Sinner System

Chapter 673: Altered Reality

Hm. Fuck.

It’s been a few hours, though thanks to the time dilation, just a few minutes on the outside. After I finished talking to Alkimia and Leto, I went to go tell mom about the current situation.

She was pretty bewildered initially, understandably so, but once she processed the information, she declared that she’d do everything she can to help. I’m a bit worried, but she is plenty powerful and skilled, and we could use all the help we can get.

Of course, we still don’t fully know what it is we’re dealing with, so our plans are far from set in stone just yet.

Anyway, once I got mom into the loop, I decided to go through the information Ai had gathered when she connected to the internet and updated her info reserves. I had her give the others access to the information too, I figured it’d be a good idea to have each of us go through it separately and then discuss it together afterwards.

I just finished going through the information, I’m currently in the process of letting it all sink in. And, well, the Gods definitely weren’t kidding when they said they were going to alter reality.

First, let’s go over the changes that have occurred while me and the others were in that other world, a fair bit has happened during the year we missed. After we disappeared, the HUC was understandably thrown into panic.

After a few weeks, they had no choice but to write the matter off and hope that we’d eventually turn up at some point. With the issue shelved, the world returned focus to rebuilding and moving forward, and substantial progress was made.

The damage done by the Monsters has all but been repaired at this point, things are back to normal...except, not quite. Humans weren’t the only things to progress over this last year.

The creatures that we discovered after the war-...or rather, during the war. The giant snake creature that Isla came across, and others like it, creatures that have evolved into existence as a result of the Mana Currents.

These creatures have been officially labeled as Mutants, and with the Mana Currents now stable, the Mutants have also stabilized. Which means, while they won’t evolve or mutate any further, the species that had already evolved are here to stay, they’ve stabilized themselves in terms of both population and habitat.

Thanks to the Mutants, Hunters haven’t been out of jobs despite the disappearance of the Monsters. While Concord and the HUC decided to coexist with the Mutants instead of trying to hunt them into extinction, their numbers need to be kept in check.

Upon examination of a few captured specimens, it turned out that Mutants give off a small but steady stream of positive Mana, with an enriching effect. Forests and plant life in general have begun to thrive across several areas outside the Sanctuaries over this last year, and all these areas have been confirmed to have Mutant species living in them.

And with several ecosystems and environments recovering, a handful of animal species have been relocated to the wild. They’ve been monitored closely to ensure they were properly acclimating, and at this point, those species have begun to thrive in the wild.

The Sanctuaries have also begun to expand. Small fortress towns are being set up around each Sanctuary, the idea is to keep expanding and form a network connecting these outpost settlements to the main Sanctuaries. The project has also emphasized avoiding encroaching on Mutant habitats, to avoid the mistakes made in the past.

There were also plans considered for creating floating fortresses on the oceans, but that idea was quickly scrapped. The Mutants in the seas are by far the most dangerous, and there are a tremendous number of that.

That about covers the main developments we missed over the last year. And here, we get to one of the distortions in reality the Gods mentioned.

In this current reality, the five Heroes who saved the world returned yesterday. Aria, Jaden, and the three imposters, the Angels who’ve taken my, Cleo and Ciel’s place in the memories of this reality.

Aria is in Sanctuary Theta, of course, and with the damage to Sanctuary Alpha repaired, Jaden’s returned there. As for the three imposters...one’s in Sanctuary Eta in India, we’re currently a few kilometers away.

As for the other two, one’s in Sanctuary Alpha and the other is in Sanctuary Theta. That can’t be a coincidence, that they just happen to be in the same locations as Aria and Jaden.

If we succeed in killing the Angel in Sanctuary Eta, the world will be put on high alert. And when we go after the other two Angels, there’s a good chance we’ll be a situation where we won’t be able to avoid fighting Aria and Jaden.

Incidentally, the Angel in Sanctuary Theta has also taken my place as the Guildmaster of the Sinners Guild, and Aria’s still the Vice-Guildmaster.

First, we need to find a way into Sanctuary Eta. After that, locate the Angel, get a read on their power and abilities, and then plan our course of attack based on that. But that’ll be a lot easier said than done.

We aren’t going to have the luxury of freely walking out in the open. In this twisted reality, we’re terrorists to launched several attacks in crowded areas and killed a bunch of people. So, uh...yeah, we’re currently major wanted criminals.

A Teleporter sure would be handy right now, but we’re out of luck on that front. Guess there’s no point in complaining about it, that won’t change anything.

Well, one step at a time, no sense in getting too far ahead ourselves, after all. I first need to sneak into Sanctuary Eta, can’t do anything if we fail at that.

Not having an I-Watch is going to make things difficult too. Alright, time to discuss it with the others, getting multiple perspectives on the case should make a difference.