YGGDRASIL's operations department had reached its final hour.
As the shutdown time drew closer, everyone waited for the end with all manner of emotions.
At that moment, a message appeared on the computers before them, sparking a discussion.
"At a time like this, someone used the World Item 'Ring of the Eternal Serpent' to request that their level cap be raised to infinity?"
"That's normal enough. 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."
"Yeah, true. The servers are shutting down anyway."
"Then approve it!"
"But even if we approve it, we'll still need to modify the code, right? We never considered how experience beyond level one hundred should be calculated."
"That's easy. Since he can't see how much experience he'll need afterward anyway, we only need to make the level 100 to 110 portion."
"I propose using the experience needed to go from level 90 to 100 as one unit. Going from level 100 to 101 takes one unit, 101 to 102 takes two units, and so on. What do you all think?"
"I agree! It'll be easier to code that way too."
"Alright, it's decided! Get the programmers to type faster. Don't make him wait until the servers shut down 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 Item Ring of the Eternal Serpent in his hand flashed once before vanishing—
According to the game's rules, a World Item classified as one of the Twenty would disappear after being used once, then reappear somewhere in the world.
As Higashino Makoto looked at the system notification, unaware that YGGDRASIL's planners had actually dug themselves into a pit, he was already too excited to breathe.
(The protagonist's level cap is fixed at 110, but there are other compensations, such as compatibility with various powers, Authorities, Spirit Crystals, and so on, as well as enhanced talents.)
(In short, there are infinite possibilities.)
(This will definitely be an invincible power fantasy. At most, if he encounters a New World far beyond his limits, exploration will be temporarily suspended. There won't be any real setbacks.)
If his game avatar could make expressions, he would have jumped up in excitement!
"Hehe—haha—hahahahaha—"
"As expected, I'm the chosen one!"
"What bone king? What True Dragon Lords? They're all trash!"
"They'd better know their place, or once I reach level 200, I'll grind every last one of them into experience fodder!"
0:00:00...1, 2, 3...
Amid overwhelming 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, flexing his five fingers into a fist and opening them again. Then, a dancing bolt of lightning sprang from his palm—
This was the prelude to the fifth-tier spell Dragon Lightning.
When he clenched his open hand again, the lightning dispersed into magic power.
The next moment, a spear formed from golden light appeared in his hand.
The Spear of Holiness, originally a faith-based spell that was cast and thrown directly at its target, could now be held and played with in his hand.
There was no doubt about it—this ability to cast and dismiss magic as naturally as breathing was absolutely impossible in the game!
He then tried calling for a GM. As expected, that function had completely ceased to work.
"Fly."
As he cast the spell, Higashino Makoto's body broke free of gravity's restraints, achieving humanity's long-held dream.
After freely flying around the bedroom, which could be called enormous, for quite some time, he landed before a full-length mirror.
As expected, the figure reflected in the mirror was neither the ordinary handsome man with black hair and black eyes from before his transmigration, nor the young office worker in the cyberpunk world who had already begun losing his hair.
Instead, it was a perfect body specially designed with AI software using 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 looks, he flopped onto the soft bed, rubbing his face as the corners of his mouth rose wildly.
"Ha, putting everything else aside, if I'd had this body before transmigrating, wouldn't making a living off my face have been ridiculously easy?"
Knock, knock, knock—
Just then, after an unhurried knock sounded from the door, a gentle female voice with a faintly cool quality came from outside.
"Lord Amon Nicola, the Guardians have discovered an anomaly and require your instructions."
Higashino Makoto rose from the bed and sat down by the nearby tea table. After briefly checking his appearance, he took an item called Infinite Black Tea from his inventory, filled two cups, and only then responded.
"Come in."
"Excuse me."
As her voice came again, the door opened.
The person who entered was a petite girl with curly blonde hair. She wore a gorgeous pink backless minidress, along with bracelets and a jeweled necklace, giving off something of a hostess-club girl's impression.
Gokusai Kaibi, a character from A Certain Magical Index, an anime he had watched in his previous life—or rather, the life before that.
In the original work, she had been a Dark Side operative with an esper ability called Mental Stinger, and her level was "Level 4."
Of course, none of that was particularly important. Higashino Makoto's reason for choosing her appearance was simple—she was beautiful!
Compared to the original work's protagonists, Index and Mikoto Misaka, Gokusai Kaibi was the one who best matched Higashino Makoto's tastes in that anime.
After all, it wasn't as though he had actually summoned an anime character. If he had, he might have needed to consider things like her personality and experiences.
When creating an NPC, the most important thing was naturally whether it fit his preferences.
If he really disliked the personality, couldn't he just change it? Altering the settings only took a few words.
Of course, in most cases, he still roughly followed the original version.
After all, most characters people truly 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 works. A person's character was formed from memories, experiences, and more; it could not be summed up by a few simple labels like "tsundere," "losing heroine," "schemer," "little devil," or "gentle."
(Just a heads-up: the NPCs only borrow their appearances, names, and the rough personalities Higashino Makoto has in mind. They will not be exactly the same as in the original works.)
The girl walked up to Higashino Makoto, lowered her head slightly, and then knelt on 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, humbly presents herself before you—"
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