Following the destruction of the ‘Death Scythe’ Konoe Miyaji, the reincarnated individuals continued to exchange their arguments and worrying about the future.
However, they could not all come to an agreement. The reason was that Konoe Miyaji’s words and actions had made it clear that all of the reincarnated individuals thought in a definitively different manner.
And so, Shimada Izumi and Machida Aran, in Rodcorte’s place… forced to take Rodcorte’s place, provided the reincarnated individuals with information, answered their questions and offered their opinions.
“I-in other words, it’s impossible to be reincarnated as a member of a race that he holds dear to him?!” shouted the ‘Marionette’ Inui Hajime, saliva almost flying from his mouth despite him not having a physical body.
“Yes, that’s right,” Izumi said, looking fed up. “… Incidentally, that’s the twelfth time I’ve answered that question.”
“You’re sure, right?!”
“I’m sure. Incidentally, that’s the thirteenth.”
It seemed that even Izumi, who had become a familiar spirit with no physical body and had a different sense of time, felt mental fatigue at having to answer the same question over and over.
“There’s no way we can believe you so easily, right?! You’ve stooped low enough to become minions for that fraud of a god!”
With the people asking the questions taking this kind of attitude, it couldn’t be helped that Izumi felt like it was all pointless.
And Izumi could even tell through her Inspection ability, which could see through all kinds of falsehoods, that she was being genuinely doubted.
“If you can’t trust me, then I don’t think there’s any point in asking me any questions any number of times,” she said.
It was only to be expected that she would say this and leave. Inui was not a precious companion to Izumi. He was a traitor who had sided with Murakami and the others, and Izumi knew that he hadn’t stopped Murakami and the Eighth Guidance from eliminating her and Aran.
She pitied him for the fact that he had later been betrayed by Tsuchiya Kanako, who he had thought was his ally, but she couldn’t consider him an important companion now. He was even genuinely abusing her verbally, so she didn’t want to persuade him gently.
“D-damn it! Don’t look down at me! You…” Inui looked outraged for a moment after having Izumi point out something that he knew himself, but his face turned pale and he let out a shriek as he turned around and ran away.
“… This makes it look like I threatened him, doesn’t it?” Izumi muttered.
The truth was that the symptoms of Inui’s gynophobia had shown themselves. Of course, even without that phobia, it was impossible for him to harm the familiar spirit Izumi, as he himself was nothing but a human soul.
“At this rate, I don’t think he’ll think of opposing Vandalieu, so I don’t really care.”
Meanwhile, Machida Aran was answering the questions of the ‘Chronos’ Murakami Junpei and his group with a sullen expression on his face.
“So, in other words, it’s impossible to take the latest weapons from Origin and Earth?” Murakami asked.
“Yeah, it’s the same as when Kaidou Kanata was reincarnated. According to that god, everyone is naked when they’re first born,” Aran said.
“Can’t he do something about it? The chosen heroes are normally supposed to be granted a holy sword by the god, right?”
“Look here… what kind of god would give state-of-the-art weapons including crystals based on modern science and magical knowledge in place of a holy sword?”
Aran answered the questions in an exasperated tone, but Murakami didn’t seem to be satisfied with the answers. Left with no choice, he decided to elaborate. “What would you even do with state-of-the-art weapons? What about the parts needed for maintenance and the fuel needed to power them? Do you intend to make the gunpowder by hand?”
“I don’t really intend to use them multiple times. I just need to use them once. Well, that doesn’t apply for the magical media, though,” said Murakami.
What Murakami and his group wanted was a state-of-the-art stealth fighter like the one that the ‘Noah’ Mao had piloted before her death in Origin, transport helicopters, lightweight missiles that could be used to attack from afar… if possible, nuclear and hydrogen bombs. Not only those, but all kinds of various other things such as magical media that assisted in reciting and casting spells, body suits made of special materials and military-grade knives.
The reason they wanted these was so that they could use them to kill Vandalieu. It seemed that Murakami’s group had decided on becoming assassins to erase Vandalieu.
Indeed, it would be difficult even for Vandalieu to completely block a surprise attack from a tactical nuclear warhead or a hydrogen bomb.
Even without these, Murakami and his group had plenty of chance to win if they could make full use of modern weaponry with their cheat-like abilities.
However, this was a thought that had occurred to everyone. And there was a reason that this idea hadn’t been put into practice yet.
“It would be difficult even to fire these weapons once,” Aran said. “They could even explode the moment they’re brought into Lambda.”
“What?! What do you mean?” Murakami exclaimed in surprise.
Aran continued grimacing as he replied. “You guys might have forgotten this, but it’s a different world, you know? It’s only natural for the laws of physics to be different. Earth, Origin, Lambda. There are differences in the force of gravity, whether magic exists and the number of attributes. The worlds are similar, but they’re like different planets.”
Indeed, the three worlds had different laws of physics. The creation-minded champions led by Zakkart had once tried to recreate Earth’s tactical nuclear weaponry in order to defeat the Demon King. However, the goddess Vida stopped them, saying that modern weaponry designed with Earth’s laws of physics in mind would be unusable or possibly even simply explode if recreated in the exact same way in Lambda.
Even the magical media (what are known as mages’ staves) designed for Origin would have problems because the time attribute, which didn’t exist in Origin, existed in Lambda. Thus, there was no guarantee that they would have the same effect even if they were brought into Lambda exactly as they were.
“The more complicated something is to create, the more dangerous it is. Well, a lightweight missile would simply be a little different in its power and firing range, so those could probably still be used without problems, though,” Aran said.
It was Murakami’s turn to grimace as he pondered this. “What was that god trying to make us do after gathering experience in a world with different laws of physics? Our knowledge and technology aren’t going to be of any use.”
“And from what we saw with Tendou’s Clairvoyance, it looked like Vandalieu has been introducing technology and knowledge from Earth and Origin into Lambda, one after another. If what you say is true, wouldn’t that city be a mountain of rubble by now?” said the ‘Hecatoncheir’ Doug Atlas.
Aran let out a deep sigh.
