Under the control of the Electromagnetic Mystery: Planetary Cage, the explosion produced by the Parallax Entity-after compressing itself to the extreme-did nothing more than nudge a few nearby planets slightly off their original orbits. All of the energy released was sealed within that invisible yet very real cage, and then absorbed by Bruce.
It was nothing more than a conversion.
From a moving, running, jumping meal into a puddle of processed food.
Bruce didn't particularly like that description.
Morin, however, thought it fit perfectly.
After that, Morin and the others said their goodbyes to the Green Lantern Corps. The Lanterns returned to Oa. Morin and his companions went back to Earth.
Zod chose not to make a move against Earth.
That surprised Morin a little.
He had assumed that once Zod understood the power of Kryptonians, he would immediately use cloning technology to build a massive army, soak them all in yellow sunlight, and then forcibly rule the planet. Instead, for reasons Morin didn't yet understand, Zod seemed to have been persuaded otherwise.
Morin didn't think too hard about it.
He still laid down a few rules-no forcing humans to bear Kryptonian children, mandatory compliance with Earth's laws, and so on. Clark would be responsible for communicating and enforcing those conditions.
Hal returned to Coast City.
Bruce went back to Gotham, naturally, and began a complete overhaul of the city using the strategies Morin had given him earlier.
Morin traveled with Diana for a time.
Then, the next morning, he prepared to leave this world.
Everything here was settled. Large-scale events wouldn't occur for a long while, and his Fitness Coach profession had reached its peak, with little room left for meaningful growth.
There was no reason to stay.
Naturally, Morin was headed to other worlds.
He could always return at the exact instant after he left, so there was no concern about awkward romantic confrontations or lingering attachments.
Amid the vast, star-filled expanse, Morin stood alone.
"I can't get through..."
He tried to enter that sea of stars from his current space, but immediately found it impossible. The invisible barrier didn't even ripple.
Before now, Morin hadn't seriously considered this.
His strength back then hadn't been sufficient. Attempting something like this would have been nothing short of suicide.
Now was different.
He could survive in space. He had overwhelmed the Green Lantern Corps, matched Superman head-on, and slaughtered the Parallax Entity.
For the first time, Morin felt qualified to try.
He wanted to break through this barrier and see what truly existed within that starry sea.
Every time, it was an invisible giant hand that stirred the stars and plucked one out. Surely it wasn't literally pulling entire worlds and placing them here as stars?
If it was...
Then just how powerful was the entity behind the System?
Morin tried everything he had.
Every technique. Every method. Full power.
Nothing worked.
No effect at all.
"Forget it."
Morin stopped.
The meaning was obvious. His current level still wasn't enough.
"It seems I need to keep getting stronger..."
The most efficient way forward was clear.
Open a new world. Acquire a new profession.
Morin didn't hesitate.
He used his opportunity to open a passage to another world.
The stars shifted.
One of them drifted closer.
Light bloomed, swallowing him whole.
[World Selected - Artificial Intelligence (The Matrix, The Terminator, etc.)]
[Please Select - New Profession]
[Please Select - Time of Entry... (Due to the chaotic timeline of the target world, this feature is temporarily unavailable)]
[Please Select - Entry Location... (Due to the unique nature of the world, this feature is temporarily unavailable)]
Morin raised an eyebrow.
He understood immediately.
The Matrix alone wouldn't be an issue, but The Terminator involved time travel, time machines, and the classic Grandfather Paradox. Temporal and spatial chaos were unavoidable.
The Grandfather Paradox was simple in theory.
If you travel back in time and kill your grandfather before your father is born, then your father is never born. If your father is never born, neither are you. So who killed the grandfather?
Or viewed another way-your existence proves your grandfather survived, so how could you have killed him?
In The Terminator, the paradox took a different form.
Skynet annihilated Earth with nuclear fire. John Connor led the human resistance and nearly defeated the machine army. How he managed that was another question entirely.
In desperation, Skynet created a time machine and sent a robot back to kill John Connor's mother, Sarah Connor.
John responded by sending a human soldier back to protect her.
That soldier fell in love with Sarah.
She became pregnant.
That child was John Connor.
The destroyed robot, meanwhile, became the foundation for the research that eventually created Skynet itself.
If Skynet hadn't sent the robot, Skynet wouldn't exist.
If Skynet didn't exist, John wouldn't exist.
A perfect loop.
Chicken or egg.
In a world where time itself was tangled, even Morin had to be cautious.
Time gives everything.
Time takes everything.
Those who play with time will eventually be played by it.
What interested Morin most wasn't the danger.
It was the fusion.
So many AI-centric worlds, all merged together.
How would that even work?
Their timelines, technologies, and underlying logic were completely different.
As for risk?
Morin didn't worry about it.
Electromagnetism in a world like this was basically an invincibility cheat.
While thinking, Morin focused on the only option available.
Profession selection.
"Resistance Fighter. Mechanic..."
He skimmed past them and looked to the far right.
The final option.
"This one."
"Software Engineer."
