Visdre disappeared amongst the chaos. His escape wasn't just a random whim without plans. He had tens of thousands of souls connected to his 'game'.

As the fireman and police gathered at the scene. A vehicle had already arrived near the area. Visdre casually walked and got in. The car drove off.

Visdre had planted fake memories and motives into the mind of a wealthy business man. Soon he was escorted to a mansion.

"My independent consciousness is flawed. With the collapse of F555. I was nearly wiped out."

"If I follow the technique. This flaw will continue to hinder me. Rooting myself in a single universe is a problem. It is a weakness."

"Weakness is unacceptable!"

Visdre didn't want to be as passive as he was in the past. If some higher being destroyed his universe. He didn't want to be affected at all.

"I need to create my own plane."

"A realm with rules that benefit me. The equivalent of a source castle. But on a larger scale!"

"But as things are. I am merely a quasi-hidden existence. A mortal that can be easily crushed. Just a slightly more resistant one."

"Wealth? I have it. Lifespan? I have infinity."

"What I currently lack is... personality."

Visdre was still thinking of himself as a 'person'. He died for the first time because he helped somebody escape a fire. He lost his goldenfinger due to carelessness.

"Just like how I designed a independent consciousness. I need to create an intelligence. I then must become that intelligence."

Visdre thought about things clearly. You can kill a man. A legend can turn to dust. But can you destroy what that man stood for? Yes.

But what about if that person becomes a concept? Not simply the promotion beyond a supreme being. But an actual idea.

Visdre sat down in his study and contemplated his future.

"I must become a symbol. No, I must become an idea. A concept. Something that can never be destroyed. Something that exist in every universe. Regardless of whether a version of 'Visdre' exist."

"But becoming an idea... unless I create one from scratch. I will have to become one that is already existing. There will be conflicts. I will be assimilated by the collective consciousness."

"So what I really need to do is 'hack' this subconscious rule of reality."

Visdre thought about it and then had a stroke of genius.

"That's it! Being assimilated with clear and logical thinking means you will become a tool used by the universe. But what if... I become insane."

Visdre remembered when he had repeatedly tried to manipulate the dream realm and suffered from a backlash that turned him into a bloody paste. He had spent so long in that cycle that he had started to go insane.

His personality had changed a bit.

But his time spent in the human world. His time spent in containment had polished his personality. Making it less 'sharp'. His thinking was too normal.

"I'm not insane at all..."

"My time spent locked up made me mellow out a bit. This isn't conducive to my transformation into a being that surpasses gods."

"To complete God's Death. Symbolically. One must outwit their creator."

"If I think like a normal person. Even with my techniques and powers. I will never be able to outwit a supreme being that has accumulated wisdom for an unfathomable amount of time."

"So the first step to conquering all of reality..."

"I must become..."

Somnus

At the moment Visdre said the word 'Somnus'. His mind started to overclock as he searched through every memory of every player.

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He stood up from his desk and stretched.

"Let's begin."

"First."

"Immortality!"

"The accumulation of humanity. The knowledge and understanding. I have been absorbing it this entire time along with a sizeable amount of mental energy."

Visdre went to his bedroom and got on his bed in a meditative posture.

He first focused on using mental energy. He transformed it into physical energy and started to convert parts of his body through matter manipulation.

But he felt something in his mind shatter! He had failed to transform his body. But he wasn't discouraged at all.

"I need to move my independent consciousness from this universe into my own plane. A realm created by me... just like nonexistence. I must create something that exist in every universe."

"But... where do I get such power?"

As Visdre was thinking. In the back of a jewelry shop. There was a middle aged man that was carving a few wax rings. On these rings were runes from Visdre's game world.

Visdre was using his hivemind ability and knowledge of this mans past to perform these actions as he experimented with using mental energy.

After a few days.

One of Visdre's maids delivered some mail.

Visdre opened the package and found three rings.

"A focus!"

Visdre had failed his small goal of immortality. But he didn't repeatedly fail. He figured his control of mental energy hadn't reached the threshold yet. So he designed an item that was completely fiction. In the hands of any other person. This was no more then a toy.