“Oi, what’s with your attitude?!” Doug demanded.
“I’m tired of how stupid you guys are. What Vandalieu is doing is completely different from what you guys are asking for,” Aran said. “You guys are asking to directly bring in weapons and creations from another world, exactly as they are. On the other hand, Vandalieu was reborn in Lambda and is using resources in Lambda to recreate technology from other worlds. What Vandalieu is doing fits in with Lambda’s laws of physics.”
Even the cooking of a single dish involves all kinds of chemical reactions during the cooking process. It is as a result of these that a dish on Earth is perfected to deliciousness.
So how could the same dishes be created in the foreign world of Lambda? That was because not everything was completely different, just because it was a different world.
Of course, if the chemical reactions were studied in detail, there would certainly be differences between the worlds. However, the differences were too small to take practical notice of.
From the time that Vandalieu was cooking for himself on Earth to the time that he was reborn in Lambda, there had been a twenty-year-long blank space, during which he was able to gather information in Origin but was unable to actually test it and put it into practice. Even if Vandalieu noticed the differences in Lambda, he simply thought it was his imagination.
When the dishes weren’t delicious when cooked with the same recipe as on Earth, he just needed to conduct trial and error until they were.
“Using lye water to make ramen from wheat dough and even making soap, paper, mayonnaise and ketchup were all based on knowledge from Earth and Origin, but he would have performed trial and error to make it work well in Lambda. Hey, Murakami-san, if you manufacture the weapons you want so badly using materials that exist in Lambda and perform a lot of trial-and-error, you should be able to make something that works with Lambda’s laws of physics, you know?”
In other words, Aran was telling Murakami to build them himself after being reincarnated.
Of course, he knew that what he was saying was impossible.
“Look here… you know that we’d have no way to create modern-day weapons on our own using the required parts when we don’t even know the methods needed to make those parts,” said Murakami.
Metal parts could be made to some extent by hiring a blacksmith. But there was no way that Murakami and the others had remembered all of the parts needed for a state-of-the-art stealth fighter or transport helicopters, and the parts were made of alloys rather than iron or copper.
And going from machine-creating to hand-creating the semiconductors needed in the computers controlling the fuselages was definitely impossible.
Did the fuel needed to power these war machines even exist in Lambda?
Even if Murakami and his allies spent years of effort, it was questionable as to whether they could even create a human-powered aircraft that operated by pedaling to turn the propellers.
“Tch, so it would be muskets or cannons that use gunpowder at best, huh,” Murakami muttered.
“Magic would have more power than that, and be easier to use, too,” said Doug.
“Signal flares would probably be useful, but… isn’t it better to not rely on weapons, then?” said the ‘Odin’ Hazamada Akira.
“Ah, really, I wonder how he intended for us to develop the world,” the ‘Venus’ Tsuchiya Kanako sighed.
“I don’t really intend to defend him…” Aran said. “I’ve said it over and over, but there are no problems with using trial-and-error using knowledge from Earth and Origin after being reincarnated in Lambda. And we never heard anything about killing Vandalieu when we were reborn in Origin. He probably wasn’t really hoping that we’d make weapons.”
“But despite that, the creation of gunpowder is apparently forbidden in that ‘Lambda’ world. It’s a world where a god who denies the knowledge of other worlds holds a lot of power, right?” said Murakami.
“About that, the god (Rodcorte himself) thought that we would make things work out with hard work, since we were the ones chosen by him. There are a hundred and one of us, and even if a hundred of us failed, he thought that it would be fine as long as the last one succeeded.”
“… That god is a thorough piece of shit. I’m starting to wonder whether that’s actually harder than killing Vandalieu.”
The truth was that even if the reincarnated individuals didn’t bring their knowledge from other worlds into Lambda, Rodcorte would have considered it development for the world if they used their magic and cheat-like abilities to exterminate beings that threatened the prosperity of the races he considered to be people, the humans, Elves and Dwarves… while pressing the Dark Elves, Scylla and Vampires to extinction or a near-extinction state.
Now that Murakami finally seemed convinced, Aran asked him a question in return.
“More importantly, I have a question. Why do you trust what I say? You’re the one who killed me, you know, Murakami-san?”
Indeed, Murakami was the criminal who had killed Aran and Izumi. The two of them would certainly feel hatred and a desire for revenge against him.
But Murakami’s face remained the same as he answered, seeming bored. “Yeah, that’s why I asked you in detail. Why we can’t do things, why we can do things, I’ll ask about everything and then ask the god the same thing later. If the god says something different, and what he says is inconvenient to you, then that makes you a liar.”
“Guh, you know all about that idiot!” Aran groaned.
Rodcorte generally did not tell lies. At times where it was inconvenient for him, he would simply say, “I cannot do that,” or, “I cannot say,” but would not give any detailed reasons as to why he could not do or say something.
There were also cases where he never stated his true intentions from the beginning, but he didn’t tell clever lies and was probably incapable of doing so.
This was likely due to his personality rather than some restriction having been placed on him.
Of course, he couldn’t be trusted, since he was always looking down on the reincarnated individuals from above. However, for Murakami, who intended to kill Vandalieu, Rodcorte was more trustworthy than Aran.
“… Though this is an obvious question, why are you guys thinking about killing Vandalieu? You guys are clearly at way too much of a disadvantage,” said Aran. “As Death Scythe showed us before, he won’t be killed just by stopping his heart. Even if you could kill him, he might just turn into an Undead unless that stupid god does something about it. He has over a billion Mana and he’s more of a cheat than us, even though he doesn’t have any cheat-like abilities. There’s even a mountain of enemies willing to protect him. And even after you guys are reincarnated, he won’t stop growing stronger. And the nail in the coffin is that he can break your souls and destroy you in a way that you won’t ever come back.”
Murakami and his companions were certainly strong. Even without their equipment and state-of-the-art weapons from Origin, they would be able to compete with B-class adventurers in Lambda as they were now.
