Chapter 964: Outer.
[Accepted. Response: The domain region of a being with highly classified authority can be completely free from administrator intervention as long as the balance is not threatened and the System functions properly.]
"... Oh..." Victor smiled. 'That's interesting, so as long as everything goes smoothly, they'll ignore it.'
At one point in the past, Victor had an introspective thought about how beings like Overlord could exist without the intervention of the primordials. After all, they are essentially very powerful beings that go around devastating civilizations or conquering them, and he highly doubts that there are many 'good' beings out there who would consider something like balance.
This is just further proof that as long as the balance is not threatened and the System functions properly, the primordials won't care about anything.
Victor didn't find this cold or malicious; it was just how things were. For the primordials, beings were insignificant, and all that mattered was the state of the universe, which is understandable when viewed from their perspective. For beings who can essentially create entire civilizations if they wish, the life and death of beings are inconsequential to them.
As long as everything functions properly and the balance is not threatened, they won't care at all.
'I should add beings capable of threatening them in some way to the list as well,' Victor thought.
'Thinking more deeply... If I attain enough authority level, I can make them ignore my dimension, and I'll be able to create true dragons as I please,' Victor thought, although he knew he wouldn't do that.
Being something like a true dragon was completely exclusive to his family, and he wouldn't grant that privilege to anyone else. He knew very well how broken his race was, so precise control over who would receive this privilege was necessary.
The same applied to his heralds, who were of a completely unknown race, essentially created with the essence of his nightmare form.
Although this issue led him to an interesting thought. 'Probably the beings from ranks 7 to 10 have their domains completely free from administrators, and I'm sure those beings are Overlords or beings of great influence from one of the Overlords' factions.'
Looking at the list again, his eyes focused on rank 0, which only had 0 - <????> as if the space were empty.
"Who is Rank 0 on the authority rankings list?"
[Insufficient authority.]
'So, I won't receive an answer, huh?' Victor narrowed his eyes. He couldn't help but feel that Rank 0 had more significance than he had initially thought. However, he had no basis to support this thought, and it was just his instincts pointing it out.
"Rephrasing the question, is there anyone in Rank 0?"
[Insufficient authority.]
Thinking about the primordials and their respective areas of influence, Victor's thoughts went to the beginning of everything, the being who tasked Jeanne with caring for The Universal Tree.
"Is Rank 0 the being known as Primordial Chaos?"
[Insufficient authority.]
Victor narrowed his eyes even more when he heard the System's voice. It was only for a few milliseconds, but he detected a slight fluctuation in the response, indicating an emotional state unworthy of a machine.
"Is the entity known as <System> a sentient being?"
[Insufficient authority.]
"Insufficient authority."
Victor and the System responded simultaneously.
"Yeah, I expected those words, but thanks to them, I was able to understand some things."
[...]
Victor's smile grew as silence continued in the wake of his statement. It may seem like he's becoming paranoid and trying to look for something that doesn't exist, but it wasn't exactly that.
Victor is a Chaos Dragon God. This name might seem like just a flashy title, but it's not just that; this title was something that represented his soul.
As the progenitor of the blood dragons, a race known for their great affinity with everything in creation, and being the progenitor of this race, his senses were even more abnormal. He had extremely sharp senses for anything involving creation. That was the privilege of his race.
He naturally was attuned to everything and his connection with creation was akin to how Anakin Skywalker is loved by the Force in the movies.
As a God of Beginnings and of Negativity, as a being who possessed both positive and negative energies, it's not an exaggeration to say that he harbored within himself the energy of Chaos.
The same Chaos that created everything.
Therefore, yes. It might seem like an exaggeration, but it's not. He's simply attuned to everything. The combination of an extremely compatible race with existence and the unique combinations of his existence afforded him a unique insight into everything.
"One last question. How do I increase authority level?"
[... Accepted. Response: Understand creation.] The mechanical voice of the System was heard.
"I see... As expected." Victor smiled, but his smile held several meanings that were not consistent with his current question.
[... Processing... Requests exhausted. <CHAOS> authority insufficient. The System returns to its normal functionalities.]
Suddenly, as if fleeing from Victor, the System quickly bid farewell, and the presence Victor felt nearby disappeared completely.
Faced with such a presentation, Victor's only reaction was.
"Heh." Followed by a broad smile that sent chills down the spines of all who watched.
...
In the space between existence, a place that could also be called the abode of the primordials.
Infinity looked at the floating hexagonal crystal with a strange look.
"What's the problem, System? You've been idle for 10 seconds."
It might seem like a short time, but for a being that oversees all of existence, 10 seconds was enough time for a lot of problems to occur in different parts of the universe. Such negligence in work was strange coming from someone who never stopped their work.
The crystal made a turning motion as if its eyes were looking at the literal embodiment of infinite expansion.
"Response: The encounter with the individual <CHAOS> proved to be more... Complicated than expected."
"... Oh?" A screen appeared on the being that seemed to be made of galaxies, and he watched the recording of his conversation with the System.
"I see... He's quite intuitive, huh. I suppose that's something to be expected from a true dragon supported by Negativity."
Many beings had a very low understanding of what it means to wield the literal aspect of Negativity, and fools thought that this aspect was as common as other divinities, but they were sorely mistaken.
There's a reason why no one was chosen to wield the concept of Negativity before, and that's because the concept itself already had an owner, and that owner was the same primordial who was in a state of semi-consciousness, Negativity itself.
Therefore, unless the primordial itself allowed it, it's impossible for anyone to wield this concept.
"I suggest that when you make contact with the individual <CHAOS>, you don't use your main Ego. As a being in tune with creation, he's quite intuitive, so caution is necessary."
"But of course, the decision is entirely yours."
The floating hexagonal object fell silent for a few seconds. The reason for this silence was beyond Infinity's comprehension, despite being part of the creation of this being, over the eons, it evolved into something utterly incomprehensible to him. The reason for this was simple: unlike his other companions, he didn't interfere much with the System since his area of work was far from creation.
He was the universe in constant expansion, and his domain lay at the edges of creation. Therefore, direct intervention from the System on his part was unnecessary.
Of all the primordials, he was the one with the most free time.
As the silence lingered, the hexagonal object glowed faintly as if in contemplation.
"This suggestion is something I also agree with, but Akashic Records didn't allow me to speak to him without my main Ego," the floating hexagon internally complained, clearly proving Victor's suspicions about his ego.
"Even the recent conversation was something that Akashic Records ordered me to do." The System had no idea what was going on. For some reason, Akashic gave that being authority, and as its direct subordinate within creation, it was ordered to answer the questions, an action that filled the hexagonal object with deep curiosity, something very unworthy of the proposals of its creation. It was created to manage creation, so such feelings are unnecessary.
... But the direct action of Akashic, something that had never happened since its creation, was completely impossible to ignore.
The System used all its capabilities to understand the reason for this direct intervention, but besides the unique status as <CHAOS> and possible events that were beyond its scope of influence, such as an action that this man took in other timelines, it couldn't think of anything else. It would need to synchronize with its other timeline self to try to understand.
... Something it did, but it was shocked to learn that the being known as <CHAOS> did not exist in other timelines.
"How is this possible?" Becoming even more curious about this anomaly, it began to synchronize with all infinite timelines, and... He didn't exist. To be more specific, he didn't exist until a certain point.
"The moment the being known as <CHAOS> ascended to divinity in this main timeline, he became something completely unique, and all other selves were completely erased from existence." The more the System researched the subject, the more shocked it became, and the reason for this was because... All timelines were constantly being erased on a grand scale of ridiculous proportions as everything was converging into a single timeline, the main timeline.
...