Read Novel Full Chapter 542: Slow Progress, But I Keep Going
Chapter 542: Slow Progress, But I Keep Going
I passed through a vast area in the Foundations of Creation. The fastest method I found to explore was to move in a straight line using instant speed—zero seconds—and go as far as the limit of my vision.
Then I’d stay still for one or two seconds, looking at everything, and advance again to the limit of my sight. I covered such absurd distances doing this that I think in two hours I traveled a distance equivalent to a small universe in terms of kilometers.
I saw some pretty interesting things along the way, though most were quite useless, until I reached an area where the focus seemed to be people, since I saw many individuals standing still and floating around.
"Hahaha, look at you there!" I say, seeing myself—my true form: four arms, no head, a giant eye floating behind where the head should be, and a closed mouth on my stomach.
"What the fuck... I can’t talk to you..." I can’t touch this version of me, because this version is holding a fucking real black hole between her fingers.
’I can’t do that...’ I can even generate a real black hole; that’s easy to do with my current power, but I’d also get caught in the absorption radius of the black hole itself.
"How the hell are you holding that?" I wonder, circling around her. If I touch her, the black hole will leave this static state, and I’ll die, absorbed by it.
This body here is like my soul and consciousness, so if I die here, I die for real out there.
"What insanity. How far in the future is this?" She’s using all four of her hands, and in their center, the black hole is completely formed and stable, but clearly in a critical state.
’Will I do this in the future? Or is it a future that isn’t mine?’ There are infinite timelines; there’s no way for me to know if this is my future. Maybe I’ll never even need to create a black hole and control it.
"I really wanted to talk to you... Your knowledge of magic must be impressive... or maybe... you used the Foundations of Creation to control the black hole?"
"Urgh... you really look disturbing..." I look at this possibly future version of myself. The density of her Mana is more suffocating than the black hole itself.
"In this state, if you use the magic [Demon King’s Gravitational Pressure] and compress gravity to the limit, you’d literally become your own black hole..." I murmur, remembering the past.
In one fight, I already did that. Taking that magic to the limit, I created my own orbit as if I were a planet. Now, with the strength of this Pandora before me, it wouldn’t even be the orbit of a planet, but gravity equivalent to a black hole pulling everything in.
’I wanted to risk releasing her... but it’s better not to do that stupidity...’ She seems to be in a fight. If I let her move, she’ll automatically attack first and think later.
"Haaa..." I sigh and start traversing the distance again using the same trick that got me here. Useful things seem to be very far apart.
’My head hurts...’ The more knowledge I gain, the more exhausted my mind becomes. 90% of my brain capacity is being used for this, and still, the exhaustion only grows.
Currently, the heaviest thing among the memories was how the distribution between Cosmos and Mana works. Since the entire universe possesses Mana, it turns out I gained information from every tiny thing that can be found in the universe that has Mana.
This means that in one second, I gained knowledge of 1.6 × 10⁸¹ atoms—a number easily twice as large as the universe I came from, not even counting the Mana tied to it. And this is all disconnected information—numbers that don’t form absolutely anything on their own.
But I was forced to understand it because the Primordial Goddess created everything knowing exactly what every little thing was, and it seems knowing this is important for someone learning the foundations of creation.
"Haa... Haaa..." I stop running, panting. Every thought is like receiving a stab in the brain. It’s much worse than the sensory overload I had when I started breathing hydrogen.
"Calm... calm... breathe deeply... it’s just a bit heavier... I... still have things to do..." I murmur to myself as I press on, trying to stay calm so I don’t mess everything up.
"...This..."
"?" I look around. My vision somehow seems "wrong," but I can’t immediately understand why because my visual information processing is low.
"System... what happened to my eyes?" I ask the system, which should answer due to my goddess authority over it.
[The user has just glimpsed the entire mass of creation, causing your eyes to adapt to what matter represents. You are now able to see anything in creation, no matter how small, as a state separate from others.]
’What the hell? So I’m literally seeing things I shouldn’t... and the worst part is, it’s useless!!’
"The path to ascending to a powerful goddess is truly something very difficult..." At least one small advantage came from this: my eyes can now see even farther than before.
