Chapter 426

Seeing that the other's attitude was not poor, Gao Jie Ming felt slightly reassured.

He took a deep breath and asked the most critical question:

"Lord Altrius, may I ask why you personally… projected yourself to meet me? And what exactly do you mean by 'increasing variables'?"

The Starforged Altrius's gaze returned to the chart before Gao Jie Ming, his amiable smile deepening slightly.

"No orders are needed," he said casually, as if discussing the weather. "As for 'variables'… actually, these two questions are one and the same."

He did not wait for Gao Jie Ming to fully absorb this, but shifted the topic toward a more fundamental issue, his tone like a mentor guiding a student to a conclusion:

"After all these years of research, based on your current understanding, what is the true nature of this realm's continuous time reversal?"

Gao Jie Ming steadied his mind, his eyes sweeping over the data streams on the chart.

Fifteen rounds of research findings rapidly integrated in his consciousness, stripping away trivial details to point toward the most probable conclusion.

"It is not a natural phenomenon," Gao Jie Ming said, his voice clear in the silent laboratory. "The triggering conditions are too quantified, the scope too strictly bounded, and its handling of 'memory contradictions'… resembles a pre-set error-correction protocol."

"After synthesizing numerous observations, we believe this realm—or its core structure—is a strategic war machine. Time reversal is its core function: enabling its internal combat units, the Scytheheads, to infinitely restart, trial, and exhaust superior enemies."

He stated the research team's consensus, yet even he felt the excitement behind this conclusion.

A world forged entirely into a weapon component—its underlying knowledge and technology… just thinking of it was thrilling!

Altrius gave a slight nod, his expression conveying, "Good—you've reached this point."

"More precisely, it is a time-paradox generator. Ordinary time manipulation is the dance of water elements, ripples in the laws. But this machine, while reversing time, must systematically 'resolve' all causal contradictions arising from it—conflicts in material states, lost and reappearing information, fractured memory logic. It forcibly rationalizes these contradictions. This is its most defining feature as a 'machine.'"

Gao Jie Ming immediately seized the key point.

Yes, the wizards' detection data repeatedly showed this realm's paradox-handling mechanism differed radically from conventional spacetime laws, as if it contained specialized fault-tolerance and override protocols.

Viewing it as a machine specialized in generating and digesting time paradoxes explained every anomaly.

A complete war system emerged in his mind: Scytheheads as blades and expendables, time reversal as the core, and paradox resolution as the ultimate defense and latent kill-switch against high-tier enemies.

Binding an entire realm to such a terrifying spacetime weapon revealed the creator's coldness and ambition—chilling to contemplate.

As he pondered, Altrius's voice sounded again, calm yet piercing through the fog:

"You were puzzled by your inability to locate the core mechanism behind time reversal. This is natural—after all, the core of a war system is always the best-hidden. After personally experiencing several cycles, I saw through this. When confronting a machine of such precision, whose core may simply be 'non-intelligent inherent rules,' searching externally for some elusive 'controller' is often futile."

The Starforged's finger lightly tapped the air, as if pressing against the realm's invisible pulse.

"I chose another path: not seeking weaknesses, but attempting to overload it."

Overload.

The word struck like lightning, cleaving through the fog in Gao Jie Ming's thoughts.

Altrius did not pause, guiding him further along this line: "No matter how incomprehensible this machine's technology, its fundamental principle for achieving time reversal must share common elements. Gao Jie Ming, at your current knowledge level, you should already know the greatest difficulty in achieving time reversal, correct?"

Gao Jie Ming drew upon his knowledge reserves.

"Computational power," he said slowly, his thoughts clarifying.

In his past life world, there was no clear concept of 'time'—time reversal essentially meant precisely replicating the states of all fundamental particles to their positions in the past, according to some 'record.' 【75】 Even an eighth-rank wizard could be cut down by such accumulated, extreme time blades.

This required unimaginable volumes of information and computational power.

In the wizard world, though one could directly manipulate 'time,' reversing all matter, energy, information, and even soul states within a defined range to a precise past node demanded data processing and law computations equally astronomical.

Without exaggeration, the latter required no less computational power than the former.

This is why many wizards, even those who mastered time rules, only used time acceleration or deceleration to assist in combat.

Even a Gao Gao Jie wizard's computational capacity found localized time reversal far too difficult.

"Any manipulation of time—or indeed any manipulation of elements—requires sufficient computational power to process information."

"Precisely," Altrius affirmed.

