The truth had been laid bare. Benjamin now stood within this immense, real yet somehow "awkward" model, facing its core directly.
" I have another question." Benjamin looked at the four faces frozen like masks. "Why did you choose me? Or rather, why was only my 'background setting' so unusual?"
He thought of Rex. "Someone like Rex could be an orphan, with simple social connections. That would make him easier to conceal and manipulate. So why did you specially construct an entire family for me, even including childhood friends like Amy and Victor?"
The four mouths opened in unison, giving Benjamin an answer he had not expected. "Because you are a singularity, Number 721. My core system cannot read and construct a life path capable of fulfilling your true inner wishes. Creating intimate social relationships for you was a compensatory measure, based on the system's fundamental logic of maintaining the stability of an individual's social existence. But without the drive of your true wishes, the construction's precision was naturally insufficient."
"You can't read my wishes?" Benjamin froze slightly.
"Yes. Tell me, Number 721—strip away all appearances and excuses. What, at the deepest and most fundamental level of your heart, do you truly desire?" The four voices overlapped, carrying a deeply buried urgency.
Benjamin sank into thought.
He recalled everything he had experienced since crossing over: the Qi Refining Method he had practiced day after day for more than a decade without seeing results; his ravenous absorption of knowledge in the Wizard World; his all-out efforts to fuse two Power Systems and create Rune Artifacts; the Black Giant—behind all of it, what had been the most fundamental driving force?
After a moment, he raised his head. His gaze was clear and resolute as he answered calmly, "Power."
"To grow stronger without