Urban Plundering: I Corrupted The System!
Chapter 443 - 443: Guardian: The Heart of Infinite Possibilities

The tunnel's mouth opened into a chamber that made Parker's eyes water from trying to process what he was seeing. The space curved impossibly, walls bending through dimensions that his mind kept rejecting as wrong. It was vast—larger than any cathedral, yet somehow intimate, as though the entire universe had been compressed into a single room.

At the center, suspended in a web of living crystal, hung the Prime Core of New York.

Parker's breath caught. The Core was the size of a basketball, its surface a constantly shifting aurora of colors that didn't exist in normal light. But within its depths, he could see movement—streams of golden energy spiraling through its heart, each thread carrying the dreams of souls who had ever walked New York's streets across infinite realities.

It pulsed with a rhythm deeper than heartbeat, each throb sending ripples through the crystalline web that held it.

The sound was barely audible, yet Parker felt it in his bones—the fundamental cadence of creation itself. This wasn't just an energy source; it was alive, aware, containing the essential DNA from which every version of New York drew its existence.

Beautiful beyond description, yet terrible in its authority. Parker could feel the weight radiating from it—not threatening, but patient. Eight million lives multiplied by infinite dimensions, all centered on this single point of impossible radiance.

Every flicker of light within represented choices that could reshape entire realities.

The Core pulsed with a rhythm that synchronized with something deeper than heartbeat—the fundamental cadence of creation itself.

Each pulse sent waves of energy rippling through the crystalline web that supported it, creating harmonics that Parker felt in his bones, his soul, the very fabric of his being. This wasn't just a power source; it was the cosmic DNA from which every version of New York drew its essential nature, the template that defined what it meant to be the greatest city in any reality.

Beautiful beyond any mortal capacity for appreciation, yet terrible in its absolute authority over infinite timelines. Parker could feel the weight of responsibility radiating from it—not threatening, but patient, waiting for someone worthy enough to shoulder the burden of infinite care.

Making each flicker of light within its depths represented choices that could reshape entire realities, decisions that would echo across dimensions beyond counting.

The crystalline web supporting it wasn't mere structure but living architecture, each strand pulsing with data streams that connected to parallel Earths, maintaining the quantum entanglement that kept infinite realities stable and connected. Parker realized he was looking at the nervous system of the multiverse itself, centered on this single point of impossible beauty.

As he stepped forward, his footsteps echoing strangely in the chamber's impossible acoustics, Parker felt the true magnitude of what he was attempting.

This Core contained not just power, but consciousness—the accumulated awareness of every soul who had ever called New York home, condensed into a singular entity that existed as both individual and collective, finite and infinite, local and universal.

The Guardian's presence pressed against his awareness from every direction—not visible, but omnipresent, an ancient consciousness that had witnessed the birth of stars and would outlast their death.

It watched with the patience of geological time as Parker approached the Core, evaluating not just his intentions but his very essence, measuring whether this being who called himself Prince of Existence possessed the wisdom to nurture infinite possibilities without destroying them through misguided intervention.

The next few moments would determine whether Parker would become caretaker of countless realities or whether he would join the countless others who had been found wanting and turned away from this cosmic responsibility.

The fate of infinite worlds hung in the balance of his worthiness, while the Prime Core pulsed with the dreams of billions, waiting to learn who would become its eternal guardian.

*

The moment Parker stepped onto the crystalline floor of the Core chamber, reality shifted around them like a kaleidoscope made of liquid starlight. The Guardian's presence, which had been a weight of observation, suddenly became something far more active and terrible—a consciousness that began rewriting the fundamental nature of their experience.

*The trial begins,* the Guardian's voice resonated through dimensions, carrying undertones that made existence itself tremble. *You seek to bond with infinite possibilities, Prince of Existence. But first, you must prove you can bear infinite responsibility.*

The chamber around them dissolved, replaced by something that violated every law governing space, time, and causality.

Parker found himself standing in a vast expanse that contained not one reality, but thousands—millions—infinite versions of New York stretching out in all directions like a cosmic honeycomb of parallel possibilities.

Each version pulsed with its own life, its own history, its own eight million souls going about their daily existence.

He could see them all simultaneously: the New York where the Twin Towers still stood, the one where they had never been built, the reality where the city floated on massive antigrav platforms, the timeline where it existed underwater in vast domed sections, the dimension where humans had never evolved and the city was populated by beings of living light.

"What is this?" Seoryeon whispered, her corporate mind shattering as she tried to process infinite realities existing in the same conceptual space.

*This is what you seek to become responsible for,* the Guardian replied. *Every version. Every soul. Every possibility. Do you see the weight of what you would claim?*

But the trial was only beginning. Parker felt his consciousness suddenly expand, connecting him directly to each reality. The sensation was overwhelming—he could feel the hopes and dreams of billions of souls across infinite timelines, their joys and sorrows, their births and deaths, all flowing through his awareness simultaneously.

In one reality, a child took her first steps while her parents wept with joy. In another, an elderly man died peacefully surrounded by family. In a third, lovers met for the first time across a crowded subway car. In a fourth, a terrorist's bomb claimed hundreds of lives. In a fifth, those same lives were saved by a hero's intervention.

Every emotion, every moment of significance across infinite New Yorks flooded through Parker's consciousness. The sheer volume of experience threatened to shatter his sense of self entirely—how could one being contain the lived experience of infinite realities?

*This is merely the first test,* the Guardian observed as Parker struggled to maintain his identity while processing the emotional weight of countless worlds. *Can you bear the joy and suffering of infinite souls without losing yourself to madness?*

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