This was especially true for the ‘Odin’ Hazamada Akira, the ‘Hecatoncheir’ Doug Atlas and the ‘Chronos’ Murakami Junpei. These three had possessed some of the greatest fighting strength among the Bravers.
However, Aran couldn’t imagine that they would be able to defeat Vandalieu, even if they combined their strength.
“You’ve been promised a blessed fourth life like Kaidou Kanata, but it’s clearly not worth it, is it?” Aran said.
“Our ways of thinking are different,” Murakami said in response. “I don’t think there’s much of a point in keeping this quiet from you, so I’ll tell you. That guy intends to kill us. He was looking at us when that useless Konoe attacked him. That’s why we have to kill him no matter what, before we get killed. And since there’s a reward that comes with it, there’s nothing more to be said. The choice is obvious.”
“If I were him, I’d try to kill us.”
“I don’t want a life where I’m just trying to hide so that he doesn’t find me.”
“And that god will apparently help us out more than he did with Kanata, so things will probably work out.”
Given the values of Murakami and his companions, it was only natural for them to decide that it was highly likely that Vandalieu would actively try to kill them. With that being the case, it went without saying that they would think of counterattacking rather than simply being killed.
“Oi, according to my Calculation, the probability of him actively trying to kill you guys is –” Aran began.
“At this point, no matter how low that number is, it might suddenly increase later. There’s no point in that calculation,” Murakami Junpei said as he turned his back to Aran and left.
The other reincarnated individuals followed after him. Aran watched them leave with an irritated expression.
Aran didn’t really care whether Murakami and his companions died or not. He probably wouldn’t feel sympathy for them even if their souls were destroyed.
However, they intended to become Vandalieu’s enemies, and if Vandalieu were to see this as all of the reincarnated individuals working together and actively tried to kill Aran’s Braver companions, it would be a serious problem.
“Considering that he has no way of actively finding us, we could hide if we were to be reborn as babies, but since it’s him we’re talking about, there’s no guarantee that he won’t gain some unfair skill like ‘Sense Reincarnators’…” Aran muttered.
“Can I have a word?” said a voice.
“Uwah! … It’s you. What do you want?”
Aran had thought that everyone had left with Murakami, but the ‘Aegis’ Melissa J. Sautome had remained behind.
“I have a question. Origin and Lambda are different worlds, so why can Vandalieu use death-attribute magic in the same way?” she asked.
Aran was confused by Melissa’s question, but he quickly decided that it was fine and gave an answer. “It’s not that he can use it in the same way; it just looks that way. The fine points should be different… I think. To begin with, death-attribute magic is irregular in both worlds. Rules might not be relevant for a previously-undiscovered foreign magic.”
Aran and the others didn’t know this, but the truth was that the Counter ability of Ereshkigal, who had become a part of Legion, could now only counter damage received from the last enemy that had attacked.
Of course, Vandalieu had relearned death-attribute magic on his own from scratch due to the ‘Experience gained in previous life not carried over,’ so he wasn’t aware of any differences from Origin.
“I see… then in the end, it’s likely that he can do the same things. I have another question. Does Vitality in Lambda apply in all cases? Like when someone’s throat is cut by a knife or when they receive an attack that ignores defenses?” Melissa asked.
“Wow, that’s quite a dangerous question… it generally applies,” Aran said. “Of course, the amount of damage increases depending on where the attack hits, so it’s not meaningless to aim for vital spots. But you can consider it impossible for a hero in that world to be caught off-guard and die from a single attack from a regular person.”
On Earth and in Origin, no matter how battle-hardened a hero was, they could die very simply. However, in Lambda, where the rule of Vitality (HP) existed, that would not happen.
Even if a hero’s throat was slit by a regular person or a nameless soldier, even if they were stabbed in the spleen from behind, they would not be fatally wounded. In some cases, they would not even be scratched.
“There are the concepts of attack power, defense power and skills. Defense power is made mostly meaningless if the attack lands through gaps in armor, but those with the Physical Resistance skill have skin that’s like armor,” Aran said.
“So even lightweight missiles wouldn’t cause any problems, even if they landed.”
“… So, you noticed.”
Indeed, beings that could withstand an attack from a lightweight missile were not rare in Lambda. Such missiles would likely defeat Rank 4 monsters such as Orc Soldiers, but even a direct hit would not inflict a fatal wound on a Rank 7 Earth Dragon. Such a hit would feel like nothing more than a somewhat strong punch to a Rock Dragon.
Among Talosheim’s members, the ‘Sword King’ Borkus doesn’t even need to be mentioned; even Miles, who was currently on a business trip with the Sauron Liberation Front, would undoubtedly simply ignore the hit from the missile and go on to kill the person who shot it with his bare hands.
C-class adventurers would remain unharmed if they used Shield Technique and Armor Technique skills, and depending on their equipment, even D-class adventurers might get away with minor injuries. Even if they were hit in a bad place, they would not receive a fatal wound.
“Then what about a musket?” Melissa asked.
“Well, it would be impossible to kill a D-class adventurer unless you hit them right in the eye or the mouth. I don’t think the bullet would pierce the skull even if it hit the head. Even normal soldiers wouldn’t die in one shot through their helmets. One shot might kill mages that have low Vitality, though,” Aran said. “As for monsters… it depends on what kind of monsters they are, but you’d get the idea if I tell you that a Rank 3 monster is about the same as a bear, right?”
It was difficult for even a skilled hunter to kill a bear with a single shot. That difficulty wouldn’t be any less if the bear was replaced by a three-meter-long huge boar or a fast-moving carnivorous dinosaur.
And considering a musket’s range, the shooter would normally be counterattacked in Lambda. Even if only melee-range weapons were available, if one was skilled enough, martial skills that released slashes and impacts such as Flying Slash existed.
Well-penetrating, highly lethal sniper rifles, assault rifles with high rates of fire and high-power anti-tank rifles might be different, but it seemed that guns were not very effective weapons in Lambda.
The only difference was Vandalieu’s Cannon Technique, but a cannon using vast quantities of Mana as a propulsion force and projectiles made of a magical metal or fragments of the Demon King that could even slay gods could not be put into the same category as the guns and cannons of Earth and Origin.
