This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/ralo_ramone on 2024-12-03 20:52:33+00:00.

“I know that man. He’s the Lich,” I said.

The System Avatar suddenly intruded into my memories, and it felt like acquiring a new skill. My brain was pressed and squeezed, flattened and built again. I wanted to puke, and I would do it if I were in my actual body, but everything around me was just a vision of the System. The sun disappeared, and stone walls grew around us. We were inside a cave. The ceiling was five or six meters above our heads, but we weren’t all that deep. The light of day entered the cave from the entrance.

We were in the cave where I first fought the Lich.

“The System can read your memories, remember?” the System Avatar apologetically said.

“I know,” I replied as the scene around me slowly became sharper. Memories seemed to need time to load. “My brain was scanned when I first arrived, wasn’t it?”

The System Avatar nodded. 

“I wrote a rune that triggers a mind-reading spell. The rune inputs information into the System, telling it you want to cast a skill. Passives, like your [Swordsmanship], work with a continuous hypnosis spell feeding information directly to your mind,” the System Avatar explained as my memory loaded. “Your [Intimidation] skill is an interesting one. After a level check, the System casts a mind-control spell on the target, implanting fear in their brain and erasing it when the skill ends.”

I nodded, fighting against the nausea. The System wasn’t anything but runes and spells following a certain logic. The revelation didn’t come as a surprise, considering the amount of Fountain mana the people from the System Avatar’s office could use.

I wondered why they had so much power compared to the natives of this world.

There was something the System Avatar wasn’t telling me.

If otherworlders had so much power, my Class might be a leash instead of a help.

“Wait,” I said. “Does that mean I will have to learn true magic to fix the System?”

The System Avatar shrugged.

“If we ever get to that point. First, we need to deal with the Corruption snowball.”

Days and nights passed in a second.

The next moment, I was standing in the middle of the cave, blocking the Lich’s path. It wasn’t actually me, but a memory. The Lich stood before me, his hand stretched forward, touching my chest. Black tentacles of Corruption moved under my skin. The Rob from the memory tried to yell, but no sound came from his mouth. I was getting converted into a Corrupted monster. Then, at the very last moment, Loki jumped out of my pocket. With a black whirl of mana, he turned into the man of the Avatar’s memory—Alex from R&D.

How dare you!

The Lich yelled directly into my brain.

“How dare you!” Loki replied, channeling a sea of flames from the palms of his hands.

Primal mana flowed through my hands as the Corruption severed my contact with the System. 

Give it back!

Then, I performed true magic. The ceiling melted, and the System Avatar paused the memory. He approached Loki and examined his human form: black, straight, long hair, pale skin, and blue eyes, dressed in a red tunic.

“This is Alex from R&D, but why?” he muttered.

Then, the realization hit me.

“The Lich isn’t asking me to give back his powers, because I’m not using his power. I’m using the Fountain,” I said. “He’s asking Loki to return his appearance, his body.”

The System Avatar was in shock.

“Gag me with a spoon. You turned yourself into an undead, Alex… no, it must be a coincidence. He would’ve never. The Changeling must’ve been born in the late development stage and saw our memories. There’s no way Alex turned himself into an undead,” he muttered.

Despite the System Avatar’s denial, I knew the Lich was the man from his memories.

“It’s him. The Lich recognized the runes. He knows who you are,” I said with a severe tone. “Fast forward to our last encounter, a few days ago. He mentioned you and wanted me to give him the Access Rune.”

The System Avatar cursed.

“If you knew all of this, why didn’t you mention it earlier!” he yelled, all traces of his cold, machine-like demeanor gone.

“You were having a mental breakdown!” I shouted back.

A wave of nausea hit me. The scene changed to my fight against the Lich in the Chrysalimorph’s body. Behind a fallen tree, I saw Pyrrah and Hallas cowering like baby owls during a thunderstorm. They were horrified. In the middle of the clearing, beside the fallen pine, the Lich ranted about the bigger and meaner things prowling in the deep Farlands.

“Oh my God. This is worse than I expected,” the System Avatar said. “The Access Rune is dangerous, but this is even worse. Alex knows every single nook and cranny of the System. He could dismantle the System in a single day if he wanted. He could make changes…”

I massaged my temples.

