Speedrun 27

"As time is of the essence, Aly, you'll be staying here," I said, waving my hand and conjuring a stack of books. The sheer number of them widened her eyes, and I couldn't help but chuckle. "Consider this your homework. Go through these at your own pace. You don't need to memorize everything, but the knowledge will prove useful not only in the next world but in many others. But first," I explained before walking up to her and gently tapping her nose, "There, from now on, you speak English," I said in English.

"I understood that?!" she reeled back in shock, her eyes blinking in surprise before they went wide, and she asked, "Can't you do the same with the rest of those books?"

"I could, but do you want me to?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, I don't really want to spend weeks learning the basics," she nodded, a hopeful expression coloring her face.

"Alright," I shrugged, waving my hand and morphing the teaching material into novels, then tapping her nose once again, this time transferring everything I knew about math, management, accounting, and geopolitics, while also granting her the basic knowledge about history, biology, physics, and technology.

She wobbled on her feet, clutching her head as the sheer volume of information settled in.

"Asshole, you could have warned it will hurt," she grumbled, rubbing the sides of her head, her regeneration keeping her brain from overheating and turning into mush.

"Master, should I get rid of this disrespectful specimen?" Offered Mai, with a dangerous glint in her eyes.

"No, Mai, I already told you she's staying with us for the foreseeable future," I said with a sigh, making the universal entity pout and look away in annoyance.

I rolled my eyes and turned my attention back to Aly, "This is what you wanted, so bear with the headache. It will lessen in a few hours," I said with a chuckle, then turned back to Mai. "Mai set up a room for her, keep her company, answer her questions, and provide her with anything she is interested in. But please, keep the bickering to a minimum."

"Understood, Master," Mai replied reluctantly while giving a slight bow.

"Wait!" Aly protested. "You're not seriously going to steal a universe, are you?"

I nodded, making her sigh in relief. "You're right; I'm not stealing just one universe. I'm going to steal ten," I said with a mischievous grin, causing her eyes to widen in shock. Without waiting for a flurry of questions, I shifted out of Mai's dimension, heading back to Index.

"Index, my friend!" I greeted the magical book in a jovial tone as I materialized next to his pedestal.

{What do you want?} He replied as if already anticipating that I needed something.

"Huh, straight to the point? Alright, are there any worlds the Library wouldn't miss?"

{Except for the Prime Worlds, it wouldn't miss any. Why? What are you planning?} He asked, tilting forward, his imaginary eyes squinting at me.

"Taking a few for myself..." I commented, looking away.

{Sure, you're not the first to do it and won't be the last to do so.}

"Huh... I expected a bit more, you know... resistance?"

{Want me to fake concern?} He said, tilting to the side.

"Nah, it's okay. I kind of understand..." I said with a shrug. "Working with an infinite number of worlds, a few that get lost mean nothing."

{Right. So which world do you want to take?}

"Doesn't matter," I replied with a shrug. "I'm planning to go back in time to before the conception of the universe and snag the infinitely condensed ball of plasma."

{Oh, that's not what you'll find there.} He said cryptically.

"What do you mean? All physics theories I know suggest the birth of a universe came from a Big Bang or some variation of it."

{That's true, but you won't find an infinitely dense ball of energy there.} He clarified.

"Then what?" I asked, confused, as countless other possibilities and theories from all sources ran through my mind.

{Go and check it...} He said, wiggling his cover as if shrugging.

"Well, thanks for nothing, I guess."

{You're welcome, anytime.} He replied cheekily, making me roll my eyes. {Oh, by the way, I'll need to warn you that going back too far will decrease the world tier to Tier 0.} He said before adding, {You need to be prepared for the pressure the reality will constantly exert onto you. The larger the tier difference, the greater the pressure will be.}

"How great of a pressure are we talking about?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

{If we're talking only about a 7-tier difference, it will feel as if the weight of the entire reality sits on your shoulders. Although, the pressure will be on your soul, actually.} He explained, once again shrugging in his own unique way.

"The hell?" I was unsure how to respond to that. "Is there a way for me to prevent that?"

{You have the ability to ignore it, in multiple ways actually.} He said it with a deadpan voice.

"I'm guessing with my Authority and... Universal Physique's energy states?" I asked, unsure.

{Bingo!} He bobbled up and down. {But I won't tell you which form to choose; you'll have to figure it out on your own.}

"Well, thanks for the info anyway."

{So did you make a decision already?}

"It doesn't matter. Just send me to any Tier 3 world." I shrugged, not really caring about it.

{Any~ world?} He asked, and I could practically see a grin spread on his cover.

"Sure?" I didn't even finish saying that when a book materialized before me, oozing an ominous aura. "This isn't going to kill me, is it?"

{Nope,} he said with a chuckle, and I could feel the hidden 'but you wish you were dead' being left unsaid.

I squinted my eyes at him and reached for the book, but instead of simply entering, I chose to look at the description of the world.

