Chapter 5 - Roots

Jason landed on the roof of a three stories tall building with a dull thud, two plastic bags filled with food and drinks in one hand and his grapple gun in the other.

The crescent moon's gentle glow blanketed the roof of the building, and a slight breeze brushed his hair. It was mostly empty, having around one meter tall walls covering the edges. A door to his right lead to the lower floor, and plant pots were scattered in groups of three along the outer edges of the roof.

He set his bags down on one side of the roof, taking out a couple of granola bars and unwrapping one of them. Sitting down with his back on the wall, he bit half of it off in one bite.

'Hey Soul AI, what do I call you?'

[My creator has given me the designation of Just Another System, or JAS for short. But you may rename me if you wish to do so.]

He shook his head. It still surprised him that an AI attached to his soul would have a posh accent that reminded him of Alfred. 'No, that name's fine. I'll just call you Jas, since "Just Another System" is a literal mouthful. Plus, I don't think I can come up with a good name for you.'

[That is understandable. Few have as great of a naming sense as my creator.]

Jason internally scoffed. 'Showing a bit too much bias there, Jas.'

Jas ignored the jab to his creator. [I can sense that you are curious about many things, Jason. You need only ask and I will answer every question you have for me until you are satisfied.]

His thoughts returned to the circumstance he was in. This was a new or alternate universe, so he still had to do a lot of research. Did the Justice League or Teen Titans exist in this universe? Are metahumans a thing here too? He had too many questions.

Jason gulped, swallowing the anxiety that's been building up ever since he arrived in this alternative universe.

"About Bruce and the others… What happened to them when Joe merged our souls? Do I have to worry about turning into them or having their personality affecting mine in any way?"

The system paused for a moment before answering. [Bruce Wayne, Richard Grayson, and every person's soul that has merged with yours will be reincarnated and are guaranteed to live a life free of the pain and suffering they went through in their world. It is my creator's form of repayment for their support and cooperation because, in order to merge their souls with yours, my creator required their permission to have their souls merge with someone else's. Although Damian Wayne was rather... *difficult* to convince and even attempted to *negotiate* the terms with my creator. Needless to say, my creator found it *quite* amusing. It was only when Richard Grayson eventually succeeded in convincing Damian Wayne with some sharp, but impactful, words that the soul merging succeeded.]

As for your second question, I am uncertain of the answer, but this is the response my creator just sent me and told me to relay to you. "You are the twelfth product of my soul merging ability. My first one was a failure because I forcefully merged dozens of powerful and weak souls together, with no form of preparation at all. However, in your case, I prepared everything and ensured that you will have—with around 98 percent certainty—no side effects, such as a drastic personality change. Jas will detect any abnormal changes in your soul, so rest easy."]

That slightly relieved him, but he still had his speculations.

"Are you sure I've had no alterations to my personality? Do a scan of my soul."

[Understood. This will take a moment.]

Jason nodded and grabbed one more protein bar from the bag, having finished the second one.

[This is unexpected… It seems the people closest to you have imparted some of their personality traits during the soul merging process. My scan is telling me they've done this on purpose. You noticed one when you spoke with the black-haired female employee. Bruce Wayne's overly cautious personality trait has manifested in the form of assessing everyone you meet and creating a mental profile of them and their threat level. But one of Richard Grayson's personality traits also showed itself during the whole time you interacted with them.]

Jason's brows furrowed as he thought back and assessed his mannerisms during his interaction with the female employees.

"Now that I think about it, I was… friendly and charismatic. A lot more than I would be under normal circumstances. It was the first time I've smiled like that in weeks, even if it wasn't a genuine one. Dick must have left his charismatic personality behind, then. No other explanation for it."

[That is an accurate conclusion.]

"But Joe said there was a low likelihood of there to be any side-effects like a personality change. That only means this happened because he knew it happened and didn't do anything about it, or this was because of that two percent likelihood case happening."

[From what my scans tell me, this is the result of the former.]

Jason didn't know how to feel about that. There were certainly worse personality traits he could have inherited from them, but having his personality altered, even if it was by people he was close to, wasn't exactly a welcome action.

An annoyed twitch of his eyebrows was all he outwardly displayed at this revelation.

'Here's Bruce, making life-changing decisions for me. Again. And Dick's joined in too. You can *really* feel the love put into those decisions.' He thought sarcastically.

"Alright. I have a couple more questions. What is the purpose and the effects of this soul merging? I didn't need a power-up, and Joe explained the summarized version of his reasons. But I want you to clarify it for me."

[Soul merging is the process of one main soul and a certain number of secondary souls combining. The limit of secondary souls that can be merged with the main soul depends on many factors, and the average number of secondary souls a normal soul can merge with is two. Your soul is exceptional in this regard, as your soul can merge with eight. Only a tiny fraction of souls that my creator has encountered in the multiverse surpass your soul's merging potential, which is also one of the reasons Joe chose you for his request.]

Both of Jason's eyebrows rose and he let out an impressed whistle. "Didn't know my soul was that good. Does Joe know why my soul has that much soul merging potential?"

[No, he does not, and it baffles him that a human soul can have that much potential for soul merging. To give you perspective, the only humans who surpass your soul's potential are humans originating from an isolated section of the multiverse where the concept of energy and concept cultivation allow their physical, mental, and spiritual aspects to be developed and enhanced until they essentially become gods capable of altering all of reality or destroying it.]

Jason was speechless. Just… what? That was… an interesting piece of information. It sounds somewhat similar to stories originating from China. Stories of mortals rising to godhood or achieving immortality, which seemed to be true somewhere in the multiverse.

"Okay… Continue your explanation of soul merging from before."

