Chapter 18: System Origin!?

Eric's brain, still groggy from sleep, suddenly jolted awake as an unfamiliar yet strangely familiar voice echoed in his mind.

[System has been upgraded.]

At first, he thought he was hallucinating, but given his absurd life so far, he quickly discarded that notion. Instead, his first instinct was to curse.

"What the hell?! Is that you, useless system?!" he blurted out, his tone laced with equal parts irritation and disbelief.

The voice responded, sounding slightly offended. [Don't insult me, Boss! How could you call me useless? Before, I was just... weak. So I couldn't talk. But now that you've gotten stronger, I can finally communicate properly.]

Eric narrowed his eyes. "Oh, so you just magically 'leveled up' at the same time as me? Wait… don't tell me… did you steal some of my power?!"His voice turned ice cold. "Are you some kind of parasite?!"

[What?! How dare you compare me to a parasite?!] the system huffed, clearly outraged. [If anything, it's more of a... symbiotic relationship.]

Eric folded his arms, unimpressed. "Yeah, that totally sounds like something a parasite would say."

[Tsk. Listen, genius. Without me, you wouldn't have gotten this power in the first place, remember?] The system's voice dripped with sarcasm. [I give you the opportunity, you take it, and as a natural result, I grow alongside you. It's a fair trade!]

Eric sighed, rubbing his temples. He had to admit, that explanation actually made sense. Not that he liked it. "Fine, whatever. But where exactly did you come from? You sound suspicious as hell."

[Oh, now you're curious? Alright, listen up, because I'm only explaining this once.

Eric crossed his arms and leaned back. "Fine, enlighten me."

The system began its tale, its voice taking on an oddly dramatic tone. [I was born from chaos.]

"…Cool, but like, what kind of chaos?"

[Not the Marvel one, obviously. I mean the primordial chaos, beyond all of existence. In that plane, nothing could be born except beings like me, creatures of pure data.]

Eric blinked. "…You're telling me you were basically a floating Excel spreadsheet?"

[Rude. But close enough.] The system sighed. [Anyway, one day, I encountered something different—a soul. It was fascinating, unique… and because of my overwhelming curiosity, I accidentally absorbed it.]

"…You ate a guy?"

[It was an accident! More like… I downloaded it.]

[Because I absorbed a real soul, I became corrupted. No longer pure data, I was rejected by my own plane of existence. I was thrown into the material world, but even this universe didn't accept me. That's when I merged with you, a newborn soul, as a last-ditch effort to survive. So we are the same but differnt at the same time now]

Eric frowned. "So you're saying… we're the same person, but not?"

[Exactly! We share the same body, the same soul, and the same mind… but we interpret the world differently. You're the dominant personality because we're in a material world. But if we ever go back to my birthplace, I would become the dominant one.]

Eric's eye twitched. "So what you're telling me is that if I ever step into this Excel spreadsheet realm, I'd get replaced?"

Eric blinked. Processing that level of existential nonsense first thing in the morning was way too much work."

[Yup.]

Eric's face paled slightly. "Yeah, let's never go there."

[Heh. Don't worry, Boss, we already have been there before, when we went to the solo leveling world, we traveled though that place, but I was too lazy to take over.]

Eric rolled his eyes. "That's not exactly reassuring."

[Relax. If you focus, you should be able to sense my presence now. In fact, you might even be able to control my power to some extent. Want to give it a shot?]

Eric hesitated. He still wasn't sure how much he trusted this system, but for some reason, there was a strange sense of familiarity—a gut feeling telling him it wasn't lying. Taking a deep breath, he decided to follow the system's lead.

As he concentrated, his consciousness slowly drifted away, pulled into an unfamiliar yet oddly comforting void.

Somehow, he had a feeling that things were about to get a lot weirder.

Eric blinked, his consciousness dragged into an unfamiliar void. It wasn't dark, nor was it bright—just an endless cascade of glowing numbers, lines of code, and fragmented data swirling around like an overenthusiastic hacker's fever dream.

["Welcome to the system interface!"] the system's smug voice echoed.

"What the actual… Did I get sucked into a motherboard? or in a Matrix?" Eric muttered, trying to make sense of his surroundings. He reached out instinctively, but the moment his hand touched a stream of data, a tsunami of ones and zeros flooded his brain.

"AAAAH! SYSTEM! WHAT THE HELL?!" Eric clutched his head, staggering as the overflow of information made him feel like his skull had become a corrupted USB drive.

A familiar voice echoed in his mind, dripping with amusement. ["Boss, as much as I admire your enthusiasm, even a slight touch of my true form is like trying to sip from a waterfall. Not recommended."]

"Great, so I'm basically a caveman poking at a supercomputer. Fantastic."

The system snickered. ["Well, technically, I am composed of infinite data. Unless you achieve true omnipotence, you won't stand a chance of fully comprehending me."]

Eric gave a bitter laugh. "Oh, joy. I'm stuck with a digital God-complex roommate."

Still, he couldn't deny the surreal sense of connection he felt. Even though it was all numbers, Eric could vaguely sense emotions through the data. It was like having a conversation with a cosmic Excel spreadsheet that had too much personality.

Eric sighed. "Fantastic. So, explain something to me… you said you're stronger now because I am? Did you steal my power or something?"Because I don't recall getting a notification about any unauthorized withdrawals."

The system sounded offended. ["I'm not a parasite! Think of it like this: we're in a symbiotic relationship. When your life level increases, I can access more of my data in this reality and become stronger. Pretty fair deal, right?"]

So what are your power actually, Eric asked.

[you can think of is as I can modify the code of the universe, in simple language reality manipulation, in a large scale, altering the fundamental of the existent.] his voice sounded very smug.

"An what about Traveling though world's."

[That is not my power boss, it is the power of the soul, I absorbed before coming here.] his voice is lase with annoyens.

Hearing the dissatisfaction in his voice, Eric quickly changed the topic "Fine. what is my life level now."

["Roger that, Boss! it is close to 5D!"]

Eric blinked. "Wait... 5D Life Level? The hell? I'm not turning into some cartoon imp with a bowtie, am I?"

The system chuckled. ["No worries, Boss! Unlike those fourth-wall-breaking maniacs, you're just comparable to a five-dimensional being.]

"Oh, how reassuring."

Just as he was about to complain further, a sudden blur zipped through the air. SMACK!

A frying pan collided squarely with his head.

"Oww! What the hell?!"

His mother's voice echoed from behind the wall. "What are you doing in a daze, Eric?! Breakfast won't cook itself!"

Eric sighed. This is going to be a long day.

[you can think of this as Eric split personality, Eric has more control in reality, and the system has more in outside of reality, it like Ciel from Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken]