Ch 144

  Matt found that time after his broadcast passed quickly as he begrudgingly followed Eleanor’s advice and had Rudan transport him all over the world they were on. One thing he discovered was exactly how fast he could run and what someone with a build focused on speed could achieve. Rudan had his secondary stats evenly split between dexterity and strength, with durability as his primary focus. When Matt questioned why a speed build would focus on durability, Rudan simply reiterated the same answer Tempormr had once given him: “High stats mean nothing if your body can’t handle your own power.”

  Upon reviewing his own statistics and the bonuses attributed to them, Matt discovered that after transitioning his path to Undying Fate Disruptor, he was oriented towards developing a balance between durability and stamina as his secondary stats, once he maximized everything. However, it wasn't completely balanced, as stamina carried a 65% bonus while durability had a 45% bonus. Despite this imbalance, Matt found himself unconcerned, as he had begun to value the abilities offered by his path more than anything else.

  He felt that there was a significant aspect missing from the general understanding of how things operated. According to what Rudan had explained and what Matt had observed, mind, spirit, stamina, and durability were the four key stats that all paths emphasized. For individuals aiming to engage in physical combat, choices had to be made between enduring more hits or prolonging their fighting capability. As a speed-focused fighter, Rudas needed his durability to be his highest stat; otherwise, his body would deteriorate. Even utilizing his spirit stat to concentrate on mid-fight regeneration wouldn't suffice to keep up with the demand.

  That was another thing Matt learned that set him apart from others. He was fully capable of regenerating in the midst of a fight, not only healing his injuries but also restoring his HP, while others could only manage one or the other. In fact, if an injury was severe enough, it could completely stop the ability to perform either form of regeneration until more advanced healing magic was employed. Furthermore, it seemed that having regeneration as a path option from the start was something Rudan had never encountered before. This made Matt certain that Tempormr had known that his bloodline was quite special. Particularly since, even though Rudan admitted that there were many path options he had never heard of anyone being able to take, he was aware of their existence. This included the Time path, as he only knew of Tempormr possessing it, though paths like fate and hope were known to him, as one out of every few million would have the opportunity to choose them.

  Speaking of Fate and Hope, they were the two essences that Matt was emphasizing the most as he spent his time exploring the world he still didn’t know how to name. Asking Rudan proved futile, as he merely referred to it as the Darkened Expanse, named after the dungeon, and Matt adamantly refused to accept that. After all, it sounded like a sinister place, or a world left charred and desolate after a fire had ravaged its surface. Nonetheless, he couldn't see himself renaming it on a whim either. It became the first question he posed to anyone he encountered during his travels. Most people just shrugged, expressing indifference, though a few agreed that a change might be beneficial. The only issue was that the auto translate feature caused Matt to hear the meaning of whatever they said rather than perceiving it as a name.

  With the most common words he heard being "home," "mother," and "dirt," he almost considered not renaming it at all, but that would contradict what Emily and the others were advocating. Renaming the world was a significant part of severing its ties to Godfrey Enterprise and also instilling a sense of hope for the future among the residents. This was why the plan was to announce the new name once Matt succeeded in the first phase of his plan, as it would be when his momentum was supposedly at its peak. This was a concept he was actively discussing with Rudan as they prepared for another long day of travel after pausing in a larger settlement, about a quarter of their way around the world.

  "I still don’t see why you think a new name will mean much to any of us," stated Rudan for what felt like the hundredth time.

  "Who gave you your name?" asked Matt, recalling the advice Rose had given him when he briefly met with the others through his puppet earlier.

  "I did. As do most of those on this planet, as few are raised by their parents the way you describe. At most, our mothers will care for us for a year as we grow into our bodies."

  "A year?" questioned Matt. "Is that all the time it takes for you to reach adulthood?"

  "No, being fully grown doesn’t mean being an adult," corrected Rudan. "It isn't until we can have children that we are considered adults. For any of those who take a humanoid form like I have, it is at least three years, regardless of their ancestry. For some, it can be as long as ten years."

  "That's gross," interrupted Matt. "How can a ten-year-old, much less a three-year-old, know anything about how to live? That is unless your understanding of a year is very different from mine."

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  "One rotation around this world’s star isn’t how we judge a year. In fact, even a day can’t be synced with the day and night cycle here. Though, from what I understand, our concept of seconds is the same, but you need to learn universe time before you return to your world so that it can spread."

  "Why should I care about that?" asked Matt. "It’s not like—"

  "It matters because when you hear that you have ten years after you return, who is to say that they are even close to what you consider a year?"

  "Wait, did you say ten years and a year?"

