Reincarnated Hero System

Chapter 1273: System Hack

"Evan, wait!" Agnes immediately rose from her seat and cried out the moment she saw destruction law energy flow up Evan’s arm and gather in the palm that held Alisa by the neck.

The destruction energy stopped just before making contact with her body, but the force in Evan’s grip was so overwhelming that the flow of magic power running through her homunculus body and sustaining it was disrupted.

It was similar to the flow of blood to someone’s head and brain being restricted. No matter how much Alisa struggled to force Evan’s hand away from her neck, she couldn’t make his hand budge even an inch.

Evan turned his gaze toward Agnes, one eyebrow raised in question, and seeing that he was at least willing to hear her out, Agnes spoke immediately, trying to give him a reason not to end Alisa’s existence.

"She didn’t try to take over Abby’s body!"

That single line caused both Evan and Laurene’s expressions to change, but Agnes continued speaking before either of them could question her.

"That soul transfer spell your predecessors cast, she tried to cancel it. She tried to stop her soul from taking over Abby’s body. All she wanted was to give Abby her memories and let death claim her soul."

Evan didn’t respond immediately after Agnes finished. Instead, he turned to Laurene and asked, "Laurene?"

Laurene shook her head slightly and said, "No lies, at least not yet."

Hearing that, Agnes turned to her with an incredulous look on her face. "Evan only needs a second to turn her to ashes. Do you really think I’d lie in a situation like this?"

Laurene simply crossed her arms and replied, "People do silly things when they get desperate."

Agnes clicked her tongue at Laurene’s response, then turned back to Evan.

"She’s not your enemy, Evan. She’s on the side of the Heroes of this world. She’s been working with Abby for years. Please don’t kill her."

Silence filled the garden for a few seconds before Evan spoke.

"Were you the one who put her soul in this homunculus?"

"Yes, I was the one who did it," Agnes answered instantly.

"I heard Abigail was a deviant who awakened her skills at age 8, and the reincarnation magic activates the moment Mystic Eye skills awaken," Laurene said, then turned her eyes to Agnes. "Abigail was 8 years old 12 years ago, and that homunculus is 6 years old. Where was the soul for the other 6 years?"

"In a golem I used to puppet," Agnes replied.

"Golem?" Laurene asked.

Agnes sighed and pressed her fingers against her temple before explaining. "I split parts of my soul and place them into homunculus bodies, sending them across the planet to handle different tasks while I stay here and control them.

Before I used homunculi, I used specialised golems. I awakened my skills long before Abby did, and by the time she awakened hers, I was already capable of performing soul transfers. Moving Alisa’s soul was easy, since she’d willingly given up on possessing Abby’s body."

Her words implied that at age 8, she had already been capable of moving souls between bodies, and even fragmenting her own soul to control golems remotely, which sounded absurd to Laurene and Eliza.

Evan, however, who already knew Agnes’ backstory from Aidos Online, wasn’t the least bit surprised.

Once again, Agnes had been born blind, meaning she had possessed the ability to see souls from birth, the ability that was the foundation of her immense soul manipulation powers.

Evan silently lowered his hand, still keeping Alisa in a strong chokehold, his grip tight enough to allow only the smallest flow of magic power to reach her homunculus brain.

After a few moments, he looked at Agnes and asked, "Were you the one who transferred Abigail’s Mystic Eye to her?"

Hearing that, Laurene recalled that one of the reasons they had come to Agnes in the first place was to determine whether she was responsible for Abigail having only one Mystic Eye when they met the previous day.

From Evan’s question, it seemed he had already concluded that Alisa was the one who was sharing Abigail’s Mystic Eyes.

"Yes, it was me," Agnes admitted.

"So you’ve already mastered your Spiritual Surgeon skill?" Evan asked.

"I wouldn’t say I’ve mastered it, but I’m at least proficient enough to splice off a portion of Skill Runes using it," Agnes replied.

She spoke casually about something extremely dangerous, but Laurene didn’t focus on that ability for now. What mattered to her was something else entirely.

