Chapter 5: Breaking News And A Sudden Thought
Maximus watched as the female anchor of the news turned to a middle-aged man before she spoke: [We have Mister Charles Moren here with us today to discuss this recent tragic incident involving one of the finest in the Supernatural Runic Industry.]
[Mister Moren, what do you think about this whole situation? Why do you think a renowned Runic Construct Creator such as Mister Cones would attempt a dangerous act that resulted in his tragic death?]
The middle-aged man called Charles Moren, scoffed in disdain: [What is there to say? He most likely felt inferior to his peers due to his lack of talent and wanted something to change that. Although if you ask me, I think it was stupid to attempt something while fully knowing the consequences of its potential failure."
The news anchor questioned: [Can you help us elaborate on the full story? What do you think ended up wrong with the Runic Path that Mister Cones created?]
Mister Moren cleared his throat and said: [Mister Cones had resorted to the unorthodox method known as a 'medium' to create his Runic Path. The method of using mediums to conduct a Runic Path was an incredibly risky method. It was only employed by those with the prerequisite knowledge.]
[Furthermore, those who use mediums do not attempt the usage of highly complex abstract mediums as Mister Cones did. Those people generally had below-average Soul Force Limit, after all. However, Mister Cones decided to employ novel concepts with undefined methods of Runic Constructs that were not fully confirmed, and then hoped to succeed in his endeavor.]
[Then, do you know the identity of the creator of this novel concept? If so, would they be held accountable for this debacle of a famed Runic Construct Creator such as Mister Cones?] The female news anchor curiously asked.
[No for both questions. For the first question, we couldn't find out who they were even after running their pen name through the database as they registered as an anonymous writer. But for the second question, it was my personal assumption. The creator of this highly detailed novel concept was allegedly only writing to make money, based on what we got from the site where the novel was found. Therefore, they did not plan to sell their novel concept itself.]
[Even though there were many detailed superpower structures and full schematics in the book that were verified to be faultless and genuine, it was incredibly impossible to create them in real life with our current knowledge. As such, they should not be at fault for this incident nor should they be held partly responsible.]
[This was because their novel was originally categorized as a fantasy, and they also disclaimed it to not be mistaken for an actual concept that is plausible in real life. The one at fault here was Mister Cones, who mistook them for practical superpower Runic Schematics.]
[So that is the case. Then, what you are trying to say is that Mister Cones had died simply because he believed a fantasy concept to be an actual concept for a possible Runic Path?] The female news anchor reiterated in clarification.
Mister Moren nodded and confirmed: [That is the case this time, unfortunately.]
[So then what message do you have for those in their homes and those out there who may or may not be watching this disheartening discussion right now?] The female news anchor asked afterward.
Mister Moren immediately spoke with a serious tone: [It is very simple, actually. Viewers and all citizens out there, please do not trust anything designated as fantasy, especially novels. Although it is true abstract concepts can be reified if they are inscribed and actualized into constructs, that did not mean that anything too abstract or incomprehensible could be reified or even turned into a Runic Construct. Let the death of Mister Cones be a warning to you all. If any of you want to have a proper visualization concept, simply reach out to a comic or visual artist and state your ideas to them. Preferably, these artists should have Runic Paths or supernatural abilities that could create illustrations of various superpowers.]
After a momentary pause, he then continued: [Furthermore, I would also recommend that when you visit a Runic Construct Creator with your chosen superpower concept, make sure you express your ideas clearly to them with accurate descriptions in order to ensure minimal flaws during all the Runic Construct creation process. If there happen to be too many flaws due to miscommunication, the resulting Runic Path could backfire on you.]
[This is what happened with Mister Cones, and as you are all aware, the only end for you will be a devastating death. Once again, please be warned. Take Mister Cones's death as an example, and do not waste your precious life away.]
[Thank you, Mister Mo—]
Mister Moren interrupted the news anchor, and he added: [To ensure a proper concept visualization, you can also opt to use trending animations as the general concept visualization material as most of the characters in these trending animations were based on fallen heroes throughout history and are more credible because of that alone.]
[Once again, please do not mistake the fourth wall for a thin glass fiber that could be broken through anytime you want with enough force. If anything, think of it as a thin carbon fiber that, although thin, could resist more forces than its mere appearance suggests. You would only regret it if you choose to ignore my warnings and attempt a craz— ahem, an incomplete and illusory idea from a novel concept like Mister Cones did. That is all from me.]
