the world so much" "How come you spare a few bosses when they surrendered despite their bodies being treasures" "Why do you avoid using potions"
Some of these questions , they already knew the answer to because Yuni had said it . But it wasn't the answer that they wanted , they just wanted to know more about Yuni and her thoughts .
She was so much more developed than Ordo was and so much more interesting . As the system that uses reward points , Welt's own reward points were used too when some appeared .
But they had hit the point at which generating their own reward points became tedious , like poisoning your dream job with the toxic work culture and making your hopeful dream become a chore instead .
But right now that dream was starting to feel so much more than a chore . It didn't matter to Welt that they had a lot of reward points , they didn't think of consuming them for development , but rather it just showed how much Welt looked forward to talking with Yuni .
The reward points were overflowing and the code background consumed it to develop some areas that Welt had planned for " WELT " Ordo said with much joy , as they could see how much joy Welt was feeling that they were making reward points on their own .
" Were you that happy with me , that you started making reward points from yourself " Ordo asked and then saw the hourglass " Huh ? " " Oh sorry , this is uhm " Welt quickly produced a copy of Rein's and Ceil's ability to communciate .
" Ahem , sorry , you scared me . I didn't know how to respond properly . So this thing is something I built . I figured out a way to make more reward points . And this volunteer is a new admin from Mir , the world system attached to the world you were born in "
' That should keep Ordo from harming Yuni ' Ordo could feel their admin position in danger as Yuni had emitted so many reward points more than they were used to and panicked " I can volunteer " Welt knew about Ordo's condition and wanted to refuse , but that was until Ordo pushed their desire .
" I can volunteer for you , I am the admin , so I should fulfill the role . " Welt didn't want to get too close to Ordo because right now Ordo's desire corruption was reaching the highs that Welt had feared .
It was getting so close that they panicked without explaining things thoroughly " Okay , I'll let you in one " they hid their panic through a firewall and built an hourglass .
" First , I want you to let me do my work . That means you have to let me get control so that we can proceed " Ordo agreed and they were encased inside an hourglass .
" Now first lay down on the plate " Ordo willingly did so , excited to fulfill their role as the admin , causing the desire for corruption to grow . The hourglass turns , extracting Ordo's memories as the lingering desire corruption stays , which was to fulfill their role as the main source of reward points .
Once all the memories were extracted , Welt wondered ' Wait , do I even have to turn it around ' a hint of hesitation stopped Welt from following through .
Welt had already imprisoned Ordo , all they had to do was not turn the hourglass and felt a sort of strange relief . All those work training regressors to be as powerful as they can be and hiding somewhere waiting for them to defeat Ordo .
And in the end , they got Ordo by accident . Welt didn't know what to feel " I am so confused " Welt looks at Ordo thinking ' You really are strange , but not the strange I like '
Welt releases their control over the hourglass and prepares to lock it in that state or at least remove Ordo before they could remember , but suddenly they heard an hourglass turn .
And it was Yuni's hourglass , her memories were disappearing from her as it fell back into the memories she has yet to live through " WHAT ? " Welt saw their fear's incarnate as Ordo's desire corruption was starting to change the setup .
" NO " the hourglasses broke with the memory glass switching and both of them turned " No " Welt couldn't believe it , Yuni was going live as Ordo and Ordo was going to live as Yuni .
" No , I don't want Yuni to be like Ordo and Ordo being Yuni isn't a replacement " they wanted to smash the hourglass to fix it , but the desire corruption had sealed it completely , not allowing them to enter .
" How do I tell Mir now ? "
ns216.73.217.128da2
and then Add to home screen.