[Boku no Piko]

World Tier: 3 (Low)

"Nope," I retorted in a disgusted tone, slamming the book shut with such force that it created a sonic boom. To my surprise and displeasure, the world book remained entirely unharmed. In frustration, I hurled it at Index, eager to get rid of it, and cast a multilayered cleaning spell on myself, vigorously scrubbing the first few layers of my skin. Meanwhile, the world book simply vanished, and Index burst into laughter.

{You said any!} Index bobbled while laughing.

"How the heck is that world even classified as Tier 3!" I exclaimed, shuddering. I then raised my hands while gagging, "You know what, I don't want to know!"

My perfect yet infuriating memory kept replaying some of the scenes etched deeply into my mind and soul. Without wasting any time, I tasked a few mental instances to purge them from my memory, and to prevent contamination, I purged the mental instances that had any contact with those distressing memories. 'Your brave sacrifice will be remembered,' I offered a silent prayer, though I wasn't entirely sure for what, but I knew it held significance.

{You should have seen your expression!}

For some inexplicable reason, I had a strong urge to punch him. However, I knew that would probably violate some Library rules, so I took a deep breath, suppressed my frustration, and decided to choose my own world instead. "Give me the world of Transformers, and if possible, make it a Tier 3 variant," I said with a determined voice.

Despite Index's continued laughter, a book materialized on his pedestal. I shook my head, checked its contents, and after finding them satisfactory, I configured my entry parameters and entered the world.

{Earth - Mission City - Sam POV}

I found myself in a warzone, surrounded by a cacophony of explosions and the whistling of bullets. Bullets ricocheted, missiles detonated, and my legs trembled as the pain pulsed through me. Despite the chaos and fear gripping my heart, my mission compelled me to stand firm, my determination unwavering.

I tightened my grip around the cube, my knuckles turning white as a sudden explosion caught my attention to my right. Shards of glass cut into my skin, hot sparks searing it, but I remained steadfast. I repeated motivational words to myself, convincing myself that I could deliver the All-Spark to Optimus. I lied to myself, gritting my teeth as I watched the showdown between two powerful Transformers.

"You fight for the weak, Prime, that's why you lose!" Megatron taunted with a sadistic voice as he kicked the injured Optimus into a nearby wall, causing the metal giant to groan in apparent pain.

Whether it was genuine or a simulation, I couldn't tell, but I had no time to think about it as explosions rattled the city and fighter jets collided with skyscrapers.

I grimaced, dreading the number of casualties these monsters had already caused. However, my attention swiftly returned to the battle in front of me.

As Optimus was brought to his knees, I saw my opportunity. "I need to act fast," I muttered to myself, leaping from my cover, dodging bullets, and gripping the cube until my fingers ached.

I jumped over an upturned slab of concrete, and my tired legs threatened to buckle under me. Nevertheless, I pressed on.

"Sam!" Prime called out to me and turning around, I noticed I had been spotted.

Megatron's eyes glinted with excitement, shining brightly with an ominous read, as they landed on the cube in my hands. He didn't falter, his computational processors working without a delay, as he lunged toward me. Yet, I was once again saved by fate, as a grenade that hit his back, made him lose his balance and impact the ground just before me. His metallic clawed hands fell to the side as he dragged himself forward. His face was inches from mine, sparks of electricity showering me from his wounds and I instinctively moved backward.

"Sam, put the cube into my chest, now!" Optimus commanded, dragging himself closer.

"Give me the All-Spark!" Megatron loomed over me, and an idea suddenly ignited in my mind. 'If he wants the cube so badly, I'll give it to him!' I stood up, a new surge of power coursing through me as I raised the All-Spark aiming it at his chest, in the hopes that its power would destroy him.

However, my moment of triumph never materialized. Instead, a well-dressed man appeared before me, his hand descending upon the All-Spark, faster than my eyes could follow, the weight of which caused both my hand and legs to buckle.

"I'll take that, thank you very much," he said with a casual smile, effortlessly extracting the cube from my grip.

"Wait!" I cried out, my words echoing through the now eerily silent surroundings. But before I could blink, he had vanished, as if he had never existed.

My frantic gaze darted around, attempting to make sense of the bewildering turn of events. Yet, another unsettling realization struck me: both the people and the Transformers had disappeared.

"Why is everything so quiet?" I muttered to myself before shouting, "Prime?!"

However, there was no response.

I stood alone in a haunting silence, a sense of desolation settling over me.

"Bee? Mikaela?" I frantically shouted, "...Megatron? Anyone?"

The city stood in an oppressive silence, devoid of a single soul.

(Transformers – Center of the Milky Way - Andrew POV)

I floated in space, just above the event horizon of the supermassive black hole, its enormous gravitational pull having no effect on my being.

[Quest: [Autobots] Completed 8,000 WP (1/16) (500 WP) Received]

[Quest: [Decepticons] Completed 8,000 WP (1/16) (500 WP) Received]

"Well, that quest turned out to be surprisingly easy," I muttered to myself in surprise. It was astonishing how effortlessly I had managed to eliminate an entire race from a planet using my Authority, all the while deftly stealing the cube known as the All-Spark.