"Even if Alisa was once the Hero of Destruction, that title belongs to Abigail now. So, regardless of whether you can splice off Skill Runes and transfer one of the Mystic Eyes of Destruction to Alisa, she shouldn’t be able to use its power since she currently isn’t a Hero."

Laurene’s reasoning was sound, and she turned to Agnes, expecting an answer. Agnes, however, shook her head.

"I have no idea how that works. You should ask Abby instead."

Laurene was about to suggest they call Abigail over immediately, but Evan looked at Alisa in silence before speaking.

"Abigail hacked the system."

The eyes of the other three young women turned toward him in a mix of surprise and confusion at his words, and he continued. "Irregulars are essentially bugs in the code of the universe, and Abigail is one of them.

Certain universal laws don’t function properly when Irregulars are involved, laws like Knowledge and even Causality. These laws are fundamental to the construction of the system, and the system itself is responsible for managing the Hero title.

Irregulars can interfere with the system, though one’s Grade determines how much of its rules they can affect.

Abigail is a Grade 3 Irregular, and she’s a Sub-Cosmic existence, meaning she can manipulate the cosmic energy that powers the system. That alone is enough to let her interfere with it."

Laurene immediately shook her head after Evan’s explanation and stepped out of the gazebo.

"Evan, you should know as well as I do that this thing we call the ’System’ is so intricate and complex that even the gods likely can’t comprehend its full extent."

Evan scoffed, a faint smile forming on his face as he replied, "Of course, those beings you call gods can’t comprehend the full extent of the system’s capabilities. It was created by beings far beyond them."

Laurene blinked in shock at his words, then quickly shook her head. "No, wait, leave that aside for now.

What I’m saying is, how can you claim that Abigail, a mortal who isn’t even Level 700 yet, could hack the system that even gods can’t fully comprehend? And not just any part, but the Planetary Defence Matrix that handles Hero Titles?"

"It’s feasible," Evan answered. "I’ve seen someone bypass the system’s rules using only cosmic energy. He was a much higher Grade of Irregular than Abigail, but the principle still applies."

"And where would she even learn something like that? Do Irregulars have some kind of ’how to hack the system’ knowledge in their heads from birth?"

Evan laughed at Laurene’s question and waved his hand dismissively. "Of course not. Someone obviously taught her how to do it."

"And you know who that someone is?" Laurene asked, raising an eyebrow.

Evan nodded. "Yeah. It’s the same person who gave me my ’Blessing of Destruction’."

At that moment, Eliza, who’d been silent the entire time, spoke. "EOTD."

Evan smiled at her. "Yes. The man favours Abigail enough to grant her his blessing, so it’s not a stretch to think he showed her a few tricks on how to tamper with the system."

Right as Evan said that, Agnes interrupted.

"Okay, so you have your answers now, right? Please, can you let go of Alisa?"

"No," Evan replied instantly. "I have no reason to."

He looked at the struggling Alisa, who couldn’t manipulate magic well enough to use any of her abilities, and continued. "I detest our predecessors because of what they did when they were alive, actions I unfortunately have first-person POV memories of.

The only reason I haven’t turned this homunculus and the soul inside it to ashes is because I’m waiting for Abigail, who’s on the other end of the call on that phone on the floor, to get here."

He glanced at the phone Alisa had been holding when she stepped in, now lying on the ground after slipping from her grasp. It was built with durable materials, so the fall hadn’t damaged it, and since Alisa hadn’t ended the call, it was still active, with the person on the other end still connected.

Evan tossed Alisa aside, but before her body could even move a metre away from him, she instantly became an ice sculpture, frozen under 30-cm thick ice.

He then walked over to the phone, crouched, and picked it up before speaking.

"Get here quickly, Abigail."

He ended the call after that and placed the phone on top of the frozen Alisa before returning to the gazebo.

Taking a seat, Evan opened the jug of juice the maids had brought, looked up at Agnes, and said, "Now, we wait."

With that, he used ice magic to chill the juice and poured some into his glass.