"Obtain... a new Cosmic Core?"
Chiba's eyes gradually widened as he stared at the misty humanoid before him in growing disbelief, unable to stop himself from repeating what it had just said.
"Yes."
The misty humanoid answered with certainty.
He had been planning this for a long time. Everything he had arranged for his present self had been for this purpose. At this stage, it was also the only thing he could think of that he was capable of doing.
"You said it yourself just now, didn't you? For this new Cosmic Core to reform, it'll take hundreds of millions of years. And the fragments of this universe have scattered into countless pieces, meaning there are countless worlds constantly merging. Every world might have an outsider, and among so many outsiders, surely there'll be at least a few like us who can reach the core of their worlds. Forget whether I can even live that long—how am I supposed to deal with so many outsiders? Outsiders who can reach this level aren't going to be easy opponents, are they?"
Upon hearing this, Chiba looked at his past self as though he were a monster, the question blurting from his mouth.
"I know. But we have to do this. A vast and terrifying dimension is opening before us. We are nothing more than a speck of dust in the torrent, and we have no idea when that vast, terrifying dimension will crush us into nothingness. If we want to live properly, if we want the rebirth we fought so hard to gain to have a good ending, then we cannot stop moving forward. Besides, compared to the other outsiders, we are already far luckier than most. I still possess the Cosmic Core Fragment of the Nightmare Cycle Universe. There is no