Chapter 300
Compatibility (2)
IAM had been planning for some time to implement his understanding of death into his main path.
He couldn't claim to understand everything about death. That would be arrogance. But if there was one thing he was certain of, it was this—no one else on the entire planet understood it the way he did.
After all, he had quite literally died.
And even though some mysterious being had brought him back to life, the experience itself had never left him. He still remembered it all with unsettling clarity.
No living person could truly comprehend that.
And if someone did… well, they were dead.
So unless they, too, had encountered some unknown existence capable of dragging them back across that boundary, IAM stood alone. The only one among the living who carried firsthand knowledge of death itself—not as a concept, not as a theory, but as something he had personally crossed and returned from.
But even so, IAM wasn't certain about the compatibility between the Death Path and the Path of Blessed and Cursed Speech. After all, no one in history could have possibly attempted to combine the two before. There was no precedent or guidance to rely on—only his own understanding and instinct.
Still, it wasn't a pressing issue.
Before he could even begin to seriously attempt something like that, there were far more fundamental obstacles. Based on his understanding of death and the feeling deep in his gut, he knew one thing clearly: this was not something an experienced ascender could attempt.
He believed he would need to reach the level of a master first.
Every part of his being warned him that trying to force such a combination in his current state would lead to severe consequences— some rather... unsavoury effects on his life, mental and physical health.
So, for the time being, he had no choice but to put the idea aside.
There was also the question of effectiveness. Even if he tried, would it truly work at his current level? Or would it simply be a waste, a failed experiment that left scars instead of progress?
The system IAM had created for his path was far from perfect. It wasn't the most efficient, nor the most advanced way of utilising what he possessed. But it had one crucial advantage—it kept him rooted.
As Vanessa had explained, through records and stories, what happened to those who were blinded by the countless possibilities.
Those who tried to grasp everything at once, who attempted to create and use endless methods, only to become trapped in an endless loop of experimentation, forever trying to understand it all and never truly moving forward.
IAM refused to walk that road.
That was why he kept his approach simple and elementary for now.
He didn't want to become like the others. He didn't want to drown in potential and lose direction.
He wanted to move forward.
He wanted to progress on this dead path.
But that would likely change once he became a master.
That stage was described as the level where the impossible began to become possible—a qualitative transformation of one's entire being, not just a simple increase in power.
Everything IAM could currently do was still bound by what was realistically possible.
For example, [STOP] could work on people because, if someone suddenly shouted "stop," there was always a chance—no matter how small—that the other person would at least hesitate. It was human instinct, an ingrained reaction.
[PIERCE] functioned in a similar way. It didn't actually make his weapon sharper or grant it any supernatural property. Instead, it acted as an intense form of self-motivation. His body committed to the action with greater speed, force, and intent, pushing his performance to its limit.
What he couldn't do was command inanimate objects.
You could shout at a brick and order it to jump, but it would never move. It had no awareness, no will, no capacity to receive the intent. It was not a sentient being.
Animals were much the same. They might react to tone, volume, or threat, but they wouldn't understand the meaning behind his words. They could be startled, but not commanded.
And then there was [HEAL].
That one was the most straightforward. Shouting "heal" wouldn't magically close wounds or regenerate flesh. At best, it could trigger a psychological response—a placebo effect that encouraged the body's natural recovery processes. Nothing more.
All of it was still rooted in what reality allowed.
Which was exactly why the rank of master was so different.
Because that was the level where they could begin to impose themselves upon existence itself.
At that stage, the limits of reality itself would begin to bend, and one would finally start to utilise their path at its highest capacity.
Things that once belonged only to fantasy—concepts that could exist only in stories and imagination—would slowly become achievable. The line between what could be and what should never be would blur, and the world would no longer feel as rigid or absolute as it once did.
IAM had a strong feeling that using words to control, influence, or truly make use of death lay far beyond the realm of what was merely difficult. It wasn't just improbable. It was buried deep in the territory of the impossible.
For now, all he could do was imagine.
He could only fantasize about the possibilities, about what it might feel like to wield such authority over something so final, so absolute. There were no detailed records describing what it truly felt like to reach the level of master in the library, but from what little he had gathered, those who did no longer perceived the world the same way. Their perspective shifted, as if reality itself revealed deeper layers that ordinary eyes could never see.
Since becoming an experienced ascender, IAM had already noticed changes. Everything a normal person could do felt heightened to an extreme degree. Strength, perception, reaction, thought—each was elevated. And beyond that, there was a strange sensation, as though the world itself was in higher focus. More real if you will.
But when he finally reached the level of master, he would probably gain the ability to do the very things he had described earlier, no longer bound by what was merely possible.
In a twisted way, IAM was grateful for the coma and the harrowing experiences that came with it.
That ten percent increase had changed everything.
It was only because of that growth that he could now truly sense the danger of attempting to tamper with the Death Path. It gave him a new angle, a broader perspective, one that allowed him to understand just how thin the line was between progress and self-destruction.
If he had still been at only three percent…
He would have already died.
Or, at the very least, suffered a fate far worse than death.
So yes—he was glad.
Just a little bit.