Chapter 340: Battle Royale

Mary listened to his confusion and let out a little laugh, as if the answer were much simpler than Mark imagined.

"Ah, so that’s it," she said, sitting up on the bed and crossing her legs, still watching him with that relaxed expression. "Level one hundred is different, sweetheart. It has a special rule."

"What rule?"

Mary’s smile turned a little sharper.

"You can only reach it by killing other reincarnated ones."

The revelation caught Mark off guard.

So that was the condition for reaching level 100.

Killing other reincarnated ones.

He stayed silent for a few seconds, processing that peculiar rule, until a memory started working its way through his thoughts.

The reincarnated warrior.

That arrogant idiot who had tried to kill him shortly after he arrived in the south of the continent.

Mark still remembered clearly what had happened after he’d finished him off.

The warrior’s body had dissolved, and almost immediately, a beam of light had enveloped him.

A huge amount of experience began flowing into him, pushing him up several levels in a row at an absurd speed.

The process had only stopped when his wives, alarmed at seeing him surrounded by that unfamiliar light, had pulled him away and broken his contact with that energy.

At the time, he hadn’t given it much thought.

But now, with what Mary had just told him, everything clicked into place.

Mark checked his interface again until he found a small bar next to his level.

It must have represented the accumulated experience needed to reach 100, but it was practically empty, just a thin sliver marking the starting point.

He couldn’t help but click his tongue. Up until now he’d only killed one reincarnated person, that idiot from the south, so he couldn’t exactly expect much. Still, seeing how little progress he’d made made it pretty clear that reaching the final level wasn’t going to be as simple as he’d imagined.

"Great," Mark muttered, frowning. "So I’m basically still at square one."

His attention drifted away from the interface and settled on Mary.

"How far along are you?"

"Me?"

"Yeah, you’ve been in this world for three hundred years, so I’d figure you’d be close."

Mary brought a finger to her lips and tilted her head slightly.

"I’m roughly halfway there."

Mark took a second to react.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah," she answered, still calm, though the faint irritation in her voice didn’t go unnoticed. "And trust me, even getting that far was a lot harder than it sounds."

Seeing the surprise on Mark’s face, she went on to explain why.

During the great war that had started three hundred years ago, Mary and her subordinates had wiped out millions of humans, half-humans, and demihumans.

Yet, out of all of them, only a handful had turned out to be reincarnated.

Because facing one of them was nothing like fighting a normal enemy.

Mary confessed, half-joking, half-serious, that that war had been the most dangerous period of her entire life.

That there had been times she’d come close to dying, and to make matters worse, some reincarnated ones had managed to escape her.

"A reincarnated one’s level matters a lot, sweetheart. Though I’m guessing you’ve already figured that out," Mary said as she got out of bed and walked toward him. "Low or mid-level ones are still manageable. High-level ones, though, are an absolute nightmare."

She paused briefly, remembering something.

"They’re disgustingly strong, usually have resources to spare, ridiculous abilities, and zero intention of dying quietly... If they can take someone down with them, they’ll try."

Mark noticed something different in her tone when she talked about reincarnated ones.

It wasn’t just caution or distrust.

There was an old resentment behind those words, something Mary could barely keep in check every time certain parts of her past came up.

"Mary," he said carefully. "Tell me something... what do you plan on doing from here on out?"

Mary studied him for a few seconds before answering, and little by little, her expression lost all its lightness.

"Once I get all my summons back, I’m going to go out and hunt down whatever reincarnated ones are still left in this world... Especially the bastards who got away from me three hundred years ago."

"Out of revenge?"

"Partly," she admitted bluntly. "I hate them, and I’m not going to pretend otherwise, but... that’s not the only reason."

Her tone turned more serious.

"As long as they’re alive, they’re a threat, they could find other reincarnated ones as they arrive, band together, and form a group strong enough to come after me sooner or later."

Mary crossed her arms.

"I’d rather eliminate them now, while they’re still scattered and weakened, than give them time to turn into a much bigger problem."

"Wait... ’as they arrive’? You’re talking like you’re assuming more reincarnated ones are going to keep showing up. How can you be so sure?"

"Because that’s how this world works, sweetheart," Mary answered with a calm that wasn’t exactly reassuring. "It’s basically one huge Battle Royale."

Mark frowned slightly at the comparison.

"So far it’s happened little by little, one here, another there, sometimes with hundreds of years between them."

Mary’s expression grew a bit more serious.

"But that pace isn’t going to last forever. Sooner or later a much bigger wave of reincarnated ones is going to arrive... and when that happens, we’d better be ready."

"I see..."

"That’s why I want to deal with the ones already here before the real problem starts."

Mark stayed quiet, taking in the explanation. He understood what Mary meant, but he still couldn’t fully accept that conclusion.

"Can’t we at least try?" he asked. "Talk to them first. Negotiate. Maybe some of them aren’t enemies and would be willing to cooperate."

Mary looked at him for a few seconds before slowly shaking her head.

"That sounds really nice, sweetheart... but unfortunately it’s not an option,", she answered. "Every reincarnated person is selfish by nature, and you know it."

"..."

"After all, we were given a second chance and enough power to change our fate. It makes sense that most of us aren’t willing to throw that away out of consideration for strangers."

Her tone turned drier.

"And in the rare case a reincarnated person cooperates with you, it’ll be because they’re getting something out of it... but the moment you stop being useful to them, or start becoming a liability, whatever deal you made stops meaning anything."

Mark tried to argue back, but couldn’t find anything to say.

Because deep down, he knew Mary was right.

He was a reincarnated one too, and no matter how much he now had a family he wanted to protect, he was still perfectly capable of lying, manipulating, or killing when the situation called for it.

He couldn’t pretend to be above everyone else when he’d made equally selfish choices every time something important to him was on the line.

In the end, he swallowed whatever argument he might have made.

Mary noticed his silence and smiled again, this time with a much more mischievous glint in her eyes.

"Hmmm... Although now that I think about it maybe there is another alternative"