Chapter 691: Us

When this battle first began.

After hearing the System’s words, Lee Haein had fallen into shock and stood there blankly in the middle of the battlefield.

A situation where she could have died if left alone.

So, in order to remove her from the battle for the moment, I kicked her and sent her flying toward the outskirts of the sanctuary.

And afterward.

I, too, had tried to stop the System from speaking—

only to be blasted away by the flesh.

And of all places.

“Your Holiness.”

I landed exactly where Lee Haein had collapsed.

Still sitting on the ground, she muttered:

“What am I supposed to do.......”

Her head hung low.

Her voice sounded utterly resigned.

“I thought there would be an existence in this world worthy of trust and reliance. When I first discovered this place...... I cannot describe how overjoyed I was at believing that thought had been proven correct. But.”

Drip. Drip.

Something fell beneath her lowered face.

Liquid flowing endlessly.

“To think all of it was a lie.”

Tears of utter despair soaked the floor.

“To think the existence we were meant to rely upon...... had already disappeared long ago.”

I had wished for such an existence as well.

There was nothing wrong with her wish.

It was just that...... this world had failed to answer that wish.

“So what am I supposed to do now.”

What remained was what came afterward.

When a person realizes that their greatest wish can never come true—

what are they supposed to do then?

“......If humanity wishes to survive in this world, must we obey that thing? Even if it calls us insects and possesses no love whatsoever...... if that leech is the only existence willing to support us, do we have no choice but to bow beneath that hideous thing’s feet?”

At times like that—

most people fall into despair.

Once their hopes are denied, they abandon the will to move forward.

“Does there.......”

But...... how should I put this.

That sort of thing.

“Really need to exist?”

Was a little far removed from—

my own way of thinking.

***

“......Excuse me?”

I looked toward the war between the Legion and the System.

Even Ariella alone was already a monster carrying overwhelming power.

Yet even with such an existence fighting alongside all her kin and the Legion, they still struggled to gain the upper hand.

A truly transcendent force.

If things continued according to that bastard’s will, then someday it really would ascend as a god.

However.

“Help is nice and all, but do we really need help from something like that?”

“What do you mean......?”

Of course.

I, too, once wished for help from such an existence.

And when it became undeniable that no such being existed, it hurt badly enough to feel like a nail driven through my chest.

“But sometimes...... maybe there are moments when we don’t need someone else’s help.”

“.......”

“To be honest, I’m only saying this now.......”

I looked down at my body as I spoke.

“What do you think the [System] really is?”

“Have you not already seen it yourself? The one who created this world. We mistakenly believed it was that leech...... but it was that being who has already vanished.”

“No. That’s not it.”

“......?”

“That’s the origin. Not its identity.”

I knew.

The being that created this world and this System were completely separate existences.

“......Are you referring to the System we worshiped?”

“No. Not that either.”

“What kind of wordplay is this......!”

Of course.

It wasn’t that leech either.

“There’s no way it’s either of those two.”

I raised my trembling hand and touched my status window.

As I did, I remembered something a certain man once said.

—Dig into the System’s true nature.

It possessed benevolent aspects, but cruel ones as well.

At times it was magnanimous enough to help against unexpected dangers.

At other times it made petty demands that could not be refused.

It granted enormous rewards, yet demanded achievements worthy of them.

It stood as humanity’s ally, yet toward non-human existences it could display cruelty so severe it became hard to comprehend.

Contradictory. Capricious.

That was why.

I had often wondered just what kind of personality this thing truly possessed.

‘It isn’t contradictory.’

Now that I thought about it.

That assumption itself had been a massive misunderstanding.

“Trying to define this thing as a single entity from the start...... that was the mistake.”

Of course it could only feel contradictory and inconsistent.

No—more accurately, even calling it contradictory was wrong.

‘It’s an incredibly multidimensional existence.’

The origin of this System was that flesh.

The creator of this world had scattered pieces of itself everywhere—

imbuing them with the wish that its descendants would survive upon this land.

However, all it had done was leave behind that wish.

It never had the time to decide what direction that power would take.

Or how exactly it would manifest.

Therefore—

‘How that power manifested...... depended on the beings that came afterward.’

The scattered flesh seeped into the earth and into living creatures.

And by pure coincidence—

one species evolved differently from all the others into a form capable of using that power.

Pure chance.

Nothing more than greater luck compared to other races.

As a result, they accepted the spirituality contained within that flesh—

and built a civilization worthy of being called the ruler of this land.

Across their long history, only a tiny number ever consciously recognized that power.

Those who called themselves gods or descendants of gods while wielding miracles.

However.

Whether they recognized that power or not—

their consciousness had gained the right to interfere with the form of that flesh.

“Us.”

The ones who created the System were us.

From the very beginning, this thing—

was created by countless unconscious minds gathering together in one place.

That was why it could be both good and evil.

That was why it could be magnanimous and petty at the same time.

That was why it protected humanity while hating its enemies.

And that was why......

‘It would stop at nothing.’

I thought of Bimana and Grand Duke Valarak.

Existences that could become humanity’s salvation—

yet could just as easily become something even more dangerous.

The System had entered into transactions with such beings without hesitation.

Something that “System” bastard, obsessed with becoming the world’s one and only god, would never do.

The reason was simple.

‘It’s desperately struggling to survive.’

Those who believe any method is acceptable as long as they survive.

How many such people had I seen while surviving in this ruined world?

People willing to commit any atrocity in order to live.

People who prioritized immediate survival even while knowing the result would eventually become catastrophic.

Their numbers had never been small.

‘And the collective will of those people is exactly what formed those rewards.’

Extreme high-risk, high-return.