"This machine's reversal range is confined within the realm. Therefore, theoretically, if we continuously inject new information and new variables exceeding its preset processing capacity into this closed system, we may overwhelm its inherent 'error-correction' and 'override' logic, causing confusion, lag, until… overload and collapse."

As he finished, Gao Jie Ming's mind instantly connected all of Altrius's arrangements!

The million-strong Vanguard Army served as the 'base' and 'anchor,' maintaining basic combat strength while forming the system's daily 'baseline information flow.'

Wizards themselves contain vast information; a million-wizard army's combat power was sufficient to ensure they wouldn't be annihilated by Scytheheads exploiting information gaps across repeated cycles.

When wizards later changed, the larger the base army, the greater the information shifts generated with each change.

And each subsequent group of support personnel, divided into thirty teams, entering the system constituted an unplanned 'major variable injection!'

Altrius's eyes gleamed with calculation: "According to my estimates, this system can withstand roughly twenty-five 'significant tactical shifts.'"

More crucially, each team's entry would inevitably trigger Scythehead countermeasures, forcing wizard tactical adjustments.

Thus, each reinforcement injection triggered at least two 'information transformations.'

Thirty teams meant at least sixty 'transformation shocks' far exceeding the system's limits!

Even Frost's two seventh-rank deputies, as high-tier individuals, were themselves potent variable sources—potential final straws to break the camel's back.

"A plan… to overload a precise machine with 'accidents' and 'variables,'" Gao Jie Ming murmured, his eyes alight with understanding.

But a new question arose: "My lord, if the goal is to increase variables, why don't you enter yourself? The 'information volume' and potential 'variables' you carry should far exceed the combined total of all support forces."

Altrius's ever-present, nearly casual smile faded.

He did not evade the question, but revealed a rare candor.

"Two reasons," he raised a finger. "First, the 'information volume' I bring is too immense. My true form entering would not cause 'gradual overload' but instantly trigger the highest-intensity paradox countermeasures. Like smashing a star into a pocket watch—the watch would shatter, but we'd gain no usable remnants. Our goal is to acquire a 'relatively intact' spacetime machine, not a storm of chaotic laws."

He paused, then raised a second finger, his tone growing quieter, even heavy with unmistakable gravity: "Second, I fear the time paradoxes this realm might trigger."

The "fear" of an eighth-rank wizard.

The word sent a chill through Gao Jie Ming.

Altrius's gaze swept over his nearly perfect "mass projection."

"Why do I use only a projection? Beyond precise variable control, it is also because… at my current state, the instant my true form steps into this realm, there is a high probability I will trigger a paradox attack severe enough to injure me deeply."

He looked at Gao Jie Ming, his eyes devoid of any jest: "In fact, I have already been wounded. When I first detected the time reversal anomaly and realized the situation exceeded normal parameters, I forcibly intervened, pulling the entire army out of one cycle. That interference triggered this realm's deepest countermeasures."

Gao Jie Ming held his breath: "The injury… was severe?"

"Severe," Altrius nodded, his tone as flat as stating an objective fact. "It took me exactly three seconds to fully heal."

Three seconds.

Gao Jie Ming froze, then a cold tremor gripped him.

He knew too well what "three seconds" meant for an eighth-rank wizard.

Though it sounded like a trivial injury—just three seconds to heal—it was anything but.

As rank increases, wizards deepen their self-modifications, and their immortality grows stronger.

For beings at the eighth-rank level, ordinary physical destruction or energy annihilation often doesn't even qualify as "injury."

Even if most of the body is obliterated, it is merely a temporary change in existence form—recovery requires only a thought.

Only attacks that strike the soul's foundation or one's very existential layer are defined as "injuries" requiring "healing."

Healing time directly reflects the depth and lethality of the damage.

An injury requiring an eighth-rank wizard to focus for three seconds to heal… its destructive potential, theoretically, could threaten Altrius's life!

"The most alarming thing about time-based abilities…" Altrius seemed unconcerned revealing this, explaining calmly, "is their ability to manipulate 'temporal sequence,' stacking multiple, massive injuries to explode simultaneously. If this machine is pushed to its limit and chooses self-destruction, it could theoretically trigger paradox attacks against me thousands of times within a single 'instant.' That stacking…"

He did not finish, but Gao Jie Ming saw the horrifying image clearly.

Even an eighth-rank wizard could be cut down by such accumulated, ultimate time blades.

Though for an eighth-rank wizard, death does not mean permanent end, his dignity would be utterly shattered.

And for an immortal being, social death can sometimes hurt more than true death.

(End of Chapter)