Chapter 272 : [Supreme Skill: Virtual World]

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[Virtual Bubble: Reject]

Sora activated the Virtual Bubble option of his supreme skill, [Virtual World]. One of the main perks of absorbing his brothers was inheriting their many skills. And among the alter egos who 'lived' in his [Soul Palace], a number of them possessed supreme skills.

"Newtons, thank you for choosing to sacrifice yourself so I could inherit the array of skills you left behind… Without [Virtual World], this day would’ve started off terribly." he thanked his alter ego privately.

"I won't stay here forever... Just have someone replace me someday. Their powers are as overpowered as mine... Probably." Newtons joked.

The world around him froze, and he was able to observe everyone’s expression.

Karl and Shade were watching in shock as the energy beam surged toward the young Jinn, while Tian Long stared furiously at the event unfolding. Sora saw uncontainable rage in her eyes, and her clenched fists betrayed the frustration she was trying hard to hide.

Minny, on his knees atop his planet, had his head raised toward the attack heading his way. In his gaze, Sora saw neither fear nor anger. On the contrary, he saw determination mixed with raw hatred.

‘He seems completely broken mentally… He’s so young, and I hurt him this badly. Did I go too far? Why the hell do they send World Bosses that look like damn kids? What possessed me to hit him so hard?’ As Sora tried to recall the last time he regretted using extreme violence against an enemy, he noticed the world around him rapidly changing.

The orbital ray that had been seconds away from striking the Jinn and his planet suddenly halted… and reversed.

Everything around Sora began to rewind. The beam vanished, and the group’s eyes returned to Minny, who was still staring at Sora, blood on his face. His words were muted, just like every sound in this strange environment. He stood back up, and after a few moments, the planets that had exploded slowly reformed.

Before long, everything was back to ‘normal.’

Sora stood flanked by his allies. The battle hadn’t begun yet. A bubble—visible only to him—popped, and the world resumed its flow.

"That’s insane..." Still struggling to believe it, he whispered under his breath.

Dozens of voices reached him a moment later.

"Wow! Wow! WOOW!! That was incredible!! Did we just go back in time?!" Nineteen’s voice echoed in his mind.

"Are you stupid or just pretending? Didn’t you read the description of [Virtual World]? It was in Newtons memories..." Twelve answered him, making sure everyone—including Sora—heard the reply.

"Was I supposed to read and absorb all your memories? I did that for a while, but most of your memories are completely useless. Your supreme and ultimate skills are inaccessible to me anyway, so why bother?" Nineteen shot back.

“You’re not entirely wrong,” Twelve replied, “but at least read all your brothers’ skills. It wouldn’t even take you two minutes, and you could help advise Sora.”

Nineteen didn’t seem convinced and responded,
“You think he needs a thousand advisors? Let him make his own choices. He’s a big boy. If he really needs help, you’ll all be there anyway. No need to jump in every time.”

“Use a separate channel and don’t include me in your useless chatter, please…” Sora was tempted to mute the alter egos again but held back.

“Only use this channel for emergencies or important info.” he added.

Noticing the silence that followed the previous noise, he thought back to Newtons’ ultimate skill.

[Supreme Skill: Virtual World]

A skill created for the Supreme Genius who mastered virtualization and perfected computed simulations.

Grants the user control over a self-contained world where reality can be observed, simulated, altered, or discarded.

• Effect 1: Database
  Passively adds people, objects, and phenomena to the Simulation Database of the Virtual World. Fully analyzed targets can be perfectly simulated.

• Effect 2: Perfect Mirror
  Anything learned in simulation can be used in reality, and vice versa. Nothing is wasted.

• Effect 3: Déjà Vu
  Simulated experiences become reflexes. Instantly react to real events as if you’ve lived them before.

• Effect 4: Virtual Bubble
  Casts a simulation over reality. Approve to make events real. Reject to cancel everything and return to the start.

Warning: Supreme Skills cannot be affected by anything lower than Supreme level skills, including Innate skills, Special skills, or Racial Skills.

Sora thought about the effects of [Virtual World], ‘Newtons unlocked a crazy skill… It’s unconventional, but the potential is incredible.’

He recalled his conversations with Newtons and the memories he had absorbed, ‘Database let him analyze everything and perfect the virtual world.’