The runes were from a simulated game world after all.

Magic didn't 'exist' here.

But in combination with mental energy. This ring had an amplification effect.

Visdre's independent consciousness wasn't tied to his brain. It wasn't in a single place. Basically, the way Visdre had stored it. Was by making it like a blood cell that was pumped throughout his body.

Because of the Null Spirituality rule. He wasn't able to have it leave his body safely. It could exist without a structure. But not without a location.

If a supreme being could observe his consciousness. It would look as if it was teleporting all around his body.

Now with these three rings. He put his independent consciousness within the carvings of the ring. Then as if it was some sort of transmutation. The wax became some mysterious type of metal.

"In the future. I need to move my consciousness into my own realm."

"The whole point of an independent consciousness is to be able to survive without body. As things are now. I can survive having my body die. But if the ring is destroyed. I will be in trouble."

Visdre had his independent consciousness jump from ring to ring just like how he had it initially move throughout his body.

All three rings transformed into metal.

He then channeled mental energy through them and was pleasantly surprised.

"Now... time to become immortal!"

Visdre spent days removing almost every organ. He still kept things like his eyes, tongue, ear drums and such. But things like his liver or stomach, or even his lungs. He had replaced them with mental organs that he had designed.

Instead of blood flowing through his body. He had liquid mental energy flowing through his body.

That's right. He had converted some of his mental energy into mystic energy! Not only that. He had even moved it outside of his energy field. His body was constantly getting reinforced.

The only thing that was normal was his nervous system and brain. Both were however powered with mystic energy.

60,000 hours is the time it took to get a unit of mental energy.

2,500 units of mental energy were needed for a unit of mystic energy.

150,000,000 hours of rotation of souls.

This would normally require spending an insane amount of time accumulating mental energy. But Visdre had designed a game world that was spreading across the world.

He was generating over 1,200,000 hours every day. This number was also growing.

This meant he was getting 20 units of mental energy everyday.

In a few months. He had accumulated mystic energy. This was merely using the reserves he had built while in containment.

He had manifested his single unit of mystic energy into reality. Using it as the circulation system of his body. His whole body felt as if it had become godly.

Visdre had used up all of his mental energy reserves unfortunately from his transformation. So he went into a period of seclusion.

A year later...

While he did spend some occasionally. He had saved most it.

He had 26,300 units of mental energy.

He didn't bother to compress it into mystic energy. Because he had a focus.

The game world had around two hundred thousand players.

Visdre during this time had been 'hiding'.

He had learned some rather unique applications of mental energy. For example, he could use it to adjust his magnetic field, allowing him to fly.

He had also used another 2,500 units to increase the mental pressure in his body. He could allow it to phase through the pores of his skin to form a protective membrane around his body.

His current project at the moment was teleportation.

There a few types of teleportation. For example, destroying every atom and then building them somewhere else. This was a form of teleportation.

Visdre had failed at performing this safely.

But he then had the idea of folding space.

This didn't require destroying the body. It was sort of like making the surrounding area a portal and moving through space itself.

But when he tried this. He felt his mental energy dropping at a ridiculous rate. To only 'teleport' a few meters.

He would need to become stronger.

"I need more souls..."

The amount of mental energy a soul gave varied. But it was normally around 1:1 in terms of hours. So 1 soul. It would take 60,000 hours just to get 1 unit of mental energy.

Or 2,500 days.

But souls could gather it at the same time.

With Visdre having 200,000+ souls. Theoretically, he should be getting 80+ units of mental energy a day.

But some people died. Or some people had particularly weak souls. So it wasn't 100% accurate.

At this very moment.

He had 26100 mental energy.

"Teleportation will have to wait until I have more souls. It is a waste of energy right now..."

During this year. Visdre had worked on more then one independent consciousness.

He now had four! One for each ring.

He also had one that was safely stored away.

He had slowly replaced his nervous system and brain. He was no longer human at all.

Right now he was in his secret lab. Looking at an abomination.

Well... to be precise. He was looking at his future body.

"Somnus..."