[Understood. Soul merging grants the main soul the accumulated skills, abilities, and experience of the secondary souls. Your situation is unique, as you have two of your alternate universe counterparts merged with yours. Because of them being alternate versions of you, you will also receive their memories.]

[Those are most of the details regarding soul merging. There are other details as well, but my creator is stopping me from relaying them to you.]

"Does he not want to tell me because he wants it to be a surprise, or does he just like fucking with me?"

[My creator said that it's mostly because of the latter.]

Jason clicked his tongue. "Damn that guy. Alright, does the Justice League or any of its members exist in this universe?" Anticipation rose inside him.

[Scanning…]

For some unknown reason, Jason felt his stomach sink.

[… Scan complete. Negative. This universe does not have a Justice League nor do its members exist.]

"What about the Teen Titans?"

[The Teen Titans do not exist in this universe either.]

He asked with more despair in his tone than he would like to admit. "Gotham City, the League of Assassins, and the League of Shadows?"

[Scans indicate that Gotham City, the League of Assassins, and the League of Shadows do not exist in this universe.]

Jason clutched his hair with his hands. "Not even Gotham City or Ra's organizations? Shit."

His stomach sank even further upon realizing that Gotham City being nonexistent, most likely meant that anyone he cared about didn't exist either. Not Bruce. Not Dick. Hell, even the League of Assassins and League of Shadows didn't exist, so what was he supposed to do?

He was all alone in this new world. Then he remembered the one monster that he hated with all of his being. The number one reason why he disliked Bruce's code with a passion.

"What about… the Joker?" Jason muttered, with a hint of rage in his voice.

[Negative.]

His eyes lit up. "Are you sure?"

[Completely sure. There are no traces of the Joker in this universe.]

Jason put a hand on his face, then his shoulders shook with mirth before his deep voice boomed as he laughed out loud. It was the first time he's really laughed this hard in his life. He didn't even care that people on the street or in the building could hear him.

The Joker didn't exist! He'd definitely prefer making him suffer before killing him, but this was an excellent alternative!

A good long while later, Jason calmed down and smiled maliciously. "That's good. That's good. If he existed, I'd hunt him down and kill him myself." He clenched his fists. "I wouldn't let *anyone* get in my way. Not this time."

Jason felt satisfied with the information he received, but he also felt empty because not all of it was good information. He'd still look for any sign of a familiar name, place, or face, but his hopes weren't high. Certainly not after knowing that even the city he was born in didn't exist.

With the information gathering done, it was time to scout the target.

-===-

An hour later, Jason crouched on top of a building next to the closed convenience store building with his WayneTech tablet in hand. His fingers danced across its screen as he deleted the footage stored inside the cameras and the tablet the old man used to view the girls in the store. Simultaneously, he was reprogramming both the cameras and the tablet so that any recorded footage was deleted seconds later after being saved.

The sick bastard already had weeks' worth of footage saved, and all of it was incriminating. There were multiple cameras set up in the employee only rooms, including the locker room, where the cameras recorded footage of the girls in their underwear as they were changing. The evidence here was more than enough to put him in jail and then some.

His mind went back to what Jas said about anomalies in this world. Based on the factors in play, he can say with certainty that whatever Core Anomaly is affecting this situation makes girls far more susceptible to giving into their lust by increasing it and breaking down their mental faculties.

His question was--what would cause such an effect?

[Jason, I have a suggestion.]

'What is it?' Jason asked as his fingers continued gliding across the tablet's screen.

[To find the source of the Core Anomaly and repair it, I recommend killing the root of this Sub-Anomaly, which in this case is the old and obese Japanese man.]

Jason's hand paused. "What the hell is a root? And do I just kill him using any method?"

[A root is someone or something that is at the core of an anomaly. Like the main character of a story. And as long as it is you who directly kills him, I can convert his body and soul into energy I can use it to track the source or the cause of the Core Anomaly. I suggested taking this action immediately, as just killing one root existence won't be enough. We will need far more energy than what one of them can provide, which is why we should start gathering energy now.]

Jason weighed his options and eventually nodded. He already had solid evidence of that man's perversion, so there was no need to hesitate. "Alright, this is almost done. I'll go to where that old man lives and take him out after this. I've already pinged his phone's signal. He won't be able to hide anywhere unless he turns his phone off or if it's dead, but even if that happens, I can just track his phone's current or last known location based on its GPS data."

He could also lead him astray by placing the phone somewhere else, but that idea was, at most, ludicrous to the highest degree.

Moments later, the reprogramming finished and Jason stored the tablet in the ring. He pushed off of his hands and front flipped onto the next building's roof with extraordinary finesse and grace, landing without a sound.

Was it just him or did he always have this habit of using acrobatics unnecessarily? It definitely felt like he was far better at it to the point that even normally difficult moves would be done effortlessly, and he enjoyed doing it more than before as well.

Jason frowned slightly as he realized the soul merging might have affected him more than he thought. Aside from the granting of skills and abilities, maybe even their likes and dislikes were included, even if Joe said the chance was low.

"Enough distractions." Jason shook his head.

[Let us proceed with the elimination of the root.]

Nodding, Jason brought out the WayneTech phone and sprinted off, jumping from roof to roof with little to no sound from his movements.

It was time to take out the trash.

Permanently.

-===-

Author's Note: Another 2k chapter is done. This one had quite a bit of exposition as well, but I promise you guys that this'll be the last time for a while. Starting from now, there will be more plot progression and more action as well. I'm still fleshing out the outline of the story's plot, so if I don't upload within a few days, it's probably because I'm doing more research than I am writing.

Anyway, thanks again for reading! And as always, leave any constructive criticisms you may have or any grammatical corrections you've spotted in the comments.