[Advancement Task: Understand the core purpose that drives different individuals to live.]

[100% Complete]

[Each person's purpose is a unique key, crafted to fit a lock they also invented.]

[To you, the progenitor of the meaningless, "My destiny" is the most personal and persuasive fiction you will ever write.]

[After all, you are the sole author and sole audience of your life's significance.]

[You feel your existence heighten... the call of the meaningless grows within you.]

[As its progenitor grows, all existences that clothe themselves in meaninglessness grow stronger.]

[The book of the meaningless has revealed itself...]

As the final line of the notification appeared, Seth felt a sudden, profound dissociation.

For a moment, it was as though his mind detached from his body.

His fingers, his breathing, even the sound of the wind seemed distant.

He looked at the world as if he were a stranger staring through a glass window.

Nothing felt familiar.

There was no warmth nor hatred... Only a deep, still indifference.

In that indifference was a strange comfort.

A sense that nothing mattered.

That meaning was not a rule nor a truth, only a habit people forced on themselves.

He could see it clearly now— the "purpose" people placed on their own shoulders were invented by their own hands.

The more he understood this, the more he felt something within him stirring.

The sins accumulated inside his body turned into fuel, rushing toward an invisible point within his soul.

There, something hungry devoured it all, consuming every fragment that carried evil or malevolence.

Deep within his soul, he sensed a metaphysical chain snap and release.

From that chain emerged a "book" with no cover, and its pages blank.

Seth did not know how long he remained in that state.

When he finally returned to himself, he found he was sitting on a bench, staring at nothing.

"What an odd sensation…"

He whispered, frowning slightly.

For the first time, the world looked empty.

And yet, it was not frightening.

[Second Circle has been unlocked]

[Second Circle abilities of the Sin of the Meaningless have been unlocked]

[View personal profile?]

[Yes/No]

Naturally, Seth mentally clicked yes.

[Sinner] Seth Arden (Progenitor)

[Sin] The Meaningless

[Progenitor Name] : (Unnamed)

[Progenitor Ability] Meaningful Resurrection

[The more the Progenitor dies a meaningful death, one that alters destinies, ends eras, or births new meanings for others and himself, the stronger they become upon returning.]

[Energy Affinity] Chaos

[Book of the Meaningless] (Slot : 3)

[Stage] First Circle

[Abilities] :

[Authority of The Meaningless (1st Stage)] Experiencing first-hand the abilities of other Sin users grants knowledge about their Sin's properties and limitations.

[Null Presence] Others overlook your existence, forgetting details about you easily. Tracking abilities, clairvoyance, and even fate-based targeting struggle to lock onto you. This ability also allows you to become invisible against people who do not actively seek you out.

[Null Presence (First Death)] When Null Presence is activated, the physical limits of your body will become meaningless. Allowing you to naturally exert brute strength, flexible movements, along with inhuman speed and senses. (This ability is limited to the Progenitor.)

[Authority of the Meaningless (2nd Stage)] Your authority allows you to take away an item's "purpose" and relocate it. Your destiny has also become masked from certain divinations, making fate slightly meaningless against you.

[Fate Consumption] Consume a selected portion of a target's fate to empower yourself, momentarily giving your identity a "purpose."

[Word of Silence] You hold power over the word "silence". Once uttered, all those that hear it will halt their actions and your environment will temporarily become solemn.

Seth read through his updated status carefully, noting two major new additions.

The first was the Book of the Meaningless...

It was shaped like a book.

It was not physical, yet it felt real enough that he believed he could pull it out into the world at any time.

When he reached toward that sensation, it responded faintly, as though waiting for him.

Seth had a clear theory about its use.

Phoebe's story explained that she became a witch by signing a Progenitor's book in a dream.

Logically, his own book must function the same way.

He could use it to induct others as witches of the Meaningless.

But there would be qualifications.

Only someone whose life was in a true state of "meaninglessness," or who held a deep, genuine indifference to the world, could likely sign it and gain the Sin's power.

He reflected on the similarity he felt between the Sin of the Meaningless and the Sin of Coldness he had absorbed from Arthur.

Both Sins seemed to involve a kind of "not caring."

However, the specific energy and attitude were different.

The Sin of Coldness felt like an active state of arrogance or emotional isolation.

It made the user feel superior, as if others and their problems were beneath their notice.

It was a coldness directed outward.

In contrast, the Sin of the Meaningless was more fundamental and internal.

Its state seemed to not be about feeling superior to things...

It was about seeing the entire structure of existence—goals, emotions, struggles—as inherently pointless. It was a philosophical emptiness.

In short term.

Coldness says, "You are not worth my time."

While the Meaningless says, "Nothing is worth anyone's time."

Or at least that was how Seth interpreted them.

Still, he could not help but wonder if there were sins out there that were similar to the meaningless...

'Hm… I wonder if the seven deadly sins from the Bible exist here. They should, right? If this world has sins, then pride, greed, wrath, and the rest should also exist. The progenitors of those sins must be terrifyingly strong…'

The thought made him curious and uneasy at the same time.

But there was another matter that needed his attention.

The second major change was his new set of abilities.

The second circle abilities of the sin of the meaningless seemed to specialize in indirect usability rather than ones that could be directly be used in combat to harm another person.

'I feel like a support character in a moba gama...'

Seth mocked himself silently, but he did not look down on them.

In some ways, indirect abilities could be more dangerous if used properly.

Killing did not have to be based off of pure raw power after all.

His odd powers could be the most dangerous kind.

In fact, he was immediately relieved by the upgrade to his Authority of the Meaningless.

The description stated his destiny was now "masked from certain divination."

This was a direct counter to his biggest fear... the unknown manipulator controlling his fate!

It wasn't complete immunity, but the very least, he was less susceptible to fate manipulation!

The other part of the ability was more abstract: "Your authority allows you to take away an item's 'purpose' and relocate it."

He didn't know what that meant in practice.

To test it, he needed a controlled experiment.

Glancing around, he picked up a simple stick from the ground.

He activated [Null Presence] and walked into a small, open-fronted paper shop.

No one noticed him.

The shopkeeper and customers walked around, busy with their tasks.

None of them even turned in his direction.

He took a cheap pen and a single sheet of paper from a display.

Holding the pen, he focused on his newly upgraded Authority.

The moment he focused, a strange instinct appeared in his mind.

He felt that as long as he knew what an item's purpose was, he could "take" it away.

The pen's primary purpose was simple: to write.

He raised his palm above the pen.

Something invisible was taken away...

He did not see anything move, but he felt a shift, as though a tiny thread had been pulled out of existence.

Then, he turned his palm toward the stick and released it.

A faint tingling passed through his hand.

Seth picked up the stick and pressed it to the paper.

He picked up the stick.

It was no longer just a piece of wood.

He touched its tip to the paper and tried to write.

To his surprise, dark lines appeared.

The stick was now writing... but it was not like the black ink on the pen.

Instead, the color came from its wood, like sap or dye seeping out from its fibers.

It did not drip, but it spread gently as if the stick was trying its best to fulfill its new purpose.

Seth lifted it again and wrote another line...

The result was the same.

'So I can't just create a new purpose from nothing,' Seth analyzed.

'I have to take an existing, defined purpose from one object and force it onto another. The recipient object will then twist its own nature to try and fulfill that purpose, often in a destructive or inefficient way...'

He thought of an example to clarify it in his head.

If he took the purpose of a key—to unlock—and gave it to a spoon, the spoon wouldn't magically become a key.

Instead, it would likely bend and warp itself, trying to fit into a keyhole, probably ruining both the lock and itself in the process.

It was a power of conceptual theft and forced, unnatural function.

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