"Hmmm" I stretch for a second and start covering even more absurd distances now. I have to take advantage while I can still move well, because the way the mental load is increasing, soon even moving will prove costly.
’Even running at this speed... the guardian keeps up...’ The guardian hasn’t lost me for a second. What an absurd thing, without a doubt.
"Whoa!!..." I stop, having passed something. So I go back, almost having missed it. I turn to the side and advance again, appearing in front of a little girl.
"...Tsk... seriously? Of all the goddesses I could find, I had to find Elysia as a child?" It’s not like this Elysia knows me, and it’s not like she has a special hatred for me, but she’s the worst goddess for me to have found.
I could have found my mother, the Goddess of the Apocalypse, an avatar of the Primordial Goddess, or something similar, but no, I found the enemy I want to kill.
"Well... I’ll talk to her, right... and what do I have..." I extend my hand to touch Elysia, but before I can, a hand grabs mine.
"!!!!"
’When?’ I look at what grabbed my hand. There’s a strange static, and I can’t even make out the form, but it seems to be the guardian. I throw a punch, but my fist passes through as if it weren’t tangible.
"Why did you stop me?"
"..." This thing stares at me without saying anything as I pull my hand back, taking a step backward.
"Not going to answer?" I point at Elysia as if to attack her, and immediately the guardian points its palm at me as if to attack.
"..." I bite my lips. Surviving an attack from a being at level 1 trillion is impossible.
"You win this one..." I lower my hand, because I don’t even have a chance of survival.
"Then if you don’t want me to talk to Elysia, take me to the Goddess of the Apocalypse, or the Goddess of the Abyss—any version of them will do... You might even be able to kill me easily, but not before I kill this brat here." I threaten, and the guardian seems to think for a moment.
It knows—it knows very well—that I’m bold, brave, and crazy enough to kill Elysia here even if I’ll die seconds later, because I always use my life as a bargaining chip when I really want something.
"..." The guardian, whose silhouette is obviously a woman, starts walking. This time she doesn’t vanish. I start following her until a "door" appears—an ordinary wooden door. The guardian enters, and I follow, emerging in another area. The universe here is darker.
And the stars exist in much smaller numbers, giving the place a dark and eerie aspect. Besides, the Mana in this environment is literally disgusting, like an ugly, formless sludge.
"..." The guardian disappears while I look around at monsters of various types. It seems monsters, normal things, and people are kept separate.
"This place... is the beginning?" I realize this area has few stars not because the stars died, but because they haven’t even been born yet. This is kind of the beginning of the foundation of creation, which explains why the Mana seems so disgusting.
"If this is the beginning... then it’s the best place to find the goddesses, avatars, and even powerful monsters... incredible!!" I’m enchanted by the place, by the amount of knowledge scattered about.
Not just knowledge of the universe, but even anatomically, the monsters around are impressive. They’re kind of my very ancient ancestors.
"...Hehehe, it must be amazing to find the first monster to ever exist..." I look around, hopping calmly like a child in an amusement park, even though I should take things more seriously. The place is "beautiful" in a unique way.
"Primordial Goddess, you have my respect. Seeing this place shows how incredible you are." When I was in that area of the normal universe, I didn’t see how incredible the Primordial Goddess’s work was in achieving that result.
But now, seeing the beginning of everything, I understand. It’s a job so complex, so refined, it can only be described as absolute perfection. Even the "flaws" the universe presents exist because she chose they should exist for balance, not because she made a mistake.
"Hahaha, how insane. You did such a perfect job that you had to create the very errors because the universe can’t sustain itself on perfection alone..." I feel joyful like a child.
Because this gives me an answer I needed. The universe I’m creating is "unstable." It even seems stable because it won’t self-destruct, but it can’t expand like a universe should. It would destroy itself if it tried.
Depending on how I expand its size, but that’s because I was trying to copy a universe that seems "Perfect," but the universe isn’t perfect. It has flaws in every corner, and now I see that.
"Once I finish this, I’ll undoubtedly improve my universe a lot!!!" I’m eager for it, because recently I had to ignore my universe because I didn’t know what else to do, but now I can go back to creating it.