“I see. So, what about attacks that ignore defense?” Melissa asked.
“… I don’t want to answer that question,” Aran said. “That’s clearly a question as to how effective Amamiya’s Ignore Defense will be in Lambda, isn’t it?”
“Then you don’t have to answer it. That response gave me a good enough idea.”
The cheat-like ability possessed by Amemiya Hiroto, Ignore Defense, which had its inconveniences but was considered to be overwhelmingly powerful in Origin. However, it seemed that it would not be as much of a threat in Lambda as in Origin, due to the existence of the concept of Vitality.
Having decided this from Aran’s reaction, Melissa asked her next question, not caring about making him give a proper answer.
“Is it possible for us to be reincarnated in Lambda right after we die, like Kanata said?” she asked.
This was the reason Kanata had been destroyed by Vandalieu.
“It’s possible, but difficult,” Aran answered. “It places a burden on the system. Once might be doable, but being reincarnated in an adult’s body the moment after you’re killed is impossible.”
Rodcorte was using a system to conduct reincarnation. That system denied the resurrection of any dead person.
The reincarnated individuals tricked the system by being reborn as babies, but being revived in the same adult body as one possessed before being killed was no different from resurrection.
As a result, it would place a burden on the system.
“So that means we can’t redo things over and over… thanks, that’s all,” Melissa said as she turned her back to Aran.
With this, I’ve decided who I’m going to bet on, she thought.
Meanwhile, Rodcorte was devising a concrete method of destroying Vida’s circle of transmigration system and absorbing the souls of Vida’s races that didn’t originate from monsters… the evil gods who were the remnants of the Demon King’s army, into his own system.
“Vida’s destruction is necessary after all. However, looking at it another way, taking over her system will be simple once Vida is destroyed. The problem is, how will Alda destroy Vida when he is unable to destroy souls…”
If this method became possible, he would not only grant Alda’s request, but also increase the number of souls flowing into Rodcorte’s system, meaning that more of them could be used as fighting strength for erasing Vandalieu.
He had gained information from the memories of the Humans and Dwarves of the Hartner Duchy’s cultivation villages when Vandalieu brought them to Talosheim, though this information was only from the short period from before they were guided to the Demon Path.
Beyond the Boundary Mountain Range, Vandalieu had a nation in the southern region of the Bahn Gaia continent, where the goddess slumbered, and he called himself the ‘Holy Son of Vida.’ With that being the case, he was unlikely to run if Alda’s forces attacked.
And those who worshipped Alda would not ignore a nation that considered monsters such as Undead, Ghouls, Vampires and Lizardmen its citizens and worshipped Vida and the evil gods that had allied themselves with her.
Rodcorte did not exist in Lambda, but Alda did. It would be difficult to stop his forces from labeling Zuruwarn, the god of space and creation, and Ricklent, the genie of time and space, as evil.
“Hmm… if she is attacked with more persistency, her power is decreased and her believers fall sharply in number, she should fall from divinity. I suppose I shall go with this method,” Rodcorte decided.
“Oi, answer my question! Broken souls can’t be fixed, right?!” said the ‘Mage Masher’ Minami Asagi, interrupting Rodcorte’s thoughts.
“… How many times must I answer that for you to understand?” Rodcorte asked him.
“I want to make sure. Because I can’t trust you. I’m asking you the same question over and over to help decide whether you’re lying or not.”
Rodcorte was slightly impressed. There were few humans that acted this arrogantly towards gods.
“… It is not impossible to join the fragments of a broken soul together to recycle it as a different soul,” he said.
“Really?! Then –”
“However, this is different from the resurrection that you are imagining. It would only result in a distorted soul that does not possess the personality or the memories of either Konoe Miyaji or Kaidou Kanata.”
As Rodcorte said this, he suddenly remembered something. A hundred thousand years ago, he had gathered the soul fragments of Zakkart and Ark and combined them into a single soul to ensure that Vida would not resurrect the dead.
He had watched numerous reincarnations of this soul as it flowed through his system, but it had not shown anything unnatural, so he had left it alone and forgotten about it.
“If you do not trust me, you can simply ask Machida Aran and Shimada Izumi. Why are you asking me?” Rodcorte asked.
To Minami Asagi, the two who had become Rodcorte’s familiar spirits should have been trustworthy companions. Despite that, he was making the effort of questioning Rodcorte, whom he declared untrustworthy, and Rodcorte couldn’t understand this.
Asagi quickly answered this question. “That’s right, but there might be some things that Aran and Izumi don’t know. Even if I asked those two these things directly, something like what happened before might happen again. That’s why I’m going to question you and then have Aran, Kouya and Tendou analyze your answers.”
By ‘something like what happened before,’ he was likely referring to how Aran and Izumi had become unable to move when Konoe Miyaji had tried to use the ‘Clairvoyance’ Tendou to attack before the others could get a chance.
Humans who had ascended to becoming familiar spirits generally had free wills, but when they directly interfered with the gods they served or clearly violated the rules that had been imposed on them, they became unable to move.
Asagi was likely wary that this could happen if questions that were inconvenient to Rodcorte happened to be asked.
It seemed that there was more thought behind his actions than Rodcorte had thought.
“So then, why is it that you are honestly admitting this to me?” Rodcorte asked.
“You can read what we’re thinking anyway, right? So then, there’s no point in hiding it,” Asagi said.
“Indeed, that is true.”
Realizing that Asagi also possessed the courage and strength of will that he had originally thought, Rodcorte revised his view of him.
On top of being aware that his thoughts were being read, Asagi was acting genuinely arrogant before a being who was absolutely superior to himself. Leaving aside whether that had any meaning or not, it was something that normal humans could not do.
In fact, Rodcorte knew that Asagi’s thoughts were the same as the words he spoke.
“But why would you wish for the resurrection of those two? You people no longer consider them your companions, do you?” Rodcorte asked.
