Codex Null: Simulation Through Madness

Despite how beautiful this moment appeared, Noel found himself wanting to be spiteful, to shatter the illusion of their collective relief.

After all, when everything was stripped down to its essence, he had solved everything by himself.

And they had done nothing meaningful to help.

The Soul crystals he'd received from Lilith?

He didn't even consider those a real contribution.

After all, just his storage ring alone — which had been taken away from him when he'd awakened from his coma — had contained countless more Soul Crystals and many other precious items.

The wealth that had been stripped from him couldn't be compared to those measly hundred soul crystals, not even close.

That's why Noel felt tempted to ruin this tender moment, to let the bitterness leak through his mask.

He wanted to vent the frustration that had been building inside him like pressure in a sealed vessel. He also had countless pressing questions for them, after all.

Questions about what had happened to his parents after he'd become unconscious and slipped into that prolonged coma. Questions about the Trial Dimension that he had claimed the parasitic relic from.

But in the end, he decided that all of those confrontations could wait for a more opportune moment.

Instead, he turned his attention to the Codex Null, which had been flashing message windows at him from the corner of his vision since earlier, demanding his notice.

[Your Soul has healed, and an upgrade to the features of Codex Null is currently available.]

[Do you want to spend 100,000 Null points to proceed with the upgrade?]

He read the two lines quickly, before dismissing them… but a big smile had already been etched on his face, seemingly even bigger than the one when he had healed his soul.

The Codex Null was already revolutionary with its current features, so after this upgrade, what incredible new possibilities would it unlock?

Anticipation seemed to already start budding inside him like a rising tide.

As for the steep price the system was demanding?

Noel naturally didn't care about such trivial concerns.

After all, everything was different now that his soul had healed.

Securing the equivalent of a hundred thousand Soul Crystals would be relatively easy for someone of his capabilities and knowledge.

With many pleasant thoughts swirling inside his mind, Noel stood up from his seated position, gently lifting Lilith by her underarms and carrying her up with him in the process, before carefully setting her down on her feet with practiced ease.

His gaze moved deliberately between her and Selena, reading their expressions, before he stepped toward Selena, took her hand in his, and interlaced their fingers with casual intimacy.

Only then did he finally address Lilith directly.

"I will be going out with Selena for some time."

"When I return, I want to see Hilda waiting for me... and Nadine too, if she's still alive."

At his sudden action combined with his commanding words, Lilith seemed to freeze slightly, her breath catching. But Noel wasn't finished.

His gaze moved to the window, scanning specific locations outside with the calculated precision of someone assessing potential threats, before he added in a tone that brooked no argument, "Also, if I sense anyone still monitoring me after I come back, I will kill them without hesitation. Just so you know."

'I mean, if you insist on setting up surveillance to watch over me, at least assign someone skilled enough that I won't notice them,' Noel thought with dark amusement, despite knowing that achieving that at this point — after his soul had ranked up — was practically impossible.

Well… at least for those, they could command.

"…Understood." Lilith said after a moment, her voice carefully controlled, seemingly finally remembering exactly what kind of precarious situation she was in.

And Selena, watching everything unfold and understanding that her situation shouldn't be any better, wondered what Noel had in mind for her.

She didn't ask though, and simply walked with him side by side as he went out of his modest house with purposeful strides.

They walked like that hand in hand, wrapped in silence, until Noel finally broke it and said, "I want to see Clarissa… I mean your mother, so let's go to your Everen house's main dimension."

Then, suddenly thinking of something else, he added, "She is there, right?"

Selena, taken aback by her mother suddenly being mentioned, replied absentmindedly, "Yes…"

But then she stopped dead in her tracks, forcing Noel to halt with her, as she asked with growing concern, "What do you want to see mother for?"

"Why? I can't see her?" Noel smiled and asked in return.

In the middle of the street, as many people would steal glances at them — at the impossibly handsome man who shouldn't have even been possible to exist and the beautiful woman beside him — Selena stayed silent for some time before she replied.

"It's not about that, but…"

When Selena didn't continue her words, Noel had to fill the silence from his part once again, starting from the beginning. "You know, as I regained my whole memories, I became curious about many things that happened while I was... diminished."

"I wanted to ask about this and that, dig into every detail... but then I suddenly thought... everything already happened. And at this point I can't change anything anyway, so fuck all of that dwelling and let's do something meaningful instead."

Intrigued by how the conversation seemed to shift into something entirely different at this point, and genuinely curious about what he planned to do now that he'd regained his memory, Selena said, "And that is?"

"To fuck you!" Noel declared without hesitation.

Then, perhaps fearing she didn't understand his bluntness, he clarified with deliberate crudeness, "I mean literally, I want to fuck you."

"To have sex."

"To mate like animals."

His words, having exceeded every boundary of being blunt and become something else entirely, left Selena completely silenced.

Her face became crimson like a ripe tomato, and she was unable to form any words in response.