One-way traffic

"Um, Yifang, your expression is a little... not so good."

"Ah...that's to be expected."

Hatsune Miku blinked in surprise again, and then...

The first person calmly explained why he did what he did.

"Because I haven't received a single reward from the system."

“…Huh?”

Upon hearing this, Hatsune Miku was completely dumbfounded.

"Eh?! You're kidding, right?!"

Chapter 583 Discussion about the System

Hatsune Miku looked at Accelerator in surprise, and he immediately opened his system menu.

There was no reward.

The last update record stopped at the status of the "Doomsday Destroyer" time generator, which was the last power update, and there have been no new records since then.

This situation immediately reminded Hatsune Miku of something.

"Ah!! Come to think of it, the last time, I don't recall immediately awarding the prize..."

"It was the same for me, but after that, you gained the power of that priestess, while I became a generator, transforming into a vector capable of manipulating spacetime..."

It's not just Accelerator; even Hatsune Miku has experienced similar situations.

Logically, after completing the tasks assigned by the Soul System, a reward should be awarded each time.

However, since Accelerator and Hatsune Miku awakened new powers through their own actions, it seems that the system did not continue to award new rewards.

"It's not something that's hard to understand."

Then—Waite walked up from behind them.

Upon entering the living room and seeing the two people's complicated expressions, the young man's face revealed an expression that seemed to have been expected.

"That's pretty much what I thought, which is why I asked you about this before."

"Eh...? Mr. Witte, you were already aware of this problem?"

Witte sat on a chair to the side and looked at the two of them.

"Well, it's not that the system itself is malfunctioning or anything like that; it's just a perfectly normal situation."

"You actually said it's...perfect?"

Not only Hatsune Miku, but even Accelerator frowned.

"Stop keeping me in suspense, let me tell you."

Advisari couldn't stand by and watch this scene unfold.

He walked over to Witte, and then the two began a detailed explanation of the system.

"The Soul System was indeed created to allow users to obtain the power most suitable for them."

That information is recorded even in the most basic introduction to this system.

"...However, the purpose of this thing is simply to cultivate the user's own strength to the 'most suitable' level. The concept itself is as if it were tailor-made for the user."

"If it's tailor-made, it means that the entire process will revolve around the user's own power in calculation and cultivation... and will not exceed the user's power limit."

Witte took a sip of the freshly brewed coffee and continued the conversation.

"Haven't you noticed that almost all the weaknesses in your abilities that you've felt so far have been overcome?"

stunned.

If we're talking about weaknesses in terms of power, from Hatsune Miku's initial ability to only interfere with others' brief actions through mental power, to Accelerator's ability to manipulate all energy directions, the fact that he had no contact with the vector of time and only a superficial understanding of the vector of space... is itself a weakness.

Now, Hatsune Miku not only possesses the ultimate enhancement in mental strength, enabling her to control the power to output and assist others, but also has a variety of powerful abilities that transcend that.

Accelerator's superpower of manipulating vectors allows him to completely control not only the vectors of spacetime, but also the more abstract and conceptual mental vectors.

"The weaknesses and flaws in your abilities have been almost entirely repaired and overcome by the Soul System... That's its function, and its function is to bring your strength to a state closest to saturation, so—"

As if asking a question in return, he smiled and looked at the two of them.

"How do you feel about your current state?"

Speechless.

Putting aside Hatsune Miku, the one who should be thinking about this the most is probably the number one in Academy City right in front of us.

"When your strength is completely devoid of weaknesses, especially yours, Accelerator, all the power you possess now has truly reached the realm of 'strongest,' or even 'invincible.'"

Think about it carefully—Originally, Toshiba, which can reflect all physical attacks by manipulating the direction of energy, would probably not have any problem reflecting the energy that exploded in the entire universe.

Under these circumstances, he gained the ability to manipulate the mind, comprehended the vector of the abstract concept of mind, and subsequently obtained the power to manipulate all dimensions of space and time, thus mastering the vectors of time and space.

Seriously, I'm not kidding, this is practically invincible.

Aside from a few attacks based on more abstract concepts, there probably isn't any ability that can affect Accelerator.

The result of this situation is that the soul system's power increases extremely slowly.

"It's not that there's no way to give you stronger power, but for the soul system, it always considers the power that is most suitable for you at the moment. The power that you need has basically been gathered, so this thing has determined that you are at a saturation level, which is like a power bottleneck."

"Even the system itself has determined that it is unnecessary... or rather, meaningless to try to gain new power in this state."

Having reached the realm of "strongest," or even close to "invincible," there is no longer a need to research new powers.

Just as Accelerator was like this, so was Hatsune Miku. After receiving the final Snow Miku 2019 outfit to enhance her power, she instinctively felt that the power within her body had reached a state that was almost saturated.

"That means... from now on, the system will no longer give us any new power rewards..."

