"Assimilation?"
Alger froze, a ripple passing through his azure spirit body as he asked in confusion.
Over this period, he had personally verified the wonders of the acting method. By acting as a Seafarer, he could clearly feel the potion being "digested," while his spirituality and body grew stronger at a slow but steady pace.
He had long since grown accustomed to this process and accepted it as the truth.
Yet now, this newcomer, The World, whom he suspected to be a high-sequence powerhouse, had offered an entirely different explanation.
"So-called digestion takes the living creature itself as the subject."
Seeing his reaction, Edwin continued explaining, "Take eating, for example.
"When you eat food, it breaks down and becomes energy that sustains your vital functions, or allows you, the subject—a human being—to continue growing and existing.
"The food you digest is the object. You are the subject.
"No matter how much you eat, it will not change what you are as the subject. A human remains a human. At most, only your outward appearance changes."
"Sequence potions, however, involve the exact opposite process."
"They transform you into the concept, the symbol, that the potion represents.
"The Beyonder characteristic is the subject, and it 'assimilates' you."
Boom!
Those words exploded like a thunderclap in Alger's mind.
He was utterly stunned.
Digestion—assimilation—
A reversal of subject and object—
So that was it—that was how it worked!
Understanding dawned on Alger in an instant. Many previously vague sensations suddenly became clear.
This explanation was indeed more precise than "digestion," and also more—cruel.
A person who digested food remained human.
But when a Beyonder drank a potion and acted, they were gradually "assimilated," transformed from a "human" into something else.
Something closer to the existence embodied by that Beyonder characteristic.
No wonder high-sequence powerhouses