Chapter 3069: Returning to the Main Plane, Problems with the Computing Power Pool

There is no banquet in the world that does not come to an end. After the flight competition, Xia Duo prepared to return to the Main Plane. This time, Xintuosi did not try to persuade him to stay; after all, he had already stayed for several extra days, and if he stayed any longer, would he be expected to live permanently in the Kingdom of Radiance?

"I don't know when we will meet again after this. Remember to practice the Arcane Maze, and I will check your progress when the time comes. As for me, I will also practice my flight skills frequently after returning to the Main Plane, and I will participate in the Around-the-City Grand Slam again then."

Xia Duo gave his instructions and promises, then left the Golden Dragon City District without looking back. Next was the Holy City, then the Kingdom of Radiance, and finally, under a crooked tree in the Boundless Wilderness, he exerted a burst of effort, and his soul returned to his original body.

……

Tower of Time lounge.

Xia Duo slowly opened his eyes. The experiences in the Kingdom of Radiance were still vivid in his mind, yet his body felt involuntarily weak. It seemed that the soul could not remain separated from the body for long, though his current physique had, to a certain extent, shed material limitations.

He first used his Bloodline Ability to merge with the world, dispelling his fatigued form. Then, with a single thought, wind and clouds surged in the void of the lounge, and thunder and lightning roared.

His body then naturally manifested once more from these phenomena of heaven and earth, feeling full of energy.

Of course, doing this was not without cost, though Xia Duo himself did not understand where the cost lay. He only used it occasionally to avoid being unable to recover during a truly critical moment and becoming completely integrated into the void.

After recovering his energy, Xia Duo immediately checked the messages received by his Communication Magic Tool during his absence, and incidentally glanced at the Magic Moment Spell Imprint used for timing.

But the limit of that burden increase was, in essence, still spread across the entire network. The greatest traffic for the Gateway Magic Tool still came from the at least one hundred users of the sub-network it belonged to.

Besides this, there were also the recent work plans of the Academy Five-Person Committee, and so on.

But what Furuisi and Hewaisita were reporting now was that messages had arrived one after another from various countries, stating that the Gateway Magic Tools, which had only been replaced recently, were showing abnormal wear and tear in many cases.

It had almost reached the point where they could not go on without a change.

His assistant there, Meidisi, mentioned in a message that the cooperation between the Tower of Time and Lingsi had triggered dissatisfaction from both Charles and Siluwende. The Charles representative had even gone to the Ailan Network Research Center and Yunfeng Manor more than once to block him.

Among all the messages, the one he left for last was the information sent back from Lingsi by Aoruipusi. There were many entries, and a considerable portion concerned the current situation in Lingsi.

Xia Duo read the messages from within the Tower of Time, such as those from Niya and Saville, first. Aside from Niya's extra concern as a wife, the others were mostly about the recent situation of the Tower of Time and the Territory.

But he immediately dismissed that thought. While various countries certainly wanted to scrape more profit from the Computing Power Pool, they wouldn't resort to something so lacking in technical substance. Even if the Gateway Magic Tool really had some design flaw, that would be a matter for the Alliance and the Tower of Time.

Besides the Lingsi matter, Furuisi also reported something together with Hewaisita, a researcher at the Ailan Network Research Center; it was about the abnormal service life of the Public Computing Power Pool Gateway Magic Tool.

But in Evereska, as the person in charge of an institution under the Northland Alliance, even if there had been prior notice, disappearing for three days was enough to cause some chaos.

However, after analyzing the sub-networks to which those abnormally worn-out Gateway Magic Tools belonged, the Research Center overturned that speculation. Actual testing showed that an increase in the total number of users did indeed increase the burden on the sub-network Gateway Magic Tool.

The Siluwende representative did not dare to be so reckless, but also expressed dissatisfaction through various channels, pointing out in both open and subtle ways that Xia Duo was interfering in their country's internal affairs.

In the end, it would still rely on him to solve it; it was unlikely the various countries could gain any benefit.

Upon first hearing of this situation, Xia Duo could not help but frown. When he first saw the messages from Furuisi and the others, his first reaction was that the various countries were looking for a way to ask for money again.

Xia Duo looked through them one by one. Compared to what the Lingsi Plenipotentiary Ambassador Tuoyaerlan had said before, there were certain discrepancies in the details, but overall, it was as Tuoyaerlan had said: the current situation in Lingsi was very dire.

……

Like Xia Duo's five secretaries, who had to report the various information they collected or summarized to him at fixed times every day, while Saville was showing off the progress of the Plane Exploration Center while demanding more manpower.

Besides, if someone were really playing tricks, once discovered, it wouldn't be a matter of whether they could get money or not, but a problem of someone inevitably having to take responsibility.

The other party in this matter, Lingsi, had not turned their backs on him, publicly acknowledging that the cooperation between Plenipotentiary Ambassador Tuoyaerlan and Xia Duo was valid. However, such an approach had caused the already tense situation to show signs of further escalation.

Although Xia Duo very much wanted to push all the bad things onto the Darkness Society, the possibility that this was done by the Darkness Society was really not that high, similar to the logic of the various countries playing tricks.

If it were really external factors playing tricks, it would be very easy to investigate. Once discovered, either the Darkness Society would expose more clues, or the various countries would increase their investigation and search efforts against the Darkness Society.

As for the messages, although only three days had passed, the messages from these three days were not few at all; on the contrary, they had become increasingly frequent because they could not reach him.

It was a pity that Xia Duo had been away these few days, so the Charles representative could only leave in frustration, but he had let it be known that he wanted Xia Duo to give him a satisfactory explanation.

Xia Duo finished reading them one by one and gave replies one by one. These were still normal communication exchanges. Previously, Xia Duo's consciousness was often in his avatar in Evereska, so everyone in the Tower of Time was used to not seeing him for a few days.

Originally, according to Xia Duo's estimates, the Gateway Magic Tool supporting the Computing Power Pool should be replaced about once a month, and the first month of the Computing Power Pool's official operation was indeed the case.

……

The Ailan Network Research Center initially thought that the increase in the total number of Computing Power Pool users had caused the conscious information traffic to increase, leading to a significant reduction in the service life of the Gateway Magic Tools.

Neither of which was a good thing for the Darkness Society.

Seeing that only three days had passed, he immediately breathed a sigh of relief. It didn't matter if little time had passed in the Main Plane; what he feared was that a particularly long time had passed in the Main Plane, which would have been contrary to his original intention.

Therefore, Xia Duo was more inclined to believe that this was a purely accidental event, or perhaps he had overlooked something when designing the Dharma Network Magical Artifact, leaving behind such a significant flaw.

Of course, it could not be ruled out that the Darkness Society was playing tricks in the dark, because the cooperation between Xia Duo and Lingsi had almost attracted the attention of the entire Northland to that tiny place of Lingsi.

After considering it for a while, Xia Duo temporarily set aside the messages related to the Computing Power Pool without replying immediately, preparing to wait until he returned to Evereska to investigate personally before making an assessment.