"It's not that absolute. It's just that your power has reached a certain saturation point, and further growth would be far too slow. But this doesn't mean you've truly reached 'invincibility.' There's still a fundamental difference between being infinitely close to that level and actually achieving it."

Witte waved his hand, dismissing their idea.

"When you encounter new situations, such as special abilities that you can't fight back against, or new weaknesses in your abilities that you suddenly discover in a battle, the system should give you the necessary new things."

It's not that we can't give them new power, but rather that we determine they "don't need" any new power now. Since they've already reached a level close to "invincible," the system will no longer grant them new power.

Moreover, even if more power is given out at once, power itself is something that needs to be thoroughly studied and used in a subtle way to be effectively utilized.

If Accelerator were given something entirely new that he had never seen or used before, even he would never be able to use it properly so quickly.

"But... but if that's the case—!!"

"Ah, I know, I understand what you're trying to say."

Faced with Hatsune Miku's somewhat anxious tone, Witte simply spoke calmly.

"If the system doesn't reward you, then what's the point of traveling to so many worlds... that's probably what I'm trying to say."

"You should have realized this yourselves by now, which is... rather than giving yourselves new power to make yourselves stronger, go to different worlds and fight against people with completely different power systems to improve your experience, skills, and methods of dealing with supernatural abilities."

"Isn't this situation also making you stronger?"

The girl stood there stunned. It might seem unbelievable at first glance, but upon closer examination, it was not absurd at all.

On the contrary, it is quite reasonable.

Originally, the most basic duty of the soul system is to increase the strength of the user and make their power stronger.

It doesn't necessarily have to be by giving new abilities to become stronger.

By constantly fighting against the opponent and continuously improving one's experience in various worlds, isn't this itself a way to become stronger?

and.

There is also the most important point among these.

"...You guys have been fighting for so long, traversing so many worlds, and it's not just for the purpose of making yourselves stronger, is it?"

It was as if a sentence pierced the heart, which came out of Advisari's mouth.

…yes.

Hatsune Miku clutched the gem on her chest, her heart gradually filled with excitement.

"We... have never fought simply to become stronger."

Whether it's Accelerator or Hatsune Miku, their guiding principles have remained simple to this day.

In order to resolve everything at hand, to resolve all the sorrow that has occurred before us.

From the very first world they traveled to, they never considered the pursuit of power as the primary purpose of their journey.

Once the girl understood this, she felt completely at ease.

Even if I can't gain new power, it doesn't matter... as long as I can help more people.

As long as we can use this system to travel to more worlds and help more people, that will be enough!

"...That's about it for now."

After confirming that Hatsune Miku was not psychologically affected, Accelerator moved on to the next question.

He opened his system menu for Witte and Advisari.

"And what's going on here, compared to this?"

"This... there's only one hour left?"

After seeing the contents, Witte squinted. It was Accelerator and Hatsune Miku, their remaining rest time in this world.

There was only one short hour left.

In an hour, they will leave this world and head directly to the next world... This is a shorter time than ever before; in the past, their rest periods were often several days or more.

"However, this is also expected. This is basically due to the current strength of your team."

"This broken system is really unreliable, a piece of junk."

"Don't say that... It's just that because your intensity has become increasingly outrageous, the rest time determined by the system has become a bit chaotic."

"This time it might be an hour, next time it might be a month. In short, these kinds of unexpected situations are meant to help you get used to the idea of ​​'potential, sudden danger'... After all, in a truly thrilling battlefield, there's no setting where one battle ends and the next doesn't immediately follow."

However—Advisari then paused for a moment.

"Let me remind you of something."

Looking at the two people in front of him, the young man with black and blond hair spoke very seriously.

"Don't treat this so-called system as a lifeline, and don't blindly trust it."

This is a sentence whose meaning is unclear. Neither Accelerator nor Hatsune Miku can understand what it means so far.

just.

"...You two seem to know a lot about this thing."

"That's none of your business. Everyone has their own privacy, and I won't answer questions like 'Why do I know this?'"

"It doesn't matter, I never intended to ask you these things anyway."

Accelerator continued.

"...Even so, I still have to ask you one thing."

"what?"

"This...so-called soul system, was created by someone, wasn't it?"

He looked at the two people in front of him.

"Who created it? And why, and for what reason, did it come into our bodies?"

In an instant, the atmosphere in the room froze completely.

Accelerator looked at the two people in front of him, who both seemed to be in a daze and did not answer.

They simply remained silent.

"Well... they probably don't know these things either, right? After all, these are such profound questions. Even if they can answer the previous questions, they're probably just people who know them quite well...?"

"Ah... well, that's how it is."

As Hatsune Miku hurriedly spoke, Witte nodded in agreement.

"Well, while we do understand things like the system quite well, it doesn't mean we're omniscient or omnipotent..."