“Am I… the only one?”
The moment Gilgamesh asked that question, his heart tightened.
He cared about the answer.
He cared about it more than anything.
Before he transmigrated, Gilgamesh had been nothing more than an ordinary person—at most, an unusually polite ordinary person. Back then, it would never have occurred to him to wonder whether he was unique.
No… more accurately, even if he had thought about it, it would have meant nothing, and he would not have cared.
So what if he had been unique? Whether one spoke of timelines or parallel worlds, even if he had been the only one, nothing would have changed. He still would have been ordinary, and that fact would have remained exactly the same.
But now things were different.
Who was he?
The King of Heroes, the one who possessed the original source of all human wisdom in this era. His power did not fall short of the gods, and his uniqueness was beyond compare.
Every part of that told him he was already extraordinary. No one could afford to overlook him now. Even when facing his greatest current enemy, the Lostbelt King Ramesses II, he could not summon the faintest trace of fear.
But right now… he was afraid.
Looking back over everything he knew, Gilgamesh realized it.
He was afraid.
Afraid of himself.
Afraid of Gilgamesh.
The moment he imagined that he might not be the only one—the moment he imagined that somewhere in some parallel world there might be another him, another transmigrator, perhaps lacking a system yet fully capable of cheating even harder than he could—
And especially the moment he imagined some version of himself from another world, or from the future, suddenly appearing here and beating him to death…
A chill poured from the crown of his head through his entire body, and cold sweat broke out before he even realized it.
What was he supposed to do?
The instant Zafkiel was stored in the Gate of Babylon, Gilgamesh panicked.
Leaving everything else aside, his current self already possessed the ability to return to a few days ago—to that version of himself who had not yet discovered the shameless art of milking free benefits.
In other words, his current self was fully capable of killing his past self.
Then what about his future self? Would that version of him have the same idea? And even if he did not, would that future version suspect that the current him did?
And even if he somehow knew whether that other self had such thoughts, he still could not be certain that version would not change its mind—or simply lie.
That line of thought could spiral forever. It was a completely insoluble problem. And that was without even factoring in parallel worlds.
Gilgamesh realized it then: for him, this was an unforgivable weakness. A flaw that could never truly be resolved, no matter how strong he became, because he could never be certain he was the strongest version of himself.
From the moment he obtained the system—or rather, from the moment he transmigrated—his greatest enemy had always been himself.
No, wait. Why would a future version of himself want to beat him to death in the first place?
Right.
Why would he?
Gilgamesh paused. Part of him felt there was no need to obsess over this so much… and yet somehow, it also felt like the one thing he had no choice but to obsess over.
Then, as if a thought had struck him, he slapped his thigh.
“This is not a question of whether a future me would have a reason to kill me. It is a question of whether that future me has the ability to kill me!”
“Right now, I’m sitting here wondering whether another me might kill me for some reason. Wouldn’t the other me be thinking the exact same thing?”
“More importantly, I have no idea whether killing me would cost them anything—or whether by that point they’ve cheated so shamelessly that there is no price left to pay at all.”
Gilgamesh turned to look at Zafkiel behind him, his expression gradually darkening.
“In that case, perhaps I ought to strike first—”
[STOP, STOP, STOP!]
The system hurriedly cut him off, thoroughly alarmed by the direction his thoughts were taking.
[WHAT ARE YOU EVEN THINKING?! YOU’RE UNIQUE TOO!]
“Unique? Truly?”
[OF COURSE TRULY. AS MY HOST, OF COURSE YOU’RE UNIQUE!]
“Then explain Zafkiel to me.”
Gilgamesh pointed at it.
“From the information the Gate of Babylon fed back to me, this thing really can return to the past.”
“Don’t tell me that if I go back to the past right now, I’d actually just be going to a parallel world?”
[NO, NO, NO, DON’T OVERTHINK IT. USE THE TWELFTH BULLET AND SEE WHETHER YOU CAN GO BACK.]
Still only half convinced, Gilgamesh poured magical energy into Zafkiel once more. Just as before, Zafkiel responded to him.