Kaidou Kanata had conducted acts such as abducting female criminals and murdering them after raping them, then concealing their corpses. When another reincarnated individual’s mother in Origin met an accident that left her on the verge of death, he had considered this fortunate and sold her organs after ending her life; he had truly disgraced the Bravers.
Konoe Miyaji could be considered to be better than him, but he was a traitor who had joined the Eighth Guidance with Murakami Junpei.
Even though they had been destroyed, these two were not people whom Asagi should have been concerned about.
However, it seemed that Asagi had different thoughts.
“It’s true that I can’t consider them to be my companions,” he said. “In fact, I think they deserved to die for the things they did. Aran and the others aren’t worried about those two being destroyed, either. I know that the things Amamiya did were because he had no choice but to protect himself. But if you ask me whether they did something that made them deserve to have their souls broken, then I…”
It seemed that Asagi’s thoughts as an individual were prompting him to investigate whether Kaidou Kanata and Konoe Miyaji’s souls could be rebuilt.
However –
“That is quite the meaningless thing that you are worrying about,” Rodcorte remarked.
“What?!”
“Ah, my apologies. It seems that I have accidentally spoken my true thoughts out loud.”
“Are you trying to pick a fight with me?!”
“Why would I pick a fight with someone who cannot fight back? You are worrying about a truly meaningless thing, so that is simply what I thought.”
Asagi was enraged.
Rodcorte decided to explain as he took a small break. “It seems that you are worrying about whether those two committed acts worthy of having their souls broken, but the fitting punishment for one’s acts will change depending on one’s views. If there are some who say that someone deserves death for his crimes, there will be others saying that death is too harsh a punishment,” he said. “It is a problem to me when any souls are broken, so I can say that those two should not have had their souls broken. That is all.”
“… You don’t understand at all, do you? It makes me feel strange when a god himself says something like that. And aren’t you the one who let Konoe die?” Asagi said.
“Would you like me to explain my reasons for that once more? Based on what I can read of your thoughts, you have quite the complete understanding of them.”
“Shit, you’re not a god after all!” Asagi spat as he turned his back to Rodcorte and left.
It seemed that today’s questioning would end here.
What support the reincarnated individuals would actually get after being reborn in Lambda, how their previous experience would be reflected in their skills, whether their other memories would remain intact when their memories regarding the circle of reincarnation systems were deleted as they were reborn, whether they could choose their parents if they were reborn as babies, whether they could choose the place they started if they were reborn as adults… Asagi had asked numerous questions, but Rodcorte interpreted this as him thinking more seriously, and held higher expectations of him than he had in Kaidou Kanata.
“Now then, I suppose I will give my response to Alda.”
“In other words, what I felt wasn’t wrong. Amamiya, I’m definitely going to stop you,” Asagi murmured.
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NOVEL DISCUSSION
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Winter
I don’t think that Asagi deserves to have his soul broken or even die, but I sure hope this wannabe shonen protagonist will get beaten up a few times, because he’s freaking annoying with his overbearing bs.
Zenden1st
All these people virtue signaling about dying=soul break know DAMN WELL they rather have their souls live on after death than have it ripped to shreds…
STOP THE CAP
Retribution
a reminder to everyone that this entire debacle problem that Idiotcorte and Alda has rn simply wouldnt have existed if the fuck just reincarnated Vandalieu NORMALLY,like,had he accepted Van’s request to be reincarnated normally,he wouldnt be wasting effort on trying to stop vandalieu now
Bunnyman
I dont understand, how is soul breaking any different from death? If you die and reincarnate as a mouse then is it any different from your soul breaking? You wont know anything in any of these cases.
Also, to those who dont know about reincarnation and transmigration dying means the end, doesnt it? Its the same for those who know about soul breaking. So if one supported capital punishment or killed others when they were alive, then that person should have absolutely no say about soul breaking. Opposing soul breaking now is just hypocritical.
DarkCarnage
it kind of like being brain dead when you die(you exist but everything is gone) and breaking of the soul is true death, the complete end.
for our dumbass ass souls just numbers and fuel that run through and power him and his system. so he wants as much as possible.
Chiu ChunLing
If a soul is broken, Rotcortex has to fix it manually or just feed the bits into the system as inferior category souls (like for plants and such) and let them repair themselves.
This means more work for Rotcortex.
Not that he’s just lazy, though he is. Even if he automates his system to recognize when souls have been broken and just use the fragments as low-grade souls till the repair themselves, it’s genuinely impossible to keep things running if too many souls are broken in a short time-frame.
If you’re talking about Asagi, who has killed numerous people for “Justice” (basically meaning cause it benefits him), then yes, he’s an enormous hypocrite.
Korath
I remember Star Trek, where they forbid a certain type of phaser gun, that desintegrated people in such a cruel way they had immense pain . Dont ask me which episode or which series. ^^ Despite being that and more work for Idiocorte, its probably also producing not 100% sane people, as in Vals case. Also at least 1 soul is missing and “creatures” have to be reborn without a soul, dunno how that actually works.
But in general I agree, It doesnt matter for the person, its just that their death is super cruel.
WizziBot
As much as Rodcorte is an idiot he is a logical being. The bravers are the real self-centered hypocritical r*tards
Sailon
Logical? I dont think he is if he was he couls try to think other methods insted of this extremist ways, he is consistent, in the way he acts as a coward that only care about hilmself and his system (that give him power) insted of the sel rightous bullshit of many bravers, including the One that became familiars, they even acuse van because if had vida race being mistred by humans he would side with humans even saying he would make great massacre as is he would even killer inicents somithing that he never done until know, setimetimes they act like the humans should be more importante then vida races super ridiculousCbis indeed insane in many ways even the author saiy that, but his action is no any worse then thus Alda heroes, diferent world diferent valours, his focus is vida race but altought he can be vingativeand cruel has many that are even worse and hes focus is to protect is people what is logical to expect from a ruler
Chiu ChunLing
Rotcortex is stupid, but he isn’t as irrationally hypocritical as most of the Bravers.
