Ike suddenly turned to Jhin and asked,
"What is it? Why are you smiling?"
"Ah… sorry. No particular reason. It's just… kind of funny, seeing that you're not all that different from us—even as an Administrator."
"Did you think Administrators were sothing special?"
"Oh? So you really are the Administrator, huh."
He'd been fishing—and Ike had bit.
Silence followed.
Jhin glanced over and saw Aurora nodding firmly beside him. With that, he turned back to Ike.
"Good. Then let's get serious."
"About what?"
"First of all, don't worry about the Black Ground. If they were looking for you, did you think we wouldn't prepare for that?"
Jhin's eyes narrowed with sharp intent.
"But more importantly, I have a question for you, Ike."
"...?"
"I want the truth."
He paused briefly before continuing.
"What is this world?"
"What do you an?"
"Exactly what I said. I want you to explain what this world actually is."
To be honest, that was the one question he'd always wanted to ask an Administrator.
A few months ago, this was just a ga he enjoyed playing.
Now, it was reality.
Why had the world beco this way?
'Even though this is real now, it still has Vaccines, viruses, rollbacks, backdoors, bugs… all the chanics of a ga.'
Had he fallen into the world of a ga?
Or had his real world beco a ga?
He didn't know anymore.
Ike sighed deeply and replied.
"It's nothing complicated. Just the 114th failed world, now collapsed."
"...114th failure?"
"Didn't you know? The Earth you live on is Exodia number 115."
Jhin let out a hollow laugh.
"I thought it was number 2."
"Well, that's your system's naming convention."
Suddenly, he rembered: when he'd entered this place, it had connected him to Channel 0114.
And Earth, the real Earth, was Channel 0115.
"Mr. Kyle—no, Jhin. This world is simpler and more complicated than you think."
"Yeah… it does feel that way."
"That's all I can say. Even if this world has already shut down, if I say more than that, the system will catch ."
"Huh?"
"I have no desire to be deleted just yet."
He'd held his breath this long—but then, suddenly rembering sothing, Ike snapped his fingers.
"Well, this actually works out."
"What?"
"Mr. Jhin, there's sothing I wanted to formally request from you. You could call it a 'quest'—to make it easier."
That was when the system ssage appeared before his eyes.
It was absurd—but proof enough that Ike really was the Administrator.
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