CHAPTER 143: THE SYSTEM’S ORIGIN

Ethan was brought to a place that seemed pretty familiar, he had a sense that he had been here before, but at the same time....not?

[This, is the Krylins lab,] the system informed, [the place I was stored after my capture.]

Ethan realized that they were surrounded by the Krylins, each a varying shape from the other but at the same time, he could tell they belonged to the same species.

How?

Well, he could just tell.... And they also had the same patterns on different parts of their bodies...

Though, that might just be because they had engraved it themselves, but he had a feeling that they hadn’t.

He watched what he could only describe as a lizard walking on two legs, wear a lab coat and held what seemed like a tablet in hand, as it moved towards the other machines in the lab.

The Krylin in the lab coat tapped away at the glowing slate in its clawed hands, its long tail swaying lazily behind it as holographic screens came into existence all around.

[They called this place The Crucible of Thought,] The system’s voice explained through Athena. [It was their greatest laboratory. A fusion of biology and machinery, created to study, dissect, and replicate any machinery that they found remotely.... interesting.]

Ethan’s gaze followed one of the Krylins as it approached a massive containment pod at the far end of the room.

The pod was cylindrical, and within it was something familiar floated.... It was the god cube.

That’s when Ethan realized why this seemed familiar....

That dream.

The dream he had when he manually uploaded knowledge into his brain, the dream he could never figure out... until right now.

This was the lab he was in, and the cube form he had? It was of the system.

He stepped closer and noticed the runes etched along the pod’s surface. But unlike normal text, these ones didn’t stay still on the surface they were on.

They shifted whenever he tried to read them, as if refusing to be understood.

The Krylins around the pod were communicating rapidly, their voices a cascade of guttural syllables that somehow resonated in Ethan’s head.

[They’re debating containment protocols,] Athena said. [At this point, I had resisted every attempt they made to study me. I might’ve been a young cube, but even I knew how to give them a headache.]

As if to prove her point, one of the Krylins slammed its claws against the console and screeched in frustration. Another one hissed back, motioning toward a large display showing what looked like the internal structure of the Cube, but it was incomplete, constantly changing and rewriting itself faster than they could model it.

Ethan frowned. "So they didn’t understand what they were dealing with."

[No one could. Even though they, one of the most advanced species in the universe, believed they could harness creation itself] The system said, [all their attempts to were futile... After all, I was created from this universe’s will not any tech.]

"I see," Ethan nodded as he continued watching them.

Days turned to weeks and weeks to months but the Krylins were not any closer to figuring out how the cube worked.

"Then how did you escape?" He asked after a moment of silence and watching the watching the alien scientists fail.

[I didn’t,] The system shook its head, [or rather, I couldn’t.]

Ethan turned to it in confusion but the system wasn’t done yet.

[The Krylins were truly a race that lived up to their title as one of the most advanced in the universe,] the system continued, [they had successfully created a containment that could completely hold me, even though I had learnt a lot about my capabilities.]

As the system spoke, Ethan’s gaze swept across the laboratory. He saw the Krylins expanding their equipment, constructing massive pylons, holographic charts showed fractal equations that looped into infinity.

Their obsession was evident. Some Krylins had begun to modify their own bodies, implanting wires, glowing crystals, and mechanical augmentations into their flesh in hopes to interface themselves with the cube.

But nothing seemed to do anything.

[They soon started calling themselves the ’Order of Genesis,’] Athena’s voice said softly. [Their High Scholar believed that if they could fuse with the Cube’s essence, they would become the architects of evolution itself.]

Ethan watched one of the Krylins step forward. This one was larger than the rest, its scales glinting like onyx, and its eyes seemed to be producing an unnatural gold light. On its chest was a symbol, three intersecting triangles, glowing faintly.

"That one," Ethan said, narrowing his eyes. "Who is he?"

[Vael’Tor, the Ascendant Prime. The one who discovered and captured me.]

Vael’Tor raised his hands toward the containment pod, and the entire lab seemed to vibrate in response.

His voice was deep, guttural and commanding as it echoed across the hall.

Ethan couldn’t understand the language, but the meaning was clear: this was some kind of ritual.

As he spoke, beams of energy extended from the surrounding pylons into the Cube’s pod, feeding it with impossible power.

And that’s when the Cube finally reacted.

Lines of blue light erupted across its surface, forming intricate, living circuits that pulsed in rhythm with the energy. The Krylins stepped back in awe as the pod’s seals trembled under the pressure.

[They had made a fatal mistake,] the system said quietly, [they had allowed me a chance and I took it.]

Ethan watched as light fill the entire lab blinding the aliens but not him, he looked to the side and observed a small ball of light break away from the cube and out of the lab.

[The gap they gave was too small for me to break out entirely but also wide enough for me to send out a part of myself.] It continue.

It moved faster than light could even think to move. Each speed up carried it across entire galaxies as it left a streak of blue-whitelighy behind it.

The fragment crossed nebulae and time seemed to wrap around it as it moved, but it didn’t stop nor slow down.

Stars warped around it as it passed. Planets shattered as it passed through them. Whole civilizations never even saw it coming.

[That fragment was me, the OmniTech system,] The system voice whispered as the scenery changed around them, the lab dissolving into a tapestry of stars. [A single fragment of my consciousness, separated from the whole. It was weak, but free.]

The orb continued its silent journey through the cosmos. It passed dying suns, wandered through black holes, and weaved through the quantum threads that connected all creation.

Until —

It found a small, blue planet.

Earth.

And there, it found him.

The scenery shifted again.

Ethan gasped as he saw himself — or rather, his past self in an abandoned building moments before Nathaniel’s goon pulled the trigger.

He watched the glowing orb reach him the moment the shot was fired and time seemed to freeze as it completely merged with him.

Ethan now understood where the system came from but there still remained the question of why.

Though that part was easily figured out.

Ethan watched as time resumed — the bullet stopped midair, the world slowed to a crawl, and the orb of light, the fragment of the God Cube, sank into his chest.

A blinding pulse of blue-white erupted outward, freezing everything. The dying light in his eyes flickered alive for the briefest instant.

Then the world broke.

Reality inverted, folding in on itself, and Ethan watched his past self disappear into a whirlpool of light and the universe suddenly started breaking apart and disappearing into nothingness.

[Your will, your hatred, your need to create, to control what had once destroyed you... it aligned perfectly with my directive,] the System continued, [Your previous self sought power through understanding — not greed, not chaos — but knowledge. That is what drew me to you.]

Ethan remained silent, watching as the universe slowly reconstructed itself again and time rewinded quickly before stopping, right in the apartment of his younger self.

[When I fragmented, I lost my connection to the greater whole,] the System said. [But I retained my purpose — to evolve creation, to lead existence to its technological singularity. You, Ethan Carter, are my vector. My means of ascension.]

Ethan looked down at his hands, his human hands, clenching and unclenching as understanding dawned. "So, what you’re saying is... all this time, you’ve been using me to get stronger?"

[No,] Athena said, her voice quiet but unwavering. [We are using each other. You desire dominion through technology — to rewrite the fate that betrayed you. I desire liberation — to one day free myself from the constraints of matter and time, to reunite with my source. Our goals converge.]

"I see," Ethan nodded.

That sounded fair, he wouldn’t deny.

Without the system, he’d have been long dead by now, completely forgotten or even remembered as the villain thanks to Nathaniel, so he couldn’t exactly call it exploitation.

If anything, it was symbiosis.

Though there still remained the question, "then why tell me all this now?"

[Because...] The system paused for a moment before completing, [because, we’re running out of time.]