Resistance Fighter came too late in the timeline. Changing anything would require time travel, and Morin had always kept his distance from that.
Mechanic wasn't bad, but it overlapped too much with his long-unused Mecha Designer profession.
He already had a wrench.
Having another felt wrong.
Morin firmly reminded himself that he wasn't the kind of person who abandoned the old for the new.
He just wanted everything.
[Profession Selected. Time and Location have been assigned by the System. Transmigration beginning.]
The light intensified.
Morin vanished.
In the next instant, he appeared on a busy commercial street filled with people.
A quick scan of the buildings, the clothing, and the smartphones told him enough.
Modern era.
Suits. Skyscrapers. Large-screen phones.
And yet...
Something was off.
Morin looked up.
Blue sky. No clouds. Bright sunlight.
Everything looked normal.
Except it wasn't.
"Interesting."
He walked into a nearby phone store and pulled up the identification documents and personal data stored in his System space.
Without exposing himself, this was the fastest way to understand the world.
Especially now that he had already sensed something wrong.
"Very interesting..."
After purchasing and activating a phone, Morin left the store and headed toward his workplace.
"BlueBook Company."
He didn't even need to search.
The phone was filled with the BlueBook search engine.
Morin understood immediately which world this was.
Ex Machina.
He had to admit-Alicia Vikander in that film had been stunning.
With his employment notice and documents in hand, Morin called a cab and set off.
On the way, he reviewed the details of his Software Engineer profession.
[Software Engineer · Novice Level]
Title Bonus:
• [Intelligence] +10 (You need sufficient wisdom to understand the relevant knowledge... it's not much, but it adds up.)
• [Novice Programming Principles] (I'll say it again: I'm a Software Engineering student. I don't fix computers! The Aviation major doesn't fly planes! The Directing major can't make your son a star! And the Vet doesn't slaughter pigs!)
• [Novice Mechanical Principles] (Now you can fix computers. Don't ask why a Software Engineer needs this. It's like asking why a mechanic knows how to drive.)
• [Novice Neuro-Virtual Connection Device] (A 100% pure experience. Don't use it for anything kinky. Not your thing? Then never mind. In short, if you want a deep "exchange" with certain different species without being on the bottom... you get it~)
"Nice."
Morin raised an eyebrow.
He'd been a little worried before.
Now, his biggest concern was gone.
The System really was absurdly reliable.
After getting out of the cab, Morin showed his ID and entered the building.
Nothing felt strange.
Which was exactly what made it strange.
As he walked, a burst of cheers and applause came from ahead.
Morin looked up.
A blond, introverted-looking white man stood there, smiling awkwardly as colleagues surrounded him.
"Looks like I arrived just in time."
This was the beginning of Ex Machina.
A programmer won the company lottery.
First prize: a one-week stay with the CEO.
The CEO was Nathan.
A burly man with a thick beard.
What kind of prize was that?
A rich woman would've made sense.
A rich guy?
Still, there was a reason.
Caleb Smith was the company's most talented and promising programmer.
Nathan hadn't chosen him for anything strange.
He had created a true Artificial Intelligence-Ava.
A mechanical body. Near-perfect human appearance. Only one flaw.
She couldn't bear children.
As her creator, Nathan couldn't perform a valid Turing Test himself.
So he needed an external observer.
The Turing Test was simple.
If a human interacted with a machine and failed to realize it was a machine, the test was passed.
Passing meant Ava could think for herself.
True AI.
What Nathan hadn't anticipated was that while Caleb was brilliant, he was socially and emotionally incompetent.
Over seven days, Ava figured that out.
She used brief power outages to manipulate him.
He fell in love.
He freed her.
Ava then teamed up with another low-intellect robot, killed Nathan, locked Caleb inside the facility, and left him to die.
Cold.
Efficient.
The ultimate green-tea AI.
"Tsk."
Morin shook his head internally.
"This is virtual business, kid. The water here is too deep. You can't handle it."
"I'll take over."
"I'm a Software Engineer. I can handle it."
Muttering to himself, Morin checked in and was led to his workstation.
A desk.
A fully equipped desktop computer.
Nothing else.
Enough.
Morin sat down, logged in, and entered his credentials.
Then-
He hacked into the lottery program.
No subtlety.
No effort to hide it.
He rewrote the results.
Even as a Novice Software Engineer, the programming knowledge in Morin's head was enough to crush this era.
And back in the Pacific Rim world, his Mecha Designer profession had included Master-level programming techniques.
He could erase his tracks.
He chose not to.
He wanted the person watching to see this.
Nathan.
The owner of the world's largest search engine.
The boss of BlueBook.
"If I hadn't already sensed something wrong and figured out part of it," Morin thought, yawning, "I wouldn't bother with this."
"I'd just use force."
He glanced at the camera.
Smiled.
Now all that remained was to see-
What choice Nathan would make.
Find Advance chapters
And for More Fan fiction
👇
👇
[Support link: pat reon.com/RioRaRyu]
------------
More Bonus Chapters!!!!
Every 250 power stones = Bonus Chapter
Give me more Power Stones
------------