— — — — — —
After giving every Renzo some time to deal with things in his world, they all entered the mental space.
The huge round table, all its 36 seats, was finally filled.
"Ahem… first, let's welcome the new and final Renzos, shall we?" Uchiha Renzo said, gesturing toward the three newcomers who had joined after Reverend.
"Welcome, welcome."
"Finally, we're full now."
"Welcome to the Renzo crew, guys."
"Hope you feel at home with us."
"+1."
…
"Hello, everyone. Thanks for the warm welcome. I'm Sung Jinwoo from Solo Leveling. My main talent? Like always, it's Aura Farming."
Jinwoo introduced himself with a smile. His "System" was already with him, though for now he was resting in a hospital bed — just like at the start of his original story.
"I'm Dugu Ren from Soul Land (Douluo). My grandpa is Dugu Bo, and I was just about to use my new powers to benefit my family by curing our poison curse."
Dugu Ren smiled, though his nerves showed. In the original timeline, a single mistake in the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well... could've doomed his entire family. But now, after joining, he felt safer than ever.
"Yo~ I'm Games... Uh, you can call me Gamer Renzo. My world's a multiverse where every universe is a game — Warhammer, World of Warcraft, Assassin's Creed, GTA, Elden Ring, Call of Duty, and more, way more."
"Normally, no one can travel between those universes, but after sharing your powers, I figured out it's possible." Gamer Renzo scratched his head, looking lost. "Right now I'm stuck in Red Dead Redemption. Honestly? I don't even know what I'm supposed to do. Where to jump in, which world should I choose to start a life… yeah, I'm clueless, for real."
"…Well, at least lewd games exist in my world, so your life's gonna be boring, man." R-18 Renzo said with a slightly pleased smile.
"Is this really the time for that?" Eevee looked speechless. He shook his head. "Uchiha, just continue with what you wanted to say."
"Ahem, okay." Uchiha Renzo stood up and began. "Technically, this meeting should've been led by Eevee since he was the first Renzo to join, but he insisted I handle it. So, thanks, Eevee, for your amazing contribution. The power of the Renzos has your mark all over it."
The other Renzos clapped politely as Eevee waved his paws shyly.
Uchiha Renzo went on. "Now, the reason we're all here today is to uncover the truth about this Mental Space—or at least what we thought it was called at first. After Aizen and I dug into Reverend Renzo's head over there, we discovered a lot."
Everyone turned their eyes toward Reverend.
"Uh… guys, what happened before was just a misunderstanding…" Reverend Renzo scratched his neck, embarrassed under the stares of thirty-five people.
"I wanted to ask from the start—why the hell is this guy free?" Hentai Renzo finally blurted out what everyone else had been thinking, glaring at Reverend like he was a monster.
"Well, I'll get to that part soon, but for now you can relax. We're all safe," Uchiha Renzo assured, waving his hand before continuing. "Anyway, it's better if Aizen explains the info we got out of Reverend instead of me. He was the one leading the operation after all."
"Uh, sorry to interrupt, but… couldn't we just share those memories directly and skip all this?" Mikasa asked. Everyone except Aizen, Uchiha, and Eevee nodded in agreement.
"Well, ladies and gentlemen, that'd ruin the vibe. This is the big show of truth! If we just dumped memories in your heads, it'd kill the atmosphere. So, nah~." Uchiha smirked.
"First off—the question we've all had. What is the Mental Space, and where is it?" Aizen smiled faintly. "The answer's finally here, thanks to Reverend joining us… and it turns out it's not just one thing, but two."
Everyone leaned forward, eager.
"The first," Aizen said, "is the Space Cave. That Secluded Domain from the Reverend Insanity world, that thing which was always dismissed as a legend—the place no one could ever find. Well, guess what? We're in it right now."
"Hisss~" Python sucked in a sharp breath.
"Unbelievable. So our meeting is inside it?"
"No way. That doesn't make any damn sense."
"Exactly!"
"Aizen, maybe this Reverend guy tricked you all."
"Yeah, I think so too."
