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However, he understood the giant’s words. It felt like the words were delivered directly to his brain rather than to his ears.

"You got it right. This isn’t that difficult to do if you can wield Force."

\'...Mind reading?!’

Gilberto\'s vigilance shot through the roof.

Rumble!

The giant sat on the floor.

"Why don\'t you lower your weapon? Can’t you see that you won’t be able to do anything to me using that kind of toy?”

“…” Gilberto contemplated for a moment before lowering his gun. Indeed, the giant in front of him seemed to be made out of rocks, so it wouldn’t make sense if Gilberto could harm the giant with a gun.

Gilberto asked, "Who are you?"

"My name is Stony. As you can see, I’m... a monster." The face made out of rock revealed a bitter smile. "Well, I wasn\'t born a monster. The emperor turned me into a monster."

"By emperor, are you talking about the Overmind Emperor?” asked Arthur.

Stony snorted. "Ha! He’s called the transcendent emperor?[1] That’s hilarious, considering how he hasn’t really transcended anything."

"What do you mean?”

"You don\'t know? The emperor and the other Overminds haven’t transcended anything."

"That\'s strange." Gilberto shook his head and said, "Aren’t they immortal beings? In that case, they have clearly transcended humanity.”

"No," Stony snapped. "Just because you got a few gold coins after taking out a loan doesn\'t mean you\'ve transcended money for the rest of your life."

"Are you saying that the Overminds are living on borrowed time?”

"It\'s like that. Anyway, immortality can only be achieved by becoming a transcendent. In other words, becoming a god.”

Arthur was confused, and he refuted, "The Overminds have been living for over a thousand years already, and isn’t it the same for you?"

"That’s true, but they had to sacrifice millions of lives in exchange for it.”

"Millions of lives...?”

"The reigning emperor is a genius, but he’s crazy. He believes that those who aren’t good enough don’t deserve to even breathe.”

“Wait, could it be that…” Gilberto trailed off and shuddered.

Stony\'s glazed eyes landed on Gilberto.

"Your conjecture is correct. He is indeed a madman.”

Gilberto felt dizzy. He felt as if he had finally figured out the disgusting truth of this world.

"What is it, Father?” asked Arthur.

"…It\'s the failures," Gilberto said after composing himself. "The failures aren’t the products of coincidence caused by the failure of the Transcend Project."

"Correct, the creation of the failures was the goal of the project." Stony nodded and said, "The reigning emperor used his genius to create Force, and then he proceeded to create the Transcend Project."

The emperor decided to dispose of those who were worthless in his eyes.

"He turned them into failures and put them in this vast prison."

"So the failures in the Forest of Exiles weren’t the only failures in this world…”

"Yes. Those failures were made for show. The real failures are here."

“…”

Gilberto and Arthur suddenly remembered the tall wall they had encountered yesterday.

They had been wondering why someone would erect a wall in the middle of nowhere, but it turned out that there was such a horrifying secret behind the wall.

However, the father and son were still confused.

"Why is he keeping the failures alive? Since he hates them, shouldn’t he annihilate them already?”

"Have you already forgotten what I told you about taking out a loan?”

Stony picked up the crocodile-looking failure he had crushed beneath his foot earlier.

“Take a good look,” said Stony. Moments later, the corpse of the crocodile-looking failure shrank like a mummy.

“Whew.” Stony exhaled. "Hm, it wasn’t as long as I thought. Anyway, my lifespan has been extended by seventeen years.”

“...!”

Gilberto and Arthur\'s eyes widened. They finally understood.

"Now, do you understand why this vast prison exists?"

"The failures’ lifespan… Are the Overminds hunting them to extend their own lifespan?"

"Indeed. The emperor thinks that our lives belong to those who are better than us. He comes here occasionally to hunt down the failures, and then he would distribute the lifespan he obtained to the other Overminds."

And that was why the Overminds managed to live for over a thousand years.

"How is this possible?"

"It\'s because of a holy relic..."

"A holy relic?"

"The Holy Ring Petra. It’s the relic of the Sun God, and it has the ability of repose."

Rumble.

Stony raised his hand and pointed. "Go straight, and you will find the temple where the holy relic is stored. The temple is now called Chronos Laboratory. The emperor can only do what he has been doing because of the holy relics he had seized from a god.”

"How absurd..." Arthur bit his lips. He looked furious as he said, "Who is he to define the values of others?"

"I told you he’s a madman…"

The emperor had been determining the value of his subjects’ lives, and he had obtained the ability to do so by seizing the holy relics of a god.

"Is that why they haven’t been able to transcend?" Gilberto nodded. He seemed to have significantly calmed down.

"They’re definitely not immortal,” added Gilberto.

The failures couldn’t reproduce, and their population was on a steep decline.

In other words, the Overminds would eventually run out of lives.

"So that\'s why the population of the Overminds has been decreasing as well..."

