Chapter 83
'In the taxonomy of Administrators, Paradigms have only three levels.
The First Paradigm is for stability.
The Second Paradigm is for surpassing the limitations of body and function.
The Third Paradigm is for fully abandoning one's identity as an overseeing entity.
And you, the nine Administrators, chose the second level as though stepping onto a forbidden path.'
Hawwwwh!
'The Second Paradigm is divided into twenty phases.
Surprisingly, that division is very similar to the concept of Productivity in the Samurai philosophy I recently developed.
Productivity is not recorded in Flo Viva Mythology, nor is it contained in Last Prayer.
It was merely a wild idea of mine to understand the meaning of moving, growing, and breaking limits as a Samurai who submits to the call of the sword.'
Hang - hing!
'Second Productivity teaches how to recognize the essence of Resolve, Intention, Will, and Ambition of the writer within every sword technique.
The Third to Fifth Productivities sharpen Resolve until it becomes as keen as a blade.
The Sixth to Tenth Productivities solidify Intention so it will not waver in the face of storms.
The Eleventh to Fifteenth Productivities carve a Will untouched by fear or temptation.
The Sixteenth to Eighteenth Productivities are the most brutal phases, in which the writer's Ambition is broken and reshaped so it no longer overpowers reason.
Meanwhile, the Nineteenth to Twentieth Productivities, the highest stage, are the art of crushing, altering, and manipulating the entirety of a writer's Resolve, Intention, Will, and Ambition, turning them into raw material that can be shaped as I desire.'
Fiuuuh!
'If the nine of you truly intend to enter the Second Paradigm to a certain stage, then that means you are taking an idea I only just created in my mind, and using it against me.
How amusing.'
At the moment the resolve of the nine Administrators fused into one seamless current, the sky that had previously only cracked shifted into a trembling surface, as though something older and deeper was rising from the foundation of cosmic order.
Among fragments of time that had yet to recognize one another and shadows that remained frozen without direction, a subtle change emerged and quickly grew into a massive upheaval.
The nine Administrators took one step together, a path that was no longer merely a reaction, but a final decision binding their entire existence.
Within that collective movement, the world felt as though it inhaled before sinking into a new darkness.
They entered a path not casually taken, a state that even in the deepest records of Flo Viva Mythology was only described as a step toward lethal evolution.
A door opened behind them, not physically, but in principle, altering the boundaries of their forms before they could be understood.
At that point, something heavier and more sacred took the stage.
Paradigm, a term whispered only among the foundation of the system, rose to the surface like the ruins of an ancient temple revealed after a great flood.
The nine Administrators stepped onto the same tier, focusing their will on a single point reachable only by the primary overseers of the game world.
The Second Paradigm became their goal, a layer that amplified an Administrator's will and power beyond a thousand percent.
They were no longer mere guardians of narrative mechanisms, but beings capable of forcing reality to adjust itself to the structure of their minds.
Light, sound, and meaning folded over one another around their bodies until their existence no longer appeared as stable forms.
Quorin and Valthura stood at the front, while the seven planetary Administrators followed with a harmony resembling an ancient ritual long lost to all sentient beings.
Theo watched this transformation with eyes no longer only vigilant, but reflective.
He remembered when he had still been in the real world, having read an obscure coded file that explained Paradigms for Administrators.
There were three primary levels, but only one commonly accessed by most entities guarding the flow.
The First Paradigm was the foundation on which the Administrators stood.
The Second Paradigm was a form of advancement rarely used due to its immense risks and the structural changes that could surpass the system's stability.
And the Third Paradigm was something even the game's creator had left incomplete.
What was happening now was not simply the documentation he once read, but the living manifestation of what had once been only numbers and parameter limits.
The Second Paradigm, which he had understood merely as an abstract formula, now appeared alive, pulsing, and threatening.
And what made Theo fall quieter was not the power itself, but the subtle oddity beneath it.
The Second Paradigm had twenty phases, a detail he clearly remembered from the technical notes rarely opened by players.
But those twenty phases aligned with his personal idea of Productivity, about how to break down a writer's Resolve, Will, Intention, and Ambition into twenty developmental stages of a samurai.
An idea born not long ago, when he restructured his way of understanding the sword and the meaning of a story.
Now he saw that resemblance reflected in the Administrators, like an echo taken by the system and implemented into the Paradigm class without his permission.
To Theo, this was no coincidence.
The code of Flo Viva Mythology always reflected something of himself, something anchored in the depth of his intentions as the writer of Last Prayer.
And though the realization flashed only briefly, Theo knew one thing for certain.
The Second Paradigm the Administrators now sought to manifest was not merely an increase of power.
It was a resonance of something that originated from himself.
'I feel this world cracking before their light even erupts.'
Tsssrrk!
'I see their representative planets emerging.
At the core of this vast entanglement, Quorin and Valthura's light rises as two new centers of gravity.
Their brilliance devours shadows, consumes color, and declares the boundary between code and reality.'
The sky, which had previously only cracked, now transformed into a canvas no longer aware of its original form as the nine Administrators entered the Second Paradigm together.
Luminous fractals blossomed from every gap in the air, emerging like cosmic flowers growing from raw data scattered among the debris of causality that once existed.
The light that emerged was not ordinary light, but a radiance formed from the code-lines of the universe, lines long hidden behind the world's structure and now revealed like the second skin of reality itself.
In every flash of fractals, an echo of rebirth appeared, as though the world was being re-recorded at a different tempo to ensure nothing escaped the presence of the guardians of flow.
Time itself no longer obeyed the definitions that had restrained it.
Its rhythm chimed like an instrument forced to play twenty notes in a single beat.
Each second split into crossing paths, creating the sensation that the future and the past were racing to touch the same point on the surface of the world.
A tremendous vibration enveloped the land, reminiscent of a server working beyond capacity as it processed the presence of nine beings amplifying their power beyond a thousand percent.
The earth, the sky, and the interdimensional spaces felt pressed toward a single center, a point dominated by the will of the nine Administrators undergoing transformation.
From afar, their representative planets rose not as celestial objects, but as manifestations of consciousness.
Mercury emitted silver flashes like shards of metal dancing in an unseen magnetic flow.
Venus scattered petals of data that evaporated before touching the ground, producing a faint scent lacking complete form.
Mars burst with red sparks echoing like the drumbeats of an ancient war.
To be continued…