‘Administrators, huh,’ Neo thought. ‘Yeah, that’s a good word. Calling them World Consciousness now feels wrong since I’ve combined their worlds and the Worlds don’t exist anymore.’
‘It’s better to call them Administrators.’
The World Consciousnesses no longer had a World Core, and were not tied to a piece of land.
It was thanks to Shadow Core Concept. It allowed him to recreate any object whole, or partially.
“Should I give the Administrators a body?” Neo thought then shook his head. “I will do that after creating a new race. Let’s do it after I’m done here.”
He had devoured everything from Zone 2 to Zone 6.
Now, he had to go fight Nyxtharion #1.
He wasn’t sure if he was strong enough to fight the dragon, but he was on a timer.
He couldn’t waste time if he wanted to save Elizabeth.
“I’ll just—”
The pain in his head increased sharply.
“What is this, dammit?”
It was as if something was hammering a nail inside his head.
It was less painful, and more annoying.
“This—”
[Several people want to pledge loyalty to you. Would you like to form a Bond (Minor) with them?]
A quick sweep through the status screen told Neo the notification came from his Crownless King Trait.
“The people who want to pledge the loyalty… it must be those who are inside my Cosmos.”
It seemed Neo’s show of power had moved them so much that they had started to pray to him.
“It says several people, but how many exactly is it?”
Currently, Neo had five Stage 3 Worlds inside his Cosmos.
That was a huge population.
To give a comparison, the large cave where he had trained with Nyxtharion #2 was five times the size of Luminera continent.
Luminera itself was several times larger than pre-apocalypse Earth.
This made the cave tremendously large.
And the cave was less than one hundredth of the Zone 2.
This was how large a Stage-3 world was.
Neo had devoured five Stage-3 Worlds.
He had roughly two decillion eighty-five nonillion people residing in the new world he created (2,085,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000).
“Even if only one-thousandth of them want to make a Bond, can I do it with so many people? It might be dangerous if I bond with too many of them without understanding if it had negative effects.”
Neo frowned.
There was no time for him to make a Bond (Minor) one by one.
He was on a timer, and he needed all the strength he could get to fight his next opponent.
“Fuck it, if something goes wrong, I will just kill myself and rebuild myself before the negative effects become permanent.”
Neo agreed to make the Bond (Minor).
A connection began to form between him and countless people. They felt a surge within their soul.
And Neo?
Neo had no words for what he was going through.
Notifications rained down like a heavy downpour.
[Shared Growth will remain active for all bonds.]
[You have formed a Bond (Minor) with a mortal. +0.000001 Strength]
[You have formed a Bond (Minor) with a mortal. +0.000001 Right hand Dexterity]
[…a Bond (Minor) with a mortal. +0.000001 Constitution]
[…with a mortal. +0.000001 Breathing]
[…Mortal. +0.000001 Agility]
[…Spine Movement]
The notifications were countless. Since all people were mortals in his Cosmos, he got almost an insignificant amount of Primary/Secondary stat from each person.
However, with the huge amount of population inside Neo’s Cosmos, the insignificant number gathered into a terrifying number.
129,084,326,913,124,124,125 people had pledged their loyalty to him.
The number was large. Crownless King wasn’t supposed to create so many Bonds. Each Bond linked both sides’ Consciousness, and the Consciousness allowed stats and skills to be shared.
Stats for Minor Bond.
Stats and Skills for Major Bond.
Neo’s powerful Consciousness allowed him to link successfully with everyone who pledged their loyalty to him.
It was a lucky coincidence that Crownless King worked through links between Consciousness.
Thanks to it, Neo gained stats that defied common sense.
Neo exhaled audibly.
Everything about his body, from physical stats to his World Energy pathways inside his body, had been strengthened by several hundred thousand times.
Just then, he sensed Death Firmament and Tyrant Firmament calling out to him.
He summoned them beside him.
Since he was floating in the turbulent empty space in Layer 4 and it could throw around the Firmament, he created an artificial gravity and a small land for them.
Death Firmament rushed forward.
It crackled around Neo.
Neo thought it was observing his strengthened body, but Death Sword Firmament spoke to him about something else.
You strengthened your bond with those people?
Neo blinked, surprised. It seemed the Firmament could sense his Bonds, since they were a part of him.
“Yeah, I did,” he nodded.
What about us? It spoke in a sad yet expectant tone. Won’t you do the same with us?
Neo looked towards Tyrant Sword Firmament.
It had a neutral expression. However, he could tell it had the same request as Death Sword Firmament, even though it didn’t want to say it aloud.
Eyes of Echo Firmament came out of his pocket, and also looked at him expectantly.
‘They are acting like children.’
Neo shook his head, and he opened his mouth.
“You guys don’t need the—”
Neo stopped speaking when the mood suddenly took a turn for worse. All three Firmaments became gloomy.
He was exasperated.
Crownless King Bond or not, they were connected to him, and since he could already use their abilities, he didn’t need the Bond with them.
It had no benefit.
But if he didn’t understand by how Velkaria was pulling his hair, his experience told him he was not supposed to say no here.
“Okay. I’ll create a Bond with you guys. A major one in fact. Happy?”
Yes!
Death Sword Firmament began buzzing with excitement, and Eyes of Echo Firmament hugged him.
Neo smiled. If nothing else, the Firmaments lightened his mood before the battle with Nyxtharion #1.