Hobbes
What is this logic you speak of? Because if we’re talking about the logic that I know of Rodcorte has next to none in his existence…
redboi1411
Leaving aside the stupid stuff about hypocritcal retards, it is true that Rodcorte is a completely logical being.
Which is his issue. He’s not dealing with machines or AI or programming code. He’s dealing with people. In the strictest sense, the emotions of people aren’t irrational or illogical, in most circumstances. There is a logic and a rationality to the why and how, is just that it is something you rarely can translate completely to measurements, and it is also a self-contained logic. It doesn’t follow the terms of efficiency and risk-reward.
Rodcorte doesn’t care about it, and is likely to never care, rendering him incapable of ever accounting for the issues these differences bring. when his logicality clashes with that. Account for that the fact that he’s endlessly apathetic to people being people, and you have issues like him completely failing to notice Vandalieu and giving his fortune to Amemiya. Not because he’s stupid and incapable of keeping track, but because he genuinely doesn’t care nearly enough to pay they requisite attention accounting for the possibility of a mistake like that. He doesn’t care, and so just won’t try.
Hobbes
You keep on trying to defend Rodcorte’s intelligence, logic, & expertise (or at least stubbornly insist thar he possesses such qualities in more than a minimal amount)… but even here in this latest defense, you’re equating the mistakes made due to idiocy & carelessness with apathy. They’re NOT the same thing nor do these different motivations manifest in the same way. Rodcorte was motivated by all these things yes, but the fact that EVERYTHING would be different if he put more than a second of thought & effort into ANY of his endeavors. The fact that he DIDN’T, DOESN’T, & NEVER WILL PROVES a pattern of thought & behavior. So please stop trying to justify on Rodcorte’s behalf. It’s unbecoming.
Korath
A logical way would be to stand for his mistakes and go down on Lambda himself and kill Van with his own hands, despite how dangerous it may be for himself. As it is now Val already has massive influence and created an army of 15000+ people on D+ adventure level besides the kids. I dont know how his limitations and risks are, but thats what I would have done, at least right now.
Kuroky
See ya asagi. Good to know ur gonna join them trash
redboi1411
… Asagi literally just said he agrees that Vandalieu was in the right to defend himself, he just disagrees with the soul-breaking. He never stated any intention to try and kill Van in this chapter, at least nowhere that I can see. He’s just asking his own questions.
Genuinely, why the fuck are so many of you guys so eager to twist facts just to fabricate hate on characters? What a bunch of bullshit.
LmaoLN
.
FunniFear
The slaughter meat is getting ready to go out into the world.
Chiu ChunLing
I have to say, Asagi didn’t really sell his decision to oppose Vandalieu.
I’m wondering whether he just means he’s going to try and lecture him into changing his “evil ways” (starting with the heavy preponderance of busty experienced onee-sans around him which apparently bugs some people…I mean, what else is going to be lusting after a tiny expressionless shota?).
That would be pretty hilarious, but Van wouldn’t kill him over it (or even let the ara-ara squad disembowel him too much), let alone destroy his soul.
Of course, it wouldn’t take long for Van to impose his own views right back at Asagi if that’s what he means to do. Probably melt his mental resolve to keep it up even before it stopped being funny.
But if Asagi means he’s actually going to try and kill Van (not by annoying him to death), I really need a more compelling picture of his justification.
Chiu ChunLing
P.S. I’m aware that Priv isn’t a busty experienced onee-san.
That’s why her “not losing on number of legs” bit is adorably innocent rather than merely incomprehensible.
Unlimitedpower
The soul breaking isnt all that bad though. when you die you die, even if you do reincarnate you will have a different body, a different personality and theres nothing left of you anyways so whats the problem with breaking someones soul? its nothing more than annoying the idiot god.
Wsteven7o7
True
Tomas-28
I have a different view: life is eternal, you may lose your memories but you are still yourself and you carry over your karma and your spiritual development, there is no such thing as a hard-reset button, everything flows and we are all one, all barriers and segregations are imaginary.
Nobody2
That’s a cool theory for real life. It’s also been explicitly disproven in the story
Chiu ChunLing
Well, Van himself is the go-to example of someone who had his soul broken.
As a consequence, Rotcortex pieced his soul back together from the fragments of several souls, prioritizing making sure Vida couldn’t resurrect any of them over doing a good job. He ended up with a greatly distorted soul. One of the effects was apparently that he ended up with a large amount of ‘blank space’ that became mana capacity, but it seems likely that another effect was a profound lack of good fortune.
His overall behavior indicates that he shares certain ethical and moral character qualities of the Champions from whose souls he was formed (despite Rotcortex’s total conceptual ignorance of such qualities).
unwanted child
Kaidou Kanata: “I WILL COME BACK TO KILL YOU AND YOUR FAMILY!!!!”
van: “okie dokie” *breaks soul*
Asagi: !!!!!!!!
unwanted child
the first assassin guy: “ILL KILL YOU AND RAPE YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMLIY”
van: ” welp gauss i gotta break your soul then”
asagi: O-O
Baldingere
What I like about my clichee hotblooded dumb shonen protags is that they understand (or try to) the pain the villains experienced and try to win them over and propose another wau or smth else equally naive that only works because of emotional manga magic.
Asagi doesn’t have that. Neither does Heinz. They don’t care about Van’s point of view. And that even though he’s a good guy! Mighty and nice, cool combination! But he’s too different, so they try to shape him into their way. That’s so selfish! How those people are considered kind heroes is beyond me.
Wsteven7o7
Lets use the most simple method. Think of the average person and how misinform or have almost no knowledge out side their bubble.
Now think of the 25% of that average and how dumb they are.
And that’s how we get a Prota that is dumb asf and many people shower them with riches.
Not saying average is dumb im saying that most of them know nothing lets say for example electricity wich we use everyday.
So by simple calculations the average of the average are people like anti vacer people that still think earth is flat wich we have know for over 1k years that is round and people like Asagi, bellwood a extremists and Alda even as a god is a scum at the level of Hitler.
