Chapter 903

The extra lowered his head in silence.

"You don't need to answer me; just know it in your heart." Linghuan curled the corner of her mouth into a faint smile and lightly patted the boy's shoulder. "I'm just giving an example. The people of the Erudite Society in the firmament—each one of them is a genius beyond ordinary people's reach. Yet among geniuses there are geniuses; before the Genius Club—perhaps saying this is hurtful, but those of the Erudite Society are merely a group of monkeys who can talk and communicate."

"The smartest monkey in the monkeys' eyes was given the name 'Perfect Scholar'—how big do you think the gap is between it and human scientists?"

——

"Have I said this before? The knowledge circle—whenever I try to step out of it and create a larger circle, something unexpected happens." Heita tirelessly counted, "At critical moments, the database was written off due to storage component failure; core researchers in the team met shipwreck during vacation travel; in the particle conversion experiment, a mistaken touch caused collapse……Disaster always strikes at just the right moment, ruining my efforts."

"Is that how one becomes a savior?"

"You think I'd be willing? I'd rather trade all the Savior's reputation for a single chance that nothing happens," Heita stomped his foot in displeasure.

Heita snapped his fingers with a "pop," and the surroundings began to shift rapidly—they arrived inside another laboratory of the Institute of Knowledge.

Scholar Molit's gaze swept to the dead‑silent synchronization index, his heart sinking in despair like a monkey that had intruded into a starship.

Dozens of "scepters" concentrated in the same star sector were linked by cold electronic conduits to their computing systems. Yet the massive machines responded with nothing but silence.

He had intended to achieve multiplicative computation, to build a complete neural system. But the inorganic cells forged by the Emperor surpassed human intellect, leaving the scholars unable to activate them. The dead genius, in the silence, mocked the incompetent mediocrities.

——

Re: Starting a New Life in Another World.

"That scholar can't even decipher the deceased genius's legacy?" Emilia sat on a low stool by the window, confusion filling her eyes. "For his attempt, he clearly sacrificed countless chances to use the scepter's computational power, yet it still doesn't work?"

"Hm."

A light, snappy nasal sound came from the stool.

Betty leisurely lifted a cup of black tea, her eyes full of contempt.

"No need to mention that scholar, Emilia," Betty waved her hand. "I'm afraid even gathering the entire Institute of Knowledge—every school, every scholar, every self‑proclaimed 'chief' mind—still couldn't fully decipher the legacy left by Rupert II."

Though she knew nothing about technology, she was well‑versed in magic; the magic that some people grasp easily might be a chasm that others cannot cross in a lifetime. In her view, "technology" and "research" follow the same principle—mediocre people, even if they spend their whole lives gathering countless peers of equal mediocrity, can never catch up to a genius's stride.

"By the timeline, Luosi Gumu hasn't been born yet, right? If that king of Screw Star were to appear, perhaps he could crack Rupert II's legacy," Cai Yue Su shrugged. "It's a bit of a pity we won't see the scepter system fully operate."

"Su, you really love a spectacle~" Pa Ke floated above Ang's head, lightly patting his skull with a small hand. "Inorganic lifeforms like Luosi Gumu are best left alone; who knows if the scepter contains participating anti‑organic equations? If Luosi Gumu were infected into Rupert III, the entire universe would face a great calamity."

——

"But this has nothing to do with Xing; after all, she's just a newly unemployed research assistant."

"Just as she was about to turn and leave—"

"A whisper."

"Very light, very fine, almost swallowed by the noise of cosmic background radiation."

"Yet that sound was like a needle, piercing deep into her sea of perception… like the writhing of organic cells, the flow of electrons in inorganic circuits. Using an organic life metaphor: those sounds locked within a closed heart."

"They are enucleated neurons, lacking the function of thought."

"They are synapse‑less neurons, lacking the function of communication."

"Then why do they still emit sound?"

"Xing touched their 'skin', the subtle vibration transmitted to his fingertips."

"Xing sensed 'sadness'."

"The mindless cells, the killing weapon, the Emperor's Sword capable of erasing an entire star system in a microsecond. Yet Xing sincerely empathized with them, his heart trembling, tears streaming uncontrollably."

"What's wrong with you?" Heita asked as he approached.

Xing brushed away his tears, relaying all the emotions he had felt from the "skin" to Heita. Heita pondered briefly, then said that the Institute, with corporate assistance, had decoded a message from the scepter—a core responsible for posing questions, the command‑issuing hub that once linked all entities.

"But regarding the core, the scepter gave no information. Its location, function—everything was blank."

"The prevailing view holds that the so‑called core is Rupert II. With the genius now dead, the remaining inorganic cells are merely the remnants of the Emperor's mind."

——

The Valkyrie of the End.

"A microsecond to annihilate an entire star system…"

Nikola Tesla's pupils quivered violently; as the man on the human‑god side who understood "science" best and fully commanded electromagnetic power, he found himself unable to imagine what the scene truly looked like.

One microsecond—that's the time light travels 300 meters.

And in the Emperor's hand lies the life and death of an entire star system. Moreover, what are inorganic cells? Tesla felt that every term lifted from the celestial ledger was familiar, yet they could combine in a bewilderingly incomprehensible way.

"What's wrong, Tesla? You look pale," King Leonidas I of Sparta glanced sideways, a hint of confusion flashing in his eyes.

As a hero from a thousand years ago, he understood none of the terms "microsecond," "star system," or "inorganic cell," only that the massive mechanisms in the sky, like stars, were created by a human Emperor II. He guessed that this second emperor was a legendary creator god whose might far surpassed the deities of this human‑god showdown, and that the stars in the sky were perhaps his creations.

Tesla gave no reply, staring fixedly at the colossal structure in the heavens. At that moment his emotions surged wildly, every thought screaming the same conclusion:

Ants.

Whether human or deity.