Chapter 2449 The seer's past-4

"...What's the Seer's situation now?" Robin asked in a low, thoughtful voice, seemingly continuing his questions about the Seer, but in truth, most of his attention had already shifted inward as he silently began comparing everything Helmor had just revealed with his own current situation.

Up until this very moment, Robin had always assumed that ten Seals was an extremely low number, perhaps nothing more than some basic starting amount that everyone received after completing the process of Transcendence, but judging from Helmor's explanation, it turned out that possessing ten Seals immediately after Transcendence was actually something of a record? Was that because he'd managed to reach Transcendence in less than a thousand years, making his age ridiculously low compared to everyone Helmor was talking about, or was there some other reason behind that number?!

Thinking about the matter from that perspective... Robin couldn't help but smile.

His original mission had merely been to rise alongside Nihari and fight fiercely in Mid Sector 99 in order to preserve Nihari and secure its position, yet somehow, despite beginning with such a goal, he'd ended up becoming a Transcendent himself before that very millennium had even come to an end.

That was rather funny and impressive at the same time, and the more Robin thought about the absurd difference between what he'd originally been supposed to accomplish and where he'd ultimately ended up, the more amusing it became. Something this extraordinary could only come from him!

"The Seer's current situation isn't even slightly better than it was before." Helmor spoke steadily as he returned to the subject Robin had asked about. "In the current cycle, which is his third cycle as a Transcendent ruling over the universe, he adopted an entirely different approach toward his Candidates. Instead of concentrating his efforts on strengthening one particular Candidate, allowing that person to dominate the universe and directly compete against the other individuals who had patrons supporting them, he began creating Candidates specifically for the purpose of sabotaging the plans of those other patrons."

Then he continued, "That's why he created nearly ninety Candidates throughout this cycle, and rather than raising them all toward the same goal, he tells each one of them to go destroy something or start a war somewhere for the purpose of ruining another patron's plan or disrupting the course of certain events they were trying to shape. In other words, he began viewing his Candidates primarily as tools of sabotage rather than tools meant to achieve victory for him. You could say that his goal for this entire cycle is simply to make it through the full one hundred million years and secure a decent enough ranking that he doesn't lose more than two Seals and doesn't fall more than ten positions from where he currently stands, because if he fails to accomplish even that much, the consequences will be disastrous."

Then Helmor furrowed his brows slightly as he explained the true importance of those rankings. "Because every time the universe drops an entire class, it doesn't merely lose a number on some ranking list; it also loses an advantage it previously possessed or becomes burdened with additional restrictions that didn't exist before. For example, advanced universes don't have the problem of humans struggling to control energy at the Martial Emperor level, they don't suffer from the same difficulties when it comes to physical training, the natural lifespan limit for humans without a planet is far greater than one hundred thousand years, the number of soul units they're born with is considerably higher from the very beginning, and there are many other differences of the same kind, and so on!"

"....?!" Robin's eyes opened as wide as they could as the meaning behind Helmor's words struck him. "We lost all of that simply because we fell in the rankings?"

It hadn't been long at all since Robin had been wondering how the people who had lived during previous cycles could possess Variable Particles while the people of the current era didn't have them, a difference that had seemed strange when he first learned about it. Could that discrepancy actually be one of the consequences caused by the universe continuously falling through the rankings?!

"Yes." Helmor nodded without hesitation. "And if the universe falls even further during this cycle, then those who come after us will lose even more of the advantages that remain. For example, the difficulty of energy cultivation might begin appearing from the Sage Realm instead of the Martial Emperor Realm, or their natural lifespan might be cut down until it reaches only ten thousand years... Every single position the universe falls further reduces the Seer's chances of eventually recovering what he's already lost, which is exactly why he has to stop this collapse before it continues any further. He has to preserve the status and glory this universe still possesses if he wants to retain any chance whatsoever of distancing himself from the ranks of the Scrappers."

"...." Robin slowly began massaging his head as he tried to organize everything he'd just learned, because the sheer amount of completely new information he'd gathered over the course of this single day was enormous.

But instead of immediately continuing his explanation, Helmor furrowed his brows and focused his gaze intently on Robin from the other side of the gate, studying him for a moment before finally speaking. "You... I don't understand you, and from what I know, no one who knows the Seer's origins and understands his history can make sense of you either."

"How so...?" Robin replied almost instinctively, his attention immediately returning to Helmor's strange statement.