“That scene has been in my brain for months now. Why didn’t you notice before?” I grunted.

The System Avatar glared at me, offended.

“Well, sorry for respecting your privacy,” he said sharply. “Do you even know how many hours my living self spent convincing everyone not to add a subroutine to zap anyone with the slightest murderous intent? Because it’s not that hard. The System can be a slave collar with very few changes. Look at the Zealots!”

I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself down.

“Let’s think. This might be our only chance to get in contact in a while,” I said. I needed to know more about my enemy. “The Lich can use true spells like you and the HR woman. Am I right?”

The System Avatar nodded, understanding the intentions behind the question.

“Alex could animate puppets. It was very useful in and out of combat, but he never explained how he created them. After the initial fiasco, sharing information about our skills became taboo,” he said. “The puppets acted like Alex, as if they inherited part of his personality.”

Puppets. It made sense he turned into a Lich. His bodies I’ve met weren’t the real ones but fakes.

“If we don’t find his real body, we can’t kill him,” I said.

A devilish grin appeared on the System Avatar’s face. “He’s using a node as a hideout. I know it. I smell foul play. There’s no way so much Corruption appeared in such little time.”

“A node?” I asked.

System technicalities were outside my range of expertise.

“The System has four levels. The centralized code connecting to the Fountain, transmission nodes in charge of computation, proxies serving as a bridge, and the end users,” the System Avatar said, still grinning. “Technically, the example is wrong, but it is the best way to visualize it. What’s important is that we cast powerful camouflage spells to cloak the nodes. Users and non-users can’t find them. The System blocks the users, and the non-users don’t have strong enough spells to dispel the mirages. However, the Access Rune will allow you to find them.”

I grinned back. The Lich would pay for everything he had done to me and the kids.

“So, which node are we looking for?” I asked.

“There are dozens of nodes in the area, but one has been malfunctioning a lot more than the others,” the System Avatar said. “Remember the set of coordinates I gave you? The zero represents the starting point, where I gave the coordinates to your orc student. The next three digits are an angle. East is zero degrees, north ninety degrees, and so on. The rest is the distance between you and the location, in meters, of course. I’m not a barbarian.”

I closed my eyes and remembered the number—nine digits—012768012. Our target was sixty-eight kilometers and twelve meters northwest of the position Wolf had received the coordinates. Without [Foresight] assisting me, it was hard to do the mental math, but as soon as the System Avatar let me go, I could subtract the distance from the starting point to Umolo and figure out where to go from there.

“Do you think you could’ve decrypted it without my help?” the System Avatar asked with a smug smile.

“It would’ve taken me less than a day. Not many sets of coordinates work if you don’t have a map.” I replied.

The memory around us trembled, and I knew our reunion was coming to an end.

“The security subroutine?”

The System Avatar nodded. “Killing the Lich and getting rid of the Corrupted node might give us enough time… you are still on board with my plan, right? You don’t feel like pulling a Byrne?”

I raised an eyebrow.

“I don’t know, man. You don’t seem to be putting much effort into it, and I am a technology junkie. I’m sure a load of guns will solve the whole Corruption matter.”

The System Avatar wasn’t happy with my answer.

“You know I can’t boost you if that’s what you’re hinting at. I’m not in control of almost anything, really. Other than these pockets of memory hidden in the proxies, I cannot edit the code.”

I scratched my chin, deep in thought. If the System Crystals worked as the bridge between users and nodes, he might be able to code something I needed. Maybe it wouldn’t be helpful to combat the Lich, but I was confident in my ability to kick his ass without any external help.

“I want to give Wolf a chance to live the life he intends. The Greyfangs offered to scrub the System from him, so I assume this Crystal can do that,” I said.

The System Avatar nodded. “I can write a suspension subroutine. Give me your hand.”

The Avatar’s hand closed around my wrist like a steel pincer. Then, the pain blinded me. I felt like someone had pressed a red hot branding iron against the palm of my hand. He let me go, and I pulled back. I examined the area, but the rune disappeared with…

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