PSI traveled through the portal. Momentarily his eyes closed as he breathed out the fresh air of the entrance.
He is still not sure what to do. Of course, even if the original author of the novel woke up in his shoes, he wouldn't even deal with it perfectly as PSI did.
Still, the fact that he has no path greatly affected him. A path is a must for a wandering soul, as it can wander so many places.
PSI murmured to himself, "So then everything is as expected. I'm the last one—means that the divine show will begin as soon as I get in.
Not to mention that I'm an extra. It's such an extra pain for real. What the hell is going on now? How am I supposed to live as an extra with no path?
There are twenty-three paths. They will all have their followers in the divine show. As expected, I'm gonna be all alone. Maybe some will actually lend a hand, but as the guidanceer warned me, not to join them.
They... they will definitely use me as a meat shield."
It seems our bodies are made of illusions. Each part of my body feels real and is real, since it has been linked to my soul.
At first, I thought souls don't have to eat.
That's true—a soul doesn't eat. But here, things are a bit different than the usual souls don't eat—they eat. It's designed to make it perfect as a human being, not a wandering soul.
It's all to make the test of the recap movie feel more vivid and more interesting to the gods.
Even though I'm sure I already know that they have never seen a pathless in their entire lifetime...
...Guess I'm here."
The portal threw him right into the sky. The clouds were beneath him. Floating in the sky, he turned around to see the ground.
As he turned around, he was falling back to the ground. The air was so thick; the clouds felt so vivid.
The wind passed through his clothes. The atmosphere was bright blue. He felt like he descended right from a murim sky.
As soon as he reached the ground, he decelerated, not knowing how. With a strange look on his face, he gazed down.
There were twenty-three mountain cliffs, all covered by fog.
Even so, the cliffs were long enough to be called mountains on their own. Each of the mountains had equal space between them. They all circled him, making a ring of mountains.
All the mountains had a stair made of water behind the mountain face; they were pointed toward the middle.
What surprised him wasn't the mountains nor the stair that looked completely like a river flowing off the mountain.
It was the people that stood on the mountains with curious faces. Though some had detached faces and some had hatred.
The mountains each represented the path
000
0000 111
1111 222
14
2222 333
3333 444
4444 555
5555 666
6666 777
16 19
7777 888
8888 999
9999
In the middle of the mountains lay the extra pathless—PSI himself.
A voice of the guidanceer echoed across the mountains. With overlapping voices, they said, "Hear me, dear participants. It's such unfortunate news to everyone that there is an extra with no path here among us."
They were covered in fog up in the sky, standing on the clouds. As soon as they said that, the leaders of each path's participants stood up.
Each prime had an unbearable aura. The delusion energy flowing off their bodies was creating memories that never existed in his life.
His health was greatly affected. Everyone around him was backed by a god. Those who do not know the hand of the gods behind their backs—moving them forward as they strive to win—will absolutely deteriorate.
In the divine show, the squads are rarely given numbers. Instead, they are given permanent tags that work best for everyone.
There are twenty-three paths. Each path has exactly fifty people who are participants.
000 — this path is tagged as A-Squad. Each participant will have a name based on their tag. The usual names would be A-Prime, A-2nd, A-3rd, A-4th, and so on.
9999 — the last path is tagged in chronological order of the alphabet and would be the 20th alphabet, since this path itself is the 20th alphabet.
It's tagged as the T-Squad. In every squad, there should be a leader. So naturally, T-Prime is their leader.
Primes are the ones chosen as squad leaders.
When the Twenty Paths were forged, four cracks appeared in the divine pattern. From those fractures emerged the Debtbound—lesser gods who do not guide, but hinder. They are not creators, only collectors, demanding payment in suffering, loss, and ruin.
These three are thirteen, sixteen, and nineteen. Each of them has fifty people participating in their paths, though they have minor influence—not completely like the other twenty gods.
So to sum it up, even these gods have squads.
14 — U-Squad
16 — V-Squad
19 — W-Squad
Each prime stood on the mountain peak.
One of the guardians, with a whispering voice yet so clearly heard, said, "Is there any path that would accept this pathless young man?"
Everyone murmured. Voices of shameless participants took over the place. Not only did they murmur—they laughed and smirked.
Suddenly, the prime of 666 shouted with a half-assed voice, "You definitely think you're dreaming, asshat. Then it's good, cause you're gonna wake up in hell—lonely, pathless."
Everyone seemed to enjoy looking down on him. He gazed at the ground. He felt no shame, no fear, nor did their humor affect him. He cleared his throat and looked at the guidanceers' faces.
They gazed back with cold stares and turned around quickly. The one and only guidanceer who had been speaking raised his hand.
Everyone suddenly got quiet, reminded of what kind of beings they were actually in front of. Unlike PSI, every last one of them didn't know about REBOOT or whatever.
So the guidanceers are considered like angelic beings here. Furthermore, the illusions that worked half-assed outside Etherlamenthia had a big impact on their appearance—making them look like angels, not just physically, but by psychologically manipulating the participants into not trying to defy them.
PSI got bored of being harassed by a bunch of young souls. He shouted, "Gods... squads... the show... I reject them all. I don't need you. I will go alone. Even if I have to, it doesn't serve my highest good to be with a path I'm not signed to. I will carve my own path with my own bare hands."
Everyone was shocked. Absolute silence pressured the mood, killing it with silent murmurs.
Why is he saying that?
Does he not want to live?
Who is he anyway?
So many questions rose in their heads. Everyone stayed silent. Even though some wanted to laugh out loud, the guidanceer's hand was still raised—he didn't lower it.
As soon as he heard what PSI said, he replied, "Then be it your way."
With that, he closed the chatter and officially began the divine stream. He raised both hands, and from them exploded fireworks streaming across the mountains.
All the myth gods joined to watch in a matter of seconds. What they were going to see now was actually a trailer of what's to come, since their journey would be recapped and sent to them right away.
In any case, the other guidanceer smiled at Pathless and said, "Since you are not joining any squad, you can be your own squad.
From here on out, you are PSI-SQUAD, and you are named 'PSI-PRIME'."