Magnus froze at the mere thought, staring at the apple in his hand as if it were some alien artifact.
Matter and energy couldn't be created or destroyed, only changed. That was the law of conservation, and to some extent, Magnus believed it applied to this world just like his own. The most obvious example in his mind was Magic. It seemed to defy logic—mages could control elements, teleport through space, travel to the void of the Liminal Veil, and even manipulate time and space itself.
But it couldn't create something from nothing, and it always required mana to function. Magic had its limits, always following a system of cost.
Yet the Command Console... or, more accurately, source code abilities in general aren't bound by those same systems. The only restrictions on source code are the ones it's imposed on itself.
He'd realized this a long time ago, back when the Command Console first told him it didn't have the permissions needed to act. Until that moment, he'd thought it was omnipotent. Especially after seeing how the Console could move things with an absolute, practically irresistible force.
As for being bound by traditional systems, that all went out the window the first time he used [High-Speed Regeneration].
His body didn't have the resources to heal at that kind of speed, but it didn't cause any issues because Magnus never saw it that way. When he made his cells divide and grow, he didn't picture them 'using' any resources. He just made them split. And the Command Console, as straightforward as it was, simply followed that. The result? Something that shouldn't be possible, in this world or his last: the creation of matter, breaking the law of conservation.
In this world, maybe only source code could so blatantly violate the rules, because it was what created them. Now, based on what Basker had told him, Magnus had gone beyond just creating resources for his body to heal faster—he'd created something outright.
Basker, are you sure this isn't the same apple?
This was too big to be mistaken about. He had to be certain before jumping to conclusions, though he understood why Basker thought what he did.
All Magnus had visualized was the apple disappearing and reappearing, something he couldn't do before because he couldn't clearly picture it. To him, it felt like teleportation, just like Lazitha had shown him. But there were two ways to interpret what he'd done. One was that the Command Console moved the apple, changing its coordinates and then bringing it back. That was his intention. But the other interpretation was that the Console simply understood his command as getting rid of the apple and creating a new one.
[I can't be completely sure unless we test it, Master. I think we should visualize getting rid of the bruised apple like before, but this time, instead of bringing it back, change your visualization. Visualize the same apple, but remove one of the bruises. There shouldn't be an apple in this world with that specific bruise, so if it shows up in your hand, we'll know for sure…]
Confirmation that I'm not teleporting anything... but creating and destroying. Considering how Lazitha acted when she saw my 'teleportation,' it's probably safest to test it this way. Removing a bruise should be subtle enough not to raise any suspicion.
He looked at the bruised apple in his hand, inspecting it quickly, then set it down on the table. He glanced to his right, seeing that Luden and Nithra were both busy—Nithra was still being instructed by Lazitha. None of them were paying attention to him.
Good.
Turning his attention back to the bruised apple on the table, Magnus took a deep breath, though it wasn't necessary. He began with the visualization to make the apple disappear. It happened in an instant—the apple vanished, as though swallowed by an invisible void. Then he started constructing the imagery again, visualizing the same apple, but this time with one of the lighter bruises removed.
This was purely imaginary, an apple that shouldn't exist anywhere else in the world. With a thought, he tried to bring it into being. And just like that, it appeared, right in front of him on the table.
Magnus froze, staring at it.
Slowly, he reached out, hesitating, before picking it up. He turned it in his hands, and then—there it was—the bruise that had been on the apple from gripping it too hard was gone.
Basker had been right.
Oh... Okay... okay, okay. Holy shit!
Before, when he thought he'd unlocked teleportation, he'd been excited. But now? Now he was overwhelmed. He could create things? He could make something from nothing? What did this mean? Didn't it change everything?
Seriously, Basker, this isn't a joke! I- This means I could duplicate anything, right? Money, food, maybe even spell catalysts or magical artifacts. As long as I can get my hands on one of anything, I can make as many as I want now, right? Actually, wait- Could I even create things from Earth? With my memory, I could probably recreate almost anything I've seen closely enough.
Magnus's mind raced, thoughts tumbling over one another. It wasn't chaotic in the sense of intrusive thoughts, but more like his brain running through a thousand possibilities at once. Basker didn't have any influence over it, and yet, the hound spoke up.
