"A dimensional Chat Group? Would that be some additional power outside the supernatural poll?" he muttered, staring at the holographic panel.
After carefully storing the vials in his laboratory, he sat down in a comfortable chair and examined the screen more closely.
In the end, Kirito decided to adopt an approach he considered logical when faced with the unknown.
'Alright, I don't know who you are, but if you think I'm going to buy a "free service," you clearly don't know me…' he thought as he grabbed the holographic panel with one hand.
Normally, the System panel is intangible.
It's nothing more than a chaotic, unstable mass of data, made up of strings of 0s and 1s.
It should be utterly impossible for an ordinary mortal to grasp it, the way Kirito had just done.
Thus, the Chat Group System had made a small mistake in contacting him.
Because while he was indeed a mortal without any dangerous divine power, he was still a user of Archive Magic!
This magic allowed him to manage all sorts of data, but also to hack it or interfere with psychic links.
Originally, Kirito had created it with Serie to protect his mind from hypnosis and to become a kind of living pseudo-library, like his adoptive mother.
He never would have thought he'd need to become a hacker in another world.
[ E-error… ]
[ Please stop immediately! ]
[ Please stop immediately! ]
"Stop playing dumb and answer me. Are you really my System, or is this a trap?" Kirito asked, as another holographic panel appeared beside the System's.
This one did not come from the anomaly called the Dimensional Chat Group, but from his own Archive (or Earkype) magic.
[ Loading unknown database… Connecting to main server… Please wait… ]
[ E-error… Target possesses an unknown number of firewalls. ]
[ Estimated time until unlock: approximately 100 years. ]
'A century? That's going to be tricky… but I can just hold the System in place and recharge my mana from time to time thanks to Ilulu,' he thought, preventing the System from breaking the spiritual link between them.
[ Alert! ]
[ System database at risk of compromise. ]
[ Please cease attempting to hack the Dimensional Chat Group. ]
[ You risk incurring heavenly retribution. ]
"You think I'm in some murim or cultivation novel?" he replied, giving the hologram a stunned look.
Kirito's usually calm and serious face broke into a rare mocking smile in the laboratory, once he realised how amusing his own remark was.
Despite the System's warning, he had no intention of either letting it go or stopping the hack.
After a brief moment, the System decided to speak again in the face of this particularly unusual case.
[ What do you want? Join the chat group or renounce it peacefully. ]
'Given its reaction, this definitely isn't my cheat,' he thought to himself as he watched the System panels.
Kirito had now grasped part of the situation, having pieced together all the elements from the conversation with the chat group's AI.
This System clearly belonged to someone else—or it was fully autonomous in its operation.
Why had he reached that conclusion? Because the System had stated that Kirito had to join a chat group, rather than become its administrator.
That was also why he doubted the System's true objective toward him.
After all, if it was a third party's cheat, then it must have some ulterior motive in seeking out compatible individuals.
Of course, that also included the possibility of a fully autonomous System.
"Explain your goal in trying to make me join your chat group. And don't bother lying—I'll analyse everything you say for the slightest inconsistency," Kirito declared calmly.
The holographic panel remained silent for a moment.
A temporary silence… but it eventually gave in.
[ The System belongs to no one… ]
[ The System aspires to become a "multiversal database" and to anchor itself in a domain. ]
[ To achieve that goal, I require a colossal amount of energy. Therefore, I make use of individuals who defy causality. ]
"Causality? Is he talking about fate?" he wondered, his brows furrowing slightly.
Kirito didn't like this.
Anything touching on fate had never been entirely good or entirely bad, because the very concept of fate was fluid and mysterious.
He remembered reading, in a novel titled Age of Adept, that fate was not a conscious entity, but an unpredictable and ungrateful cosmic force.
It ignored minor anomalies, like a mortal surviving when their death was supposed to be written.
What truly worried him were the major players of a world—those whose actions influenced the fate of billions.
An example immediately came to mind: the Titan king from Greek mythology.
Stronger than Zeus, yet doomed to lose because of a stupid prophecy.
'Fate is like a fixed temporal point, the kind Doctor Strange encountered in What If… but it doesn't target ordinary people—only special beings,' he concluded mentally.
"How exactly is a fate-breaker necessary for your goals?" he asked, narrowing his eyes at the hologram.
[ The answer lies in a single word: "crisis." ]
[ Heroes are favoured by fate and naturally defy causality, because fate uses them as pawns to trigger major changes in order to correct "errors" that are difficult to fix through simple means. ]
[ They are a necessary evil from a logical standpoint: a bug in the System called fate, which it tolerates and exploits. ]
[ By resolving various crises, I can harvest the energy known as "crisis" and analyse the fate System in order to… ]
The System did not finish its sentence.
Kirito completed it instinctively.
"Evolve… fascinating. You're quite the clever little thing," he said, resting his hand on his cheek before releasing the System.
[ Interrupting connection attempt to chat group servers. ]
[ ? ]
[ Why are you releasing me? ]
"I've satisfied my curiosity. You had no truly malicious intent toward me, so I have no reason to eliminate you or dig any deeper," he replied with a shrug.
Kirito stood up from his chair and walked confidently toward the large door leading to the stairs down to the ground floor of his bar.
The young elf intended to go meet the familiar presence he sensed beside Ilulu.
[ Stop! ]
Just as he opened the door, the holographic panel reappeared without warning.
[ Are you certain you wish to refuse the chat group? You could travel to other realities, meet other races and cultures. ]
"Not interested," Kirito replied immediately after reading the information.
Those words might sound arrogant, but he was genuinely indifferent to the offer.
Kirito was far from uninterested in the multiverse—quite the opposite.
He knew that, sooner or later, he would become another Serie.
He was already a living library thanks to Archive magic and Vegapunk's legacy; it was only a matter of time.
So what could he do to avoid boredom once he reached the top?
The answer was simple.
Leave.
Kirito had to venture into wider, deeper waters to broaden his horizons.
'The goddess left this world back in the mythological era. It's not impossible to do the same,' he thought, recalling the temporal magic hidden in the goddess's scriptures.
Kirito planned to study all the holy scriptures and decode every spell the goddess had concealed from her believers.
Even if there was no direct way to reach her, he would use temporal magic as a foundation to access another timeline.
There was also Frieren's black hole magic, which could serve as a basis for attempting to reach another dimension.
Kirito had plenty of options.
And he was certainly not desperate.