‘Perfect Mirror helped him simulate training and increase skill mastery while doing something else in the real world.’

‘With Déjà Vu, he simulated a massive number of fights and gained insane reflexes. He became one of the best despite never sparring with others...’

‘Virtual Bubble is my favorite… It’s what let me undo the fiasco that was my fight against Minny. I just hope it won’t leave any lasting scars on the little Jinn.’

‘I haven’t had time to master this new skill at all, but I can already feel that Déjà Vu and Perfect Mirror could be clutch later on.’ Sensing and seeing movement around him, he promised himself to deepen his mastery of [Virtual World], and turned his focus back to the ongoing battle.

“Are you just gonna stand there? What are you waiting for to start smashing planets too?!” Tian Long called out to him.

Turning to face her, then glancing at Minny, Karl, and Shade, he smiled. None of them seemed to have noticed anything strange.

The ongoing battle was chaotic, but it seemed to favor the four attackers. Some of the seventy-two planets bombarded from a distance using elemental attacks, while others flew around trying to ram into the players. Gas planets seemed to specialize in ranged attacks and telluric planets moved quickly to smash into them.

Karl floated in the void, surrounded by [Sword Intent], destroying one planet after another that got too close to the group.

Shade, on his side, empowered by the environment, spread his darkness and destroyed the most distant planets.

Tian Long supported the two humans by amplifying their powers with her own. Sora wasn’t surprised. She had already explained that she preferred fighting from the backlines and supporting her allies in her humanoid form.

Sora raised a hand toward a planet firing a beam of light at him and activated a skill.

[Ignore] [Ultimate – 2★]

The beam passed through his body, but didn’t deal any damage. Sora pointed at the planet and activated another skill.

[Fireworks] [Ultimate – 1★]

Feeling his energy being drained at varying rates depending on the skill's star level, he didn’t even watch as the planet exploded into a thousand sparkling rockets...

‘A 1★ skill uses one percent of my normal mana reserves. I don’t need to liquefy or solidify my mana to use it. This will massively boost my endurance in combat. A 2★ skill costs ten times more, but that’s still manageable, considering my mana regeneration rate.’

Pleased to see this for himself, he activated another skill.

[Gravity Ball] [Ultimate – 1★]

A small glowing orb appeared in the middle of the battlefield and began pulling in everything within the territory—except the planet Minny stood on.

Seeing his allies getting pulled, he used another skill to protect them.

The planets flying all over, as well as those in the distance, were all affected by the skill. Their trajectories were violently altered, and some collided with one another. But even that didn’t save them from their grim fate.

A first star slammed into the glowing orb, exploded into fragments that were devoured one by one. As the orb absorbed objects, Sora felt the energy it consumed grow exponentially. After about ten destroyed planets, he had to stop the experiment and deactivated [Gravity Ball].

Seeing the destruction he had caused, he couldn’t help but glance toward Minny. And what he saw surprised him.

The young stellar Jinn stood tall, hands behind his back, with that same smug smile on his face. The loss of half the planets since the start of the fight didn’t seem to bother him—in fact, he looked rather amused.

‘I thought his strength came from those planets… What difference does it make if we destroy them or if he destroys them himself?’ Sora wondered.

He didn’t have all the pieces to understand the Jinn’s reaction, but he tried to gather a few. He activated [Mana Eyes], but saw nothing special. He used [Psychic Hold], but learned no more.

‘Could it be linked to his soul?’ he thought.

So he activated one of his favorite skills:

[Soulcraft] [Ultimate]

It was a skill acquired in the tower—one he had perfected, upgraded, and mastered with the help of his brothers. Despite countless attempts, neither he nor his brothers had ever managed to draw a better version of the skill through Tian Long’s skill fusion.

As he focused his power into his eyes, the world around him changed color. Dozens of [Soul Links] connected each celestial body in the territory to Minny. When a satellite exploded, a flow of energy and soul power returned to the young Jinn, making him a little stronger each time.

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Author’s Note:

No cliffhanger today, hehe!

I didn’t particularly want to drag this fight out, but I felt it was important to highlight Sora’s new powers. This week before the war is key to understanding the new balance of power, Sora’s level, and setting up the next major arc.

I hope you’re strapped in—because we’re about to take off!