My Reincarnation As A Chicken - Chapter 302 Alpha's Plan

“Welcome back! Yay!”, There was a pop sound, followed by falling confetti around me. I blinked several times, only to see the system master standing before me with a party popper in hand and a party cap on her head.

“Congratulations on not dying! Oh, how much you’ve grown from that weak little chick! I feel like a proud parent who’s watching their kid go to college now.”

She got all in my face, her nostrils flaring and her eyes shimmering like stars. It was obvious what she wanted, but I had bad news for her.

“I don’t have it.”, I didn’t even get to touch that sheet before it disintegrated in front of me. My journey had literally been pointless.

“What are you talking about?”, before I knew it, the system master held a thin sheet of red paper in her hand. I looked at it and blinked several times, wondering how and when she got the paper.

‘How?’

“Ozvaloth sent both you and the paper over.”, she waved the paper in front of me while flashing a cocky grin at my face.

“Of course… why did I even think he destroyed it?”, I was dumb for thinking that. I mean, he did teleport me in the same manner, so I should have at least assumed he did same for the sheet.

“Maybe because you’re a little dense?”, she retorted, striking at my sensitive heart. I could see her lips turning upwards and her cheeks puffing up as she restrained a laugh unbefitting of a lady. I had to change the topic before I lost my dignity in front of her.

“What do you even want that thing for? It’s not necessarily accurate, is it?”, I asked something I had been wondering about earlier. The king of hell had proven that the book led him astray once before.

“That’s none of your business.”

I’d like to think that it was. I was the one doing the heavy lifting after all, but I guess it was one of those ‘You aren’t high level enough’ type deals. I was just a grunt doing her dirty work for her. Well, considering the way she begs me to do stuff for her, I was more like a hired gun.

Need someone to randomly disappear? They never existed. You want to find a missing ancient artefact? I’ve got years of archaeological experience at the ready. Want someone to take care of your kids while you’re busy at work? Parents call me the better parent. You want me to steal a super important item from the king of hell who apparently ranks higher than every single being in this world? That’s right, handy-man Hinotori is at your service!

“Well, at least I was right that he would hand it over to you.”

Eh? What did she say? Did she just imply that everything turned out exactly as she had planned out? That didn’t make sense and I wasn’t going to just ignore it.

“Oi! If you knew he’d just give it to me, why didn’t you just send me right there?”

“Hmm, that’s beside the point.”, she aloofly brushed aside my rage.

“It isn’t. You wasted my time!”, I had nothing to do, so it wasn’t really a waste of time, but I felt like I had the right to be angry here. She made me travel through 3 floors for something I could have gotten had she just teleported me to the right floor.

“It’s not a waste of time, though. Rather, it’s beneficial to you.”, she started making up some mumbo-jumbo about how she did it for me. The nerve on her!

“Your evolution’s done. I’ll see you next time. Peace!”

Sensing my growing wrath, she kicked me out of her dimension.

All that was left was for me to wake up back in Larm.

______________________

The moment Hinotori was kicked out of Alpha’s domain, another guest appeared. It was Beta, a fellow demiurge, with bags under her eyes and her hair in shambles. She looked at the spot where Hinotori once stood as she came to halt next to Alpha.

“You know, I never thought much about it, but hasn’t your subject grown way too fast? It’d take at least 2 decades for the others to reach her level and those are the really good ones.”

She pointed out the abnormality of the being Alpha kept attending to.

“Yep. I made a mistake with this one. I know I got the best student from that class, but I didn’t expect that he’d be so strong I’d have to make multiple revisions to my system in under a year. At the rate at which he’s growing, I think there’s no use in a system for him.”

“Eh? Won’t that mean you succeeded before all of us?”

“No. The goal was to make the ultimate system. I think Hinotori is a being that can’t be controlled by a system. I added in so many functions like the stores, familia and dungeons. I even added a Quest system so she grew faster than everyone, but she never focused on any of those and she’s already surpassed a great majority of the subjects. It’s likely she would have reached this point in about 2 or 3 years if she didn’t have the system.”

“Yeah. Must be that unique skill of hers. [Evolver] is it?”

“Yeah. That’s it.”

Whenever Alpha thought about that unique skill in particular, she could feel her stomach churn. No one else had seemed to notice anything weird, but having been the one watching over Hinotori, she couldn’t help but feel intense concern about that skill in particular. Clearly, the skill was a growth-type that boosted Hinotori’s strength over time, but Alpha felt there was something more to it.

In the first place, Hinotori had other skills that performed that same function. In fact, to a higher degree as each of those skills were specialising in those categories. Alpha had performed a simulation of some of Hinotori’s skill fusions, but nothing ever produced something relatively close to [Evolver]. What made it worse was, even if Hinotori hadn’t noticed it, [Evolver] was still functioning in some way.

“I’m surprised someone actually got assigned such a skill.”

Alpha didn’t respond to that. This was because the unique skill [Evolver] was never assigned to Hinotori. Alpha wasn’t particularly sure how Hinotori got the skill, but she did have a rough idea.

“Hmm, I guess she’s still weaker than mine and Delta’s though.”, Beta boasted with a shrug.

Alpha agreed whole-heartedly, very much aware of the kind of monsters those two had produced. Of course, it wasn’t fair since theirs had been born years before Hinotori. Even then, Alpha was only concerned about one other subject.

“Yeah, though Gamma’s looks like he’ll catch up to her soon. Honestly, I feel like the Great One just gave us the hardest project this time around.”, heaving a heavy sigh, Beta held her forehead and shrugged.

“Yeah, we got the hardest project, yet you got the easiest candidate. I kinda wish I was only second best now.”, Alpha took a shot at Beta.

“What the hell’s that supposed to mean?”

“Oh, nothing.”

“Don’t just brush it off!”

“How’s the system coming along?”

“Meh. I took into account her skills and level and took out most of your ‘modifications’. It’s all too cumbersome and clearly, she isn’t going to focus on everything, so in order to maximise efficiency, we limit the amount of functions she has access to.”

“Wow, you’re really good at this.”

“Well, we’re supposed to interact with the subjects, see their reactions and find the best way to accommodate them with our system, while not giving them too much. I guess a friendless, air-head like you would obviously fail in this aspect. You probably didn’t even read the assignment, huh?”

Beta berated Alpha who simply shrugged, barely listening to a single word she said.

“I underestimated you.”

“Ke. You might be the best in theory, but your people reading skills limit your abilities. In that regard, I’m way better than you.”

“Sure, sure. At least, we’ve confirmed that I made the most efficient system out of everyone.”

“Did you hear a single thing I said? The system isn’t supposed to make them grow this fast! At most, their growth rate is to be twice as fast as everyone else, but if they all grew too fast, the world would collapse. The Great One definitely isn’t letting that fly. You’re lucky you begged me to help you before submitting this.”

Were every one of the subjects to receive a system that made them too strong too fast, the world would be littered with too many strong beings and its continued existence would be doubtful. The continent of Krione once had several powerful beings in it, but most of them had laws preventing them from acting willy-nilly, all for fear that they would destroy the continent, and eventually, the world.

“Me? Beg you? That’s the funniest thing to come out of your mouth. Keep it up and you might make it as a stand-up comedian one day, Beta.”

All of that was of no concern to Alpha though. With Beta’s aid, Alpha had created her ‘Final System’ for presentation. Originally, she would have kept on altering the system till it felt right, but she would settle for this lesser product. She had other objectives in mind that most likely wouldn’t sit well with her fellow demiurges. Now, she had the means to begin her plans.