Chapter 182: The Price of Leaving a Mark

Ryan went to the nuclear power plant every day, completed whatever they demanded of him, and returned to the hospital whenever he found an hour he could steal from his schedule, only to watch his mother weaken before his eyes while the ideas that could help her remained trapped inside his mind, impossible to put into practice.

So he tried to put those ideas into practice in secret.

He sought out a particular doctor willing to help him secure a laboratory furnished with all the necessary equipment, offering her a staggering sum every month in exchange for concealing what he was doing.

And he succeeded, creating something capable of delaying his mother’s death and giving it to her, but when he was only a few days away from developing a treatment, the laboratory—and the doctor who had provided it—were discovered.

Naturally, the doctor disappeared under mysterious circumstances soon afterward, while Ryan remained unharmed and suffered no consequences.

Why?

Because the government could not discard someone of his value so easily. They let the matter slide, but forbade him from ever attempting anything like it again.

Otherwise, they would throw his mother out of the hospital.

That was when Ryan finally understood what was really happening.

They had not done all of this merely to reclaim the time he had spent inside his laboratory.

His mother’s condition itself was the leverage they used to pressure him, keep him under control, and prevent him from escaping their grasp.

They were simply using his mother as a trap—a trap that kept him imprisoned within their grasp and prevented him from attempting any of the mad ideas inside his head.

And what did Ryan do about any of it?

What did you expect him to do?

Every day, he stepped willingly into the trap.

She was his mother, after all—the only family he had left.

He could have escaped, abandoned her, and lived his own life—and he could easily have done so if he had wanted to—but he did not; instead, he chose to give her every possible minute of life he could.

But...

In the end, she died.

On that day, Ryan did not merely lose his mother.

He lost the only reason he had endured that world.

He possessed everything most people dreamed of: money, extraordinary ability, a name recognized by institutions whose existence the general public knew nothing about, and enough influence to prevent most people on the planet from even considering crossing him.

But he did not possess the most important thing in that world.

Happiness.

He despised his life.

He had never wanted money for its own sake, nor had he sought influence merely to feel superior to others. He had only wanted the ability to protect those he loved, yet the world that had drained his mind dry refused to allow him to use that very mind to save the only person who meant anything to him.

That was why Ryan abandoned that entire world the moment his mother died.

Before returning home and performing Soul Ascension for the final time, and before the black hole appeared and swallowed his old life, he sent every classified government file he could access to the nations his government considered its enemies.

He did not do so in a fit of blind rage.

He carefully selected the files that would destroy the trust between officials, expose the deals they had buried, turn every ally into a suspect, and force the men who had exploited him to spend the rest of their lives waiting for the next knock at their doors, wondering whether it would herald their condemnation for treason and execution.

...What?

Did you think they would escape his clutches after everything they had done to him and his mother?

Did you think he would quietly bid farewell to his world and allow those who had contributed to his mother’s death to continue living as though nothing had happened?

No.

That was impossible.

He did not want to grant them a swift, merciful death.

He wanted to ruin them socially and break them psychologically, making death appear far more merciful than the life awaiting them once all those secrets came to light.

Then he left his old world to tear itself apart behind him without ever looking back.

...

Ravian’s awareness slowly returned to the room.

He remained standing before the mirror while the gray crown continued flickering above his head.

Absolute Focus was not a gift born from genius alone.

It had begun as the refuge of a helpless child, then transformed into the weapon that had first allowed him to shoulder some of his mother’s burden when he was young and had since kept him alive all the way to this very moment.

It was the reward for the suffering he had endured for years, at an age when others were happily playing, enjoying themselves, and dating without a care in the world.

Nothing came without a price.

If you wanted greatness, you had to offer something great.

If you wanted power, you had to sacrifice your comfort.

But if you wanted to leave a mark?

Then you had to offer everything you possessed.

Only then would you truly attain immortality.

No, not that kind of immortality.

The immortality of the mark one left behind—that was true immortality.

Ravian closed his eyes for another two seconds, then slowly opened them again with a small, proud smile resting upon his lips despite everything he had endured, his decision to continue already made.

’So Soul Ascension—the technique I thought I had developed myself based on genuine principles—was an impossible fantasy from the very beginning.’

[Yes. The Host truly did develop it himself.]

[The technique’s impossibility for others does not change the fact that the Host created it.]

Another window appeared.

[However, the System must warn the Host.]

[The future cumulative effects of this technique upon the Host are unknown. It is not even known whether it has any effects at all.]

[Simply put: the results are not guaranteed.]

The corner of Ravian’s mouth rose slightly.

’So what if that’s the case?’ Ravian thought. ’When were results ever guaranteed?’

He walked to the door and locked it with the key, then drew the curtains across the window before sitting cross-legged in the center of the bed.

He rested his hands upon his knees and closed his eyes.

’Warn me if anyone approaches the room.’

[Understood, Host.]

Ravian slowly drew in a breath, then began using Absolute Focus to isolate his awareness of every individual part of his body.

His skin. His muscles. His bones. His heartbeat. The air entering his lungs.

Then he searched beyond all of it for the part of himself that had remained even when his body was shattered and died.

The very thing that had brought him here in the first place and, at times, served as his final and only escape.

’Soul Ascension.’

In the next moment, Ravian opened his eyes...

And saw his body sitting before him.