Chapter 917: Simulated Universe·Unknowable Realm (23)

"Black Tower sneered, 'What big talk—you should know this is an invitation we sent out, right?'"

"'I saw it, I saw His calculation,' Bo Er Ka said coldly. 'A moment, a moment when geniuses struggle has arrived. Black Tower, Stephen Lloyd, Ruan Mei, Luosi Gumu… and you, the worm that fell into the net, struggle with all your might!'"

She turned her shattered face toward him, and Xing felt a chill; she smiled.

——

Aotu World.

"So… so amazing…! But I didn't understand a single word. Why did Bo Er Ka have to kill Black Tower and the others?" Jin scratched his head; he couldn't grasp any of the talk about "the god's thoughts flashing like Starlight neurons discharging."

Kelly pulled a lollipop from her mouth and explained lazily, "Jin, simply put, the star god of knowledge named Bo Shi Zun computed a perfect future for the entire universe. Ordinary people can't interfere with that future—indeed, any of our actions are already within His calculation."

"Is the Aotu Grand Competition also within His calculation?"

"Yes, even the final winner of the competition was calculated, even your sister's whereabouts are stored in that iron brain of His… we just have no way to know." Kelly shrugged. "However, His calculated future is based on one condition: the total amount of knowledge in the current universe. As long as that total stays unchanged, no matter how Black Tower tosses things around, Bo Er Ka won't bother her. But if her actions might affect the total knowledge… wherever Black Tower is in the cosmos, He can find and kill her."

"I think Bo Er Ka's approach is too arbitrary," Zi Tang Huan clenched her fists. "Isn't an increase in the total cosmic knowledge a good thing? Maybe Bo Shi Zun could compute an even more perfect future model with the added knowledge!"

"But your wording is 'maybe'—that means you yourself aren't sure," Ge Rui said expressionlessly.

"But nobody can predict the future, right?!"

Kelly shook her head. "No, Bo Shi Zun can calculate an 'exact' future, and once the calculated moment arrives it cannot be altered. Bo Er Ka Ka Ka Mu has already seen His calculation—I guess it's a future beneficial to most people. To smoothly reach that future, Bo Er Ka has been eliminating any possible 'variables' that might appear mid‑way. According to her, many geniuses tried to break the knowledge circle before, but she killed them; the victims far outnumber the two 'Emperors.'"

"Moreover, not all knowledge helps humanity," Ge Rui reminded. "Take Rupert II, for example. If he successfully crowns himself, he would derive an anti‑life equation and kill every organic and inorganic life in the universe. The equation would indeed expand the total knowledge, but afterward… the cosmos would fall into dead silence."

——

A string of code pierced the device in an implausibly rapid way; its data solidified and formed a familiar image.

"Huh… finally it's in. It shouldn't have been spotted by the Silent Lord yet…" Stephen Lloyd looked around warily.

"Can we take a photo?" Xing, who had been chased by Bo Er Ka, felt a wave of familiarity looking at the cartoon's familiar little yellow duck.

"Um… I rebuilt a calculation model and reclaimed some permissions from the Silent Lord," Stephen Lloyd awkwardly changed the subject.

"Cheating in player‑versus‑player mode is a desecration of the game!" He tried to look indignant, but his aura still carried a hint of timidity.

As the cartoon's little hand waved, the staff system that Bo Er Ka had blocked came back online, but that tiny fluctuation was like thunder in the Silent Lord's observation.

Stephen produced a "Frequency‑Shift Catcher" to hide his trace. Yet the next second a candy‑colored shadow materialized from the spot where Stephen had stood, coalescing like a butterfly breaking out of a chrysalis and crushing Stephen's data.

There was no choice; Xing and Black Tower had to keep running.

Soon, she smelled the familiar pastry fragrance, dotted with the panicked‑deer blossoms. Ruan Mei leisurely stood in the simulation laboratory, as if she'd known from the start you'd pass through here.

Seeing the candy‑colored shadow behind them, Xing rarely saw Ruan Mei's mouth without that smile.

"It seems you've brought an extraordinary dance partner into the simulated universe."

She swallowed the pastry slowly, "But even the Silent Lord wouldn't expect that the underlying code still hides a micro‑slice."

"…" Black Tower was visibly surprised to see Ruan Mei. "I thought you wouldn't come."

"I've always cared about the two of you," Ruan Mei's fingers rested on the experimental table, a subtle tremor foretelling an approaching hurricane. She calmly opened the window to admire the looming storm.

"Luosi Gumu asked me to tell you, the bait is set, just waiting for the prey to bite. I trust you can decipher this obscure metaphor."

——

Harry Potter

"Bo Er Ka Ka Ka Mu actually forced four geniuses to cooperate—how is she so powerful?!" Hermione exclaimed, "I thought she could at most match Black Tower hand‑to‑hand…"

Black Tower is said to have met Bo Shi Zun several times, yet this Bo Er Ka Ka Ka Mu seems to understand Bo Shi Zun even better—could she also be a messenger? Hermione found this puzzling.

"Never underestimate any genius," Ron said cheerfully while spreading butter on his toast. "That Bo Er Ka lady looks like an old assassin, knows the roads well, and she's lived longer than the other four geniuses combined. Such a long life is enough for her to master any field. For geniuses, knowledge can be perfectly transformed into power."

"…and I have another hypothesis."

"What?" Harry asked curiously.

"Think about it: when Rupert II forged his staff, he mimicked Bo Shi Zun's way of thinking; those staffs are essentially his external brains. Could it be that Bo Shi Zun casts a glance at these super‑intelligent beings in the universe, intending to treat them as external brains?"

"It sounds far‑fetched, but it's not impossible," Hermione mused, rubbing her chin. Though she didn't think the star god needed to do so, treating geniuses as his external brains is a rather clever approach.