Chapter 2: Core Binding

[Beep, checking core permissions…]

He suddenly heard a strange sound coming from the object in his hand.

‘Is this a new language?’

It was rare for Sykes to encounter a language he couldn’t understand, so he sat on his tail with great interest and continued to listen.

[Original intelligent lifeform not found. Attempting to retrieve intelligent lifeform… Retrieval attempt one, retrieval attempt two, retrieval attempt three… Retrieval failed.]

[Reason for failure: Distance too great or other factors. Advising feedback to superior.]

[Activating automatic function. Automatically searching for suitable intelligent lifeforms in the vicinity…]

Suddenly, the strange object rose from his hand, about to fly elsewhere.

“Trying to fly away?”

Sykes closed his palm, gripping the object firmly.
It struggled with all its might, but eventually went limp in his hand as if exhausted, finally conceding.

[Beep, beep, beep, core energy insufficient. Analyzing solutions…]

[Solution confirmed: Bind with the nearest intelligent lifeform.]

The next second, Sykes discovered that the strange voice had gone from being external to entering his own mind.

‘A mental-type magic? Or a new kind of curse?’

But he wasn’t particularly worried about his safety.
Because what made the magic-resistant merfolk invincible, aside from their own powerful combat abilities, was their immunity to all mental-type magic.
That’s right, all of it.
Mental magic, the most mysterious and deadly of all magic, had absolutely no effect on the merfolk.

As for other types of magic… the result would be the same.
All injuries were negligible in the face of the merfolk’s robust physique and astonishing regenerative abilities.

This was also why the mutated seawater of the Sea of Death had no effect on Sykes—to a certain extent, this ability that caused one to fester to death was not much different from a curse.

[Beep, environmental change detected. Map updated.]

[Loading world language…]

[Binding with host…]

[Core energy depleted. Entering hibernation mode. Permissions have been opened.]

To be precise, Sykes only understood the last two sentences at first.
The strange voice seemed to have switched to speaking in the Ocean Common Tongue.
And after he was “bound,” a vast amount of knowledge, along with an introduction to this object, flooded into his mind.

He half-closed his brilliant eyes, a golden liquid seeming to flow in their depths.
His expression was one of contentment and satisfaction, and even his cheeks were tinged with a faint blush, as if he were immersed in unparalleled bliss.

It was new, novel knowledge from another world.

Sykes opened his eyes and, with immense reverence, stored the damaged core back into his space.

According to the information he had just acquired, this was a creation from a higher-dimensional world.
It had encountered an accident during a mission of spatio-temporal travel, and only after its energy was depleted did it fall into this world.
After falling into the sea, it was fished out by sailors on a voyage, presented to their captain, and eventually, after changing hands, ended up with him.

Originally, this core was operated by a highly intelligent lifeform from that world, which could also be called… a System?

In any case, during the crash-landing, that System was apparently swept into another turbulent current.
Unable to find its operator, the core was forced to unbind, and finally, in order to obtain energy, it attached itself to him.

How interesting, that other worlds actually existed beyond this one.

Sykes sank his consciousness into his mental sea.
There, a small, dusty, and very inconspicuous door had appeared.
It looked exactly like a dedicated channel for a stowaway, desperately camouflaging itself so as not to attract the attention of certain beings.

And wasn’t it a stowaway?
According to the information he’d received, on the other side of the door was the target world this System intended to secretly infiltrate.

He placed his hand on the doorknob and pulled the door open without hesitation.

Inside the door was a pitch-black, not particularly large room.
Green code and data flashed frantically on all four walls.
The moment Sykes stepped into the room, he felt as if he too had assimilated with this data, flowing along with it to other places.

He closed his eyes, but saw even more.

Sykes saw skyscrapers dozens of stories high, mechanical contraptions flying in the air, colorful, flashing neon signs, and humans everywhere dressed in strange clothes.

‘Huh? That world has humans too?’

Sykes observed for a while and found that they looked similar to the humans of his own world, but were generally shorter by several dozen centimeters.
‘Is it because they don’t have enough to eat, since machines and engineered structures have taken over everywhere, leaving no place to grow vegetables?’ he thought with some pity.

He continued to extend his consciousness along this thing called a “network,” stretching it further and further, conducting a thorough exploration of this human world that had nearly been invaded by the System.

This exploration lasted for a full five years.

Five years was enough time for a higher-dimensional lifeform to colonize a target world ten times over.
It was also enough time for a merman who loved to learn to absorb all the information of another world into his mind.