Literally Alda brain washed his people into thinking he was great and the enemy was the one of their misery discriminates against all of them kill them torture them in ways that cannot ve describe made sure anybody helping would be seen as a person associating with daemons and giving the same harsh punishment or worse. And that’s the tip of the iceberg.
KingJake122
damn van was right about him. annoying was the exact definition of his personality lol. these reincarnated people are funny cant wait for their failed assassinations. when van o.p counterpart and his wife later dies things should be pretty interesting
yvesdakempo
People like Asagi lives inside their own head, see everything from their own eyes, while closing their ear shut from other people’s words, while speaking their own opinion not caring it’s good or bad. Well people like this are common though, i believer every reader here has one or two people like this around, especially asian. Lol (I’m asian)
OtakuOnCaffiene
Don’t forget Bellwood! That jackass decided that not listening to the creation heroes and fighting against Vida was the right thing (the battle of Vida and Alda, the combat heroes joined Alda)
Wsteven7o7
Like some Unknown Saint that is well known and hated…
Wsteven7o7
I believe there is more of that people in US.
But well is mostly because a little group being noisy is more noticeable than a large group saying nothing defending or trying to counter attack.
Raidanzoup
Rod-chan: But what if… I made it worse?
Sigh, so after the pained and brooding heroes in Heinz and Amemiya, we have the hotblooded “would be the mc of any other story” Asagi. I wanted a detailed account of Asagi’s reaction to Van’s first two lifetimes, though. I really wanted him to really grind his molars together while saying something like “things weren’t supposed to be like this”. lol
hungsayori
Murakami’s thought process is mindboogling
hmm, Calculation isn’t definite and chaos theory isn’t unheard of, what’s my choice of action to secure a high survival rate?
Oh, I know! let’s actively challenge an immortal soul breaking godslayer with a track record of 0 losses against all odds!
Chiu ChunLing
Well, like his group says, “If I were him, I’d try to kill us.”
Which is exactly why Van will. He’s not perfect about it, but he tries to treat people the way they’ve treated him.
It’s why he’s so dead set on killing everyone who killed his mom…not because she cares about them killing her, but because there’s zero chance she’d ever forgive anyone for killing him. So, to reciprocate her care for him, he cannot ever forgive anyone for killing her.
Wsteven7o7
Thanks to this comment you have enlighten me a little more thanks.
Gohankuten
Also he is afraid that even if they change they might still try and kill her again once he has revived her. Basically he wants to make sure that those that killed his mom can never get a chance to do so again.
Kuroky
Migh as well make his peace now
polynesianvibez
can’t wait til van cleans out the trash
thanks for the chapter
Erelorial
Thanks for the chapter! Another dead man. And while I don’t believe Rodcorte can make Vida loose her divinity, he is still going to have to fight Van, who keeps leveling his Godslayer and has the option to take that anti-divinity job.
Hobbes
My opinion of Asagi was like the stock market this chapter lol
When he was insulting Rodcorte it was a raging bull market…. And as soon as he spouted his crap afterwards I realized it was a Black Tuesday.
Brandragoon
I hate people like asagi. He is literally incapable of seeing things from other people’s point of view.
Hobbes
Can’t say I disagree, but he’s definitely not a bad person. Just an annoying guy who acts with good intentions. Better to have those kinds of people than not, but not someone I’d want to be around.
hidefreek
He is a good person but the outcome of his actions will only gone worse in Lamda.
Asagi use logic and thought from his first world to judge other with pure tendency without any regards.
We has Bellwood who was green peace terrorist that cause total chaos in Lamda, and now Asagi too…….it is hell
Silwith
Thought the same, he is like Bellwood, just with another mindset behin, but the way they force it on others seems the same.
savage
It would be a good thing to have those ppl if their good intentions actually helped. The braves lowkey caused more damage with the few mistakes they made than they helped over the years. Origin is done for.
Chiu ChunLing
If he were a good person, he’d care about fixing his glaring personality defects.
He’s just a person who bullies others into agreeing he’s ‘good’.
redboi1411
That would imply he has any clue that he has personality defects. I find it that people far, far too often overestimate how self-aware the average person is about their own personality issues. Asagi is not even the average person, he’s very very stubborn. “Bullying” is an exaggeration, though. At least all I remember is him being insistent, not literally abusing violence or social power to force people.
He feels like the kind of person that would be annoyed that someone doesn’t wanna be part of the group even if it’s not his business to make them join, while you word it like he’d ostracize or make his friends pick on them if they didn’t agree.
XPotato
People who have good intentions but are unable to act upon those from others’ point of view are really dangerous if they have the power
Thanos is the best example
Hu-Tao
@Hobbes More like the mormons trying to tell you how to live your life. They’re not good people they’re just thinking they are good people.
WolfLord_Jordon
2.Thanks for the chapter on a good story
The Prodigal
Damn Asagi is annoying… If you didn’t rescue him from his suffering you don’t have the right to condemn him and his false sense of justice that he forces onto others is just as annoying…. I hope Van tortures him to death (seems unlikely tho)…
Triduo
Van will probably do it if he feels that Asagi won’t give up on assassinating him even after being captured or having all his limbs severed or being shown how weak he is compared to Van.
Hobbes
Van doesn’t hurt those who don’t hurt him, his friends, or his family. So unless Asagi morphs and falls from grace by “purifying” Vida’s races and Undead simply because they don’t mesh with his morals & values (like one of Alda’s fanatic psychopaths) that isn’t ever going to happen. He’ll just hound Van to annoy him probably.
Tomhg
Dude all these braves are level 12 idiots. They realise that all creatures, including monsters and even animals and plants, have souls. They just heard that humans can be reborn as non humans – ie they asked about Van’s parents and his mum was a tortoise. They also come from a country and culture that dealt with its history of racial discrimination and faith or ethnicity based wars.
And then they show up and look down on Van, thinking he’s insane or a monster for treating people with equality. When the bravers were on Origin they were extremely xenophobic, for decades they stuck together, protected eachother, and treated the lives of other bravers as superior, or more valuable, than local humans. Asagi is upset at what Van did, but if you really analyse what happened, someone (with the help of a god) tried to assassinate him and his ‘family’, and when he reflected the damage back and it killed the assassin. How is that the victim’s fault?
