Nexus Awakened (An Isekai LitRPG Gender Bender Story)-Chapter 950. The Second Tribulation Ending

“But what makes an Impuritas in the first place, other than the vague mention of ‘impurities’? At the end of the day, they all want something unattainable. The cost, what it means, who suffers in their stead: it’s meaningless to them.”

Frost scooped Joy onto her back with her tail.

“Malga!?” The girl didn’t seem to be aware of their presence. A look of shock filled her face when she noticed that an oversized mirror was darting towards Frost’s face.

She tried to reach out towards it in an effort to protect Frost.

But that was unnecessary.

*Crack*

“Neither do they understand the meaning of humanity. Sentimental objects and mirrors won’t make you human. Appearances won’t do it either.”

Frost had whipped her hand out to reach into the mirror. It cracked into two, almost depleting its HP entirely.

“But, for machines that can’t feel, then I guess the appearance of being human is enough. Or are you pretending to be a soul?”

The mirror shattered entirely, reducing the Impuritas to nothing but glass shards. Her next few swipes were impossible to see.

But in her perspective, it was no more than merely casting her hand into the wind.

Gheists slammed against the wall with enough force to leave large dents. One Gheist in particular: the jack in the box: had double the HP of regular Gheists, requiring Frost to drive her fist into it.

At the same time, her fist pierced through the wall as if it were made of paper. An earsplitting screech shook the halls as she dragged her arm through the wall with the jack in the box still in hand, shredding it apart in hopes of getting a better look at their insides.

Red and black organic matter began to spill from its sharp, bristly insides.

As expected, they were not truly inorganic. Otherwise, they wouldn’t possess double the Mortal Pulp of the previous Stuffed machines. The jack in the box carried a fraction of HP left. The thick spring sitting within attempted to lunge at Frost, only to be caught and crushed as she analyzed its skills.

Gheist

< Basic Observation >

< It occupies the insides of a sentimental object, hoping it will attract people to keep them by their side >

< Skill Analyzed >

< PASSIVE: Envy of The Machine >

< Can we become like you? >

< EFFECT: Inflict unlimited Stacks of Hollow Envy onto oneself. Attack all living beings in the vicinity in pursuit of accumulating as much Mortal Pulp as possible >

< PASSIVE: Ghost in the Machine >

< Is it what’s inside that matters? >

< EFFECT: A Gheist cannot be killed until its Core is destroyed >

< ACTIVE: Decrypting What Could Be Onto You >

< Sentimental thoughts, dreaming prosperities, yearning memories, experiencing vignettes, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc >

< EFFECT: Deal 800 MAG ATT damage to targets within a 10-meter vicinity once the shell is exposed >

< COUNTDOWN: 5 Seconds >

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It didn’t speak.

Nor did the white light that appeared within the Impuritas make a sound.

As with the previous Stuffed machines, they had a self-destructive Skill.

“There’s no fear in there. Not an ounce of self-preservation. Sentimental objects only have value because we give them value. They don’t inherently have that same value. I don’t get it. If you wanted to be special, if you really wanted to become human, then why kill humans?”

Frost finished them off promptly before they could dare to explode. She continued speaking in a low, chastising tone as she prowled through the corridors of the Site, eliminating them in the dozens.

Objects such as pencils, mugs, tables, rugs: if they existed within a short amount of time within the presence of these Impuritas, then they would become an Impuritas themselves.

< ACTIVE: The Game of Life >

< Replication… assimilation… to become alike >

< EFFECT: Inanimate objects are converted into Infecta Rot Impuritas. The more sentimental the object, the more Mortal Pulp is required >

< COST: X MP >

< Frost. Does the terminology seem strange to you? >

“Not really. Decrypting makes sense for a machine, right? The game of life. The ghost in the machine. They’re all terms I’d expect a living machine to say.”

Frost, after having slaughtered another few dozens of these entities, looked around the room as she spoke to Nav out loud.

“Unless you mean because they’re sentimental objects. If that’s the case, then yeah: I agree.”

< These sentiments are the kind I expect from an intelligent machine instead of a run-of-the-mill machine seeking sapience >

“The bigger Infecta Rot Impuritas are probably that. Intelligent, but don’t have a body. The ones in the lower end of the hierarchy default to the purest form of their beliefs. Not that much different from the Corrupted or their Denizens even. Nav. Did we ever figure out what the Impuritas are exactly?”

< World impurities, Lailah calls them. They are byproducts of humanity in the same vein as Sin. You know how a city can create a Heart of the City depending on what occurs there, no? >

Frost was aware of this.

Impuritas could form anywhere if there was a sufficient number of impurities. These came from people, be it humans, Demi-Humans, Demons, Elves: even Dragons. So long as those impurities were allowed to fester, then it would inevitably condense into an Impuritas Heart, potentially devolving into the worst-case scenario: a Heart of the City.

After all, people shape their city.

Afterwards, it is the city that shapes them.

* * *

Several minutes went by. By now Frost had annihilated every trace of the Impuritas in the Fourth Level. Jury had just about finished as well, but Frost figured she had some time to utilize the Interrogating Clock to investigate the Site.

“Malgam?”