Aizen nodded calmly, as if expecting the doubt. "That was my first thought as well. But no—nothing is wrong. We really are inside Reverend Insanity. But only part of our souls, of course. And before anyone refuses to believe me, let me explain."
He adjusted his glasses. "At first, Uchiha and I didn't buy it. After all, here we can use our powers freely, adjust time in our worlds, even share abilities—that breaks this world's rules completely. Naturally, we assumed Reverend had planted false memories."
"But then we dug deeper into his mind… and found out the truth. The original Renzo had a System. Yup, just like the ones in those webnovels—complete with Gacha, Shop, and even World Hopping."
Gasps echoed through the group.
"But as we all know, surrounding this world is the Void, a place no living being can survive. Only otherworldly marks can endure it—marks carved into the soul itself. Marks, we all have it as Transmigrators."
Aizen's eyes narrowed. "Since the original couldn't break through to Rank 10, and couldn't leave to other worlds with his body, he made a plan: he sent fragments of his soul—us—into different worlds." He glanced around at the thirty-five Renzos present. "That's right. We're all clones. Or rather… we were clones. For him to absorb us, hitting Rank 10 and then enjoying what we did in our worlds."
"..." x33
"Buuut where's the System? Where's the original Renzo?" Aizen asked, voice sharpening.
All eyes turned to Reverend Renzo, hostility rising.
"W-wait—it's not me!" Reverend felt like crying. Why did Aizen always phrase things like he was the villain?
"Ahem, let me continue." Aizen ignored the tension and pressed on. "The original Renzo's plan was simple. When all thirty-six Renzos were complete, he would absorb us all. Fuse everything back into himself. Like now~"
"???" x35
"…Aizen, why do you sound like you're trying to set yourself up as the final boss?" Uchiha Renzo sighed. "Sit down, I'll explain before everyone loses their nerves."
Uchiha stood, steadying the room. "Like Aizen said, we're in the Space Cave. Our souls can enter freely because the original Renzo's Rank 9 Blessed Land was merged into it through the System. In fact, the Mental Space itself was constructed by the System—combining the Space Cave and the Blessed Land.
"The shared powers? That's the System."
"The time adjustment? Blessed Land."
"How our souls can travel here? Space Cave plus World Hopping."
He paused, scanning the room. "So yes—we were created. But we're not just clones."
"Maybe we were pieces of soul, stripped of the original memory, just our memories at Earth and then sent across different worlds, tempered by the Void in the process."
"But that clearly means one thing."
"We aren't just extensions of someone else. Each of us is real. Each of us is a person with his own life, his own choices. His own experience."
He let the words sink in, then added quietly: "Think about it. If you told someone in your world they were just fiction—just a character in an anime or a movie—would they believe you? And even if you proved it… so what? They still breathe, feel, love. They're still themselves. Same with us. The original is gone. We are us. I'm Uchiha Renzo, nothing less and nothing more."
Silence.
Then, one by one, everyone stood and clapped. The words hit home. No matter what the past had been, they each had their own lives now. Their own futures.
Each of them said his name, said his own identity. Clearly, they were all different. How could they be just clones?
When the applause died down, Hermione broke the silence. "…I still don't get one thing. Why is Reverend Insanity free? And didn't you say the original plan was to absorb us when we hit thirty-six?"
"Correct." Uchiha nodded. "That was the plan. Aizen was ready to end Reverend for good after we got all info—we even found his body hidden in the Mental Space. Killing him would've been simple. But…"
"We felt danger. Maybe it was because of all the powers we shared, but our intuition had grown terrifyingly sharp. Aizen, I, and even Eevee—when we called him later—felt the same thing."
"Felt what?"
"Danger. Fear. Killing Reverend would've been a huge mistake."
Uchiha Renzo's tone turned solemn. "But not killing him was even harder, because once we hit the thirty-six mark, the absorption process would begin on its own. That's what we saw in his memories. So it came down to this: do we trust our instincts… or kill him and try to stop the absorption before it starts?"
.
.
.