"How long was I asleep this time?" The mouth protruding out of the sphere asked.
"Around thirty-two years. You were out cold to the extent I thought you had died." Gehera expressed her worry, rubbing her hand on the sphere to ask, "Why don't you assume your human form now?"
"There's still time for that. I just woke up, so I need to adjust my mental faculties first." The sphere, Compass Carburettor said, forming a pair of eyes to stare at Gehera, "Tell me everything you've been up to until now. Did you lay out the foundation for everything I planned?"
"I'll start from the beginning then." Gehera nodded, frowning for a moment upon seeing Compass Carburettor maintain the figure of a perfect sphere, 'Why is he making himself look like this? Did his powers evolve during these past few decades?'
Placing her suspicions to the back of her head, Gehera started, "For the first five years, as I was the only one conscious among us four, hiding was my priority. All I did was observe in hiding of the way the world was being modified rapidly by Stencil.'
The Dreamland of Compass Carburettor's right-handed Secret Society member was fused into the world, rapidly expanding upon its foundation.
After Stencil enclosed the world and finished the initial integration, the world itself gained a superpower, almost akin to a Grade 3 System that had taken complete control over a normal world and changed it.
This world was capable of absorbing energy from the sun and transform it into a form beneficial for its use. And over time, when enough energy condensed within its core, it generated packets of essence.
These essence packets were condensed energy beings, similar to Martial Spirits. Their primary energy trait was solar power, as the base energy condensing them was obtained from the sun.
Their second trait was Mental Energy. Or rather, the conceptualisation of thoughts.
As that was the inherent nature of Systems, as the Dragon of Systems, Stencil overlaid that power into Spirit Morph and Anthozoa. So, the world naturally absorbed all the generated Mental Energy from the living beings.
This Mental Energy flowed into its core and joined a Mental Energy pool there. It was akin to an ocean, with them moving as they wished. Over time, the Mental Energy joined with their peers, gradually growing in size thanks to the effects of Spirit Morph.
Over time, they became condensed representations of mind. And these condensed representations flowed into an essence packet each, birthing an entity similar to a Heaven Martial Spirit.
These entities lacked sentience, but were governed by the instincts imbued in the memories—part of the Mental Energy—that formed their whole. They lived in a layer that Stencil had modified the incomplete Astral Network into. And when they found a compatible human in the world, they fused into that individual.
Suppose two racers were competing with each other, generating the corresponding Mental Energy. This Mental Energy would contain thoughts of them driving, the techniques they used to manoeuvre their vehicle at such top speeds, the skills required to drive past the obstacles, the mentality they maintained at that time, etc.
All these thoughts, emotions, feelings, etc. combined to generate a Mental Energy. And over time, when this Mental Energy condenses into a mental representation and fuses with an essence packet, they birth an entity with the following powers.
The human this entity fused with would be able to run at terrifying speeds, beyond a human capability. He would be able to make sharp turns, adjust his body accordingly to dodge obstacles, and maintain a during such an action and even perceive his surroundings clearly, when in contrast, a regular human wouldn't be able to see anything at such speeds.
The energy required for activating this power was sourced from the sunlight. Every time the individual basked in the sun, their body would become filled with energy that they could later harness.
Moreover, the same process that happened in the world happened within their bodies too. by absorbing sunlight, they would store the energy in their body. And their thoughts regarding their power—in this case, the thoughts generated while running at superhuman speeds—would flow into their own bodies and fuse into this energy.
Over time, they would form fragments that would fuse with the entity in their body, thereby strengthening them. So, with repeated practice, they would grow strong.
And such entities were termed Heroes/Villains.
Stencil had turned them into pseudo Invoked Spirits. And the world became similar to a Dreamland. Both were able to grow over time and evolve naturally with the power of the mind.
After all, people mature mentally over time. And this maturity differs rapidly depending upon the environment, surrounding people, and daily experiences. So, a Hero, despite doing the same action—running at superhuman speeds in our case—for years, the Mental Energy he generates during his first year at work and fifth year at work would have drastic differences.
And this would cause his powers to subtly evolve too. Therefore, the powers of no Hero/Villain would remain stale and would constantly keep growing and evolving.
This was the world Stencil had created, an evolving world with an evolving power system that she didn't need to actively manage.
As people interacted, more Mental Energy was generated. And this led to the birth of more energy beings through the essence packets, eventually creating more Heroes/Villains.
And as the world continued to absorb sunlight, it slowly accumulated fragments that it layered in its foundation, steadily building itself up through consistent accumulation, following a route similar to the Fantasy World, but the process was more efficient here.
The only dependent factor here was the sun. And, to ensure the sun had enough foundation, Stencil had already made plans to steal the countless suns in their universe itself.
There was just one inhabitable planet in this universe, so in her eyes, the remaining suns were just being wasted on the lifeless planets.
Considering the ingenuity of this world's development, it was apparent that not just one collective consciousness was responsible for it. It seemed pretty much all the collective consciousness had taken turns, making their respective beneficial contribution, including Stencil.
And whenever it was her turn, Stencil erased the faulty concepts and replaced them with better ones, all while communicating with Gehera through a Mental Energy stream, making her know of what was up.
"So, that's the underlying concept behind this power system." Gehera said while staring at Compass Carburettor, "She created an evolved self-reliant version of you, a power that wouldn't lose out to any other force out there, including the Systems."
