Everything suddenly made sense.
The reason why some kind of gigantic, overpowered organization wanted some unknown guy to become an Overseer over an entire world.
'It can't be cheap to send someone into another world,' Kyle thought. 'Like, there are obviously several different worlds. For example, I have seen Magic Lady, and while I don't know how powerful she is, I don't think a normal Transcendent can just go to Earth and grab people.'
'This has to be related to Laws, and the power to walk through worlds can't be a simple or weak Law. You probably have to know where the worlds are, be able to sense them, break through the World Ceiling, and stuff like that.'
'The Law should be related to space, which seems just a bit more complicated than understanding how a couple of metals function. Either Magic Lady is an impossibly powerful and talented Transcendent, or she's on a far higher level.'
'Yet, she's only a recruiter, and she works for some kind of big organization. If a recruiter is already this powerful, how powerful are the actual leaders?'
'And now, with all of that established, why the fuck would anyone spend all this time, money, and effort to grab some random nobody who's never fought another dude in his life?'
'Why not just grab another Transcendent and send them here?'
'Is the job market so shit that Magic Lady just can't get another Transcendent?'
'Of course not!'
'It's because the Transcendents can decline, and to top it off, they also know what the fuck this weird clause means!'
'As far as I know, if I ever manage to become the Overseer, Magic Lady is going to tell me to do all sorts of atrocities that will cost me all of my Karma!'
'The only thing I don't get is what they actually get out of this. Is it resources? Maybe, but probably not. I mean, there's probably far more Ether in Magic Lady's homeworld, and the materials here are probably also trash compared to what they get there.'
'Is it power? I mean, I don't know. Maybe there's some way to refine an entire world into an object? That would also explain why they are so adamant about me using my own Karma.'
'Or it could be something completely different. No idea.'
'The only thing I know is that I will probably take a massive hit to my Karma as soon as I become the Overseer.'
'This sucks!'
Kyle took a deep breath and sighed.
'Yeah, well. Whatcha gonna do? Just gotta deal with it. Also, who knows? Maybe I will die before this becomes a problem.'
'When life gives you lemons, eat them. Lemons don't taste bad anyway.'
"You've been silent for a while," Theodor said. "I can guess what you're thinking about."
"Yes, you have to spend a bit of your Karma to fulfill my dying wish," Theodor said, "but it's not going to be as bad as you think."
"Transcendents have a lot of Karma. Even after you fulfill my dying wish, you will still have more than every other Transcendent in the world. Killing a two-digit number of mortals is not a heavy hit to your Karma."
Naturally, Theodor was talking about the part of his dying wish that pertained to ending Hieronymus' lineage.
"Oh, yeah, that," Kyle said. "Yeah, well. I agreed to it, I guess. If there is really no other way, I can be your terrorist for a day. As long as it's not damaging my Karma too much."
"It won't," Theodor said. "Transcendents have a lot of Karma, and you have to do many terrible things to see any consequences."
"Hieronymus has probably killed over a thousand Mortals personally, and he only reached the second level of punishment. At most, you will reach the first."
"Can you give me some more details on that?" Kyle asked. "I kinda want to know what I have to deal with."
"When your Karma drops below a certain point, you will experience bad luck," Theodor said. "Almost all of the Transcendents are on that level."
"Bad luck?" Kyle asked. "In what way? That can mean almost anything."
"And it does," Theodor said. "If you flip a coin, you have a chance of 50% of getting it right. Yet, if your Karma has reached the first level of punishment, you will only get it right about 40% of the time. It just means you seem to have worse luck than others."
"That doesn't sound too bad," Kyle said.
"It can be concerning in some matters, but it's not a very big deal," Theodor explained.
"And level two?" Kyle asked.
"A constant headache. The bad kind," Theodor said.
"Huh," Kyle said. "I've basically never had a headache before."
"Hieronymus doesn't have a lot of energy and rarely interacts with others because of that headache," Theodor said. "Interacting with others drains him, and he has trouble focusing on comprehending more Laws, which is a good thing since I don't want him to become even more powerful."
'A constant headache sounds like a bitch,' Kyle thought. 'Almost like my ex, hah!'
"Is there a level three?" Kyle asked.
"Yes," Theodor said. "Only one Transcendent has reached that, as far as I know."
"Oh, who?" Kyle asked.
"His Holiness, as he is known, the head of the Divine Duchy," Theodor said.
"Wait, what?" Kyle asked. "Isn't the Holy Light Religion Thing all about being nice and stuff? How did their leader lose that much Karma?"
"You've got it backwards," Theodor said. "His Holiness used to be a regular Transcendent of the Winterfire Kingdom. He killed a couple too many soldiers of the Skysand Kingdom and reached the third level of punishment. In response to that, he left the Winterfire Kingdom and created his Duchy and religion. It's an attempt to regain his Karma."
"Oh, makes sense," Kyle said. "So, what's level three?"
"It's some kind of ominous and visible aura. I've never seen His Holiness, but reports state that everyone feels terror and fear when looking at him. At least, as long as you're mortal."
"When another Transcendent looks at His Holiness, they feel disgust and rage. It's not overpowering, but it's definitely there."
"On top of that, when His Holiness entered the territory of a Nature God, it immediately attacked without stopping. It chased after him until the Winterfire banded together to kill it. There was no way with which they could calm it down. No matter what they did, it just kept chasing and attacking His Holiness."
"The Nature God was very valuable since it produced very valuable ice materials, and if they had any other choice, they wouldn't have killed it."
Kyle's eyes widened.
"Okay, that sounds bad."
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