Utopian System

Chapter 435 System's Truth

Slowly, deliberately, Elio turned toward the statue. Each step was a conscious decision, each movement a declaration of faith.

'I trust you, Zara,' he thought as he extended his hand toward the stone figure. 'I always have.'

His fingers approached the statue's surface...

The god's form materialized in the chamber, his presence radiating chaotic and erratic energy.

"CONGRATULATIONS!" his voice resonated with genuine emotion upon seeing Elio. "AT LAST! Someone completed the game 100% for the first time in history!"

While the hologram celebrated...

The statue began to move on its own, sliding sideways to reveal a dark hollow beneath. The god, however, paid no attention to this. With a gesture, he drew Elio's floating book toward his hands and opened it eagerly.

His expression changed instantly.

"Level... 20?" His eyes scanned the pages again and again, as if expecting the numbers to change. "But that's impossible. How did you reach the world's final chamber if...?"

His voice cut off when he finally noticed Zala. The color drained from his face.

"You... What are YOU doing here with...?"

The silence that followed was dense, charged. You could see the exact moment when the pieces clicked in his mind. His expression shifted from confusion to understanding and then to pure indignation.

"NALA YOU CHEATER!" the shout made the chamber walls tremble.

Zala blinked, genuinely confused for a moment. Zara's consciousness instinctively withdrew at the confrontation's intensity, allowing Zala to emerge completely.

His voice mixed pain, betrayal and accusation. "Those domains you're building... Are they ones you planned to share? Or were you just making me believe you were waiting here while preparing to easily dominate everything afterward?"

The silence that followed weighed like lead. Elio and Zara, unwilling witnesses to this ancient dispute, barely dared to breathe.

Until...

The black metal began to move by Zala's will, trying to trap Elio against the wall again before he entered the hole, but Dionz was faster.

With a gesture, Zala's control over the metal vanished, and before she could react, an invisible force pushed Elio toward the hollow beneath the statue.

"NO!" Zala's scream mixed with the sound of the statue sliding back into position, sealing Elio inside.

"CHEATER!" Zala launched herself at the statue, but the indestructible structure stopped her. "The game is over! This is my last run! Don't you understand? It's not fair to make me suffer more with this damn boredom!"

"Fair?" Dionz let out a bitter laugh. "You talk about justice when you yourself have broken all the rules? The goddess shouldn't be playing directly! Breaking into the game is completely unfair! Getting more domains in secret is UNFAIR!"

"You don't understand," Zala shook her head, and for the first time her voice carried a tone of pleading. "They're completely different things. I myself have no connection with the events outside. My subconscious body surely needed to act because something was..."

"LIES!" Dionz's roar made the chamber walls shake. "They're all lies! One of the golden rules was to be 'fair'! But you never have been!"

The temperature in the chamber seemed to drop several degrees. Zara could feel Zala's anger growing.

"Fair?" Zala's voice was dangerously soft. "What would be fair according to you?"

"IF YOU GIVE ME BACK MY DAUGHTER!" Dionz's scream resonated through the chamber with such force that the indestructible black walls vibrated.

It was the cry of a shattered father, of someone who had built an entire fantastic world to avoid facing a truth too painful to bear.

"I AM YOUR DAUGHTER!"