A shadow rose from the “XII” and slipped into the muzzle of his gun. Gilgamesh raised it and aimed it at himself.
Bang!
Gilgamesh felt Zafkiel’s power activate. An indescribably mysterious force wrapped around him, as though it meant to carry him away.
And then…
Zafkiel suddenly began to tremble violently.
Under Gilgamesh’s astonished gaze—it started smoking.
And then, right in front of him, Zafkiel exploded.
The flying fragments struck Gilgamesh’s body, but they could not even scratch his defenses.
Instead, delight lit up his eyes, and a smile spread slowly across his lips.
“Bwahahahahahaha! I see! So that’s how it is! So that’s how it is!”
[THAT’S RIGHT.]
The system’s voice rang out.
[THE MOMENT YOU TRANSMIGRATED INTO THIS WORLD, THIS WORLD CEASED TO HAVE A PAST. IN OTHER WORDS, YOUR UNIQUENESS MEANS THIS WORLD CANNOT CONTAIN TWO OF YOU—NOT EVEN FROM DIFFERENT POINTS IN TIME!]
[THIS IS A SINGLE-TIMELINE WORLD. TIME TRAVEL DOES NOT EXIST HERE. IT IS A WORLD WHERE ONLY THE PRESENT CAN BE GRASPED.]
[YOU ARE UNIQUE!]
“I see.”
Once he had laughed his fill, Gilgamesh gave the system what might have been his first truly sincere thanks.
“Thank you… System.”
[N-NO NEED TO THANK ME. THAT’S SIMPLY PART OF THE SYSTEM’S NATURE.]
Gilgamesh nodded.
“One more thing. I understand what you mean by there being no past. Why didn’t you say there was no future as well?”
[BECAUSE THIS WORLD HASN’T DEVELOPED A FUTURE YET. THE POINT IN TIME YOU TRANSMIGRATED TO IS THE FURTHEST POINT THIS ‘WORLD’ HAS REACHED.]
“I see. Good.”
He let out a quiet sigh of relief.
If this world had already developed a future, then by arriving here, would he not have erased that entire future—and everyone who would have been born in it?
A great many of his wives were supposed to be born in the future. That could hardly be tolerated.
The system truly did understand him.
“Yes. That is excellent.”
Both Gilgamesh and the system were in excellent spirits.
“Now I can grow stronger without any concerns.”
[HUH?]
“Zafkiel is gone, so I’ll just exchange for another one.”
[HUH? HUHHHH?!]
“Oh, right. I should test the Eighth Bullet too. If Zafkiel breaks, I’ll just exchange for another.”
[NOOOOO! GIL, YOU’RE NOT LISTENING AGAIN!]
“Do not say that.”
Gilgamesh sounded utterly unconcerned.
“The Eighth Bullet recreates a past version of oneself. If the past no longer exists, then I would very much like to see what form this duplicate takes.”
As he spoke, Gilgamesh fired another shot at himself.
Bang!
Gilgamesh watched as another him stepped out from his shadow on the ground.
This time, the result did not surprise him.
“So instead of summoning the past, it copies me from a certain stretch of time? No… not quite. There is still a difference.”
He looked at the duplicate—identical to himself—and felt that he could control it however he pleased.
“If I had to put it into words, it is more like a controllable double. Interesting.”
[THAT DOES SOUND INTERESTING. GO HAVE FUN WITH IT.]
The system hurried to agree.
She did not want Gil ignoring her again.
“What is there to enjoy about that?”
Gilgamesh, however, simply placed the newly exchanged Zafkiel back into the Gate of Babylon.
Then, smiling, he pulled up the system interface.
“If I am going to play with anything, you are far more entertaining, System.”
[GIL!!!!]
T/N: GILL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is a fan translation of 我要往王之财宝里再加点东西 by 海绵宝宝宝宝 Rights to the original work belong to the creator. Please support them by exploring their original work or sharing it with others if you can. Thank you for reading and supporting my efforts to bring this story to a wider audience!
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