During these five years, Sykes explored this world through the network, observed it through so-called surveillance, and listened to it through voices uploaded to the cloud.

His final judgment was that this was a world of infinite potential, rich with interesting knowledge.
Although their civilized history was so short—only a few thousand years, no longer than the time a lazy dragon might take for a nap—their pace of development was astonishing.
A kaleidoscope of brilliant, overflowing knowledge practically spilled from their history books.

This was definitely not, as the core’s files indicated, a world of “backward technology, low intelligence, and low capability, recommended for colonization and reformation”: [Codename Earth X78358741].

That’s right, colonization.

During this time, Sykes had also figured out the core’s function and purpose.

Sykes saw through the laudatory rhetoric and heavily embellished words in those files to grasp the essence.
He ultimately determined that the so-called “charity plan to assist backward planes” was, in fact, a scheme where the Systems would take all worlds judged as [Valueless, Suitable for Colonization and Reformation], eliminate 99% of their species through a brutal selection process, and then “legally” colonize the empty planets.

To put it simply, it was just like the popular works on the novel websites humans frequented.
The highly intelligent [System] could operate the less intelligent [Core] to pull a human’s consciousness out of their body and place it into a virtual world of its own creation to play a game of survival of the fittest.

It was just like the [Infinite Horror genre] concepts humans had conceived.
They had even created so many books and films based on it—Sykes had to admit, he rather admired those writers.
Whether intentionally or not, they had somehow seen through this shocking conspiracy long ago.

As for those advanced, higher-dimensional lifeforms?
Sykes found them somewhat laughable.
‘What an arrogant and foolish species!’
To so easily judge a world as [Valueless] based solely on the speed of its technological development.

Little did they know that knowledge was far more than just technology, just as in his own world, knowledge was far more than just magic.

There were many, many other types of knowledge.
Being able to predict the next day’s weather by observing the sky was knowledge.
Skillfully weaving a beautiful bolt of cloth was knowledge.
The delicious foods of various flavors cooked by great chefs were also knowledge.
Even the poems and stories from the mouths of those habitually lying bards were knowledge as well.

So when he saw them, who, relying on their birth in a higher-dimensional world, wishfully set standards for other lower dimensions and destroyed the “defective products” one by one, a rage welled up inside him.
A rage at seeing knowledge being scorned and destroyed.

Anger was an emotion that rarely appeared in Sykes.

The last time he had been this angry was when he mistakenly believed that the disappearance of the entire merfolk race was related to the human race.
That time, he had demolished eighty-nine human cities in a row before finally making that boastful mage pay the price for his moment of vanity.

Such a beautiful world, so full of knowledge and heritage…

Sykes’s consciousness wandered through the network.
He watched through a school’s surveillance camera as so many young ones studied diligently, their faces showing a thirst for knowledge.
The translucent fingers of his conscious projection gently caressed the transparent screen.

Such a beautiful scene had nearly been destroyed by an arrogant civilization.

In a way, for someone like him who cherished peace so much, finding this core was tantamount to becoming a savior, wasn’t it?

[Game channel construction complete.]

A dry voice interrupted his thoughts.

Sykes’s long eyelashes trembled, and he slowly opened his eyes, his consciousness returning to reality.

Because the master of the mage tower was busy exploring new knowledge, the algae—uncleaned for five years and without its nemesis—had practically enveloped the entire surface of the tower.
But the merman clearly had no time to deal with it right now.

His full attention was on the little girl flying in mid-air before him.

The little girl was about half the size of his palm, with fiery red hair and eyes.
However, due to her own prim and proper nature, her dazzling colors seemed much more subdued.

“Finished with your work so quickly? How efficient.”

[This is a normal work speed and is not worthy of praise.]

“Ella, little girl, don’t be so serious.”
Sykes chuckled, poking her with his finger and sending the little winged girl tumbling in mid-air.

The little girl called Ella calmly stabilized herself in the air, her face showing none of the emotion one would expect after being teased.

[According to data records, the term “little girl” is applied to young female members of species with sexual differentiation. By the definition of Ella’s species, I am a low-intelligence cosmic artificial lifeform without gender distinction. Please correct your form of address.]

“But your current form is clearly…”
Seeing her impervious attitude, Sykes shrugged helplessly, and with a flick of his tail, he swam out of the mage tower, heading towards the old site of the merfolk lands.

“Alright then, take me to see the results of your work.”