Chapter 897

Star followed Screw Gum's hint into the Unknowable Realm, searched inside for a long time, and finally at its edge found Black Tower's familiar purple figure. The genius puppet stood at the junction of two time periods, attempting to strip the garbled information of the Unknowable Realm.

Only when Star shouted loudly and approached Black Tower did she realize that a living person had appeared in the simulated universe.

Black Tower didn't look up, continuing her work: "How did you get here? Testing isn't open here—hurry back to other areas and play by yourself."

Screw Gum: "Miss Black Tower, you've been out of contact with the outside for 34 standard hours; Star came at my invitation specifically to find you."

"... 34 standard hours?" Black Tower startled, then said, "It seems the Unknowable Realm not only interferes with external observation but also affects time perception. To the outside it's unobservable garble, yet inside everything seems normal. This is definitely not a program error; it's some kind of... filth."

Black Tower ignored Star and Screw Gum, turning her gaze back to the data stream before her. The two quickly realized she wasn't trapped in the Unknowable Realm—she had simply forgotten to leave.

Well, that's very Black Tower.

"Do you know what the Knowledge Circle is?" Black Tower suddenly asked. Unlike before, she now seemed less forthright, deeply puzzled by a problem.

Star: "I can make one up."

Screw Gum calmly said: "Compare known knowledge to a circle—the more knowledge, the larger the circle, and the more unknown lies outside it. Evaluation: a very clever metaphor."

Black Tower continued: "Since I began my studies, whenever my knowledge expands to a certain point and I'm about to break out of the known circle into the unknown world, I encounter some obstacle—equipment failure, data corruption, even personal safety issues… all sorts of outlier probability events occur, always setting my research progress back to square one."

"It's as if there are two invisible hands constantly preventing me from leaving the known circle, forming a continuous Unknowable Realm."

Screw Gum reminded: "Logic: you seem to be giving these objective obstacles some subjective quality. Allow me to remind you, subjective conjecture is the enemy of research."

"To some it's subjective conjecture, but to a genius it's a flash of inspiration. I have a feeling that this bottleneck we encountered in the simulated universe is preventing us from obtaining certain knowledge, uncovering a segment of history…"

——

Frieren's Funeral.

"Probably the Mysterious Star God is meddling?" Haltark guessed.

"No, if it were the Mysterious Star God, its actions wouldn't be so obvious, easily noticed by Miss Black Tower." Frieren shook her head in denial, "Someone must be trying to interfere, doing everything possible to stop Black Tower from breaking through the known Knowledge Circle, but I don't understand why that person would do this."

Obstructing the breakthrough of the Knowledge Circle undoubtedly proves this person stands opposed to the Wisdom faction, certainly not a member of the Genius Club. But if it isn't the Genius Club, Frieren can't think of anyone who could have such deceptive means or ability to make even a genius hard to trace, even infiltrate the simulated universe.

"Lady Frieren, could it be someone related to the Destruction forces?" Filien asked softly, holding her staff.

"【Destruction】? Filien, do you mean the Destruction Emissary?"

"No, I just think that destroying wisdom should also count as part of what the Destiny of Destruction intends to do."

Filien rested her chin on her hand, looking at the burning campfire ahead: "The Destiny of Destruction covers a broad scope; in my understanding, He should first destroy all organic life, knowledge, and many star gods in the universe… finally including His own army, emissaries, and even Nanuk itself should be destroyed together; otherwise, an 'existent' Destruction Star God would fundamentally contradict the Destiny of Destruction."

"Somewhat reasonable." Frieren tilted her head, "But I still lean toward other star god forces outside of Destruction and Wisdom obstructing Black Tower. Yet it's strange—expanding the Knowledge Circle, isn't that a good thing?"

——

"Hypothesis: Perhaps the mysterious Myth glanced at the simulated universe. I've enumerated three thousand two hundred fifteen hypotheses; which would you like to hear first?"

Black Tower said irritably, "That's just subjective conjecture."

She gazed into the depths of the Unknowable Realm; Black Tower didn't move her feet. It seemed something awaited her there, like a riddle calling for a genius's answer.

After a long silence, Black Tower sighed, "Forget it, coming next time isn't too late either."

The three left the simulated universe, and Black Tower's puppet reconnected. Screw Gum: "Question: Regarding the cause of the Unknowable Realm's generation, have we found any useful clues?"

Black Tower spread her hands: "Some leads, but not many—the erudite society's dark history shows plenty. The scholastic wars were only a little over a hundred amber ages ago. As direct participants, the Candle Ink School should have fully recorded the events' beginning and end. Yet when I compared the data with the history inside the Unknowable Realm, I found gaps and fabrications everywhere."

"Logic: The Erudite Society has always been tight-lipped about the Mysterious; especially such important historical material, they should not allow fictitious historians to tamper with it."

"Unless they intended it, using the Mysterious' hand to conceal information that shouldn't exist." Black Tower narrowed her eyes, "The schools fight to the death over control of the Scepter's computing power, or have shady private deals—those are irrelevant. The only thing truly worth hiding is one thing—knowledge itself."

"According to the public explanation, thousands of Scepters are filled with scholars' stupid questions, draining their computing power, turning them into today's check‑in spots, floating junk in the universe." Saying this, Black Tower raised her voice in dissatisfaction, "Would I believe that? That's a genius's creation! —Screw Gum, how much could we improve the simulation precision of the Scepter system?"

"Conclusion: According to earlier estimates, if we concentrate all the simulated universe's computing power together, the simulation fidelity could reach over 71%."

——

Labyrinth Meal.

"So why hand the Scepter over to the Erudite Society? Wouldn't it be better to let Black Tower and them use it?"

Leos frowned as he asked, not understanding that since the company also knows the difference between geniuses and ordinary people, the tools should be given to the geniuses—giving them to those Erudite Society folks would be a waste of resources, right?