Breaking Limits and Traversing

In YGGDRASIL's operations department, there was only one hour left until the server shut down.

Watching the time until closure draw ever closer, everyone waited for the end with all manner of feelings.

Just then, a message appeared on the computers before them, sparking a discussion.

"At a time like this, someone used the world-class item 'Ring of the Eternal Serpent' to request that their level cap be raised to infinity?"

"That's normal. If they don't use it now, it'll be useless in an hour anyway. They might as well make some random wish."

"Should we approve it?"

"I think we can. There's no way he can gain more than a few levels in an hour. He might not even earn enough experience to level up once."

"Well, true. The servers are shutting down anyway."

"Then approve it!"

"But even if we approve it, we still need to modify the code, right? And we've never considered how experience points past level one hundred should be calculated."

"That's easy. The player can't see how much experience is needed afterward anyway. We only need to make the data from level 100 to 110."

"I propose using the experience needed to rise from level 90 to level 100 as one unit. Level 100 to 101 requires one unit, 101 to 102 requires two units, and so on. What do you all think?"

"I agree! It'll be convenient to code that way too."

"Alright, it's decided—approve it! Tell the programmers to hurry up. Don't make the guy wait until the server closes before approving it."

Within YGGDRASIL, a message appeared before Higashino Makoto—

"'Ring of the Eternal Serpent' has taken effect. Player 'Amon Nicola's' level cap has been raised to—infinity. May your memories be eternal as well."

As the system notification sounded, the world-class item Ring of the Eternal Serpent in his hand flashed and vanished—

According to the game's rules, a world-class item among the "Twenty" would disappear after being used once, then reappear somewhere in the world.

Higashino Makoto looked at the system message, unaware that YGGDRASIL's planners had actually dug a pit for themselves. He was already so excited he could barely breathe.

(The protagonist's level cap is fixed at 110, but there are other compensations, such as adaptability to various powers, "Authorities," "Spirit Crystals," enhanced talents, and so on.)

(Simply put, there are infinite possibilities.)

(It's guaranteed to be an invincible power fantasy. At most, if he encounters another world far beyond his limits, he'll temporarily stop exploring it. There won't be any real humiliating defeats.)

His game character could not make any expressions, or he would definitely have jumped up in delight!

"Hehe—haha—hahahaha—"

"As expected, I'm the chosen one!"

"Bone King? True Dragon King? They're all trash!"

"They'd better know what's good for them, or once I raise my level to 200, I'll turn every last one of them into mobs to farm!"

0:00:00...1, 2, 3...

In the midst of extreme excitement and anticipation, time ticked past midnight.

As the alarm he had set long ago rang out, everything changed in an instant.

He raised his hand before his eyes. His five fingers flexibly clenched into a fist and opened again, and then a leaping bolt of lightning emerged from his palm—

This was the prelude to the fifth-tier spell, Dragon Lightning.

Then, with a clench of his open hand, the lightning dispersed into magic power.

The next moment, a spear formed from golden light appeared in his hand.

Spear of Holiness, originally a faith-based spell that was cast and immediately thrown, could now be held in his hand and played with.

Without a doubt, this instinctive ability to wield and dismiss magic was absolutely impossible within the game!

He then tried calling for a GM. Sure enough, just as he had expected, that function had completely stopped working.

"Fly."

With the use of magic, Higashino Makoto's body directly broke free from the shackles of gravity, realizing humanity's long-held dream.

After freely flying around the enormous bedroom for quite some time, he landed before a full-length mirror.

As expected, the reflection in the mirror was neither the ordinary handsome man with black hair and black eyes from before his transmigration, nor the young office worker from the cyberpunk world who had already begun losing his hair.

Instead, it was a perfect body specially designed using AI software with tags such as "perfect," "human," "handsome," and "white hair, golden eyes"!

He struck several narcissistic poses, then touched the perfect muscles he had never possessed before—especially those beautiful abs.

After admiring his peerless beauty for a while, he flopped onto the soft bed, rubbing his face as the corners of his mouth rose uncontrollably.

"Ha, putting everything else aside, if I'd had this body before transmigrating, wouldn't making a living off my face have been easy?"

Knock, knock, knock—

Just then, there came an unhurried knock on the door, followed by a gentle female voice with a faintly cool tone from outside.

"Lord Amon Nicola, the guardians have discovered an abnormal situation and require your instructions."

Higashino Makoto got up from the bed and sat down at the tea table nearby. After briefly checking his appearance, he took an item called Infinite Black Tea from his inventory and filled two cups before responding.

"Come in."

"Excuse me."

As the voice rang out again, the doors opened.

A petite girl with curly blonde hair walked in. She wore a gorgeous pink backless mini dress, along with bracelets and a jeweled necklace, giving her the impression of a hostess at an upscale club.

Gokusai Kaibi, a character from the anime A Certain Magical Index that he had watched in his previous life—or perhaps the life before that.

In the original work, she was an employee of the dark side, possessing the Level 4 esper ability known as "Mental Stinger."

Of course, none of that was particularly important. Higashino Makoto had chosen to use her appearance for one simple reason—she was beautiful!

Compared with the original protagonists, Index and Mikoto Misaka, Gokusai Kaibi was the character in this anime who best matched Higashino Makoto's tastes.

After all, it was not as though he was actually summoning an anime character. If he were, he might have needed to consider things like personality and personal experiences.

The most important thing when creating an NPC was obviously whether they fit his preferences.

If he truly disliked something about their personality, then he could simply change it. Altering a setting only took a few words.

Of course, in most cases, he would still broadly follow the original.

After all, most characters people genuinely liked did not have particularly bad personalities.

Besides, Higashino Makoto had never intended for their personalities to be exactly the same as in the original work. A person's personality was shaped by memories, experiences, and countless other things; it could not be summed up with a few simple labels like "tsundere," "losing heroine," "scheming," "little devil," or "gentle."

(A quick disclaimer: the NPCs only borrowed their appearances, names, and Higashino Makoto's general impression of their personalities. They would not be identical to the original characters.)

The girl walked up to Higashino Makoto, lowered her head slightly, then dropped to one knee.

Her right hand rested on her left knee, while her fair right leg sank into the carpet.

"Lord Amon, your loyal subordinate, Gokusai Kaibi, presents herself before you—"