"An evolved version of me, I see." Compass Carburettor nodded before asking, "And, how did the people react?"
"There was chaos during the initial five years," Gehera said, "But as both Heroes and Villains cropped up around the same time, people could rally behind their saviours. Things became stable thanks to Stencil who proclaimed herself as the first here, titled the Genesis Hero."
"And..." After a moment of hesitation, Gehera smiled wryly, "I used the power I stile from you to target her at numerous occasions, and became the first villain in the eyes of the public, the Contained Villain."
"I strictly used your power to direct the attention to you," Gehera said, watching Compass Carburettor nod in response.
"Indeed, Mental Energy regarding the Contained Villain has been funnelling into me from the start and has only intensified in recent times." Compass Carburettor said before asking, "But, I remember allowing you to steal a large fraction of my power. You gained at least a ten thousand Secret Society members worth."
"All that didn't amount to much?" He tilted his head in confusion, "With the power of Spirit Morph, you could have created more of them easily."
"I didn't have the brainpower to do that." Gehera sighed, "Just to arrange their Mental Fragments to create a functional whole took me years. And even then, they weren't efficient enough. Moreover, when too many members moved, my mind couldn't handle the real-time thoughts transfer from all."
"Three or four at a time was my limit." Gehera became a tad sullen, "Over the years, I brought the numbers up to twenty, but it is nothing compared to you."
"Your mind is something else."
Upon seeing that Compass Carburettor was silent, Gehera continued, "The foundation of the world continued to increase. And over time, the primary advantage of Mental Energy streams was nullified."
Originally, a Mental Energy stream travelled at the speed of thought, capable of traversing any distance in an instant. But in this world, thanks to Stencil's inlaying of a power system countering this, the speed continued to reduce.
"And now, it's slower than the speed of sound." Gehera said, "So, even if my members transform into Mental Energy streams to escape, they are chased after by the Heroes."
"It seems the majority of the collective consciousness piloting Stencil hate the Systems for what the Systems did to Immortal and their home worlds." Gehera said, "So, the majority of their plans have been enacted to counter the advantages of Systems."
Each collective consciousness was the collective representation of a Cultivation World, formed by the thoughts of every living being inhabiting that world. And when those worlds lost their status as a Cultivation World, these consciousness were left stranded, kicked out of their own homes.
No, it was akin to an external entity invading their home to rapidly convert the inhabitants into something foreign, making them forget their original identity. So, the collective consciousness harboured intense hatred towards Systems.
And hence, when given the power of the Dragon of Systems, they had a field time, creating everything they could to form a strong world that would one day destroy the Systems.
"And that is happening in six months." Gehera said in worry, "These collective consciousnesses aren't aware of the true strength of the Systems. As expected of consciousness from a cultivation setting, courting death is something they seem unhealthily fond of."
Seeing her spit out hateful remarks, it was apparent that she had gone through a lot in this world and had piled up enough stress. After all, Gehera was a native of the Fantasy World.
And the first world she visited after that was this, thrust in a survival situation where she couldn't even be free. If she acted without the protection of Hazen's armour, Stencil would sense her existence.
The Secret Society members weren't protected by the armour. And hence, the majority of them died during their mission while the rest had been hidden away from the start.
A mouth and a pair of eyes formed on the sphere, blinking as they stared at Gehera, "What about...my story?"
"Did you spread it around wide enough?" Compass Carburettor asked.
"What do you think?" Gehera raised an eyebrow, staring down on him.
'This brat has grown a lot over the years.' Compass Carburettor thought, unable to notice any traces of Gehera's original meek self.
Well, she was almost reaching a century in terms of age. It would be a wonder if she hadn't changed during that time.
And during this time, she had fully grasped the ins and out of her power, now able to selectively steal what she wanted. So, extending her life was super easy, barely an inconvenience.
All Gehera had to do was touch a young tree and absorb the remainder of its lifespan. She then had to take out the created totem in her Ruin of Amagoth and stab it into her body, rapidly expanding her lifespan.
So, despite her age, she looked like a woman in her early twenties.
"How's Hazen and Truck-Kun?" Compass Carburettor asked next. For the majority of the questions, he knew the answers beforehand. But, he just wished to hear it from her for some reason.
"I'm not sure about Hazen. He seems perfectly fine at first glance, but whenever I look at him, I notice a different person." Gehera then pointed towards the living room, "As for the couch potato, you can ask him that yourself."
"Trucks are banned in this world. Fuck my life." Came an answer from the living room before which the sounds of an action flick filled up the place. Truck-Kun was binging movies nonstop, without any rest, making the couch his home.
He didn't need to sleep or eat like a human anyways. And left with no purpose, he turned towards media to entertain his life, vicariously living in the moments where vehicles resembling trucks appeared in the movies to ram into people.
He saw such scenes in a loop for months at a stretch.
"He didn't recover his power?" Compass Carburettor asked in confusion, looking at Gehera, "You didn't do anything in that regard?"
"I tried, but Stencil countered it immediately." Gehera shook her head, "After all, Truck-Kun's power would allow us to leave this world easily. So, she has been heavily guarded against that and hasn't allowed us any avenues to recover Truck-Kun's strength."
"Fuck that life," Truck-Kun's voice resounded once again, "I'm content being the couch potato-Kun."
