Hi3rd: Achievement Hunter

Aleph's near-death experience in Chiba Academy wasn't anything special… at first. He only had two achievements that were deemed to be 'special' enough for the achievement hunter to reward him with the Embryonic Power System and the Random Box that gave him the Evolution Cube.

No matter how amazing a 'thing' is, it would most likely still fall on the rules of equivalent exchange. Forcibly giving Aleph a reward in advance should have affected its normal operations.

Thus, it leaves two options out: either it possessed an unfathomable origin or it 'consumed' something.

[Singularity: Influence an entire world with your existence for the first time.]

'Aponia told me that the future threads were momentarily vague, then they started spiraling out of their original futures. If so, I could take it as my existence affecting the world's future. But then, it shouldn't be as simple as that…'

Aleph thought for a while and couldn't come to a clear conclusion. All he knew was that his entry to Honkai Impact 3rd changed the present and future. A deeper reason exists as to why he was being treated like that.

It took a while until he remembered one of his dreams.

'Colorful light. Albion told this to me twice. Was it my soul? Am I unique? Ugh… I should ask him if I could.'

Unfortunately, he couldn't reach out to Albion.

His clear statement of meeting Aleph in his "moment of transcendence" made it clear he wouldn't be able to meet the dragon until he "transcends".

These deep thoughts ensued until he found himself back to reality. He was still confused about many things, such as the appearance of this "hidden achievement". It only appeared when he gained the adaptation to complex information.

In the end, he could only sigh.

"There are still things up ahead. I shouldn't let my guard down."

Just then, he saw several combat jets coming over to his position. Aleph marveled at Izumo's reaction time… when he found his surroundings changing for the second time.

It was as if the sky fell. The blue patches of the sky dropped to the ground. The same thing happened to the huge crater around him, as well as the trees and soil in his vicinity.

Tap.

Tap.

Tap.

Aleph looked down and saw water-like black fluid. His reflection was extremely clear on it.

He looked up and saw a place filled with darkness. A huge black sphere was present, which emitted a subtle glow of white light. It formed an outline to the said sphere, forming an ethereal sight.

However, he was in no mood to enjoy it.

'...I knew it. Seeing the worst possibilities occurring still sucks.'

Fortunately, Aleph wasn't 'ejected' in this instance yet. It meant that he wasn't in any fatal danger.

Tap.

Tap.

Tap.

{Announcement: Entry to an unknown location detected. Scanning…}

It didn't take long for Great Sage to spit out an initial result.

{Result: The location has a 100% match to the event horizon. Complex information has been detected, most of which are related to the entity named 'IX' in the database.}

Horizon of Existence.

It was a place that Acheron used to obliterate enemies in a single cycle. Nine stacks of her ultimate was enough to solve all problems.

Based on the story, it was a place directly related to IX. Once, there was a person with a fragment of an Emanator's power who nearly got killed just by visiting this place. 

In the simplest terms, this place could influence someone to seek the end, ironically ending not only their lives, down to their existences.

Now, Aleph was in that very place.

'Hm… It's taking a toll on my available resources, but it's better.'

Akin to a translator, the adaptation to complex information removed their ability to cause injuries to him. The information he gained from these things were still scrambled, but they could be dissected one by one to gain valuable knowledge.

Tap.

Tap.

Tap.

Aleph was certain he already took two hundred steps, yet the sight did not change one bit.

"Hm..?"

He looked down on his feet and saw it was glowing. The indescribable light gave him no time to react when it crept up to his entire body.

Before he knew it, the black water on his feet cracked. Bright white light crept up from the cracks. It extended up to the black hole in the distance.

Crack-!

Shatter-!

Aleph could not speak. He blinked and found himself back in his original position. The combat jets were positioned where he saw them.

'I feel tired…'

His mind became extremely heavy. It was the first time he felt 'fatigued' for a long time.

With a thought, his body disappeared.

Three minutes later, the pilots of the combat jets began reporting what they saw to the mission control.

"Come again?"

"The entire city was gone. Even the source of kamis disappeared."

The operator could only stare at the statistics presented on the screen. Three minutes ago, they detected a large-scale spatial disturbance.

For reasons unknown, gravity was increased to an unimaginable degree, bending space to an extent never seen before.

When the operator checked the satellite feed, however, she saw nothing.

Click.

Click.

"Huh..?"

The screen showed a ruined city. Within the next moment, it outright disappeared.

Without any signs, it disappeared. There weren't any visual indicators—no huge black holes, explosions, and the likes.

The city was wiped off the man by an eraser.

Even the first descent of the kamis in the form of meteorites wasn't as "creepy" as this.

"What is this..?"

*****

"Sir?"

Mei fell silent. She stared at Aleph who was laying on the ground. He was sleeping on the entrance of the house. He couldn't even remove his geta. Half of his body was lying on the floor where all of the slippers and other footwear were stored.

She took off her shoes and squatted down with a flat face. When she found out that he was only sleeping, she decided to carry him to the couch.

"Mn…"

She struggled for a while before she carried him with both of her arms. Much to her surprise, he didn't weigh heavily. It was contrary to her expectations.

'Sir Aleph… a visitor from afar…'