“Oh this? It’s a gift from your mom… My wife. We call it the Interrogating Clock. It’ll let us peer into the past depending on the concentration of Nex at a given place.”

“Gam?” The girl tilted her head, a question mark floating above her head.

“You’ll see what I mean.”

She played the dials and pressed a button on the side of the handheld clock with a thumb. Suddenly, the hands of the clock began to tick backwards as golden branches formed in the air.

Each fragment of golden light carried a memory of the past, obscuring the hallway behind it. The way it worked was that it could interpret the ambient Nex, effectively giving them a window into the past.

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The only problem was that an objective window of the Site and personalized memories could not be separated from one another, as they were both contained in the same basic form of Nex.

“Gam…”

“Brutal, huh. It’s fucking…”

*Screams*

“Overseer! I… I don’t want to die!”

*Crush*

Visions of horrific tragedies played in the golden fractures. One by one, they revealed the misery of the Workers who operated on this very Level.

“Just deliver this to the Corrupted? I can do that~!”

*Strangle*

They were shown in quick-cut snippets, showing the before and after of the Workers. The feed of a cheerful woman cut to her legs dangling in place as her head was wrapped around the brambles of a giant flower.

“She… Was a low Level Worker… Why would the Overseer…?”

*Slap*

“She’ll be replaced tomorrow. Please incinerate her belongings before our next Team Member arrives.”

In the next scene, a fight broke out on this Level. Screams, roars, the turmoil within was utterly palpable, as though Frost was there at this very moment.

*Gunfire*

“A bloody brawl between team members? Overseer. As you command. They will be executed.”

*Shatter*

“The perfect me is in that mirror… Yet why… am I bleeding around my neck?”

The same Worker who eliminated the troublesome Workers peered into his reflection, which was cast by the Sunflower Mirror. He gained their wounds and died with a large smile on his face as he reached up into the air, uttering nonsense such as “Sunlight… Reveals all regrets.”

His memories were not the last. Nor did Frost believe that they were close to the end. Misery after misery was broadcasted. Every ounce of suffering brought to light by one clock, and yet, nothing could be done about it.

All of it was in the past.

Yet Frost still couldn’t help but feel frustrated by it.

< Of all the phenomena that are mistakenly believed to be caused by the supernatural… >

< This one comes closest to it >

“The amount of suffering that goes into working at a Site… I hope Papilia’s ok at G-Z7. I couldn’t imagine it. Nor working as a Healer for a Site.”

Frost stopped the Interrogating Clock.

She couldn’t believe that this amount of Nex didn’t result in her entering a Reminiscence.

The golden branches disappeared, leaving both her and Joy to marinate in the silence.

“Joy. The people that allowed this to happen aren’t humans in my eyes. Positive Nex can replace it. But that requires effort. The people of the Subderma Layer are in the billions for all we know. They have an infinite supply of Workers lined up to replace them.”

Her voice wavered.

Seeing this brought back the awful memories of when she roamed through the streets of Paradise.

How utterly mistreated people were by those who called themselves humans.

“Gam.” She nodded.

“Morality keeps us from devolving into monsters. But somewhere along the way people lost it. If you had to ask me what makes a person human…”

She picked up a broken shard of the mirror Gheist and gazed upon her reflection.

“It’s just that. Morality. Flesh, steel, a soul: none of that matters. And why should it?”

“Mal…” Joy wrapped her arms around Frost’s neck in an effort to comfort her.

Then, she placed a hand onto her head.

She must have thought it’d calm her down, since Frost’s headpats managed to help her in the past.

Her small hands were pleasant. It didn’t have the effect of the Touch of the Black Dove unfortunately, but the sentimental value it held was enough for Frost to break into a soft smile.

“Joy. Promise me you won’t end up like them. Despite what I am, I’m not fond of killing at all. Like you, I was driven by forces out of my control. I guess you could say I had a false star looming above me. Well, I still do. That fucking Iscario.”

“Fucking…?”

Frost’s heart dropped. The rage in her heart was replaced by a sharp spike of shock.

“Hey! Don’t go repeating anything I say!”

“Malgam?” The girl tilted her head, wondering why she was suddenly being yelled at.

“Urgh… Sorry. Just don’t go repeating that in front of Jury. Who knows what she’ll do to me…”

Then, she muttered beneath her breath:

“I should hold off from cursing for a bit, huh.”

As they walked through the hallways, with Frost’s left arm devouring the bodies of Impuritas, the girl tapped on her shoulder lightly with her tail.

“Yes?”

“I won’t…”

“Mhm? I’m listening~”

“… Be like them…”

“Of course you won’t~ And if you do, then guess who’ll be knocking on the door of your head again?”

“Frost.”

She finally managed to utter her name.

It strained her throat. The name contained sounds that were too hard for her to pronounce. Or Frost thought.

Because moments later, she felt a damp patch forming on her back.

* * *

//////// < ALERT > ////////

< TRIBULATION ENDING >

INFECTA ROT

< Infestation >

< Suffering makes them human. If experience is proof of existence, then why is ours not enough? >

At this rate, it wouldn’t be long before they’d have to fight the next two Infecta Rot Tribulations.

Only then could they understand the extent of what Infecta Rot believed in.