The truth was that only a few Overminds had taken their own lives to escape their boring and monotonous lives. Most of them would die in accidents, or their deaths were made to look like they had taken their own lives.

“Why are you not doing anything about it?” Gilberto asked, confused. The emperor and the Overminds were strong, but Gilberto couldn’t understand why the failures were letting the emperor slaughter them as he pleased.

"Once you’ve learned the Force that he has been propagating, you will never be able to escape his clutches,” said Stony with a wry smile. The emperor could take over the body and mind of any Overmind or failure if he wanted to do so.

Gilberto murmured, "A perfect dictatorship..."

The Babella Empire was under a perfect dictatorship that many dictators throughout history could only dream of establishing. In other words, no one could disobey him.

"That\'s why I was so surprised when I saw you."

Stony sounded serious. He looked down at the two humans and said, "Untainted human beings like you two are the only ones who can fulfill our wishes…”

Gilberto didn\'t bother asking what Stony meant by our wishes. He was obviously talking about the failures who died in despair within the confines of this prison.

Gilberto asked, "What\'s that wish?"

"The emperor’s death," said Stony. His reply was short, but one could feel the boundless anger contained in his voice. He put down the crocodile-looking Overmind and continued. "I’ve been wanting to die for a long time now, but I can’t afford to die. I would be ashamed to see my family and friends who had to leave before me if I didn’t get to witness the emperor’s death with my own two eyes.”

Gilberto’s eyes shone in a complicated glimmer.

He knew that feeling better than anyone else, which was why it was even more unfortunate.

"I understand your feelings and will, but... I\'m sorry."

"What? Why?!" Stony shouted and slammed his fist on the ground.

Boom!

"Didn\'t you see it with your own eyes? If you hadn\'t come here, the crocodile there would have killed us.”

In other words, they were weak. Gilberto’s weakness became apparent when he couldn’t kill even a single Overmind by himself.

"We’re not strong enough to kill the emperor..."

“…” Stony wordlessly looked down at Gilberto. Eventually, he smirked and said, "That was funny. Do you really think that I’ll ask a human to kill the emperor?”

"What do you mean?"

"It has been a thousand years since I was imprisoned here."

Natural selection had already killed the weak failures, but it didn’t mean that the surviving failures were safe.

"We survive by killing those who are on the same boat as us. We’re living the lives of worms,” said Stony with a self-deprecating smile. “It’s a wretched way, but it allowed us to survive, and I have been researching how to kill the emperor.”

They managed to conduct their research because the emperor was too arrogant. If he had even just a bit of interest in the failures’ lives, then the emperor would have discovered their research long ago.

Fortunately, the emperor had been treating the failures as inferior beings who didn’t deserve to live.

“We tried to change the nature of Force to escape the emperor’s shadow.” It was a very difficult task. Tens of thousands of failures put their heads together, but they failed to destroy the technique that a lone genius had created by himself.

"We were met by despair and frustration,” Stony added.

“It\'s funny, but we understand the emperor’s feelings. If you\'re smart enough to make such a technique, then it’s not strange that you’ll view us as inferior beings.

“However, we couldn\'t give up. The mountain of corpses kept on reminding us to push forward and dedicate our souls to the research."

And just like that, a thousand years passed.

Arthur’s voice trembled as he asked, "Did you… succeed?"

“…” Stony nodded slowly. "We succeeded, but not completely."

The theory was perfect, but they couldn’t use it.

"Force was born from the confluence of mind and heart, but we\'ve been using the emperor\'s Force for too long. The concept of the Emperor’s Force was already imprinted on our souls, and it’s impossible to make any changes to it."

The failures despaired. They had created the perfect theory after a thousand years of research, but they couldn’t even use it.

"We needed a new soul."

An untainted soul.

"We needed a human."

“…” Gilberto\'s eyes quivered slightly. He was silent for quite a while before asking, "Are you saying that we should learn the Force that you have created?"

"That\'s right."

"Hm, I’m worried about the stability. It’s an untested technique, right?”

"Well…” Stony trailed off. The failures considered the theory perfect, but it was still just a theory. No one had any idea what would happen once it was tested.

"Human, you’re correct. The theory wasn’t made with humans in mind.”

The failures were the ones who were supposed to use the technique, but they despaired upon realizing that they couldn’t use it. However, a human being suddenly appeared one day.

"Let me ask you one thing; can it kill me?"

“…”

Sometimes, silence was as good of an answer as words.

Gilberto had quit smoking long ago, but he decided to smoke one this time.

Fwoosh.

Gilberto’s mind cleared up at the surge of nicotine.

"Whew." Gilberto exhaled the acrid smoke and ignited the cigarette with his magic.

He could feel Arthur’s uneasy gaze piercing him from behind.

However, Gilberto had already made up his mind. "I accept your offer."

"Father!" Arthur screamed.

1. The Chinese characters used for the Overmind emperor here are different and mean transcended emperor. ☜