[Thank you, Mister Moren, for your kind words and warnings to our viewers and citizens who might potentially be thinking about attempting what Mister Cones attempted out of desperation. Now, on to the next segment—]
"..."
Maximus had a strange expression on his face since when he first heard the contents of the news and also during their discussion just now. Truthfully, he was one of the subjects of this breaking news. It wasn't anything like directly instigating the death of that person or anything of that sort. On the contrary, it was an indirect form of relationship.
That was because he was the one who wrote that novel that the person mentioned in the news had used to create a Runic Path and failed, resulting in their untimely death.
When he first saw the news, he immediately did some research with the help of Nini and found the public files and recordings of the person called Mister Cones. It turned out the type of Runic Path that he attempted required him to use an absurd item as a medium, which was a written book— more accurately, a novel written by him.
However, this method required an insane amount of Runic Constructs, and even the Soul Force was not something that could easily be accounted for. This was due to the novel being a highly abstract item that depended on the imagination of the reader and the author.
Generally, people always tend to have different interpretations of things that they read, even if they were to read the same novel to the end. Because of this, no one had attempted using a novel or concept book as a medium. This was especially so if it was written by someone else and was heavily influenced by their imagination.
Even then, since the book was only written as a fantasy novel with many concept ideas, there should have been no harm done if they simply took an idea from the novel as a prospect superpower to reify. Yet, someone had attempted to reify the entire contents within a fantasy novel, completely disregarding the possibility of failure.
Even for an arrogant and conceited person like Maximus, who liked to attempt the impossible, he thought that this person was a madman with no regard for their life. After all, he had written all kinds of ideas for superpowers and supernatural power schematics in the novel that Mister Cones used as the medium for his Runic Path.
However, instead of picking one idea from the novel to create a Runic Path, this Mister Cones decided to use the entire novel book to conduct a Medium Runic Path.
He most likely hoped to acquire all the superpowers written in the novel as his own since they even included their construct blueprints and schematics. This, ultimately, led to his early death and also brought disgrace to decades of his career as a Runic Construct creator.
'What a lunatic… If such a thing was possible and easily achievable, wouldn't many people have multiple supernatural powers with less effort by now?'
Maximus thought in contempt, as even he didn't think about using such a drastic method to attain his Runic Path despite his numerous failures.
Maximus wasn't feeling the slightest bit guilty even though this matter was related to him. After all, he didn't tell anyone to use his ideas to conduct reification in the first place. Furthermore, while it didn't matter if they used his novel concept, they should have consulted him to verify the details before using his novel ideas or the entire book.
After all, those ideas weren't completely useless as they were based on actual existing superpowers that were modified by him. They could be used as concept visualization if a comic artist or illusionist were to turn them into a comic or an illusory image for enlightenment purposes.
Even then, all of these scenarios call for him, the novel concept writer to be there, or in communication with the comic artist to fully depict his ideas. Otherwise, the result would be what Mister Cones had suffered, a complete explosion of the soul and body.
Not to mention that nobody believed in his novels when he first started putting them up online despite how descriptive they were about superpowers. Yet, this maniac of a Runic Construct Creator was daredevil enough to proceed ahead and use the entire book all on his own. This was despite the disparaging comments in the novel's comment section that drove most readers away.
'Was he tired of living, or was he simply insane? Maybe there might be a hidden reason for his abrupt and illogical actions. He seemed quite famous enough to be featured on the news upon his death, so he shouldn't be that retarded to attempt something so stupid and offhanded with his limited knowledge.'
After ruminating about this matter, Maximus suddenly jolted up with his entire body trembling on the spot. His gaze was no longer melancholic about his situation and was instead filled with excitement. It was almost as though extremely cold yet refreshing water was splashed on his face at this moment, awakening him and clearing his clouded thoughts at the same time.
'H-Hold on a minute… Maybe I should give it a try too? Using mediums? Or maybe creating Runic Constructs using one of my modified superpower novel concepts page— better yet, what if I manage to use one of my printed novels as a medium to create my Runic Path? That should be possible for me, but not so much for others with limited knowledge about runes such as that Mister Cone or whatever his name is.' Maximus confidently thought with a wide smile appearing on his face immediately afterwards.
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