[Master, please calm down. Before jumping to conclusions, we need to properly test this ability. Think about how dangerous this could've been if you'd left this class thinking you had just achieved teleportation.]
Basker's words slammed the brakes hard, especially the last part, bringing Magnus's imagination to a screeching halt. His thoughts slowly reeled themselves in.
Oh… yeah, I guess you're right.
He'd thought he'd mastered teleportation not too long ago, but what he really had was the ability to erase something and recreate it. If Basker hadn't pointed out the oddity and Magnus had gone on without questioning anything, what could have happened? Right now, he couldn't fully visualize his entire body—only parts of it at a time. That's why he never used [Self Body Puppetry] on his whole body. But eventually, it would've been only a matter of time before he tried to teleport something valuable—something that shouldn't be erased. Or, in a more dangerous scenario, if his mind ever grew capable of visualizing his whole body, he would've tried to teleport himself.
And that would've been it. He would've erased himself from existence.
[The Command Console is a powerful tool, Master, but its inability to understand true intent makes it dangerous. No ability should be used without caution, and that includes the ability to create and destroy.]
Magnus fell silent for a moment, nodding to himself.
Right. I needed that reminder. Thanks, Basker. I got ahead of myself, let the possibilities cloud my judgment.
[Of course, Master. That's why I'm here.]
A counterbalance. A secondary opinion. An entity that always had Magnus's best interest in mind.
Well, there are still a few more hours left in this class. So before it ends—and before we have to talk to Luden about Nightshade—we need to figure out exactly what the parameters of our new abilities are.
[Yes, though we should keep our experimentation subtle, considering we are surrounded by others.]
Once again, Magnus gave a barely perceptible nod of agreement. Everyone else was focused on their own spells for now, but if he suddenly started testing everything he wanted to, they would definitely notice. Anything more extreme would have to wait until he was back in his dorm, under the protection of Eveline's spells.
So, keeping that in mind, he started his subtle yet in-depth experimentation, working in tandem with Basker, who kept watch for any irregularities.
From an outside perspective, it would have simply looked like Magnus was performing flawless teleportation over and over again. But in reality, every attempt was slightly different, each one testing a variable he hadn't accounted for before. With how quickly he could form his visualizations, he managed to run through all his planned tests in under an hour, giving him a solid grasp of what was actually happening.
Alright, let's start from the beginning, Basker. First, the ability we've decided to call [Deletion].
A simple name for a simple, yet terrifying ability, depending on how it was used and what it was used on.
[So far, Master, we've identified two requirements for its use. Firstly, like many abilities of the Command Console, it requires a proper visualization of the target. This means [Deletion]'s limitations align with your current mental capabilities.]
Right, which means I can't delete anything too large or too complex for me to visualize accurately.Size-wise, my limit is about the dimensions of a human torso or limb. Anything bigger, and I can't hold all the details in my mind clearly enough for the Command Console to lock onto it. As for complexity... I have more leeway there, but I doubt I'd be able to memorize all the compact runes of a spell catalyst or a mana artifice, so those are off the table.
[Correct. The second limitation is isolation. [Deletion] functions through you precisely imagining the target disappearing. Though we haven't tested this yet, it's reasonable to assume that it works better on standalone objects than on things that are part of a larger whole.]
Magnus stared at the apple on the table as Basker spoke. The apple was simple—small enough to memorize in full, easy to erase. But what if he wanted to delete part of a wall?
In that case, he had two options: The first was knowing exactly what the wall would look like after the missing piece was gone, which would be difficult unless he had a reference. The second was to visualize the wall in its entirety, then focus only on the section he wanted to erase—essentially cookie-cutting the target out.
That second method is actually what I do whenever I use [Self Body Puppetry], except instead of deleting anything, I'm moving parts of body that I've already memorized. I'd have to do the same thing if I ever wanted to use [Deletion] on a person or a creature.
The first method required preparation or external observation. The second required him to memorize the details of an entire structure in real-time. Both were viable, but if he had to use [Deletion] in a combat situation, he figured it would be best to stick to targeting objects.
