Chapter 271 A Choice

"System master, could you explain the divine energy and chaos energy to me?"

She held her chin for a moment, wondering whether to fulfil my request.

"Divine has the power of creation, life and everything beautiful, whereas Chaos has the power of destruction, death and everything ugly. However, they both contain elements of the other since they are basically two sides of the same coin or something like that."

A lackadaisical explanation from a selfish entitled god… Not surprising.

"Which would you recommend for me to choose?"

I asked since I wasn't sure. One sounded cooler than the other, but I didn't want to make such a pivotal decision because of a dumb reason like "one sounded cooler".

Sure, the fact that I could choose both options was staring me right in the face, but I was getting a feeling that having both wasn't going to help me out in anyway.

After a minute, she pulled out two orbs and held both of them up for me to see.

"These are expandable cups. They grow bigger over time."

As she said that, she then summoned a smoothie machine with only two taps present. She placed the orbs under the taps.

"Think of it like there's a smoothie machine. And this smoothie machine serves only two flavours, Divine and Chaos. Now, when you open both taps, what do you see?"

She opened the taps and apart from the different colour in the liquids, the obvious difference was-

"The amount of liquid both taps are releasing."

The white liquid was releasing in drops whereas the black liquid was gushing madly and filling up its orb quickly.

"Good. Now, watch closely."

I looked at it for about 10 more seconds, then the orb being filled with black liquid shattered, whereas the white liquid was still filling up.

"I thought you said they were expandable."

Pointing out the issue, she glared at me as if I was stupid.

"They are expandable. Look at the second cup."

I looked at it, and truly the orb was getting bigger over time as the amount of liquid filling up the orb increased.

"Now, what do you think happened?"

It immediately clicked after I saw it.

"Chaos energy arrives quickly and in large quantities, but it destroys its targets, whereas Divine energy is slow and small, but it grows in tandem with its targets."

"Wrong. Look closer."

I looked on for about 5 minutes, and what I noticed was that the speed at which the white liquid released increased over time. After about 10 more minutes, the orb was about as big as a bucket but the white liquid overtook it and broke it.

"Huh? Why'd it break? They both kill you over time!?"

"That's the gist of it, now you can choose. Hurry up."

The set up disappeared and I was left with making the decision once more.

"Ah, does that mean if I have both energies, I'd still go pop cause of the chaos energy?"

She looked me dead in the eye and showed absolutely no change in expression whatsoever. She really wasn't going to go out of her way to help me in the situation.

"Ok, what about if I had immortality?"

"Gods have 'immortality', but even they can die. Now choose."

I felt a shiver run down my spine when I looked at her crooked smile and sadistic gaze. She was suddenly enjoying my dilemma.

But didn't that make their immortality fake? Gods were then quasi-immortal, but the fact is they are called immortal because nothing is known to be able to kill them. Did that mean the immortality I would acquire as a phoenix was quasi-immortality? Does that mean the whole point of me surviving this long was so I could get powerful enough to self-destruct?

Survive.

Oh… that's right. I guess I just needed to choose the option that would keep me alive the longest.

I looked back at the list.

All of these options looked so damn tempting, but a phoenix was immortal. It couldn't die, and even if it did, it would definitely reincarnate in some way.

"Come to think about it, isn't it weird that I haven't once heard mention of phoenixes in the world?"

I looked at the system master for some sort of reply, but she didn't give me anything. If anyone claimed to have the best poker face in the world, I'd tell them they were nothing before Alpha.

Struggling with the decision, I got a really bad feeling about the phoenix all of a sudden. Normally the system master would act friendlier and hyper, but now she's being too docile. Was the phoenix a bad choice?

"Hurry it up, would you? We have other things to talk about."

She ordered me, but now I was even more scared and confused. I looked at the others. Then only one option seemed to make sense at the time.

"I choose this."

I pointed at it.

"Hm, interesting choice. But you could have picked the phoenix, you know?"

She muttered something that I picked up on.

"What?"

"Yeah, I'm surprised you chose the other one. This is probably a better choice, but the phoenix might have saved you from some trouble in the near future."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You'll find out later, I guess."

"Is it because of the phoenix's immortality?"

"The phoenix's immortality isn't an issue here. No matter what form you chose, you would have some form of immortality from here on out. It's a different matter altogether. You'll understand when the time comes."

"Wait, I'm immortal now?"

"Shut up, we need to talk about something else."

Skipping past any questions I would ask, she moved onto the real reason she summoned me to this place.

"Due to the, um… oddities of this particular evolution, you'll be unconscious for quite a while."

"How long is a long while"

"About a month?"

"A month!?"

"Don't worry. Your physical body is in an unbreakable shell that only you can break out of, so you're safe."

"That's not the issue here! The issue is the fact that there's an upcoming war and I'll be inactive in case of a random attack!"

"Don't worry, don't worry. Your subordinates are quite reliable. Have some faith in them."

She reminded me of all my captains and general. I could trust Reiman to get the job done, and there was 'that' thing we had been prepping in the shadows to protect the West and all members of my familia from human invaders.

In the end, what were the chances of an invasion so soon? The continent's big, so it wasn't like they could already be waiting at the outskirts of Larm, ready to attack, right?

"No way in hell! Everything you make me do is sketchy as heck!"

I rejected her offer completely. She gave me a coy smile and started to strangle my neck.

"Come on, it's a twenty-minute adventure. You won't even notice how much time passed."

Her grip tightened, and I could feel the life draining from my body, but in times like these, you just can't let go.

"Why don't you just go on it yourself, then?"

After I asked this, she let go of my neck and turned the sky black. All I could see were the stars illuminating the darkness.

"Do you have any idea how boring life would be if I decided to do everything myself?"

As she said this, the night sky started to pass quickly, and soon it was day in her realm once again, then night. It kept repeating itself at a faster pace than the last.

"I could experience a lifetime's worth of events in the second it takes for average mortals to do anything. If I did anything, I would run out of everything to do."

As she said this, she stood up and the sky zoomed in on one of the stars. I honestly thought I was going to go blind because of how bright the star was, but she stood in front of me as if to protect my eyes. Her unusual eyes and smile sent a shiver down my spine as she looked at me with a sort of condescending gaze.

"I don't like living that kind of boring life. It's too plain and unexciting. So help me out."

Once she was done with her speech, the star exploded behind her, and I was forced to shut my eyes. I felt no heat, discomfort, or anything.

When I opened my eyes again, Alpha was sitting down, drinking a canned cola while looking at me. I didn't know why, but I could sort of sympathise with her.

I didn't like it, but then again, having 1 month of nothing to do would also drive me insane.

"Sure, I'll go on your quest. But you better increase my store rank and give me a lot of store points."

"Oh? You don't want any more unique skills?"

"After that warning you gave me, hell no."

She laughed at me after hearing that reply. Couldn't help but feel a little bashful since I used to want more of those.

"What's the quest about, anyway?"