"The Seer has been following an approach centered on destroying and disrupting his opponents throughout this entire cycle. Even after he nearly lost everything because of the spread of the Plague and the Harvesters, and even after the Cosmic Elder was forced to intervene in order to save him from that situation, he still maintained exactly the same approach, continuing to appoint Candidates primarily for the purpose of sabotage and ruining the plans of others rather than pursuing victory directly... But for some reason, he completely changed that approach when it came to you." Helmor pointed directly toward Robin as he emphasized the obvious contradiction. "There are only two million years left until the end of the cycle, yet despite how little time remains, he's poured an enormous amount into you, given you several Master Laws and even Unbound, and helped you establish an enormous empire powerful enough to strike across the universe from Sector 90 all the way to Sector 118 simultaneously... Why?"

Robin genuinely didn't know whether he should laugh at the absurdity of what he was hearing or cry because of the enormous misunderstanding Helmor and apparently everyone else had built around his relationship with the Seer.

All he really wanted to do at that moment was scream directly at Helmor, \Because the damn Seer didn't help me with anything!\

But instead of saying what was actually running through his mind, Robin merely smiled and kept his expression composed. "Why do you think? From everything you've been telling me today, I seem to be the one suffering from a lack of information here."

"...I don't know." Helmor narrowed his eyes slightly as he continued studying Robin through the gate. "What the Seer is doing—pouring such a massive amount of Transcendent momentum into communicating with you and granting you all those advantages and Laws—directly goes against fair competition, and something like that is the last thing anyone familiar with the Seer would expect from him. Not because he's honorable or cares about fairness, of course, but because he knows better than almost anyone what can happen when you support someone too much and simply hand them Master Laws on a silver platter. After all, once he'd taken everything he could take from the Custodian, the Seer himself was the one who eventually turned against him and took an entire Class-A universe from his hands back then."

Then Helmor continued with a meaningful look directed at Robin, clearly emphasizing the conclusion others had reached from those circumstances. "That's why everyone who hears that the Seer is strengthening you and supporting you to such an extraordinary extent finds the situation extremely strange, and naturally begins thinking that perhaps he's deliberately trying to turn you into a Transcendent before harvesting you after the current cycle comes to an end... If that's truly his plan, then he'll gain everything at once: he'll win the cycle, obtain another Seal or two from you after harvesting you, and he won't even care about provoking further anger from the rest of the Transcendents because he's already earned their hostility and clearly doesn't care about adding any more of it."

"...?" Robin's brows immediately furrowed deeply as he seriously considered the possibility Helmor had just placed before him.

Technically speaking, such a thing should've been impossible, because the Seer hadn't contributed even a single one of the Laws Robin currently possessed, much less personally given him the six Master Laws necessary for Transcendence, so the entire idea that the Seer had been deliberately raising him and fattening him up in preparation for some future day of harvest simply didn't make any logical sense.

But...

The way the Seer had looked at the manifestations of the five Laws standing before the shell had been unusually deep and unsettling, enough for Robin to remember that gaze clearly even now, so what if the Seer had begun considering precisely this possibility after seeing them?

...Did the Seer already know that Robin had successfully completed the harmonization process and had essentially become a Transcendent himself?

That process had severed the connection that previously existed between them, and Robin's image had been completely erased from the Seer's Seal afterward. Did that mean the Seer had immediately understood what had happened and realized that Robin had undergone Transcendence, or could he have interpreted the sudden disappearance of that connection in some entirely different way?!

"...." Helmor revealed a faint smile when he noticed the hesitation appearing on Robin's face and saw how deeply he'd begun contemplating his words. "The Seer is an opportunistic individual who thinks about little beyond finding ways to gain additional Seals or preserve those already in his possession. Every single one of his Candidates ultimately ended up dead, and not one of them ever managed to cross the barrier of the cycle and successfully reach the Land of Eternal Shelter... the place that's also known as the Ancient Belt."

"...When you compare the Seer and everything he's accomplished with the other whales among the Transcendents, you'll find that his results amount to practically nothing. Those who serve the other Seal whales and have them as their patrons are given an opportunity to head toward the Land of Eternal Shelter as an Executioner... Oh, perhaps you still know those beings by the name Ancestors of the Space Beasts."

"Oh..." Robin let out a long sigh and temporarily pushed everything concerning the Seer and his possible intentions to the side, then turned his attention back toward Helmor and looked at him directly. "Is that what you aspire to become? An Executioner?"