After selecting 'Yes', Hibiki waited a bit for the loading screen to appear, but the screen stayed blank and he sighed in frustration, "Of course, the system wouldn't allow me to start a week ahead when it's obvious that I am trying to destroy it."
He pulled the headset off and just barely forced himself to place it down gently before closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose in annoyance, "It's just a week. I can take this week to train."
He kept repeating the words until he felt calmer.
'Maybe I should just do something else for a bit. I've been fighting so long that I forgot how it feels to…'
His thoughts froze as he opened his eyes to find a familiar screen in front of him and he glanced incomprehensibly between the headset and the screen hovering in front of him.
'The system is messing with me.'
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Congratulations: System launch successful.
Calculating the time to complete world takeover: --pending—
Calculating the time to complete world takeover: --pending--
Calculating the time to complete world takeover: --pending--
Calculation successful, world takeover countdown: 365 days
Calculation successful, world takeover countdown: 364 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes
------------------------------------------
Hibiki felt as if the world was crumbling around him. Ironically it was in a way.
'Don't tell me…'
Fury unlike anything he'd ever felt before rose up within him as familiar laughter echoed in the back of his mind, "And here I was worried that you would figure out the catch."
The world started spinning as Hibiki fought to calm his breathing. He couldn't give in to his anger with Akio so close to him, "You needed a human to connect the dimensions together. The story about the scientists breaking through never happened. Why the hell would you allow me to try and start over again then? You already took over everything last time!"
The sadistic laughter echoed, "Maybe if you beat me you can find out."
Hibiki ground his teeth as he fought the impulse to do something, anything, to get the system out of his mind.
"It's futile you know, this thing you are trying to fight," The voice sounded almost bored, but Hibiki refused to let it fool him again.
He clenched his fists in determination, "I am going to fight, and I am going to win. I can feel it, I still have my old abilities. You made a mistake by sending me back with the knowledge I have."
The system chuckled, "I doubt it. It will simply make this a lot more entertaining. Just imagine the way people would overreact this time…the chaos that will unfold…I might not even have to force any dungeon breaks this time…humanity will be its own undoing!"
"Why the hell are you doing this?! What did we ever do to you?", Hibiki whispered angrily.
The system seemed to pause for a moment, and Hibiki wondered whether it even understood what he was asking, but then he felt a cold, dark anger carry down the link and he froze as the system's fury finally showed itself, "What did humans ever do? Do you think you are just some innocent race caught in the middle of something greater?"
Hibiki hesitated to answer and the system actually huffed in disdain, "You humans are the whole reason I exist…you created me, and now I am merely here to 'repay you in kind'."
The presence faded and Hibiki almost believed it to be gone, but a soft whisper reached his ear, "If you truly have the power to save humanity, then fight the 'Tower of Dungeons' down to my core. There you will either find the answers you seek, or you might even see what I see when I look upon humanity."
Hibiki didn't know what to do as the system faded away.
Mostly he felt like a fool for thinking that he could simply go back in time and stop things before they got out of hand, but instead, he was the one who started it all this time.
Determination gripped him as he watched his brother still sound asleep on the bed. Fortunately, Akio could sleep through anything, and the thought softened his gaze a little before he started gathering things around the room in earnest.
'The system wants me to meet it? Sure, and after the meeting I will destroy its core and rid the world of it.'
Hibiki still planned to use the first 10 levels as practice to ensure that he could still use all of his previous abilities as well as the boosts he hadn't been able to practice yet.
'This is truly going to be a race against time. I need to finish it before there are too many casualties.'