Leveling Up by Executing Monsters

’Not the first time losing, you say?’

Lloyd couldn’t help but scoff inwardly.

’The butler might have described this ’price’ in a lighthearted way and told him not to be nervous, but the actual loss probably isn’t as trivial as he made it sound. This is a ritual for a Tier Seven to advance to the Eighth Tier, after all.’

He continued to ask,

"So, what I need to do is act as a ’reader,’ do my best to crack the Stories of the other two powerhouses, find their flaws, and ensure you are the ultimate victor?"

"Yes. While it won’t be easy, I believe you can do it. You’re a kid who has never let anyone down."

The butler nodded.

Lloyd thought for a moment more. He realized the importance of his role as a ’reader’ in this ritual and immediately understood why the butler had taken an interest in a small fry like him two months ago and wanted to bring him on board.

He had, after all, successfully cracked one of the butler’s Stories back then, demonstrating his aptitude in this area.

Besides, ’trust’ was perhaps even more important than skill.

In a game like this, if the chosen ’reader’ was unreliable—a traitor who deliberately threw the match or just slacked off—all their prior efforts would be for nothing.

And thanks to his sister and Miss Desda, the butler could trust him—or rather, trust that he wouldn’t turn against him.

Lloyd, of course, had no such intentions. The butler and Miss Desda had taken great care of him and his sister back in the day, so he would definitely do everything in his power to help the butler win this important ritual.

Besides, once the butler successfully completed his Transcendence, he’d have another powerful Eighth Tier figure to rely on.

At the same time, Lloyd had to consider the worst-case scenario. He asked tentatively,

"Um... for a powerhouse like you, how long does it take to prepare for a Transcendence like this?"

He didn’t even dare to ask how much money and resources it cost, afraid the pressure would be too much and cause him to underperform.

"It doesn’t take too long,"

the butler replied.

Lloyd breathed a sigh of relief.

But then he heard the butler add,

"The eighth Transcendence of the Manifestation system is quite special, but compared to other systems, the cost isn’t too high. This attempt only took me a little over twenty years to prepare."

"Huh??? How many???"

"Sigh... This is why I didn’t plan on telling you. I was afraid it would be a burden."

"But, what if I cause you to lose...?"

The butler just smiled nonchalantly and answered breezily,

"I wouldn’t blame you. It’s not your responsibility alone. It would also mean my Story wasn’t complete or realistic enough. Worst case, I’ll just spend another twenty years refining it. It’s no big deal to me, so don’t put too much pressure on yourself."

"Even if you say that... Alright, what about my two opponents? How strong are they?"

Lloyd pressed on.

"They are, of course, talented and promising young people, just like you. One is a Tier Four investigator from the Law system; the other is a Tier Four scholar from the Wisdom system."

"Huh? But I’m only Tier Two?"

Lloyd held up two fingers.

"Tier doesn’t matter. In our Stories, there’s no fundamental difference between a Tier Two and a Tier Four. What’s truly tested is your mind, your mentality, your Rationality, your Cognition, and even your experience."

The butler said with another encouraging smile,

"Besides, those two young people aren’t nearly as dazzling as you. At such a young age, you’ve earned the recognition and appreciation of figures like Lord Tirtus, Lord Demani, and even Master Alfred. If anyone should be nervous right now, it’s them.

And I am quite confident in my own Story. I won’t lose to those two."

All Lloyd could say was that while the butler was older and much more composed than the version of him in the journal, you could still see traces of the spirited and reckless youth he once was in his bearing and demeanor.

Lloyd, infected by his confidence, nodded firmly.

Then, the butler got down to brass tacks, teaching Lloyd some of the principles of the Manifestation system, especially those concerning how to analyze and crack a Story.

Lloyd, of course, listened with rapt attention, his mind racing to memorize, process, and recall information.

’Hmmmm, what the butler is teaching me... doesn’t quite line up with what I learned from analyzing that Unknown Fragment.’

The knowledge of the Manifestation system he’d gained from the fragment was very basic. It briefly explained the principles of Manifestation, how to cultivate one’s own Manifestation—also known as a Projection—and a little about how to interfere with another person’s Manifestation ability.

The fundamental principles were more or less the same as what the butler described, with only minor differences in detail and interpretation. This was probably because the butler, as a High-ranking Powerhouse, had his own unique insights into the basics.