  "No, I said a year twice."

  "The system is translating intent. It seems that one universe year is ten of my world’s years. So does that mean that it takes at least thirty years for any of those born here to—"

  "No," interrupted Rudan firmly. "I think what you're hearing from me varies depending on the subject. To clarify, our mothers care for us for less than one-tenth of a universal year, and by the time one universal year has passed, all of us are sexually mature."

  "Alright," sighed Matt, feeling a headache coming on. "Please refer to universal years, which I suppose are about ten of the years I think of. I guess that makes me not even four universal years old. Time becomes so confusing when you try to align it with the standards of others. Tell me, how many parts is a universal year divided into?"

  "Each universal year is divided into tenths, followed by hundredths, and as you might guess, thousandths."

  "I'm envisioning year, month, week, day, except each is just divided by tenths. So are there also only ten hours in a day and ten minutes per hour, and so on? Because the math doesn't make sense then."

  "No," answered Rudan. "Each day consists of 32 hours, and each hour has 100 minutes, each of which contains 100 seconds."

  "Why 32 hours when everything else is a multiple of ten?" asked Matt, puzzled.

  "Sometimes, things don't make sense," Rudan replied, with a hint of resignation. "It doesn't help that only those like myself and you, who will spend time interfacing with those on planets other than their own, truly need to keep track of universal time. The rest simply operate on the time of their own worlds, with only the second being adjusted to match what the rest of us use, as the system requires it once your integration period ends. Also, to ensure that this is translated correctly, the universal year is broken up into universal tenths, universal hundredths, and universal thousandths before reaching the 32 parts of a thousandth and the 10,000 parts of it. So, if I wanted to schedule something on a particular date in the first tenth of this year, I would say, 'Let's meet on 891.035 at 17.75.' This would mean meeting on the 35th universal day, so to speak, and three-quarters of the way through its 17th hour."

  Matt frowned, fully aware of why Earth's hours were what they were—it all had to do with the planet's rotation, and even then, it wasn't perfect. Yet, he didn't care much about the specific time scale, believing it wouldn't significantly impact the grand scheme of things. Still, if an Earth second was equivalent to a universal second, doing some quick math revealed that a universal day, or one-thousandth of a universal year, would be a little under 89 hours.

  Just as Matt finished contemplating this, he was about to respond to Rudan when the world around him erupted violently. In an instant, he found himself missing half of his HP. He swiftly activated his ability to transfer his wound to the one who had inflicted it, feeling his legs begin to reform after being blown off. He was certain something else had broken, as he had been hurled toward the ceiling. He realized he would have been in much worse condition if the chair he had been sitting in hadn't absorbed most of the impact from the explosion.

  Yet, Matt didn’t panic in the slightest as Rudan grabbed him and leapt out of the room and into the bustling city. Even with the injuries that the one who had targeted them had most certainly sustained, both knew that this was only the opening move of the attack. After all, if Matt was going to try to kill him with the information that was circulating, he would pay a low-leveled individual to use a bomb to try and eliminate him too. The strategy was clear—force Matt to use the trump card that had previously killed the owl-man on a useless target and then hope the follow-up attack would be successful.

  “You know that I won’t be able to help you fight unless I can be sure that the attackers are targeting me as well,” Rudan stated with a hint of concern. “It’s not too late to run.”

  “No,” Matt retorted, frowning deeply. “I need to face this fight and exert my dominance in every way possible. That even means attacking those who are outside my level range so they can retaliate.”

  “Just don’t forget to seize all their merit points for being part of an attack on you first,” Rudan reminded him.

  Matt smiled, aware that the moment any member of his organization who had attacked him or helped plan an attack on him was identified, he could seize all their merit points, as they had forfeited them. The only issue was that he could only utilize these points if they willingly relinquished them, or if he or a vice leader killed them. This added a layer of darkness to the roles of leader and vice leader, as Rudan had confirmed that no other roles were permitted to carry out executions involving seized merit points. This left a significant loophole the offender could exploit to undermine him; if they simply killed themselves, the points would be lost to everyone. This was a fact that loomed large in his mind as they landed in an open area that would soon be bustling with merchants selling their wares.

  Only a few moments later, ten men appeared on the horizon, and Matt worried about each of their levels. After all, if they were all weaklings, they could just be there to provoke him into attacking and losing his levels. It was a mistake he could see himself making if he were actually flustered. However, he remained calm as he felt his regrown legs touch the ground when Rudan set him down. One of the men, who had wolflike ears, spoke.

  “Nothing personal, but someone really wants you dead, so we have to do our job, or they will kill us once the penalty period ends.”