The genius behind the creation of this device was undeniable; it was a technological masterpiece with a fitting name, as it possessed the power to spark life into anything.

While its built-in AI and the capability to draw energy from subspace were intriguing, I could already fashion similar items. What truly captivated me was the cube's energy output.

This cube possessed the ability to emit a pulse of energy that existed beyond the electromagnetic spectrum, yet could influence matter at the molecular scale. It had the ability to generate nanites from any material, granting objects a form of consciousness or sentience devoid of a soul. Essentially, it enabled the creation and programming of synthetic lifeforms with a single energy discharge.

For some reason, it had been programmed to completely disregard biological matter, yet, "That could be easily altered," I said with a grin while watching the sentient cube dissolve in my hand. With its analysis complete, I had no further use for it and could now focus on my primary objective in this reality.

Reality shifted as both my dimensional and temporal axes rotated by ninety degrees, placing me in an infinite yet finite hallway, each frame representing a single year in this reality. Unfortunately, with my current level of power and control, I couldn't compress time any further than this.

"It will be quite a journey," I chuckled to myself as I activated my mana form and propelled myself forward. From an external perspective, I appeared to be traveling at 16,893 years per second, yet from my own, it felt as if I moved at the same speed in meters per second.

Despite being faster than a speeding bullet, I knew this speed wouldn't suffice given the age of the universe, additionally, I had no intention of spending nine days running in a single direction. Therefore, after a few seconds, I projected Relativity, further bending the dimensional axis and consuming massive amounts of energy to shrink the distance between me and the endpoint with each step.

After seven seconds, even with my regeneration operating in the billions, I released my grip on reality, allowing my energy reserves to replenish in just three seconds before repeating the process.

I had to travel in this manner because the pressure from reality would have crushed me. Thus, I couldn't stay completely tethered to this reality, but I also needed a connection to it to traverse back in its time.

In the end, it took me roughly an hour of continuous running and reality-bending to finally reach the light at what seemed like the literal end of the tunnel.

As I approached this peculiar end, a sense of strangeness enveloped me. If not for [Universal Sense] suddenly cutting off and the disappearance of the frames representing time, I would have sensed nothing amiss. Well, almost nothing. Mainly because for the last few thousand kilometers, all I had seen were pure white frames, yet the last one was different. Also, as I drew closer to the end, both the temporal and spatial axes became increasingly unstable as if reality itself was uncertain about their existence.

The last frame defied comprehension. It was the smallest of them all, entirely black except for a single point of light, no larger than a grain of sand, gleaming at its center. The infinite hallway extended beyond it, but it seemed that not even the five-dimensional axes could cross that threshold, especially because the five axes I had access to converged at the center of the last frame.

It was as if time, space, and the dimensions of this reality had all come into existence simultaneously, yet something else had preceded them, something beyond my grasp.

I cautiously extended my hand toward the threshold, as I was reluctant to step through it, and it turned out to be a wise decision. The moment my hand passed beyond the invisible barrier, it ceased to exist. A searing pain coursed through me, and I quickly withdrew, only to realize that this action had not only damaged my physical form but also my spiritual form, causing harm to a piece of my soul.

The entire essence of the finger that crossed the threshold vanished as if it had never existed, yet I could detect no energy interacting with it. The place before me was a void, but not the void I had known.

If my theories were correct, it was a place that existed before time, space, and even the void itself—a dimensional plane akin to the timeless zone I had entered before, yet infinitely more perilous.

"Nothingness?" I muttered to myself, uncertain about it.

It was a concept that shouldn't exist.

From a philosophical perspective, nothingness could exist as a concept or as a way to describe the absence of something. But in physics, the notion of nothingness couldn't exist, as even the emptiness of space is never truly empty, always containing minuscule quantum fluctuations and fields.

Yet here it was before me—an invisible barrier that separated everything from nothing.

Reluctantly, I averted my gaze from the enigmatic void. There was no time for exploration at this moment. In addition to Mai's current energy crisis, her existence was deeply entwined with mine, only existing when I did. So I didn't have the luxury of exploring and researching this fascinating phenomenon. Instead, I took a deep breath, my hand and soul fully regenerated, and I reached for the last frame of this reality. I shifted my point of reference to the chosen point in time while simultaneously altering my location outside of its realm.

With a sudden, albeit somewhat disorienting shift, I found myself in an empty void, just an arm's length away from a brilliant sphere of violent light. Without hesitation, I projected Relativity around me, freezing the progression of time in my immediate surroundings.

"It's time to create," I declared with a chuckle, reaching out and seizing the universe suspended in time, as an immense amount of energy began to gather around me. Reality bent and twisted, conjuring a dimension that spanned fifteen light-years in diameter and with a single light motion, I burst the bubble, ripping the dimensional barrier of the Transformers universe apart, releasing all of its energy into the dimension I just conjured.