Still... even with its limitations, this ability is ridiculously powerful.When something is deleted, it's completely gone. Not just removed, but erased entirely. I don't know if it's purely physical or if it affects things on the source code level as well. But either way, with this ability, it doesn't matter how durable something is or how unique a weapon or tool might be. The moment I memorize its structure, I can delete it. And if I ever manage to memorize an enemy's body—or even just a section of it—during combat, I doubt there's anything they could do to stop me. If my understanding is right, and the Null State Glitch has a lower permission level than the Command Console, then I could even bypass the Nullfang's [True Immortality] with this.
[Indeed. Aside from its limitations and the hurdles of using it in battle, I have yet to find any downsides to this ability.]
And with that covered, Magnus and Basker moved on to the next ability.
Now, [Restoration] is a lot more complex compared to [Deletion], which was a bit of a surprise. At the same time, though, it has fewer limitations, at least based on what our limited testing has shown us so far.
[Unlike many of the Command Console's abilities, [Restoration] does not require legitimacy, but rather clarity. Typically, the Command Console uses your visualizations as a pathing method, allowing it to determine what you, as its user, are trying to affect. If your visualizations aren't accurate to something that exists, the Command Console rejects them because it can't narrow down a target.]
But [Restoration] doesn't have that limitation. It's a creation ability, meaning that even if something doesn't exist in the world, as long as I provide enough detail, the Command Console will simply create it.
Through their experimentation, Magnus and Basker had seen this firsthand. Magnus had deleted and created apples of varying shades of red, and he was fairly confident he could make a purple or even a blue apple if he wanted. He could also modify the apple's structure entirely, creating a whole new type of fruit—an apple with bumps on one side or one with a completely flat bottom. Normally, the Command Console would reject such visualizations because they didn't exist. But with [Restoration], as long as the details were realistic enough, it accepted them.
[The only thing we don't fully understand yet is the functionality of these creations. What would a blue apple taste like? Why does something that didn't exist before already have a defined taste? If Master visualized the creation of a super-weapon, would it simply take the shape, or would it have special properties as well? These aren't things we can test in class, but they are important questions nonetheless.]
Magnus completely agreed. There was still more to test, more boundaries to push, but that would have to wait. That brought them to their final round of experiments—actual teleportation.
I learned I can erase things from existence and create matter out of thin air by accident... yet somehow, the one thing I came to this class to learn—teleportation—still eludes me.
It seemed ridiculous that there wasn't some way to pull it off.
But no matter how I think about it, it just doesn't seem physically possible. If I imagine something disappearing from one place and reappearing in another, that's 'technically' teleportation, but in reality, I'm just using [Deletion] and [Restoration] in succession. And if I ever reach the point where I can visualize entire people... honestly, I don't even know what would happen. Would I be creating life? Or would they just be a corpse—no mind, no soul?
Either way, he needed a different method, but none came to mind. One idea he had was to visualize his target disappearing and appearing somewhere else at the exact same time, making it clear that he wanted to move something rather than erase and recreate it. But Basker immediately dismissed that.
[The Command Console chooses the path of least resistance. It will simply assume you want one thing deleted and another created simultaneously. I doubt it would be able to make a connection between the two.]
And so it left Magnus stumped. He had no choice but to give up on the idea, for now. He didn't unlock teleportation like he'd hoped, but [Deletion] and [Restoration] were still massive additions to his arsenal, so it was definitely not a waste.
"Alright, you've all done extremely well, so I think we can end this class here." Lazitha's announcement pulled Magnus from his thoughts. He blinked, setting his apple back on the table as he glanced around. Luden and Nithra had both stopped casting their teleportation spells and seemed relatively satisfied with their progress, not that it was easy to tell. Luden rarely let his expressions slip, and Nithra was about as expressive as a rock, since she either always looked bored, tired, or annoyed at something. In that regard, although she had more expressions to show, she was even worse than Seraline.
"All of you have done exceptionally well. Especially you, Magnus. I never expected to see a student master teleportation within just a few hours." Lazitha's words made both Luden and Nithra, who had been focused on their own practice, their eyes reflecting their surprise.
Ah… this is going to be difficult to explain.