["We're all classmates. Couldn't you have shown a little mercy?"]
Within the information layer, the green crocodile angrily began complaining.
"Since you chose an extermination path as your method of growth, you should have been prepared to get eliminated by a classmate halfway through the assessment."
"Acting like such a sore loser now is pretty ugly."
The System also manifested an avatar resembling a human silhouette made of light and spoke with the green crocodile.
["I'm a sore loser? You're the one who doesn't know how to play fair!"]
["You brought along a Host with one foot in the Sixth Rank who specializes in philosophical and conceptual abilities, then came after me, someone near the bottom of the Fourth Rank who follows a flesh-based path!"]
["That's like sending an ordinary boxer to fight Ultraman Taro, you bastard!"]
After its Host died, many of the green crocodile's restrictions were lifted, allowing it to directly see what kind of existence Caelus truly was.
And because it could now clearly see just how powerful he was, the green crocodile became even angrier.
Assuming it even had blood pressure.
"Come on, I didn't cheat."
"I managed to raise my Host into someone comparable to Ultraman Taro, while you raised yours into an ordinary boxer."
"That simply shows the difference between us."
["Fuck you! What are you acting smug about?"]
["You directly bound yourself to a protagonist, and you're proud of that?"]
["A protagonist deeply tied to fate, no less!"]
["Someone whose personal storyline is connected to the fate of an entire universe, perhaps even the whole world!"]
["Binding someone like that is basically cheating!"]
"Bro, my Host isn't any protagonist from the original story, nor is he any important character."
"He was merely a pitiful possibility abandoned by fate."
"He happened to survive through a series of coincidences, I chose him, and only after supporting him all this time did he reach his current level."
"I haven't violated a single rule."
"My conscience is completely clear."
["...So you just got absurdly lucky and pulled a super UR card?"]
"Can't help it. Luck is part of strength."
["You bastard!"]
"Ciao!"
No matter how frustrated or unwilling it felt, the green crocodile could only accept that it had been eliminated.
In the end, it chose to return to school.
At least it left with some dignity, unlike the first System, which had been forcibly dragged back in disgrace.
...
Caelus tore open a candy wrapper and placed a lollipop into his mouth.
At the same time, he sensed disturbances spreading throughout the entire world.
A supernatural species calling themselves the Highest Race, or sometimes the Superior Race, had crossed between worlds and arrived.
They possessed an innate ability to travel across worlds and wielded various powerful supernatural abilities.
In the original course of fate, humanity would become prey to these Superior Races.
The entire world would be pushed to the brink, and even the environment would become desolate under their influence.
As for how Caelus knew that...
At this moment, a woman with long green hair and a curvaceous figure lay face-down on the ground in a black dress.
She could not move even a finger.
"Originally, all of you were supposed to become fuel for Blacklight's advancement."
"If he devoured your entire race, he should have been able to collect enough high-quality genetic sequences."
"After that, he would only need to consume enough flesh and accumulate sufficient resources to gain a chance of reaching the Fifth Rank."
"You were intended to compensate for his weaknesses."
As Caelus spoke, he also understood why the other System had sent Blacklight to this world.
These Superior Races possessed immense strength.
Some individuals could even interfere with time and space.
However, they had one fatal weakness.
The blood of their own kind.
If blood from another member of their species entered their bodies, death would soon follow.
Their weakness was simply too obvious.
Especially against something like Blacklight, whose abilities revolved around viruses and flesh.
With only a tiny amount of their blood, he could reproduce it endlessly and then use it to kill large numbers of the Superior Race with ease.
They were supposed to become the foundation for Blacklight's future growth.
Unfortunately for them, Caelus had arrived.
["That System was actually pretty lucky."]
["Sure, its Host had already become a viral life-form, but at least he packaged himself convincingly as a human."]
["Even after losing most of his emotions, he still maintained the habits and lifestyle of the young man once known as Casper."]
"That sounds somewhat like the old me."
["You were much better than him."]
["Even immediately after your birth, you still retained traces of morality."]
["That's far better than someone who practically lost all morality the moment he became a ghoul."]
"Isn't that just the pot calling the kettle black?"
The green-haired Superior Race lying on the ground desperately tried to struggle.
The overwhelming physical abilities and strange powers that had once made her nearly unstoppable were completely useless now.
She had become just like the prey she once hunted.
Before someone overwhelmingly stronger, she possessed no ability to resist.
She could not even choose to die.
Caelus quietly observed the Superior Races for a while.
Eventually, he concluded that they were little more than locusts.
They destroyed civilizations.
They ruined environments.
They hunted living beings.
They destroyed whatever they encountered.
They possessed no compassion, no morality, no love, and no hatred.
Their hearts contained only a predator's instinct to hunt and the same cruel amusement a cat might feel while playing with its prey.
Caelus lost interest in them.
He turned toward the green-haired woman who was still desperately attempting to move, took out his pink quill, and wrote a single sentence.
(Your kind shall become dust.)
The golden words seemed to transform into part of the world's fundamental laws and logic.
In a single instant, every Superior Race currently hunting and tormenting their prey turned to dust.
Their existence, concepts, souls, bodies, and every chain of causality connected to them all became ordinary soil.
Perhaps plants grown in that soil would flourish particularly well.
Then came the sound of turning clockwork.
An invisible hand seemed to flip an unseen hourglass.
...
Mia suddenly froze.
She shook her head.
Had something just happened?
For some reason, she felt as though something around her had subtly changed.
Then she heard her parents calling to her.
Mia immediately pushed the strange feeling from her mind.
She answered them cheerfully and hurried after them, continuing to enjoy their trip through the shopping mall together.
This peaceful everyday life would continue.
Just as it always had.
Sunrise after sunrise.
Moonrise after moonrise.
[Hidden Mission Completed.]
[Hidden Mission: Save the World]
[Description: Kill the Superior Race invading this world and preserve the world's ecosystem.]
[Even though its people will never know that they were saved, the world remembers what you accomplished.]
[It remembers the strength you used to protect every tomorrow that would have otherwise been lost.]
[And because of that, you will receive your reward.]
[Mission Reward: Prayers of the Living, 0.58 ounces.]
["Prayers of the Living?"]
["We actually obtained something like this from this world?"]
The System sounded genuinely surprised.
"Is it faith?"
Caelus guessed based on the name.
["No. This isn't faith."]
["Faith would be closer to collective belief generated by sentient beings."]
["This is better described as merit, specifically merit earned from protecting living beings."]
["And these creatures weren't even stronger than the Third Rank, yet they dropped 0.58 ounces of Prayers of the Living..."]
["Just how many lives did they kill, and how many ecosystems did they destroy?"]
"Give me an example."
["That's a little complicated."]
["Some worlds possess systems of merit, while others don't, and the conversion rates vary."]
["So I'll put it in the simplest terms."]
["0.58 ounces of Prayers of the Living is equivalent to 58,000 System Currency."]
"What?"
Even Caelus paused slightly after hearing that.
The Tiger Talisman had only cost 30,000 System Currency.
Converted at the same rate, that was merely 0.3 ounces of Prayers of the Living.
(To be continued.)
◇◇◇
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)