They are a bunch of hypocrites I dislike them all, hopefully most of them turn into enemies and we get to see them obliterated.
Donce
In case of Asagi, he is completely self cantered idiot.
From last part you can even say he looks down on Gods if this Gods don’t agree with his ideals. He said Rodidiot are not god just because Rodidiot said he is in the wrong. So, Asagi thinks it is his right to decide that is good and that is evil. And if Gods don’t agree with him they are not gods. Can you even imagine how self cantered he are? Bellwood are the same.
Wsteven7o7
In that case im the same i value what’s good and evil but we all do but Asagi as you said is truly the same monkey thinking of Alda.
Hope they get the Title: Cave man
Cave Man worse than actual cave man and their understanding of others cannot reach more far than their noses
redboi1411
That is a very stupid oversimplification, though. Asagi agrees on every account that Van was right for defending himself, and he doesn’t even disagree that the 2 that died should not have died, he just disagrees with the punishment (soul destruction).
It also grates my nerves that you are stating shit that was never said. I at least don’t remember all the Bravers treating Van like a fucking mindless monster for “wanting equality”. There are people that interact with entire dens of lions directly. Would you say people are being racist if someone finds that absurd and dangerous?
You COULD have a point if they found out that all the “monsters” in his kingdom are more or less harmless and live in essential harmony with each other and the humans, and despite that treated Van as a fucking maniac, but they don’t know that. It has been repeated multiple times that they lack any manner of insider information because they can’t get any info from souls in his kingdom. They are going completely black, and yet the majority so far seems to agree just not bothering him should be perfectly okay. Asagi doesn’t even mention, at any point, that he minds the monsters or what have you, that never comes up once. The Bravers even came from a world where undead are totally real, and 100% of the time they are always dangerous and uncontrollable. Why would it be hypocritical to think the same could be the same for “monsters” you know shit all about?
This is just chapter 100 on “the commenters make up dumb bullshit to be angry about”, and it is so very tiring every single time.
Triot
Honestly if a soul loses its personality and memory everytime its reincarnated than Rodcorte really dose have a point. For example Genghis Khan may become a harmless school teacher in the next life. Or could have done great things in a past life.
TJ
That profile picture is going to give me nightmares.
darkoneko
it’s just the doom guy tho?
Wsteven7o7
Don’t worry Doom guy will kill your demons so you can sleep…
Bruhnnoe
The only problem with destroying a soul in the case of Rodcorde is that it can cause problems in the reincarnation system, but only if hundreds of thousands are destroyed at the same time. His reincarnation system is a bit rigid for responding to problems.
About the fact that destroying a soul is wrong in itself, I believe it is not. Destroying a soul prevents that person from reincarnating with memories, even if unlikely, can happen. Reincarnating is like destroying a soul. The person himself dies anyway, since what makes a person who he is is his memories and life experiences.
The soul is like a jar that will receive life experiences, thus becoming a person. But every time it reincarnates, the jar is emptied and the process restarts. To destroy the soul is to destroy the jar. Also, souls can be created. I doubt that the number of souls has always been the same from the beginning.
So I don’t believe destroying the soul is that bad. It is no different from killing someone from the point of view of someone who does not know about reincarnation cycles. And anything good or bad done in the past life counts nothing. The present life is another person.
Hobbes
Very well stated
Hobbes
Rodcorte has a point from a very dry and sociopathic view. He doesn’t value life other than his own. The few times he says or does the right things it’s always for the wrong reasons and that’s just not good enough.
Brainlet
in one of the chapters he was stated to watch over the worlds he governed with indifference disguised as impartiality
Doodads
I guess being indifferent to everything equally IS a form of impartiality, but yeah, that’s definitely not an attitude a god should have.
Hoang IMBA
I dont think so. It nice so see how Bravers proceed their thinking. Well you can barely say good people don’t want against and bad people do. Chronos just made mistake to show his hostility to Van and what is his doing now is for “his survival”. But I think Asagi is hypocrite, what is different between rebuild from broken soul and lost memory with reincarnate without remember past life. I believe he will lost his way.
DiscoManiak
Its like you have taken those words from my mouth. I see every day some guys telling sh*t about this novel like : “Buu buuu , they dont do anything original, Van is having too much luck, all antagonists are too much cliche and bland… blah blah blah….” its the same sheize evey damn time.
And i am honestly starting to get sick of those people. Its like they only read the words, but dont try to understand them. Its story about a man or maybe you can say soul that had only bad things happen to it for god damn 2 worth of lifes, where in one he was just bullied from the very start and than second where he was a fricking guinea pig or maybe worse (because from what i understood, they took control of his own body so he was being tortured but still felt every single thing they did to him.) Van clearly need some of that cliche japanese bullsh*it that happens to those op harem characters and he clearly deserve it more than them, and yeah maybe on surface it sometimes seem that all of them are little bland, but thats just on surface and i think that the author did a good job, because i can actually remember almost every damn main and some side character (which most of novels which this much of a characters miserably fail to do).
Bruhnnoe
I agree, and let’s not forget the translation.
This novel is my favorite and the only one I follow every release.
Leothegreat
Sometimes i feel like the people talking sh*t about the novel would have not reach upto this point of the novel and read the side the chapters which is very crucial and interesting. These people read a lot chinese revenge manhwa so they dont fking read this much.
Oof i wish they could take liberty of reading whole thing for once before giving their review
Hobbes
If someone hasn’t actually fully tried something is intent on giving their opinion on that thing… well… that’s the definition of ignorance. It’s irritating, but try to ignore them.
Hobbes
It took me a long time to give this novel a try even though it was recommended as being similar to a few other good WN & LN that I enjoyed (it was because I foolishly paid attention to the idiots giving negative reviews even though they dropped it instead of actually reading the whole story). I’m so glad that I eventually did and ignored the haters who just want to be miserable and drag everyone with them.