Gampid's projection flickered, his expression shifting from amusement to something colder.
Daisy held up a hand, silencing him. "He needs to know.."
She walked over to a shimmering, translucent console and tapped a sequence of keys. A massive holographic timeline projected into the center of the room, displaying the birth of the city from barren, digital wasteland.
"When I first arrived in this world," Daisy began, her voice distant, "there was nothing here. I was just a Level 0 Reincarnator. My only objective—my only directive—was to reach Level 99. I was a blank slate."
She paused, the hologram shifting to show the silhouette of a girl radiating blinding, multi-colored light.
"That's when I met her. She was another Reincarnation, but her ability was... terrifying. She was a living bridge. She could copy the power of any human, any Reincarnator, or even the native gods of this system. She could replicate their skills, give them away, or use them herself. She was the ultimate catalyst."
Haruto's mind raced. Copy and paste? A skill-thief? He kept his face neutral, but inside, he was reeling. That sounds like a reality-breaking exploit. A total hacker.
"And then," Daisy continued, pulling up another profile on the screen, "there was the third. The one who brought the resources."
Daisy didn't stop. She brought up a second image, this one a girl draped in digital gold and shifting wealth symbols. "She introduced me to the second one. Her power was greed, but not in the way you'd expect. She had access to infinite resources, but there was a catch: her level was tied strictly to her acquisition. Every unit of currency she earned fed her growth. If she stopped earning, her level stagnated. If she spent, she grew stronger."
Haruto frowned, leaning in. "Wait... if she already had infinite wealth, why would she bother earning more? That sounds counterintuitive."
Daisy's expression darkened. "That was the trap, Haruto. She wasn't just earning money; she was extracting the value to level up. And in the middle of our alliance, something happened."
Daisy's voice dropped, resonating with a mix of nostalgia and venom. "The Copy-Master and the Wealth-Architect. Between them, they had everything. One could replicate any blueprint, and the other could manifest the infinite material and wealth required to build it. We were bored of the primitive villages we started in. We wanted to build something that defied time—a city a thousand years ahead of anything else."
Daisy raised her hand, and the room's ambient light shifted. The cold white glow was replaced by a cascading, golden aurora that filled the chamber, projecting a vision of the past. The sight was breathtaking—spires of light rising from the dust, reality bending to their collective will.
"We built it together," she whispered. "Three pillars, three Founders."
Suddenly, the three obsidian pillars in the room hummed violently. Three ethereal, female figures manifested from the light. One was unmistakably Daisy—younger, glowing with an aura of command. The other two were shifting, shadowy silhouettes—one radiating the weight of infinite gold, the other flickering like a corrupted, ever-changing glitch.
"We were inseparable," Daisy continued, her eyes fixed on the projections. "We synced our levels, our growth, our very existence. No one could touch us, no one could break us. We were gods of our own making."
"We leveled up together," Daisy continued, her gaze fixed on the ghosts of her past. "We conquered layers of reality that no one else could even perceive. We were inseparable. But power... power is a parasite."
She pointed to the figure representing the girl who could replicate anything. "The Copy-Master started small. She copied my engineering blueprints. Then, she copied the Wealth-Girl's ability to generate value. She didn't just replicate the money; she replicated the authority that came with it."
Daisy's face twisted with pain. "The Wealth-Girl felt redundant. She believed her purpose in our trio—to provide the resources—had been stolen. She felt useless, a hollow shell in her own kingdom. We tried to reach her, to explain that she was more than just her currency, but the paranoia had already taken root."
The holographic figures began to pace around the room, their movements glitching as the narrative grew more intense.
"The Copy-Master didn't stop there," Daisy whispered. "She copied my skill. She tried to build her own tech, her own reality, but because it wasn't her natural ability, she couldn't level up. She stagnated. And the more she stagnated, the more she convinced herself that we—the ones who were still growing—were plotting to dispose of her."
The room grew cold. The figures of the three friends looked at each other, not with love, but with suspicion.
"It became a web of misunderstandings, fueled by the system's own competitive drive," Daisy said. "The Wealth-Girl felt abandoned, and the Copy-Master felt betrayed. They saw us as their rivals, not their sisters. In the end, they decided that this city—this beautiful, impossible thing we built—was just a cage."
She flickered her hand, and the ghosts vanished, leaving Haruto in the sudden, deafening silence of the core room.
"They didn't just leave, Haruto," she said, her voice trembling. "They took the keys to the city's growth. They left me here to maintain a graveyard of what could have been.
Haruto stepped back from the humming central pillar, adjusting the dampeners on his wrist. "Alright, the core is completely stabilized and running at maximum capacity. But tell me the truth, Daisy... what is the real problem with this city now? What are we actually facing?"
Daisy leaned heavily against the main diagnostic terminal, her face illuminated by the steady violet glow of the engine. She let out a long, weary sigh. "Reincarnators are biologically wired to walk a solo path, Haruto. We don't build long-term alliances. But the problem isn't that they left—it's that they want to come back. They want to reclaim the throne of this city."
Haruto frowned. "If you three built it together, why is their return a threat?"
"Because when they took apart, I was the highest-level operator among the three of us," Daisy explained, her voice dropping to a sharp, clinical whisper. "But while I stayed behind, burying myself in the maintenance, architecture, and daily defense protocols of Gampid City, I neglected my own progression. I haven't leveled up in decades. Meanwhile, they have been out in the uncharted high layers, accumulating massive amounts of data and shifting variables. They have become extraordinarily powerful. And now, they want the crown back."
"Then why don't you just negotiate with them?" Haruto asked, shrugging. "Try to find a compromise or a peaceful resolution."
Daisy let out a bitter, hollow laugh. "Compromise? It's statistically impossible. If they were capable of reason, I would have made a deal with them a century ago. They only understand absolute control."
Haruto rubbed his chin, a sudden memory flashing behind his crimson eyes. The image of the green-and-black hooded girl perched on the frozen Snow Terror came rushing back. "Wait a second... this 'Copy Master' girl you mentioned earlier. I think I've actually seen her. You're not going to believe me, but when we were forcefully teleported to Layer 80—"
"Yes, it was her," Daisy interrupted sharply, her posture instantly stiffening. "That was the Copy Master. Her real system registry name is Philo. She is the one."
Haruto blinked, his eyes widening. "Wait, so she wasn't just a random anomaly?"
"No," Daisy said, her expression tight with calculation. "Philo has been actively tracking my biological energy coordinates. She knew my systems were operating at a deficit, and she came to Layer 80 to finish me off while I was weak. But then, she saw you. She saw a supposed 'Level 6' anomaly standing right next to me, and because of the absolute destruction left behind by your uncontrolled Black Hole spell, she miscalculated. She assumed you were a hidden, god-level threat that had broken my defenses. She retreated and threw us back to Layer 5 because she wants to gather more power before confronting us again."