Chapter 414 Research and Combat

The crimson glow of the alarm was still flashing above the camp, but the atmosphere inside the research center was already different.

After the initial shock, Jemin and the other logistics wizards in his group exchanged glances and saw the same light in each other's eyes.

Those were... excited eyes!

"A full-scale attack? A massive offensive?" Allison, who was in charge of pheromone decryption, licked her lips and quickly operated the rune terminal in front of her. "Excellent! I was just worried that the behavioral data of the high-level living samples wasn't comprehensive enough! This kind of collective action, the load pattern of the pheromone network, the response of the command hierarchy under extreme pressure, and the coordination mechanism between level eight individuals... all of these are invaluable data!"

"There's also energy flow!" Another male wizard, focused on the Scythe-Skull Clan's combined spellcasting array, excitedly pulled up the monitoring interface. "Trillions of individuals simultaneously mobilizing extraordinary power, even if most are low-level, the resulting environmental elemental tides and law disturbances are definitely worth recording! Perhaps we can deduce from this how they are more deeply bound to the plane's energy!"

Jemin also strongly agreed with the ideas of his companions.

Their research has indeed hit a bottleneck recently.

Although level 8 samples are valuable, within the research sequence, they are actually just a relatively rare single "special" sample.

To truly understand the secrets of a civilization, especially its relationship with grand phenomena like time reversal, simply studying a single individual is not very meaningful—unless the phenomenon of time reversal itself was caused by a single individual.

However, based on existing research, the possibility that the time reversal was caused by a specific individual of the Scythe-Skull Clan is extremely low.

Therefore, this final, all-out offensive, which is risking the survival of civilization, is the best window for observation.

"Back up all ongoing research data! Package all semi-finished analysis reports! Complete this within three minutes!" As the special technical advisor, Jemin took over on-site command without hesitation. "All portable monitoring instruments, energy scanning arrays, pheromone capture terminals, law fluctuation recorders... bring them all! We're going to the front lines!"

Without hesitation, without doubt.

Those present were all wizards who pursued knowledge to the core.

Almost as soon as Jemin finished speaking, the laboratory was filled with the sounds of runes activating and machinery operating.

The data stream was rapidly compressed and sealed into the crystal, and the sophisticated observation instruments were unlocked from their fixed bases and lifted up by the wizards using levitation magic.

Jieming scanned his control panel with his mental energy, instantly backing up several preliminary analysis reports on the remnants of the time law in the shells of the level eight samples, and storing them in the "emergency archive area" specially opened up in his inner cave.

He then joined other wizards, who, along with dozens of instruments of various sizes, levitated out of the laboratory and headed straight for the camp.

Upon arriving at the front lines and ascending into the designated observation area above the Wizard Legion's main camp, even though he was mentally prepared, Jemin was still so shocked by the sight before him that he gasped for breath.

The Cycle Plane is structured with a flat earth and a round sky, offering an extremely expansive view.

At this moment, on the distant horizon within sight, a "line" is slowly rising.

That's not a line.

That's a wall.

A colossal black wall, composed of countless writhing black dots, reaching to the heavens and stretching endlessly to the left and right, was purely formed by the accumulation of living organisms.

It moved forward slowly but irresistibly, swallowing up every gap between the earth and the sky.

The trillions of units transformed into the most direct visual impact at this moment—they were completely moving landmasses, living natural disasters.

The low humming sound produced by the vibration of insect wings can be faintly heard even thousands of kilometers away; it is a frequency powerful enough to cause the earth to resonate.

A faint scent began to permeate the air, a mixture of the friction of millions of carapaces and special pheromones.

However, this suffocating sense of oppression lasted only a moment.

Jemin's gaze quickly returned to calm.

His mental energy, combined with the newly set-up ultra-long-range energy scanner, rapidly analyzed the black ocean.

“Target quantity confirmed… Energy reaction intensity statistics…” He muttered to himself, his fingers quickly tracing runes on the recording crystal. “The vast majority are level one to level two life reactions, with level three and above accounting for less than three per thousand… The structure is loose, lacking efficient and coordinated energy links… It’s just a simple accumulation of quantity.”

Fear stems from the unknown, and when the unknown is broken down by data, what remains is only research value.

Commander Frost clearly shared their views.

The wizard legion was already on high alert around the observation area.

"Execute 'Observation Plan - Three'." Frost's calm voice came through the mental command network. "All unlocked targeted strike methods are permitted. Research teams, record the data you require."

The order has been issued.

War, or rather, a massive live experiment, has begun.

The first to attack were not the wizards themselves, but a special cannon fodder legion that had been bio-modified and specifically designed to exploit the Scythe-Skull Clan's carapace and physiological weaknesses.

Like a silver tide, the modified hound pack charged out first, spewing "crystallization disintegration waves" from their mouths that could trigger resonance of specific elements in the Scythe-Skull Clan's carapace, and their claws also carried special vibration frequencies.