As for the part about Projections, it wasn’t relevant to today’s topic, the Story, so the butler didn’t mention it.

But on the final point—how to interfere—the two descriptions were clearly different.

To put it simply, the butler’s method was to deeply experience the content of the Story, figure out one’s own ’role’ within it, and use that as a starting point to deduce your ’trajectory’ and potential ’plot points,’ then find the flaws.

For example, say Lloyd becomes a high school student in a Story. He’s sitting in the second-to-last row by the window, and his deskmate is a beautiful girl with long, straight black hair who seems very cool and aloof. She’s a musical prodigy, able to play all sorts of instruments.

Using this as a starting point, if the subsequent ’plot’ involves Lloyd meeting another beautiful girl, forming a band with his deskmate, and getting entangled in a web of love and hate...

and it ends with him getting his head chopped off with a kitchen knife by one of the girls for trying to two-time them, dying within the Story... well, that ’plot’ would be perfectly reasonable and nearly impossible to crack.

The logic is sound, the motives are sound, the conflicts are sound, and the development is sound.

But if the ’plot’ were changed so that the school is suddenly attacked by a colossal monster, and he inexplicably becomes the pilot of a giant robot, all while nursing a crush on a beautiful girl who looks like his mother...

and it ends with him getting distracted during a battle, causing the beautiful girl to be captured and eaten by the monster, after which he, overcome with grief, kills himself on the spot... that ’plot’ would also be reasonable.

Although the sudden appearance of a colossal monster and a giant robot at school is incredible, as long as the Story itself is internally consistent and the logical progression is sound, it’s still considered reasonable. It has flaws, but they’re difficult to find and exploit.

So what would be unreasonable?

Perhaps with the same opening, he inexplicably becomes a Ninja, his father is a Soul Collector akin to Black and White Impermanence, and then one day his village is attacked by a major villain, and he, as the strongest young man in the village, goes out to fight him...

Both sides summon their Stand-in Messengers and engage in a heated, evenly-matched battle of wits and strength. But then, he suddenly zones out, his life flashes before his eyes, and when he comes to, he’s been sliced in half at the waist, still muttering some nonsense about not giving his opponent a satisfying fight.

That would be a Story riddled with errors, one that could be easily broken. It’s full of things to mock—not only are the background and power systems a chaotic mess, but the plot development is completely illogical, and the ending is utterly brain-dead. Any ordinary person with normal logical thinking could easily escape such a clumsy Story.

"It may sound simple, but the power of a Story lies in the fact that once you enter it, your thoughts and consciousness are interfered with. You automatically become the ’character’ we designed for you, and your actions will follow the ’plot’ we’ve laid out...

So even in a Story full of errors, it’s very difficult to realize what’s happening in time. People generally find it hard to accurately perceive themselves, let alone when their consciousness is being manipulated...

However, a Story cannot read your thoughts or memories. The ’character’ we design for you may not perfectly match your inner self, and the ’world’ we design may not align with your understanding and cognition of the world...

Therefore, it’s still possible for you to notice that this ’character’ isn’t you, and this ’world’ isn’t real. That is the key to breaking a Story."

After this summary, the butler concluded,

"Under our rules, the Stories we prepare for you are extremely tempting. You will often be a flawless, ’perfect’ character, the ’image’ of someone everyone wants to be. It’s very likely that even if you realize something is wrong, you’ll become engrossed and find it hard to break free...

"So, you must think clearly and always remember who ’you’ truly are."

So that was the gist of the butler’s strategy and experience. In short, the goal was to find and exploit these obviously unreasonable flaws to break the entire Story. The process was filled with troublesome things like philosophical debate and self-awareness, making it a rather complicated method.

In contrast, the knowledge recorded in the Unknown Fragment could be summarized simply like this:

Don’t like a certain Villain? Go fight him!

Don’t like a certain organization? Go blow it up!

Don’t like a certain powerhouse? Go all out against him!

And a bit of advice for maintaining self-awareness:

What’s your status that you get to sit in this position?

What are your credentials that you get to have so many beautiful girls around you?

What’s your net worth that you get to spend money like this?

Basically, the moment you suspect you’ve entered a Story, you’re supposed to ask yourself these three questions repeatedly to stay lucid...