Super Righteous Player-Chapter 1203 - 244: The Hatred of Nothingness

"No wonder..."

Looking at the Grey Professor, Annan narrowed his eyes slightly: "I understand now."

Just like a person adept at handling wounds is not only a surgeon but also someone who often gets injured—This is why the Grey Professor could so skillfully separate the identities of "Wolf Professor" and "Bone Healer," to the extent that many did not even notice.

That’s because he indeed has the relevant experience.

But it’s not the experience of splitting off other entities... but rather that he himself is a separate ego, broken off from a being that often "splits its self"!

This was indeed a possibility Annan had not considered before.

However, it does make sense...

"Self-division" is a rather popular skill within the Idol Wizard school.

At the silver level, many Idol Wizards will perform instantaneous personality separations—for example, if they do not wish to be angry or upset in an upcoming event, they can temporarily separate out the part of themselves prone to anger and seal it away.

Through this method, Idol Wizards can modify their abilities, talents, logic of thought, and even personality at any time, ultimately achieving the goal of "becoming omnipotent."

This is also the goal of the entire Idol Wizard school.

But if this ability is combined with the capability at the Gold level to take another’s name and identity... the end result would be like having countless lives.

If there were no side effects to this ability, then the most profitable course would certainly be to split off a bunch of selves and level up separately. It would be just like the art of shadow clones; upon reintegration, they could bring back both experience and memory...

But it is impossible for there to be no side effects.

The most precious material consumed in using this Ritual Spell is actually separating one’s "social identity." This means they need to keep a secret and appear in society under multiple different identities.

Just like the Grey Professor, before he separated himself, he was a Gold-level Idol Wizard and a distinguished Ritualist, while in secret, he was also the Pope. Then this Pope could serve as the "material" to be separated out.

After he completes the separation, people can no longer trace the information that "the original Grey Professor is the Dream Eater." Instead, while investigating the "Dream Eater," they would be led to the "Wolf Professor," an identity conjured from thin air.

To achieve a separation of the extent that the Grey Professor did, turning oneself into another person entirely... would mean to forcibly tear one’s own soul apart. A slight mishap and they could turn themselves insane.

Up until now, the Grey Professor has only split once, and the result was extremely successful—that result was the Wolf Professor.

He had never separated himself before, so it can’t be said to be due to experience; and he hasn’t separated himself since, so it can’t be considered a talent either.

There is probably only one possibility.

It’s not that he doesn’t want to, but that he "can’t."

As a "split ego" of another being, he is only allowed to be split once.

With that, the other peculiarities about him also start to make sense:

From where exactly does "Grey Professor" originate?

He seemed to suddenly appear in the Underground City... even the "Wolf Professor" has more of a traceable life than him. With the talent that allowed him to become a Gold-level Wizard, he could have been selected as the Tower’s Child in any Wizard’s Tower.

And yet, he appeared in the Underground City, starting directly at Gold level and even established the "Grey Tower." Despite bearing the name of the "Tower of Reflection," there’s not only no deity involved, but even the Tower Masters seem to have no objections.

People consider this mystery as part of his Idol Spell.

This is also why he can cross the boundaries of past and future—because he himself possesses abilities regarding "memories."

The knowledge he possessed all originated from his true self, that is, the Grey Craftsman... According to the Silver Baron, the Grey Craftsman was an ancient deity existing since the First Era, who already knew the Charioteer.

Therefore, Professor Grey could also be privy to the secrets of the Charioteer and the "Odes to the Celestial Chariot".

And once, Chiron also mentioned to Annan:

"Professor Grey... Why is it Professor Grey?"

Even though he shifted the conversation to the word "Professor" itself afterward, recalling now, Chiron must have also been referring to the "Grey" aspect. He simply didn’t want to get too involved with the Grey Craftsman, hence did not spell it out directly.

——How ironic it is.

In the name Professor Grey, neither "Grey" nor "Professor" originated from him.

Just as he himself said... he is merely a shadow without a physical form.

He is the self that Grey Craftsman abandoned, the "severed three corpses", the rebellious rotten self. He is the toxin expelled by the Grey Craftsman in the process of perfecting himself.

It is only because the Grey Craftsman was overwhelmingly powerful... that enabled him to reach the Gold tier, to know so many secrets. He knew the secrets of the "Egg of Dream Condensation", knew how to manipulate holy relics, and even knew how to set up a ritual that includes the "Charioteer".

As an ancient deity that died before the "Creation Ritual: The Calendar System" was established, the Charioteer simply shouldn’t have been taken into account.

The vast majority of Ritualists could never know much about the Charioteer... or rather to them, the term "Charioteer" is already part of "ancient mythology", a word old enough to be artistically embellished.

Thinking about how to use a ritual to borrow the power of the Charioteer is as ridiculous as researching what Kuafu and the woman snail eat and drink.

Because the Power of the Chariot is fundamentally impossible to borrow... had it been possible, both the Bone Healer and the Rotting Husband would have borrowed it long ago.

Only after Annan gathered the Fragments of Truth did his existence truly begin to be seen as the Charioteer—yet Professor Grey knew all this decades ago. Just as he had conducted rituals decades ago to steal the power of the "person in the mirror" who would only ascend to godhood decades later.

This power to toy with time, originated from the Grey Craftsman’s memories and knowledge.

"You constantly speak of hating the Grey Craftsman... Yet isn’t the power you are most proud of, all your wisdom and knowledge, also derived entirely from him?"

With a sneer, Annan said: "Then how are you any different from a spoiled, rebellious son who bites the hand that feeds him?"

"How could this be considered rebellious?"

Professor Grey counter-asked: "I am the Grey Craftsman’s [Hatred]. I obey my instincts, hating everything—and hating the ’myself’ that is closest to me. That is exactly my duty.

"The more one tries to forget hatred, the more it rises like a tide; the more one fears hatred, the sharper and more like a honed blade it becomes. If the Grey Craftsman hadn’t feared me, how would I have been born?

"I am primed and ready. I shall transcend, I shall ascend to godhood—I will rise to the Realm of Light, yet I’m not prepared to return to the human world again.

"At the Merkabah Hall in the Realm of Light, the truths of this world are stored. Before I bathe in the springs of the Realm of Light and lose my form, I will probably be able to destroy one single item at most with all my might. And what I am prepared to abolish, is the ’Truth of the Grey Craftsman’.

"——At all costs, I will make ’him’ pay the same price."

"Even if this revenge is trivial and culminates in nothing but emptiness?"

"For [Hatred], revenge is its whole meaning."

Thus replied Professor Grey: "Because [I] am such a nihilistic being. He did not bestow a shred of love upon me, what else can I do but seek revenge?"

"You can also be destroyed by me."

Annan calmly replied: "Today."