Is it Wrong to Copy Abilities in Apocalypse?

Alex, after being betrayed by the only person he trusted, was broken. It took him days to get back to normal. That too was only because he didn't have much time to think about all of it in this apocalyptic world.

This chaotic environment helped him overcome all of that.

But how long can a being last without having anyone they could share things with? No one—literally no one—can survive without having something or someone they can trust, even if a bit, but trust is needed.

Alex, however, had no one he could trust until he thought about this Certain God. Who was she? He didn't know, she didn't tell, but it was not in their hands. The system didn't permit such information exchange, and that was why they couldn't.

Why did she always try to help him? Love? He didn't think so. Like? Could be. But one thing was clear to almost everyone: For whatever reason it was, she (the certain god) valued Alex.

But did Alex trust her enough to take her words for face value? No. He couldn't do that even if he tried his best to. It was just not possible for him. And that was why he was stuck in contemplation, unable to decide what he should do.

The creature in front of him was very strong—stronger than any he had faced—there was a chance that this monster was scheming his demise, but from what the Certain God had told him, this creature was trustworthy.

But as he didn't even trust the Certain God that much, Alex didn't know if he should really take her words as the truth.

However, something inside of him was telling him to do something else.

The instances where Certain God had helped him passed through his mind. Her persistent attitude, the mystery surrounding her, and the way she understood what he must be thinking without even him saying that out loud.

He didn't understand what he wanted anymore...

<We should try it out...>

It was then that the AI's words echoed in his head, making him go silent, but the AI wasn't done yet; it continued.

<... let's try to trust someone one more time. If she is found out to be lying, then we would at least know that she was not trustworthy and all she did till now was just a play for her >

Those words were the same things that were going on in his mind. He wanted to do it—he wanted to do it so badly that it was hard for him to think of something else—but he was scared.

What if she turned out to be lying? What if she was just playing with him as if he were a new toy for her? Wouldn't that mean that he was again trying to trust someone who was fooling him?

Wouldn't it mean that he was never supposed to trust anyone?

But...

<We would be able to tell whether she is worth trusting or not with this. And it is not like you can't escape if you want to; you still have the Xuanwu shield with you. It can buy you enough time to find the weak point of the tree and jump out of it.>

Yes, it was not that Alex would die with this; with this, Alex was, for the first time, doing something just because of what someone else had told him.

*Inhale**Exhale*

Alex, after hearing the AI's words and knowing that all of them were the truth, decided to move toward the creature.

He didn't do anything to the string of mana control—he let it be. He wanted to make it seem like he could do what the creature wanted him to, but he wasn't doing it to show his willingness to listen.

'Thank you for accepting my invitation...'

The creature, who was still just a shadowy silhouette to Alex, spoke again, stepping back, mixing in the darkness of the inside of the tree trunk, making Alex shake his head with a sigh.

'This feels shady...'

He couldn't help but feel that the creature was behaving like those drug dealers who would always stay in the dark streets with no light and no camera, never taking a step out of those, only coming a bit toward the edge of the street to call you in before stepping back into the shadows.

But he just shook his head, and with his vigilance raised, he stepped into the tree's trunk, not caring about how shocked the gods were when they saw him going in.

Slowly, the gods started realizing that Alex and Certain God had some kind of secret. There was no way they were going to believe that the Certain God wouldn't answer Alex's question—there was no way she, who had been constantly trying to make Alex speak, wouldn't do it—leaving only one option left.

She did tell him something that convinced him to go inside the tree—a tree that seemed pretty strange because they couldn't tell what it was. For some reason, they couldn't even tell what was happening inside the tree.

They were already filing their complaints as the moment Alex stepped into the tree's trunk, everything on the screen went blank, making it impossible for them to see a single thing that was going on.

This was not how it was supposed to be. Even if the player were to be shitting or bathing, all the system was supposed to do was blur the image. It can never take their view completely. But now, that is what was happening.

The system was supposed to be fair and just; it couldn't just cut the feed of the gods, even if something very personal to the humans was happening. Humans were just a source of entertainment for the gods, so it was only fair for the gods to be able to know what was happening with the humans they wanted.

*Ting**Ting**Ting*...

The main system, on the other hand, within her dark and lonely area was resting with her eyes closed, trying to contact someone—someone very strong—when she heard the constant notification of complaints sent by the gods, making the system frown, breaking out of her thoughts.

"What's happening now?"

*Snap*

She snapped her finger as she let out those words; no emotion was audible in her voice, but her face clearly said otherwise. There was clear annoyance on her face.

Why would she not be annoyed? Things were going out of hand in many ways in this turn. The normal problems could be handled by her as that's what she was here for, but the Certain God was now being too much.

Well, she was always too much, but at least she didn't interfere with the game before; now she was doing even that.

"It's him again..."

Her irritation only got elevated the moment she saw what was happening, but that was not all.

"And her as well..."

She had to take a deep breath in order to calm herself down as she looked deeper into the issue. Alex and the Certain God were involved in this case, but she knew that there was no way they would be the ones behind the problem that was happening.

"Who's this?"

And finally, she noticed something. The tree that Alex entered was never even supposed to be there...

"Someone's interfering with my system?"

Her face grew serious as she realized that, and with all of her focus shifted to the screen that appeared in front of her, she started to find the root cause of all of this. Explore more stories at M V L

She had some guesses, and if they were right, then Alex might as well be dead, but even if he was an annoyance to her, she couldn't just let him get killed like this.

She had to do it in order to maintain the fairness of the game.