16 016

The sound of pages being flipped echoed in a large room.

In one corner of the room sat a boy on a couch, surrounded by books.

It was Shinka.

The gaze of the young man perusing the books seemed somewhat disturbed and lost.

SIGH

A small sigh escaped his lips, and he closed the book, setting it aside.

He adjusted himself slightly on the couch and stared at the ceiling of the room expressionlessly.

All he saw was darkness, as the ceiling had a skylight, but it seemed to be nighttime in that place.

"I was blind." An expression of annoyance formed on his face.

Shinka put his hand to his forehead and closed his eyes.

"I thought everything I knew was almost everything there was. What else could exist besides angels and devils?"

His expression darkened even more.

"When I acquired the Rationality ability, I thought it was making me smarter, but I forgot something important."

"That having a clearer mind doesn't automatically mean acquiring a different way of thinking. My stupid ideology was still there."

Shinka's mind was a mess. Three days ago, he had read a history book that Raymond had given him, and he couldn't help but think poorly of himself.

The boy remembered one of the few times he felt smart.

The memory was of him talking to Tomo and Hiro.

It was when Shinka told his two friends that even though his family belonged to that 1% of Christian population in all of Japan, he was sure that God did not exist, and therefore, considered himself an atheist.

Of course, a thought that someone would catalog as productive for the child's mind. It was better if the little ones stayed away from the imposition of beliefs, anxiety, or guilt about doing certain things that are considered wrong in religions, and things like that.

But of course, when an adult acquires this thought, it is less dangerous because they can take into account many more things before deciding if, for them, God exists or not.

Because for a child, someone young, in most cases, their reasoning to reach such a conclusion tends to be "If I don't see it, it doesn't exist."

Shinka, as a child with average intelligence, understood that concept of nonexistence if there was no evidence and adopted it as his natural ideology.

Something he had dragged since he was 11 brought him to the point where he was now. At the age of 14, he still thought that way, and it wasn't wrong, at least it would be something that wouldn't affect Shinka if his world were free of magic.

But he was unlucky.

His thought of "if there is nothing that confirms its existence to me, then it does not exist" only led him to make bad decisions the moment he obtained the system.

"Since I got this power, I didn't stop to think about what I believed." He whispered, but after a few moments, he clenched his jaw in annoyance.

"No, I'm just trying to justify myself. I could have done it. Since I woke up, I could have trained my body, my mind, and my way of thinking, but I was shortsighted with my ability."

Shinka got up from the couch, throwing some books he had around.

"Rationality allows you to think, evaluate, and act on certain principles you have ingrained. That's why, despite having something so powerful, I wasted it."

Shinka walked through his temple and climbed some stairs.

"Ideology characterizes a person's thinking."

Shinka continued walking as he thought.

"I must not completely abandon the ideology on which I have based my thinking, I just have to abandon certain ideas within it, and learn others."

"I lived deceived about the world for 14 years of my existence, but I cannot allow this period to be prolonged. And with this power..." Shinka watched as his status window opened in front of him.

"I cannot squander it." The system closed again.

"There are gods who do as they please, and there are beings who only want to cause harm in the world."

Shinka approached a balcony in the palace and stepped out to take in the air of his mental world.

"Beings that are beyond what I understand, but what I do understand is that I am very low on the food chain, and I was foolish and inexperienced to obtain the system."

A self-deprecating smile formed on his face.

"I even just assumed that magic existed and could only be used by system users after reading 'MP'. I have to open my mind to new possibilities."

"From this moment on, no matter how low the probability of something is, I must get to the root of the problem. That's the only way great minds came up with great solutions."

"Because if everyone had been like me, then we would still be stuck in the medieval era." The boy closed his eyes as the wind ruffled his hair.

Suddenly, beside him, an amorphous form of flesh began to form until it finally transformed into Shinka No. 2.

Shinka's expression relaxed again.

Now he looked as calm as he had ever done. No, even now his expression truly seemed that of someone relaxed, and not the false calm of a poker face.

"Even the subconscious is quite useful when you want to be rational. I must not close my mind to new ideas."

Shinka murmured, raising his gaze to the dark sky.

BRRRR

The mental world began to stir as a giant magic circle appeared in the sky.

If any expert physicist could understand magic and the composition of a magic circle, then they would say that what is inscribed is a highly complex formula containing a large amount of physical data, trying to mimic reality.

"It looks good." The boy murmured, looking at his magnum opus.

The book Shinka had just finished reading was a memory about physics. He was adding the new knowledge to his magic circle.

This was his new method for increasing really important skills of the system.

Learning a new concept and then creating magic related to what he had learned.

That way, everything that existed within the mental world now had a fundamental basis.

For example, the mental world had changed, what was once a giant meadow with a boundary, with a temple in the center, had now become a planetoid spinning around a star.

Gravity existed coherently and not as a figment of Shinka's imagination, just like light, being photons, and even chemical things like oxygen that existed in the place were also products of Shinka's study.

And even if someone analyzed Shinka No. 2, they would realize that he was really a human being created in the image and likeness of the first Shinka.

Before, he was only a mere representation composed of energy to make the separation between the primitive part of the subconscious and Shinka, but now he really is a complex life form that the only thing that unites him and Shinka is existing in the real Shinka's subconscious world.

And also that they share the system as well as the mana they both store.

The moment the boy learned about the existence of the recorded mythologies, he didn't waste a second and began training every aspect of his existence.

And finally, he had started his ideological training, which he himself cataloged as something separate from his mental training about learning.

Now Shinka was clear about his next training.

The exhaustive self-knowledge of his own way of existence.

He had already made it clear; he needed to make a change.

Shinka understood the moment he read the books that everything about the knowledge of the world's history was very hidden, and he no longer wanted to have his eyes closed, not blinded by a counterproductive ideology.

The only way to get answers was to seek them out and not leave any stone unturned.

And the first stone he would turn over would be himself.

Since he understood the concept of the different dimensions of the universe, he had many questions.

There is the underworld, heaven, Asgard, Olympus, and mythological places, so could Limbo exist, a purgatory, and a place that reigns over all other dimensions?

And if all mythologies have things that really exist, then does the spirit exist? Is consciousness and spirit linked to each other, or are they different things? If they are different things, can they merge? And if once they are merged or both were the same from the beginning, then could you consider yourself an immortal being?

Shinka asked himself countless questions, but in a different way than before; he no longer expected to have answers miraculously, nor would he wait for someone to give them to him.

Somehow or another, he would find his answer, but he had to start investigating at that very moment, and not postpone it.

This time, he had no excuse. If his physical strength had increased enormously with Raymond's continuous training, his magic had increased greatly with constant meditation, and his magical abilities had expanded with his constant exploration of the scientific world in magic.

Now he had a clear path to experiment without momentary worries, and to take risks to obtain answers and power.

"It's time for me to truly live up to the name of the system."

Shinka noticed the starlight from the star around which his small planet orbited beginning to flicker on the horizon.

He had configured some things using more magic, like the time it takes for his planetoid to orbit its star, the time it takes for the planetoid to rotate on its own axis, and even a small moon, which really had no purpose until now, to adjust to the corresponding time of the location where he would be in the real world.

"It's time to go back," he whispered before his body began to flicker and disappear.

- - - - - - -

After this chapter, I will create an auxiliary volume with the updated system data and another one with the previous records, so as not to overload the chapters with that content.