Somewhere in the Quantum Realm

  The Quantum Cleaner shouts as he plays his video games inside the small pocket dimension he himself created long ago. But right after winning a match, he turns his head and makes a large screen appear in front of him. One showing the new Quantum Reaper watching a copy of him from the past in the first trial of her Cleaner test.

  And part of him feels slightly amused at the sight of the clear annoyance shown on the Reaper’s face.

  When he first heard from the Ruler that he’d be allowed to watch the Reaper go through the trial related to him, he thought he’d just glance at it before getting bored immediately. But now he’s actually happy to be able to watch.

  Because it makes for good entertainment while he’s waiting on loading screens.

  Especially when he sees her being beaten to a bloody pulp by his old copy.

  This is entertaining.

  He continues to watch her attempts at his trial one after another.

  In one attempt she tries to keep up with his close combat attacks and fails miserably as she’s beaten to death. Then another attempt has her teleporting away from her attacks, which just gives him the chance to follow her in the blink of time that she spends teleporting away, unable to see around her. Ending in him ripping out her heart again.

  And in her fourth attempt, she finally begins to focus entirely on keeping her distance and attacking from a range. A method that works far better than her previous methods.

  Part of the Cleaner enjoys watching her flounder around failing to defeat his copy, while another part feels genuinely interested in seeing her fighting against him. Since it shows him his main weaknesses.

  It’s not every day that he fights against someone other than corrupted beings after all. Even if he hates wasting time fighting in the first place.

  But if there’s one thing he’s learned over his great many years of life being a shut-in, it’s that fighting well is one of the greatest ways to protect his shut-in time at home. And protecting his shut-in time is the most important thing in existence to him.

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  So he continues to watch as she goes through her trial. And she ends up almost beating him in her fifth try after switching up to focusing on ranged attacks.

  Then she finally wins in her sixth try, killing his copy with quantum lightning she ends up spreading all over the battlefield. Creating a massive net of lightning that traps him.

  Kind of cheating, but it’s still useful to see.

  After she succeeds in her trial, the screen in front of him vanishes. No longer showing him anything now that she’s not attempting his particular trial anymore.

  And coincidentally, the queue time for his game ends, leading to him returning to his game once more.

  No longer giving any thought to the Quantum Reaper.

  Somewhere else in the Quantum Realm

  For the first time in a while, the Quantum Archon turns his attention away from the archive in front of him to focus on a screen as it appears above the archive. One showing his particular trial for the Quantum Reaper. Which he knew was going to occur soon.

  And on the screen, he sees her sitting down while watching him reading.

  And reading.

  And reading some more.

  Endlessly reading the many Archives within the Quantum Archives without doing anything else.

  He blinks when he sees her yawn before grabbing a random book within the Archives and beginning to read as well. Seemingly out of boredom.

  It was something he was already expecting to see, but seeing and foreseeing it are different things.

  After watching for a few seconds, he turns his gaze towards the archive in front of him as he continues reading again.

  And with that, all three of them – his copy, himself, and the Quantum Reaper – all sit and read for hours. All the way until the Reaper moves onto his next trial. Where he is defending the Quantum Archives from attackers.

  From corrupted creatures trying to destroy the Archives.

  But the Quantum Archon doesn’t bother watching at this point. Since all the second trial shows is him holding a book in his hand as spell circles appear one after another, with each firing off bolts of quantum energy at the corrupted creatures.

  And that’s not anything the Archon is interested in seeing since it’s a regular occurrence.

  One he always dislikes going through since it interrupts his work.

  So he continues reading throughout the course of the second trial before turning his gaze back when the third trial begins. Only for him to watch the Quantum Reaper fail miserably against his copy when his copy predicts every last move she makes. Countering, blocking, and dodging all of them in the process without any trouble.

  All before bombarding her with spells and killing her, resetting her back to the first trial.

  After watching, he turns his attention back to the Archive again while dismissing the screen entirely. Since there’s no reason for him to watch any longer.

  Not when he already knows she will clear the trial on her ninth attempt.

  Even if it only happens after she fails five times without any hints of success or progress. With her showing progress starting on the sixth attempt.

  This will mark her fourth successful trial.

  The Archon reads as that thought rolls around in his head for a few minutes before eventually deciding to focus on what he’s reading now instead.

  Putting all thoughts of the Reaper aside.

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