When a Scythe-Skull is hit, its sturdy carapace will rapidly brittle and crack from the inside, like weathered rock.

Following closely behind were countless genetic bombs dropped by flying units.

These bombs exploded in mid-air, releasing nanoclouds that overloaded and interfered with the pheromone receptors of the Scythe-Skull Tribe.

Large areas of chaos instantly appeared in the black swarm of insects, with individuals colliding with each other and even blindly attacking their own kind.

Next came the targeted sorcery performed by the wizards themselves, after countless optimizations and iterations.

The "frequency contamination field" opened, distorting all pheromone signals within its range and paralyzing the insect swarm's command system.

The "Compound Eye Overload Flash" spell erupted repeatedly in the enemy ranks, and the blinding light plunged large numbers of the Scythe-Skull Clan into blindness and chaos.

The "mass acid resistance reversal curse" quietly took effect, causing the acid spewed by the Scythe-Skull Clan to begin corroding their own carapace instead...

A trillion-dollar army?

Faced with a death package specifically tailored for them, they are merely data points waiting to be harvested.

The black wall began to collapse the moment it came into contact with the silver and energy tides.

The blackness seemed to be erased by an invisible eraser, disappearing in large swaths.

The shattered carapace, splattered bodily fluids, and dissipated energy resembled a black avalanche, but its forward momentum was abruptly halted, and then it rolled backward.

Jemin and all the logistics wizards had no time to marvel at the results of the battle; their entire focus was now on the various monitoring instruments in front of them.

The energy fluctuation map scrolled rapidly, recording the subtle resonance between the energy ripples released when trillions of individuals perished and the fundamental laws of the plane.

The pheromone-capturing terminal flashed its red light frantically, desperately trying to capture chemical signals representing despair, chaos, final orders, and even collapse amidst the turbulent energy currents of the battlefield.

The macroscopic law scanning array locked onto the central area of ​​the battlefield, especially the location of the three level-eight scythe-skull clan leaders, monitoring for any possible abnormal spacetime disturbances.

“Element tidal readings are abnormal! In the region at coordinates (734, 291), the element settling rate is 17% faster than the model predicted!”

"A high-intensity, highly compressed 'termination command' has been broadcast in the core frequency band of the pheromone network! We are attempting to decipher it!"

"Attention! Coordinated fluctuations are observed in the energy response of the Level 8 target! Some kind of joint mechanism may have been activated!"

On the observation platform, notification sounds and reports from the wizards rose and fell in a tense yet orderly manner.

Everyone was like a wound-up toy, their eyes glued to the screen, their mental energy rapidly processing or recording information.

Jemin's task is to compile the record crystals of key data nodes.

He moved between the various instruments, and whenever a set of key data was completely captured and sealed, he would quickly take the corresponding crystal and send it into his internal psychic chamber.

Inside the cave, a new crystal mountain, marked "Fourth Round - General Offensive Observation," is being rapidly built.

Time flew by amidst the slaughter and data collection.

Finally, the wizard in charge of monitoring the overall number of creatures issued an urgent alarm: "Warning! The number of surviving members of the Scythe-Skull Clan on the battlefield has dropped to the preset 'reincarnation trigger threshold'! The possibility of time reversal has increased dramatically! Repeat, the possibility has increased dramatically!"

Upon hearing this, the atmosphere on the observation platform did not panic; instead, it became even more heated.

"All instruments, switch to the highest frequency sampling! Don't worry about wear and tear!"

"Focus on Level 8 targets! Record their energy release patterns and law interactions in their final moments!"

"Pheromone network! Capturing the global signal structure in the final moments before the collapse!"

The wizards roared as they pushed the power of their instruments to the limit, even at the cost of extending the lifespan of some of the equipment.

They wanted to extract the last bit of valuable data before the "experiment" was forcibly reset.

Jemin collected the crystals at an extreme speed, his entire body almost turning into a phantom.

His internal psychic energy was operating at full capacity to ensure that each crystal carrying valuable data was safely delivered.

At some point...

That pulling sensation originating from the very foundations of the world arrived without warning.

The fibers of time and space were once again manipulated by an invisible hand, and all things began to slide back to their origin.

"They're here!" Alarm bells rang in Jemin's mind.

In the final instant before his consciousness was forcibly stripped away and his vision began to blur and distort, his reaction was incredibly fast.

His mental energy swept across the entire observation platform like an explosion, and the entrance to his inner sanctum expanded to its limit.

receive!

All the monitoring instruments that were still running, the recording crystals that had not yet been collected, and even the crystal plate that the wizard next to him was engraving...

Everything on the platform that was related to the research and might carry information from this round was forcibly absorbed into his body in the blink of an eye!

Buzz...

The world plunged into pure white, followed by a void of darkness.

The fifth cycle begins.

(End of this chapter)