Chapter 160: Ch 160: The Last Task at hand

There had always been a beginning to everything, yet when Noah tried to find that beginning, his memories seemed strangely blurred, as though someone had deliberately covered the details with a thick layer of fog.

"I...remember waking up and knowing everything about the future. But before that...who was with me?"

His voice came out uncertain, and Erin remained silent, watching him carefully as Noah struggled to put the pieces together.

"I knew about the academy, the labs, the dungeon disaster, Alan and Daniel, and even the final catastrophe, but..."

He stopped and swallowed hard, suddenly feeling like he had been played with by someone.

"But what happened before that?"

Erin asked softly, urging Noah to remember his precious memories.

Noah’s fingers tightened against his clothes as another fragment suddenly flashed through his mind, but it hurt too much. All he saw was a flash of white and the smell of disinfectant around him.

He could not see the person’s face, but he could hear a voice speaking to him as though it had happened only yesterday.

"You will forget this conversation when you wake up. Our experiment has concluded for now. But we will soon continue once your body is able to handle it more."

Noah’s eyes widened.

"Erin..."

The esper immediately moved closer.

"What did you remember?"

Noah looked at him with genuine fear.

"I think...someone erased something from my memories."

For the first time, Erin’s expression lost its usual calmness, because this was the one possibility he had been hoping Noah would never discover. And yet, there seemed to be no other way for Noah to move forward other than to recall what happened in his past.

It was hard to fight the fog in his mind, but Noah was aware that his memories lay beyond this fog.

He tried to part the fog, but just touching it made his whole body jolt in pain.

[User is trying useless stuff. Painful memories are not permitted to exist]

[User’s will will be overwritten and erased]

The system showed up in front of Noah all of a sudden, and he started to feel his mind going blank. He fought to keep his thoughts, but they were becoming blank.

Erin, who saw the physical change on Noah’s face, quickly jumped into action and interfered with the system.

"How dare you try and cause trouble with Noah? Get out of his mind before I make you—"

He threatened, using his power to form a wall in front of the system. The interface did not seem happy, and for the first time, it showed personality.

[Please do not interfere with the system’s work]

[(¬`‸´¬)]

[It is working hard to ensure the user’s health and happiness. Interfering could have negative effects.]

The warning was clear for Erin to see. The system was telling him that his ’good intentions’ could have negative effects. But that was something he knew as well.

And yet...

"This should be a decision that Noah makes on his own. If he wants to remember, then he should be allowed to. Who are you to control what he can recall and not recall?"

Erin was getting a bad feeling from the system.

He knew of the existence of the system because this was not his first time encountering it. He had used his abilities on Noah once before and encountered this strange power.

It felt similar to his own, which had made him suspicious. But somehow, it felt like a fragment of a power rather than the whole power.

"What do you want from Noah? You did not answer me last time, but I won’t let you be this time."

Erin warned the system, but instead of answering him, it decided to play around.

[The system is the one and only way to ensure User Noah is fine.]

[ദ്ദി˙∇˙)ว]

[Don’t worry. The system will ensure User Noah’s mind is not thrown into chaos. After all, User Noah is very important for Project Arc.]

"Project Arc? What is that?"

Erin asked in a suspicious voice, but the system went away, not answering a single word more.

Something about it was putting Erin on edge. He felt like the system knew far more than it was willing to tell him. And not only that, but it was purposely trying to mislead him.

"Tsk, the temperament is not the same, but this infuriating behaviour sure is just like the head researcher of the labs..."

It suddenly struck Erin what this system could be.

He had heard the scientists at the labs talking about their head researcher’s weird research into individual powers and false awakening.

According to them, the head researcher was looking for a way to separate someone’s esper or guiding abilities from them, give them personalities, and use artificial bodies to host them.

That way, these abilities would never be lost, and the war against the dungeons that was about to start would not be so devastating.

Of course, the experiment had failed and had resulted in the creation of bio-weapons in the form of the lab experiment children later.

’But what if it had not failed, but secretly continued? Then this system...could it be some esper’s power as well? But who—’

Erin was suddenly hit with a wave of exhaustion, and he clutched his head as his body started to feel heavy. He gripped the table to stop himself from falling down, but it was hard to keep himself standing.

After all, he hardly had any strength left inside his body. He had used it all to be able to keep himself standing and bring Noah here.

"Tsk, why am I finding all this at such a crucial time? I cannot even do anything about this information."

But he could leave records behind for others to do something in the future.

Noah was currently resting, and there were two hours left before the grand experiment began. Erin had that much time to leave a will behind with this information.

He would write this will and, once the time came, set Noah free and allow him to return to his life.

Those would be the last tasks he would accomplish in his life for sure.