Raika’s words echoed in Rio’s ears over and over for a long time, causing Rio to stare at Raika’s excited face for a long while before he ultimately sighed and shook his head.

"I see... so, you want the world to revert back to a state where your race can exist once again..." 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

"It’s not a nice thing to hide your real motives behind the veil of doing greater good, but well, it’s pretty much the same thing, so I don’t mind..."

Rio looked at the vast cosmos and continued speaking.

"If we revert the world back to its original state, mana and miasma will cease to exist, you will be able to revive your race, and many species will indeed become free of the terror spread by mana and miasma..."

"Demons would cease to exist, and the universe’s greatest enemy, the sea of endless miasma, will also be completely destroyed..."

"The plan is good, but you are missing a crucial factor in this..."

Rio’s eyes narrowed as he stared into Raika’s eyes and asked a question that almost shattered Raika’s artificial realm because the question made the very ’laws’ of the ’world’ agitated!

"Have you ever thought, why did mana and miasma even come to exist in our universe when it was doing fine without them before?"

The question seemed simple, but it was one of the most complicated questions in the universe, as no one in the entire universe had a proper answer for it.

Some speculated that the universe had evolved to a higher energy state, thus gaining mana and miasma as higher energies.

Some speculated that mana and miasma were like parasites that latched onto the universe when it was traveling through the infinite cosmos.

Some speculated that the universe was simply making mana to counter the miasma that demons brought from outside.

But no one was sure about what the actual reason behind mana and miasma existing was.

Many have tried to find out the answer, but none have succeeded to this day.

Even King Allen’s and Astra’s combined strength had failed to find the truth, let alone anyone else’s.

"Without knowing why mana and miasma even exist in our universe in the first place, it’s pointless to try to erase them..."

"The universe is not foolish; it took the risk of putting miasma inside itself despite knowing the severity of miasmic corruption... there must be a reason for this..."

"Even if I can change the world, I will surely not do it the way you are asking me to... so trying to convince me is pointless; I will make my own decision when the time comes..."

Rio narrowed his eyes and spoke,

"The choices I have are not just limited to eliminating mana and miasma... maybe I can find a way to just eliminate miasma alone; maybe I will do some other change..."

"I will not be swayed by anyone’s words and will do as I wish to do... moreover, I truly don’t even care about this matter at all..."

Rio’s dreams were simple; he just wanted to get strong enough to protect himself and his loved ones from the powerful SSS-rank dungeon that would open in the future.

Once done with that matter, he would just marry Lia, have two kids, and settle down to spend a peaceful life with no need for pointless battles anymore!

Fighting the sea of miasma? Saving the world? Sacrificing his own life for others’ sake?

Rio was a selfish person to the core, and he would never willingly do things like these at all!

He would rather just search for new universes and leave this universe with his loved ones if things went wrong with this universe.

He had no obligation to be the ’hero’ that Raika wanted him to be; he had no obligation to be the one to take the risk of changing the natural order of the universe!

Although Raika’s goals and plans were noble and his dream was also heroic, Rio still intuitively felt that the other party was still not telling the whole truth and was trying to coerce him to work as a ’hero’ without questioning anything.

Rio trusted his intuition, and thus he refused to accept Raika’s offer at all costs.

’He knows something that he’s not telling me at all... but what is it that he’s hiding?’

Rio knew that reverting the world back to its previous form would not be as simple as Raika was making it out to be.

King Allen also wanted to do something similar, and he had reached extremely close to reaching his goals, but even he failed at the final step for some reason.

Despite having the ’Sword of Promised Destinies, Pratigya’ in his possession, King Allen still failed to change the natural world order and failed to eradicate miasma from this world.

There must be a reason for this, and Raika was likely somewhat aware of this secret; he just refused to tell Rio about it, as he felt that telling the secret to Rio would make Rio change his mind.

"Unless you tell me the secrets you are hiding, we cannot cooperate, Raika."

While saying those words, Rio’s other eye opened as his soul became whole once again and he unsheathed his sword slowly.

Seeing that Rio was refusing to accept his offer, Raika also refused to back down.

"I have already told you everything, Rio Flash. All I want from you is the power of an ’Anomaly’, I want you to act as an ’Anomaly’ and make an opportunity for the world to revert back to its original form!"

"There might be some small sacrifices, but the majority will benefit from this. You must be the ’Hero’ Rio Flash; only you can do it!"

Rio frowned and questioned back.

"Why not ask Fade, the chosen of heavenly luck, to do this?"

Raika shook his head and denied immediately.

"No, the outcome would be the same as King Allen’s if Fade was used to do this..."

"Only someone like you who is not bound by the rules of this world can make a difference-"

Before Raika could finish his words, Rio interjected.

"I refuse."

"I will not be ordered around what to do and what not to do."

Hearing Rio’s final declaration, Raika went silent for a while, but then determination appeared in his eyes.

"You will have to do it, even if you don’t want to."

Rio refused to back off and took a step forward.

"Make me do it... if you can, that is!"