Powers that could become another threat capable of destroying humanity—

yet at the same time could also become humanity’s salvation.

Even the System’s contracts with such existences—

reflected its will to survive, even if that survival came with danger.

“The existence you wanted to worship. The one you relied upon. It wasn’t this world’s creator, and it wasn’t that fraud either.”

A dying world.

The only power supporting humanity within such a barren place.

The existence countless people worshiped as sacred and prayed to.

“It was ourselves.”

***

Many people tried searching for its true identity somewhere far away.

Like the tale of the bluebird.

After all, if something was truly that extraordinary, people naturally assumed it must exist somewhere distant and difficult to reach.

‘A huge misunderstanding.’

If you thought about it carefully—

there was no reason an external existence would spend effort supporting humanity, a species obviously destined for extinction, for absolutely no reason.

‘You can tell just by looking at the form of this System in the first place.’

Transparent rectangular windows that looked straight out of a game.

Ridiculously childish naming conventions like levels and skills.

But at the same time......

they were so intuitive that anyone could immediately understand them.

‘No matter how you look at it, this thing clearly looks human-made.’

The power capable of saving us from this overwhelming tide of destruction.

That power had existed inside us from the beginning.

“Even if that leech latched onto the flesh and parasitized the System, its interference only amounts to the influence of that tiny fragment.”

In the end—

that thing merely possessed less than one percent of the flesh’s total contribution while pretending it represented the majority.

“The System is us.”

The one supporting us was not some other being.

It was ourselves.

Humanity’s unconscious minds, carrying that flesh within them, gathered together to build the System.

And that System claimed even the power of the flesh dissolved into the lands humanity conquered as its own.

Using that power, it awakened humanity’s potential.

Conquered more territory to obtain more strength.

And with that strength, it supported us...... supported itself.

“Then doesn’t that make things even more hopeless?”

At my words,

Lee Haein clenched her teeth and replied.

“Humanity has already died in massive numbers. Those who survived are only a tiny fraction compared to before the apocalypse. There cannot be many people left carrying that flesh. There is no way such a small number could survive in this world...... is there?”

Groaning softly,

I forced my heavy body upright.

“Who knows.”

If the System were nothing more than the flesh’s power alone—

then, just as Lee Haein said, there would be no hope.

At best, it would only be the body left behind after losing the god’s name.

Even if all the pieces were gathered together, it would still be nothing but an empty shell.

“But wouldn’t we have to try before deciding that?”

However.

I opened my status window—

and stared at the line occupying the greatest portion of the System log.

[You have acquired experience.]

Humanity created the System.

And if this was a power created by humanity—

then there was no way it could be a meaningless force doomed to fail at survival.

“There are definitely missing pieces.”

At the beginning, it had surely been incomplete.

But.

“Then...... all we have to do is fill in what’s missing.”

“......!”

Only then.

Did I finally understand the meaning behind everything I had experienced.

“The missing power.”

When I first awakened—

that experience had clearly flowed into me from outside, not from within myself.

“Gets filled with experience.”

The System protected humanity.

But the fuel that strengthened awakened individuals did not originate from the System itself.

The power of the enemies I defeated.

The System absorbed that power.

“And the missing divinity......”

And.

From everything I had seen, the most important thing to a divinity—

the “divine name” that defined its existence—

was built through—

“Achievements.”

You hunt enemies and take their power.

You accomplish heroic deeds and build stories.

The paths we walk become history.

That history gathers and becomes legend.

Those legends gather and become mythology.

And as a result—

“That mythology...... will create our divine name.”

“......!”

Humanity would reach the goal humanity itself had set.

Level 99.

“You were right. The being you worshiped was fake. There was never a god called the System in the first place.”

I rose while gripping my weapon.

Staggering forward, I continued:

“So what? Are you planning to stop there? Give me a break. I’m not.”

My body felt unbearably heavy.

But I still grinned.

“I’m going to see what lies beyond that.”

What kind of name we would ultimately possess.

Where the end point humanity reached would be.

I would absolutely see it for myself.

“What about you?”

And to do that—

the one I needed to confront was not that flesh.

That bastard interfered directly with the System itself, making my cooking ineffective against it.

Charging headfirst against such an enemy would be the height of stupidity.

“That’s right.”

My class was Chef.

And if that was the case, then what I needed to do was—

“I want to see what lies beyond as well.”

Well.

Wasn’t it obvious?

***

KWAAAAANG.......

Countless tentacles sprouted from the swollen flesh.

That overwhelming power dominated even the monstrous enemies of the Legion.

‘......Even a Legion this powerful ultimately cannot defeat it.’

And.

That sight was being shown live inside every believer’s mind.

‘An existence that cannot be defeated anyway. And besides...... if it possesses power on that scale.’

Watching that scene, countless believers thought:

‘Even if its identity was a lie.’

‘In the end, there’s no choice except to worship that existence.’

Its identity. Its personality. Its doctrine.

Even if all of it had been false—

in the end, that was still the only great existence capable of helping them.

The believers realized that.

And though they wept at having been deceived—

though they understood that thing’s essence was hideously vile and low—

they still could not abandon their faith.

After all, most believers were people who had suffered and been wounded throughout this apocalypse.

People driven to the edge of spiritual death by those wounds.

People saved from that death through faith in the System.

Those who had suffered greatly possessed an overwhelming desire to lean on something.

Even knowing it was a false existence, they still wished to rely on it.

In the end, that too was born from the will to survive.

And moving hearts like those was never easy.

Ordinary persuasion would never work on them.

“O System.”

......Yes.

At least—

“We thank you.”

—ordinary persuasion would not.