Adrien was born with eyes that saw beyond the veil.
From his earliest memories, the world felt... off. Not broken, not wrong—just fabricated.
Even as a child, the air itself seemed false, the words of adults rehearsed, like actors in a play no one acknowledged. Other children played with toy swords and made up tales of heroes and monsters.
Adrien watched them, but he never joined.
Not out of shyness, nor fear. It was because he couldn't pretend—not like them. He saw the cracks in the stories they told.
He saw the world for what it was.
A well-dressed lie.
He grew up unremarkably—on the surface. He answered questions when asked, submitted homework on time, and scored just high enough to avoid attention. But beneath the mask of mediocrity, Adrien devoured knowledge like a starving man. Mathematics, philosophy, metaphysics, programming, even forbidden texts on arcane theory. While others sought meaning in relationships or success, Adrien dissected existence itself. He did not chase glory or companionship. He wanted understanding.
Because something was missing.
Something fundamental.
A void that hollowed his heart.
And then came the day.
The day his world shattered.
He wasn't sure if it was divine fate or cosmic punishment, but he had been chosen—transported to the world of H'Trae, where magic, monsters, and the System governed all. He remembered waking up in a blank world of nothingness, with an angelic figure addressing both himself and his classmates.
Just like everyone, he was given the opportunity to pick a Class and Skills, and he chose the only correct route: what would lead him to the truth.
[Primeval Skill: Skill Creation]
Thanks to that Skill, he awakened a new Class exclusive to himself called [Extra].
It was an E-Rank Skill that seemingly mocked him for having incredible power, yet possessing no Class to complement it. It was very akin to a lot of the stories he knew about that featured cliche storylines of unexceptional people suddenly possessing incredible power.
It disgusted him.
However, this gave him insight into how the world worked and how the System behaved.
That was when it clicked.
This world was a machine.
Not metaphorically—literally.
The System wasn't merely an RPG convenience—it was a mechanism, a set of gears and subroutines built to control, reward, punish, and manipulate. It didn't distinguish between good and evil.
Kill a man and gain EXP. Learn a power, and gain a Skill Save a nation and gain a Class.
It was the same.
It valued only action. Power was a currency of survival. Nothing more.
Adrien had smirked then.
"This world is no different than mine," he whispered.
He walked the lands of H'Trae not as a Hero or a Savior, but as a student.
He documented Skills, Stats, mana flows, and the Source Code behind Reality.
He quickly discovered forbidden temples, one of them being the Chamber of Ancients, and even learned of The Oracle's Shrine among the Elves.
All of his findings led him to something… entities known as the Ancients.
They were also known as Administrators: Supreme Gods of all existence that governed both Aether and Nether.
From this discovery, Adrien learned the bitter truth: H'Trae was but one layer in a staircase of manufactured existences. Behind the curtain of gods and monsters, there existed an even higher design—a divine tyranny hiding behind facades of 'fate' and 'balance.'
And the System?
The System was their leash.
So Adrien broke free.
By learning how to create Skills, he discovered how to override the System.
How to replicate himself, break the rules, and build a dimension apart from existence—an impossible space where he reigned supreme. He birthed versions of himself, each one tailored for knowledge, power, logic, or raw destruction.
His ultimate goal was not domination—it was liberation.
He wanted to find the source—the original truth, the reason behind creation and void alike.
But the deeper he went, the more hollow he felt.
No answer satisfied him. No power filled that emptiness. His infinite minds could not rewrite the first sentence of his story:
"Why do I exist?"
And when he found the answer...
...there was none.
Nothing waited at the end of the divine staircase. No God. No secret truth. Only the silent cold of cosmic indifference.
And that was when his obsession twisted.
If the world offered no truth, he would become it.
If the System was the master, he would overwrite it.
If existence was a lie, then he would force it to kneel before him.
That was why he orchestrated the multi-dimensional attack.
That was why he cloned himself by the thousands.
That was why he hunted Rey, who seemed to be the last variable in the equation Adrien could not solve.
Because Rey believed.
Despite also knowing of the truths of the world… he did not go mad.
Because Rey, with his feeble love, stubborn hope, and broken humanity, could still fight for people. Could still look into the void and say, "It's worth it."
Adrien never hated him for that.
But he could not allow it to continue.
And yet—here they were.
*********
The scene snapped back.
A dismembered Adrien's head, partially cracked and bleeding blackenedblood, floated in Rey's grip. The rest of his body was gone—obliterated in their final clash.
The two stood at the collapsing heart of Adrien's dimension.
"You win," Adrien rasped, silver eyes flickering. "So... this is what defeat tastes like."
He coughed, voice dry. "I never thought... I'd end like this. Trapped in a shell I created."
Rey remained silent.
"I suppose I was arrogant," Adrien muttered. "Or perhaps... too curious. Tell me, Rey. Don't you want to know what lies beyond this world? Don't you want to unmask the gods? To know who pulls the strings of our existence?"
Rey slowly knelt beside him, setting Adrien's cracked head gently on the ground.
"I do," he said honestly. "Curiosity is part of being human."
Adrien blinked slowly, surprised by the honesty.
"But there's something more important to me," Rey continued, eyes firm. "The people I've met. The bonds I've made. They're not puppets or variables. They're real. And that's what I fight for."
Adrien's face twitched.
"You're wasting yourself," he whispered. "Your potential. All for sentiment."
"Maybe," Rey said, smiling gently. "But I've never wanted anything else."
Adrien laughed bitterly. "You really are... mediocre."
"I know, and I don't care. This is my story…" Rey replied, his tone soft.
He closed his fingers around Adrien's head.
"... From an extra's point of view."
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!
With a burst of light, Rey crushed Adrien's skull, and the echoes of his being were vaporized. The dimension groaned as its creator's will evaporated, and the sky above them—if it could be called that—cracked like broken glass.
Reality was collapsing.
Rey stood alone now, the fragments of Adrien's empire shattering into floating data and fading stars.
"I suppose it's time…" He exhaled once.
Then his expression hardened.
"... For the final phase of the plan."
And with that, he turned toward the collapsing domain, energy swirling around him like a rising storm.
Even with Adrien defeated, his task remained incomplete.
There was something more he was yet to do: the only thing that he agreed with Adrien on, which he had to accomplish.
—Liberation.