330 ā It might be plain to describe but actually doing it is really hard
Iām chased. I run away. I use obstructions.
Yep. This is repeating. What? Wadda ya mean the depiction stinks? You can say it all you want but I canāt do anything about it anyway. Thereās not really anything worth talking about, okay.
Fine, there are some changes that come with the passage of time. Moment by moment my clones encroach onto Kuroās zone, so little by little their influence strengthens. On top of that, as Kuro is also obstructing that, the rate of progress is at a tortoise pace. Of course Kuro knows that if his zone is completely overwritten then itāll be bad for him, so heās using the power of his zone to slow the movements of my clones. Itās really plain but this is still a proper fight. I just canāt describe it properly. After all, itās plain.
In the first place it seems likely to take a heck of a long time to paint over Kuroās zone. Iāve been running around all over the place for a while now but is there no end in sight to the zone? Whee, itās huuuge! Nai wa. No matter how hard my clones push to errode it, doesnāt it seem impossible to paint over the whole thing? I donāt know how big this thing is in practice, but at the current pace I doubt this will end in a day or two. But hey, āa journey of a thousand miles begins with a single stepā and all that, right? Emotionally it feels like picking up the gravel along a thousand mile journey one by one and then painting them. That way Iāll repaint those thousand miles in a new colour. Hehe, Iāve not advanced a single step yet.
But anyway, while it might look like a plain battle visually, Iām actually super serious about doing it okay!? Look, consider a marathon or similar, from the viewerās perspective itās just a contest about running on and on, yeah? But, for the athletes themselves theyāre basically having to keep running through an awful lot of pain. This is the same! It might seem plain, but Iām seriously battling with my life on the line here, so donāt call it plain! I canāt help it seeming to be plain and it taking a long time, but this is a life and death situation for me you jerk!
Ah man, seriously. This sure is taking a long time. Just how many days is it going to take to reach a damn conclusion, I wonder. If it goes badly maybe a month. It wonāt take a whole year, surely. Or rather, this taking a long time is actually worse for Kuro anyway.
I donāt know how much of my plan has been figured out by Kuro, but the longer this takes the more advantageous it is for me. At any rate, while this is going on Iām still continuing with hacking the System after all. With enough time I will be able to gain complete control over the System, upon which Iāll immediately collapse the System, using the energy that the System was preserving to then regenerate this planet and release the Goddess. In doing so, skills and status values will be stripped from the people. The more skills they have and the higher their status values the greater the burden it will be on them, and because their souls have been weakened due to multiple reincarnations they wonāt be able to withstand that, so theyāll die. In the worst case their souls will also be extinguished.
In my forecasts, including the chaos caused by the System collapsing, the number of people whoāll survive is half what it is now in the best case. The worst case? Zero, naturally. Well, see, itās like that. Well basically, the surviving people surely wonāt be dumb enough to do something stupid in a situation like that, hopefully. At any rate, Iāve put a filter on the reincarnators such that theyāll survive and I plan to make sure that they wonāt be affected by the aftermath of the System collapsing at least, plus thereās others whoāve helped me that Iāll put through the same treatment, so there shouldnāt be a situation where thereās no survivors. If it still ends up with zero left, that would only be because after the System collapses everyone sits around nonchalantly doing nothing right? If they go that far itās not my problem. I wonāt babysit them to that extent.
The Goddess canāt accept such a scenario. Which is why Kuro is taking action according to the Goddessās will. That being the case, I would expect that this stalemate situation would not be good for Kuro. The longer this takes, the closer we get to going over the time limit where I can activate my plan after all.
Hrmm. In which case, how much Kuro knows would have various effects on the current situation. Firstly, in the scenario where Kuro knows nothing. Thatās totally to my advantage. After all, it means I can simply keep things as they are until Kuro runs out of time. By the time Kuro will have noticed, that ship would have already sailed. Whether I win or lose, by the time we return everything would be over, the end.
Secondly, in the scenario where Kuro knows thereās a time limit. We can split this scenario into two alternatives. The first alternative is one where heās waiting for an opportunity. Perhaps he has concealed some kind of killer technique that is capable of defeating me and is preparing to activate it. Or otherwise, heās playing for time like me. This alternative wouldnāt be a particularly welcome situation for me. As it would mean that one way or another he is advancing some strategy that I cannot detect and is bad for me. That being said, if he has some kind of killer technique thatās capable of killing me, then he should have used it first during the surprise attack, so if heās still playing for time then I donāt have the slightest idea what heās using that time for. After all, I want to play for time as well. Hrmm-mm. I dunno!
The second alternative is well, I rather doubt it but one where Kuro genuinely is at a loss at how to go on the offensive. Perhaps he is aware that the more time that passes the more advantageous it is for me. However, heās not able to attack. Something like that. Well, surely not. After all, Kuro is far higher ranked than me after all. Thatās surely more unlikely than how things are now where Iāve been able to recover from the surprise attack by a rather unbelievable amount. Just what the heck are you planning? Iām scared because I canāt figure it out.
Hmm. Seriously, what are you planning? In what kind of situation would it be an advantage for Kuro to play for time? Nobody on Kuroās side should be able to exceed my expectations. In which case, is there someone on Kuroās side that Iām not aware of? Even then, I canāt imagine that being the case though. Have I overlooked something? Unlikely. In that case what is Kuro aiming for? Seriouslyā¦ I got no idea at all!
Sigh. I guess itās no use thinking about things I donāt know huh. I better concentrate on the battle in front of me. Even if it might be plain to describe. Even if it might be plain to describe!
Oh? Kuro is preparing to teleport? Perhaps heās judged that so much distance has opened up between us that he wonāt be able to catch up without leaping through space? Eh? But, even so, thatās a bad move you know?
Kuro activates the teleport. Heās trying to link space to an area right in front of me.
However, I interfere with the technique. Due to that the technique is disturbed, with the resulting distortion causing Kuro to take damage as he tries to jump through space. Itās like he was about to jump through an open door, but then the door was locked shut and he carried on moving and collided with it. The situation is completely different, but itās something along those lines. Incidentally, the cause of the door being locked was my interference with the technique.
Currently in this zone, Kuroās zones and my zones are mixed together, so itās become an unstable place where we can each obstruct the other. If you try to activate a high level space technique like teleport in such a place, itās obvious that the opponent will interfere with the technique, resulting in it failing. However, rather than it simply failing to activate, the interference will cause it to explode like just now. It could even cause major damage. For him to make such an elementary mistake, just what is going on?
Seriouslyā¦ I canāt figure out Kuroās intentions.